The ratings battle

Last Friday, I was running on the treadmill at the gym over my lunch hour.  The TV set in front of my treadmill was tuned to one of the ESPN networks which happened to be covering the practice sessions NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Talladega.  It wasn’t particularly exciting but hey, at least it was better than watching the news channel while struggling to plod 3 miles before scurrying back to my office.    During the commercial break, they mentioned that coverage for the NNS race was beginning at 11 am the next day leading up to the race which began at…3 pm!  That’s four hours of pre-race coverage for the junior varsity race!  I thought that seemed a bit excessive.    Fast forward one week, airwaves are utterly bereft of any coverage of opening day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Instead, those of us who cared had to settle for streaming video courtesy of the IndyCar website.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  I was happy to have it.   I guess it was another reminder of where IndyCar stands on the motor sports food chain, as if I really needed another reminder.  But does it really matter? I’m pretty much a die-hard IndyCar fanatic.  One who will get up at 1 AM to watch a race in Japan (I still remember Danica’s first win at Twin Rings Motegi…actually, I slept through most of it and woke up just in time to see the last few laps).  But back to my original question, does it really matter that IndyCar racing barely registers on the collective consciousness of America?  As much as I’d love to see IndyCar races regularly thrashing NASCAR in ratings, on principle if nothing else, I know it doesn’t really impact my love of the sport.  I’m not naïve however.  I know low ratings impacts the IndyCar’s ability to draw sponsors which in turn probably impacts everything else.  So I suppose I should care.  There are times I do wonder what would happen if IndyCar racing went away due to lack of interest.  Would I migrate to NASCAR or F1?  Not likely.  I’ve tried them both and while I can tolerate them, they just aren’t the same as IndyCar.  It’s what I grew up with.   With all its imperfections it’s still in my mind the best racing product out there.  I only wish others realized that.  And maybe that’s why it sometimes does hurt to see NASCAR’s second stringers getting more airtime than IndyCar’s starting lineup.  No matter, I will still be glued to my computer screen this week, watching as much of the Indy practice sessions as I can.