behind the dugout

Only hours till the start of the Indy 500 I question everyone out there to name one other event in the Indy Car series.

To say Indy Car has fallen off the map is an understatement.

Just today my wife dressed our seven week old in a Jeff Gordon outfit. You can’t down any isle in Wal-Mart these days without seeing some kind of NASCAR merchandise for sale it seems. It’s not the same for the Indy Car series. Since I last played Newman Haas’ Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell I haven’t had one thing with the Indy logo on it.

Before I continue I will admit I’ll tune in for a few moments of the race. It’s something I’ve always done and something I’ll likely do again next year.

Looking over the starting grid it’s a mixture of names I remember from past years and guys I’ve never heard of.

The queen of their sport, Danica Patrick, finally won a race a few weeks ago and I couldn’t even tell you where that event was held. The other highlight for the sport was two time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves becoming champion on Dancing with the Stars.

Drivers have used the Indy series as a way to break into NASCAR. Drivers such as Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart (1997 series Champion) and recently Juan Pablo Montoya, Patrick Carpentier (1997 CART Champion) Sam Hornish (2006 Indy winner and series Champion) and Dario Franchitti (2007 Indy winner and series Champion) have all made the transition to NASCAR.

Castroneves, a two time winner of the event, even had to brush off speculation that he was leaving Indy Car for NASCAR this week.

So other then watching a few minutes because I’ve done so in the past I see little reason to watch an event where the drivers are just trying to break into the NASCAR series. NASCAR already has a minor league series, it’s called the Nationwide Series and they race on Saturday. I don’t need a glorified minor league event.

It’s not something that Indy purist like to hear but it’s the truth. Indy is nothing more then a second fiddle in a rock hand these days.

Also could someone please tell me what the heck is the appeal of Danica Patrick? You could walk down any town USA and see a girl that looks better hten Danica. She races cars? So what, like women haven’t been doing that for years. She won a race? Heck you put someone in the best equipment in a sport and they better win a race.

There’s not much reason to believe she won’t contend for the win today and seriously if she doesn’t do well then it’s a impressive failure I’ll say.