F1 was always the elite of the elite, so popularity amongst the Yanks has never been as solid as some forms of American sports. Some drivers come along and grab the hearts of the American audience like Jackie Stwart, Michael Shumacher or Ayrton Senna.... for a while then names like Gerstappen dominate and the popularity fades away again. But my goodness those cars are fast.
Recently F1 seems to think they need to compete with NASCAR for ratings. Or at least the racing press portrays it that way, and then the press shouts out each week "NASCAR had more tv viewers". Meanwhile NASCAR can't seem to get out of it's own way with rule changes galore, cookie cutter tracks and cars, little bitty drivers wearing 5 gallon trucker baseball caps over their tiny little ears and just plain old dull races anymore. Ironically this year tried an F1 trick, setting up a track in the streets of Chicago. The race was won by an F1 driver. 😱
Indy racing was popular in the US for a long time until the car owners owned the sanctioning body and, guess whose cars won the title each year? Tony George started a series called the IRL that eventually saved Indy racing from itself when the two merged. Lots of crossovers like AJ Foyt, some Andretti's, one of which Mario won in NASCAR, Indy and F1. AJ Foyt was so awesome that the 21 car was driven at the Daytona 500 a couple of times by AJ instead of one of the best drivers of the day David Pearson who to this day is second in wins to Richard Petty.
And yesterday Penske racing added another trophy to the championship display. NASCAR. That guy has had cars race F1, Indy, Can Am and NASCAR. He was the last American who host a team in F1 way back in the 1970's. His car never won at F1 though. Mark Donahue ran 3rd for the highest finish in Penske's F1 car.
I read somewhere qualifying for the Vegas race starts at midnight and the race starts at 10pm.
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