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The RACER Mailbag, June 14

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.

Q: My son and I will be going to Road America for our first visit next weekend. We have general admission on Saturday and Turn 14 Sunday. Any thoughts on what we should see, do (go karts, disc golf course), areas to watch from, local eateries? We will be camping offsite, but looking forward to a full weekend of racing.

Josh, Louisville, KY

MARSHALL PRUETT: Great choice. It’s one of my favorite events each year. The track has amazing food offerings with brats and cheese curds and all the local specialties. Siebkens is the local destination for all racers, so add that to the list. Great part about the track is the fact that you can walk and see almost every corner. If you’re able, bring light backpacks to carry snacks and drinks, and foldout chairs. It’s a walking track, so tour the inside and the areas outside. Print or download a track map before you go and plan where you want to go. You’ll find lots of people in certain corners, which can be great — Turns 3, 5, 6, and 12 — but don’t limit yourself to those areas. Go explore and have fun.

Q: I’ve been thinking about the Garage 56 Cup car and its potential impact on regular Cup cars. The car has shown some impressive times during testing, even running faster than a few cars in the LMGTE-Am class. It’s got some cool aero mods and is lighter than the Next Gen car. Do you think we might see some of these advancements in regular Cup cars down the road?

Also, I’ve been wondering about the possibility of a NASCAR class at Le Mans. Jim France has been involved in both NASCAR and Le Mans for a long time. What do you think about the chances of a NASCAR class at Le Mans in the future?

Doug

MP: I’d love to see a Cup class at Le Mans. So much of what we see on an annual basis there is predictable that a mini-class for Cup cars would be a blast. I love the extra cars we get for the Indy 500 and Rolex 24; they bring an air of excitement to the events. Make room for four-six Cup cars at Le Mans? And the Rolex 24? That would be a blast.

A lot was learned about the car — doubling downforce was one — that would seemingly play into the formula’s next update, but it’s hard to say if that’s where Cup wants to take its road racing package.

Lots was learned about the Garage 56 package at Le Mans; how much – if any – of it might be transferred back to NASCAR-spec Cup cars remains to be seen. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images

Q: How will the Garage 56 car influence future development of the current Cup Series car? I for one would love to see that car in all the NASCAR road races. Your thoughts?

Steve Coe, Vancouver, WA

MP: It comes back to the question of where NASCAR might want to take its Cup Series formula. At present, the cars are really hard to drive in road course configuration, and that’s the way it should be. Doubling the aero grip would narrow the gap between the greats and the goods behind the wheel, so I’m not sure I’d want to see downforce make things easier. With cost reductions being a major point of the Next Gen formula, I’m also not sure if teams would welcome a big new road racing package derived from G56 they’d need to implement. How’s this: There’s a lot of smart options available to Cup if they want to take on learnings from the G56 program, but I do wonder if most of it will go down as a one-off meant for France.

Q: Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe of the last 14 wins by Andretti Autosport, seven had Bryan Herta as the race strategist (and of course the Indy 500 with Rossi). If that is fact, that is quite a track record by Herta. He seems to have a way with the drivers he works with.

Randy Mizelle, Oak Island, NC

MP: I’ll go with your research here, Randy; chasing stats while dealing with jet lag ain’t happening! Bryan is extremely good, without question. He’s a big-picture guy, a no-nonsense guy, but also has that voice and approach of a therapist who wants what’s best for you. And in classic Bryan Herta form, he doesn’t care one bit about being in the spotlight for the contributions he makes.

Q: More an FYI than a question, but I feel for David Z in last week’s Mailbag. I’m guessing he parked in Lot 1A, 1B or the Coke lot. I pasted below a part of a note I sent to Doug Boles, so it won’t be the first time he’s heard about it:

‘The traffic getting to and leaving lot 1B was incredibly slow — it took us almost 3 hours after the end of the race to get from lot 1B to the 38th Street exit to I465. In previous years prior to the pandemic, we’d be halfway home to Chicago by then. It is my belief that a lot of this is on account of Indiana State Police and their lack of coordination. As an example of this, while existing the lot, they had us split from 2 lanes to 4 and then back to 2 all within the distance from Georgetown Rd to Moller Rd, and in turn created a needless chokepoint. Also, at multiple intersections (30th and an entrance to the Coke Lot, 30th and Moller, Moller and 34th), every single police officer was either in their car or looking at their phones instead of actively directing traffic. Next year we will not be renewing the 1B parking pass, and I hope you revisit your arrangement with ISP and ensure a coordinated approach to traffic management next year.’

The worst part is, we took two first-timers who were ready to have us add some tickets to our renewal for next year. When we asked a couple of days later, they politely declined after getting back to the Chicago suburbs at 11:30 at night (in a typical year it’s 7:30-ish).

Andrew

MP: It was the craziest/busiest 500 I’ve experienced in a long while. I’m hoping your friends enjoyed what went on within the facility, at least. Our daily lives have become so centered around convenience — food, medicine, and groceries can all be brought to our front door in an hour or less — that the idea of going to an event where hours upon hours being lost to traffic and congestion just no longer fits with what’s considered acceptable. I don’t know what the answer is at this point, but if the getting there and the leaving there part is something that leads to a decline in attendance, IMS will need to get creative with the county and state in order to address the issue.

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The RACER Mailbag, June 7

ED’s NOTE: Chris Medland was on leave when this week’s Mailbag was in production, so we’ve saved the F1 questions for next week.

Q: Currently, the IndyCar series is a spec series. Using the RLL team which won the 2020 Indy 500 as an example, what is the main differentiating factor that caused the poor qualification? Yes, cars can change slightly. But the core DNA has not, so there should not be an issue for a team like RLL.

Steve

MARSHALL PRUETT: Easiest answer to start is, if the rest of the field were using their 2020 Indy 500 setups and all the ideas/tech developments from 2020, RLL would be in an advantageous position. But since every team works like mad on an annual basis to come up with better ideas to find more speed and more efficiency for their Indy 500 cars, an RLL can make great speedway development choices and maintain their place, or make poor choices and go backwards.

Or, as often happens, a team like RLL can come up with some fantastic speedway R&D ideas while their main rivals come up with even better ideas, and in an instant, RLL goes backwards without having done anything wrong. So, I’m not saying they did nothing wrong in May; that was obvious. But every team’s Indy downturn isn’t necessarily a result of swinging and missing; sometimes, the other teams hit home runs when you’re delivering a double.

Q: I’m a fan of the Rahals, David Letterman, and Mike Lanigan (heck, he was a Champ Car owner), so I hate to pile on, but wondering if there is any more insight into their rapid decline at the Speedway?

I read your story about RLL triggering their recovery plan. Obviously there are myriad factors that impact qualifying speed, such as track temperature, wind speed and direction, tire compounds, but with spec cars, an old chassis and engine formula, and aero kits that are locked in, I’m surprised RLL dropped out of contention so quickly over the past few years.

