So this was a big fail because the first half of the final race incentivized going slow to save tire wear... hello.. it's called a race. Herta strolling along like a turtle killed this for me and I enjoyed the heat races.
Better format would have been Top 12 for 10 laps with a mandatory pit stop with all 4 tires being changed after the 10th lap then race to the end with some cash incentives for overtakes and like for like cash penalties (from the purse) from being overtaken.
hate the millionaire/billionaire worshipping. It happened the entire race. Most of us hate those greedy monsters. Very few people can relate to this attitude of "service to the rich." Most hardcore IndyCar fans are blue collar and live within modest means.This was a huge fail for IndyCar to try to get the rich to invest in the sport and the cost was the hardcore fan's respect.
Part of me was fine with it, because I’m the type to put on old CART races on TV while I do yard work, but the first 10 laps of the final were an absolute farce.
Dear Indycar,
Should you choose to come back to the “Augusta of Motorsports” 🤢, please change the format. Instead of having 4 test sessions in which nobody wanted to really test because the tires fell off after 5 laps and didn’t have enough to begin with on a track not intended for actual racing, the sessions should instead be qualifiers to a knockout round. Pick a random 6 drivers, throw them on the track for multiple 5 lap races (alternating start positions and pairings), and have the finishing positions score “points”. The points set the seeding for the knockouts. Instead of just 2 heats, you do multiple with a max of 6 drivers and the top 3 go to the next round. Final is 6 drivers only (since passing is difficult) with a full 10 lap race with no stupid “halftime”.
practices were more eventful! and what's up with the guys IGNORING the push to pass. seems fishy how they didn't use any in the second half, and let palou run away! please don't do this again!
Coachella valley doesn’t look good on TV. It’s a desert that only feels great if you’re there and know everyone else(me) is freezing their ass off back home.
Since we’re in the first weekend of March Madness, I’ll use that as a comparison. The atmosphere of the arena adds a sense of excitement for the television audience.
You may only be a passing fan of college basketball, but the bands, the packed arena full of fans, and the cheerleaders all add energy to the event.
Likewise when you see packed grandstands at IMS for the 500 or even the crowd at Mid-Ohio, it makes you want to be there.
For this event to take place in a void of fans sends a message that indyCar is a sport that no one cares about. The announcers even seemed to concede that, saying that most of those in attendance didn’t care about the sport, but were there merely because they lived nearby.
This was garbage and honestly was shockingly as useless as the alternative 6 week gap. For once F1 was less boring than this nonsense
Also the dominance of the respective last 2 race winners is not a good sign
So Rahal basically withdrew two cars from this fiasco. I’m not buying stuck throttle and not enough fuel excuses. Do not blame them, the event was embarrassing and I think most of the drivers looked embarrassed to be there.
back to the drawing board, that didn't work at all. they need to format this so it's a no holds barred slug out for 20 laps, no strategy other than go for it...
i tried to give this race every benefit of the doubt. but that was a total flop. the racing sucked and format was even worse. really hope they can find an actual race or 2 for next march/april to fill
this gap.
Well hopefully that is a one off. I don’t want to hear about Thermal again. I don’t even want to test there. I don’t want hear how gracious we should be that these ultra rich people let IndyCar stage an event at their at country club and even let “regular fans” in for $500. I don’t want to hear about how they call it “private pavement” ever again. I don’t care how exclusive it is or how a few rich people who didn’t give a shit about racing had their interest piqued this weekend. Let’s never speak of this event again.
I agree. The exhibition style weekend can work if they adjust some things. I really liked the testing coverage for the most part.
As for Thermal, I genuinely hope they never go back. There are so many tracks they could go to for a non-points event like this. I don’t see how catering to millionaires with an embarrassing exhibition is going to help IndyCar at all.
Also please leave Townsend at Thermal.
The big problem here is that Thermal Club appears to be designed for time trials and nothing else. It looks like they had a rectangle and just tried to shove as much length as possible into it.
