Oilpressure

This is old news now by now, and the furor has already died down. But I was out of commission when this occurred and the reaction it brought is still fresh on my mind.

IndyCar fans love to complain. Why that is, I’m not sure – but it has been well-documented over the years. Not only do they like to complain, but they like to argue. That was never more clear than a couple of weekends ago.

I was still in the full throws of recovery from my eye surgery on Sunday Nov 24. I was spending most of my waking ours with ice-packs and cold compresses up to my eyes. I usually allowed myself 15-minute breaks between ice-pack sessions, where I was able to catch up on social media on my iPad. Of course, when the Titans played (and actually won) I removed the ice and gauze from my eyes for the full three hours.

On that particular Sunday morning during one of those breaks, I saw a post on social media from IMS, instructing everyone to tune in to the FOX NFL Pre-game show for a special announcement. I normally watch the CBS NFL Today mainly because most of the Titans games are on CBS. It’s also because when I was a kid, I always preferred The NFL Today to whatever the NBC pre-game show was. When FOX snatched the NFC package away from CBS, I preferred the FOX show to the more established NBC show. When CBS returned to the NFL airways, after they snatched the AFC contract from NBC beginning in 1998, I returned to CBS for The NFL Today. Old habits die hard, plus…Change is Bad!

But because FOX was having a special announcement involving the Indianapolis 500, I made a special point to swap over to FOX to see what the fuss was all about. My guess was that they were bringing in Tom Brady to either drive the pace car or to wave the green-flag. I was wrong.

It took a couple of segments to get to the announcement, but when they came back from a commercial – host Curt Menefee and Michael Strahan were standing next to Will Power’s car with his new Verizon livery for 2025. They stood there talking how pleased FOX was to be broadcasting the Indianapolis 500 for the first time ever. They discussed how small and fast-looking Power’s car was. It was a nice tie-in, since Verizon is the title sponsor of the show. Strahan remarked how he would love to drive Power’s car, but his huge frame couldn’t fit into it.

They then walked over to another car on the set – the 2025 Corvette Pace Car, and Strahan proudly announced he would be driving it to pace the field to the green flag next May.

Altogether, it was about a five to ten minute segment about halfway through the pre-game show when they would usually be talking football. Instead, they were talking about the Indianapolis 500 in late November. They were announcing that one of their stars, former player and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, would be driving the pace car in an event six months away. Strahan also has hosting duties on ABC’s Good Morning America, where he captures a totally different audience during the week.on a different network.

After I watched the announcement unfold, I switched over to my usual channel CBS. But before I did, I thought to myself “Well, that was kind of neat”. That was the extent of it. I wasn’t thrilled and turning back-flips over the announcement, but I wasn’t kicking my dog in disgust over the choice and how they announced it.

After the Titans game was over, I checked social media. IndyCar fans had had a full four hours to process the Strahan announcement. I’m not sure I’ve seen a wider range of emotions, from one extreme to the other. One IndyCar media member posted “A big day for IndyCar and the Indy 500!!”, while others posted “What a f***ing joke!”.

The fact that I was fairly indifferent over what had becoming a seemingly polarizing subject, made me wonder if there was something wrong with me.

I really liked the fact that FOX had tried to drum up interest in IndyCar and the 500, during a time in the offseason where IndyCar is never thought of. This is not the first time that FOX had plugged the 500 and the series during NFL broadcasts. FOX has made it clear that they are very excited to have to Indianapolis 500 in their portfolio, and they have also made it clear that they plan on plugging it every chance they get.

I don’t get too wrapped up in who drives the pace car. As I type this, I cannot recall who drove the pace car just six months ago. Can you? OK, I just looked it up. It was Ken Griffey, Jr. While he was an excellent baseball player, I always thought that was a curious choice. Strahan makes more sense. He is well known in more circles and he has the obvious tie-in to FOX.

While I liked and appreciated the fact that FOX was tying this into their NFL coverage, I felt no euphoria that this was a big day to celebrate for all IndyCar fans. Some of the posts I saw indicated how big a day this was. On the other end of the spectrum, people were mad and downright outraged at the choice and the over-hype of the “big” announcement. They thought Michael Andretti or Simon Pagenaud were better and more appropriate choices.

While I usually prefer to honor a former driver by giving them pace car duties, I have no problem whatsoever with Michael Strahan as the choice. He is well-known and popular. Some point to a recent photo with Strahan and his studio co-workers during the playing of our National Anthem. In that photo, he is one of five standing without his hand over his heart. Instead, he is standing solemnly holding his two hands together with his arms by his side. People claimed he was disrespectful and unpatriotic.

I’ll let you in on a secret. The only time I place my hand over my heart is while saying the Pledge of Allegiance. At most races we attend in person, we are on pit lane alongside most of the teams and drivers during the National Anthem. I stand with my hands down respectfully folded in front of me, instead of over my heart. I would say about half of those on pit lane are standing like me. I consider myself very patriotic and my parents were too, but I was never raised to place my hand over my heart. That is not in any code of conduct, it is simply a choice that many choose to do. I don’t berate them for doing it, but I hope no one berates me for not doing it.

A year from now, few will remember who the Pace Car driver was for the 2025 Indianapolis 500. It will be a footnote that people will have to look up, just like I did. But if FOX continues to promote the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar through the Super Bowl, a lot of football fans will be very aware that FOX is now covering IndyCar. I’m not sure how anyone could complain about that, but I’m sure someone will.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on December 6, 2024 at 4:05 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.