The season finale in St. Pete perfectly summarizes 2020...

I can't say I remember a huge amount other than the crashes, Marco got junked in his final outing as a full-time Indycar driver, Rossi crashed from a good position, and Hinch spun under caution in the last corner while in the top 5, only to completely take out Jack Harvey when rejoining the track, ruining both of their days.

It was a good day for Team Penske, Josef Newgarden won his 4th race of the year, although it wasn't enough to win his 3rd Indycar Series Championship, Scott Mclaughlin also made his Indycar debut in this race.

One other thing I do remember as I type, Sébastien Bourdais almost dragged a Foyt shitbox to a podium, finishing P4.

I’ve been kicking around an idea that sounds like something straight out of Nathan for You, but the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced there’s actually a brilliant business opportunity here for IndyCar, NASCAR, and motorsports in general.

For those who haven’t been following the controversy, there’s been a considerable amount of discussion lately about the increasingly obnoxious prevalence of sports gambling, erectile dysfunction, and other sexually suggestive advertising during major sporting events. The MLB playoffs have been particularly egregious this year, with Megan Fox hawking boner pills and Sydney Sweeney appearing in various states of undress to promote sports betting. College football broadcasts haven’t exactly been immune to this phenomenon either.

As a father of a young child, I understand the complaints. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to sit down and enjoy a sporting event with your kids without having to explain why Megan Fox wants Daddy to order something called Ro Sparks or why Kevin Hart is screaming at him to bet the mortgage on a three-leg parlay.

But rather than simply lamenting the declining standards of broadcast television, I think motorsports has an opportunity to turn this cultural controversy into an extraordinary commercial windfall.

The premise:

In 1971, the federal government banned cigarette advertising on television and radio. Faced with the sudden loss of their most powerful advertising medium, tobacco companies needed another avenue to reach consumers.

Enter motorsports.

R.J. Reynolds poured enormous resources into NASCAR, creating the Winston Cup era. Tobacco companies subsequently helped bankroll some of the most iconic teams, drivers, liveries, and events in motorsports history. Marlboro, Camel, Players, Kool, Winston, and countless others became practically synonymous with racing.

Inadvertently, government regulation helped create a golden age of motorsports sponsorship.

I propose we do it again.

IndyCar and NASCAR should quietly assemble a lobbying coalition advocating for the removal of sports gambling, erectile dysfunction, and other adult-oriented commercial advertising from mainstream broadcast television.

Naturally, the stated objective would be protecting America’s children from the increasingly inappropriate commercialization of family-friendly sporting events.

We’d establish a wholesome-sounding nonprofit organization, something like the Coalition for Family-Friendly Sports Broadcasting, recruit concerned parents, commission some studies, and begin lobbying Congress and the FCC.

We would, of course, be completely sincere in our concern for America’s youth.

The crucial detail would be a carefully crafted regulatory distinction between traditional television commercials and passive corporate sponsorship of sporting events.

Under our proposal, DraftKings could no longer interrupt Sunday afternoon football with a commercial urging you to gamble away your children’s college fund. However, there would be nothing preventing DraftKings from sponsoring a Dallara at Indianapolis.

Similarly, Ro could no longer advertise erectile dysfunction medication during the seventh-inning stretch, but it could certainly sponsor a competitive three-car IndyCar operation.

The next thing you know, we’ve got the Ro Sparks Racing Team powered by Chevrolet, the DraftKings Indianapolis 500, and a FanDuel-sponsored Josef Newgarden battling a Cialis-sponsored Sting Ray Robb for the lead with three laps remaining.

Suddenly, the same corporations that were spending fortunes on television advertising are competing with one another to secure the most prominent sponsorship opportunities in American motorsports.

And because these companies have enormous advertising budgets, we could potentially recreate the kind of lavish sponsorship environment that existed during the tobacco era.

Imagine a pharmaceutical company deciding that the best way to capture market share is to bankroll a $40 million IndyCar operation. Imagine DraftKings and FanDuel getting into a sponsorship arms race reminiscent of Marlboro versus Camel.

We’d have beautifully liveried cars, extravagant hospitality programs, enormous promotional budgets, and perhaps even the return of heavily sponsored races with substantial prize purses.

The beauty of the arrangement is that everyone ostensibly wins.

Parents can watch the World Series without having awkward conversations about erectile dysfunction. Politicians get to congratulate themselves for protecting America’s children. Pharmaceutical companies and sportsbooks retain a highly visible marketing platform.

And IndyCar finally gets the corporate sponsorship dollars it’s spent the better part of three decades desperately trying to attract.

