Maybe it’s my old age catching up to me, or maybe it is the fact that the world has decided that reality isn’t trendy anymore, but whatever it is that made me mad when I saw the IndyCar commercials during the Super Bowl yesterday is what is fueling this editorial. To be fair, IndyCar may have been using the tag line “The Fastest Racing on Earth” for quite some time and I wouldn’t know it because I rarely follow the series and don’t have network TV at home to watch if I did. But with that said, the truth matters folks. Even in advertising, although we seem to have forgotten that here in the United States in recent years.

When the first IndyCar commercial came on during the Super Bowl I literally said “WTF? IndyCar isn’t even close to being the fastest racing on earth!” to which my friends watching the game with me all said, “Really?” They aren’t car people, so they really wouldn’t know unless they did some research, but they laughed when I explained that the fastest IndyCar and the fastest Top Fuel car, are more than 100 miles per hour apart in speed. And that’s giving an IndyCar a big head start and some warmup laps to get heat in the tires.

They also claim that Pado O’ward is the “Fastest 25 year old on four wheels.” Hell, we know lots of folks 25 and younger who have been, or currently are, much faster than that.

And make no mistake, I have nothing against IndyCar racing. It’s great racing and I am supportive. Hell, while many know me for my drag racing enthusiasm, I’ve done a lot of road racing, autocross, land speed racing, and more. I’m not a snob when it comes to one kind of racing only. But let’s be clear, saying stupid stuff like IndyCar is the fastest racing on earth is laughable. How laughable?

If you were to use the tagline “The quickest corner carvers on earth!” in NHRA National Event broadcasting, it would seem to me that folks might laugh and ask you what kind of crack you were smoking. If you went so far as to say that an NHRA top fuel driver was the most talented open wheel race car driver in history, F1 fans would revolt and burn the place to the ground.

And do you realize that Fox is the broadcaster for both the NHRA and IndyCar series? I mean wouldn’t you think that would make them look even less perceptive than you might already think them?

I’m not going to bash the folks at Fox, or IndyCar, but I sure hope this makes you think. And maybe they’ll do the same.

Here is the IndyCar commercial from the Super Bowl.