Is Danica image right for IndyCar?

Danica Patrick

Shortly after Sunday’s 94th running of the Indianapolis 500 concluded, runner-up Dan Weldon, during his post-race interview, told ABC-TV, “I’d like to thank IZOD for making Indycar racing cool again."

Ahhhh, not so much.

All auto racing has reached a time of crisis … a palpable loss of fan interest.

Ever since Indycar racing was surpassed by NASCAR’s Sprint, nee Winston, Cup back in the ’90s, the open-wheeled division has unsuccessfully struggled to catch up.

Some might conclude that one possible reason might be a statistic that was revealed early in yesterday’s race.

The field of 33 cars included drivers from 13 countries … and only nine Americans.

That’s not to say auto racing fans are xenophobic – though some would argue that Sprint Cup is decidedly red, white and blue to say nothing of All-American behind the wheel. Indycar’s real problem is marketing.

But we’ll get to that in a moment.

After all, NASCAR has a problem of its own … declining popularity.

Sprint Cup racing’s numbers have taken a dive in ticket sales, television ratings and merchandise purchases.

THEN THERE’S coverage.

Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is normally the biggest racing day of the year.

USA Today used to put out a special section previewing Indy and NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600.

This weekend, “the nation’s newspaper" offered a Page 1 tease to the sports section which had a short story out front, a piece on each race on Page 10 and a small sidebar on Danica Patrick’s fans turning on her for dabbling in NASCAR.

New England newspapers were unmoved by both of Sunday’s races, several smaller ones with no advance stories on either race and some running the starting grid of one or the other, but not necessarily both.

ANYWAY, back to Indycar’s marketing.

Last year’s Indianapolis 500 TV ratings were the lowest since ABC began broadcasting the race live, 25 years ago.

Worse, they were off 40 percent from Danica’s rookie year of 2005.

The problem, of course, is that Patrick is the series’ most popular driver … the one to whom Indycar has hitched its star.

But that took a tarnish with her foray into NASCAR and last week, after she criticized her car’s setup during qualifying, Danica was actually booed.

Who knows what the TV ratings might have been had she gone out early in yesterday’s race.

But she didn’t … Patrick was a very respectable fifth, the best finish of the record four women in the field.

That said, the telecast was funded by her sugar-daddy sponsor, godaddy.com, which ensured Danica, by far, had the financial backing to drive the best car with the most accomplished crew of any of the females in the race.

Still, it’s worth noting that rookie Simona de Silvestro finished a solid and safe 13th, one of 17 cars on the lead lap, fellow first-year driver Ana Beatriz was a lap down in 21st while veteran Sarah Fisher was 26th after engine problems took her out.

Significantly, none of them was involved in the eight crashes that claimed nine of their male counterparts.

AS FOR the race, it was all Danica, all the time … commercially. And none of those ads focused on her driving skills … but rather her appeal as an attractive young woman.

That’s a dangerous hook on which to hang a racing series’ future.

Fact is, Sunday’s Indy 500 was terrifically entertaining with eight different leaders, 14 lead changes and a spectacular last-lap crash in which Mike Conway’s car disintegrated when it hit the wall, flipped upside down and skidded several hundred yards down the track.

In another era, the crash would have been a guaranteed fatal.

Instead, Conway, who injured his leg, figuratively walked away.

In the long run, if it’s to happen, that kind of triumph of man over mishap will bring fans back to Indycar … not a driver, no matter how sexy.

Oh yeah, as we were frequently reminded on yesterday afternoon, the race was won by Ashley Judd’s husband. Oleantimesherald.com