Why the USA isn't watching IndyCar

In July, IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard commented facetiously about the possibility of poor ratings for his planned super-season finale at Las Vegas. When reminded that the TV rating for the previous season finale at Homestead was a 0.3 (a measure that couldn't have included more than a few families and their pets) Bernard laid down the law. Jokingly, of course.

"If we do a 0.3 on this, I'll quit right there on the spot. I'll literally quit on the spot," Bernard told a reporter for the Toronto Star. "Even if we do a 0.8, I'll quit. On the spot."

Bernard says he'll quit if Vegas gets a poor TV audience © LAT

Let's hope we don't have to hold him to that. If we do, then two people are going to win a whole lot of money and one worthy racer is going to claim a championship in front of an audience smaller than the few hundred who normally tune in to the Womens' NBA All-Star Game.

For as much as we've jumped on his bandwagon and given him credit for the slight resurgence in Indycar racing over the past two years, Bernard is up against it this weekend. He's been on edge about this event for months, and rightfully so. The Vegas finale and the $5million gimmick are his missions and his alone. In all its various forms and designs, Vegas is his. It either flies or it doesn't. There's no gliding allowed.

In many ways, seeing the leader of this half-airborne craft boast and brag and try anything and everything to keep it flying gives cause for applause. He's trying something, for God's sake, which is a far sight better than what was being attempted before.

But history tells us Vegas won't knock people out. Even if Dan Wheldon wins the challenge and its prize to split with a fan, it won't make a dent in an American fall on Sunday. Bernard is jacked about the possible TV ratings because the race is a) on ABC, and b) not going up against NASCAR, which races on Saturday night at Charlotte.

For those uninitiated to the peculiarities of American TV and IndyCar's place in it, ABC is a broadcast network, as opposed to Versus, the carrier of most IndyCar races, which is a third-tier cable network only available if the subscriber pays more - sometimes a lot more - than he or she pays for the basic cable or satellite package. Thus, ABC, which treats IndyCar races like infomercials, reaches a much larger audience, in part because a sizable segment of Americans still receive television by way of antenna. And Versus, which actually gives IndyCar full pre-race and post-race coverage - and pays IndyCar for it - delivered the 0.3 at Homestead last year.

There is the theory that once Versus is rebranded as NBC Sports later this year, it will be moved up in the digital pecking order and become part of basic cable. Don't count on that happening. Embarrassingly bad TV ratings are doing more harm to IndyCar than any other force pushing against it right now.

Last year's Homestead finale drew a poor crowd trackside and on TV © LAT

And the supreme force that drags down IndyCar ratings in the fall? American football. The kind of football that offers compound fractures and lingering brain injuries. The NFL is king on Sunday afternoons in the fall in the US, and everything that goes up against it gets crushed.

Anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon: At the local pub back home, the most imprudent of my imprudent buddies gather every Sunday afternoon at a large table in front of a bank of TV screens to watch about, oh, 14 NFL games simultaneously. Almost always, one or two screens are left open for something non-footy. Almost always, one of the imprudent ones finds a figure skating competition (preferably female). Every now and then, a motor race finds its way onto one of the available screens.

Picture, if you can, a dozen or so louts slobbering over a dozen football games, occasionally leering at Michelle Kwan, and completely ignoring the motorsport event. Seriously, I've carried out experiments on this. American men are most incapable of watching a race if football is the predominant option. Only if something blows up or flips upside down will they avert glazed stares from football to a race. And only if someone else in the group screams something like, "Lookee that. That's a lot of fire."

This phenomenon only occurs during the football season. Put a race on the screens at any other time during the summer, and it will garner interest. The bigger the race, the bigger the interest. But if the Daytona 500 went head-to-head against the Super Bowl, NASCAR would find a 0.8 entirely respectable. Football is king in the States. It's not even worth fighting. It's either race on Saturday nights in the fall, when nobody is watching TV, or contrive the drama (like NASCAR's Chase) to keep fans watching.

What Bernard has derived, after a couple of variations, is a win-from-the-back challenge that could pay Wheldon $5 million, which he'd split with a fan from New Jersey who was chosen at random. Wheldon, as one would expect, is enthused, mostly because he knows it's entirely possible. So possible, in fact, that he's listed in Vegas sports books as a 15-1 mid-range shot to win. Vegas oddsmakers, like the insurer who raised the premium after Wheldon was chosen as the sole participant, came to the conclusion that the Indy 500 winner (racing this weekend in a car fielded by Bryan Herta Autosport and the team that qualified on pole at The Brickyard; Sam Schmidt Motorsports) is absolutely capable of winning from 34th on the grid in a 200-lap race on a 1.5-mile oval.

It's not going down quite as well with the two drivers going after the championship. Dario Franchitti is just 18 points ahead of Will Power, and both have been diplomatic about the clear fact that Wheldon's challenge takes away from their championship duel.

Franchitti says his title fight with Power should be the focus, not Wheldon © LAT

"Honestly, I don't think anybody should be in it," Franchitti said. "If you're going to do something like that, offer it up to people who are full-time participants in the series. If they're throwing money about, it would be nice for the full-season entrants to get that. I definitely have mixed feelings about it. That's nothing against Dan, but I think it might distract a bit from the championship fight. We don't need Chases to keep these battles going or keep people entertained. There's a time and a place for this stuff, but not on the last race when there's a championship on the line."

Like it or not, Bernard's plan isn't likely to make a dent in attendance or ratings. He wants to see 60,000 in the stands on Sunday. He might be lucky to see 20,000. It won't be because the message wasn't heard or that nobody cares. It's because he's in a city filled with people staring at banks of TV screens showing football games on a Sunday afternoon. Oh, by the way, they're wagering on those games. They wouldn't show up to your race if you held it on The Strip. They'd boo if you put it on the largest screen in the sports book. NFL trumps racing. Especially in Vegas. End of discussion.

But if you happen to be in Vegas and you have a few bills to toss around, throw some on Wheldon. At least you'll be able to share in Bernard's angst, and maybe even share in Wheldon's joy.