Q: Is there a maximum amount of fuel that can be used during an IndyCar race? All the discussion about fuel races had me wondering. I think you hinted at it in last week’s Mailbag, but just to clarify, is the pit delta great enough at most tracks that even if a car went all-out the entire race with no concern for fuel, the time gained on the track would not outweigh the time spent doing an extra pit stop?
Alan
MP: Yes, IndyCar fills each refueling tank with a specific amount of fuel, based on track length and lap count.
In the scenario you raise, it depends on… track length and lap count. Pit lane at Detroit is short; Road America’s is super long. If the length/laps ratio allows it, along with how cautions could factor into the decision, we do have some tracks where those who had poor qualifying runs will opt to do an extra stop and go like mad the whole time, provided they have enough fresh tires to reward that strategy.
Q: A tough start to the season for IndyCar. Normally people are excited after St. Pete; but there was no joy in last week’s Mailbag.
Regarding the location of the restart line, was it too close to the exit of the last corner, allowing the leading car too get on the throttle early, which didn’t allow the trailing car a chance to stay close? If so, the series can learn from that?
I guess we need to add chaos back to the race to get great racing?
Bill Cantwell
MP: Like you, I wondered if the placement of the restart line had an effect on the quality of racing on the restarts, and according to three drivers and two race strategists I spoke with after the race, all of the drivers and one of the strategists thought it was a non-issue, so I didn’t bother writing about it.
Q: I am an IndyCar fan from the UK and I have been watching since the championship came to Sky Sports F1 in 2019. Thanks to being on the same channel as F1 I think IndyCar is the most popular it’s ever been in this country, although I may be wrong.
What is the likelihood of IndyCar ever coming across the pond for a championship or exhibition event? Do you know if the idea has ever been floated around recently or in the past? Could you pass on our desire for the championship make the visit to Jay Frye?
Danny Morgan, Southend-on-Sea, England
MP: It’s all about money, Danny. If someone in the U.K. wants to pay to get the series there, and to race, I’m sure IndyCar would be open to it. But like the trip to Argentina, or Brazil, or Japan, or Australia, it’s only possible when the bill is paid, in full, by the host/promoter/sponsor.
Q: I’m as big a Michael Andretti fan as anyone. As a kid, my 1997 Andretti die-cast got quite the workout on the Hot Wheels supercharger, and my year-old Newman/Haas T-shirt got me a seat and some cool pictures in one of the team’s show cars in Cleveland after Michael had moved on. But his recent comments directed toward Roger Penske have me shaking my head.
Michael wants an infusion of cash from the series’ owner, to the tune of $100,000,000 in an effort to provide better return on investment for all team owners and OEM partners, but he won’t chip in a million dollars from his own pockets to be part of a solution? He’s spoken out in the recent past in support of guaranteed starting spots and Indianapolis for the “survival of the series” but won’t pony up the cash to buy that guarantee?
All this while bending over backwards trying to spend tens of millions in a bid to join another series that has humiliated and rejected him for more than 30 years, doing their worst to keep him out for more years to come. It seems that it boils down to the same thing that killed CART: selfish, stingy, greedy team owners who’d sooner suck the series dry before giving a dime to help one another.
I’m not pleased that IndyCar is using the same chassis 13 seasons going, that we’re talking about guaranteed entries at Indy, that we’re only getting 35 Indy entries in a good year, that the schedule is filled with doubleheaders and gaps, or that things are wrapped up before football season. But Penske was the guy to step up with his own money — and no small sum either — and buy the series and the Speedway when Tony George moved on. I doubt Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal, or whoever else would have done the same. If the current progress is too slow for Michael or anyone else’s taste, chip in! A group of people thought they could survive without the guy who owned the Speedway a few years back, and despite having the greatest cars and drivers on the planet, they were wrong. Collaborate, don’t repeat history!
One last thing, Robin Miller’s dig at Eddie Cheever’s Dallara in the Final Word — oof! Kenny Brack’s IR-9 was another one getting battle-scarred on the Hot Wheels high-banks back in the day. Beautiful car in my nostalgic eyes. You worked on some of those didn’t you, Marshall? What are your thoughts on those old crapwagons? 😉
Pete, Rochester, NY
MP: Yeah, I worked on the first Dallara IndyCar, the IR97, and some GForces, and the Dallara was nicely done. But to Robin’s point, Cheever’s 1998 win and car, with the most random never-heard-of sponsor in Rachel’s Potato Chips, and that fugly livery, epitomized everything that was wrong with the IRL and the Indy 500 at the time. I loved being there, but also knew we were seen like scabs, filling in for the cars and teams and drivers most fans really wanted to see.
And I realize it’s what we had, and that somebody had to win, but that car was a lightning rod for how far the Indy 500 had fallen in stature where — and I don’t think Eddie winning was a real issue — the world’s biggest, oldest race was taken by an unknown team with an unknown primary sponsor.
As for Michael, I hear you and don’t disagree with a lot of your points. As I wrote in the last Mailbag, Michael has more new money than anyone in any racing series, so if he and his investor/partner Dan Towriss wanted to, they could be the solution. But they wouldn’t do it as a gift; they’d want a stake in the series, and to my knowledge, Penske isn’t open to selling any portion of it.
So, if you have an owner who moves like the series is stuck in quicksand and refuses to sell some or all of the business to help it grow, you might be like me and have a lot of sympathy for the Andrettis and Rahals and others who aren’t exactly sure how to fix a business they make viable, but don’t own and can’t alter. Is being “between a rock and a Catch-22” a thing? Because that’s what this feels like.