Trevor Bohay

MP: The team has gone through an engineering change or three in the last year, hired a new technical director whose first oval race experience came this year at Texas, and when compared to a rock-solid engineering structure at a Penske or Ganassi, this is a team in transition. The team was slow at the April Open Test and slow again in May. The lack of progress from the test to the start of practice is what stood out; whatever fixes stood out and were tried clearly did not make much of a difference. Teams get things wrong in every session — from the best team to the worst — so that’s not unique. But what is unique is a team’s ability to recognize where it’s coming up short and craft a plan to fix it for their next outing. Again, that didn’t really happen for RLL, so it tells you there are some greater issues to work out internally.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan is on a mission to rediscover its oval mojo. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Q: Just for perspective, I am a 21-year-old college student studying Mechanical Engineering at a tech school, so I think I fit into IndyCar’s new target demographic. I haven’t seen much input from the mailbag from people my age (been reading for years now) and although it’s my opinion, I think my opinions can hold value since I am the type of person IndyCar wants to have watching its races. I am an interesting case because I have been following motorsports for probably 10 years now, started out with sports cars and F1 because that’s what was on TV, got frustrated with F1 and started watching IndyCar more regularly a handful of years ago and I’m about to go to my first IndyCar race since they left the Glen, in Toronto with a friend, who is new to the series.

I would say IndyCar is having a tough time marketing itself to younger people because it isn’t investing in the right areas. A lot of my friends have gotten into racing recently because of F1 and DTS. F1 has done a great job marketing itself through social media, whether that be Twitter, Reddit or YouTube through content creators (which IndyCar has very few of). However, while I do think IndyCar needs to invest in those platforms, I feel that a lot of the current new fans of F1 will get bored in a few years when they realize the racing isn’t too exciting. IndyCar needs to capitalize on these people and advertise an exciting product. I think it has that. What it doesn’t have is the “cool factor.”

A lot of my friends have been getting into IMSA recently because while the on-track product isn’t edge-of-your-seat exciting, the cars are freaking cool. It’s so cool to see race versions of sports cars from esteemed brands battling it out on track (a lot of these people were street car enthusiasts before they got into racing) and the prototypes are awesome pieces of machinery. They got into F1 because of the team branding and the clout and personality the drivers have. If IndyCar wants to capitalize on the younger fanbase — which is there — it needs to do two things.

1. Capitalize on the drivers and their personalities through newer media channels. As great as the new show on The CW is, nobody my age watches The CW. The reason Drive To Survive is successful is because it’s on Netflix, which pretty much everyone my age has. Either post the full episodes (and races!) on YouTube like IMSA does (and gets 1m+ views on) or make them available on common streaming platforms like Netflix, HBO Max (or now just MAX), Paramount, etc. That way more younger people can see the excitement and personality the series has.

2. Make the races accessible to attend. I can guarantee you will get a fan for life if you get them to a race. The issue with IndyCar races is they are expensive for people my age. They would rather spend $100 on a football game or other sports game than a race. I have gotten many of my friends hooked on IMSA and sports car racing because they can buy a weekend teen pass for the 6 Hours of the Glen for $20 and have an amazing time. I’m not saying IndyCar should offer $20 tickets (if it wants to, I’m not protesting), but a youth or student discount to races would definitely encourage more younger folk (<25yr) to come fill the stands.

I apologize for the essay, but I feel that this is important insight that the older fanbase is missing out on. (No offense to you guys).

Dan, Rochester, NY

MP: Always great to hear from young fans like yourself, Dan. Please keep writing in.

Q: Who do you predict is driving at MSR in IndyCar next season?

Geoff Branagh

MP: Tom Blomqvist and either Pagenaud or Rosenqvist.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 31

Q: Michael Andretti is continuing to pursue his quest to get U.S. drivers into Formula 1. With the new venture into establishing a new European open-wheel series, I would rather see Michael to take over a struggling series that has less than 14 entries on the field. What are the chances of Michael taking control of the Euro Formula Open Series rather than starting one from scratch?

Juan Solano

MP: I think we’re confusing Michael telling me he planned on entering cars in European open-wheel series if he gets into F1 for what I’ve never heard him say, which is he’s starting a European racing series.

Q: Regarding the aeroscreen 2.0, it doesn’t sound like it will be any safer than the present aeroscreen. Yes, it may be lighter, but so will the wallets of the owners after they (must) purchase it. So what’s the benefit? Every car will be lighter by the same amount. Will the racing be better? Not likely. I can understand incorporating it into a completely new car, but why the retrofit? Spend the money on better race promotion, etc.

Rick, Lisle, IL

MP: Less mass in a crash is a good thing. The aeroscreen 2.0 will offset some of the weight being added with the energy recovery system, and therefore, reduce the mass/energy in crashes. That’s why it’s a good thing. It’s already a marvel of safety, so there’s no real room to improve in that area that comes to mind. If the argument is “why try to improve something on a race car,” I fear we might fail to understand the basic premise of the sport.

Q: Another DNF for Grosjean, this time at Indy. He has race-winning potential, but how much more time does Michael Andretti give him?

Rob, Rochester, NY

MP: His season has gone pear-shaped of late, hasn’t it? The one thing Romain’s struggled with throughout his career is consistency; lots of highs and lows, and while the lows haven’t always been his fault, it’s hard to ignore how he’s crashed on his own at both ovals this year. After six rounds, he has two podiums and four finishes outside the top 10. I hope the warm and fuzzy feelings Michael had after Long Beach haven’t soured since they were supposedly going to get a contract extension worked out this May.

Q: I watched the entire Indy 500 from the pre-race show through to the final interview. First of all the race was 500 miles and there were at least 500 commercials. And second. I have never heard of Jewel, I don’t know anything about Jewel, and I don’t care if I ever hear the name Jewel again. But I thought her “version” of the anthem was different but not the worst I have ever heard. Most of the time for these big events they bring out someone who sounds like they are experiencing stomach cramps while they are singing and I turn the sound off. But I was not offended by Jewel and was more offended that they no longer have the balloon spectacle due to “ global warming “ or whatever the reason they used.

Don, Grand Rapids, MI

MP: Usually when I don’t know about someone or care about someone, I don’t take time to write a letter that is mostly about that person, but that’s me. I don’t think Jewel did a poor job with the technical aspect of singing the song; I took issue with it being the most low-energy rendition I’ve ever heard at a major sporting event.

Great song to raise spirits, raise anticipation for what’s the come, and send the crowd into a volley of cheers right before a race. Felt more like she was singing at a funeral, which makes me think IndyCar would be wise to consult with those who might sing the anthem to find out if they’re leaning toward putting 300,000 people to sleep or not.

