[rog4vmi]

After what most of the F1 teams pulled at Indy this summer, I'll never follow F1 again. Period.

I watch IRL and NASCAR weekly. In some cases, I think that IRL has even better wheel-to-wheel racing than NASCAR.

However, I really prefer the style of racing that comes down to the driver -- not technology. Of course, there's no such thing as "stock" in stock car racing.

NASCAR is so successful because fans are able to identify with the drivers as personalities....not the cars that they drive. In this regard, for better or worse, Danica Patrick is a net positive for IRL.

As a NASCAR fan, I'll tell you that you and I aren't far apart in our tastes. So many great drivers went back and forth between open wheel and stock cars. AJ Foyt is but one example.

Tony Stewart another. Again, all Americans.

[Steve_Seattle]

I was an Eddie Cheever fan going back to his F1 days, and since he retired as a driver my interest has dropped off a bit. Many years ago, in the days of Clark and Rindt and Graham Hill, I was an F1 fan, but now all I see in F1 is greed and high tech and commercialism and drivers who never seem to be having much fun and who show very little personality. Among NASCAR drivers, I've always been partial to Mark Martin. Seems like a nice, unpretentious guy.

Up here, hydroplane racing has always been big, but the sport is at a nadir right now; there are only 6-7 boats on the circuit full-time and sponsorship is drying up. They need to go back to auto engines to put some noise back in the sport, reduce costs, and bring in new sponsors.

[Steve_Seattle]

"After what most of the F1 teams pulled at Indy this summer, I'll never follow F1 again. Period."

I was going to comment on this with my last post, but got sidetracked in miscellaneous ramblings. Yes, that was truly bizarre, one of the strangest things I've ever seen in any sport, right up there with the para-glider landing in the boxing ring a few years ago. That showed almost unbelievable mismanagement.