AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Let's get the negativity out of the way early.
Yes, people complained about the lack of passing in the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix, where Scott Dixon emerged victorious for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series' return to Phoenix International Raceway after an 11-year absence.
But make no mistake: people were watching -- and vigorously commenting on social media, whether it was casual race fans at home in Indianapolis and Iowa or NASCAR drivers tweeting from their motorcoaches at Martinsville Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski were the loudest voices in the peanut gallery, calling for INDYCAR to remove downforce from its cars to produce better racing. That's NASCAR's modus operandi this year, and the early returns indicate that most people believe the action on the track in the Sprint Cup Series is improved in 2016.
"I'm so thankful [NASCAR] is taking the downforce off our cars," Johnson tweeted. "These [IndyCar] guys haven't made a competitive pass yet.
"It's unfortunate," he later added. "The skill to [drive] that fast is insane. It just doesn't play well for the audience."
Keselowski tweeted a similar theme. "I like watching @IndyCar races ... hate watching aero dependent cars take away from great race car drivers ability to put on great races."
Dixon and the IndyCar Series drivers who ran hard and fast for 250 laps under the lights Saturday night would disagree, for the most part.
Certainly, many open-wheel drivers from the present and the past believe that the current generation of Indy cars carry far too much downforce. That is evident from the fact that in practice and qualifying, they can lap the Desert Mile without lifting their foot from the accelerator, resulting in average speeds some 50 mph higher than the fastest stock cars.
However, being flat all around by design makes it difficult to pass, because there is never the opportunity to outbrake an opponent into a corner when a driver never uses the brakes. But it certainly wasn't impossible, as demonstrated by the likes of Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Kanaan rallied from being delayed in the pits, working his way back to fourth place at the checkered flag. Hunter-Reay passed even more cars, even though he was running 10th at the finish.
His frustration at having his race ruined by pitting just before a subsequent caution rankled him, but he was also one of the more outspoken Indy car drivers about the downforce package that INDYCAR mandated for the Phoenix oval.
"Just had a hell of a time out there," Hunter-Reay said. "Some of the best starts and restarts I've ever had, and to come away with 10th place is a pretty dejecting result ... I think we passed two of the three guys on the podium [Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud and Will Power] twice out there tonight.
"I thought the quality of racing could use some work. In the DW12 era, we had great passing. The aero kits, I think they're not useful. The passing I did was on starts and restarts. The most unfortunate thing about the package is we had a great on-track product from 2012 to 2014."
The thing is, the Phoenix race might not have played well on television, but it really wasn't all that bad for those at the track. The bottom line is that some drivers were able to pass and others weren't.
Penske's Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya both led the race, but after being delayed by punctured right-front tires (attributed to on-track debris as opposed to car set-up), neither man was able to make any kind of forward progress and they ended up finishing ninth and 10th.
But for every Castroneves and Montoya, there was an Hunter-Reay or Kanaan who was able to make something out of their misfortune.
And of course there's Dixon. The least surprising thing about Saturday night's result was seeing the best Indy car driver of his generation leading the field when the race unfortunately ended under yellow when rookie Alexander Rossi brushed the wall with a couple of laps remaining.
The four-time IndyCar Series champion quickly deflected the criticism being levied by the NASCAR set.
"It's easy to drive from the back seat, man," said Dixon, when asked about the quality of the racing at Phoenix. "Everybody has their two cents. I know TK stormed through the field toward the end and made some pretty big passes and I know we were in a situation where if we really needed to push, we would be getting past cars, too.
"Can we make it better? Yeah, but it's our first time back here and I don't know what you can expect out of that. I think everybody did an amazing job. It is a topic and I could see some changes in the future maybe. But we have to do it as a group and do it with lots of testing to make sure it's a better product and not something where we come back and it's worse."
Dixon's former teammate, four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti was another key figure who responded to fan (and NASCAR driver) comments on Twitter. Franchitti realizes that improving the quality of racing at a track like Phoenix involves more than just cutting downforce. It includes involving the engine manufacturers and especially Firestone, the series tire supplier.
"Skill + bravery of [IndyCar] drivers off the scale, series needs to look at downforce levels + how the car produces it though." His recommendation involves changing the shape of the floor of the car.
IndyCar driver JR Hildebrand believes the right kind of downforce combined with tires to suit such an aerodynamic package would make the Indy cars "badass around places like this. You can be sure that's not being lost on everyone!"
Regardless of the quality of racing, PIR president Bryan Sperber was delighted with the commercial aspects of the event -- despite cracks on social media about the expanses of empty grandstands.
Sources close to the track said that driven by strong corporate suite sales, attendance came close to topping 20,000 around double what the track attracted for its last IndyCar race in 2005.
"I'm on cloud nine," Sperber said. "The whole weekend was just incredible. I think I'm even more energized than I was and I was pretty energized. The fans came out and there was so much buzz and excitement in town about this race coming to Phoenix.
"By every measure of what we hoped to accomplish, we exceeded our expectations. The ultimate judge and jury is the fans and sponsors, and hopefully they're as enthused about what they saw tonight as we are."
One man was pretty enthused about what he saw, and maybe his opinion adds a little bit of perspective to the events of the evening.
A.J. Foyt, who won the first Indy car race at Phoenix in 1964, was on hand to present his namesake trophy to Dixon in Victory Lane. Asked about the quality of racing Saturday night, Foyt told ESPN.com:
"The racing is always very good here. It's a lot better tonight than when I won the first one."
And he didn't resort to Twitter to say it.