Q: I was seriously concerned by your article saying Laguna Seca is no longer under consideration for a March 2024 date and fear, once again, we will be stuck with that huge gap between St. Pete and Texas. Would it not make sense to pair Laguna Seca with Long Beach? This would put Laguna Seca on April 28, two weeks prior to its IMSA date on May 12.
Start at St. Pete on March 10, (Sebring is the following week), Texas on March 24 (Easter is 31st March), Barber on April 7, (final round of U.S. Masters is April 14), Long Beach on April 21 and Laguna on April 28.
For me, this seems to the best way to organize the front portion of the schedule without the need to add a race.
Graeme, Hull, UK
MP: We have St. Pete going one week later than last on March 8-10, and IMSA’s big Sebring race where Andretti, Meyer Shank, Penske, and Rahal need to compete on March 14-16, and that “early” Easter on March 31, so that leaves March 22-24 as the one weekend where nobody would be upset if it was filled with an IndyCar race that month. But that’s the rainy season around Monterey, which is why the track wasn’t interested in hosting an event. The late April option isn’t bad, but teams tend to be in Indy for the 500’s Open Test at that time, and rain is still a thing at Laguna Seca in that window. That’s why I’ve heard they’ve pushed for a June or July date and I believe IndyCar is looking to accommodate such a thing.
Q: IndyCar has a ton of unique personalities in the paddock. You have made great relationships with many of these folks. Equally as unique are the team owners. Which team owner (current or former) have you built the closest relationship with?
Not a Disgruntled Race Fan
MP: Spending time with Bryan Herta is always a treat. Mike Shank is a hoot, and I can say that about most of the team owners today. I’ve really enjoyed some of the newer owners like Bill Abel or a Don Cusick whose passion for the sport hasn’t been jaded by decades of being in the business of owning a racing team. All-time favorite was the late Dan Gurney.
Q: I saw on another IndyCar news site that if Will Power retires after the 2024 season when he will be 44 years old, Kyle Kirkwood could be a possibility to join Team Penske. Has there been indication from Will that he may decide to retire after his contract is up? Who else might be a candidate for that team?
Mike Bragg
MP: I wrote that here about Kirkwood a week or two ago. Power’s contract is through 2024, I’m told, and I need to ask him if he’s wanting to retire. Unless Christian Lundgaard signs an extension with RLL to stay beyond 2024, I’d bet he’d be a top pick. Callum Ilott also strikes me as a driver who Penske would covet. Fast and all-business at the track is the trend we’ve seen in their hiring choices over the years.
Q: The NBC/Peacock TV/steaming is a mess when it comes to their televising both NASCAR and IndyCar.
I have cable, that I pay for. In paying for the cable, I get charged a fee for the local “over the air” stations in my locale to get NBC. I have also subscribed to Peacock for an additional payment that does not go to the cable provider.
I have no problem with NBC loading down the races they show over the air; however, Peacock, while it observes the same commercial breaks, doesn’t have the time sold to an advertiser, and all I get is a sign that the program will restart shortly. My real peeve is that I am paying specifically for Peacock, over and above the normal cable bill. Peacock should be streaming commercial-free.
Chuck McAbee
MP: Thanks for writing in, Chuck.
Q: If Alex Palou does move to F1 for next season, who do think will be in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren for 2024? Do you think the team will stick with Rosenqvist, make a move for Ericsson, or look to a younger talent such as Ilott, Malukas, or maybe even Lundqvist?
Si Harrison, Orlando, FL
MP: I have it on good account that Alex has signed to stay with Ganassi. Rosenqvist is drawing interest from other teams and might be on the move, and while I do think Felix is a strong option provided he doesn’t sign somewhere else beforehand, he has the look of someone who could use a fresh start at a different team. I think Ilott was in the frame to replace Palou at Ganassi, but with that looking unlikely, I’d bet McLaren would want him for the No. 6 or through a satellite Juncos Hollinger-McLaren entry.
Ericsson’s said to be on the way to Andretti, and McLaren has a lot of drivers within its open-wheel empire to draw from, or who’d love to come drive for them out of F2 or F1 testing gigs.
Q: Does NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer get an advanced Mailbag copy? Last week, Shyam wrote about Nashville: “Scott McLaughlin was frustrated at how these starts happened and how it affected racing at the back, and how backmarkers dive bomb and how it breeds more yellows. I agree that the last apex should be the point where they go on a restart.”
Well, guess what? NASCAR modifies Indy restart procedure.
In the same Mailbag, Glenn Timmis waxed poetically about Parnelli Jones. My memories of him go back to my first 500 in 1967 when Andy Granatelli’s STP Turbine “whooshmobile” was the talk of the entire month of May, and yes, it was true (per the late Jack Friedman, who was a mechanic on his 1963 Indy 500 winner and my ex-father-in-law) that Andy Granatelli presented a briefcase with $100,000 in cash in it for Parnelli to drive the car.
I seem to remember a few weeks ago where you derided this engineering masterpiece, which took three years to develop, as showing up with “a helicopter turbine” but in fact, if you watch the Paramount newsreel (thankfully now on YouTube) on the development of the car through the post-race, it was quite the technical achievement, especially — as Glenn points out — the biggest advance was the four-wheel drive, also used on the four 1968 doorstop turbines driven by Joe Leonard, Graham Hill, Art Pollard and Mike Spence, who was killed in practice.
Finally, Shyam also wrote that “IndyCar and IndyCar’s support system (ecosystem, media) never take something and make it better.”
I can give you two concrete examples otherwise:
1) Racing on the three-quarter mile trioval at Richmond starting in 2001, where the cars were turning left 70% of the time, and actually turned right on the backstretch. All over the garages at Indy that year, the excitement was palpable for a race four weeks later on the shortest track IndyCar ever raced on in the modern era. After the race, when Economaki asked winner Buddy Lazier what it was like, he started his question with “you look as wet as a dishrag — what was it like out there?” and Eddie Cheever said, “it was like flying a jet fighter in a gymnasium.”
2) The restrictor plate IRL races at Texas, which were actually better than the NASCAR originals but which they couldn’t quite replicate at the similar Charlotte and Atlanta tri-ovals. Yes, they were dangerous as hell (just ask Davey Hamilton and Robbie McGehee, who tore up legs and catchfences); but they filled up the grandstands.
Dan Schwartz, Atlanta, GA
MP: Thanks, Dan. I don’t recall deriding the STP Turbine. It’s one of my all-time favorite cars. A friend from IndyCar noted the same thing about NASCAR taking the thing some people complained about after Nashville and changed stock car’s restart procedure to mimic the exact Nashville process at the Brickyard.