I don't see Indycar on the cusp of a sponsorship shangra-la. They need to achieve an equililibrium between keeping it fresh, avoid goofy gimmicks and accept that making huge gains in domestic popularity isn't on the cards anymore. But despite all their almost caliguan problems, year after year, they still come back and pull off good seasons. Fair dues for that.
And general fans are foolish, they think impulsively, drivers do exist in a bubble, too busy to see beyond their field of vision and the management oscillate between complacent paralysis and kneejerk paranoia.
The management is a little bit better now so they should settle down and qualify fan feedback with an understanding of fan pyschology. Aesthetics should be one of the top priorites I'm sorry. It's not a dichtomy between beauty and ugliness, it's a dichtomy between mean, muscular cars and these cars - cars that look like chubby capsized bathtubs - and particularily on road courses these are cars give a pronounced junior single seater feel. Indycar needs something the kids would be proud to put as posters on their walls. That's what's needed. And even if it is a bit of a con, they need to externally look more convincing then F1 and given how dumb most F1 cars look today - there maybe an opportunity there. Then Indycar need to communicate that raw material in their promotional campaigns to bring it all together. We'll see about these aerokits but I'm cautious rather than optimistic.
I get that Power wants to defend his craft, guard his achievements and we should certainly extend our recognition to him on those grounds. But he has to understand that contemporary Indycar is always going to be haunted by the success of presplit Indycar. It's as an inevitable as it is unfair.
Also, it's understanding uglier truths that we might not want to hear that is a prerequisite to dealing with and taking down a given problem. To solve a problem, we need to know the truth. Flattery leaves problems to fester. Unfortunately given the way life is, most truths are unpleasant truths. People should bring what they honestly believe to the table - good or bad - and then tease things out from there. But kneejerk complaining that people aren't sufficiently nice is counter productive and boring. No syrupy echo chambers please. I don't do PR for anyone. Truth is my boss.
I don't personally fear for the existence of this series. I'm philosophical about that. I fear this series will become so submerged in gimmicks in vain attempts to win popularity that isn't there, that it'll become almost worthless. F1, sportscars and particularly NASCAR are travelling down this road.
