Q: After that first turn incident at Road America when Marcus Armstrong got penalized but Josef Newgarden did not for what I perceived as doing the exact same thing, I got to wondering: How realistic would it be for race control to issue a summary or box score of the race? So if there is an incident, they indicate the lap, who was involved, who was issued a penalty or not and why/why not? I can’t imagine they don’t do this internally already, one would hope!
Vincent Martinez, South Pasadena, CA
MP: It’s a great idea, Vincent. When judged rule, you’d like to know the reason why they made their decisions. Some sort of after-action report (or after-inaction report in some cases) would only help.
Q: Here are a couple suggestions for Erin Higgins from last week’s Mailbag. The fundamentals learned in a mechanical engineering program are most transferable to motorsports engineering. If Purdue is out of the question, look for a college or university that has a Formula SAE program – the stronger, the better. Competing in the annual Formula SAE events will lead to networking with industry professionals.
If aerodynamics are his thing, although not strictly related to motorsports, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a strong Low Speed Aerodynamics program. In this case, low speed means under about 300mph.
If you are in an area that has a local Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) region, reach out to them. Depending on the region, they hold autocrosses, rallies, or amateur road racing. It is a good way to have fun, meet people, and start learning about racing. ome of the regions have introductory events to ease the way for newcomers. Your son could possibly find an amateur racer that could use volunteer crew members.
On another subject, I must have missed the boat on sustainable fuels and IndyCars. Last I remember, IndyCars were running methanol, which I understood to be 100% sustainable. I also understood that methanol burned nearly invisible and the spritz on the buckeye was to dilute any spilled methanol enough that it wouldn’t catch fire on the hot exhaust start an invisible fire in the pits. Now I see a big marketing campaign about going to sustainable fuels. What did I not pay attention to on fuels over the last few years?
Walt, Dolan Springs, AZ
MP: Not sure. We wrote plenty of words about renewable fuels leading into the 2023 season. [ED: Here’s a story and a video we ran about the renewable fuel last year. IndyCar dropped methanol for the E85 blend in 2007, and went to 100% renewable ethanol in 2023.]
Q: I am taking my 7-year-old son to his first IndyCar race on the Saturday of the Milwaukee weekend. I couldn’t be happier to share my joy of IndCar with him. I am debating buying the garage passes for us. I’ve never done that before for races I’ve attended. My son’s goal is to meet some drivers and get some autographs. I am not 100% sure what the garage pass would entail. Would these be worth it for us? Would he have a chance to actually meet some drivers or get a picture with them or an autograph?
Ryan, Lake Villa, IL
MP: No guarantees, of course, but you’ll see plenty of drivers if you’re in the paddock. The most popular drivers tend to hide in the transporters or in their buses when they aren’t driving, but plenty — often the younger or newer drivers — are more social and will happily pose for pictures or spend time chatting. Being up close to the cars and taking photos or seeing what goes on between sessions is also pretty cool.
Q: Let me extend kudos to David Malsher-Lopez for his wonderful obituary of Parnelli Jones. And while Dan Schwartz is right that there are only four that raced the turbines, there are others who turned laps and even made qualifying attempts in turbine powered cars, including Greg Weld in the Granatelli Lotus turbine, and Al Miller, Jigger Sirois and Rick Muther in the Jack Adams Aircraft turbine. Then there’s the GE Shelby Turbine cars, but, yeah, let’s just leave that there. They did lap IMS though. Also, turbines did run a few other races, and even Mario ran one at Riverside, but only for not quite a full lap.
Big Possum should know better. That was no “sprint car” that A.J. put on the pole, but his “Championship Car” (later known as Champ Dirt Car, Silver Crown car). Longer wheelbases, heavier. Still, an impressive feat. USAC wouldn’t have allowed a ‘sprint car’ to run a championship race. Well, after 1946.
Jim Thurman, Mojave Desert, CA
MP: Thanks, Jim.
Q: I was glad to see Jamie Chadwick get her first win in NXT. With that and three series wins in the now-defunct W Series in Europe, she is obviously the cream of the crop among contemporary women racers. How does she compare with other IndyCar women of recent vintage, say Katherine Legge, or the best woman ever in IndyCars in my opinion, Simona Di Silvestro, when both were starting out?
Anthony Jenkins, Brockville, Ontario
MP: Simona was a monster in Atlantic cars that were nimble rockets. She’s the best I’ve seen. Everything’s starting to click for Jamie, but the only way to answer the question is to get through the season and see where a larger body of work in her newly competitive state takes her.
Q: I know there’s a lot of fans who expected the IndyCar Series to be further ahead in terms of popularity with Penske having been in charge for four years now (although I’m a newer fan who has only ever known Penske as being in charge). However, is the fact that it has been so difficult to have growth in IndyCar partially to blame on the state Tony George and the Hulman family had the series in when they sold it off? It just seems that the foundation for the series was never very strong since the Champ Car/IRL merger.
Also, big kudos to Penske for getting the series on FOX for the full season!
Matthew Houk, Columbus, OH
MP: It’s a great question. We’ve had growth in entries — for example, Ganassi was a two-car team in 2019, the year before Penske bought the series, and soon after, it changed its approach and began accepting paying drivers. Penske’s ownership has, without question, given rise to more confidence in teams and sponsors to expand or invest.
We’re also at the same race count with 17. The Leaders Circle payouts are effectively the same. And TV ratings/audience size, while up, aren’t vastly improved. Positives, for sure, in some areas since taking over from the Hulman George family, but I also think the Hulman Georges receive unfair criticism — like the series was in bad shape, which it wasn’t — and under Penske’s ownership, everything’s magically better, which is also incorrect.
As I wrote, the FOX deal is the most important achievement — has the potential to be, at least — since the series changed hands. The truly positive things we’ve been waiting for and hoping for could arrive in the coming years if the ratings are what we hope they are.