Chicagoland IndyCar TV Rating

The overnight TV rating for the IndyCar Series Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 on ABC Sunday was a disappointing 0.8. With the merger, the championship on the line, and a close finish in store, the IRL was hoping for a bump up in TV ratings. That did not happen. The split, which started in 1996, so damaged the sport of open wheel racing, the merger has not helped much. In addition, the grandstands Sunday were only 50% full (about 40,000 in attendance), which was down slightly from other years, this on a beautiful day for racing. The solution? There is no silver bullet and the IRL can't turn back the clocks to 1996 to reverse the split.