IndyCar launched a Million Dollar Challenge at Thermal Club, which raised eyebrows. Despite most IndyCar fans entering the race with an open mind, their concerns were justified. The “All-Star” experiment was a huge flop.
The IndyCar Thermal Club Million Dollar Challenge is the latest in a string of public relations blunders for the premier American open-wheel racing series. From a lack of adequate marketing to the difficult introduction of a new hybrid engine. The Thermal Club All-Star race was a self-inflicted injury that may have been prevented. It made the entire series appear awful.
The Thermal Club
The track demonstrated its worth over the four test sessions. A circuit with long straights and smooth flowing bends is ideal for testing. The teams gathered a wealth of valuable data for the remainder of the road course season. Unfortunately, that is the only positive thing IndyCar can take from this weekend. Hosting an event in a gated enclave with few to no fans in attendance will not propel the series into the spotlight as they believe. Instead, make it feel like a “All-Star” weekend. The Million Dollar Challenge appeared to be more of an exclusive theme party for the local community. Some backyard enjoyment while the drivers were made to appear stupid on international television.
The Racing Format
I don’t see why anyone thought this format was a good idea. If you want to hold an IndyCar All-Star race with many heats, that’s fine, but provide the drivers the resources to compete. The grand final, in particular, proved problematic. Limiting the drivers to a single set of tires for 20 laps, when many already battled with 10 laps, was a prescription for catastrophe. Rather than watching the top IndyCar drivers compete for huge money, we saw 12 drivers take it slow to conserve tires. The NBC crew theorized all weekend that teams would adopt this technique, and it actually occurred. Not to mention the terrible halftime break after ten laps. Which was also called too late.
While the broadcast is normally one of the highlights of an IndyCar weekend, this time it sent the wrong message. Nearly every 10 minutes they had to mention how great and how welcoming Thermal Club is. Fully aware that it’s a highly exclusive club that almost no one will get access to. It’s normal to do it once or twice, but the excessive expression of gratitude became comical. Certainly when the crew got a tour of a garage full of multi-million dollar supercars. Everything about the event screamed wealth and success, which is ironic since IndyCar lately has screamed anything but wealth and success. Even at the event dubbed the “Million Dollar Challenge” the winner “only” got $500.000.
In the end current IndyCar problems can be summed up by one tweet from Marshall Pruett.
Apparently, we were at a F1 race.
pic.twitter.com/leoZ2WajFR
— Marshall Pruett (@marshallpruett) March 24, 2024
2024 has not been great yet for IndyCar fans. Perhaps the series bring back a positive feeling in a few weeks time when IndyCar visits the legendary streets of Long Beach.
