Congratulations to Sam Hornish Jr. on his fine Indy 500 victory. Before the start of the race, my oldest son asked who I wanted to win (he was pulling for Hornish – like father like son). I told my boys that I was pulling for Michael Andretti and Sam, so my racing day went pretty well. As always, my wife and my youngest son were going for the “Target car” – hard to believe that Tonya has already had that sort of impact on my youngest son.

What an exciting finish! I have to admit that at the end I was pulling hard for Marco, and why not, it would have been a heck of a statement. It is sort of hard not to pull for an Andretti, and you have to like his post race statement that “second place is nothing.” Marco drove extremely smart in the end; he could have blocked, but he would have run the risk of crashing out of the race (along with crashing Hornish). At the end of the day, second place was a great finish for a nineteen-year old rookie.

I sort of feel bad for dishing Hornish at the very end, but after coming back to my senses, I am very happy for Sam. He is one of the few IRL drivers that I actually follow. Even if I do not watch a race (or only casually follow a season), I always check on Hornish.

I have been complaining for years that the IRL just does not do enough to push/market their drivers to the same degree that NASCAR pushes their top players. Hopefully that will change now that Hornish has a Indy 500 victory; that is worth pushing. But Marco has to be the story of the day.

Speaking of bad marketing, I had no idea that Marco was even in the IRL this year, and had no idea that Michael was giving it another go. As soon as I saw the starting grid (about 10 mins before the race), I told my boys that I *had* to pull for Michael, but if he was not going to win, then, as always, I would be cheering Hornish along.

Long before I became a racing fan, the Indy 500 was something; so I have been told. Now it has come to a third generation Andretti being in a race, and the IRL did nothing to push the most beloved name in American racing. Or maybe they did, and I failed to notice? For a racing fan, that is a big deal. The IRL should have pushed this one to a much greater degree to try to capture the attention of fringe fans.

The IRL should have a great marketing lineup in Danica, Marco, and Hornish – all solid American drivers that the US racing public should be able to get behind and cheer.

The next move belongs to the IRL marketing folks.

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