According to Racer.com on Tuesday, IndyCar officials have instituted a new rule that will penalize any persons or competitors within the industry who discredit the on-track racing product.
The rule came into place after several drivers spoke out on numerous topics and issues surrounding the sanctioning body. These came from several drivers following events at the Auto Club Speedway and Iowa Speedway just this past weekend.
According to Racer.com, the new rule 9.3.8 covers the following areas:
- Downgrading an official, fellow competitor or IndyCar brand
- Questions integrity of the rules set forth in the series rule book
- Downgrading the series schedule or weekend events
- Downgrading any sponsor or series broadcasters
Penalties for violating these rules have not yet been made public by IndyCar. It could be similar as NASCAR’s rule, where it is enforced on a case-by-case basis.
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One is left to scratch one’s head and wonder if they meant “degrading” not “downgrading.”
Instituted I suppose to keep honest discussion from interfering with the PR fantasy spin.
Isn’t IndyCar already doing a good job at hiding driver dissention from fans? I watched both races and aside from a few anti-pack racing comments, I have no idea what their talking about. While I can see their point, I don’t like the whole idea of creating a grand illusion that everything in IndyCar is great and everybody is happy just to increase market share. The people selling this crap must think we’re not smart enough to weigh the validity of comments made by a pissed off driver. At times, IndyCar will find themselves penalizing drivers for telling the truth and will end up with a bunch of corporate shills like say…NASCAR. Please just be a sanctioning body and give me REAL racing and put down the orchestra baton.
INDYCAR to fans: (cue the Lego Movie) Everything is awesome!
The stupidity of INDYCAR just continues to amaze me. How do you create fans? By creating a personal connection of the driver to the fans. INDYCAR has now instituted a muzzle. Great job to the geniuses at 16th and Georgetown. First you have a schedule that ends before September. Now you have an Orwellian rule forcing drivers to speak in PR approved cliches. Bravo INDYCAR…. bravo!
ah, now IndyCar invokes the “shut up and drive” tactic. Funny thing is when NASCAR did that to its drivers, all it did was make me not believe anything they said after that.
Degrading is right, Matt.
It is degrading to the drivers, teams AND to the fans to think that everyone except the sanctioning body is too stupid to watch and make a decision unless it is the PC answer.