Maybe they can bring Jewel back next year and have her release some balloons? (Kidding)

Red flags at Indy breed excitement, chaos, anger, conspiracy theories or some combination of all that, depending on your perspective. Motorsport Images

Q: The Indy 500 just finished. Worst NASCAR-style decision I’ve ever seen in Champ Car/IndyCar since I started watching in 1985. No one wants a race to end under caution, but sometimes it happens. A red flag with two laps to go is gimmicky BS.

Between that and the Nothing But Commercials broadcast that only showed about 180 of the 500 miles between commercials, really makes it hard for me to ever watch another race. I can’t help but feel that this red/white/green finish was either manufactured by NBC to get more commercials, or by Roger’s team to get Josef a 500 win.

Michael

MP: Let’s start by nipping the conspiracy theory BS in the bud. It became apparent to me around the halfway point of the race that Newgarden was onto something special as he was among the only mid-pack qualifiers to march forward — and consistently so — during the race.

Starting P17, he was P12 on lap 25. He was P9 on lap 50. Lap 100 and he was P5. Lap 150 and he was P2. But the race was fixed, right. GTFOH.

I get it, you didn’t like the finish, but making up nonsense about the last red flag being manufactured to air more commercials or the race being a fix is just lame.

Q: The whole last-lap shootout came about because of how mediocre the cars raced this year. And it happens every year — when IndyCar’s aero souffle won’t rise, and desperation to pass kicks in, the race turns into a late-race bloodbath. It was a great race, but in the drama department, and maybe less so in the racing department.

IndyCar tried to avoid conspiracy, I think. The question of “who the hell was ahead when the light was on” a la 2002 would be more damaging than F1-esque one-lap shootout. The decision to throw the red might have been influenced by Ferrucci seemingly challenging the position, and the A.J. Foyt factor. All of the 33 should probably internalize that the white-flag lap at Indy means all rules are out, and just how deep one can get into the pit lane entry breaking the draft is your own responsibility, at least until someone crashes. I think that’s better than IndyCar’s version of the yellow-lane rule — that would be a conspiracy fodder!

But I doubt anyone can reasonably claim the fix was in. Newgarden is in the history books now, and forever will be.

Filip, Maastricht, The Netherlands

MP: Significant aero changes are on the way for the race next year, and I really hope IndyCar enlists one car from every team to participate in a few days of aero testing at the Speedway to do whatever’s needed to establish an awesome package

Q: I think the “dragon move” needs to be outlawed next year. Crossing over the pit entry line is playing a dangerous game with the pit wall attenuator looming large. An accident of that type would be horrible.

Do you think that move will be cracked down on next year?

Joe

MP: I hope. But IndyCar seems to like a less-restrictive approach to the 500 and they welcome what we saw, so I wouldn’t bet on it.

Q: First, I am relieved that the rogue tire didn’t hurt anyone. Second, congratulations to Josef on a hard-fought win. He kept his head down and avoided most of the trouble. But I was not as happy with the win. I felt like IndyCar ditched a lot of protocol to set up a last-lap shootout.

What are your thoughts of how the red flags at the end played out? For me, the win didn’t feel authentic.

Stefan Johansson (Not the 1997 Le Mans winner)

MP: You do an excellent job of managing drivers, BTW. I’ll return to the point of how the win would have been problematic for some whether it was Marcus or Josef. Finishes under yellow after going red twice — on lap 185 and 193 — but not 198, and Ericsson wins? Folks leave asking why a third red wasn’t used and why Josef was robbed of a chance to fight for the win and Josef being upset and quoted saying he didn’t think staying yellow was the right choice.

Or, we get the red, Newgarden uses P2 to his full advantage, wins, and we get Marcus being quoted saying we should have stayed yellow and shouldn’t have gone red. It was just one of those years where unhappiness was going to be the response, red or yellow.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 24

Q: One bit of information I really, really wanted to know all day during qualifying was who was in line and the order of that line. Would that not be a great addition to the coverage?

Craig

MARSHALL PRUETT: Some folks love the minutia like that, Craig. I’m not one of them, but a friend of mine was in charge of capturing exactly what you’ve mentioned, including the time they pulled into the line, for their team’s leadership in real time so they knew how and when to react while in the garage.

Q: Since the IndyCar app updated earlier this season it’s been full of issues. It’s 2023 and it’s hard to imagine an app that doesn’t work, especially after IndyCar was promoting their “updated” app before the season opener. Any info on when the app will be fixed? During qualifying, the app was showing a handful of car without speeds — just one of many issues.

Craig S

MP: Sorry to hear, Craig. I use the IndyCar App approximately twice a year, and haven’t so far in 2023, so I’m useless here and don’t keep track of what is or isn’t happening with it. If I find out, I’ll mention it on my podcast.

Q: Do you think Graham Rahal will leave his father’s team? I think he should. Clearly this team will be backmarkers for next couple of years. He deserves better.

David

MP: He does. Time for another rebuild, and most veterans — in any sport — are loathe to burn their final years waiting for their team to get their **** together. I’m confident Graham could bring a ton of funding to any team with an opening, and it’s not that he’d need to pay, but he does have some very committed sponsors who are there because of him.

I’m more concerned about Graham retiring if the rest of the season is a downer.

Q: It’s pretty clear that Team Penske is missing something that other teams have known for a while. It’s the fourth year with subpar results in Indy 500 qualifying. Same car, same engines, same conditions yet others are able to find speed but not Team Penske. Any ideas why?

Lee

MP: I don’t, and yet, in Monday’s two-hour practice session, DJ Willy P was P1. But ECR and Arrow McLaren have had Penske’s number recently in Indy qualifying. From 2015-19, Penske won Indy three times. Since buying IMS and IndyCar in 2020, Penske’s been on an 0-fer. Does that streak end on Sunday? Dunno, but if so, my money’s on McLaughlin and Ben Bretzman.

Q: My question is about the “evil” chassis of Callum Ilott/JHR. What will happen to that? Does it go back to Dallara to be inspected? Does the JHR shop crew inspect it? I would imagine something that unfit to be raced doesn’t just go back into the team’s chassis rotation.

Justin, CT

MP: My guess is there was something wonky happening with the floor/underwing while at speed. Callum said they did torsional rigidity tests and found no issues. His main complaint was the erratic handling, which, in the absence of a broken shock, sounds like a non-linear aero issue. Listen to the good crew chiefs, and they’ll tell you that some floors are problematic. That’s my guess here, and as for the chassis, I’m not sure what will happen to it. I feel confident in saying Ilott will pass on using it again…

Juncos Hollinger is working to exorcise the evil from Ilott’s car before it goes back onto the track on Friday. James Black/Penske Entertainment

Q: Great action during qualifying on Saturday. Couple of questions for you:

1. Can you explain Penske’s strategy of dropping Newgarden and McLaughlin from their original qualifying spots? Cindric’s explanation about waiting for better weather and more tinkering with the cars made sense to the broadcast team. Not sure I bought that explanation after watching others post better times than Power later in the day. Would’ve thought the No. 2 and No. 3 cars were ready to go and didn’t need any further tuning. And with all the activity toward the end of the session, the No. 2 car really gambled to set a time. Was the strategy sound, or did Penske swing and miss?

