Round 1: revised calendar. Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, June 6.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Formulahistory

boring race, unfortunately. Seems that cars have problem with overtaking.

Spraying part of the track with that tractionless compound didn't help and limited the racing to one groove.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

Quite a dull race but better than nothing. Aeroscreen didn't bother me.

Didn't bother me either until they showed highlights without it

But yea, not bad. Looks a little like a Top Fuel dragster "pod".

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Formulahistory

boring race, unfortunately. Seems that cars have problem with overtaking.

Yeah, that's not the cars but rather the track. The compound NASCAR uses lasts too long and doesn't work for anything other than their cars. There's zero grip for it with Indy tires. Longer running would help a little but Firestone warned it would be a single lane track as it turned out to be

[Nikki Katz]

Gah, Rosenqvist always end up doing something like this. I wish he’d just calm it a bit at key moments. He’s probably quick enough to be a future champ, but clearly not if he can’t finish. Also, could chip Ganassi not find a face mask that fit?

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

Haha, that poster wanting to care about indy 500 needs to watch this. Same feelings of anxiety, tension and nervousness with every two or three wide through corners at incredible speeds. Maybe not the most interesting type of track (oval), but the wildness makes up for it.

Oh, and watch out for Sato

Nailed it!

[broadrun96]

Looks like Indy for a big push from the NBC airing, highest non-Indy ratings since Detroit Race #2 in 2016. And that's with multiple affiliates not airing the race and Florida having TS Christobal coverage.

Overnights were 1.28 million views.

https://racer.com/2020/06/07/nbc-cla...-texas-opener/

[S griffin]

It doesn't hurt that this is one of the few motorsport on at a moment, so that's bound to help ratings. We'll see how good this stacks up as other motorsports come back, but I expect to be not that much less as time goes on. It's good encouragement for the series moving forward after all that's happened

[NaBUru38]

Far from the most exciting race, but at least it happened.


Couldn't buy the Claro Video subscription, it showed error messages. So I resigned to finding an alternative stream on Twitch.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Looks like Indy for a big push from the NBC airing, highest non-Indy ratings since Detroit Race #2 in 2016. And that's with multiple affiliates not airing the race and Florida having TS Christobal coverage.

Overnights were 1.28 million views.

https://racer.com/2020/06/07/nbc-cla...-texas-opener/

That's good or bad. Thankfully, we didn't have any big shunts, but we certainly didn't have a typical Texas race, which even though I generally cringe at them and hate them, probably would've been a better advertisement for the series. Let's see how the Indy GP goes.

[broadrun96]

I think good overall, read a few more stories where large affiliates did not run the race and instead ran local programming against Fox with bowling and Lego building. The number is expected to a fall a bit today but does not include any of the streaming viewers for areas where they would have used NBCSN stream because it wasn't OTA. I didn't see any estimates for that number but wouldn't guess more than 100k.

[JacobP]

Good race, but without surprises. It seems like Chip Ganassi engineers did an amazing job with the car settings, and Dixon was incredible. It's nice that there was a race restart right before the finish, but that didn't change anything.

I wonder why is now such a long break until the next race?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JacobP

Good race, but without surprises. It seems like Chip Ganassi engineers did an amazing job with the car settings, and Dixon was incredible. It's nice that there was a race restart right before the finish, but that didn't change anything.

I wonder why is now such a long break until the next race?

I suppose with the two NASCAR races that weekend, IndyCar thought it made sense to hold the GMR Grand Prix then, rather than earlier what with Covid-19.

[S griffin]

It probably is the case, easier to manage than a week where another major US race series is being held twice. It doesn’t matter, we can wait. It’s not too long away

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

does not include any of the streaming viewers for areas where they would have used NBCSN stream because it wasn't OTA.

It's the "Total delivery audience" so that includes streaming.

[S griffin]

I am just looking forward to the Indy 500. That is the event that’s gonna be worth the wait. Although hopefully we can have some great racing before that as a nice build up

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

It's the "Total delivery audience" so that includes streaming.

Yeah, that number is bullshit. It's NOT the total and everyone knows it. Adobe can't count a damn thing and that's the exact number Nielsen released as well so either no one streamed it or they can't count. Ignore the total crap, it's not and ALWAYS wrong

[S griffin]

Adding streaming viewers to the total complicates matters. There numbers always tend to be a guesstimate. So I wouldn't trust it either

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I am just looking forward to the Indy 500. That is the event that’s gonna be worth the wait. Although hopefully we can have some great racing before that as a nice build up

Let's hope it's not like the 102nd running in 2018.

[CarfanLUFC]

Seems like an awful long gap to the 2nd race

Feels like Texas was a bit of a tester

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by CarfanLUFC

Seems like an awful long gap to the 2nd race

Feels like Texas was a bit of a tester

In many respects I think it was a tester. First race with Aerocsreen. A format of practice, qualifying and race, all in one day and a test of viewing figures.

[NaBUru38]

IndyCar pushed races as late as possible to increase the likelihood of having crowds.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

In many respects I think it was a tester. First race with Aerocsreen. A format of practice, qualifying and race, all in one day and a test of viewing figures.

Driver fitness test, too. Even Dixon broke a sweat!

[justracing]

Purely a personal observation but having just caught up with the 30 min highlight from Texas, don't the cars look horrendous!
For those like me without access to Sky tv in the uk: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy1...UQXAXi2Voa_fUw

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by justracing

Purely a personal observation but having just caught up with the 30 min highlight from Texas, don't the cars look horrendous!
For those like me without access to Sky tv in the uk: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy1...UQXAXi2Voa_fUw

They look ok from the side, but from the front that's a different matter.

[justracing]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

They look ok from the side, but from the front that's a different matter.

Well I'm afraid from my point of view they look lego toys gone wrong from any angle!