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If life is all about little milestones, then I guess I can tick another one off. Or at least, this column can. After eight years, we're running our first review of a book related to the IRL. (Can I hear someone clapping at the back of the room there?)
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Scott Dixon © LAT |
The Indy Racing League has long struggled to develop any real sense of credibility outside its own paddock. OK, it has the Indy 500 - a race that maintains a strong allure, but one based on what it used to be rather than what it has become. It has Danica Patrick, who has generated a lot of column inches for the series despite moderate on-track results. And at the serious end of the field, it has a handful of pretty good drivers.
For a long time it was a kind of open-wheeler refugee camp for guys who didn't make it to F1 and were shut out of Champ Car by politics, although the coming of age of Marco Andretti this year at least hints at some legitimate home-grown talent.
But generally, IndyCar has rarely looked like much more than a slightly undernourished estranged cousin to Champ Car - a series that has spent a bit of time on the ropes itself in recent years.
