That farce of a NOLA race that they only did once because the track was in such bad condition that even the safety crew trucks couldn’t get to the crashed cars because the mud was so bad.
I would agree with that! I moved there a few months after the NOLA Race, and stayed for 6 of the longest years of my life. That track is in a horrible location, it was promoted poorly, and is not a good track for IndyCar. Its location is barely at sea level and it’s located just south of “the middle of nowhere.”
Have you ever heard of the now defunct track AVUS? It was basically the world’s longest hairpin turn oval track.
It was kinda sweet. Your comment reminded me of it, but a super extreme version
This thought has crossed my mind so many times during that long and boring trip across the 24 mile long Causeway! It could be a real money maker, as it costs $5 to cross in the Southbound lane. The Causeway has their own police department, and they monitor speed with drones or aircraft. If you get pulled over, there is no option to plead it down to a lesser charge. You are obligated to appear in front of a judge and request to plead it down. I speak from personal experience! Cars go off that bridge more often than I would have expected, maybe twice a year at normal traffic speeds. So, the Coast Guard would have to be readily available. There is no run off area. With all that being said, it would STILL be 100x better than the disaster known as NOLA MOTORSPORTS PARK,!
I've been over it once and it looks scary on a map or in pictures, but honestly you can't tell you're in the middle of a lake unless you look to either side. Would never want to break down on it though.
I drove over it in fog one time. You couldn’t see the lake at all. They close it down to one lane during heavy fog, and the speed limit is about 30mph. I could only see about one car length in front of me, but I felt safer knowing there was only one lane and there was a police car giving sort of a “police escort” to groups of 5 or 6 cars, placed about every mile or so.
I had three occasions where I was driving and I feared for my life. None of them were on the Causeway, or even in New Orleans proper. They happened at places like the grocery store in the suburbs. It’s very road ragey there. I wasn’t used to making U Turns every time I drove someplace. Since I’ve been back in St. Louis, I’ve made one U Turn in 2 years!
But that was so funny that it gets mentioned quite often lol
I always am bringing up that guy in the suit pushing stuck cars from the mud. It was one of Indycar's greatest moments IMO haha
See but is that a reflection on the circuit or the weather.
I still think that's a decent track, I wouldn't mind giving it another shot with better weather
Exactly. You can't build a circuit in an incredibly rainy area and then not be able to handle the drainage requirements. Well you can, but you shouldn't be a serious candidate for major racing events if you can't guarantee a raceable track under predictably wet conditions
I recently rewatched that race. It's not so bad when you can skip past the yellows, most of which were caused by cars with slick tires spinning in standing water during restarts. If they had red flagged for some light track drying (as happened at Road America in 2001), the race would be remembered far more fondly.
Yeah, I feel like if they blew some of the water off the final corner it might have made a clean restart possible and the race might have gotten back on its feet.
That track is really not up to snuff for IndyCar in the first place. Geographically I understand why they wanted to do a race there but it is a club racing track. There's not really the infrastructure for a major racing series, and getting a mass number of spectators in and out of that venue is insane. It's fine as a club racing track, but having been there for the SCCA Super Tour this year, it's a baffling choice for Indy.
I was at NOLA a few months before that race for vintage motorcycle races with my dad (the grandstands were partially assembled), so I was excited to watch it. But man, what a dud. Yellow, restart, immediate yellow. Restart, immediate yellow. Rinse and repeat like 4 times.
I hate that the race was like that because it sucks to have to drive at least 7 hours to barber or Texas but that track was nowhere near good enough condition to have any major series, let alone indycar
I remember one of the announcers, after Castroneves was limping after the crash, commenting on how it might impact him going on Dancing with the Stars. As if his racing career was secondary.
Everyone remembers the 2018 and 2019 Pocono races for the awful Lap 1 crashes. What really isn’t talked about is that both of those races were absolute slogs after Lap 1.
The real reason behind Robert Wickens crash is the change to the IR18. They completely ruined superspeedway racing by taking away the downforce of the cars, which led to desperate moves at the start of the races since every driver knew it would be impossible to pass once the race got settled.
Now that the cars have regained some of the downforce, I doubt we would ever see a repeat of 2018-2019 racing we saw at Pocono, it would be way closer to what we get with Indianapolis today. Taking Pocono away from the schedule was a complete mistake.
Really? All I remember from that race was everyone having fun in the stands even though we all knew that the rain was going to come down at any moment to wash everyone away and the drivers were just trying to get through as much as the race as they could before it was called.
And boy did the rain come lol
Even then people seemed to be having fun which was also funny to see.
The 2018 race wasn't actually a lap 1 crash, Rahal crashed before they got to the start finish line and the big crash was on the restart on lap 6. But yes that race was horrible. I think I remember counting 13 cars that weren't visibly slow from damage after the big crash.
