Why is NASCAR more popular than Indy nowadays?

so it's not the racing itself?

me either, that's why i made the thread

Indy car racing isnt as competitive as Nascar. Nascar racing is about 30-40mph slower which results in closer racing. Stock cars are also designed to be able to bump each other a draft which is more exciting than watching two cars 100 yards apart going 220 mph with no passing.

i havent followed nascar for years so i might be completely wrong

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i don't know if Indy was every more popular

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Indy was way more popular in the 60's 70's and early 80's. Nascar came along with a product that most people could relate too by driving cars that most people drive everyday[ JUST much more powerful]. But Nascar has now lost its luster wit the drafting and shite. its rather boring now. IMO INDY racing has NEVER made it back to its heyday.

At one time, open wheel racing was much more popular than NASCAR in the U.S.

NASCAR was seen as a southern, redneck, good ole boy sport basically until California boy and milk drinker Jeff Gordon came on the scene in the 90s.

The rise of Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, coinciding with a split in open wheel racing (CART and IRL) gave NASCAR pretty much a free ticket to whatever they wanted. NASCAR expanded to non-Southern markets like California, Las Vegas, Kansas City, etc.

Also, the death of Earnhardt brought a lot of fans into the sport.

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why are either popular?

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Alot of people like watching cars go round-and-round.

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NASCAR was seen as a southern, redneck, good ole boy sport basically until California boy and milk drinker Jeff Gordon came on the scene in the 90s.

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This. Jeff Gordon's domination of the sport in the mid to late 90s really expanded the NASCAR brand. He was the first non-southern driver to ever be successful in NASCAR. It's also a reason why A LOT of NASCAR fans hated/still hate him. For the longest time he was the only "yankee" on the circuit.

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Indy cars used to be close in popularity, until the idiots that run it had a disagreement and split it into CART and IRL. Some of the best drivers weren't even running the 500. That split killed the poularity it once had.

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Spot on here plus the Earnhardt/Gordon rivalry in the 90's took Nascar to another level.

Funny now knowing how much Earnhardt mentored Gordon behind the scenes early on. That was kept a big secret until Earnhardt's death.

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Nowadays the only drivers winning are ones that nobody cares about (Johnson, Edwards) and one that everybody hates (Kyle Busch). And the sport has suffered. NASCAR needs Jr to come back to winning races badly.

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This is what most "new" fans of the sport think is wrong, incorrectly so, with Nascar.

Nascar left it's base in the southeast for big markets in the midwest and west. The wine and cheese crowd bought it for a few years, but they are not true fans who support it every year.

The "car of tomorrow" has turned many old-school fans off. One of the worst moves Nascar ever made for the fans.

And the new Chase format that changes about every year isn't helping things either.

If Nascar would go back to some of their more traditional southeast tracks and bring back the true manufacturer's race cars you would see a huge jump in fan support.