NASCAR Raceday or the Final Laps of The Indy 500?

I like to pretend I care about the IRL at least once a year, 'cause they do have this race that's like a pretty big deal or something. The television networks have even arranged it so that race fans can enjoy all the competition on the track without conflict.

However, the scheduling gods didn't allow enough time between races. To watch the Indianapolis 500 all the way to the end means missing most of Speed's "Raceday," which is the only NASCAR pre-race show worth watching. To skip it means to risk missing a breaking news item or the best anecdote of the week--or both.

Such is the dilemma facing race fans this Memorial Day Sunday.

I am genuinely interested in watching the 500 today. As most of my readers know, I follow A.J. Foyt IV, so I want to see how he does, and there are six previous winners racing, including Al Unser Jr. and last year's winner, Busch Series rookie Sam Hornish Jr., that also make it interesting.

Most* of my readers also know that I'm a female and I'm also supposed to care that three women will make history today when they take the green flag--but let's not get ahead of ourselves. For this tallglassofmilk, the estrogen factor only comes into play because McDreamy in on the scene.

Can the IRL drivers keep it interesting 'til the end? We'll see in a couple of hours.

Here is the sked for the day (all times PT cause that's my time zone):

IRL
9:00AM - 10:00AM - Indy Pre-race (ABC)
10:00AM -1:30 PM - The Indianapolis 500 (ABC)

NASCAR
12:00PM - 2:00PM NASCAR Raceday (Speed)
2:00PM - 7:00PM The Coca-Cola 600 (Fox)

* When I say most, I mean the ones that followed me from Answer this... to the Fanhouse. Some of the newer readers haven't quite caught on. But I gotta ask, how many men out there are that in touch with their femine side--their mammary glands in particular--that they'd call themselves a tallglassofmilk?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-27-2007 @ 3:48PM

Sandie said...

I am going to be watching Speed Channel "RACEDAY"!!! What is the Indy 500??? A race that a bunch of foreign drivers show up to see who can go the fastest without hitting the wall!!!! You must remember these dumb people passed over the #24 NASCAR DRIVER JEFF GORDON!!!!! Who would miss spending the prerace hours with Jimmy Spenser, Kenny Wallace and John Roberts?????NOT ME!!!!!!!

5-27-2007 @ 10:54PM

cf said...

ILL PRETTY MUCH ANY RACING ON TV BUT I ADMIT...I WAS TUNED INTO SPEED TO WATCH RACEDAY TOO! ALTHOUGH I HAD FAMILY OBLIGATIONS TODAY, I PROGRAMED MY VCR FOR THE RACE AND JUST WALKED IN IN TIME TO SEE MEARS TAKES THE CHECKERS!! WOO HOO!!!! :) ITS ABOUT TIME HIS SEXY A$$ IS BACK IN VICTORY LANE! GO MEARS ;)

5-28-2007 @ 1:01AM

FastWheelsCharlie said...

I'm much more into NASCAR than the IRL. It's a mixed bag though. I like NASCAR because it's closer to what I drive, which is a Honda. On the other hand, almost every IRL car is powered by Honda. It is also my opinion that Toyota could have done a lot better than they have, but didn't want to make the "American race-sport" angry at a foriegner moving in on their ground. They will probably start kicking butt fairly soon, just like they do in the truck series.

5-28-2007 @ 7:17AM

Jimmy said...

I am a IRL fan first then a NASCAR fan. The day is set up just right with 15 hours of racing if you include Monaco at 7:30 in the morning. There is so much more technoligy in open wheel racing that there is no comparison. It is all great racing but I do wish that there were more road courses in both IRL and nascar. Just think of all the problems this would solve. Slows the cars down and there would be better seating aound the track both on the inside and the outside. I've been to both type of tracks and I know what I am talking about. Other than that lets keep racing.

5-28-2007 @ 10:06AM

Lynn McMullen said...

Yesterday was a complete race day as any fan of auto racing would tell you. GP of Monaco, Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 are the eye candy for the BBQ. The rain gods didn't do the fans any favors by raining at Indy, but who can argue the finish when a true gentleman of the Indy league wins his first 500. Add to that a long overdue win by Casey Mears and you have a great storyline. Anyone who watched prerace hype for the 600 that ran way too long and seemed to be concentrating on the supposed tensioin between the Busch brothers and hey let's talk about the All Star Race again instead of watching the action at the 500 could never call themselves a true racing fan. Face it - you're a NASCAR fan, plain and simple. There's nothing wrong with that. I go to several NASCAR races a year, so I understand. But please don't call yourselves race fans, especially the first poster who didn't want to watch the foreign drivers. Did you even check to see how many Americans were driving in the 500? The comment is indicative of your ignorance - about half the field were born in the U.S. Oh, by the way, there's even an American driving in F1.