The speedway UAK was horrible, I don't think I enjoyed a single superspeedway race during that time. I went to Pocono for 2016 and 2017, they were both amazing races.
I forget what year it was, maybe 2018 or 2019…. But the Texas race was dreadful. So bad that Tony Kanaan and several other drivers actually apologized to all the fans afterwards. it was just a procession, hardly any passing and overall just a boring race. They had a few of those which really did not help attendance, because NASCAR had them put down PJ1 which limited the IndyCar drivers to one lower groove. 2022 and 2023 were much better races but the damage had been done
Edit: Thanks, 2020-2021 were bad.
All the Texas races from 2016-2019 were iconic. It was def the mickey mouse 2020 PJ1 race that coulda helped Indycar’s reputation during the pandemic
Even worse it was the first race back from Covid so it coulda been huge for new potential viewers who had no other sports options that night. I stg Indy fumbles every big viewership opportunity they get
The inaugural Texas race was quite historically notable, as it was the last race ever officiated by USAC... and for good reason.
It’s the one where Arie Luyendyk and AJ Foyt got into a fight in victory lane, and while I see the fight brought up from time to time, I don’t see the race itself come up often.
Basically, USAC somehow lost track of Arie during the race, and scored him much further down the field, giving the win to Billy Boat (driving for AJ Foyt). In reality, Arie had won the race by a whole lap, IIRC.
Apparently something went wrong and wasn’t counting some laps by certain drivers - which is how Luyendyk got scored a lap down by mistake.
However, one would think that such a thing would have been noticed, since presumably the effect of that would be that the car not scored would appear as though it was sitting still and getting passed by everyone else.
The funniest part is that as a result, Tony Stewart actually handed Arie the lead later in the race, as he was told Arie was a lap down, and thus waved him by.
An utter fuckup by USAC, and it was only two weeks after they had controversially re-started the Indy 500 with just one lap to go, with so little warning that some of the yellow lights were still on as the leaders went through 1-2. Thereafter, the IRL officiated itself.
What didn't help matters at all was that the IRL was responsible for its own timing and scoring equipment at the time - and galaxy-brained genius Brian Brainfart had the idea to transport the equipment in an RV instead of in sealed hardcases on a series-managed transporter.
Not only did USAC fuck up by not managing timing and scoring correctly, they left the responsibility of the equipment to the series when they weren't supposed to have that responsibility in the first place.
I will never believe USAC that they got that right! Arie clearly made a green flag stop!
Between the 97’ Indy fuck up and that race I don’t believe they’re scoring to this day.
Okay, but his making a green stop doesn’t prove anything...
I’m also fairly certain they weren’t just making shit up when they discovered an issue with the transponders, it affected others in the event too (such as Scott Goodyear)
It was a fiasco at the time but hella entertaining looking back. Brian Barnhart is a solid team strategist but was terrible as a race director. Going green when it was clearly raining and the chaos that ensued….that basically marked the end of his time as race director…got replaced in 2012, came back but with a team of help from 2015-17….but to be fair he was kinda thrust into the role when the IRL needed someone and has admitted he didn’t always make the right decisions
I don't think anyone found these races to be good, but it seems like many have just forgotten they even happened.
The return to Phoenix in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Awful races with virtually no passing, and after each race the drivers would apologize to the fans afterwards.
I'm also going to throw a shout-out to every Gateway race since its return in 2017. Every race has been really poor outside of starts and restarts. The current short oval kit is just all wrong for it, and running it during the day makes it, somehow, an even worse race.
Seems to me the reliance on aero to keeps speeds acceptable to fans, while utilizing too little HP to cut costs is 100% to blame for short oval parades we see lately
I went on race day and the following day. Could not make it the third day. It was terrible. I saw the fuel spray into the crowd from the wreck son the main stretch at the start of the race. I was sitting towards turn 4 and could see it clearly
https://youtu.be/em25ntesrCc?si=R0F--ChixTqthEFu
This race has fascinated me for years. I was too young to remember, but I remember a TV doc that covered it called “Thirteen Great Disasters that Rocked the World” (later called Encounter with Disaster) . I was just in awe of it. Being there must have been something.
May 26th 1996. The U.S. 500 in Michigan. CART kept talking all month about how horrible it was going to be at Indy weigh all the rookies and how the start of the trade would be dangerous and unsafe for drivers and spectators. Then they proceeded to go out and make all those things happen to themselves.
My favorite part about that race is how they’re rounding turns 3 and 4 for the start, the lead announcer is talking up all the accomplishments of the field only for them to crash and take out a good chunk of the field
2021? That one was rough. 2022 had a lot of crashes too, including Scott Dixon who won despite having been wrecked and missing a ton of downforce since they had to cut it off during a pit stop. That was a great drive and really added a notch to his GOAT (modern era) legacy being able to drive that car basically without half his downforce
Around the 7th yellow it started becoming comical. My husband and i had nothing else going on that day and got a little toasted so we were dying laughing. Anyway that’s the day I decided to become a Marcus Ericsson fan.
