[Danny Serafini]

Time for a thread hijack!

The IRL is pure and utter garbage. The cars are a complete joke, not to mention butt-ugly. It's not hard to have close racing when the cars are so grossly underpowered and overdownforced. They simply are physically unable to break away. And with the cars glued down to track so much the talent necessary to drive one isn't that high, the bar has been seriously lowered in that series. As far as the close finishes, Tony Kanaan admitted after a recent win that it was essentially staged. He and his teammate drove side by side knowing nobody would be able to pass, and made it close at the line. Oh boy, how exciting. And I haven't even gotten into the series' abysmal safety record, one so bad you could make a real case for criminal negligence.

The comments about needing more American drivers are funny in an ironic way. Back when the series was started the whole selling point was that they were going to give the American short track oval racers a chance, that it would bring the local hereos back to the big time. Look at the series now. All the things that were deemed evil by Tony George back in 1996 (foreign drivers, overseas races, road courses, expensive engine leases) are all things he now has. The original premise was nothing but a lie. It was all about power and ego.

Tony George decided he had to fix what wasn't broken. As a result he spilt the sport in half and the whole thing fell into virtual irrelevence. It's going to take a looooooong time for open wheel racing to crawl out of the hole he dug. The sooner the IRL disappers the better.

Rant over, I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread!