Why does indy do not have a 43 car field?

Question

Why does indy do not have a 43 car field?

Answer 1

that would just be a mess

I hate how big the nascar field is

Answer 2

Then it would be watering down the field...and tradition.

Answer 3

The simple answer is that it is tradition but another factor is that it is very expensive to run an Indy team and most drivers head to NASCAR instead of the IRL

Answer 4

All of the previous answers were right on the money.

However they all miss the one factor that was taken into account when they decided to keep it at 33 instead of expanding it as Nascar has......

Nascar fields 43 so that they can insure that at least one makes it to the finish. Indycar can insure that using 10 fewer.

Answer 5

Tradition. The safety and pit room arguments don't hold much water because the Brickyard 400 has 43 starters.

Answer 6

Because the safety factor inhibits more than 33 cars racing at any given time.

Answer 7

The tradition of 33 cars stems back to the early years of automobile races, where AAA (yes, "that" Triple-A) mandated the maximum number on a track at any one time was one car for every 400 feet of track.

5280 ft / mile X 2.5 miles = 13,200 ft.

13,200 ft / 400 ft. allowed per car = 33 cars

Of course, there have been slight modifications in this number on rare occassions.  There were 40 cars in 1-2 races back in the 30's, and even in the late 90's (during IRL's infancy), there was one race where 35 cars started.  However, 33 cars is the standard, and will not be tampered unless absolute strange circumstances permit.

Answer 8

There would also not be enough room in Pit lane.  There are already accidents there (like when Danica hit a crew member a week or so ago) and by adding another 10 cars you would almost be signing a death warrant for someone.

Answer 9

Indy is steeped in tradition.  They will only have a 33 car field for the Indy-type cars (unless like in years past they couldn't fill a 33 car field), and no more.  Don't hold your breath waiting for that tradition to change (nor the drink of milk after the race tradition either).

Answer 10

The reason there is not 43 cars is because the rate of speed that these cars go. The way that they already go 3 wide on the track sometimes, at that high speed can be  dangerous or even fatal.