NASCAR pulling spotlight from Indy on holiday weekend

By David Markiewicz
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,May 29

Tradition rules at the Indianapolis 500.

Jim Nabors still sings "Back Home Again in Indiana." The winner chugs milk, not Gatorade, in Victory Lane. They still call the asphalt track the "brickyard."

Gordon not worried about the weather Robby Gordon said he's not worried about a forecast that includes a chance of scattered showers on Sunday in Indianapolis, where he'll begin a long day of racing in the Indianapolis 500 before coming to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. "I don't control the weather," Gordon said. Sunday would be Gordon's 10th career Indianapolis 500 start. "I think we're very well prepared going into both races," said Gordon, who will start 18th at Indianapolis. "Obviously, we didn't qualify as well as we'd like (18th at Indy), but I think we have a good handling car for the race."

And when the drivers hit the start line Sunday for the 88th running," they will be competing for what is still regarded by many as the biggest prize in motorsports.

One thing has changed, though. Fewer people will be paying attention.

Television ratings for the race are half what they were only a decade ago. Tickets can be obtained for face value, or less.

And NASCAR is nipping at Indy's heels. The sport's Nextel Cup Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte likely will attract more viewers, if not more fans, to the track.

It has been a stunning turn of events for the Indy, a race called the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing." And there are several reasons for the slide:

-- A lack of name recognition among drivers. The A.J. Foyts, Mario Andrettis and Unsers have been replaced by the Scott Dixons, Sam Hornish Jrs. and Tomas Scheckters, elite racers but hardly household names.

-- NASCAR's rise. Once a Southern regional specialty, stock car racing has gone national. Since 1988, tracks have been added near major cities across the nation, expanding a fan base that has grown from an estimated 63 million just four years ago to 75 million today. Weekend attendance is up from 3.3 million for 29 events in 1990 to 6.7 million for 36 events last year.The sport's stars, like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., are featured almost daily in television appearances and commercials.

-- A nasty turf squabble between two factions in Indy car racing, the Indy Racing League and Championship Auto Racing Teams. The feud divided racing talent and sponsor money and diverted media and fan attention. The IRL, which runs the Indy 500, was created by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George in the mid-1990s to compete with CART, which was the established racing series. CART teams boycotted the Indy 500 starting in 1996, beginning a long and damaging dispute.

The issue of star power, or the lack of it, is particularly vexing.

"Who'll win Indy? I couldn't care less," said Matt Clements, a 30-year-old racing fan from St. Simons. "With NASCAR, you know [the drivers'] faces. You know their names. You know a little bit about them. I couldn't tell you the first thing about Helio [Castroneves, a former Indy 500 champion]."

K.C. Satchell remembers the Indy of old, when the 42-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., resident was a young man growing up in Michigan and fans had to watch the race on tape-delay that night or tune in on radio.

"It was the thing to do," Satchell said. "We'd be washing cars in the driveway and have it on. Absolutely."

Now, he says, "I catch some of it every year, but not the whole race. I'll watch more of the Coke 600."

Television ratings are the most obvious sign that Indy's popularity has slipped. Even the average Nextel race attracts more viewers. The Daytona 500, NASCAR's top event, gets double the ratings of Indy. Twenty to 25 years ago, the situation was reversed.

That has resulted in a huge disparity in advertising rates companies pay to air commercials during the races. Industry analysts say that while the Daytona 500 can command better than $300,000 for a 30-second spot, Indy 500 ads can be had for about half that. The Coca-Cola 600 asks about $175,000.

Ticket brokers say they used to pay double face value for Indy tickets, and easily resell them for triple. Now, they buy and sell below the official price.

Indy does not release its official seating capacity or race attendance figures, but a seat count by the Indianapolis Star indicates a sellout would mean about 268,000 people at the track. The Coca-Cola 600 draws about 185,000 fans.

Indianans, perhaps more than anybody, are concerned with the erosion of their event.

"When I was a kid, it was a really big deal," says Steve Hammer, a 39-year-old columnist who has covered the race for NUVO, the alternative newspaper in Indianapolis. "You'd go outside for the Memorial Day barbecue and you could hear the roar of the cars through the neighborhood over peoples' radios. It was something this city took pride in. Now, it's not even the most important race of the weekend. People have disengaged. It's sad."

Not everyone is ready to cede Indy's place.

"It isn't fair to be too hard on the Indy 500," said Herb Fishel, a former General Motors Racing executive who drove the pace car in last year's race. "The racing and entertainment world has changed. In my mind, Indy, the Kentucky Derby and the Masters, those events are the pride of America. I guarantee you people travel each year to attend them."

"NASCAR as a series is bigger, but as a single-day event, [Indy] still stands head and shoulders above the rest," said Bill Doyle, vice president of Performance Research, a Newport, Rhode Island, firm that evaluates sports sponsorships. "Overall, international attention is significantly bigger for Indy; attendance is bigger."

"They've got the tradition and that great song," said H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler who, as president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, battles Indy annually for TV viewers and media attention. "And it still has that electrifying feel beforehand."

Yet, many observers generally agree with the view of Ed Clark, president of Atlanta Motor Speedway: "I don't think Indy dominates any more," Clark said.

For now, Indy might have to settle for being an event that, as Doyle puts it, "[has] gone from mega-grand to very grand."

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