Q: Congrats to Penske for its Rolex 24 win. I was rooting for the Cadillacs but it was a great race and that’s the ultimate win. What a sell-out crowd, and it looked like a perfect weekend for the fans. Peacock did a fantastic job with coverage. Honestly, some of the best round the clock coverage for this race I have ever seen. I really hope they embrace motorsports and continue on this path. As a race fan, they are the best value in racing.
I am an IndyCar fan first, but have always enjoyed sports cars from a distance. I have to admit I’ve been swept up by the new cars, exciting racing, and the general buzz around the series. With Penske winning this race and being involved in this series, as well as many other IndyCar teams/owners/drivers; I don’t understand why there is any reluctance to bring technological advances, better-looking cars, or anything new and exciting to IndyCar. I know the drum has been beaten to a pulp by fans and I agree the racing is amazing, but how many more examples can you get of just how important it is to create excitement through technology?
I’m so disappointed that the best man for the job is letting the series down. I guess we just continue to wait and see and hope they don’t make their moves too late. I would hate for IndyCar become the series that stops attracting the top talent and instead becomes the affordable series. That formula can’t sustain forever.
What sort of loss or catastrophe do you think it would take Penske to make a major change, or even to take a risk by putting the series ahead of the owners or simply the bottom line? Or could they be stuck in this rut spinning tires with the same formula just because viewership numbers have had a slight increase and new owners are showing interest?
Erik S
MP: Roger’s will is the will of the paddock. Simple as that, Erik. It’s not a democracy. It’s a business owned and run by someone who leads and makes decisions for all who are affiliated with that business. The era of IndyCar having a system where all the team owners voted on major and minor developments has been gone for decades.
Nobody — at least not yet — is willing to speak out against the direction(s) taken or not taken by Penske, so new cars, a new engine formula, and anything else that’s truly new or innovative on the vehicular front will stay the way it is until the day the series’ owner decides to make a change. Or until the people who own the cars that comprise 24 of the 27 full-time entries decide to band together and insist upon a change to whatever they feel needs to be altered.
Q: What was behind the BoP weight assigned to the Acura ARX-06s? Did they really think that the Acuras were going to be able to keep up with the Porsches and the Cadillacs? Is this a preview of the rest of the year? Did IMSA really intend to make the Acuras a full second per lap slower in most cases than the top two brands? Or was Acura getting punished for the 2023 race?
Ed Joras
MP: I can’t tell you what went into the Acura’s BoP, but BMW was the only GTP model that never struck me as being competitive from the Roar onwards. I spoke with or heard from many GTP drivers prior to and during the race, and the Acura contingent were among the least vocal about BoP, FWIW. The only brand I heard zero complaints from was Porsche, and they went on to win the race.
Q: I liked that tech tour video you did with Joey Hand on the Ford Mustang GTD car. Joey mentioned there were some cockpit temperature regulations as the reason for the cooling hoses pointed toward the driver seat. I was under the impression most of the cars had a cool suit system to help the drivers keep cool while driving. Could you please get into more detail as to what the regulations are regarding cabin temperatures and if it something IMSA can monitor during the course of a race?
Brandon Karsten
MP: It is something that’s actively monitored among the petabytes of data that stream from the cars to the series. Here’s the bit from the sporting regulations:
Cockpit temperature: The ambient temperature will be displayed by the official timing monitors. It will be measured in the shade and out of the wind. An effective natural and/or forced ventilation must maintain the temperature around the driver when the car is in motion at: • 32 °C maximum when the ambient temperature is less than or equal to 25°C; • a temperature less than or equal to ambient temperature +7°C if it is above 25°C. These temperature criteria should be respected in less than 8 minutes after a car stop. It is permitted to have air flow adjustment accessible from the driver.
Q: Congratulations to Roger Penske on the Porsche Penske win at the Daytona 24.
IndyCar can’t compete with the NFL… No racing series in the country is worried about the NFL except one guy and his name is Mark Miles. Please Roger and Greg, Mike Miles needs to go. And now we can’t have the 100 days before May because of basketball. what’s next?
Ron
MP: I might need to text Mark and suggest skipping this week’s Mailbag.
Q: The 2024 Rolex 23h58m24s. What happened?
Terry J, Germantown, MD
MP: A mistake in race control, which was obvious at the time and later confirmed by IMSA. The race ends when the direction is given for it to end. This one went to bed one lap too soon. Bit of a nothing burger as I saw it; the leads in all four classes were solid and I don’t see how that would have changed if it went to 24h00m.