Based on totally unscientific feedback gleaned from such reputable samples as blog comments and message board posts, the consensus is that despite issues with the weather and the track surface (or perhaps because of them) the street race in Sao Paolo was pretty high on the entertainment charts. The biggest reason? Sao Paolo featured 95 passes, many of which were not only for the actual lead but were also visible to actual television viewers.

That's right, 95 passes in a street race. An abbreviated one, in fact. No wonder Jack Arute was talking about the possibility of swarms of locusts appearing.

Maybe it was because of the weather issues, or the track configuration which featured long straightaways leading towards abrupt turns, or even the souped-up "push to pass" button which now seems like less of a video-game inspired punchline and more like something that facilitates interesting racing. Whatever the reason it was...man, after years of despising street racing parades even I have to admit that was *gulp* exciting.

...and here come the swarms of locusts...

Now, your humble host is still a vocal supporter of oval-based preferences, and is not suggesting the IRL needs more street racing. But as the league struggles to find new venues it might be that we're going to get more street racing whether we like it or not. To think, just three seasons ago the IndyCar series featured exactly one street race on the schedule with the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg, but bimergification has prompted the IRL to add similar events at Sao Paolo, Long Beach, Toronto, and Edmonton to the schedule, and yet another is growing closer.

Baltimore Racing Development LLC envisions sponsoring the Indy Racing League event - including a main race with cars going at speeds up to 200 mph - starting in August 2011 and continuing annually for at least five years.

"It's a world-class event that brings global media exposure to the city and has a huge economic benefit for the city and the citizens of Baltimore," (Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake) said. He said the city could realize $60 million in economic gains over the five years of the race, as well as hundreds of full-time jobs and millions in city and state tax revenue.

"They very much want this market," (Jay Davidson, chief executive of Baltimore Racing Development) said. "They don't have anything in the Mid-Atlantic."

Note the comment about racing in August, and couple it with this quote from an interview with Randy Bernard in the St Petersburg Times.

I'm not convinced that sanction agreements are always in the best interest of the league and I would like to see possibly co-promotions and I'd like to see possibly the bottom two events dropped every year so that we continue to make sure that we are bringing better value every single year to our fans.

If Tony George brought his hammer to work everyday, the it looks like Randy's bringing his axe. So with regards to August, a quick check of the schedule shows Edmonton (proven money loser) in late July, Mid Ohio (regionally close to perennially-discussed Cleveland) in early August, and Sonoma (chronically poor attendance) in late August as possible candidates for culling. Considering the comments the new CEO made in an extensive interview with Declan Brennan about focusing on the fact this is primarily an American series, Edmonton may be the slight favorite if there is a chopping block derby.

Meanwhile...anyone heard any good rumors about adding any ovals lately?

At one point or another, we've all seen an episode of The Price is Right. That classic of consumer lust and greed, where the great unwashed from Oxnard to Bangor can get a chance to "come on down" and grab all sorts of merchandise if they can only bid correctly.

Five days a week, breathless everymen and -women bid on all sorts of stuff, from toilet brushes to trips to tables to toothpaste. But we all know the real reason why most people watch the show.

"It's a new caaaaaaar!"

That's right. Whether it's the dingiest entry-level Ford Focus or a super-hot Corvette sitting there under the studio lights, the appearance of a new car is always the biggest moment on the show (except for those Plinko loonies... don't get me started on them).

It's because automobiles are as deep in the American vein as apple pie and baseball. Yankees love their cars so much that they are more likely to go into debt to get one than virtually anything else - including a house.

The reason I bring this seeming non-sequitur up is that the thrill people feel when Rich Fields yells, "It's a new caaaaaaar!" on The Price is Right is perhaps the one thing that can get the American public interested in IndyCar racing again.

Look - you know and I know that IndyCar racing is (at least in theory, if not in recent practice) one of the greatest forms of motorsport in the world. The Indianapolis 500 alone would make that statement true - but the cross-training aspect of IndyCar racing that include various types of oval, street, and road circuit events elevate IndyCars above other series that limit themselves to one discipline.