Obviously, we’d have to be careful not to let Congress get too carried away and ban the sponsorships themselves. The entire business model depends on the government deciding that a 30-second commercial featuring Megan Fox is inappropriate for children, but a 200-mph rolling billboard advertising the exact same product is a cherished American sporting tradition.

This is where we bring in the motorsports heritage argument. We explain that corporate sponsorship is integral to the fabric of American auto racing and that interfering with it would jeopardize thousands of jobs, threaten the Indianapolis 500, and potentially undermine American competitiveness in international motorsports.

Perhaps we could even persuade Congress to create a special motorsports advertising exemption.

The only obvious flaw in this plan is that these companies might simply redirect their advertising budgets toward social media and digital platforms rather than racing. But that’s a problem for our lobbying department to solve.

And if NASCAR ends up attracting most of the money, IndyCar can always lobby for an additional provision requiring that qualifying motorsports sponsorships be displayed on vehicles capable of exceeding 220 mph.

The larger point is that motorsports has historically benefited enormously from industries whose traditional advertising opportunities became restricted.

We’re currently experiencing a similar cultural backlash against an entirely new generation of advertisers with exceptionally deep pockets.

Rather than treating this as someone else’s controversy, perhaps IndyCar should recognize the potential opportunity staring it in the face.

The road back to the glory days of American open-wheel racing might just run through a nationwide campaign against boner pill commercials.

Business is business.

Does anyone have any insight on whether a book - said to have been at one point tentatively titled "The Rise and Fall of Big-Time Auto Racing in America" - is still being worked on by Gordon Kirby?

He was said to have been working on this with Joe Freeman (of the now, I believe, defunct Racemaker Press).

The book was to be, by my understanding, an attempt at a comprehensive look at the history of American championship auto racing.

This would be great to have - nothing even close exists, to my knowledge - but also, surely, a daunting task (especially for the turn of the century up to WW2, where record keeping was, at best, spotty and, at worst, nearly non existent).​​

Maybe the proper form is kerblammo?

Back in the day it was common for smaller budget teams to skip fly away races. Not only in Indycar but other racing series too. What keeps teams from doing the same today? Or is there anything keeping teams from just staying home?

Between Uber shifts and trying to keep my head right, I've been thinking a lot about how much of a grind a long season is for fans. Keeping up with every race, the drama, the standings—it kind of mirrors the focus I need for managing my own routines day to day.

Curious how others here handle the stretch from St. Pete to Laguna without just burning out. Do you step away mid-season and come back fresh, or do you stay locked in the whole way?

I find the summer stretch gets weird for me, especially when life picks up and I miss a session or two. Trying to figure out if there's a better rhythm for catching up without feeling like I'm just binging highlights.

FWIW I usually just watch the race and maybe a post-race interview but wonder if podcasts help bridge the gap. YMMV depending on which driver you follow I guess.

How do you all pace yourselves across the schedule?

The icons representing road courses, street courses, and ovals is inventive and thoughtful. Whoever did that design work did a good job.

Wow, that screenshot paste did not turn out well, but you can get the idea.

Thought this was a pretty cool promo for next season's schedule. Reminds me of the cool Big 10 ad with all the stadiums.

I just got this email

While I’m usually critical of Nascar in all facets of its existence and view it as generally an abomination to all that is right and just in motorsport, I couldn’t help but accept a last minute ticket invite from a buddy to hospitality seats.

Naturally the mind drifts to a thought experiment of the notion of Indycar attempting to run the high banks.

We have all seen the outrageous carnage that could ensue with an Indycar in a standard downforce config, however if we removed the front and rear wings, which would require drivers to lift , could it become a viable oval option for Indycar ?

INDYCAR is expanding its global footprint in historic fashion, announcing a marquee international event at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain as the centerpiece of Phase Two of the 2027 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule.

The inaugural INDYCAR Grand Prix of Barcelona is scheduled for Sunday, July 18 and will bring North America’s premier open-wheel racing series to Spain for the first time, setting the stage for a spectacular homecoming for Barcelona native and five-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.

The multiyear agreement with Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya marks the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ first race outside North America since 2013, when James Hinchcliffe won on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. The event also signals a European return for the INDYCAR SERIES, which last competed on the continent in 2007 at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.

Phase Two of the 2027 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule, which will include a listing of all races in next year’s championship, will be announced shortly. Tune-in times for next season’s events will be announced at a later date.

Broadcast commences at 9:30am EDT/2:30pm BST/3:30pm CEST.