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: Massive TV numbers for the Indy 500… and the next race is on USA Network. I understand NBC decides what goes where, and IndyCar is bumped by Women’s US Open Golf, but this is a short-sighted view, if not for NBC, but definitely for IndyCar. Any updates on the TV situation? I would hope someone at Penske has the brains to insist the race following the 500, always a ratings king, must be aired on network TV
Vincent Martinez, South Pasadena, CA
MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve had two significant figures in the IndyCar paddock and one big name outside of IndyCar tell me NBC has offered to place all races on network in a new deal, but they said Penske hasn’t jumped at the opportunity and is continuing to fish for the biggest payout.
I’ve also heard from multiple sources that heading out of Detroit, the prevailing belief is we’ll be setting our DVRs for FOX, FOX Sports 1, and maybe even FOX Sports 2 next year and beyond to watch IndyCar racing. I’ve heard NASCAR on FOX veteran Adam Alexander is a strong candidate to lead the broadcasts.
Related, FOX just informed about 150 FOX Sports employees in Charlotte, N.C., that they’ll be out of work at the end of the month. Not sure how those two items reconcile.
Q: We are taking our boys (8, 6 and 4) to their first race and chose Laguna Seca. We are going to be camping at the campground and I was wondering if you had any recommendations for where we should sit, and any must-see areas of the track?
Secondly, my middle boy has hopes of being an IndyCar driver like his favorite driver Will Power and is also really interested in being an IndyCar engineer (the more probable outcome). He loves solving problems and tinkering with his Legos to see what he can build. Is there anybody I could write to that might be willing to take a few minutes out of the busy race weekend to talk to him about engineering?
Steven Rollins, Riverside, CA
MP: Great to hear. I’ll be in Watkins Glen that weekend for IMSA’s 6 Hour race, so have fun in my absence. There aren’t many grandstands to use, so plan your days like you’re constantly camping with backpacks or a rolling cart to carry folding chairs and your food and drinks. The hill overlooking Turn 2 and the infield is great for the start; lots of action. The obvious place is atop the Corkscrew, and the blast up to the Corkscrew from the inside of Turn 6 is also impressive to behold. Same on the way down from the Corkscrew on either side of the track down to Turn 10. The stands across from pit lane could be worthwhile during the race as you’ll see lots of passing attempts into Turn 11 and pit stops. Send your email address to me and I’ll get you connected with a team or two to host you and your future race engineer for a visit.
Q: What does Santino Ferrucci have to do or say for something to be done about his awful attitude? He has a long history of dangerous, vengeful driving and saying offensive, bigoted and intolerant things, and yet nothing besides a hollow apology after practice on the Kirkwood/Herta comments. As an IndyCar fan who happens to be gay I found that quite disappointing that what he said was largely unchallenged.
Is there any interest in Ferrucci from teams other than Foyt, or will his actions and words always be a barrier to progression, much like Dan Ticktum?
Paul, Glasgow, Scotland
MP: Awful attitudes, plus poor results, will remove drivers or team members from any racing series. Awful attitudes, plus strong results, usually don’t. There are exceptions, of course.
Santino has the Foyt team up to 12th in the championship and has been a central part in of one of IndyCar’s most amazing year-to-year turnarounds for the perennially beleaguered Foyt team. Unless he uncorks another gem on camera or launches Romain Grosjean into orbit in the coming weeks, I don’t foresee any changes to his employment status happening here.
His clashes with drivers, plus his societal, religious and political views, and whatever else, have not reached a point where A.J. is going to kick him out of the car. If he were to say something or do something that led the series or sponsors to intervene and call for his suspension or firing, that’s where action would be taken, but not pre-emptively.
Teams will tell you they want drivers to be angels, to be social media stars, and so on, but for most of them, all they care about is where their cars start and finish. All the positives and negatives found within people in the real world are found in racing, so it’s tough to find folks in the paddock — me included — who are free of sin. The only difference here is Ferrucci’s words were caught on camera.
It’s also worth overstating the obvious in saying that if his team or the series felt strongly enough about what Ferrucci said, the team and/or series could have taken action and made that action known. Other than being reprimanded in private by the series, I’m unaware of any fines or penalties being levied against Ferrucci by his employer or the sanctioning body. Based on its handling, this wasn’t considered a punishable offense.
On how his words were offered and received, here’s a bit of background: Santino reached out to me and wanted to share a public apology. It didn’t come across as scripted while he was speaking, nor did it sound insincere. He brought up Pride Month on his own and wanted to apologize to the LGBTIQA+ community. I also respect the fact that how you’ve received his words are different than my own, and I could be wrong in my perceptions.
I wish he hadn’t tried to use what he thought was an insult — referring to heterosexual males as being homosexual was once a “sick burn” as some might say, but it’s no longer tolerated as such by younger generations — which led to unimpressed reactions from IndyCar’s younger fans (but not just younger fans) moments after that went out on the airwaves. I also saw lots of “lighten up, people” and, “jeez, we’ve gotten soft” and harsher responses from older fans (but not just older fans) who’ve taken offense to others taking offense to the comment.
Between this and a new, third instance of Agustin Canapino fans threatening another driver following the hit he received from Arrow McLaren’s Theo Pourchaire, this extracurricular stuff is just exhausting.