2. My wife noticed during David Malukas’s first run that he had the car in fourth gear for most of the lap (except for a short fifth gear run from the start/finish line to the Turn 1 entry). In later runs he was running in fifth and sixth gear. Didn’t notice any others running that long in fourth. Any reason why you’d keep in a lower gear for that long on a fast circuit?

Darrin, Brentwood, TN

MP: There’s a lot of pressure on Team Penske to be the best, so even in something as relatively unimportant as qualifying for a 500-mile race, there’s immediate embarrassment — or the perception of it — within the team if they aren’t the best. Also, they’re filled with highly competitive personalities, so with those two combined, you have a group that won’t accept decent runs to P15 or wherever. Add in how they had no ready answers for how to find another 2mph, and I didn’t see the confidence and clear strategy on how to overcome their issues. Inaction isn’t something they embrace, so giving it another go was a fitting response that just didn’t have the outcome they wanted.

Choosing the correct gearing is never an exact science, and all it takes is an increase in wind or the wind disappearing to take you out of the right rev range. My guess is the team made a gear change after his first run.

Q: Sorry, but I’ve seen and heard enough. I need to rant. The entire NBC broadcast crew should be summarily fired. After watching for the past week, their incompetence and ignorance is incredible. Case in point, the discussion about taking parts off Katherine Legge’s car to put on other RLL cars was totally false. I’m no IndyCar rulebook person, but I know enough that that is illegal. Both Bell and Hinchcliffe exhibited their ignorance of the rules. Diffey fell right in with them. It’s akin to just winging it. It is a dismissable offense.

Letarte is a NASCAR guy, period. He knows little to nothing about IndyCar. His standard response is, “in NASCAR we would do this.” Earth to Letarte, this is IndyCar, not NASCAR. I really don’t care what Stewart, Gibbs or any other NASCAR team would do. This crew needs to go. Now.

Dale, Chesterfield, VA

MP: If we’re going to bin the full-time crew because they made a collective mistake about a rule, we’ll be firing broadcast teams on a nightly basis across all major sports.

I get it. We want our TV people to know everything and to always get it right. But that’s never happened, ever, in any sport.

Hell, I spent two or three months towards the end of the 2021 season getting some major aspects of the Leaders Circle eligibility completely wrong, and yet, I’ve been spared the electric chair. Maybe NBC will send its IndyCar and IMSA experts to call some of NASCAR’s biggest races and make those fans super happy (kidding).

Q: My heart really goes out to the RLL team. They’ve been struggling ever since Takuma Sato won his second Indy 500. What happened? Are they spending too much effort on the IMSA prototype program? I feel RLL needs to cut back to a two-car team. I also think that even though Graham Rahal has been somewhat successful in IndyCar, he is going either hang it up or race in IMSA.

Alistair, Springfield, MO

MP: Strange to see the last two teams Taku drove for, in the last two entries he piloted — the No. 51 at Coyne and No. 30 at RLL — stuck in the LCQ…while he was battling for pole with Chip.

The team took a big swing with a new engineering structure and it just hasn’t worked. That was apparent well before we got to Indy, but the season is still young-ish, so you give it the benefit of time. If it weren’t for Lundgaard and his engineer shining on occasion, we’d be in Colonel Jessup “Code Red” territory. After Graham’s DNQ, I fear we’re headed towards a house cleaning.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 17

Q: I was watching some YouTube videos showing the Indy 500 during the 1970s and wished to make a comment about Johnny Rutherford. This man is right up there with all the great legends of the Speedway, and during the filming of this documentary Johnny was featured as a main commentator, not only about his own 500 wins, but about the other drivers.

I noted that Johnny has always been most complimentary when talking about any of his competitors, and in my mind this man sticks out as one of the great ambassadors of the sport. I wish he would appear on more broadcasts, if he is willing and able.

As I sidenote, as an avid collector of IndyCar 1/18 diecasts, I inquired recently to Replicarz about a release of the 1969 Foyt Coyote Indy pole winner. I was informed that no diecasts for A.J. were in the works as he wanted too much money. Very disappointing. Megabucks times zero is still zero, right A.J.?

James Herbert Harrison

MARSHALL PRUETT: Lonestar JR is just a delight. I’m sure it would make plenty of IndyCar longstanding fans happy to hear him on the many hours of 500 coverage on Peacock. As for A.J., he’s a highly particular man who could buy Replicarz a thousand times over, so pocket change isn’t going to be a motivator. He’s spent most of his life accommodating the desires and needs of fans. I’m sure there comes a point where that loses its appeal.

Q: I had never heard of the Congressional Motorsports Caucus before. Interesting how bipartisan groups can actually come together when they want to. Contingents from NASCAR, IndyCar, SCCA, USAC and IMSA participated. This was the NHRA article and contingent. Sad to say that there was no mention of this meeting on the IndyCar site that I found. After investing in sending a contingent to Washington, it would seem to be a no-brainer to post an article. I think the teams should demand that the sanctioning body give back the money that got shifted to marketing and promotion since they missed this layup…

Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA

MP: Time to warm up that typewriter, IndyCar.

Rutherford is a national treasure. Matt Fraver/Penske Entertainment

Q: I have to admit that I enjoyed the first two episodes of the “100 Days to Indy” series more than I thought I would. (I’m a member of the non-target audience, white male over 50 or WMOF.) But one thing that came to mind that makes IndyCar unique is its diversity. It has the most diverse tracks, the most diverse crews, and the most diverse drivers of any major racing series. What other sport can boast of having men and women compete on an equal footing at the highest level?

I was there in 2005 when Danica Patrick led the Indy 500 and listened to the crowd go absolutely bonkers. It seems to me that a good storyline for the show, and indeed IndyCar itself, would be to emphasize how diverse the series is. Just a few topics could be Beth Paretta Autosport, the return of Katherine Legge, and some home background stories on two of the most popular drivers that happen to be from Brazil and are about to hang it up.

For those old guys that remember The Split like me, one of Tony George’s founding principles of the IRL was to use more American-born racing talent. I always found that offensive — why wouldn’t you want the best talent? A fundamental strength of IndyCar is that it has the most diverse drivers with the most diverse tracks in the world. And its marketing needs to make sure that everyone knows that.

Ed, Hickory Hills, IL

MP: The second episode was far more cohesive and on point. Viewing it through that new-and-younger audience lens, I did wonder why Colton Herta was portrayed as such a vanilla character; he’s a 23-year-old IndyCar driver who plays the drums in a punk band, which sure seems like something to share, but instead, he was depicted as a one-dimensional personality. That he and Pato O’Ward, the episode’s other star, were Indy Lights teammates, fought like hell, went down two different paths when their IndyCar team chose Herta over Pato and Pato was left out in the wilderness, was another significant point that seemed obvious to include, but maybe I’m wrong.