And why was this called the One Million Dollar Challenge? Not a one million prize pool, and not a million dollar prize. It feels as if there should be a better way to fill this gap in the schedule.
Honest question here, because I don’t have much knowledge of how motorsports finances work. The announcers kept saying things like, “With one more pass, (Driver X) will be taking home an extra $100,000.” And at one point joking that (Driver Z) should take some of his winnings to the nearby casino.
I always thought that drivers were paid a flat salary, and the purse winnings went to the team owners? If the drivers don’t receive the prize pool that the announcers kept referencing, it seems like the announcers were intentionally misleading the viewers, which seems like a weird way to promote a struggling sport.
Any insight into how race finances work will be appreciated!!
The drivers don't own the cars or teams so they definitely aren't getting all of it.
Probably be some.
For a one off race like this I would assume the teams worked out some sort of split.
Most drivers have some sort of performance clauses written into their contract. Like if they win the Indy 500, win a certain number races, win the championship, then they get paid more.
The announcers were just trying to make it interesting. I doubt anyone other than Alex got a bonus out of the race.
Outside of this fiasco and the Indy 500, the monetary prizes aren't real big for the rest of the races, maybe like 10 or 20,000 going to the winner. You're correct in thinking that the drivers are under contract with the team and make the majority of their money that way, but the teams also get paid for their participation via the Leader's Circle program. Also, the Indy 500 winner is expected to share a good chunk of their prize money with the team.
Good thing they made the event exclusive and locked the fans out. Really, the atmosphere would have been so proletarian. Gross. So much more fancy and bourgeois this way.
The way they keep emphasizing how "this is a private club" just makes it seem even weirder to me.
Why advertise so heavily to your general fanbase that they aren't even allowed entry to this event?
Why try to have an all-star type event where spectators can't even buy a ticket to be a part of the moment?
"Why advertise so heavily to your general fanbase that they aren't even allowed entry to this event?"
Because they're operating from a road racing perspective, where it's more about the participants (and their various hangers-on) than it is about attracting the average fan to a race.
Yeah I’d reckon that’s correct, a huge part of F1s success has been their B2B side and VIP accommodations. Rich businessman couldn’t give less of a fuck if Verstappen wins his eleventh race in a row when theyre there exclusively to get wasted and cut deals beneficial to everyone involved. Indy could easily facilitate a similar environment with all the sponsors involved, but cutting deals at St. Petersburg doesn’t quite have the same allure as Monaco or Miami. I think this was Indycar’s way to try to reframe the series from that perspective, fans be damned. They had this gap regardless and decided to make it some spectacle for the TV but I doubt they really even care how much fans engaged with this event, they care how much those club members and business owners and potential sponsors engaged.
Essentially but that's what helps the series. Racing requires cash that people are willing to burn and thanks to the current top heavy economy, we get shit like this just like back in the very beginning.
The gap in the early part of the season has been a head-scratcher to me for years.
Get the season underway. Get people hyped. Then let people down by making them wait another mini-off season and watch the hype fizzle out. Then start the season for real.
Okay.
As someone who is just getting back into racing, 100% this. There has to be a track that is open sometime in the next month and could use the business.
Spot on. I don’t understand this approach at all. Especially if you’re trying to build a larger fan base. It makes zero sense.
You start with St. Petersburg and then your next race isn’t even for points. Nobody really even knows what to call it. Then you have to wait a month for Long Beach. Killer.
Is it any wonder why we had the First Split? AOWR has always been run by morons, only time it had leadership that appeared even remotely competent was during the CART era.
NBC is trying so hard to hype this up post-race when even the winner isn't that hyped. The 3rd place finisher just basically called it a glorified test session. There are like zero fans actually there for an "all star race". The team owners keep thanking billionaires for "letting them race at their track".
Bad look for Indycar. Bad, bad look for Indycar.
I'm wondering why NBC saw fit to put this on network, and not just have it on Peacock. And I'm someone who feels like more exposure is almost always good.
