Q: With the Nashville Superspeedway finale coming up very soon, I wanted to ask if you know of any intentions from IndyCar and the city of Nashville to move the event back to the downtown streets post-construction of the new Titan’s Stadium? I can’t remember if there was a direct quote from any of your work or other sources that said so.
I love ovals, but I went to all three Music City GPs and I thought the event was a great experience. I was very much planning on going to the new street layout for this year’s championship finale. I won’t get into the specifics, but due to the logistics I will most likely not be able to make it for the event now that it is on the Speedway.
Obviously I know the announcement is six months old and I know I am on the minority on this (especially considering how the first two years of the race went), but I was really disappointed in the venue switch-up. I am a 19-year-old from a Philly suburb in the northeast region that we all know has lacked an IndyCar presence in recent years. The street race gave me the opportunity to see an IndyCar race in person and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year.
I start my freshman year of college next week and I would have gladly missed a class period or two to make the trip down there for the originally-planned modified street race.
Josh Crawford
MP: Great to have you in the series, Josh. I don’t recall any words spoken with confidence about returning to the revised street layout after the new stadium is done. But we’re a few years away from any real chance of it happening. My guess is we’ll need to see how the stadium and traffic flow goes before any new talks of hosting an IndyCar race downtown become real. Lots of bad press the first two events, much better on the third, and then a huge change for the fourth installment. If something positive and consistent can be made to happen downtown, I’d imagine the city would be open to it.
Q: Which series have rules that prohibit cars from having their wheels spinning while in the air? Do they typically give any leniency around this, perhaps when the car is put in gear?
Kyle
MP: I know IMSA doesn’t allow it. No.
Q: What are your thoughts on the yellow caused by Newgarden’s spin? I thought it should have been a line up and back to green immediately. I know that they had the sweepers out on every caution, but for Newgarden’s spin was different in that he didn’t hit anything. But then you realize that both Newgarden and Mclaughlin needed to pit. Hmmmm… a long yellow seemed very conducive to helping Team Penske and probably saved the race for Newgarden. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but from the stands that’s what it felt like.
Joey, Florida
MP: Josef got up into the marbles and spun. He’s lucky he didn’t crash, which would have led to the same long(er) caution. This spin was a perfect depiction of how IndyCar can trigger a caution in a nanosecond on a short oval because it can see it happening right in front of them from race control, but lacks the same ability to do so at a Turn 1 in Toronto because it can’t see it and doesn’t have any extra eyes and a local triggers at blind spots to react with the same swiftness. That’s a problem to solve.
In a race with multiple race strategies working, Team Penske also had Will Power, who led more laps than anyone, in a position to win, so I might need more insight on how race control extended a caution to help other Team Penske drivers to win when Team Penske already had a driver who was in third — Power — who could have easily won.
Q: I am not following the hate directed at Newgarden. Power was hit from behind; why isn’t he mad at that driver? Is this a case of pressure building around points and the number of races dwindling so tempers will just run hot? If it was a driver who is more widely liked in the paddock that was leading, would the reaction be the same?
Matt, Dallas, TX
MP: You’re onto something here, Matt. If it’s Pato or FRO, I don’t think we have the same meltdown. Power realizing his shot at a championship just took a major hit — in the twilight of his career — was evident in his reaction while speaking to NBC.
Q: Back in the IRL days, restarts seemed to be much better than the current system. Brian Barnhart correctly identified that removing the pace car from the track at the end of the pit lane and having the restart occur in the middle of the turn proceeding the start/finish straight gave the drivers maximum opportunity to settle things before Turn 1, and prevented the shenanigans we saw in St. Louis last weekend.
Any thoughts on why this rule was changed?
Don Anderson, Oak Park, IL
MP: Different era, different ownership, different leadership, different race control? If Newgarden hits the throttle one second sooner and we have a normal restart, we aren’t talking about restarts this week. If this was a routine problem, I’d be up for changes. But this isn’t a regular issue so let’s treat it like the anomaly it was.
Q: BMW’s drivers across RLL and WRT did not fall out of the coconut tree, but between Le Mans and numerous incidents in IMSA over the last two years, these cars seem to find the wall much more regularly than other Hypercars do. Is there anything in particular that is leading to a car that seems outright malicious? I’ve heard some people say that the LMDh cars are both very fast, and not particularly forgiving in general, but it seems like the BMW is especially ill-tempered.
Also, given how fast the Acura ARX-06 was at Road America, I really want to see how it’d fare at Le Mans, since it seems to be very well-suited to higher-speed tracks. Could be quite a surprise for Toyota and Ferrari to have to chase that little spaceship.
Duncan, Ottawa
MP: Dallara builds the BMWs and Cadillacs, so I doubt it’s the cars. If I was in charge of hiring BMW’s GTP/Hypercar drivers from Day 1, the rosters would look nothing like they do today.
I can’t say if it will be in 2025 or 2026, but I do expect to see ARX-06s at Le Mans.