American Racing Weekend: Indianapolis or Charlotte?

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GTPlanet, May 29th will be a weekend of two big races. One is heralded with history, prestige, and winning is the ultimate goal, making ANY racing resumé look pretty nice. The other race is what I call NASCAR's version of Le Mans, the longest race of the year, the Coca Cola 600. It formerly used to be the "World 600," maybe still The World 600 to many NASCAR faithful. It's 1,100 miles of American oval racing, but which race is the better race, if not this year's events?

I've always thought the Indianapolis 500 is perhaps as important of a race as Daytona (24 hours or 500), an F1 World Championship, or even the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Why so? If you're going to be an international star and want to win in America, you'll kind of have to play our game and race the Indy 500. As Bob Varsha would say, "before you race the Indy 500, you must qualify." Normally, I'd say that you have to be an ALMS star or maybe win Trans-Am, but you have to win with a motorsport that lot of us Americans actually care about seeing. This is perhaps the biggest way to do it.

Playing NASCAR games before, I've kind of grown fond of Charlotte. Charlotte Motor Speedway is perhaps one of the best oval tracks here in America. With the proper line, high speeds around the track can be very satisfying. But imagine doing this for a 600-mile race. It isn't going to be THAT easy. This is a big event for NASCAR.

So which is the better Memorial Day Eve race? The Indy 500, or the Coca-Cola 600?
 
Since the split of the open wheel class,the Indy 500 has lost alot of the statuse that it once had.But,as a race fan,this weekend is one to look forward to.1100 mile of racing just can,t be beat.I will be in over load as this is our first race weekend at our local kart track. Karts on Sat. and all day Sunday in front of the tv.Can't wait.
 
I still think the Indy 500 is bigger, even the biggest, closly followed by the Le Mans 24 hour and V8 Supercars Clipsal 500. Speaking of the Indy, it should be on TV now...
 
how can u say the clipsil 500 is bigger that the bathurst 1000??
 
Because he lives in Adelaide :rolleyes:

Blake
 
haha explains it all... i live in W.A and barbagello just doesnt cut it close to bathurst, Adelaide.. slightly closer, but still way way off
 
Charlotte is actually called Lowes Motor Speedway. Alot of people these days call it Charlotte Motor Speedway. I'm writing this after both of the races but both of the races were tensioning. Danica Patrick trying to keep the lead but got passed. And Bobby Labonte getting passed on the last lap and losing by a couple feet. Both races were awesome. my relatives live about an hour away Indianapolis and they don't show the race on TV so that the track won't lose money. So all my relatives came up to northern Indiana where I live and we had on big 1.1 mile party.
 
The Indianapolis 500 scored a 6.6 overall in ratings with a peak of over 8.0 in the final hour while the Coke 600 scored an overall 4.7 rating.
 
I am a sportscar racing fan, but I think if there's an oval race that is actually well-respected, it has to be Indy in this sense. You still cannot count out Charlotte (well, spiritually Charlotte, I still refer to the track as Charlotte since I don't like the "Lowe's..." namesake. Not like I'm getting paid to refer to the track as that. So for the same reasons, I still consider "Infineon Raceway" as Sears Point). The Coca-Cola/World 600, as I described it, is NASCAR's version of Le Mans. I call it that for the fact that this race is the longest on the schedule. Sure, take a 500, then add 100. But this is a pure test of endurance, even if on an oval.

Indianapolis is an oval, but I think of this more like I think of Rockingham (in England). The English Rockingham isn't like a traditional oval here in America, instead, it is more like a 4-turn road course. The Indianapolis oval is a road course with four mid-speed corners. I know many of you don't want to think of this course as a road course, but I think it's nothing like something like California, the narrow Texas, Loudon, or anything like that. Indy also has the tradition. People around the world and manufacturers worldwide have competed at Indy. Among the two, one race is raced with foreign and domestic chassis, engines, and tires. The other is basically all-American.

I'd choose Indy, but the Coca-Cola 600 is still a good race regardless.
 
ls2_297
how can u say the clipsil 500 is bigger that the bathurst 1000??
Click to expand...
Because it gets more spectators, it is also known to be the biggest motorsport event in Australi, if not the biggest sporting event in Australia. Also, I have been to both events, and I have enjoyed the Clipsal 500 alot more.
 
Bathurst is a much better race in my opinion though. Clipsal 500 is huge though.
 
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