Watched the IndyCar doubleheader from Iowa this weekend, and like a lot of folks I came away wondering why IndyCar doesn't run more races on mile ovals. I also wondered why God's so hot at Josef Newgarden, considering what happened to him in Sunday's race.
Newgarden dominated the Saturday 250-miler and was dominating again in Sunday's 300-miler, when with 64 laps to run a piece of his suspension broke as he winged into turn four. Newgarden immediately became a mere passenger as the car hurtled into the wall, and his day was done.
Well, not quite. An hour or so later he collapsed and was airlifted to the hospital in Des Moines for observation. Seems the heavy G-force crash took its toll after all.
In any event, Pato O'Ward, who chased Newgarden to the checkers on Saturday, went on to win this time. Both races were sellouts, thanks mainly to primary sponsor Hy-Vee, which sandwiched the racing between four concerts featuring heavyweightsTim McGraw, Florida-Georgia Line, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton.
So, huge weekend for IndyCar. But it wasn't until the NBC crew was signing off that the Blob realized just how huge.
As the broadcast ended, almost as an afterthought, the broadcast team informed its audience that if it wanted to watch the NASCAR race at Pocono, it could switch over to NBC's secondary platform, USA. That's where you could find it.
So IndyCar gets the network feed, and NASCAR gets the backup feed. Quite the discombobulation for those of us who've become accustomed these past 30 years to NASCAR ruling American motorsport as the 800-pound gorilla putting everything else in shadow, IndyCar especially.
And next weekend?
Next weekend, they share top billing back at Indianapolis.
Strange times, man. And, for an unrepentant IndyCar guy, about time.
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