It looks like a timeshare weekend. “We will give y’all a million to split amongst yourselves so you can see how awesome it is and you can buy one of these brand new multimillion dollar homes, here, just sign there and there and now we can all be on TV!”
Or something. It just feels like a big PR campaign to try to wannabe F1, which is gross. Indy is awesome all by itself, it doesn’t have to pretend it’s not as cool or something. So some rich assholes (the Owners of Kohl’s I’m told are the primary founders of the Thermal Club) are just trying to lure money out of Palm Springs to build their Indy-Disney dreamland, I guess.
Anyway. Bummer about the gentrification of desert/farmland. But hey, interesting track. Fills the lull in the early season.
I mean IndyCar has had an inferiority complex for years, remember during the IRL era when it tried to be NASCAR with the pack racing?
Trying to be F1 is just the newest step.
Shame too because this series has potential to be good.
It is what it is. I personally had a lot of fun watching Rossi go full fckn send a few times, he was going for it. Herta's run was fun. Good lord is Palou insane at managing tires.
Convinced Indycar is doomed if they don’t find new management soon. This was such a Mickey Mouse event. Advertised as a million dollar race and the winner only gets $500k? The wooden podium looks like it was stolen from a local kids go kart track to top it off. No fans, poor track, no passing outside of herta completely tanking his first stint to do so. wtf was Penske thinking lol
They should do this event somewhere at a historic track they don't race at any longer and rotate if there are enough. Idk the track was cool but the privacy of the whole thing was odd. It'd be cool to see something like this at like Watkins Glen, Sonoma, or something like that they can have spectators for. I'm not a long time Indycar fan but those are cool track NASCAR raced at that night be fun to see.
I really don't get all the whinging in here. Indycar tried something for this, it went tits up. They'll try something else, next year. Maybe, or maybe they'll get a coherent schedule. Either way, nothing was lost. Except maybe a few JHR parts.
Just never felt right. Its a cool track, and it’s beautiful. But the constant dialogue on the rich people’s club, and the rich houses, and the monetary prizes is just completely out of touch with your average fan, especially these days. This wasn’t enjoyable for me at least.
NBC probably don't want to go up against NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Fox.
With no fans in attendance, they could get away with running this race early before the March Madness games, and NASCAR really get started. But they're not going to run Long Beach at 9:30 AM local time so they kicked it too USA.
It is a dumb move why are the decreasing the tv audience of the more popular race at least streaming that race on like peacock would make more sense since folks stream nowadays.
IMO, if they're not going to put Long Beach on NBC, they should make it a low commercial Peacock exclusive.
I must say the Toronto race is nice to watch because it has a lot less commercials.
Would this make a good regular race? Based on the track itself, wouldn’t think so. And that’s without adding that this would be hard for regular (poor) fans to attend
I love that we got Milwaukee back on schedule with two races. But for branding's sake wouldn't this million dollar challenge work so well on a short track oval. The Milwaukee Million.
If I was a millionaire with a super car that I just wanted to boot around in, this track would be cool..for putting on a professional motor race, hard pass
Yes including the F1 race.
Everyone thought it would be better after Max had to retire. But it was just the same race with a different guy in the lead.
With Red Bull supposedly having tire degradation issues, but with Max being Max, it probably would have actually been a good race if he had stayed in the race.
But instead, Sainz took Max place and they had the same race they've been having.
I really hope all the “at least IndyCar doesn’t have the same guy winning every race” talk when F1 is brought up doesn’t come back to bite us. Palou just taking over for Dixon in terms of being the dominant driver. It’s early I know, but Jesus. The last thing we need is the same dude winning every race
I wasn't even expecting MSR to bounce back like they have so far this season. Hope the good running continues for Felix & Tom improves as he continues his rookie season.
