Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Oscar Piastri's victory in Saudi Arabia gave him the World Drivers' Championship lead for the first time in his career. NASCAR returned to another track and it drew well and the racing was pretty good. IndyCar clarified its replacement driver policy ahead of the month of May. Geez, I wonder why? Nathan Brown might be doing the Lord's work, fitting for Easter weekend. It was a good time for a break because the world of IndyCar seems to be a tiresome wave of pessimism.
Never Good Enough
It has been an exhausting few weeks following IndyCar. It isn't because of the number of races and endless action. It has mostly been because of bickering.
Bad television ratings.
Inadequate tire strategy.
Questionable race locations.
Executive changes.
Lack of development of the next regulations.
Hybrids should be abandoned.
Not enough bumping for May.
It is whiplash from one unpleasantry to another. Most of them are not worth it.
Frankly, it doesn't seem like anything is going right.
The television ratings have been covered, exhaustively. After every race Alexander Rossi is going to complain about the tires and how it makes the racing bad, I guess. The hybrid is always to blame now but it isn't going away. We are awaiting a decision on the future of the series and yet are setting ourselves up to be upset no matter what is decided. The wildest fantasy will not be the answer because it is not practical. Hence why it is a fantasy.
We have become so blinded with anger that we are unaware of our existence and how things have actually been. This has long been a problem in the IndyCar world. Everything was always better. Every previous decade was better. It has only been getting worse, worse, worse for the last four or five decades, just ignore everything you have seen recently.
IndyCar's recent set of changes have not produced substantial growth. If the series looked different, then we would feel different, likely better than how we feel now. If the introduction of the hybrid brought Porsche and Toyota into the series and IndyCar had four full-time manufacturers and each had seven or eight cars on the grid full-time, everyone would be ecstatic. If the Thermal Club race came with an influx of sponsorship dollars that saw the race winner's share of the purse exceed $1 million for every race outside of the Indianapolis 500, people would be doing flips over the moon. If those Super Bowl advertisements had led to about 1.5 million people watching each of the first three races, people would at least be satisfied.
None of that happened. When change occurs but nothing really changes it feels like a waste. And so here we are.
But no changes equal stagnation, and IndyCar straddles that line. There have been plenty of changes made but the series continues with the same chassis, the same engine formula, the same partners with mostly the same schedule that at least has the same issues for an extended period of time. People are plenty disgusted with what has been the accustomed way of IndyCar.
Talk about a lose-lose situation. All the changes have been bad and all that has remained unchanged is bad.
Wonderful!
It feels like we are at moment in time where no matter what happens, it isn't good enough. An argument could be made that is how it has always been. Perhaps, it is just worse now.
You can be displeased with how certain things go and want things to be better and head in the right direction. That is natural, but too often does it feel there is a complete ignorance of the positives that are happening.
Things can be two things.
Thermal Club can be a venue that doesn't reach an audience that benefits IndyCar AND it can have produced a thrilling race where a driver overcame an 11-second deficit to win the race.
The alternate tire compound cannot last long enough to allow for dynamic strategies AND at its current state it still makes for a three-stop race with multiple strategies that can shake up the field.
The Long Beach viewership was almost half of what it was two years ago when it was previously on network television AND Long Beach just had a record-setting weekend in terms of attendance.
It will never be perfect. We will never see the perfect race every time. Not every race will have a final lap pass. Some races will have some strategy but once we get through the final pit cycle, the result will be penciled in baring a massive shakeup.
This animosity is not a new thing. It has been bubbling for a little over a year, probably closer to a year-and-a-half. It generally is coming from a good place. Nobody wants to see IndyCar struggle. After an upward period, this is a bit of dip, even though we anticipated an ascension at this time.
It is exhausting for the wrong reasons, and as much as these early breaks in the schedule are a source of some of the angst, it is a chance to breathe. Every race weekend becomes an explosion of the negativity, and it continues for three or four days after each checkered flag. And 99% of it has nothing to do about the race itself!
For all the issues Alexander Rossi might have, Long Beach wasn't any worse than what we have seen previously, and though the strategies were not that dynamic, it did allow for Christian Lundgaard to do something alternative and lead to a podium finish. It allowed for Sting Ray Robb to match his career-best finish and Kyffin Simpson to get his first top ten finish.
We also still had a dramatic battle for first place with Kyle Kirkwood needing to fend off Álex Palou, who was going for his third consecutive victory. The result hung in the air for most of the race. Once Kirkwood cleared Palou on the final pit stops and Kirkwood pulled away in the final stint, it became apparent how it would finish, but we have seen such a race a thousand times before over the last 60 years. It was no different from the prime years of Andretti, Foyt and the Unsers.
If you have been around long enough, this is nothing new. IndyCar has been ten years away from extinction for the last 30 years. IndyCar was supposed to die in 2006, after 2011, after the 100th Indianapolis 500 and it is still here. If you think this is rock-bottom. It isn't. It has been worse. It might not be the greatest place ever, and it might suck that it feels like the series must repeat some of the work it has already done, but the sky is not falling.
There is work to do, but it is not a fruitless task.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Oscar Piastri, but did you know...
Arvid Lindblad (sprint) and Richard Vershoor (feature) split the Formula Two races from Jeddah.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi won the 6 Hours of Imola. The #92 Manthey Racing Porsche of Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera won in LMGT3.
Tadasuke Makino and Kakunoshin Ohta split the Super Formula races from Motegi.
Chase Sexton won the Supercross race from East Rutherford, New Jersey, his fifth victory of the season. Seth Hammaker won the 250cc race, his third victory of the season.
Sammy Smith won the NASCAR Grand National Series race from Rockingham after Jesse Love's car failed post-race inspection. Tyler Ankrum won the Truck race, his first victory since Kentucky 2019, 130 starts ago.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP has its first European round from Jerez.
NASCAR is in Talladega.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters opens its season from Oschersleben.
GT World Challenge America has a round in Austin.
The World Rally Championship takes a trip to the Canary Islands.
Supercross makes a long-awaited return to Pittsburgh.
