I should be excited, right?

Helio Castroneves (2-time Indy 500 winner) is kicking ass on ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars. Then the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy used the “I Am Indy” theme music for their promotional ads last week. Then I watched the opener of the hit TV show “Las Vegas” and their producers continuously had the Indy 500 playing on TV sets in scenes of their sports book and also scenes of Duhamel’s home. Holy cow, a NON-ABC/ESPN network pimpin’ the Indy 500!! Things MUST be looking up for open wheel, right?!

But last Sunday night, I guess after all the Talladega madness and crappy Franchitti and Villeneuve fodder from the southern boys, it just hit me and blew up… actually, I was what blew up.

Feel free to check out the end of our show on our Sunday archive… no, never mind… I’ll make it easy on you and insert what you need to hear here:

Crash’s Talladega Rant

Well, am I wrong? I’m sick of this crap! What I can clearly see and what I’m being told is that IndyCar will lose their last two years worth of champions and Indy 500 winners (Sam Hornish and Dario Franchitti), but all will still be right with the series? Champ Car will lose their champion of the last FOUR freakin’ years (Sebastien Bourdais) and now also lose their #2 in points, but the series will go on without a hitch? And still these idiots won’t merge… are they THAT blind?

Then add to the madness two of Formula One’s big names (and both former Indy 500 and Champ Car champions, Juan Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve) coming BACK to America, but not choosing either one of the open wheel series as their new home. Even that ‘other’ F1 driver, Scott Speed, the one that Red Bull made a big deal of, the one that America was supposed to fall in love with… even HE leaves F1 and doesn’t go to Champ Car or IndyCar! How can Tony George (IndyCar Prez) and Kevin Kalkhoven (Champ Car Prez) let this happen?!

Are we open wheel fans the stupid ones here… seriously, I want to know!!! Because it seems like we as fans are continuously being ridiculed by the CEO’s… like they know something we don’t… like they are better at their jobs than us, or at least see something different than the pain and suffering we are seeing and feeling… something just doesn’t add up and I feel like I’m not living in the right world right now.

But I’m not done yet! Add to the above list the following heros from open wheel’s ladder systems who have yet to make a lap at Indy or Long Beach: Michael McDowell, Jon Fogarty, Guy Cosmo, Alex Gurney, Michael Valiente and more.

And just for sh*ts and grins, add these names to the list, too… they may have run in the higher ranks of open wheel once or thrice, but not for long enough and at least not for what they SHOULD have been scooped up for: Ryan Briscoe, JJ Yeley, AJ Allmendinger, Erin Crocker, Bryan Herta, Stephan Johanssen, Max Papis, Mika Salo, Patrick Long and many, many more…. after today's Evernham announcement, I guess I'll add Patrick Carpentier to the GROWING list 'Oops I did it Again Open Wheel Mistake' list.

Yes, boys and girls something IS wrong with open wheel… I’m tired of the big cheeses in each series telling me “Everything is gonna be alright… it always is… we don’t need those names… we’re surviving better than ever right now!”

Get a grip… better yet, get a grip on THESE names and future names who may escape your ranks… and get your marketing asses on the move to make open wheel excel back to where it should be.

Yes I DO think we fans could do your jobs better!

NO MORE FODDER… & NO MORE EXCUSES! Just get it back and make it right!