Who cares? Tony George announced today that he was unable to reach an agreement with Bernie Eccle$tone and F1 will not be returning to Indianapolis in 2008. Tony did say that there is a chance that F1 could return to Indy at some point in the future. But F1 is gone for now.
In my opinion, F1 is the most pathetic form of auto racing that I have ever seen. Half of the races look completely fixed with drivers appearing to pull over and slow down so that other drivers can pass them near the end of the race. I know all of you elitist F1 fans out there are probably whining and calling me a "stupid American" right now. I've heard it all before about how popular F1 is overseas and how we Americans just don't have enough "culture" to enjoy such a classy form of auto racing.
I hear you all loud and clear, but I choose to disagree with you. I think the reason Americans don't watch open wheel racing is primarily because we are inundated with other forms of entertainment that we find more appealing. The European markets just don't have as many different kinds of sporting events and entertainment as we have here in America. Let's face it, CART was popular for a very long time in the U.S. until NASCAR became more mainstream and started getting more TV time. Then, the American public fell in love with bump drafting and began to lose interest in the "no contact" sport of open wheel racing. Now NASCAR is growing exponentially while CART and IRL are dying slow deaths. Given the choice between NASCAR and CART, the American people chose NASCAR because they find it more entertaining and they can easily pronounce all of the driver's names. Its not just open wheel racing, either. If you look at the TV ratings in the United States you'll see that MLB, NHL, and the NBA are all suffering from a lack of interest by the American public. These all used to be fairly popular leagues in America, but now they have to compete with other forms of entertainment that didn't exist 25 years ago.
I won't miss F1 or his highness Bernie Eccle$tone. I say good riddance and I hope Tony George finds a way to bring NASCAR to INDY for a second race every year. I think it would be fantastic if the Indy road course could be modified for stock car racing. Then there could be a Nextel race on the road course every year in addition to the Brickyard and the Indy 500 on the oval.
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