Indycar is roughly half ovals and half road/street courses. The same cars, with modifications, are used on both types of circuits.
And there are even two courses I can think of, Road America and Watkin's Glen, that feature more right turns than left. :P
Secondly, there is a lot more subtlety in the sport, even on ovals, than "put in in high, put your foot on the floor, and keep turning left 'til you get to the finish or the hospital".
It's about continuously adapting to changing conditions in an engineering and performance sense, about running the car at its limit, without exceeding it (you run at 98%, you're out of contention, run at 102%, and you take home a basket of formerly connected parts). There is the tremendous skill of being able to place the car with precision, as in Indy 500 qualifying, were six inches at 225 mph can be the difference between getting a check for $100,000 for taking the poll and a bill for $100,000 to fix the car. |