Kat’s turn in “100 Days” is on the way. You’ll also see Myles Rowe.

Q: As someone who drives past the site of the future Andretti HQ on a daily basis, I can’t help but notice there has been very little construction activity since last year, seemingly. This is just a shot in the dark with my question, but any insight on their construction situation?

Todd S., McCordsville, IN

MP: I’ve heard nothing from the team regarding a change in construction plans.

Q: I’d like to point something out regarding IndyCar’s marketing this season: Even ignoring “100 Days to Indy,” it’s demonstrably been stepped up. I see advertisements for the next race on the schedule regularly — very good ads, featuring the drivers and hyping up the track. Good enough to catch the eye of the modern potential audience? I can’t say that, I’m too far outside of it (I turn 40 in a few months), but they’re better than pretty much anything I’ve ever seen in my adult life as an IndyCar fan.

Now, as a major motorsports fan my data is a little skewed as algorithms tend to feed me racing ads whenever they can, but I used to see IndyCar ads once in a blue moon, and only as banner ads on websites. This year, if I load more than two videos on YouTube, I am 90% certain to see an IndyCar ad, and even on the local news seems to run one every ad break, at least on the local NBC affiliate — and again, that was nearly unheard of in years past. Even taking into account that my likelihood of seeing an IndyCar ad is higher due to algorithms, I’m seeing so many IndyCar ads this year that there’s zero chance they aren’t considerably more frequent in general.

So yes, IndyCar is definitely doing a lot more marketing this year. Let’s hope it works.

FormulaFox

MP: Great to hear, and I’ve noticed similar things. IndyCar’s social media team is also delivering at a high level, but that’s not a new thing.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 10

Q: So I watched F1 in Miami, expecting a snoozefest. I watched the celebrity-laden, ponderous pre-race evaluation of Miami’s swimming pools, boats, bling, and buzz. I watch the ‘breathless’ (bizarre) grid walk. After what seemed an interminable wait and the umpteenth Fast and Furious hype, Michelle Rodriguez says “Are we talkin’ or are we racin’?”. I smugly laugh at this as it’s been endless talkin’ and I’m expecting boring racin’.

But – the race was, to me, hella fun. Verstappen winning on strategy and a spectacular drive. Multiple incredibly talented drivers passing all over with different tires and different strategies. A surprisingly yellow-free race. The usual entertainment of listening to people with strange accents getting excited about everything from DRS to the stewards’ mindset. And, by the way, nonstop coverage with no commercials. Yeah, it was fun.

Then I reflected on how much I enjoyed the Long Beach Grand Prix (attended live) with its usual festival atmosphere and multiple great races. 100 Days to Indy is getting better. Peacock is awesome, letting me watch every on-track session whenever I want to. IMSA is way cool and getting more popular. Can’t wait for Laguna. Heck, even some of the NASCAR controversies seem interesting to me, and I’m not normally a big fan.

I guess what I’m saying is that this feels like a great time to be a race fan, and instead of denigrating some series or grumping about how this doesn’t feel like 1969 anymore, I’m just plain enjoying it. Yeah, there are always challenges, and yeah, not every event is flawless. But if this momentum continues, we are in for a great year of racing and I hope a lot of new fans along with that.

Just wanted to provide an offset to the usual cranky complainers. Racing is great!

Paul, Sonoma

MASHALL PRUETT: Thank you, Paul. I’m with you on most of what you wrote. F1 isn’t of interest this season for me, but that’s just because we know the outcome of the races before they take place. Back in 1988 when McLaren was the clear overdog, we didn’t know if it would be Senna or Prost, which made viewing mandatory. Verstappen’s on another planet—I did shake my head when the Sky F1 hosts posed the same question twice over the weekend as to whether Checo can beat Max to the title, and their hilarious answer both times was yes—and did what greats do by dominating the field. Unlike 1988, it’s Max, and only Max winning, unless something truly strange occurs.

And while the Red Bull show isn’t all that interesting to me, Max put on a show and won last weekend and the coolest development of the season with Alonso and Aston Martin doing big things has been a joy to follow. That’s awesome; even though first place isn’t really up for grabs, there’s a great sub thread to follow on who’s best-in-class.

IndyCar’s yet to disappoint this season, and the same can be said for IMSA with its fresh GTP cars and stellar GT racing. I’ve seen some of the greatest series and eras in motor racing, and have them saved in the form of memories, photos, videos, and memorabilia. And if I could go back in time and enjoy them again, sure, I’d go, but racing’s in a great place right now and I’d rather live in the present than the past.

Three other things I can confirm: Ross Chastain throws an impressive overhand right, Noah Gragson can take a punch, and Sunday was by no means the first time they’ve been on the delivery or receiving end of such things.

The battle for wins in F1 has been one-sided so far this year, but the emergence of Aston Martin has kept things spicy behind Red Bull. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images

Q: In my opinion IndyCar has had the superior racing product the last few years, but seems losing the media spotlight to F1’s rise in popularity Stateside. Do you think that having a woman in a competitive car regularly would help differentiate the series from F1 and garner more interest? Is this even close to happening?

Brett Roach

MP: I don’t. We’ve had Danica Patrick, Katherine Legge, Ana Beatriz, and Simona De Silvestro as highly talented full-timers, and IndyCar made no significant inroads on its rivals. I do think it would be awesome if we had not one, but multiple women in competitive cars, but I don’t think it would bring a ratings, attendance, or popularity windfall. We’ve seen it before, and it wasn’t a sustainable draw.

The only difference I can think of from then to now is the world is a very different place so maybe having some kickass woman for an entire season would bring in more interest in 2025 than it did a decade ago.

Jamie Chadwick’s the closest we have at the moment, and she’s a few years away from being ready for IndyCar.

Q: Lewis Hamilton mentioned his desire to test an IndyCar. Let’s say he decides that he wants to race at the Indianapolis 500. If you were Lewis, what team should he drive for that would give him a chance to win the race, and what team would be willing to give him a chance to race at Indy?

Alistair, Springfield, MO

MP: The obvious ones like Ganassi, Andretti, Penske, McLaren, Rahal and Shank come to mind as those are the most recent Indy winners, with a premium placed on Ganassi and McLaren since they’ve were the best at Indy last year. That would change if others take the lead this year or next.

As for being willing to ‘give him a chance,’ we’re talking about the most successful and most popular active driver in the world, right? I’d think every team, down to the newest and smallest, would be tripping over themselves to land the biggest name in racing and bring an international audience to their doorstep.

