INDIANAPOLIS – The major topic of discussion heading into this year’s 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 (11 a.m. ET/NBC/INDYCAR Radio Network) is whether full time NTT IndyCar Series teams should be given automatic spots into the season’s biggest race.

See, in this day and age of motorsports and teams having a difficulty of not only finding, but keeping sponsors, would it be easier to attract them if they knew that they had guaranteed exposure for the largest one day sporting event in the world?

In turn, would a sponsor for the ‘500 lead to a larger field on a full time basis. After all, Indy Car is far more than the Indy 500. They run 16 other races this season and want to make every event impactful.

For owners that are investing on a full time basis, the argument is strong about giving them guaranteed spots.

“I think in today’s world, things might have been different when there were 15 or 16 cars trying to qualify in the previous years,” said team owner Roger Penske. “But under the current situation, I think we have to have — if you’re going to commit and run the whole season, you should have an opportunity to run in this race. There’s going to be people bumping this weekend, which is good. At the present time, that would be my position.”

Penske missed this race before. He didn’t have any cars race here in 1995. Marlboro came back though. Bobby Rahal missed this race in 1993. His sponsors also came back too. In fact, Rahal said he got an extension following missing the race in ’93. Arrow came back in a bigger way with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2019 after missing this race in 2018.

“Well, I’ll tell you, all you have to do is look at history,” said Rahal during his Fast Friday press conference. “Roger didn’t lose his sponsors when he didn’t qualify in ’95, right?”

But, 1995 is much different than 2019. Rahal though, doesn’t think that matters.

“Right, but still…

“I mean, I didn’t qualify in ’93, I got a three-year extension from Miller Brewing Company, thanks to Dick Stroup, head of marketing.

“Last year with Arrow, Arrow didn’t walk away. In fact, they expanded their involvement with Schmidt. You know, I don’t know of any of our sponsors thinks everything is a guaranteed, it’s a given. I think they understand.

“As a driver, I’ll never forget sitting up in our suite, watching the pace lap, all our sponsors there, I belong here, not up there. It was an emotional time. That’s your obligation to your sponsors. You make the best of it and go on.

“I don’t see many sponsors out there, if they were true partners with the teams they’re with, that would walk away if you had an issue in qualifying. I think most would say, How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

All that makes sense, but you never fully know until it happens to the wrong team. What do you say to the fans that bang the tradition drum?

“Well, there’s a lot of traditions that change here, right,?” said Penske. “They have a road race here, a Formula 1 race, a NASCAR race here. To me, it’s a sign of the times.”

Rahal, disagrees.

“Obviously we had no problem in the end,” Rahal countered. “That’s part of the lore, mystique of the Indy 500, you got to suck it up and get it done on qualifying day.

“As much as it would be nice to have that guarantee where we don’t have to worry about it, especially as a long-term, season-long entrant, I think that is not loyal to the history of the Speedway and the history of the 500. I think the way it is is the way it should be.

“I think now the fastest 33 under the current system make it. I mean, having been on the bad side of that situation, some would say in ’93, I can tell you for a team it’s gut-wrenching, particularly given the effort. Everybody puts forth a lot of effort. Inevitably in the good old days, there were a lot of people that would go home very disappointed.”

Will The Fans Back Up Their Words

As of now, the fans have spoken and IndyCar has no reason to make any changes for this weekend nor in the immediate future. We will have bumping this weekend and the fans have violently made it clear that if we go to guaranteed spots, then all hell will break loose.

So, with that being said, I expect to see several thousand spectators this weekend for Indy 500 Time Trials right?

I mean, if you’re such a keyboard warrior and bang the tradition bible, you’re surely coming out to the Speedway and filling the aluminum grandstands right? The TV ratings will be high too correct?

In the hey day of Indy 500 qualifying, Time Trial crowds would rival those of race day. No, there wasn’t 300,000+ spectators for qualifying, but it was still one of the largest crowds to come through the gates at 16th in Georgetown annually.