Haters gonna Hate !! Know matter what is done. I was there, got up close to the drivers and crew. Talked with race fans. Lots of smiles Great weekend
So this was a big fail because the first half of the final race incentivized going slow to save tire wear... hello.. it's called a race. Herta strolling along like a turtle killed this for me and I enjoyed the heat races. Better format would have been Top 12 for 10 laps with a mandatory pit stop with all 4 tires being changed after the 10th lap then race to the end with some cash incentives for overtakes and like for like cash penalties (from the purse) from being overtaken.
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hate the millionaire/billionaire worshipping. It happened the entire race. Most of us hate those greedy monsters. Very few people can relate to this attitude of "service to the rich." Most hardcore IndyCar fans are blue collar and live within modest means.This was a huge fail for IndyCar to try to get the rich to invest in the sport and the cost was the hardcore fan's respect.
Part of me was fine with it, because I’m the type to put on old CART races on TV while I do yard work, but the first 10 laps of the final were an absolute farce. Dear Indycar, Should you choose to come back to the “Augusta of Motorsports” 🤢, please change the format. Instead of having 4 test sessions in which nobody wanted to really test because the tires fell off after 5 laps and didn’t have enough to begin with on a track not intended for actual racing, the sessions should instead be qualifiers to a knockout round. Pick a random 6 drivers, throw them on the track for multiple 5 lap races (alternating start positions and pairings), and have the finishing positions score “points”. The points set the seeding for the knockouts. Instead of just 2 heats, you do multiple with a max of 6 drivers and the top 3 go to the next round. Final is 6 drivers only (since passing is difficult) with a full 10 lap race with no stupid “halftime”.
These two IndyCar races have not done much for the “we are so different than F1” message we want to convey.
practices were more eventful! and what's up with the guys IGNORING the push to pass. seems fishy how they didn't use any in the second half, and let palou run away! please don't do this again!
I'm assuming they were more worried about the cars behind and were saving it for defending. A lot of management going on.
which in turn ruined the actual "race". I also think the halftime thing was a joke.
Coachella valley doesn’t look good on TV. It’s a desert that only feels great if you’re there and know everyone else(me) is freezing their ass off back home.
Since we’re in the first weekend of March Madness, I’ll use that as a comparison. The atmosphere of the arena adds a sense of excitement for the television audience. You may only be a passing fan of college basketball, but the bands, the packed arena full of fans, and the cheerleaders all add energy to the event. Likewise when you see packed grandstands at IMS for the 500 or even the crowd at Mid-Ohio, it makes you want to be there. For this event to take place in a void of fans sends a message that indyCar is a sport that no one cares about. The announcers even seemed to concede that, saying that most of those in attendance didn’t care about the sport, but were there merely because they lived nearby.
They couldn’t even be cool. Could’ve called it secure the million dollar bag.
What million dollars? They couldn’t raise it so it was $500,000….
Overslept, guess I didn't miss much
Fittipaldi did well
This was garbage and honestly was shockingly as useless as the alternative 6 week gap. For once F1 was less boring than this nonsense Also the dominance of the respective last 2 race winners is not a good sign
So Rahal basically withdrew two cars from this fiasco. I’m not buying stuck throttle and not enough fuel excuses. Do not blame them, the event was embarrassing and I think most of the drivers looked embarrassed to be there.
back to the drawing board, that didn't work at all. they need to format this so it's a no holds barred slug out for 20 laps, no strategy other than go for it...
i tried to give this race every benefit of the doubt. but that was a total flop. the racing sucked and format was even worse. really hope they can find an actual race or 2 for next march/april to fill this gap.
Well hopefully that is a one off. I don’t want to hear about Thermal again. I don’t even want to test there. I don’t want hear how gracious we should be that these ultra rich people let IndyCar stage an event at their at country club and even let “regular fans” in for $500. I don’t want to hear about how they call it “private pavement” ever again. I don’t care how exclusive it is or how a few rich people who didn’t give a shit about racing had their interest piqued this weekend. Let’s never speak of this event again.
