2012 Pace Car Driver is....

[gonzo]

Are we marketing this to potential fans or the entertainment crowd? If it's the former, the choice is Foust. If it's the latter, it's Fieri.

This is your misunderstanding. It's not about "marketing" an individual. It's about generating free publicity (coverage) for the series, and ideally that coverage will tap into a demographic (a particular type of customer) that matches with what Indy Car is trying to attract.

Consider this....

Shah Rukh Khan

Any idea who he is? I'm gonna say safe to assume you have no clue. He is one of India's biggest celebrities. He's essentially India's version of Tom Cruise. You stick a guy like that in the pace car and there will be a flood, a mine a FLOOD of free coverage and publicity generated by this. Ten times the amount of coverage Guy would generate. Perfect right? Wrong!

The problem?

The coverage is going to be from India and the people it will be touching won't have the slightest interest in the Indy 500. It's not the demographic IndyCar is trying to reach. IndyCar is not, nor are their sponsors trying to sell to the 18-39 year old Indian audience.

Of course, this is typical TrackForum. I support Fieri driving the pace car, but once I agree that Foust is an equally good choice it's all out war. Kinda sums up IndyCar's fanbase in a way.

Ya, you are making it typical, by sharing a point of view and getting upset when it is questioned or challenged instead of willing to learn or sharing in a discussion.

It's not all out war. I'm trying to get you to understand the rationale behind the decision to go with a person like Guy and why Tanner is a poor choice and not an "equally" as you said, good choice. If you want to drop names, drop names, I'm all for it cause maybe just maybe a better choice than Guy would come up. Tanner is not a good or better choice. It fails on two levels. He is not a well enough known celebrity to generate any sort of free publicity and the little that he might, is going to likely hit an audience that is already following the series. How does that do IndyCar any good?

[gonzo]

Guy by a million miles, and everything else you said was spot on.

I don't think people's personal wish list for pace car drivers has exposure generation (what would be most important to IMS - that makes the decision) in mind. And that's fine, people are welcome to have differing opinions.

Cool!

[TexManZero]

Gonzo, it's ok. This isn't a war; I understand the differences between the two and think both would be a great choice. Your horse needs to stop for water; should I get you a ladder?

[Gizmologist]

I'm listening to the Trackside podcast and while Guy Fieri wouldn't be my first pick for Pace Car driver, I'm scratching my head over Cavin's repeated declaration that his choice will be "controversial" on par with Donald Trump's selection. Over and over he interjects that people won't like the fact that Fieri is too "out there" for your average Indy fan.

[dwaldrep51]

I'm listening to the Trackside podcast and while Guy Fieri wouldn't be my first pick for Pace Car driver, I'm scratching my head over Cavin's repeated declaration that his choice will be "controversial" on par with Donald Trump's selection. Over and over he interjects that people won't like the fact that Fieri is too "out there" for your average Indy fan.

I didn't know Guy Fieri was both running for President and insisting that Obama's birth certificate is a fake.

I watch Guy Fieri's shows with my wife, he seems like a fun-loving dude and I don't know a single controversial thing about him. He was the host for the huge Maxim Super Bowl party in Indy just a few months ago and I didn't hear anything controversial about him being a bad choice for that.

[vinnie]

'It would be totally cool if he lit his hair on fire during the lap and the 500 Queen sitting in back grilled a hotdog over it!"

good lord, that is brilliant ! absolute genius !

[MoparsRule]

I'm listening to the Trackside podcast and while Guy Fieri wouldn't be my first pick for Pace Car driver, I'm scratching my head over Cavin's repeated declaration that his choice will be "controversial" on par with Donald Trump's selection. Over and over he interjects that people won't like the fact that Fieri is too "out there" for your average Indy fan.

Sounded as if he was referring to the hair, jewelry, attitude that Guy carries himself with.

From reading this thread... Cavin may have been more spot on than I thought while listening.

[Gizmologist]

Sounded as if he was referring to the hair, jewelry, attitude that Guy carries himself with.

From reading this thread... Cavin may have been more spot on than I thought while listening.

