Indianapolis 500 Needs More Entries, Fewer Gimmicks

Auto racing is pretty simple: Go faster than everyone else.

So it should be a red flag that an infographic is needed to explain the latest qualifying procedures for the Indianapolis 500.

Frankly, until there are a reasonable number of viable entries competing for the 33 spots – somewhere around 40 would be great, but I’d settle for 35 or 36 at this point – it doesn’t matter how often the drivers qualify and re-qualify because it’s basically just shuffling the deck.

I suppose it’s possible that a driver could go from 29^th spot one day to 10^th the next day, but given the spec nature of the cars, that seems unlikely. I’ll be interested to see if there are big changes from one day to the next this year.

Anyway, here’s my solution given the lack of entries:

Have just one day of qualifying. At best, there might be 33 cars this year, so there’s no reason to drag this out over three sessions in two days. Just do it on Saturday, reserving Sunday as the rain date or an additional practice day to run cars in race trim.

• 8-8:30 – First group practice
• 8:30-9 – Second group practice
• 9-10 – "All skate" open practice
• 10-11 – Track closed for inspection, refuel cars, get them lined up
• 11-6 – Qualifying. Set the field and the fast nine. Each car gets up to three attempts.
• 6-6:15 – Refuel and line up the fast nine
• 6:15-7 – Fast nine shootout. One attempt per car.

This one-day, make-or-break session has the potential to give the paying customer a full day of action and, hopefully, some drama without putting the drivers and equipment at unnecessary peril.

In the meantime, figure out a way to get more participants for the 500. Bring back the bubble. It’s a word we’ll hear for the next week or so as it relates to the NCAA Tournament.

It would be nice to hear that word in May again, not just March.

Photo credit: Mark Reed/Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Ed Carpenter won the pole for last year's Indianapolis 500.