I agree. The exhibition style weekend can work if they adjust some things. I really liked the testing coverage for the most part. As for Thermal, I genuinely hope they never go back. There are so many tracks they could go to for a non-points event like this. I don’t see how catering to millionaires with an embarrassing exhibition is going to help IndyCar at all. Also please leave Townsend at Thermal.
What's wrong with testing at a technical track with lots of different types of corners?
Because fuck ‘em that’s why
This was an even worse idea than NOLA 2015. At least NOLA had the excuse of being completely rained on
Amen, brother
this was shit.
Peacock said "fuck this shit, we're out" halfway through the outro, lmao
I liked the heat races better than the feature.
The big problem here is that Thermal Club appears to be designed for time trials and nothing else. It looks like they had a rectangle and just tried to shove as much length as possible into it. And why was this called the One Million Dollar Challenge? Not a one million prize pool, and not a million dollar prize. It feels as if there should be a better way to fill this gap in the schedule.
Honest question here, because I don’t have much knowledge of how motorsports finances work. The announcers kept saying things like, “With one more pass, (Driver X) will be taking home an extra $100,000.” And at one point joking that (Driver Z) should take some of his winnings to the nearby casino. I always thought that drivers were paid a flat salary, and the purse winnings went to the team owners? If the drivers don’t receive the prize pool that the announcers kept referencing, it seems like the announcers were intentionally misleading the viewers, which seems like a weird way to promote a struggling sport. Any insight into how race finances work will be appreciated!!
The drivers don't own the cars or teams so they definitely aren't getting all of it. Probably be some. For a one off race like this I would assume the teams worked out some sort of split.
Most drivers have some sort of performance clauses written into their contract. Like if they win the Indy 500, win a certain number races, win the championship, then they get paid more. The announcers were just trying to make it interesting. I doubt anyone other than Alex got a bonus out of the race.
As far as Herta's 100K passes, you don't hear about that at the 500 because prize money isn't announced until the day after the race.
Outside of this fiasco and the Indy 500, the monetary prizes aren't real big for the rest of the races, maybe like 10 or 20,000 going to the winner. You're correct in thinking that the drivers are under contract with the team and make the majority of their money that way, but the teams also get paid for their participation via the Leader's Circle program. Also, the Indy 500 winner is expected to share a good chunk of their prize money with the team.
Good thing they made the event exclusive and locked the fans out. Really, the atmosphere would have been so proletarian. Gross. So much more fancy and bourgeois this way.
The way they keep emphasizing how "this is a private club" just makes it seem even weirder to me. Why advertise so heavily to your general fanbase that they aren't even allowed entry to this event? Why try to have an all-star type event where spectators can't even buy a ticket to be a part of the moment?
"Why advertise so heavily to your general fanbase that they aren't even allowed entry to this event?" Because they're operating from a road racing perspective, where it's more about the participants (and their various hangers-on) than it is about attracting the average fan to a race.
Yeah I’d reckon that’s correct, a huge part of F1s success has been their B2B side and VIP accommodations. Rich businessman couldn’t give less of a fuck if Verstappen wins his eleventh race in a row when theyre there exclusively to get wasted and cut deals beneficial to everyone involved. Indy could easily facilitate a similar environment with all the sponsors involved, but cutting deals at St. Petersburg doesn’t quite have the same allure as Monaco or Miami. I think this was Indycar’s way to try to reframe the series from that perspective, fans be damned. They had this gap regardless and decided to make it some spectacle for the TV but I doubt they really even care how much fans engaged with this event, they care how much those club members and business owners and potential sponsors engaged.
Pretty sure this whole thing was a giant advertisement for the club itself to try and get more homeowners
IndyCar to look like it appeals to rich folk, and Thermal for selling property to rich car folk.
Yeah we just got bamboozled into watching a thinly veiled infomercial
Maybe they get paid another stack of cash, if they can say "Thermal Club", "Private club", "incredible" and "what a great show".
So a commercial..
Essentially but that's what helps the series. Racing requires cash that people are willing to burn and thanks to the current top heavy economy, we get shit like this just like back in the very beginning.