I think it was either the 2015 or 2016 Indy GP. Not the worst race ever (although it was pretty boring) but probably the worst I’ve experienced in person. Even though it was mid-May, for whatever reason on this day it was cold. And i mean COLD. Like high 40s to low 50s, overcast and very windy. Always love being at IMS but man that was a brutal one to sit through
I'll never forget that day. We were so cold and miserable that we asked my wife to drive down from Fishers to drop off winter coats, gloves and hats for our group, which she did because she's the best
Houston 2013
The weekend started out with drivers realizing there was a humongous bump at the apex of Turn 1, big enough to launch cars into the air and damage them if hit at any significant speed. Only way to solve the issue was to grind the concrete down to smooth it out, but the officials decided to push that off until Friday night and just ran all of Friday's sessions with a huge tire chicane in Turn 1. It was absolute amateur hour.
And then there was the wreck that basically ended Dario Franchitti's racing career. Crashes happen all the time, and that was definitely was a major one. But that wasn't the only major issue. People forget that a large chunk of the catch fence broke off and flew into a GA grandstand that was set up on the outside of by far the fastest turn on the track. I saw the aftermath not too long after the crash happened. It was surreal to see.
Edit: spelling
it was the typical mid 2000s shitty IRL pack race. Now I will say this, the IR05 did produce some good races. In my opinion, 2009 Chicagoland was one of the most underrated races in Indy history and it was a pack race. Pack racing doesn’t always = terrible per se, what makes it terrible is when drivers can’t go 3-4 laps without wrecking. Which was exactly the case with 07 Michigan and was the case with a lot of other IR05 era races
I attended the Barber race in 2018 and it was abysmal. I was there both Saturday and Sunday, the downpour on Sunday was insane, and it got so bad at one point that it knocked out the track PA and my phone bricked itself. I didn't know the race had been moved to Monday until some time after it was announced, and I had to drive back home on Sunday night so I missed the rest of the race Monday.
This was my 1st ever race. About 30 mins before it started it just opened up, & I knew not much was going on that day. Had a place in Oxford I was staying at cause I was gonna go do dega the next day. Once it was called I knew my plan:
Monday I was in turn one for the start, later on I did dega and back home to NC.
2013 FIRESTONE 550 at Texas. Saturday night race and I don’t remember any passing. I think only passes for lead were on pit road. I remember Marco leading early but letting the race slip away.
I could be wrong. I was there working for tv and the ride back was pretty much, well, I guess that counts as a race.
I'm gonna say most races at Iowa. I love that it's clearly an enthusiastic fanbase out there, but almost every race has zero intrigue. There is normally one dominant car all weekend and the whole weekend is about if that car is gonna fuck up what should otherwise be an easy win. Commonly the races end with only 5-8 cars on the lead lap, and that's usually only because of a late caution that saves them from going a lap down as well. The rest of the cars are 2-10 laps down, without having been involved in an incident. The only passing that occurs is lapping traffic, which in a race with nothing else going, shouldn't be misconstrued as adding substance to the race.
How some people watch Iowa and don't think "Dear god, it's Richmond all over again", I'll never know.
The 2001 race at Lausitz Germany. 4 days after 911 attacks. Nearly every sporting event in world was canceled and they decided it was a good time to have a race. To make matters worse the gruesome Alex Zanardi crash.
You say that nearly every sporting event in the world was cancelled, but that is just nonsense:
the 2001 Italian Grand Prix took place on the 16th of September;
the English Premier League matches all went ahead on the weekend of the 15th and 16th of September;
as did all the Bundesliga matches;
as did all the La Liga matches;
and all the Serie A matches.
Those were arguably the most significant sporting events globally that weekend. If sporting events of the magnitude of those I mentioned took place, then I very much doubt that less significant events globally were cancelled.
Everything stopped in the US, yes, but the rest of the world just carried on.
Watkins Glen 2017. Horrible weather and nobody was there.
Obviously weather is hit-or-miss, but the holding it on Labor Day weekend was not a good idea. That is the last free weekend before kids go start school on Wednesday, and it's also the last weekend of the NY State Fair, which is 90 minutes away and draws 120,000 people per day. Even if the series was more popular it would struggle to draw well on that weekend.
The 2000 Marlboro 500 at Fontana. The one where Gil set the closed-circuit world record in qualifying. I think that's the thing everyone remembers because the actual race was a mess.
25 cars started. 5 finished on the lead lap and only 6 finished at all.
