Ganassi says IndyCar should remain a North American series

Chip Ganassi wants IndyCar to stay in North America

The IndyCar series is interested in introducing a couple of international races, certainly one at Mexico City, and perhaps another. That doesn’t seem to have unanimous support within the paddock, especially Chip Ganassi.

Ganassi told the IndyStar, "I’ve said this 100 times, and I’ll say it again: It works in our time zones. People want their racing, I’m sorry, they want it on Saturday or Sunday in an hour they are awake. They don’t want to see the results on their computer. It’s the same battle they faced in Korea for the Olympics. People know the results ahead of time so they don't watch it.

Until IndyCar has a big global following from proper international TV distribution, IndyCar has no business overseas

"You need to be accessing our fans. How many times have we tried this? How many stupid events have we heard about that never made it? Count them up. Please, can we please get over this idea?
"It’s still a national championship whether people want to believe it or not. One international race, OK. Would I like to go to Japan? Sure. Would I like to go to Australia? I’d love to.

"These are places we have fans. One or two races outside of the U.S. for a little cache, OK, great. Not at the beginning of the season, not at the end of the season. Not the first race, not the last race. I don’t want to hear these grandiose goofy ideas about how going to Siberia in the summertime is going to help our fans or help us get sponsors.

"All the sponsors sold at these races out of the country, added together, wouldn’t sponsor one car for half of season — that’s ever been sold for every single one. So don’t tell me how great it’s going to be.

"We’ve been there, we’ve done that. Do I need to give a history lesson?

"Mexico City and Canada. What’s wrong with that?"

Chip is right. And besides, IndyCar has no big overseas following because it has no TV deals with other countries like F1 has. You must hatch the egg before growing the chicken.

IndyCar has some great races. They should hire Bernie Ecclestone to help do overseas TV deals. Once IndyCar becomes better known, then perhaps racing overseas makes sense.

This is the global TV empire that Bernie Ecclestone built for F1 while IndyCar was asleep at the wheel