Whether you love him or don’t, he’s a cultural happening in ways that extend far beyond the sport and that’s something the Indy 500 has not done for decades. Hamilton at Indy, unlike Alonso at Indy, gets all the major networks involved for the first time in forever and brings millions of people who know nothing about IndyCar and the Indy 500 to our crown jewel.

I listened to one person from the series last year weigh the options they had for social media influencers to bring in for a regular event; the best I heard was someone with an online cooking show with just over 30,000 Instagram followers. Half the celebrities who attended last weekend’s Miami GP — with a combined follower base in the tens of millions — were there to see their pal Lewis. Penske Entertainment can only dream of such a thing taking place at the 500.

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The RACER Mailbag, May 3

Q: I have to say that I enjoyed the first episode of “100 Days to Indy.” I think they are off to a good start. Not sure if going against the NFL draft was a great idea. I’ve got to ask, are you going to be in future episodes? If there is a journalist that needs to be on there, it’s you. The others that are on there don’t report anything near what you do for us. Hope you’re involved in it somehow.

Eric, London, OH

MARSHALL PRUETT: Kind of you to say. No, I’m not involved in any capacity. I am, however, a producer on an upcoming documentary about someone in IndyCar that’s due out later this year, and that’s been a great experience.

100 Days is a perfectly enjoyable docuseries for fans who get to see some extra behind-the-scenes content, but as I’ve been told many times, it’s not for you, or me, or any of the existing audience. Also, since the demise of NBCSN’s IndyCar 360 many moons ago, fans have been starved for docu-style IndyCar programming between races for ages, so 100 Days was always going to be a hit with diehards.

But, and I can’t stress this enough, as IndyCar and IMS said repeatedly when 100 Days was announced, this exercise is to attract new and younger fans, not to entertain the fans it already has. If current fans are pleased, that’s great, but that’s not the reason the docuseries was commissioned.

IndyCar’s main fan, based on its demographic data, is a 60ish-year-old man, and that’s the big worry in terms of sustainability. Launching the 100 Days project, which is done in partnership between Penske Entertainment and CW/VICE, and features Penske Entertainment as the co-producer, makes total sense as a recruitment tool to court the TikTok generation.

So, yes, for IndyCar fans, six hours of extra content on the nation’s fifth-largest network is a bonus. But I don’t care if we like it; that’s not why it exists. We need this to succeed to ensure IndyCar has a long future stocked with new and younger fans. It’s a crucial project, which everyone knows and that’s the reason why every IndyCar team and driver have turned into non-stop promotion departments through their social media accounts to try and get people to tune into 100 Days. I’ve never seen a coordinated push like this between a series and its paddock; it’s truly impressive.

The question we’ll be asking over the coming weeks and months is whether 100 Days served its primary objective of bringing in next-generation followers. It’s the only thing that matters.

Based on the rating numbers from Ep. 1, going up against the NFL Draft, NBA playoffs, and NHL playoffs was the dumbest decision they could have made. Per the Nielsen data, 100 Days was the lowest-rated show among all prime time network offerings last Thursday, and it was last by an unfortunately wide margin. Its lead-in show on the CW, “Walker,” had 542,000 viewers from 8-9pm. From 9-10, 100 Days had 189,000 viewers, which means it lost 65 percent of its Walker audience.

It was also last in every age demographic — 18-34, 18-48, 25-54 — that mattered Thursday night, which is depressing for those of us who care. I really hope the majority of the 189,000 viewers weren’t IndyCar fans, because if that’s the case, we’re in trouble. The re-air Sunday night on the CW had an uptick to 196,000 viewers, and I’d have to assume that wasn’t the same 189,000 from its premiere, so that would be positive. I’m also told the re-air delivered a younger demographic than the premiere, so that’s another positive.

I don’t have data for it — I’ve asked — and hope that the CW’s highly touted streaming audience, a powerful youth-based segment that only consumes the network’s content via its app, put up big numbers for Ep. 1 and will return to boost the numbers through streaming in Ep. 2, and so on.

As disappointing as the debut’s Nielsen ratings were, I’m sure they’ll improve with each new episode. It’s going to take time to establish 100 Days as something newcomers will learn about and hopefully get into the habit of consuming. Tomorrow’s episode features Pato and Colton, which is as good a hook as you could bait for the demographic IndyCar’s chasing. Fingers crossed.

IndyCar’s foray into the docuseries world seems to have been reasonably well-received by the Mailbag clan so far. Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment

Q: The guy you were trying to remember who tried running without a rear wing back in the ’80s was Tom Sneva. I can’t tell you exactly where or when, but that guy would try anything to go a little bit faster.

Alan Hummel

MP: Thanks, Alan. Indeed it was, at Michigan in 1984. I found a photo of it in the archives I was given by a friend years ago (below) and there’s no rear wing on his Indy car.

Q: This question is from my 9-year-old about the Indy 500 flyover. He respectfully requests that you ask whoever is responsible for scheduling the flyover the following question. I would also appreciate it so I do not have to say “I don’t know” every single day from February until May… From Landon: “Why doesn’t the B2 stealth bomber do the flyovers anymore? Or at least something cool like the F22/F35? Can you please ask the Air Force to fly those over this year? Thank you!”

Landon, age 9

MP: That’s a great question, Landon. I wouldn’t think IndyCar or the Speedway decides which planes the Air Force uses, but hopefully they can put in a special request for you.

Q: Not a question, but more of a suggestion for the executives at IndyCar and Speedway Motorsports. I’m glad the current Nashville street circuit needs to find a new home. While economics, and infrastructure, would obviously drive everything, I would love to see the city’s IndyCar race move to the complex where Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville is located. How cool it would be for the renovations to the area to be set up to include a street circuit, which would feature a loop around the historic short track (once renovated by Speedway Motorsports, assuming all of the approvals go through as needed)? To me, it would be a win-win for all involved and add another piece of history to a legendary complex which is set to be a fixture and economic driver in the city for years to come.

Kevin, Milton, PA

MP: You’ve just made every IndyCar race engineer have a panic attack as they considered what they’d have to do to come up with a setup for the world’s first short-oval street circuit.

Kidding aside, I love the idea. What a unique layout. Might be the best one I’ve heard in years.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 26

Q: The Long Beach Grand Prix was a fun race to watch, and good to see Andretti finally get to finish up front. I’ve been going to the Grand Prix for about 40 years and I’ve been sitting down from the starter stand, and this year I noticed on the few restarts they were waving the green flag before the leader even left the hairpin. Was this to prevent stacking up and possible crash at the end of the front straight? Normally the yellow helps to punch everybody up but this was basically single file.

CAM in LA

MARSHALL PRUETT: The consensus so far is the race starts and restarts at Long Beach were epically bad. Considering how we’re receiving letters about it for a second consecutive mailbag, there’s no way we’ll get more.

