For some drivers, it’s not enough to be the fastest in their own discipline. They want to be the fastest drivers in the world, period. For drag racers, some may even say that’s the entire point, and for at least one of them, IndyCar’s new “Fastest Racing on Earth” campaign is playing a bit fast and loose with the facts. Bob Tasca III was so insulted, in fact, that he took time between runs at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway this past weekend to take a Fox Sports reporting crew to task for what he called “fake news.”
“Yeah, so I should be talking about that run right now, but really for me, I gotta call out Fox—Fox Sports. All winter long, we heard all about the ‘fastest motorsports on the planet’ and I was a little confused,” said Tasca III, owner and driver of the Nitro Mustang Dark Horse Funny Car.
“The truth is, it’s an insult to our fans and to the drivers for Fox to go on TV and say ‘the fastest motorsports in the world,’ and it’s IndyCar? Come on, now. I didn’t think there was fake news network on Fox.”
Tasca’s Mustang has clocked runs at north of 340 miles per hour. The fastest qualifying run at the 2024 running of the Indianapolis 500, which is IndyCar’s highest-speed track by far, was just under 235 mph. Formula 1 cars top out just behind Indycar, their technical circuits often keep speeds much lower. Between those two caveats, Indy’s lawyers likely felt they had more than enough cover to be comfortable with the campaign.
While the open-wheel cousins can argue all day long about whose cars are “really” faster, there’s really no gray area when you’re talking about the 100-mph differential between both series and NHRA Funny Cars, which are more like rockets that don’t point up—and often seem just as dangerous.
Amidst what may amount to nothing but a minor spat between a driver and broadcast rights holder, we can take heart that there are still passionate people involved in motorsports. So long as that’s true, we can always look forward to good racing.
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