Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.
Q: Good to see Malukas back and in the saddle with Meyer Shank. Doesn’t look like he missed a step. You think Arrow McLaren kicked him to the curb too soon?
Jeff, Colorado
MARSHALL PRUETT: I don’t think so, based on what the team was wanting from him. They waited four races and decided his uncertain return timeline wasn’t a fit for their needs. The fact that he never raced for the team was important; if he got hurt while driving the No. 6 Chevy at St. Pete, they’d have waited. Ilott did well as a stand-in, as did Pourchaire, who I can’t believe is now out of the car. Great shot for Siegel, but a cruel twist for the F2 champ.
Now Malukas has a chance to develop at a really good team at MSR and can revive his career and earn an opportunity to stay in the car next year if he does a proper job. He was a wild card at Arrow McLaren — an inexpensive experiment among two proven veterans — without holding extraordinary importance to the team with O’Ward and Rossi there. At MSR, he can prove himself to be a vital cog in the team if he puts up the results in the No. 66 Shank has been chasing.
It won’t happen this weekend or at Mid-Ohio while his recovering hand and wrist are pummeled, but give him some time and I think he’ll be someone MSR will want to keep.
Q: How about this: This proposed international IndyCar exhibition series grows revenue and eventually can move into filling early season calendar spots and a post-season or two non-points flyaways… maybe even a trip back to Motegi to entice/appease Honda or other potential Asian (Toyota/Hyundai) OEMs? Is there enough buy-in across the paddock to make it happen?
Gordon, Dallas, TX
MP: Not sure a Korean manufacturer like Hyundai would see any value in a Japanese race, but the main issue is the fencing placed around the calendar with FOX. The NFL with its Super Bowl and NASCAR on FOX at Daytona own most of February, and FOX and IndyCar are ending their first season together the weekend before the NFL season starts.
Whether it’s IndyCar’s long-held strategy to avoid going head-to-head with the NFL, or FOX’s full devotion to the NFL and NASCAR, IndyCar is left with a strict corridor of when it can be on TV.
I just don’t see where going to (name the places) before the season happens due to FOX’s priorities placed elsewhere, or where the series goes after the NFL dominates FOX’s airwaves from September-January. And no promoter I can think of is going to pay top dollar to host a pre- or post-season race that has no meaningful TV component.
Q: With the news that Fox will broadcast IndyCar next year, I hope that they: do not have awful drawings of the drivers instead of real pictures, have someone other than Adam Alexander as the lead announcer, (he does a good job, but he’s too identified with Cup), do not have ceaseless promotions for the next Cup race during the IndyCar broadcast, and bring back Kelly Stavast as a pit reporter.
How many years is the multi-year broadcast contract?
David, Waxhaw, NC
MP: Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles declined to answer the duration part, but two to three years would make sense. He told us in a recent interview that they wouldn’t be signing a long-term deal due to the rapidly changing world of broadcast and streaming options.
Q: Watching Le Mans reminded me how quickly the state of things can change in motorsports. Just a few years ago Toyota was racing against incomparable competition (no offense to Rebellion and Glickenhaus). The top class was frankly uninteresting and uninspiring beyond the intrateam battle with the GR squad. Just a few years later, Hypercar has become the biggest and possibly the most fascinating motorsports class. With nearly 10 manufacturers racing globally in Hypercar/GTP, it’s hard not to be absolutely amped about what’s going on in the prototype world. The cars are cool and interesting, the racing is close and exciting, and there’s more marques than anywhere else in motorsports.
IndyCar, on the other hand, has really got itself into a pickle. Even before Penske, the series sat on its hands and avoided the changes necessary to grow manufacturer involvement. While I understand the reasoning to essentially freeze the ICE units and gently open up the hybrid units for development, it doesn’t feel like a step towards growing the series, but rather a way to prevent it from becoming fully spec. I get the mindset, but I wish IndyCar would do something more inspiring/open.
I just don’t see how additional manufacturers would be enticed by a badging exercise with minimal design influence? With torque sensing and fuel flow meters, you’d think there would be ways to have more passive BoP to prevent a spending war while maintaining close competition. Good racing, technical diversity, and restrained budgets don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
Michael, Halifax, Canada
MP: Amen.
Q: After watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans, what´s next for the LMDh guys at the Ganassi shops in the U.S. and Germany after the Ganassi/Cadillac split at the end of 2024? Another IndyCar program might not be the option…
Do you know why Honda doesn’t choose Ganassi for its GTP program from 2025 onwards, with the existing ties they have?
Lars, Germany
MP: I haven’t heard of any immediate follow-on programs for CGR in 2025, but I am aware of two significant manufacturers who are looking at joining IMSA’s hybrid GTP class in 2026 or 2027, plus another existing brand that races in the WEC and wants to add a GTP program. Any of the three could be a perfect fit for the team.
I’ve heard the bidding process for the Acura GTP effort had some teams come in with a higher financial need than others.