Popularity of Nascar

I don't think the 2 will come back together.

Even if they do, I don't see them surpassing Nascar at this point. It has grown too popular.

 

I don't think Indy style racing will ever surpass NASCAR either. Indy-type cars are too fast to run on ovals and the incidences of death are too frequent for the general public to stomach. The better drivers gravitate to NASCAR because of greater safety and greater financial reward.

Indy car racing is older than NASCAR, so they remained more popular than NASCAR for years on the strength of the tradition of the Indy 500. But the Indy car guys couldn't manage themselves and they split. Those who stayed at Indy were not the best drivers of their day and there cars were inferior. They did not fill the shoes of their predecessors; Foyt, Unser, Mears, Rutherford, and Andretti. This lapse in the quality of Indy 500 fields ceded the line of traditon to NASCAR.

NASCAR has a tradition to it that enriches the sport. There are goals which a driver must reach to achieve greatness; goals that have been historically difficult to achieve but which have been achieved by the great ones. Examples are winning three championships in a row (Only Cale Yarborough achieved this), winning seven championships (Petty and Earnhardt), winning 13 races in a season (Petty and Gordon did this in the modern era), winning 85 races (to achieve the 3rd all-time in wins and first in wins in the nodern era), and winning back-to-back Daytona 500's (accomplished by Petty, Yarborough, Marlin, and Jarrett). In time, the rare driver will come along and threaten these records. He will have the opportunity to achieve greatness. The challenge to these records reminds people that NASCAR has been around a long time. Breaking these records becomes an enviable feat across the generations. As these records are challenged, NASCAR will remain interesting for years to come.

 

Didn't NASCAR pass open wheel racing in popularity before the split? NASCAR has excellent marketing forces behind it.

 

It depends on how you look at it.

Attendance of NASCAR vs Indy type? I'm sure NASCAR had more total attendance years ago, but then they have 30 races per year and Indy type has never had as many as 20.

The Indy 500 had so much prestige prior to the split. It started in the early 1900s and crowds at the Indy 500 were around 300,000.

I think that NASCAR started exploding and getting attention outside the southeast when the Daytona 500 was broadcast flag to flag in 1979. Flag-to-flag coverage was something that the Indy 500 didn't have for several years. Then, about 81-82 ESPN started showing almost all of the NASCAR races flag-to-flag every Sunday. Indy couldn't compete with that because they had so few races. The nail in the Indy-car coffin occured with the split because the Indy 500 was still held, the purse was still huge, the crowd was great, but the stars of Indy car racing ran at a competitor race (I think at Michigan) that day. That diminished the Indy 500 and it has never recovered. I think Indianapolis acknowledged this and basically surrendered when they held the inaugural Brickyard 400 for NASCAR in 1994.

 

I'll watch the Indy 500 for one reason - Danika Patrick. 224+ mph, starting 10th, raced her way into the lead last year and, but for a few mistakes in the pits, could've pulled off a win.

I wish her all the success in open wheel. That ought to keep her out of cars with fenders.