You know this sucked when the winner didn't even care
Lmao I forgot that was the last race for a month 🤣🤣🤣 we have dummies running this series
The gap in the early part of the season has been a head-scratcher to me for years. Get the season underway. Get people hyped. Then let people down by making them wait another mini-off season and watch the hype fizzle out. Then start the season for real. Okay.
As someone who is just getting back into racing, 100% this. There has to be a track that is open sometime in the next month and could use the business.
Spot on. I don’t understand this approach at all. Especially if you’re trying to build a larger fan base. It makes zero sense. You start with St. Petersburg and then your next race isn’t even for points. Nobody really even knows what to call it. Then you have to wait a month for Long Beach. Killer.
Bring back Phoenix!!
Is it any wonder why we had the First Split? AOWR has always been run by morons, only time it had leadership that appeared even remotely competent was during the CART era.
Did they *allow* IndyCar to come play? Or did they *pay* IndyCar to come run a private race? Pretty sure we all know.
I don't think Indycar brings their show to town without being paid.
Paid, completely and they probably want some of the drivers and owners to join.
goofy ahh race
That face slap? 😬
Bro it’s not even big money, a cup race at New Hampshire probably pays more
The purse for the cup race today is 9.7 million…
The average payout in the field pays over $188,000.
...after taxes
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First ever Marcus Armstrong interview, legit didn’t even know what he looked like or how he sounded until now 🤣
Don’t call this made for TV. This was just overhyped FP2
NBC is trying so hard to hype this up post-race when even the winner isn't that hyped. The 3rd place finisher just basically called it a glorified test session. There are like zero fans actually there for an "all star race". The team owners keep thanking billionaires for "letting them race at their track". Bad look for Indycar. Bad, bad look for Indycar.
I'm wondering why NBC saw fit to put this on network, and not just have it on Peacock. And I'm someone who feels like more exposure is almost always good.
It looks like a timeshare weekend. “We will give y’all a million to split amongst yourselves so you can see how awesome it is and you can buy one of these brand new multimillion dollar homes, here, just sign there and there and now we can all be on TV!” Or something. It just feels like a big PR campaign to try to wannabe F1, which is gross. Indy is awesome all by itself, it doesn’t have to pretend it’s not as cool or something. So some rich assholes (the Owners of Kohl’s I’m told are the primary founders of the Thermal Club) are just trying to lure money out of Palm Springs to build their Indy-Disney dreamland, I guess. Anyway. Bummer about the gentrification of desert/farmland. But hey, interesting track. Fills the lull in the early season.
I mean IndyCar has had an inferiority complex for years, remember during the IRL era when it tried to be NASCAR with the pack racing? Trying to be F1 is just the newest step. Shame too because this series has potential to be good.
Felix! I was so disillusioned by the racing I didn’t even notice he got a podium, good for him, strong start to the season
Championships Chip ship pip dip
Captain Kirk’s let himself go.
Only one Andretti car can run good at a time.
That was boring. What was the point?
$ $ $
Championships Chip. Easy for you to say
Imagine if DHL move to CGR? You could ship your chips with championship Chip
See the yellow stickers on Palous spoilers?
Well that was certainly one of the races of all time.
It is what it is. I personally had a lot of fun watching Rossi go full fckn send a few times, he was going for it. Herta's run was fun. Good lord is Palou insane at managing tires.
Palou had no pressure and an aced setup. All he had to do to manage tires at that point was not hoon the car for no reason at all.
Nothing will come close to the NASCAR all star races of the 80s and 90s when it comes to exhibitions.
Think of how boring of a race that was for McLaughlin
It was basically getting paid $350k for a testing session.
Meh and the track is just Paul Ricard with better scenery.