Q: The start of the race last Sunday in Long Beach was absurd. Only six of the 27 cars were lined up properly. Six! That means the other 21 cars were single file and most of them hadn’t even hit the last turn at the green flag. How many turns into the race was the Kirkwood when last place hit the start/finish line? I know it’s tough to bunch the field up for the start at LB, but really? This is why there should be standing starts at street and road courses. It puts everyone on a level playing field. They’re big boys, figure it out.

Bill Phypers, Brewster, NY

MP: Well, so much for that idea. When we go hybrid next year and the ERS units fire the motor, I’m going to lobby for a return of Le Mans-style running starts, and in a modern twist, the car won’t start until all belts are connected.

Q: Can you shed any further light on exactly where things went wrong with the 2.4L hybrid system? Were there problems with individual hardware components, or was the integration process more difficult than anyone expected? Will it ever make it to the track?

I’m thinking I might just want to forget about it if I were R.P. since it didn’t attract a third manufacturer, and it seems like Chevy’s engine program is on hold while the Honda engine is getting valuable track experience behind the ARX-06s.

John M.

MP: There were no problems with the 2.4L motors themselves; Chevy and Honda invested heavily in the new engines and did track testing with them in anticipation of going hybrid in 2024. The main problem was that IndyCar failed to deliver a third (or fourth) engine manufacturer to share in the costs of supplying the field. The knock-on effects were significant.

Although both brands refused to say so on the record, Chevy and Honda held firm to supplying approximately eight full-season 2.4L leases apiece, and with that in mind, IndyCar would have seen a massive year-to-year loss to its grid. It’s easy to paint the two brands as the villains here, but they weren’t. They went into the 2.4L agreement with the full expectation that IndyCar would bring a third manufacturer to the formula to make it something close to a three-way share, with each brand covering eight leases in a 24-car field. It could have been 27 cars if each went to nine leases, but the only way that made financial sense was if the supply was shared three ways. Chevy and Honda didn’t have budgets to keep doing what they’ve been doing and splitting a 27-car field with 12 or more leases per side.

When the series came close but didn’t land Toyota, it became clear that a third supplier wasn’t going to happen and without some form of change, IndyCar’s teams would take a huge hit and some might be at risk of falling out of the series. The costs to develop, build, and support the new 2.4L motors was decidedly more expensive than the 2.2Ls, so it wasn’t a case of Chevy or Honda not wanting to continue taking care of their current teams. They simply didn’t have the budget to do more than single-digit leases for the season.

The decision to put IndyCar’s 2.4L engines on ice had very little to do with the formula itself, and quite a lot to do with the lack of a third supplier to help Honda and Chevy offset the costs. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Additionally, MAHLE, IndyCar’s chosen energy recovery system vendor, signaled that it would not be able to supply the full grid with ERS units in time to go racing in 2024.

So, faced with two troubling dilemmas, and one of the two manufacturers being less interested in pressing forward with the 2.4L formula than the other, a proposal was made to halt development on the 2.4Ls, keep the trusty old 2.2Ls around for an indefinite period and, to bail out the series and its hybrid supply dilemma, Chevy and Honda agreed to put some of its 2.4L budget that would go unused in making the costly new motors into developing the MAHLE-inspired ERS units.

Hard to say if those 2.4Ls will see the back of an open-wheel car anytime soon, but if that decision is taken, I’d think it would be packaged with the announcement of a third brand joining the series. Here’s the main takeaway: If a third manufacturer was signed from the time the 2.4L formula was announced in 2018 to the latter stages of 2022, we’d be going to 2.4Ls in 2024.

Q: After reading about Kevin Kalkhoven’s share of the Grand Prix of Long Beach being put up for sale, I found a news article from 2005 (just before the purchase) when it wasn’t clear whether CCWS or IRL would be racing at the 2006 GPLB:

“…Kalkhoven said, should Champ Car lose the event, there is already a
contingency plan in place for another street race at an unspecified
location in the Los Angeles area.”

I’m very curious — where would this street race have been?

Brendan

MP: Best that comes to mind was a proposal — and I’m not sure if it ever reached anything close to being formally pitched to the city — to race around the Los Angeles Dodgers’ MLB stadium.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 19

Q: Do IndyCar drivers use spotters around the course that will help them know when other drivers are around them? In NASCAR at Road America (and probably other road courses, as well as ovals) they have spotters positioned all around the course to help the drivers know when other cars are getting next to them. Perfect example, the pass at Long Beach where Pato O’Ward went down the inside of Scott Dixon and they made contact — would Dixon have had a spotter at that moment that could have helped? If not any idea why not? A simple “inside, inside” from a spotter could have been a huge help in that instant.

Craig C., Slinger, WI

MARSHALL PRUETT: It’s more a case of one spotter placed strategically on road and street courses, instead of multiple. And not every team uses spotters outside of the ovals.

The Dixon/Pato deal was a tough one because if you know O’Ward, he’s always going to fire his car into the gap, but even knowing that wouldn’t have prevented what happened because he cut to the inside so much later than anyone expected — including Dixon — and from so far back, it wasn’t something Scott or any other driver would have anticipated.

If Dixon had a spotter right there, and was on the radio button leading into the corner, I’m guessing they might have had time to say a word or two as Pato lunged down the inside, but this was more of a surprise than something we saw coming the entire time.

I don’t blame O’Ward for trying, but it was a risky attempt that really needed Dixon to know it was going to happen so he could have moved to the left to save the two of them from making contact. Sometimes that happens — the driver on the outside catches a last-second glimpse in their mirror and adjusts to avoid being hit. That didn’t happen here, and we got the outcome at hand.

Q: Back in 2017 (I think), I heard that the long-awaited book about the history of the Newman/Haas team was put on hold right before it went to the publisher at the request of Carl Haas’s widow. I have not seen any more information on it. Do you know anything about it, and can you check with Gordon Kirby?

Joe Mullins

MP: I spoke with a friend about it at Long Beach and was told the same hold remains in place by his widow. Prospects of seeing the book appear in print didn’t sound promising.

The Newman/Haas story would make a heck of a book, but it seems increasingly unlikely that it will ever get the chance. Motorsport Images

Q: I’ve been wondering something about the upcoming IndyCar hybrid engines for a while now, and recently I haven’t been able to get it out of my head, so I might as well ask.

Electric motors are very torquey, and we all know torque figures have a massive impact on how cars drive depending on how much torque there is and where in the rev range they hit. A lot has been made of the added power, but little talk of the added torque. Do we have an idea of how this is going to influence things? Do they expect it to be in the middle of the rev range? Do they expect to be tuning the engine to hit its power band at higher or lower RPM and having the electric motor handle the other side? Or is it expected to be a more consistent increase across the rev range?

I’m mainly curious because of Indy NXT. I worry that if the added torque comes in too low, hitting hard out of corners, we may end up in a situation where Indy NXT does not adequately train its drivers for the jump to IndyCar, not unlike how it was often said the older Lights cars didn’t sufficiently prepare them for the DW12. And if that happens we have to ask ourselves how to solve that conundrum.