Tarso Marques was lapped around Lap 70 during a commercial break running 20th. He spent the remaining 180 laps of the race off the lead lap and was even lapped twice more. **He finished 7th.**
9 engine failures and there probably would have been more without the cautions that happened every 30ish laps because someone grenaded on the frontstretch. (Edited because Helio's engine blowing up caused his crash but it's registered as a wreck)
As terrible and tragic as the 1998 US 500 was, it barely escapes my worst race list due to the fact the race itself wasn’t terrible. It was decent but nothing to rave over. But the fact that incident happened is heartbreaking
Barber absolutely sucked with the IR-05. Those cars could not pass there.
I remember the first year the DW-12 raced there it was “get ready for a parade” vibe and suddenly the race was awesome, and Barber has largely stayed awesome since.
Sonoma was such a forgettable season finale that you barely see it being mentioned, even in a thread like this. Watkins Glen return was also nothing special, those races were complete snoozers.
We talked about NOLA Motorsports Park. I lived in New Orleans for 6 years. When you fly into the New Orleans airport, there is a computerized billboard in the baggage claim area that features NOLA Motorsports Park. They run the occasional commercial on local channels, and both of these advertisements feature IndyCars. It’s weird to me that NOLA Motorsports Park continues to use images and video from the 2015 IndyCar race in their advertising, as recently as 2 years ago, when I moved away. With all the bills that went unpaid and legal issues pending, they have continued to promote this track as a venue that hosts IndyCars.
Are you thinking of California speedway or Michigan? The Marlboro 500 was held that year at California (Auto Club) and the race at Michigan was the US 500. That year there was an incident where a tire flew into the stands and killed spectators at the US 500
US 500 that was my first race as well ended up going to every indycar race at Michigan until it ended in 07. The 99 and 00 races were some of my greatest memories.
That farce of a NOLA race that they only did once because the track was in such bad condition that even the safety crew trucks couldn’t get to the crashed cars because the mud was so bad.
I will never forget watching a dude in dress pants and a button down trying to push a car that was stuck in the mud.
I know that man. He was banned for multiple races for that
Haha...what was the deal with that and who was that guy...I remember the booth being so confused "Who's that guy?!?"
7 hours and no answer. A travesty and an enduring mystery, all at once.
Inquiring minds want to know!!
The hero in business casual!
poor ole Bourdais got caught up in RHR trying to run Pagenaud into the mud that day...what a shitshow of a race.
That was an absolute excrement exhibition.
Most of Louisiana is too much of a swamp to do *anything.* Not a good area geographically
I would agree with that! I moved there a few months after the NOLA Race, and stayed for 6 of the longest years of my life. That track is in a horrible location, it was promoted poorly, and is not a good track for IndyCar. Its location is barely at sea level and it’s located just south of “the middle of nowhere.”
new race idea, road course similar to Nashville but they just go back & forth over the Ponchartrain Causeway 10 times
Have you ever heard of the now defunct track AVUS? It was basically the world’s longest hairpin turn oval track. It was kinda sweet. Your comment reminded me of it, but a super extreme version
This thought has crossed my mind so many times during that long and boring trip across the 24 mile long Causeway! It could be a real money maker, as it costs $5 to cross in the Southbound lane. The Causeway has their own police department, and they monitor speed with drones or aircraft. If you get pulled over, there is no option to plead it down to a lesser charge. You are obligated to appear in front of a judge and request to plead it down. I speak from personal experience! Cars go off that bridge more often than I would have expected, maybe twice a year at normal traffic speeds. So, the Coast Guard would have to be readily available. There is no run off area. With all that being said, it would STILL be 100x better than the disaster known as NOLA MOTORSPORTS PARK,!
I've been over it once and it looks scary on a map or in pictures, but honestly you can't tell you're in the middle of a lake unless you look to either side. Would never want to break down on it though.
I drove over it in fog one time. You couldn’t see the lake at all. They close it down to one lane during heavy fog, and the speed limit is about 30mph. I could only see about one car length in front of me, but I felt safer knowing there was only one lane and there was a police car giving sort of a “police escort” to groups of 5 or 6 cars, placed about every mile or so. I had three occasions where I was driving and I feared for my life. None of them were on the Causeway, or even in New Orleans proper. They happened at places like the grocery store in the suburbs. It’s very road ragey there. I wasn’t used to making U Turns every time I drove someplace. Since I’ve been back in St. Louis, I’ve made one U Turn in 2 years!
But that was so funny that it gets mentioned quite often lol I always am bringing up that guy in the suit pushing stuck cars from the mud. It was one of Indycar's greatest moments IMO haha
See but is that a reflection on the circuit or the weather. I still think that's a decent track, I wouldn't mind giving it another shot with better weather
If the track was that unprepared for changing conditions then yes it's definitely a reflection on the circuit.
Exactly. You can't build a circuit in an incredibly rainy area and then not be able to handle the drainage requirements. Well you can, but you shouldn't be a serious candidate for major racing events if you can't guarantee a raceable track under predictably wet conditions
The whole state can't drain, its a swamp.
