Video: The sound and speed of IndyCars when the sport was big (2nd Update)

UPDATE #2 The largest attendance for an IndyCar race at Fontana was in 1999 under the CART banner when over 100,000 showed up. 2000 was still good, and in fact in Mexico City CART race drew 300,000 that year. But by 2001 and 2002 the destruction of the sport, started by Tony George in 1996 when the IRL started, began to take effect. George took CART's biggest race away from them, the Indy 500, and eventually some CART teams were paid off to join the IRL. It was the end of the greatest era in IndyCar Racing.

06/25/15 Below are photos from the 2000 Marlboro 500 CART IndyCar event. Note the size of the CART IndyCar crowd. Those in the IndyCar paddock who helped destroy CART, and you all know who you are, note the size of the crowd at Fontana this coming weekend and you will understand that you are responsible for the sad state IndyCar Racing is in today. Instead of working to build CART to be larger than F1, you tore it down and destroyed IndyCar Racing – you cut your own throat and the throat of all the fans who used to love the sport.

Gil de Ferran on pole at 241+ mph while towing a parachute Handford Device around the track with his 1,000 CART Honda IndyCar. A real race machine	Note the race-day crowd and it's only the pre-race ceremonies. Compare that to now and realize the damage that has been done to the sport

06/25/15 Video of Gil de Ferran's Closed Course World Record qualifying run of 241.428 mph (388.537 km/h) on October 28, 2000 at California Speedway in Fontana, California. And he did it with the Handford Device on the back wing, acting like a parachute slowing the car about 10 mph. Without the Handford Device he likely would have averaged over 250 mph that day. Note the scream of his Honda engine as it put out a reported 1,000 HP and was hitting 260 MPH on the backstraight. Compare that CART IndyCar to the neutered and ugly cars we have today that are so quiet and boring the chipmunks sleep right through it.