Q: What’s the deal with reliability of Honda engines in IndyCar for 2023 and 2024? Scott McLaughlin’s engine penalty at Portland was the first of the season while Honda has had, by my count, 15! And this year is not an outlier: In 2023 Chevy had four engine penalties all season, while Honda had 10.
Any idea what’s going on? Perhaps the money HRC/HPD spent on the hybrid systems for IndyCar and IMSA over the last two years has eaten into the budget for basic R&D/reliability? Or is this a sign that Honda has lost interest and is playing out the string with an engine that can’t keep up with the Ilmor design? What are your thoughts, and has anyone at HRC talked about this?
Ed Joras
MP: I do not know what’s going on. As I’ve written on this topic when it was asked last year, manufacturers go to great lengths to not answer such things or explain in detail how and why they are failing. There are rare occasions where they do, of course, but since HRC (and Ilmor) aren’t prone to telling the outside world why they’re having ongoing high-mileage reliability woes, this is a dead zone for insights, unfortunately.
Q: Why would it be against the rules to use the hybrid to start a stalled car on pit lane? It would seem that from a safety perspective it would be the best option compared with having someone run out on pit lane to start the car. Or, if the car stalls and rolls down a couple of pits, again, safety-wise, it would make sense to have the driver start the car versus five or six crew members trying to push the car back to the pitbox to start the car as other pitting cars go by.
Ross Bynum
MP: It’s for crew safety and not wanting the stalled driver’s team to be trying to manually restart the car while their driver is trying to do it themselves and risk people — in a loud racing environment — from losing control and full awareness of what’s going on.
I agree with the rule, especially with the midseason rollout of hybridization. Play it safe, lock more things down, and then, after a half-season of use and familiarity from the teams, look to open things up like allowing self-starting in the pits.
Q: I will start off by saying I am a big Will Power fan so this will come off as a little biased. Whenever watching IndyCar the well-earned praise heaped upon Scott Dixon as being an all-timer and being up there with the greats is always mentioned. It does not seem Will receives the same praise. Why? I know he can be brash and a little rough around the edges, but based on IndyCar stats alone, an argument can be made that Power has a strong case to be on the Mount Rushmore of IndyCar legends.
Steve
MP: That argument cannot be made right now. But it could if he adds more major achievements to his résumé before he retires. Foyt, Gurney, Andrettis, Unsers, Rutherford, Rose, Mears, Franchitti, Bourdais, Bryan, Meyer, Murphy, Ward, Rahal, Dixon, etc., might want to weigh in on the topic and ask which one of them would be dropped in favor of Will. He’s the all-time leader in poles, which is obviously a big deal, and fourth on the all-time win list, and has an Indy 500 win, but the two championships are the same as Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden who, combined, have fewer years in IndyCar than Power.
So, why is a two-time champion receiving less praise than a six-time champion like Dixon? That one answers itself. There’s no question for me that Will is among the all-time greats of IndyCar. But Mount Rushmore? That’s a stretch which ignores decades upon decades of legends who achieved as much, if not more.
Q: My son is taking me to next year’s Indy 500, and we would like your advice on things to see and do during the race week. We will obviously go to the Museum, and hopefully see Carb Day — depending — but are there any other sites we should see on the once in a lifetime opportunity that my wonderful son has given me for my 70th birthday, like that hole in the wall restaurant where Bobby Unser used to hold court? Are there garage tours or pit tours available? Meet and greets?
Sean Raymond
MP: Have breakfast at Charlie Brown’s and don’t be surprised if you see A.J. Foyt there. Get donuts at Long’s and have a burger at the Workingman’s Friend. Go to Speedway Indoor Karting. Arrange a tour at the Dallara factory. Go to Indianapolis Raceway Park for junior open-wheel oval racing. Do a two-seater side at the Speedway. Get topped up on oil with anything on the menu at Mug n’ Bun. Go to the Indy Memorabilia Show. Buy a bronze badge so you can get into Gasoline Alley. Monitor the teams and track to see what kind of tours and events are offered. Buy a ticket to the Last Row Party and watch me roast the poor bastards.
Q: Is there any scuttlebutt to the re-arranging of NBC’s broadcast lineup? The mid-season shuffling of Diffey out to NASCAR seems a bit odd.
Shawn, MD
MP: Well, there is the part where IndyCar is leaving NBC, but Diffey isn’t, so NBC moved him to its biggest racing property.
Q: It was great to be able to watch the Rolex Reunion on YouTube courtesy of RACER TV — many thanks. From the overhead footage, it looked like the pavement, which was laid down at considerable expense and inconvenience only a year or two ago, has already had multiple repairs, with patches and tar snakes all over the place. Is that correct, or was it just the camera angles? Also, it seemed like there were a lot more oildowns than I remember from when I used to attend. Do entrants get penalized for this? Do that at your average motorcycle track day and they pull your ticket and hit you with a major fine.
RJBH20
MP: Sebastien Bourdais was telling me about the worn tarmac after one year when we were there in May for IMSA. Same story from drivers in June for IndyCar, and yes, the durability of the new surface appears to be… not super durable.
There’s a few blown motors per day at the Reunion, so the oil dry routine is expected. No, they don’t get penalized.