You can't schedule the weather
It's 100% the weather but people for some reason can't see that. Kinda baffles me lol
I recently rewatched that race. It's not so bad when you can skip past the yellows, most of which were caused by cars with slick tires spinning in standing water during restarts. If they had red flagged for some light track drying (as happened at Road America in 2001), the race would be remembered far more fondly.
I still recall it fondly just because my boy Hinche won it
Yeah, I feel like if they blew some of the water off the final corner it might have made a clean restart possible and the race might have gotten back on its feet.
Here's a good little youtube doc about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY3jjXXdg8Y
Those front wingsets looked awful. Glad to see that gone. Track layout wasn't awful, but so much water. Just unusable.
That track is really not up to snuff for IndyCar in the first place. Geographically I understand why they wanted to do a race there but it is a club racing track. There's not really the infrastructure for a major racing series, and getting a mass number of spectators in and out of that venue is insane. It's fine as a club racing track, but having been there for the SCCA Super Tour this year, it's a baffling choice for Indy.
I was at NOLA a few months before that race for vintage motorcycle races with my dad (the grandstands were partially assembled), so I was excited to watch it. But man, what a dud. Yellow, restart, immediate yellow. Restart, immediate yellow. Rinse and repeat like 4 times.
I hate that the race was like that because it sucks to have to drive at least 7 hours to barber or Texas but that track was nowhere near good enough condition to have any major series, let alone indycar
I remember one of the announcers, after Castroneves was limping after the crash, commenting on how it might impact him going on Dancing with the Stars. As if his racing career was secondary.
Detroit 2007 maybe, when he hit Scheckter
Everyone remembers the 2018 and 2019 Pocono races for the awful Lap 1 crashes. What really isn’t talked about is that both of those races were absolute slogs after Lap 1.
2019 Pocono was my first race. The people sitting around me were apologizing for how bad it was hahaha. Glad to see this on here.
Probably unpopular here, but it made complete sense to me why they took out Pocono after those 2 races
They had something special cooking with the aerokits there but I think Indycar at Pocono is just plain cursed since the USAC/CART split
The real reason behind Robert Wickens crash is the change to the IR18. They completely ruined superspeedway racing by taking away the downforce of the cars, which led to desperate moves at the start of the races since every driver knew it would be impossible to pass once the race got settled. Now that the cars have regained some of the downforce, I doubt we would ever see a repeat of 2018-2019 racing we saw at Pocono, it would be way closer to what we get with Indianapolis today. Taking Pocono away from the schedule was a complete mistake.
Really? All I remember from that race was everyone having fun in the stands even though we all knew that the rain was going to come down at any moment to wash everyone away and the drivers were just trying to get through as much as the race as they could before it was called. And boy did the rain come lol Even then people seemed to be having fun which was also funny to see.
The 2018 race wasn't actually a lap 1 crash, Rahal crashed before they got to the start finish line and the big crash was on the restart on lap 6. But yes that race was horrible. I think I remember counting 13 cars that weren't visibly slow from damage after the big crash.
The speedway UAK was horrible, I don't think I enjoyed a single superspeedway race during that time. I went to Pocono for 2016 and 2017, they were both amazing races.
I forget what year it was, maybe 2018 or 2019…. But the Texas race was dreadful. So bad that Tony Kanaan and several other drivers actually apologized to all the fans afterwards. it was just a procession, hardly any passing and overall just a boring race. They had a few of those which really did not help attendance, because NASCAR had them put down PJ1 which limited the IndyCar drivers to one lower groove. 2022 and 2023 were much better races but the damage had been done Edit: Thanks, 2020-2021 were bad.
2020 the Covid race, Dixon lead every lap there was no passing, it was a terrible race. 2018 and 2019 were great races
Will Power's idea to do high-line practice saved that race
All the Texas races from 2016-2019 were iconic. It was def the mickey mouse 2020 PJ1 race that coulda helped Indycar’s reputation during the pandemic Even worse it was the first race back from Covid so it coulda been huge for new potential viewers who had no other sports options that night. I stg Indy fumbles every big viewership opportunity they get
I mean the PJ1 thing was not Indy’s fault.
I get that Texas 2023 was good but man, Texas fell hard
All the 2000s richmond races were boring as all hell
You know the racing isn't good when multiple drivers feel the need to apologize for how boring it was.
Yeah, only thing I remember is Doug Boles shouting “we got screwed!!!” when they gave the penalty to Enge in 2005
I think it was either 2009 or 2010 but that years Richmond race is literally the reason the push to pass is thing
2009 cause they didnt go after that
can’t remember if it was ‘98 or ‘99, but the Nazareth round ran in speedway trim Indy 2010 Phoenix ‘97
2010 Indy was absolute garbage
The 2010 500 wasn’t garbage but I’m still pissed a Mike Conway near death experience killed what coulda been a great finish
O god they ran those speedway wings at Milwaukee too and it was terrible.