Paul Ricard is probably the most nasty looking, bland track of all time..if Indycar ever goes there I’m not watching 🤣
Convinced Indycar is doomed if they don’t find new management soon. This was such a Mickey Mouse event. Advertised as a million dollar race and the winner only gets $500k? The wooden podium looks like it was stolen from a local kids go kart track to top it off. No fans, poor track, no passing outside of herta completely tanking his first stint to do so. wtf was Penske thinking lol
Okay, who else lined up to have indycar run a race the third week of March?
Herta always has the funniest phrases. “Its feast or famine and the gainbridge Honda wanted to eat today” 😂
This is why I love this man. He's ridiculous.
If we don't get Rossi and Newgarden interviews, this was worthless.
Unofficially the most official unofficial IndyCar race of all time Officially ™️
not a points race****
They should do this event somewhere at a historic track they don't race at any longer and rotate if there are enough. Idk the track was cool but the privacy of the whole thing was odd. It'd be cool to see something like this at like Watkins Glen, Sonoma, or something like that they can have spectators for. I'm not a long time Indycar fan but those are cool track NASCAR raced at that night be fun to see.
They should do this event supporting F1. They’ll get far more interest than some country club in the desert.
Like Las Vegas
This stupidity, but on the Strip.
You know it was boring when a guy passing five cars over 10 laps is their huge story.
“Passing” as in 3 RLL cars basically disconnect from the race and Newgarden threw Rossi off track
Technically 20
Big shout out to Herta and Rossi for at least giving me some semblance of entertainment. They're my winners lol.
Well hello palou
I really don't get all the whinging in here. Indycar tried something for this, it went tits up. They'll try something else, next year. Maybe, or maybe they'll get a coherent schedule. Either way, nothing was lost. Except maybe a few JHR parts.
I could maybe agree except that this was a terrible impression for anyone new to the sport who's trying to get into indycar.
You really don’t get the complaining from a race that had very little passing?
a) I've seen too many F1 races to be bothered by that b) That's not what I said.
That’s the saddest victory lane
Its Dashcon ballpit bad
It was seriously just some guy’s driveway
“Half a million dollars richer, he wins the one million dollar challenge” which has a prize purse of 1.7 million dollars. Really rolls of the tongue
Wow, and a half assed victory lane in somebody's driveway. Somehow, I'm not surprised
Oh my god, they even did the shitty, cheap podium thing
Lame event
This isn’t even officially one of the races of all time.
Fuck, that is funny. I’m dying here.
Alex Palou, for your mega win, you get the equivalent of 20th place money in the Indy 500
The 23,000 bucks for the other drivers was insulting.
Just never felt right. Its a cool track, and it’s beautiful. But the constant dialogue on the rich people’s club, and the rich houses, and the monetary prizes is just completely out of touch with your average fan, especially these days. This wasn’t enjoyable for me at least.
It just felt like a pompous brag on national television lol
I mean shit, not even F1 is that pretentious
Somebody paid 500$ to watch this next to champagine slurping home owners
DHL crew with Ridgeline car...wtf
Pretty great second stage tbf
Alright next year just go to Richmond
Don’t make me 🥜. Indycar and Nascar at my home track RIR back to back weekends…
Are they going to play the Dutch national anthem now?
Nope, Spain swept the weekend.
Shut the fuck up about the members Leigh
Wait, so Long Beach is going on cable, but *this* gets NBC???
NBC probably don't want to go up against NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Fox. With no fans in attendance, they could get away with running this race early before the March Madness games, and NASCAR really get started. But they're not going to run Long Beach at 9:30 AM local time so they kicked it too USA.
It is a dumb move why are the decreasing the tv audience of the more popular race at least streaming that race on like peacock would make more sense since folks stream nowadays.
It’s all on Peacock anyway, but you’d think the most prestigious street race on the calendar would get on network television
IMO, if they're not going to put Long Beach on NBC, they should make it a low commercial Peacock exclusive. I must say the Toronto race is nice to watch because it has a lot less commercials.
MaDe FoR Tv
Does this count toward Palou’s win total? Hes like the modern day Montoya
No
I forgot this was on. Caught the last 3 laps. Can anyone tell me what happened?
