Q: Good thing I only got to watch a portion of the Rolex 24. I refuse to pay Peacock as I already pay for Dish. A few times (more than five) I timed the racing portion being shown. The average was 10 minutes. Which had up to four minutes of commercials either before or after.
NBC should now be known as: NOW BROADCASTING COMMERCIALS
Wonder if, when NBC does the Olympics, it will continue this schedule?
Peter, Phoenix, AZ
MP: Like death and taxes, there’s no avoiding complaints — often warranted — about racing broadcasts. Best suggestion for next year’s Rolex 24: Spend the five bucks for one month of Peacock, get all 24 hours, and have no OK… fewer complaints. Five bucks to be happy for 24 hours is a bargain.
Q: I was reading the article about Scott Dixon in the latest issue of RACER magazine and was astonished to find out Dixon has finished in the top three in IndyCar points 15 times. How many drivers even have 15-year careers, let alone be at the very top nearly every year? It started me thinking about whether this had ever been done by any other drivers in IndyCar, Formula 1 or NASCAR. These disciplines are generally considered the pinnacle of racing. Here is what I found…
FORMULA 1
Michael Schumacher: 12 (13 if you count 1997 when his points were taken away)
Lewis Hamilton: 11
Alain Prost: 8
Emerson Fittipaldi: 7 (Four times in F1 and three times in IndyCar)
INDYCAR
Mario Andretti: 10 (eight times in IndyCar and two in F1)
A.J. Foyt: 10
Bobby Unser and Bobby Rahal: 9
Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Will Power: 8
NASCAR
Richard Petty: 15
Dale Earnhardt: 11
Jimmie Johnson: 10
Jeff Gordon: 9
It seems just Dixie and The King have done it 15 times. So here is the question: Which is the greater accomplishment — six IndyCar championships, or finishing in the top three in points a whopping 15 times?
Brian Henris, Fort Mill, SC
MP: People remember champions, so it’s the championships, but the consistency isn’t something to dismiss by any means. Dixon’s career didn’t play out during the dangerous and romantic era that produced the Marios and A.J.s, so his remarkable achievements haven’t received the same level of global attention and reverie as the Andrettis and Foyts, but he deserves it.
Q: Has it been announced where Craig Hampson and Eric Cowdin are landing for 2024? Any other significant lead engineering changes for 2024? In the past I believe you’ve written about each entry’s driver and lead engineer combos — do you plan to have a rundown of that prior to the start of the season?
Jason Jennings, Batesville, IN
MP: I will have a rundown! Eric needs to clear his non-compete clause with Ganassi (and may have by the time of publishing) before he’s formally confirmed as a great addition to Ed Carpenter Racing, and so far, I haven’t heard about Hampson returning to racing.
I was pleased to see Squirrel — Allen McDonald — at Juncos Hollinger Racing at the Homestead test. He’s the kind of ace veteran race engineer the team needs to take the next step. More to follow…
Q: So, what’s the betting line for an all-Qvist podium: Rosenqvist, Lundqvist and Blomqvist, in any order, in any race?
Stephen Terrell
MP: Tell me where to place that bet, and I’m in. Blomqvist has packed on some muscle during the offseason — one thing he was understandably lacking and needed — to help wield his MSR entry. I think you’re onto something here; the all-’Qvist podium would be amazing and is indeed possible.
Q: In reading the Simon Pagenaud health update, questions of liability and how racing drivers are insured came to mind. Do drivers self-insure and/or is it included in their contract with a team? Meyer Shank mentioned that a failed part was responsible for Simon’s crash. Does that put the supplier in legal jeopardy with the team or Pagenaud? Do “avoidable contact” penalties affect insurance premiums? And I assume that anything that happens on track is exempt from any suing interest between teams, maybe? I have no idea how this is done.
Matt Callahan, Princeton, NJ
MP: There’s no single answer here, unfortunately. Some drivers, albeit very few, are direct team employees, while most are contractors, or they are contracted through a company they’ve created and are an employee of… In a lot of cases, the independent contractor-driver pays for specialist racing insurance, and it’s not cheap for the high-end pros. If someone’s been injured and is unable to drive, receiving a disbursement from insurance tends to happen and that’s why we often see those drivers say very little in detail about their recoveries in print because they need to protect themselves and keep the disbursements coming in.
Hard to say if MSR would have sued the brake vendor; it’s not something they’ve wanted to talk about in any kind of depth.