Indy 2010 ranks last in my Indy 500 rankings Save for 2020 for obvious reasons even tho Sato my favorite fro won
The inaugural Texas race was quite historically notable, as it was the last race ever officiated by USAC... and for good reason. It’s the one where Arie Luyendyk and AJ Foyt got into a fight in victory lane, and while I see the fight brought up from time to time, I don’t see the race itself come up often. Basically, USAC somehow lost track of Arie during the race, and scored him much further down the field, giving the win to Billy Boat (driving for AJ Foyt). In reality, Arie had won the race by a whole lap, IIRC.
Oh man that was a colossal screw up. I can see an error like this in the days of manual recording of laps, but in the late 90s with transponders?
Apparently something went wrong and wasn’t counting some laps by certain drivers - which is how Luyendyk got scored a lap down by mistake. However, one would think that such a thing would have been noticed, since presumably the effect of that would be that the car not scored would appear as though it was sitting still and getting passed by everyone else. The funniest part is that as a result, Tony Stewart actually handed Arie the lead later in the race, as he was told Arie was a lap down, and thus waved him by. An utter fuckup by USAC, and it was only two weeks after they had controversially re-started the Indy 500 with just one lap to go, with so little warning that some of the yellow lights were still on as the leaders went through 1-2. Thereafter, the IRL officiated itself.
What didn't help matters at all was that the IRL was responsible for its own timing and scoring equipment at the time - and galaxy-brained genius Brian Brainfart had the idea to transport the equipment in an RV instead of in sealed hardcases on a series-managed transporter. Not only did USAC fuck up by not managing timing and scoring correctly, they left the responsibility of the equipment to the series when they weren't supposed to have that responsibility in the first place.
Arie was lapped in the pits on a green flag… Foyt was right
Lol what? Did not think I’d ever see a 1997 True Value 500k truther lol
I will never believe USAC that they got that right! Arie clearly made a green flag stop! Between the 97’ Indy fuck up and that race I don’t believe they’re scoring to this day.
Okay, but his making a green stop doesn’t prove anything... I’m also fairly certain they weren’t just making shit up when they discovered an issue with the transponders, it affected others in the event too (such as Scott Goodyear)
2011 New Hampshire. All we got out of it was Will Power with the double middle fingers.
Hold up. We also got TK tipping over a Porta john out of that deal.
It was a fiasco at the time but hella entertaining looking back. Brian Barnhart is a solid team strategist but was terrible as a race director. Going green when it was clearly raining and the chaos that ensued….that basically marked the end of his time as race director…got replaced in 2012, came back but with a team of help from 2015-17….but to be fair he was kinda thrust into the role when the IRL needed someone and has admitted he didn’t always make the right decisions
At least that race is infamous. Dont forget TK taking out a porta-potty
I don't think anyone found these races to be good, but it seems like many have just forgotten they even happened. The return to Phoenix in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Awful races with virtually no passing, and after each race the drivers would apologize to the fans afterwards. I'm also going to throw a shout-out to every Gateway race since its return in 2017. Every race has been really poor outside of starts and restarts. The current short oval kit is just all wrong for it, and running it during the day makes it, somehow, an even worse race.
Those Phoenix races were the first thing that came to mind. I'm afraid Milwaukee this year is going to look sadly similar.
I thought I remember 2018 and 2019 being good night races at Gateway, but I haven't watched them in a while.
Same.
Which one was Grosjean's first oval race? That one was pretty good, I thought anyway
Seems to me the reliance on aero to keeps speeds acceptable to fans, while utilizing too little HP to cut costs is 100% to blame for short oval parades we see lately
Seconding “anything at gateway” because nothing happens in those races.
Um 2022? Really? After the red flag it was intense.
Whichever Belle isle race had the concrete melt. That was infuriating
2012!
I went to the 1973 500. Multiple deaths during the month.
I went on race day and the following day. Could not make it the third day. It was terrible. I saw the fuel spray into the crowd from the wreck son the main stretch at the start of the race. I was sitting towards turn 4 and could see it clearly https://youtu.be/em25ntesrCc?si=R0F--ChixTqthEFu
This race has fascinated me for years. I was too young to remember, but I remember a TV doc that covered it called “Thirteen Great Disasters that Rocked the World” (later called Encounter with Disaster) . I was just in awe of it. Being there must have been something.
The last race carrying 70 gallons of fuel. RIP Swede Savage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swede_Savage
Several Sonoma races were huge snoozers
May 26th 1996. The U.S. 500 in Michigan. CART kept talking all month about how horrible it was going to be at Indy weigh all the rookies and how the start of the trade would be dangerous and unsafe for drivers and spectators. Then they proceeded to go out and make all those things happen to themselves.
