634 Comments
User's avatar
JunkYardDogg's avatar

OK. So here is a report from a knowledgeable racing aficionado.

To grok this event , it was a sports washing endeavor. Yes Penske, owner of Indy Car racing and the Indianapolis 500 race track probably was the mastermind of the event. He paid the Indy Car costs of $30 million to set up and produce the race. Admission was free, they distributed 100,000 free tickets , there were also some priced tickets for VIP access.

It was an unimaginative, simple course, of mostly 90 degree corners. The course was shorter than most Indy Car tracks. There was one large bump in the track, which did not play out as a problem, but the surface was bumpy. That tract was very wide, which was its saving grace and saved the race from a lot more street circuit, K barrier type of crashes. There was a lot less carnage than I expected. And a bit more passing. The fear that the race cars would somehow cause damage inside buildings was ridiculous and not even worthy of further comment. The hybrid , regenerative power unit on the cars is relatively simple compared to the systems in F1 cars, which are really more complicated and have caused problems in F1.

More about F1 later. FOX has the contract to cover Indy Car racing and they do a good job. The coverage of this race was as much Fox political propaganda bullshit as much as racing. From start to finish, there was Fox /Trump bullshit mixed into the racing commentary. The pre race show had a 3 person panel, a Fox NASCAR guy, Danica I love me some Trump Patrick and Helio Castroneves, a good guy. Nobody likes Danica. Thankfully, I missed most of that part. There were a series of fly overs of American air lol power. This included a low fly over if Trump’s symbol of his absolute level of corruption, his Qatari bribe plane, the 747 Air Fraud One, flagrantly shoved into the collective faces of America as confirmation of his corruption. Yes, Trump did his standard everybody look at me lap around the track in The Beast, traveling the race course at truly mind boggling racing speeds of 10 mph , generating massive life threatening G forces, barely keeping it off the walls. As is traditional in racing, the waving of the green flag to start the race at the start /finish line is part of the spectacle. Naturally, they had Trump wave (?) the green flag. He was under cover of some sort of viewing structure , not out in the open at the side of the track. The camera shot was only 17 seconds, so there was not a good look . Now, I gotta say, Trump looked like a severely mentally ill patient in a mental hospital who the staff gave a flag to and let him play with it to amuse himself. I attached a link at the bottom, it is pretty funny. At least at the end of the race, they kept Trump away from the podium and the trophy awards, so there was no World Cup photo bomb or trophy stealing issues. The announcing team was the normal Fox Indy Car announcing team of ex drivers and a former F1 Brit announcer, Will Buxton. They have always been good. This race, they were quite obviously given Fox prepared politically scripted bullshit to mix in with their race commentary and as the race was coming down to the last 5 or 10 laps, it got disgustingly bad, like really bad. One of the best racing sites is Racer, with reader comments permitted. However, they have little or no tolerance for comments of any type of leftieville , no matter how closely related they are to a racing event, and said comments get deleted. So leftieville comments, in order to survive, are usually very subtle & nuanced, in order to survive. My comments there on this event have a 2 to 1 downvote ratio.

Now, back to the article. For no real discernible reason, the author segues from Indy Car racing to F1 and seems to conflate the two. Doesn’t make any sense.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/iHV8wypu1Ro?ra=m

SkeptiKC's avatar

Looks like a sorry shit show to me.

Today I'm damned glad that I live in the other Washington.

G-7 in Space's avatar

This was Indy Car- Formula One was in the Netherlands this week...get your facts straight please...love the pics, though...

Brad's avatar

Maybe F1 denied your credentials because this wasn’t an F1 race??? Why do we switch halfway through an article about IndyCar to complaining about the US media distribution of European racing?

PoDG follows the 92%'s avatar

There's a lot of "it's not a clip, it's a magazine" energy over the Indy/F1 in the comments, which aren't allowed anyway.

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

Half the text is a completely irrelevant rundown of what's happening in a completely different sport.

That doesn't feel like an unfair standard.

YaJagoff's avatar

They should just call it what it really is...a thingy that hold all the bullets together.

vorpal 86...47...ʰᵘᵗ ʰᵘᵗ ʰᵘᵗ's avatar

Chuckle... if it was a slip up or two, we race fans would let it pass but Dom went after F1 as the series behind this farce and attacked F1 about their series and driver comments when it had absolutely nothing to do with this race.

It's a pretty bad and should be corrected at the top of the piece at least.

MRK's avatar

There are some bits of this that aren't relevant (like the problems F1 is having with their hybrid engines) because of Dominic's mix-up, but his observations (and pictures) of the event on that day are spot on, and those are what he's paid for.

GoldStar's avatar

I don't think this race had anything to do with F1. It's Indy Car which is completely different, even though the cars look kinda alike and it used the term "grand prix" for some reason.

It's akin to the NFL and USFL, the latter trump coincidentally drove straight into bankruptcy.

vorpal 86...47...ʰᵘᵗ ʰᵘᵗ ʰᵘᵗ's avatar

More like US pro football and FIFA soccer. One is wholly American run and only competes in the US , the other a world organization that has its events mostly outside the US.

And yes, the car races are that different.

blueicebank's avatar

OT. And people say "The Two Jakes" was a bad sequel to "Chinatown."