With so many fans clamoring against guaranteed spots, they surely have their plans to come out to the track this weekend shouldn’t they?

“I think clearly, as you say, spectators have made their voices pretty clear on that,” Rahals said. “Well, I think you have to recognize the decline in the audience on qualifying weekend was certainly happening even in the late ’80s, early ’90s. In ’82 when I was here my rookie year, it was packed. But it changed.

“Certainly the drama of that, that’s a draw I would think. Are we going to fill the place? I doubt it. You look at what’s gone on on Carb Day, crowds, how that’s grown tremendously compared to how it used to be. I think clearly the more qualifiers that make the attempts, the more drama there is, the more interest there is. Surely it’s got to attract more people, I would think.”

Speed, Not Bumping The True Factor In Qualifying Crowds

I like Rahal’s optimism but I doubt you’ll notice a bigger jump in attendance over the past few years. I hope I’m wrong, but you’re going to see those bang the tradition drum and be no where close to the IMS grounds this weekend. It’s just like the people who complain about politics on social media but come to find out they didn’t vote.

They’ll have their excuses too. They’re just that though – excuses. You want IMS and IndyCar to keep bumping and no have guaranteed entries, SHOW UP. It’s simple.

But, Graham Rahal has a different opinion on why fans maybe haven’t showed up as much. He think’s it not the novelty of bumping, but rather the speed.

“I think something that’s commonly missed in this entire discussion is everybody said ‘bumping,” said Rahal. “I don’t know that bumping was the big draw back then. Part of the big draw was the speeds. Every year the speed went up.

“When they broke down the barriers, you listen to the crowd roar, that was a huge part of it, probably more so than bumping. Unfortunately where we’ve gotten to is the speeds are regulated. We could go a lot quicker, but they just don’t want you to go a lot quicker, which personally I think if you want to really bring it back, you have to increase the speed. I think that was such an important part of those days, is to see what the number was going to be.

“Nowadays, I’m not going to say it’s predictable, but it’s going to be about the same as the year before, know what I mean? Look, even two years ago I think it was Dixie did a 232 in qualifying or something. That was the fastest lap that had been done since Arie or something. Everybody that was here went nuts. Even all of us watching. It was a big deal to see that.

“That’s got to be a big part of it, as well.”

His team owner Mike Lanigan agrees, but says safety makes it hard to inch closer to that 23 year old record.

“1977 qualifying, Tommy Sneva broke the 200-mile-an-hour barrier, 200,000 people here on Pole Day,” said Lanigan. “The problem is, how fast can these guys go safely? 230 in my mind is probably the best you’re going to see here for a while.

“Like Graham said, you can probably do 265 down the straightaways and go down to 220 in the turns and have a 245, 248 mile-an-hour lap. We’re going to lose drivers. That can’t happen.

“You are right, it’s the threshold of the speed, but how do you fix it safely?”

Since 1997, the pole speeds have eclipsed 230 mph just five times. Prior to that, they broke 230 mph three times in a four year span.

The hey day of qualifying was actually speed, not bumping. That’s what drew those crowds. From 1971 to 1972, the speed grew nearly 20 mph. From 1972 to 1973, it went up another three mph. It was then a race to 200 mph.

They finally hit it in 1978 with Tom Sneva who won the pole at 202.156 mph. They’d hit 200 again in 1981 (200.546 mph) then shatter it in 1982 (207.004 mph). The next year, they went 210.029 mph. It steadily grew from 207 to 210 to 212 to 216 to 215 to 219 to 223 to 225 from 1982 though 1989.

So, Rahal’s merit holds some weight.

In 1991, it went down a bit to 224 but the next year, it was up to 232 mph. It would hover around the mid 220’s before breaking the record again in 1996. From there, the speed was gone. 1997 was 218.263 mph pole.

The innovation and speed was gone which in turn, that and the split let to a big drop in crowds.