Q: Do you know if Anders Krohn is still going to be a part of the Dreyer & Reinbold/Cusick Motorsports program for the Indy 500? If so, any idea who else will be working with him? The Cusick team seemed to have a good, unique program going on in May of last year. I enjoyed Anders when he was on the IndyCar radio and television broadcasts – he was very insightful – and I always thought that he would be a great addition to a team. Hopefully he stays involved!
Dan Michaelian, Destin, FL
MP: Sadly, that terrible waste of humanity will still be involved with Don. (Kidding…but only a little bit. OK, actually, I love Anders, but if I said something nice about him, he’d think I was ill).
Krohn runs the day-to-day of Cusick Motorsports, so he’s in there negotiating, planning, and serving as a team manager would. His loss from the airwaves is definitely felt.
Q: Why doesn’t Penske leverage some of its other brands for low-cost marketing efforts? Penske Truck Rental as the official rental truck of IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500? Every Penske rental truck is an opportunity for a rolling billboard across the United States.
Scott, Nashville
MP: Great question, Scott. (Is there a shrugging emoji that also says “It makes a lot of sense to me”?)
Q: Free marketing idea. Too late for the Super Bowl, but how about this: Penske Entertainment, for the Daytona 500 ad buy? I’ll storyboard it. 30-second TV ad. The scenes go back and forth between F1 and IndyCar races.
Them: Show an F1 race finish with a 30-second margin of victory with “Ticket price- $2500” at the bottom of the screen.
Us: Show an Indy 500 win with a margin of victory of less than a car length.
Ticket price: $50’ at bottom of the screen.
Repeat this comparison once or twice as the ad time slot permits.
In the last five seconds, a solid screen with the series and IMS logo and it reads: “IndyCar. The greatest racing, the greatest spectacle, AND the greatest value. Come watch us in person.”
I offer what I consider this brilliant and effective concept in good faith to Penske Entertainment with the only compensation being four suite tickets in either the Pagoda or Turn 2 suite for the 500 this year as my retirement present.
Mike DeQuardo, Elkhart Lake, WI
MP: Be on the lookout for a big package of IndyCar merch like the one I’m (not) sending to John from Madison.
Q: My question is about the Andretti rejection. I think it’s a little short-sighted that they were not granted entry to F1; I think over the long-term Andretti can actually help F1’s growth in the USA. But I believe it’s what has been stated before — that the teams are worth way more than when the Concorde Agreement was signed, and they want that $600 million.
I personally would keep the money and develop my other teams and even branch out into F3 and F2, and maybe MotoGP (ie Trackhouse). But I do remember Michael wanting a franchise system in IndyCar because he felt it was too easy to enter the series, and teams like his have made lots of investments in dampers for example and wasn’t happy that someone could just buy a car and enter the Indy 500.
Maybe a little hypocrisy?
Frank, Toronto
MP: Not sure I saw a question in there, but thanks for sharing your thoughts, Frank.
Q: Don’t know if you can or want to use this map, but it does show a bunch of North American acreage with no IndyCar race nearby. Don’t know how many millions of people are affected here, as the weatherman would say. Filling in the bare spots might help get some new fans onboard. Let’s start with some old favorites and possibilities.
1. Get Watkins Glen back. New Yorkers, New Englanders and Canadians benefit.
2. Fill the great plains to the Rockies with Texas, Phoenix and take a new look at Denver where 120,000 attended on average over three days and Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais had a confrontation. What’s not to like?
3. Getting Vancouver back is a no-brainer and revisit Edmonton with a 175,000 average over three days.
4. Take a trip into Mexico and go no further as then you start loading cargo planes and adding to the expense.
You have the potential for 24 races here and exposure to many more fans.
Let’s get the Captain on it. Might take some serious negotiation but that’s what he does. Got to save IndyCar somehow, and bringing it to the masses is a start.
Jeff, Colorado
MP: Thanks, Jeff — very informational for those who don’t know. I do know the series, though, is aware of where it does and doesn’t race! Agreed on bringing it to the masses.