"Ex-mayor Dan Sullivan supports incumbent Dan Sullivan’s Senate bid against third Dan Sullivan"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/24/dan-sullivan-endorsement-alaska-senate-election

Where's Spartacus when you need him?

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

Oh come on!

They can't do that unless they already have Dan Sullivan number 4 lined up.

I want this election in Alaska to be forever known as the Year of the Dans Sullivan.

MRK's avatar

Dan Sullivan 4 is running in a different race.

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

We just need an endorsement video!

Kyleneer's avatar

I don't think the author understands the difference between Indycar and F1.

Marty Smit's avatar

He understands they’re not really made for city street racing.

noname's avatar

OH NO! So important!

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

Well, when you make a big deal about the guy who owns one being a dingdong, kinda odd to then just talk about a totally different organization with zero crossover...

Or should we expect articles about the WNBA to keep talking about Steph Curry and LeBron?

noname's avatar

Hey, guess what? people do. So too fucking bad for car racing.

tehbaddr's avatar

cnn:

"Trump is threatening 50% tariffs on Canadian cars. Here’s what else he’s targeting"

"That increases the chances that at least some of the tariff costs ultimately land on consumers."

"at least some"

FUCKWiTS!

Carstonio's avatar

That’s what I thought the RuPaul show would be.

NatalyaSResists's avatar

My husband went to a Mystics game in DC the other night and they held Corgi races at halftime, so there's those. Too.

Lumpy Tapioca's avatar

But they motivate and reward those Corgis with treats.

Isn't that race baiting?

NatalyaSResists's avatar

Well, now that you mention it…

NatalyaSResists's avatar

Yes! 3 heats, 5 dogs each. The 3 winners went to The Finals!!! He said some just chased each other around.

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

*to the tune of Geordie Racer theme*

Corgi Racer, Corgi Racer!

(Fukui would have found this fucking hysterical, btw.)

Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

Thankfully he wasn't quite old enough to have worked on the excreatble computer game based on the TV show.

From back when the BBC was much less grounded in reality.

Shame.

Bitter Scribe's avatar

As I said yesterday: Washington, D.C. is our nation's capital. It's a dedicated space for that purpose. (I'm getting increasingly open to making it a state, but that's another issue.) It is NOT a theme park or a pop-up mall that specializes in temporary, cheap, gaudy amusements.

The entire so-called conservative movement is founded on hatred of the very idea of a federal government. After all, who enforces civil rights laws against bigots? Who enforces environmental and safety laws against businessmen? The Federals (as they were known in the Civil War), that's who.

So by trashing Washington -- by treating it as a sort of combination of fairground and Las Vegas -- they're expressing their contempt for the federal government even as a concept. You think Congress can stop us? We'll loop noisy racecars around the Capitol just to show those pompous fuckers who's boss.

It's why I can't even laugh at all the vulgarity. I know what's behind it.

Ron Spangler's avatar

It's a so-called shithole city that isn't even self-governed. To coin a phrase, that's Very Unfair. When we elect idiots to run the country, the good people of D.C. get them as de-facto Mayor and City Council as well.

Ron Spangler's avatar

And stupid shit like Freedom 250 happens, whether they like it or not.

noname's avatar

Yeah, none of it is funny.

JanuaryClaire's avatar

He's making D.C. pay for NYC hating him.

Mavenmaven's avatar

I wish it was that intellectual, I think it is Trump trying to turn Washington into Trumpland, where schoolchildren will point to all the things he built, like a latter day King Herod in Jerusalem, and which is so obviously "his" that he (and his family) can own it forever.

Lumpy Tapioca's avatar

Nah, he's just pissing on everything and everyone, as far as he can reach,

and burn up as much of *other people's money*, at fast as he can.

That's the strategy.

Fifth Dentist's avatar

More like all the statues of the Kims in N. Korea.

And woe to anyone accused of vandalizing one of those monuments to the gods who walk the earth.

ciaobella's avatar

Dominic paid to attend (sorry Dominic) but otherwise who are these people who would actually linger outdoors in DC in August, especially for this shit. You wade through the humidity to the next air-conditioned Smithsonian museum.

Being released's avatar

The weather yesterday wasn't that bad, at least in Baltimore. The stuff around July 4 though would have been absolutely miserable though.

tehbaddr's avatar

OT:

cnn:

"The GOP keeps blaming Biden for the economy. Trump keeps kneecapping that message — and adding problems"

Are they actually finally admitting that TRAMP is THE PROBLEM?!

irish379's avatar

huh, they've controlled Congress, The White House, SCOTUS, for a year and a half and Biden IS STILL the problem? Is this the same "Sleepy Joe" Fatso talks about?

tehbaddr's avatar

He's a doddering old man and criminal mastermind all at the same time!

Bitter Scribe's avatar

No. And they never will.

Demme Epstein Fatale's avatar

Ugh!

So far, Bibi and Penske are in the "Mission Accomplished" club.

Additions?

tehbaddr's avatar

In some ways the New Regime in Iran?

Trux Mint In Box's avatar

So another poorly executed shitshow.

YaJagoff's avatar

Did you really expect anything else?

Vic's avatar

The Epstein 250. Rah rah