Now that I have The Beatles stuck in a few heads time to note on Tuesday IndyCar drivers are heading across North America to talk about the Indianapolis 500 in 18 cities.
It's great that the series spreads the drivers around to different cities instead of bringing them all to New York like they did for a while. However, I think the way they send out drivers could be worked on.
For example, back-to-back Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Ed Carpenter is going to Milwaukee with James Hinchcliffe. Nothing against Milwaukee or Hinchcliffe but the Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter should not be going to Milwaukee. He should be going to New York and ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. I don't care that Carpenter has never won the "500" before or wasn't on Dancing With The Stars. He went 231.067 MPH over four laps for crying out loud. He was the fastest all weekend and isn't a slouch for the Indianapolis 500.
Another thing that should be improved on is not sending one driver to one city. For example, why is Pippa Mann going to Cincinnati all by herself? I don't think one driver is enough for a market.
Here is a solution:
Eleven groups of three, pair a few cities up and do the best you can to get at least one American in each group. There is no reason two separate sets of drivers are going to Cincinnati and Louisville or Dayton and Columbus or Bristol, CT and New York. If you have to, get drivers on a helicopter or puddle-jumper airplane to get between two cities in close proximity in one day.
I looked at the where the drivers are going and came up with what the groups of three theoretically should be and where they should go (Note: These are not the actual media appearances):
Bristol CT/New York: Ed Carpenter, Kurt Busch and Marco Andretti.
Why?: You get the pole-sitter, fastest rookie qualifier who happens to drive in NASCAR and an Andretti in the biggest American market and on the biggest American sports channel. Great way to get the American audience interested.
Detroit: Will Power, James Davison and Buddy Lazier.
Why?: Power and Lazier are actually going to Detroit but I threw the rookie Davison in there because he is also a Chevrolet driver and has a fellow Australian in Power to help out.
Chicago/Milwaukee: James Hinchcliffe, Scott Dixon and Martin Plowman.
Why?: It's the biggest Midwest market and you get two contenders, one of which is the defending series champion and former Indianapolis 500. Plowman goes because he is a rookie who could benefit from being around the personalities of Hinchcliffe and Dixon and Plowman drives for A.J. Foyt Racing, who are sponsored by ABC Supply and based in Wisconsin.
Cincinnati/Louisville: Hélio Castroneves, Townsend Bell and Jack Hawksworth.
Why?: Castroneves is a big personality, Hawksworth is a great story (he is living out of an extended stay hotel in Indianapolis) and Bell has the television personality to complement Castroneves while helping the less known Hawksworth get his story across to the general public.
Nashville: Josef Newgarden, Carlos Muñoz and Takuma Sato.
Why?: Newgarden is from Nashville. Firestone's headquarters is in Nashville and you give them two drivers who were the Fast Nine.
Denver: JR Hildebrand, Justin Wilson and Mikhail Aleshin.
Why?: Hildebrand and Wilson are actually going to Denver. Both are well-spoken individuals and I think that would help Aleshin who would be going to a new market.
Dallas/Houston: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sébastien Bourdais and Ryan Briscoe.
Why?: Andretti Autosport is sponsored by Snapple, which is based in Plano, Texas. Two drivers are champions, all three are race winners and all three are great speakers.
Columbus/Dayton: Graham Rahal, Oriol Servià and Sebastián Saavedra.
Why?: Rahal is from Ohio and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is based in Ohio. Servià is fun to listen to and Saavedra brings a Chevrolet driver to the market.
New Orleans/Tampa Bay: Tony Kanaan, Sage Karam and Pippa Mann.
Why?: New Orleans may be hosting an IndyCar race in 2015 so why not show them you are invested by giving them the defending Indianapolis 500 champion? Kanaan brings out the best in everyone and I think he, Karam and Mann would do very well promoting the series.
Birmingham/Charlotte: Charlie Kimball, Juan Pablo Montoya and Carlos Huertas.
Why?: Kimball is a race winner with a sponsor that has used Kimball in their television commercials. Montoya just left NASCAR and is a name familiar to those two markets and I think Huertas would benefit from having two veterans with him on the media stop.
Toronto: Jacques Villeneuve, Ales Tagliani and Simon Pagenaud.
Why?: Two Canadians in Canada's biggest market and Pagenaud is a contender. Pair Montreal into this stop and I bet this year's Indianapolis 500 get's its biggest rating in Quebec.
IndyCar should consider the idea above for next year. You would have drivers teaming up to get a market, instead of throwing one to the wolves, hoping they came out unscathed and draw a few more people to the broadcast.
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