Q: I think a lot of IndyCar street course issues could be fixed by having IndyCar add the option of an F1-style full course yellow without having to send out the pace car, and having the restart zones be somewhere where the cars aren’t feeding into a hairpin without any separation.
I also think it’s time to have the wheel gun cables hang from a boom like they do in WEC or F1.
Am I missing something? These seem like fairly easy and somewhat obvious things to implement.
Will, Indy
MP: Something needs to change, for sure. IndyCar has been looking into hose-free wheel guns for a few years. Nothing is imminent, but stay tuned.
Q: It’s been a while since I have seen so many yellows in a race. Is this a driver issue? A track issue? Both? Or is this just one of those strange weekends that happens occasionally? Also, how hard is a weekend like this on the mechanics who have to fix the carnage?
Matt, Dallas, TX
MP: Both. It’s brutal. IndyCar likes to run a race the weekend after Indy to try and capitalize on the momentum of the 500, but it does nothing of substance to lift the series. I’m sure there are some extra viewers and ticket buyers, but not to the point of causing attendance or TV rating to spike, so I wish the series would think about its crews in a more considerate manner and give them a week off to recover.
Since going straight to Detroit says after Indy isn’t making the series more popular, give drivers and teams a chance to rest.
Starting at Long Beach on April 21, teams went from California to Alabama to race the following weekend. They had the next weekend “off,” but most teams were flat out prepping cars for the Indy GP the weekend after and the start of Indy 500 practice a few days later. Then it was into Indy 500 qualifying weekend, race weekend, then Detroit, and now Road America. And for good measure, there’s a full field hybrid test at Milwaukee two days after Road America, so there’s a ton of prep work to do for that.
That’s five racing weekends out of six, plus a test, before crews get to catch their breath. I realize NASCAR does 1000 weekends in a row, so it’s all relative, but there’s no reason to burn IndyCar crews to the ground before the halfway point of the season.
Q: I just went to my first Indy 500 this past weekend. I had a great time with my dad. I can’t wait to come next year. I went to the memorabilia show and bought a Wickens diecast car, and it made me think of an article that was posted last year about Wickens trying to get a ride for the 2024 Indy 500.
I read how it would take major funding to get him a ride, understandably, because of his condition from the accident at Pocono back in 2018. Do you think it would be logical for Robert Wickens to go after some occupational therapy company to try and get sponsorship for a ride? The reason why I say that is because if he gets a ride obviously the car would need to be modified. The reason why I bring occupational therapy into this is because I watched a documentary on Billy Monger. He lost both of his legs in a horrific F4 crash and they were able to modify his car to race again.
Maybe it’s a little more complicated since they are different cars, but wouldn’t it be better to go after that occupational therapy field to give him the sponsorship money for the car and to help design the modifications needed to get him in the Indy 500 in the future?
Robert Ackerman
MP: I wouldn’t recommend focusing on one area of sponsorship over another. Also, Robert isn’t a sponsor hunter, so that’s a limitation. I’m told IndyCar and Dallara have already done the design work to make a hand-control car work for him, so it’s closer to becoming a reality than I’d previously understood. The momentum to make an IndyCar return, at least from when he and I last spoke about it a month or two ago, was waning. It comes down to someone wanting to spend the money and a team that wants to do it, and both are lacking. Making it happen in IMSA was considered to be the stronger possibility.
Q: Great Indy 500. I haven’t seen anything about this, so I decided to ask. On the last lap, Pato went under the white line leading coming out of Turn 2. Does the new rule only apply to the front straight? Would he have been taken down if he would have won?
Don’t get me wrong, I was pulling for Pato or Rossi. My heart sunk for Pato, seeing all wheels under the white line out of two. Now I’m wondering what would have happened.
Fan from Bama
MP: The main focus of policing was the line entering pit lane at Turn 4. I don’t think the series would have been happy about his diving low across the pit exit line, but with it being the last lap — you’d really hope nobody was having to leave the pits on lap 200 — and at a place that isn’t right in front of race control, it was a case of not hitting anyone on the inside instead of running the risk of smashing into the end of pit wall. I’m not saying it was right for him to do, but he chose the only place it could be done on the last lap that wasn’t going to draw a ton of scrutiny from race control.
Q: I’m trying not to puke. I just read Kyle Larson has been named Rookie of the Year at Indy over Christian Rasmussen. I guess I was preparing for this after seeing how they screwed over David Malukas and awarded it to Jimmie Johnson in 2022.
Nothing against Kyle or Jimmie, they are great drivers, but I sure question what criteria is used to select the Rookie of the Year. Apparently driving mistakes during the race and finishing position count for less than if you have a bigger fan following and generate more media hype.
Who votes on this and makes the decision? To me they have lost all credibility. What a farce! Why not just change it to Most Popular New Driver Award?
Craig, Slinger, WI
MP: Blame idiots like me in the media because that’s who does the voting. But as I wrote in my Indy 500 rewind column, the Speedway’s criteria for choosing the winner is so heavily skewed towards selecting the most popular rookie, it forces a Larson to be chosen. Granted, I voted for Rasmussen, but this will continue happening until racers rewrite the criteria.
Q: Maybe I missed it, but I don’t remember seeing on the big screens at the track, or hearing about, any driver coming up to congratulate Newgarden post-race?
Chris, Charleston, SC
MP: No clue. I was on pit lane talking to and interviewing people at the time. I’m guessing such things would have been seen on the broadcast, which I also haven’t gone back to watch beyond specific actions I wanted to review.