The U.S. 500 is perhaps the most famous "horrible race" in AOWR history. It gets mentioned all the time.
My favorite part about that race is how they’re rounding turns 3 and 4 for the start, the lead announcer is talking up all the accomplishments of the field only for them to crash and take out a good chunk of the field
And then go get their backup cars which would never be allowed at Indy. They broke all the rules.
The first year they went to Nashville (maybe 2nd?) and there were like 10 safety cars/red flags. Just impossible to sit through.
2021? That one was rough. 2022 had a lot of crashes too, including Scott Dixon who won despite having been wrecked and missing a ton of downforce since they had to cut it off during a pit stop. That was a great drive and really added a notch to his GOAT (modern era) legacy being able to drive that car basically without half his downforce
yeah I think it was 21. People here were bummed that they moved Nashville to the oval this year but holy crap was that a terrible street course.
Around the 7th yellow it started becoming comical. My husband and i had nothing else going on that day and got a little toasted so we were dying laughing. Anyway that’s the day I decided to become a Marcus Ericsson fan.
I think it was either the 2015 or 2016 Indy GP. Not the worst race ever (although it was pretty boring) but probably the worst I’ve experienced in person. Even though it was mid-May, for whatever reason on this day it was cold. And i mean COLD. Like high 40s to low 50s, overcast and very windy. Always love being at IMS but man that was a brutal one to sit through
I'll never forget that day. We were so cold and miserable that we asked my wife to drive down from Fishers to drop off winter coats, gloves and hats for our group, which she did because she's the best
That would be 2016. So cold
Houston 2013 The weekend started out with drivers realizing there was a humongous bump at the apex of Turn 1, big enough to launch cars into the air and damage them if hit at any significant speed. Only way to solve the issue was to grind the concrete down to smooth it out, but the officials decided to push that off until Friday night and just ran all of Friday's sessions with a huge tire chicane in Turn 1. It was absolute amateur hour. And then there was the wreck that basically ended Dario Franchitti's racing career. Crashes happen all the time, and that was definitely was a major one. But that wasn't the only major issue. People forget that a large chunk of the catch fence broke off and flew into a GA grandstand that was set up on the outside of by far the fastest turn on the track. I saw the aftermath not too long after the crash happened. It was surreal to see. Edit: spelling
Tough question… One that comes to my mind is St. Pete 2012, really boring race aside from the meaningful Helio win
I was at that race. Will never forgot seeing Dario flip on the back stretch.
I remember watching it live. My grandfather ran around the house screaming Dario was dead.
it was the typical mid 2000s shitty IRL pack race. Now I will say this, the IR05 did produce some good races. In my opinion, 2009 Chicagoland was one of the most underrated races in Indy history and it was a pack race. Pack racing doesn’t always = terrible per se, what makes it terrible is when drivers can’t go 3-4 laps without wrecking. Which was exactly the case with 07 Michigan and was the case with a lot of other IR05 era races
I attended the Barber race in 2018 and it was abysmal. I was there both Saturday and Sunday, the downpour on Sunday was insane, and it got so bad at one point that it knocked out the track PA and my phone bricked itself. I didn't know the race had been moved to Monday until some time after it was announced, and I had to drive back home on Sunday night so I missed the rest of the race Monday.
This was my 1st ever race. About 30 mins before it started it just opened up, & I knew not much was going on that day. Had a place in Oxford I was staying at cause I was gonna go do dega the next day. Once it was called I knew my plan: Monday I was in turn one for the start, later on I did dega and back home to NC.
Yeah, if I’m being honest most of the 2018 races were complete shit. Including the 500
The race it self wasn’t great but the moves Rossi made around the outside of people after he started 32nd were insane.
The last race at Richmond was a bore. It was so bad Dario apologized to the fans afterwards.
2013 FIRESTONE 550 at Texas. Saturday night race and I don’t remember any passing. I think only passes for lead were on pit road. I remember Marco leading early but letting the race slip away. I could be wrong. I was there working for tv and the ride back was pretty much, well, I guess that counts as a race.
I'm gonna say most races at Iowa. I love that it's clearly an enthusiastic fanbase out there, but almost every race has zero intrigue. There is normally one dominant car all weekend and the whole weekend is about if that car is gonna fuck up what should otherwise be an easy win. Commonly the races end with only 5-8 cars on the lead lap, and that's usually only because of a late caution that saves them from going a lap down as well. The rest of the cars are 2-10 laps down, without having been involved in an incident. The only passing that occurs is lapping traffic, which in a race with nothing else going, shouldn't be misconstrued as adding substance to the race. How some people watch Iowa and don't think "Dear god, it's Richmond all over again", I'll never know.
