Does IndyCar have too many 'likable' guys? Does it need a 'villain' to root against -- or for?
“Which car are you rooting for?”
This was the question my daughter asked me last month as I watched the IndyCar field battle its way around the remaining usable surface of Texas Motor Speedway (she couldn’t care less about motor racing or any other sport, but was trying politely to feign interest).
Oddly enough, I did not find her question easy to answer. If it was F1, NASCAR or any stick and ball sport on TV, the answer would have come to me automatically. But strangely while watching IndyCar, a series which I’ve treated almost as a religion for years, I found myself struggling for an answer.
IndyCar fans seldom have the rooting interest in a specific team that F1 fans have, or the manufacturer loyalty of a NASCAR fan. They generally just hope Honda and Chevy are fairly evenly matched. For an IndyCar fan, rooting interest is usually only with the driver
A recent Reddit post humorously answered the question “when someone asks me who I root for,” with a picture captioned, “I just hope all the drivers have fun”.
Most of the responses to that post seemed to feel the sentiment, which, while not *precisely* accurate, did pretty much describe their sentiments.
“Honestly it’s hard to pick a favorite since the drivers are all pretty likable,” one reply said. And this, to some extent, may be a problem for IndyCar. While longtime fans seem more than happy watching what is arguably the most competitive racing on the planet, attracting new viewers may be hindered by the fact that the drivers are all, yes, pretty likeable.
This past January, IndyCar and Motorsport Network conducted a survey of 50,000 fans. It found the most popular driver with fans was Romain Grosjean. Grosjean is a very likeable guy, and as an F1 driver had been featured in the Netflix “Drive to Survive” series.
But shouldn’t Joseph Newgarden, the all-American two-time champion, have a legion of fans among the IndyCar faithful? (He finished sixth in the poll). Pato O’Ward, who seems to have his focus on finding a job overseas, came in second.
Here's a synopsis from the survey: “Unlike previous studies across other motorsport series, where a small number of competitors have dominated the rankings, support for drivers across INDYCAR is far more expansive. In the Global INDYCAR Fan Survey, the top 5 drivers accounted for 42% of the total responses and the top 10 was just 62%. Nearly 10% of fans stated they had no favorite driver and almost a quarter (24%) voted for drivers outside the top 10.”
But maybe it would be easier for fans to find a hero if the series would offer up a villain. (And yes, we're boldfacing that for emphasis.)
NASCAR has long featured rivalries that go beyond friendly and have featured a cast of drivers that include a few who could pass for professional wrestling bad guys in their fan reaction. (Speaking of which, remember when Paul Tracy put on a wrestling mask in Montreal after crashing and nearly fighting with Alex Tagliani?)
Now, Paul was as close to a villain as you're going to find, the guy many fans just loved to hate because of his aggressive nature on-track and his I-don't-give-a-damn attitude at times off-track. Even when he moved into the broadcast booth, his legacy stayed with him.
But let's face it, the current full time IndyCar field just doesn’t have those kinds of bad guys.
Example No. 1: Scott Dixon should be one, after so many dominant seasons with a top team, but when you’re as professional, accessible, and just overall likable as Dixon, you don’t get many people hating you.
Example No. 2: Graham Rahal at times has seemed to be IndyCar’s version of Kyle Busch, but at 33 years old, he both seems to be maturing as a person, and lacking the success that would make him a true target.
Example No. 3: Then there's Colton Herta: he’s young, competitive, seems to have an edge to his personality and he . . answers potentially infuriating questions on pit lane following a crash with a polite smile and a measured response.
I did a bit of an informal poll myself to see if fans had anyone they rooted against. Will Power had a few detractors, but also some responses along the lines of “I used to dislike him, but mellowing on him more recently.” There were also a couple of mentions of the Ganassi team, mostly based on its sometimes abrasive leader.
There was one driver who stood out and got more reaction than all the others combined. Santino Ferrucci was referred to as “the only driver I ever root against” more than once. The young American who was booted from Europe for “behavioral issues,” including intentionally crashing a rival, clearly has all the ingredients to be the next true villain of the sport. He also got more than one response referring to him as “a hell of a driver."
Ferrucci’s participation this season is thus far limited to the Indy 500, and a last-minute sub-in at St. Pete. Despite bringing what appears to be loads of talent and probably a certain amount of funding, no team appears willing to deal with the headache of having a controversial driver. Or maybe they just don’t like him either.
If Ferrucci can bring home a strong enough result at Indy, it will be interesting to see if it can convince a full-time team that his talent is worth whatever headaches might go along with his ability.
The series itself has not done much to focus on highlighting personalities. Ad spots showing drivers working out in the gym is not doing much to get fans excited.
And the tools needed to make a real impact exist, without even the need for big spending. IndyCar’s YouTube channel does a nice job with race highlights, but driver interviews are limited to edited production packages which are designed to show them, once again, as nice, pleasant people. The series has its own channel on SiriusXM, but other than one Sunday in May there is no content besides the actual races.
If IndyCar could get the drivers out in front of the fans expressing their real sentiments on races and each other (with, for instance, a post-race interview show on YouTube), it might bring some real fan engagement.
Let’s be clear, this is not to say that the ship is on fire. Early returns from 2022 show continued strength in both TV ratings and attendance -- in venues not named Texas Motor Speedway, that is.
But the dreaded words “niche sport” continue to be used to describe the series’ place in American culture. If the possibility exists for the kind of explosive growth that would bring IndyCar to the mainstream, it will need to attract new fans, and with today’s entertainment landscape you only get one small chance to get a new viewer excited about your product.
For that, IndyCar needs heroes, and it needs villains. Not just a group of people who are “all pretty nice."