100 Days to Good PR

 Finally got around to binging the 2023 Netflix series on IndyCar, "100 Days to Indy", and let me say right up front that my review is not some lazy take about it being a cheap knockoff of "Drive to Survive," Netflix's outrageously successful F1 series. I mean, it is, sort of, but it's not.

That's because F1 and IndyCar are entirely different animals, a "Well, duh" statement to be sure. And thus so are their respective documentaries.

"Drive to Survive," like F1 itself, is much more soapily operatic, if that's a thing. It's kind of like "The Housewives of (Name The City)" if the housewives in question  drove really fast in incredibly sophisticated pieces of machinery, and every once in awhile said "What the (bleep) was that?" on the in-car when some other housewife ran into them.

And "100 Days to Indy"?

Not like that at all. Oh, the format is pretty much the same -- every episode focuses on one race, and in some respects on one team or driver -- but everyone seems much more aware of the presence of the Netflix cameras, and thus largely are on their best behavior.

What emerges is a public relations infomercial in which everyone seems to get along and never misses an opportunity to promote the IndyCar brand.

But you know what?

I have no problem with that.

I have no problem with it because one of the chronic complaints about IndyCar is that the series does a lousy job of selling itself, and selling the personalities of its drivers. And I'll be the first one raise my hand as one of the complainers.

"100 Days to Indy" is clearly IndyCar's attempt to remedy that, and it does a damn good job of it. The youthful exuberance of Pato O'Ward, for instance, makes him impossible not to like. Ditto Santino Ferrucci. You find yourself rooting for Scott McLaughlin, who so badly wants to be the Next Big Thing in IndyCar, and for Robert Juncos and the racing organization he built from nothing. And of course there's a dash of Helio and a pinch of Tony Kanaan, and a heaping helping of the always-on Josef Newgarden.

For me?

Well, as someone who covered the Indianapolis 500 for 40 years , what was most revealing were the segments focusing on Will Power. I always found him a bit wary with the media, particularly with those like me whom he didn't know well. "100 Days to Indy" not only revealed how he coped with the serious illness of his wife, but also gave us a side of him -- a goofy, fun-loving side -- I never saw.

My favorite moment in the six-part production, for instance, is when Newgarden, McLaughlin and Power are hanging out at the Penske complex, and Power, who is Australian, is poking fun at the fitness-obsessed Newgarden. Even tries to imitate him with an American accent that is, shall we say, less than stellar.

Newgarden cracks up.

"That is the worst American accent I've ever heard!" he exclaims, as Power grins and laughs with him.

I don't know if that sort of moment can make an IndyCar fan out of someone who's not. But it surely can't hurt.