IndyCar’s reputation being damaged by oval races

Dan Wheldon was severely injured before in IndyCar oval racing. This time it was fatal

We have written for a long time how damaging oval track racing is to IndyCar's reputation because you cannot hide the horrible attendance in grandstands built for NASCAR size crowds. Sunday was no exception. Despite giving away for free, upwards of 80,000 tickets to the event, if 15,000 showed up, that was a lot. 15,000 in a stadium that holds 132,000. It looked bad for IndyCar for what was supposed to be their 'grand' finale.

And then it got worse when Dan Wheldon was killed. Reaction from the racing fraternity worldwide with regard to the lunacy of racing open wheel cars on high banked ovals in 'packs' has been even more damaging. This 'pack' racing mentality was there since the day the IRL was hatched by Anton George. He and Brian Barnhart thought they could create a 'pack' racing product much like NASCAR and sell it to NASCAR race tracks.

At the same time George got in bed with the enemy – NASCAR – in his efforts to destroy the most successful IndyCar Series of all-time – CART, which he eventually did with voodoo economics (propping up a money-losing business with family money) while CART was running their series like a real business. As such, through the years countless drivers have been maimed or killed. So not only did George nearly destroy IndyCar racing by splitting it in two, he created a very dangerous form of IndyCar racing.

And that 'pack' racing mentality really bit them in the posterior this past weekend. The negative statements by the racing fraternity regarding the lunacy of this 'pack' racing has been extremely damaging.

"It is the most dangerous form of motor racing at the moment," 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter, who wants his son Tomas to quit IndyCar, told the BBC.

Also criticized since the crash has been the small size of the Las Vegas speedway, the large number of competing cars, the skills of some of the drivers and the very nature of high speed oval racing.

Former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson, a former junior rival of Wheldon's, said: "The safety record in IndyCar is not good and I would never drive there. It's just not worth it. The cars are agricultural."

Agreed David Coulthard – who moved to German touring cars after retiring from F1 in 2008 – in his Telegraph column: "I could have moved my family over there and made a life for myself in the United States.

"But the risk-reward ratio was simply too high for me. Formula one, I felt, was at an acceptable level but IndyCar was, and is, probably 20 years behind F1 in terms of safety."

Former McLaren driver Mark Blundell, who has also raced in America, added: "These kinds of cars shouldn't have been running on these kinds of circuits."

Stewart told Sky Sports: "It was such high speed on such a small track with too many cars together and not that many top racing drivers in there.

"It may be that we have to have smaller engines with smaller horsepower and slower speeds in IndyCar racing."

But Johnny Herbert, who flirted with a switch to America after retiring from F1 in 2000, thinks IndyCar fatalities are inevitable.

"They will continue as long as this extreme form of motor sport exists," the Briton wrote in his column for The National.

"The tremendous speed at which the cars travel, while separated by inches on those steep oval tracks, means you will likely see more deaths, no matter what safety measures are implemented."

Mr. George. Mr. Barnhart. Take a bow. Look what you've done.

We kept detailed records on the injuries on ovals vs. road courses and the IRL vs. CART until the two series were merged. You decide.

Detailed Injury Listing – IRL and CART/Champ Car

*Records after 2006 may not be complete