The Best of Neil's Watchdog
It is difficult to convey to sports fans under 30 how big the Indianapolis 500 was in olden times. But big it was.
(I paid to see the '71 race in a theater on closed circuit. Well, actually, my mother paid. Then she left me there. Alone. I was 10.)
Today's race does have one thing going for it to draw casual fans, though, as ABC carries it for the 46th year: Danica Patrick.
Ms. Patrick, who finished third in last year's Indy 500, created a stir last week when she was booed after complaining about her car's setup for today's race.
About which ABC analyst Eddie Cheever said: "I think it was a childish tantrum that she'll get over in a hurry. The beautiful thing about racing is you can go from being the village idiot to the world champion in one afternoon.''
ABC/ESPN VP Rich Feinberg acknowledged that there will be extra focus on Patrick:
"Our job is to balance that story with all the others but make sure we feed that curiosity factor in hope of building a larger fan base and bringing people to other IndyCar telecasts down the road.''
