Q: It was exciting to see Santino doing his thing starting from the back and quickly working his way up to about 15th place before having to drive into the grass to avoid a spinning Harvey, followed by an “issue” in the pits that put him five laps down. These issues seem to happen with regularity at the Foyt team. Santino had a clutch failure during the Texas race, talked about “gremlins” during Alabama qualifying and again for Indy GP qualifying. Pedersen seems to be plagued with similar issues, finishing six laps down at the Indy GP.
Are the Foyt cars just really old? Like, original 2012 tubs that they keep patching together? Do other teams use much newer equipment that is more reliable? It’s amazing how some drivers can get through the entire year without a mechanical failure, while some teams, like Foyt, seem to have a breakdown more often than not.
Andy Sokol
MP: Santino’s crew chief wears an Indy 500 winner’s ring from 2021 with Helio, so he knows how to assemble a proper race car. Mistakes happen to the best and the worst, so I’m not ready to get carried away on axing people, but yes, between the veteran crew on the 14 and the decently new crew on the 55, it has been a rough go of things lately.
Q: I was suffering from a pretty nasty bite Saturday eve when I fired up the DVR; from the Tequila Monster, so my memory is fuzzy. Was the GP a bit underwhelming, or was it me?
Shawn, MD
MP: Depends what you’re looking for. If you wanted race-long battles up front, it was a disappointment. If you enjoy strategey, it was a thriller. And if you like virtuoso performances, Palou put on a clinic on how to make outrageous speed without killing your tires.
Q: No doubt Alex Palou is a great talent, but how about a shout-out to Barry Wanser and the crew on the timing stand to help put Alex in position to administer a butt whooping on the rest of the field at the Indy GP?
Dan Edwards
MP: It was a great early birthday present for crew chief Ricky Davis, who completed another lap of the sun on Sunday. And Wanser’s among the greats of his generation; not bad for an old NHRA mechanic! Alex was one of three drivers on the alternates-then-primaries-to-the-end plan, and Newgarden and Grosjean also benefited from the strategy. I was surprised others didn’t jump onto it after the first round of stops.
Q: I am a long-time IndyCar fan, attend a couple of races with my family each year, watch practice and qualifying when I can on Peacock, and the races on network TV. The IndyCar app is great — I don’t have to rent a scanner when attending a race anymore. When I am watching from home, I listen to various drivers’ in -ar radio on my phone and set up my iPad to watch the drivers in car cameras. It really is great, and the price (free) is awesome.
This past weekend I was listening to Romain Grosjean and the No. 28 timing stand and when they started to discuss strategy during the race, they switched to speaking French. They did this a few times throughout the race and each time they were having full-on discussions. The only word I caught once was “rouge” so I figured they were discussing their, or another driver’s, red tires at one point. Then after a minute another voice said in English “we will stick with that plan.”
I remember many years ago, for a season or two, certain teams used digital radios so other teams couldn’t listen in, and it made scanners useless. Then IndyCar made a rule that teams could not encrypt their radio communications as it prevented fans from listening to the teams and drivers. So, my question is, if encrypted radios are illegal, wouldn’t intentionally talking in a foreign language to prevent others from hearing what a driver and team is saying basically have the same effect? Doing so doesn’t seem to be complying with the intent of the rule. If it is allowed, you would have a Tower of Babel soon enough.
Craig Lancaster, Sacramento, CA
MP: Blocking people from being able to hear your radio transmissions is altogether different than speaking in a language that isn’t English. We speak a foreign language that Grosjean and Olivier Boisson have been smart enough to learn. Not sure I see why it should be a one-way street if Pato wants to speak Spanish or English over the radio, or Sato wants to speak Japanese, or Helio wants to speak Portuguese. Sounds like the smartest thing they could do in a sport where almost everything is spec or regulated to within an inch of its life.
Q: I understand that the late Kevin Kahlkoven and Gerry Foysthe still own Cosworth engines. What is preventing Cosworth from building a third engine for the IndyCar Series, and does Gerry still holding on half of the ownership hostage because he still have some sort of a grudge towards Penske and the rest of the former CART owners for abandoning the series almost 20 years ago? I wish he would just sell the engine company to with Chip Ganassi or Michael Andretti so Cosworth can build engines for the IndyCar field.
Alistair, Springfield, MO
MP: They can build anything they want. To have that engine put to use in IndyCar, they’d need to have a manufacturer attached to it and commit to serious marketing outlays to promote the sport and its involvement. Cosworth isn’t the only specialist, independent racing engine manufacturer in the world. The problem isn’t Forsythe or Cosworth. The problem is the absence of an auto company wanting to spend tens of millions of dollars to become the third supplier.
Q: During qualifying, the left-hand side graphic is all important, telling the viewer the times of each driver. It shows whether a driver is potentially going to jump up into the fastest six. What I feel the producers really need to stop is covering the bottom half of the drivers’ names and times with a graphic showing one car’s speed and revs. It completely takes away the viewers understanding of the possibilities on track in those precious important minutes by preventing the viewer from seeing this data.
Oliver Wells.
MP: Message noted, Oliver.
Q: I should probably know this, but why is the Indy GP held on Saturday and not on Sunday? Mother’s Day, NBA playoffs, an XFL game?
On another note, it was refreshing at Long Beach to see O’Ward get out of the way of the leaders and not fight to stay on the lead lap near the end of the race. At the end of a race the leaders should be allowed to fight without worrying about a driver about to be lapped holding them up while fighting to stay on the lead lap. Not sure if there were other drivers that moved over, just happened to see O’Ward do it.
Dave
MP: 1) Because it would give teams a single day to transition from completing a race to starting practice for the Indy 500 and working non-stop for two weeks after working already non-stop for weeks leading into the GP.
2) IndyCar will, when it makes sense, get in the ear of a driver like Pato in that situation and tell them to give the leaders a wide berth. Not sure if that was the case at Long Beach, but I agree, it was just what should have happened.