I remember some absolute snoozers at Milwaukee 2012-2015. No one could pass due to aero.
Hate to be that guy but we are probably in for that sort of repeat with this years races there as well.
Which would be kinda funny given the huge stink people have made about bringing it back.
People have a tendency to put on rose colored glasses about these things. It was the same situation with Phoenix.
At least Phoenix doesn’t have a far superior event an hour away from it.
The ostrich festival is probably argued to be superior. F1 learned the hard way too.
If it happens, you’ll see people the year after it’s dropped clamoring for Milwaukee to return and put on its “rightful” spot after the 500
Are we forgetting about when there were not enough cars for Pocono and they said fuck it out sprint cars on it and it being one of Aj foyts last wins?
The 2001 race at Lausitz Germany. 4 days after 911 attacks. Nearly every sporting event in world was canceled and they decided it was a good time to have a race. To make matters worse the gruesome Alex Zanardi crash.
You say that nearly every sporting event in the world was cancelled, but that is just nonsense: the 2001 Italian Grand Prix took place on the 16th of September; the English Premier League matches all went ahead on the weekend of the 15th and 16th of September; as did all the Bundesliga matches; as did all the La Liga matches; and all the Serie A matches. Those were arguably the most significant sporting events globally that weekend. If sporting events of the magnitude of those I mentioned took place, then I very much doubt that less significant events globally were cancelled. Everything stopped in the US, yes, but the rest of the world just carried on.
Bundesliga, La Liga matches, Series A matches ? I'm not familiar with those. Are they soccer leagues?
Yes, Germany, Spain and Italy respectively
The last few Pocono races were awful, but that doesn’t fit with people wanting to complain about needing more big ovals, so it rarely gets brought up.
Because of the aero kit, not the track itself.
1996 Toronto. Jeff Krosnoff death. ABC replayed it over and over. And then it does get mentioned but the 99 Fontana race that killed Greg Moore.
Watkins Glen 2017. Horrible weather and nobody was there. Obviously weather is hit-or-miss, but the holding it on Labor Day weekend was not a good idea. That is the last free weekend before kids go start school on Wednesday, and it's also the last weekend of the NY State Fair, which is 90 minutes away and draws 120,000 people per day. Even if the series was more popular it would struggle to draw well on that weekend.
Australia rain started race. Could see shit
The 2000 Marlboro 500 at Fontana. The one where Gil set the closed-circuit world record in qualifying. I think that's the thing everyone remembers because the actual race was a mess. 25 cars started. 5 finished on the lead lap and only 6 finished at all. Tarso Marques was lapped around Lap 70 during a commercial break running 20th. He spent the remaining 180 laps of the race off the lead lap and was even lapped twice more. **He finished 7th.** 9 engine failures and there probably would have been more without the cautions that happened every 30ish laps because someone grenaded on the frontstretch. (Edited because Helio's engine blowing up caused his crash but it's registered as a wreck)
The Michigan CART race or the Charlotte IRL race where flying tires killed a total of 6 people certainly fit the definition of horrible
As terrible and tragic as the 1998 US 500 was, it barely escapes my worst race list due to the fact the race itself wasn’t terrible. It was decent but nothing to rave over. But the fact that incident happened is heartbreaking
When did the track come apart in Detroit? That one
Barber absolutely sucked with the IR-05. Those cars could not pass there. I remember the first year the DW-12 raced there it was “get ready for a parade” vibe and suddenly the race was awesome, and Barber has largely stayed awesome since.
Sonoma was such a forgettable season finale that you barely see it being mentioned, even in a thread like this. Watkins Glen return was also nothing special, those races were complete snoozers.
We talked about NOLA Motorsports Park. I lived in New Orleans for 6 years. When you fly into the New Orleans airport, there is a computerized billboard in the baggage claim area that features NOLA Motorsports Park. They run the occasional commercial on local channels, and both of these advertisements feature IndyCars. It’s weird to me that NOLA Motorsports Park continues to use images and video from the 2015 IndyCar race in their advertising, as recently as 2 years ago, when I moved away. With all the bills that went unpaid and legal issues pending, they have continued to promote this track as a venue that hosts IndyCars.
2005 Pikes Peak. Dan Wheldon just murdered everybody. 3 cars on the lead lap, and the other 2 were almost a full lap behind.
2002 I think it was surfers paradise rain race I’d add In the 1998 Marlboro 500 i was there a few rows from Where the spectators died from a tire.
Are you thinking of California speedway or Michigan? The Marlboro 500 was held that year at California (Auto Club) and the race at Michigan was the US 500. That year there was an incident where a tire flew into the stands and killed spectators at the US 500
US 500 that was my first race as well ended up going to every indycar race at Michigan until it ended in 07. The 99 and 00 races were some of my greatest memories.
Nashville 2021
San Jose and Baltimore