On paper, the IndyCar series should capture the imagination of anyone who loves automobiles going fast.

In practice, it hasn't happened that way - at least not lately. I'm not going to dig up the history of the past decade-and-a-half; it's a useless exercise because we all know it better than we know our own names. Suffice to say that the IndyCar racing we have now fails to live up to its promise - at times, it fails badly.

Why? There are so many reasons. Gene Simmons is one, not just because he and his otherworldly tongue and fourteen-volume history of STDs couldn't market their way out of a paper bag if KISS isn't involved. No, his real problem is that he tried to turn IndyCar racing into "rock stars in race cars." And that's just not going to work.

It's not the drivers' fault. To a man (and woman) they are professional, courteous, and even intriguing. But they're not rock stars - the nature of their relationships to their sponsors automatically precludes them from the kind of Lohanesque kind of misbehavior that seems to tweak the salacious public interest. Simply put, the closest they're going to get is a shoving match in the pits (and we're not going to see much of that until someone gets PT a full-time ride - hollah to Meesh!) or a temper tantrum from Danica before some PR flack gets hold of her.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that, in terms of racing personalities, this country is fixated on stock car racing and the "all-American" folks (sorry, Marcos and JPM) that compete there.

That leaves the racing. And lately, the racing has, in a word, sucked.

It sucks basically for two reasons - the inequity between the haves and have-nots, and the race car itself.

There's not a whole lot we can do about the first problem. There's only so much money in motorsports right now - actually, thanks to the recession, there's virtually no money in it - so the racing oligarchs like Penske and Ganassi are going to be able to outspend everyone else until the economy gets dug out of the giant hole it's in.

The second problem, however, is fully addressable. Now, don't get me wrong - Dallara is a very capable chassis-builder, and Honda certainly makes fine racing engines. But when you put everyone into the same engine-chassis combination, it puts the power in the hands of the rich and influential. With the resources available to them, Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi can massage and tweak their "spec" IndyCars in ways that the other teams simply can't. They have the wherewithal to work within the small margins allowed by a formula where everyone gets the same basic equipment. Hence, each IndyCar race is virtually guaranteed to have a winner driving a red-decorated race car (unless Ganassi runs one of those weird pink or green cars).

An additional problem is that the current Dallara/Honda package is not attractive. I can't sugarcoat it, people. When non-fanatics tune into IndyCar races, they see a blocky, ungainly race car that only looks fast when it's going in a straight line. On the more technical street and road circuits, the cars appear to labor in and out of the turns like an elephant performing Swan Lake. On ovals, the wake turbulence from the blocky chassis makes overtaking a rarity.

Beyond all that, though, there's no general sense of innovation around IndyCar racing anymore. The engineers out there justifiably will dispute that notion, but to the layman (or -woman) an IndyCar race has none of the technical wizardry that Formula 1 has. Americans used to tune into the Indy 500 to see what the hell someone was going to bring this year to beat the other 32 teams.

Granted, these days innovation is tough to afford. But that doesn't change the fact that the public responds to innovation. There's such a thing as "wow factor" - and the IndyCar series doesn't have that right now. The closest thing to "wow" the IndyCar series can manage is whether that zipper will go down another inch on Danica's jacket in those GoDaddy.com commercials.

That's where Rich Fields and The Price is Right come in. Since it's obvious that there isn't going to be a UFC-style three-way beatdown between Paul Tracy, Helio Castroneves and Danica Patrick any time soon, the next best thing for the IndyCar series to do is get that "It's a new caaaaaaar!" feeling back into the series.

Last I heard, the IRL was planning on a new car in 2011 (although I've heard whispers that that deadline might be pushed back with the bad economy). I hope that's true. I hope that, when it's unveiled, the new IndyCar will make people "ooh" and "aah." I hope that those manufacturer summits that were held bear fruit and more folks join the show to give the engine scene some variety.

The fame tree in IndyCars goes like this: the track (IMS) made the cars, and the cars made the stars. It's that simple. The IndyCar series is about spectacle (it's even in the Big Race's name!), and as such the series needs a car (or, even better, a handful of cars) that will create one.