On TV, he comes off as a fun loving larger-than-life character. I also think that Cavin way over-played the whole "looks" thing with Fieri. Yes, he's got a couple of tattoo's, but they're on his upper arms and mostly remain under his shirt sleeves. A couple of rings, a bracelet, some spiky hair, an earring, and shades. He's no more an "scary dude" than the Teutul's were when they were there a few years ago and were well received.



While I agree that people may think that there had to be better choices out there, I don't see the comparison to picking "The Donald" or claiming that Guy's some sort of "freak".

[gonzo]

I love this pretzel deal! Awesome stuff!!!

[Snow61]

And he knows that you put mustard on a big old pretzel...not cheese!

[LowRyter]

If they were going to tap from the Food Network, I would have preferred Giada.


Attachment 1287

beside all that, she can cook too!

[Big Mo]

I wonder if DIY Network's Bob Baskerville had anything to do with the Guy Fieri idea? Baskerville is a HUGE Indycar fan and until just a few months ago, was president of DIY Network, brother station of Food Network, HGTV and Cooking Channel. Bob and I (when I was with Scripps Networks) discussed doing a Garage Mahal episode in Gasoline Alley. He was working on it when I left the company.

[uh_clem]

Donald Trump fired Michael Andretti and people still want him to drive the pace car? I call that treason.

[lutesk]

I don't care about who's driving the pace car. I care about the person after the race that is sitting on the trunk of the pace car with a wreath around his/her neck.

[Dave Long]

On TV, he comes off as a fun loving larger-than-life character. I also think that Cavin way over-played the whole "looks" thing with Fieri. Yes, he's got a couple of tattoo's, but they're on his upper arms and mostly remain under his shirt sleeves. A couple of rings, a bracelet, some spiky hair, an earring, and shades. He's no more an "scary dude" than the Teutul's were when they were there a few years ago and were well received.



While I agree that people may think that there had to be better choices out there, I don't see the comparison to picking "The Donald" or claiming that Guy's some sort of "freak".

Cavin is off his rocker. Has he looked at who's sitting in the stands on race day? Many of the people in the crowd identify with Guy Fieri!

[cheeseczar]

And he knows that you put mustard on a big old pretzel...not cheese!

Ahem...

[rodneyh]

It’s a pretty interesting story about his stolen car. It was gone for a year and finally showed up in this storage locker rented by some 17 year old kid who’s now charged in a drive by shooting.

The same locker had several weapons, jamming equipment, a SFPD uniform, fake ID’s, police frequency coordinates, etc.

To steal the car from the dealership he rapelled down from the ceiling.

[Glenn]

If they were going to tap from the Food Network, I would have preferred Giada.


Attachment 1287

I always wondered what Natalie Portman would look like with a rocking body. PERFECT!

[Snow61]

Ahem...

Whoopsie daisy.

You have to know from the food forum that I love cheese...probably too much. But I still think a pretzel calls for mustard.

[ZUL8TR]

I like Guy, but I also like food and enjoy watching the cooking shows. I hope he has a blast.

[jkeener24]

The real question here is whether @DadBoner knows about this.

[Gizmologist]

Hey, it's getting some news coverage... From the Fox News front page.

[Toonces]

Big fan of Guy. His Drive-ins, Diners & Dives is a show our whole family watches together and enjoys. He's gotta big, fun TV personality. He could do some cool things with food at the track and around Indy. His been to a couple places in Broad Ripple and thought a place or two in Indy. He was very complimentary of Triple XXX at Purdue, until they made him eat a Duane Purvis Burger - loaded steakburger with a whole slice of onion and peanut butter. I thought he was going to cry.

[INDYMAN82]

Justin Bieber was too busy again ?

please tell me this was a joke!

[retread]

All I know, you tailgaters out in the Coke lot better "Up Your Game: the night before the race. I'm sure Guy will be taking a hungry stroll through your area.

[Hardscrabble]

I haven't even read the comments on this yet. Just saw it online on yahoo. What a joke all this is. It really shows a lack of respect to the honor and privilege of Driving the Indianapolis 500 Pace Car. It's pure disgrace imo.

Yeah, I guess they could have gotten an Indianapolis car driver to do the honors...

And for those of you that want Giada...just so you know, she would not only NOT be able to see over the dash, but her feet also won't touch the petals...some things are an optical illusion...