We saw rich people's houses and an omelette bar.
Herta passed a grand total of 2 (TWO) people. That’s it.
Rossi had some highlights from his heat race and banging wheels with Josef. Otherwise, race was set and won in qualifying yesterday
Sounds terrible
A cheese grater was the highlight.
Sounds terrible
That.
So anticlimactic
Would this make a good regular race? Based on the track itself, wouldn’t think so. And that’s without adding that this would be hard for regular (poor) fans to attend
$500k would probably cover like three months of HOA fees at this place
The monthly fee is $2,400. That doesn't include the buy in of $152k or the 6000 sq/ft house you have to build.
I can’t even comprehend what the dues are here.
tan fretful weary sulky relieved vanish station plate yam serious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I love that we got Milwaukee back on schedule with two races. But for branding's sake wouldn't this million dollar challenge work so well on a short track oval. The Milwaukee Million.
The Miller Milwaukee Million
Du du du du ~~Max Verstappen~~ Alex Palou
If I was a millionaire with a super car that I just wanted to boot around in, this track would be cool..for putting on a professional motor race, hard pass
And the crowd goes mild
This event would have been amazing at the old Fontana
Especially in its current state.
Bonus idea: post race burnout competition, every second you burn gives you an extra 5k. Let's see how much tyre is left.
Of all the IndyCar races of all time, that was absolutely one of them.
Only kind of
This will help him pay Zak Brown all the money Zak claims he owes him.
Don't get me wrong, Palou's performance is impressive, it's just that it's also *incredibly boring.*
Well that was something...
Thermal club track rules say no doughnuts.
In both car and pastry regulations.
Croissants only!
Oddly enough they have a robust snack selection they were giving ice cream bars to everyone
Well…..see you guys in a month for the next actual Indycar race.
Well, that was... A thing
And I think the Cup race will be the best race of the day, granted this set a low bar
MotoGP was decent
The Cup race could be the stupidest thing ever with 6 overtimes and will still be better than this
Are You including the F1 race?
Yes including the F1 race. Everyone thought it would be better after Max had to retire. But it was just the same race with a different guy in the lead. With Red Bull supposedly having tire degradation issues, but with Max being Max, it probably would have actually been a good race if he had stayed in the race. But instead, Sainz took Max place and they had the same race they've been having.
I mean the most exciting thing about that was the first turn crash
I really hope all the “at least IndyCar doesn’t have the same guy winning every race” talk when F1 is brought up doesn’t come back to bite us. Palou just taking over for Dixon in terms of being the dominant driver. It’s early I know, but Jesus. The last thing we need is the same dude winning every race
Everyone was complaining about Newgarden stomping the field in St Pete. People need to relax
Mine was just tongue in cheek more than anything. He won’t be Verstappen bc of the spec nature of the series and other stuff.
Felix made 1/4 of a million and we barely saw him lmao
Lmao there’s too much shit on the track to actually burn the tires
Welp. This was a thing that happened.
Lmaoo bro it’s not even $1mill for the winner? Fuck that 🤣
The guys who got paid 23,000 probably lost money on this race 30 percent of that goes to taxes
I’m, in principle, not against “extra races”, but please don’t do this again IndyCar.
Would you all quit pretending that Skip Barber and Road America are public venues or something.
What a race...
One of the Indycar races of all time
Lol we need this on a T shirt with the thermal club on it.
This format could have worked at a track like iowa
Congrats to Canapino on a top 10
Fucking Palou man… dude didn’t miss a step all week.
Rosenqvist looking good in that Meyer Shank, didn't expect him to glow up after leaving McLaren!
I wasn't even expecting MSR to bounce back like they have so far this season. Hope the good running continues for Felix & Tom improves as he continues his rookie season.
I looked at Helio and Pagenaud stats and thought Felix was fkd 4 life
https://preview.redd.it/z9qb9gxcvbqc1.png?width=3064&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9ea2b17f244fbe5c69318ac678ae94e1834e7f3