Watching back to back NASCAR and IndyCar races off of the DVR, it quickly becomes quite obvious, even though they are both are America’s biggest racing series, they are two entirely different products, actually very different.

However, the similarities undeniably are there, and they are not good ones in my opinion. Both series now limit their teams to basically a “spec” chassis or tub, you can run the manufacturer of your choice exterior pieces, but under that body and aero packages they are all the same chassis/tub wise. Both series have limited engine choices, in IndyCar you are either a Honda team or a Chevy team, in NASCAR you are a Chevy, Ford, or Toyota team, but you do at least have an engine “builder” choice, but you are limited to one of three approved engine manufacturers.

Now here is where I start to sound like a grippy old man. NASCAR is an acronym, it stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, well if you ask me they need to change their acronym. They no longer race “stock cars” you can not go to the dealer and buy a Toyota Camry that is V8 powered rear wheel drive, nor a Ford Fusion, or a Chevy Impala that even begins to resemble the cars racing on track.

There was a time not so long ago, when manufacturers had to build, for sale to the public through the dealer network, a certain number of any car model they wanted to race, before it could run as a “stock car” in NASCAR. Those days are long gone. Now Nascar makes up a template the cars must closely adhere to, now try putting that template on a showroom Camry, Fusion or Impala. Ha, not even close.

Now IndyCar engine wise, is just a special kind of stupid! Did you know, you are not allowed to work on your engine. Honda and Chevy both have their own engine techs that travel the circuit to service and maintain these engines. In fact most, if not all teams, do not own these engines. They are on a lease program, and Honda and Chevy will tell you how many miles you can put on them. Thats right engines are leased with limited miles and trust me, those miles are documented very closely! Now some teams have bigger more expensive lease agreements than other teams, which is why you saw Buddy Lazier’s car sit idle in the garage at Indy ready to run almost the entire month of May until he finally brought it out on the last day of qualifying. He was only paying for a “limited” mile engine lease, very limited.

Once again, it just doesn’t seem so long ago that there were engine choices in IndyCar, and you owned your engine, and you actually built your own engine, and built your chassis too! There were quad cam Fords, 4 cylinder Offenhausers, the big ol V8 Novi’s, V6 Buicks, a few stock block Chevy’s and even the short lived turbines. Those were the days!
 
In both NASCAR and IndyCar you built your own car, you built your own chassis. You had a set of rules to go by and you were left to innovate, one up your competition, build a better mouse trap. It was exciting to see the different designs, hear the different sounds, all the while breaking down design barriers and creating new technologies.

But now, we go to the track, or we sit in front of our TV’s and watch cars that are pretty much all the same with different color schemes, as they cruise around for 90% of the race just trying to position themselves for that last 10% of the race, just to see if they can make a pass for the lead or position with a handfull of laps to go. That my friends is Big Time Racing in the USA today, in both NASCAR and IndyCar.

And they wonder why the grandstands are half empty. I am frankly surprised there are that many people that still show up!

Chris Judah