Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.
Q: From the New York Post:
“The company [Sports Illustrated trademark holder] has received interest in a licensing deal for SI from Vox, Essence, Penske Media and former NBA star-turned-executive Junior Bridgeman, another source with knowledge told The Post.”
Any details on Penske Media’s interest? Would it return IndyCar news to the magazine and website if it were able to acquire the publication?
Rob Joseph, Chandler, AZ
MARSHALL PRUETT: That would be Roger’s son Jay Penske, owner of the Dragon Racing IndyCar team and now longstanding Formula E team, who also owns a number of major magazines and websites. Jay’s Penske Media Corporation is a separate entity from Penske Entertainment, which owns IndyCar and the Speedway.
Q: What in the world will happen to this series if and when Roger Penske passes away? (God forbid, of course)?
Jim Muessig, Elmsford, NY
MP: Like every good business, there are succession plans; Roger owns and controls many things, which means there are multiple contingencies in place. His son Greg, who is extremely sharp and well-liked, has been spoken of for years as the person who is most likely to step in and run the series at some point in the future. He’s been ever-present in recent years.
Q: In 2008, I went to the ALMS race at Laguna Seca. It was complete bedlam in the paddock as Helio had recently won the “Dancing with the Stars” competition. The autograph line for the Penske driver was 100 yards long, so I wandered to the other end of the paddock. I noticed two people waving at me to come closer. Wait, is that Gil de Ferran and Tony Kanaan waving at me? It was. I got some great autographs, we talked about the beautiful race day weather, whether Rubens Barrichello would ever race in IndyCar — all sorts of things. I noticed there were lots of well-wishes for his refueler in the Acura pit. I asked Gil how he was doing. Gil explained to me that he was out of hospital and recovering at home and then said, “Thank you for asking about him.”
Some drivers are remembered for their surliness, some for their infectious enthusiasm, some for their sense of humor. Gil will be remembered for his graciousness. He was also the greatest ambassador for IndyCar of our generation. Does Penske Entertainment/IMS have something special planned in Gil’s honor for this year’s 500?
Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA
MP: That 2008 race was hard to forget, wasn’t it? I haven’t asked, but with Gil’s special ties to Penske and the Speedway, I’m sure he’ll get an awful lot of love in May. I had my friend Andy Blackmore make a tribute sticker for Gil and I’ll be handing a bunch off to the team here in Homestead for them to use on their cars, if desired. Gil’s loss has been on everyone’s minds in Daytona; still hard to process that he’s no longer with us.
Q: For all the talk about aero, it seems that there is still a lot that I don’t understand. I admit I’m somewhat ignorant of such details, but maybe others are also.
Rewatching last year’s Indy 500, it appears that both Rosenqvist’s and Grosjean’s crashes were caused by the car ahead of them taking the air off of them. They both got loose or lost downforce, and couldn’t turn. Yet cars follow each other the whole race long with no issues. What do you do as the following driver? Is there a sweet spot, a given distance back that you can’t be in, if you are the following car? Or can you take a slightly different line and avoid the issue altogether? Or is taking a different line the cause of the problem — do you need to take exactly the same line?
In summary, it seems like there is some invisible aero minutiae that we the casual viewer can’t see and is seldom talked about in sufficient detail to understand.
Joe
MP: It’s the surprise change in downforce to the front of the car that’s a problem. Drivers, as you observed, spent lap after lap following each other, and they’re fine because they’re modulating the throttle and making micro adjustments to the steering wheel to maintain the car’s balance and stability while tucked into the leading car’s airstream. But if that leading car cuts right or left unexpectedly while the trailing driver has a decent amount of steering input into the car, or a small amount, the sudden addition or removal of clean air can either pin the nose and cause oversteer or do the opposite and cause the front of the car to slide towards the wall.
Q: I keep seeing articles about this Brad Pitt movie and was not aware that IMSA was any part of that plot. With all the scuttlebutt about IndyCar’s lack of marketing, I wonder if The Captain and company thought about something like that? Other than that cartoon several years ago, I don’t recollect any films about IndyCar since that old Paul Newman flick in the ’60s. Given IndyCar still does have the world’s largest single-day sports event, I find that almost shocking.
I read that some good things are supposedly on the cards at 16th and Georgetown but it seems that a once-dominant series that had kept F1 out of the racing fan’s mindset here domestically for well over half a century is becoming content with a certain level of mediocrity so long as the business model fits. I’m rambling, but I miss the time when the Michigan 500 was the second-largest race on the continent.
I saw a recent YouTube interview with Mario Andretti who joked about A.J. Foyt always telling him how surprised he was that the two of them were still around. It’s sad when our racing heroes pass away and lately there’s been several with Dan Gurney, Bobby and Al Unser, David Pearson, and Cale Yarborough. I never hear about Gordy Johncock, a man who still won the most exciting Indy 500 ever over the best Indy oval driver ever, in 1982. I wish we would have more interviews with drivers like him, Johnny Rutherford, A.J. and Mario. Perhaps a weekly feature on your website? We should enjoy these icons while they are still with us.
I also am curious to know whatever happened to Tony George, who seems to have just disappeared. I think Tony was well-meaning but misguided and deserved a better fate than to be discarded into motorsport exile.
Joseph Wood, Lake Ozark, MO
MP: The Pitt movie folks haven’t spelled out the entire script, but it’s safe to assume there’s an IMSA element to the film since they have a massive film crew here at Daytona and at least four or five Porsche 911 GT3s done up in the same No. 120 Chip Hart Racing liveries for “Sonny Hayes.”
I don’t know if Penske Entertainment has the financial resources to make a film like the one Apple and F1 are creating together, so it’s unlikely. I like your idea of making talks with racing’s legends and heroes a regular feature on RACER, so let’s see what’s possible.
Tony George can still be spotted in the IndyCar paddock, usually within the vicinity of Ed Carpenter Racing.