The Brickyard 400
When you’re a fan of certain leagues, sports, and entertainment in general sometimes there’s times during the year when things come to a complete dead stop. One of those would be mid-January, and the other would be this weekend which only really had The British Open to offer fan, some mid-season baseball and…The Brickyard 400.
The Brickyard 400 is actually the main reason I’m jotting down this quick piece. It’s felt like every year, like clockwork I’d see the same cycle happen over and over again. NASCAR’s media would say something stupid about Indianapolis, The IndyCar/Indy 500 regulars will be annoyed at said stupidity, then NASCAR’s fanbase will fire back further encouraging a long pissing test that rears it’s ugly heads when such happens. We hear a back and forth about what constitutes “good racing”, why this event matters, and then (thankfully) by Monday? it’s forgotten, while the two sides go back to following their respective sports.
For some clarification? I am an IndyCar fan, however, I do have some advice in regards to both sides.
To my fellow IndyCar fans? NASCAR, like our fair version of the sport has it’s share of boring race tracks. We can talk about how “Indianapolis is not designed for Stock Cars”, but i’d also like to point out that tracks like Dover, Pocono, and more recently? 1.5 mile cookie cutters have been known to not put out “close” racing.
To NASCAR fans, and those in the media ESPECIALLY? Perhaps everyone as a whole should try to tone it down this event. What I mean by this is simply this. Just because the event is at Indianapolis, does not make it the Indianapolis 500! Perhaps comparing Jeff Gordon to Rick Mears because both happened to win at Indianapolis is a tad…ridiculous. It’d be akin to someone comparing Scott Pruett or Hurley Heywood to Richard Petty because both have won at Daytona. While this is very much a true statement? The Daytona 500 =/= The 24 Hours of Daytona. Nor should it! While both are great events? One is more well known, and they both provide different challenges to those that tackle, then ultimately win them.
Now I will not waver on one thing. The people that I saw freak out over the fact that IndyCar fans were critical of some of the “gimmicks” NASCAR used? That’s something I can’t agree to. As someone who grew up a Cup fan? Guess what? I don’t like “The Chase”, “The Segments” or the “GWC”. I’m not a fan. I’m sorry. Don’t take that the wrong way. I realize someone will throw “DOUBLE POINTS FOR QUALIFYING” or “PUSH TO PASS” back at my face, but those really haven't felt as much as “deal breakers” to me in the manner that some of the “rules” NASCAR has put into place.
Now that I have said my piece? Cup at IMS is fine. I think the Brickyard is an alright event. I LOVE the idea of that track hosting everything from Indycar to IMSA to Formula 1 to NASCAR. I thought the racing this year was even okay in spite of what I just typed above. But some changes need to be made. I think It’s time to stop treating it like an event that rivals both “500's” in either sport, and accept it for it is. An average cup race that counts towards the year end championship at the end.