PS: Last week you had a question about if TMS had a road course, and you said you didn’t know. I am happy to inform you that yes, TMS has a 2.3-mile 10-turn infield road course. The ALMS used it in 2000 and 2001, with the 2001 race being the site of the only podium ever achieved by the stylish but fragile Panoz LMP07. Whether or not it has been maintained in a usable state, however, I cannot speak to.

FormulaFox

MP: Definitely understand the training concern, but we trained Indy Lights drivers in the 1990s with flat-bottom cars that made limited downforce and had 420hp and sent them to CART where they had underwings and lots of downforce and 900-plus horsepower, and the Kanaans and Hertas and Helios and Dixons of the world did just fine when dealing with the jump to light speed.

Indy NXT and all of its previous iterations have fluctuated heavily when it comes to speed, technology, and relevance to what those kids would drive in the big series. And yet, each era has seen phenomenal talent emerge and thrive in IndyCar, so I’m not worried about a turbo motor from Chevy or Honda, which already makes prodigious torque, being aided with an extra dose of electric torque. Considering the extra weight the cars will be carrying, the ERS units won’t give drivers the explosive acceleration that made the former LMP1 Hybrids disappear out of the corners like they were dragsters.

Great note about TMS; I’d forgotten about it being part of the early days of the ALMS when half of its schedule seemed to be on crappy rovals. I’m struggling to recall the old infield section as being something the track has preserved; in walking and driving around the infield, nothing stood out as being maintained and utilized, but I could be wrong.

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The RACER Mailbag, April 12

ED’s note: We had a few letters from readers last week wanting to know the identity of the person shown speaking to Devlin DeFrancesco on the TV broadcast after he climbed out of his crashed car at TMS. According to the team, it was “Coach Hector,” aka DeFrancesco’s personal performance coach and trainer Hector Maradiaga of Infinity Sports Institute in the Miami area – MG.

Q: Wasn’t Texas run at night at one point? If so, does nighttime affect the racing dramatically?

Shawn, MD

MARSHALL PRUETT: It was, and it does. It’s the swings in temperature from the start of the race to the middle and latter stages when thinner air becomes thicker air and influences downforce, which can be tuned throughout the race — within reason — by teams during pit stops, and with the change in downforce, you’re also at risk of burning off your tires if you start overly light on aero and cause the tires to slide.

Q: While the seating chart and number of grandstands for the 2023 Honda Indy Toronto are the same and the promoters don’t anticipate adding additional ones, it’s evident that the current pit lane has to be reconfigured to fit a 27-car field. As you know, the pit lane that has been in use since 2016 barely squeezed in 24 full-time entries last year. I know that the promoters and IndyCar have a plan. That’s great, but what is it?

The reason I am asking is so I, and no doubt others like me, can figure out the best place to sit if we want to have a stellar view of the action in the pits. The promoters usually post a Festival Map diagram that shows people how the track and its infield is laid out, but the only track map that is on the site right now is for 2022. If you could get IndyCar and Honda Indy Toronto’s promoters to shed more light on this, it would be appreciated.

David Colquitt

MP: Based on a conversation I had with IndyCar’s Jay Frye about this exact Toronto pit lane scenario during the offseason, this year’s race will indeed squeeze 27 cars onto the same location as last year.

Q: Were you able to speak to Evi Gurney or anyone else at AAR about the Dan Gurney autobiography? If so, what’s the latest update? We’ve been hearing (for years now) that Evi is going through photographs. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever see his autobiography in print.

Rick Johnson, Lynnwood, WA

MP: I fly down to LA on Wednesday and will head straight to AAR. I’ll get an update while there, Rick.

Q: I’ve always wondered how the GTD teams pick what car they run, and how that may be different from the GTD PRO teams. Is it driver preference? Business interests (like, I’m a Porsche dealer so I’m going to run Porsche)?

Bill Jackson

MP: All about the preference of whomever is paying the Pro-Am GTD bills, including the manufacturers. (That part’s supposed to be a secret). Take the new AO Racing team. Owner/driver/financier PJ Hyett is a lover of Porsches, so they run a Porsche. Could be a dealership thing, like Paul Miller Racing which has run just about every GT3 model made by a brand they represent — BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini come to mind among the cars they’ve raced that have a direct link to what they sell on the street. And then you have the privately funded Magnus Racing, which has run every GT3 car on the planet and frequently switches brands to ensure it is using the hottest model of the season. GTD PRO teams are, almost exclusively, fully funded by the factories.

IndyCars under the stars at Texas was a thing until pretty recently. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

Q: I watched every minute of the race at TMS, as I do every year. I was amazed when I read the story on RACER that the race attendance improved significantly. Sorry, but that doesn’t pass the eye test. No secret that huge portions of the grandstands are closed off and have been for years. But the grandstands that were open had so few people that it was painful to watch. In fact, after a few laps, it was obvious that the director of the broadcast was taking pains not to use shots that showed how empty the stands were.

Ovals are the heritage of IndyCar. While I love seeing them run on street and road courses (I’ve been to Mid-Ohio 15 times), it is sad that there are only five ovals on this year’s schedule. TMS needs to stop yapping and actually put fans in the seats, and Roger and his folks better figure out how to help.

Bob Isabella, Cleveland, OH

MP: Nowhere in the story did we state there was a significant improvement in attendance. I wrote that there was a double-digit percentage increase in ticket sales, and that there was a visible year-to-year increase, but we also included a photo that clearly demonstrated the stands were anything but full.

The story was a deserving nod to the track’s new efforts to do better, and as I noted, they didn’t say what exactly that increase happened to be. If it was 10 percent, and there were 5000 people last year, it means there were 5500 this year, or some variation on that theme. Whatever it was, a double-digit increase is meaningful, considering how poor attendance was in 2022.

I’ve hammered Texas in the past — last year being the most recent — for the poor efforts to grow its IndyCar audience, so what purpose would barking at the promoters again, after they’ve demonstrated an improvement, happen to serve?

For those of us who were there on pit lane or in the stands on April 2, there was a feeling of encouragement that Texas can and did do better, and was given a ton of footage to use to draw a lot more people in next year. If, after a whale of a 2023 race, sales are flat in 2024, there’s no hope for the future. But for now, with the track’s renewed interest in IndyCar, I can’t find a reason to ignore the positives and dwell on the negatives.

Q: Will IndyCar be using any of the new aero updates this year at the 500? The tracks are super-different. I’m wondering how much, if any, crossover there is with the new parts. Also, if the caution didn’t fly, do you still take Newgarden as your winner?

Ian

MP: IndyCar will have new stability wickers and new rear wing mounting plates that will allow for more downforce to be cranked in for race setups. There’s more that I’ll put together in a written piece and a video once we get to the open test later in the month. Minus the last caution, Pato would have been hard to beat.

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