Q: Someone who matters at IndyCar needs to hear that with the new TV deal, they are losing a fan who watches every single IndyCar session. The cost of doing this with Peacock was around $20 annually with the right promotion. It increases about tenfold to $200 with Venu Sports.
I watched every session and attended my local race each year that IndyCar was on Peacock. As a reward for my loyalty, I am now forced to choose between doing one or the other. If the races themselves are not free-to-view on demand within either the Fox app or the Fox Sports app, I will do neither.
It takes courage to screw your most loyal customers this hard. I can’t support that no matter how much I love the sport.
Nick, FL
MP: I hate to hear this, Nick.
Q: I would have thought it be hard for Ricardo Juncos to part ways with countryman Augustin Canapino. I was under the impression Canapino brought sponsorship to the team, unless any Argentinian sponsors wanted an Argentinian driver. Was the split between Augustin Canapino and Juncos Hollinger inevitable, and why do it with a few races left instead of after the season ends?
Brandon Karsten
MP: I’ve heard the Canapino-brought-sponsorship thing a few times since his exit and can’t understand where this comes from. He was always a project for Juncos, who was responsible for finding the entire budget. We wrote plenty about why the split happened now when it happened.
Q: Did anyone ever consider the Ferrari Hypercar nomenclature (499P) could’ve stood for first Le Mans win year (1949) 49 and total Le Mans wins, at the time of introduction 9?
Patrick Reilly
MP: I’ve asked the other 8 billion people on earth, and they all said no, you’re the only one!
Q: Are the Steinbrenners still partners with Andretti?
Tim, Glen Ellyn, IL
MP: They are not.
Q: On any given IndyCar broadcast, I will hear at least three different pronunciations of Alex Palou’s last name:
– Pa-LOO
– Pa-LOW
– Pa-LAU
How does the man himself pronounce his own last name?
Wiscowerner
MP: Lots of different Spanish accents in play here. Alex pronounces it as ‘Puh-low.’
Q: I get why the existing IndyCar teams might want the charters, but as a fan, I hate the idea. The thought of parking tens of millions of dollars in a Cup charter with zero cash extra cash flow as a benefit is keeping the Earnhardts out of Cup. Would a Juncos, Schmidt, Herta, Vasser, Shank have been able to start a team and ease their way in if a charter system were in place back then? No.
IndyCar has healthy fields now, but that’s no guarantee for the future. While it’s healthy, let’s have qualifying mean something. Some F2 or Indy Lights ( whoever came up with NXT should be fired) kids have some money; that allows the Abel, Malukas, Prema, et al to come in and have a crack at making the field. Bumping doesn’t just have to be at Indy. The truth is most of the fans wouldn’t know who half the drivers were if they were clothes in the beer line next to them in street clothes.
Let’s have it be like the NHRA, where if the driver screws up, he/she really could go home.
Yes, charters do give an owner some value beyond used equipment at exit. But without an operating cash flow influx, does it really help that much? Is Earnhardt not owning a Cup team healthy for NASCAR?
Justin
MP: The back-end merits of the charters in giving something for team owners to sell and cash-out with has value. Other than that, in knowing there’s no owner looking to sell, I’m waiting to see what charters truly add that’s missing today.
Q: Is the Cyndi Lux mentioned in this 2022 ‘Preview: Trans Am 100s at Road America’ related to Ron Lux, who was killed in the USAC race at the Tulsa Fairgrounds on July 16th, 1966? In a moment, I’ll tell you why this may be important.
I was not sure if Lux was killed in a USAC Sprint or Champ Car race, but Robin Miller wrote in MILLER: The 1960s – a decade in headlines that it was indeed a USAC Sprint race in the sixth paragraph.
Miller writes:
* If any year [ED: 1966] stands out it’s this one, as new ideas overran Gasoline Alley, road racing got a revival as the Can-Am and Trans Am series started, and the Grim Reaper claimed six USAC drivers.
* Rutherford flipped out of Eldora and broke both arms in April, but was back racing the next year and never lost his sense of humor. “You find out quickly who your real friends are when it’s time to go to the bathroom,” said J.R. But it was a brutal year for open-wheelers as savvy dirt veterans Jud Larson and Red Riegel were killed in a sprint-car crash at Reading, Pa. Ron Lux, a promising rookie, died as a result of injuries in a sprint race at Tulsa, and USAC midget champion Jimmy Davies was fatally injured warming up his midget in Chicago. Two weeks after scoring his initial Indy car victory at Sacramento, Dick Atkins was caught up in Branson’s accident at Ascot Park and both were killed.
The reason why I’m trying to find out is that… wait for it … My late fiancee’s father was Jack Friedman, who was a mechanic on Ol’ Calhoun at Indy in… wait for it again… 1963. And Jack had the red, white & black ‘1963 Indy 500 Winner’ sticker on his toolbox at his home on Staten Island to prove it!
When I went to her home in nearby Sayreville, NJ for the first time in 2006, she said “I want to show you something in the garage,” and, wait for it again… it was a beautifully restored 1962 Leffler that she said Mario, JR, Mel Kenyon, and others had driven (I never verified the provenance), and, wait for it again… Ron Lux was killed in at the Tulsa Fairgrounds in 1966.
Unfortunately, Adria and I never married, and then drifted apart; and a friend told me a few years ago she died (I haven’t tracked her down).
If indeed Cyndi Lux is related to Ron Lux, I — along with other Mailbag readers — will try to locate that 1962 Leffler, which Jack lovingly restored, for the Lux family to contact the present owner.
As Billy Mays used to say, “But wait, there’s more!” The No.93 Ol’ Calhoun in the Speedway Museum which won the `63 Indy 500 is a replica: The original was in Rufus’s private collection in California, and Jack saw it about 20 years ago when he & Diane went to visit.
Continuing the Billy Mays theme …“But if you order now, we have an extra bonus for you!” Turns out, while looking for a pix of Ol’ Calhoun, I stumbled across Angus McKenzie driving the IMS Museum replica around The Speedway in The Greatest: Driving Ol’ Calhoun – Motor Trend
McKenzie has the photo as his header photo on X, …but since he hasn’t posted since 2022, he never replied to my tweet!
Dan Schwartz, Atlanta, GA
MP: My friend Cindi Lux, one of the great women racers over the last 30-plus years, is from Oregon and her father’s name was Dick.