Q: IndyCar seems all doom and gloom recently. That said, everything and everyone at IndyCar is putting on the face of “everything is fine.”
Is Roger Penske blind and deaf to the reactions of fans and the media? Or does he just believe he is right, his direction is great, and it’s all going swimmingly? As Mr. Penske ages, he seems like an aging Vince McMahon, from the WWE. He’s the only one who sees the vision, he is correct, forget what the audience says, things and wants, and runs off everyone except the true die-hards. Even those die-hards feel like they get gut-punched. Both Roger and Vince seem to have hung on to too much power for too long, with only yes-men in their ear. Is Roger really a dictator who is too stubborn to see the forest from the trees? And see that the forest is on fire?
We have a chassis that’s all but a teenager and hasn’t changed bodywork since 2018, except for the safety enhancement of the aeroscreen. Our engines are stagnant; seemingly because a partially-Penske owned operation, Ilmor, can’t get the hybridization to work without the help of its rival Honda.
I’ve been a life-long IndyCar fan. Born just south of Indy in the late ’70s, IndyCar and the 500 have been lifelong passions and are really in my blood. I attended qualifications through elementary school and high school, and started going to the race itself during college in the late ’90s IRL days, and have been a ticketholder at Indy since 2001. I was elated when Penske purchase IMS and the series. But he seems to be running the series like a participant — worried about spending money — and not like a leader of the series that he should be. The series survived under him through COVID, I’ll give him credit for that, but nothing has changed for the positive since. Penske is a multi-billionaire. If he is the steward of the Indy 500; act like it. Make it thrive. But that requires capital expenditure, and that seems like something he’s not willing to put forth.
The state of the series had me depressed enough that I’m considering not renewing my tickets after 2024, not attending any other IndyCar races (I attend two-three every year), and just quit watching American motorsport and throwing my viewing behind F1, which breaks my heart. Should I have any reason at all for optimism of positive change? Yes, the racing is very good. But, when NASCAR changes generation of cars more often than you do, that should be telling and damning!
Jason, Batesville, IN
MP: If future F1 races are anything like they were in 2023, you’ll be back watching and attending IndyCar races in an instant!
Q: Addressing Craig B.’s request on page 6 from last week’s Mailbag to crank up the qualifying speeds at Indy by turning up the boost, back in the 1960s they did something similar by spiking the methanol with nitromethane.
However, this brings up the issue that IndyCar can’t really get around: They need to hold down the speeds to around 230 mph, or else they cannot get liability insurance because cars start to fly in unexpected ways into grandstands. I was a bit surprised to see the Indy qualifying speeds creep up past that point in the last several years.
In addition, as we saw at the April 2001 Texas CART race, past a certain point on that track at around 231–234 mph (depending mostly on the banking but also somewhat the turn radius), the drivers started to “gray out” due to the vertical G-forces, which forced the cancelation of the race while the grandstands were still filling up — only the second time in history a race was canceled because the cars were going too fast — and it was because CART mismanaged the situation by not adding a Hanford Device to slow the cars down, because the engine manufacturers wouldn’t/couldn’t agree to a boost reduction.
Dan Schwartz, Atlanta, GA
MP: We’re fortunate to have a supremely skilled open-wheel chassis designer in Tino Belli on IndyCar’s payroll in the engineering offices, and in concert with the aerodynamic experts at Dallara, they came up with some smart updates to keep the cars on the ground during Speedway spins and crashes. So far, since those updates arrived, we haven’t seen anything like you’ve cited from the past.
Q: There is no doubt that recent unwelcome developments require Roger Penske’s immediate attention. These developments may not have been a surprise to him — or the IndyCar Series — but they were to us (the fans). Will you please speak to us, Mr. Penske?
Rob, Rochester, NY
MP: It’s not lost on me that we’ve yet to have a State of the Series, or an outline of what the future might hold, by the series’ owner. NASCAR does it. IMSA does it. If IndyCar decides to do one, we’ll have you to thank, Rob.
Q: In reference to Pat from VA last week, Yamaha produced Formula 1 engines for quite a few years when they were normally aspirated and built the engine for the Taurus SHO. And don’t forget Mercury, the boat engine guys, did the ZR-1 engine for the Corvette. So, getting a non-car company involved in IndyCar might not be out of the question, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Tom, Waco
MP: The Polimotor from the early 1980s in IMSA was another example where a plastics company built a four-cylinder GTP Lights engine with some components made from a super hard phenolic material to promote their plastics technology.