Q: Just wondering if, after Newgarden and McLaughlin were DQ’d from the St. Pete race, does that take mean they aren’t eligible for the Leaders Circle?
Mandy, Angola, IN
MP: It does not. It just means they scored no points at St. Pete. Both are running well inside the top 22, which is the cutoff point for Leaders Circle contracts, so the DQs have had no effect on this matter.
Q: Thank you for the article on the issues with the Chevy engine. Can you do an article about the Honda? It didn’t seem to be as straightforward as the Chevy issues, but several Honda teams struggled with power, like Ganassi and Rahal. Also, the Honda engines seemed to have a lot more variation in power with some engines pulling strong (Sato) and others really struggling. Granted, this may be one of the tightest fields in the history of the 500.
John
MP: It’s much easier to write about a known problem like plenum fires than something nebulous like Honda not being as good as Chevy in high boost configuration at Indy. Did Honda make mistakes in their motor development, or did they do an excellent job and Chevy simply took excellence to a higher place? I’d need to be given access to months of Honda’s development concepts, testing, and final decisions to draw a conclusion, and that’s not something a manufacturer would allow.
Felix Rosenqvist was the fastest qualifier for Honda, so all of the talk about Taku getting a special motor from Honda fell silent, just as it should.
Q: I know you’re busy this week, but when you have a moment, can you please educate the broadcasters on the difference between “dampeners” and “dampers”?
DA, Chicago
MP: Shocking, isn’t it?
Q: Many media outlets reported on Sunday that McLaughlin’s Indy 500 one and four lap qualifying speeds were new track records. The record book clearly shows his speeds were below the one and four lap Indy 500 qualifying records, set in 1996 by Arie Luyendyk.
John Severinsen
MP: Pole records, yes, all-time qualifying records, no.
Q: How did ECR put VeeKay’s car back together so quickly and so well in just a few hours? He was faster than Ericsson’s backup car that had been used since Thursday. He was even faster than his teammates who hadn’t crashed.
Kyle
MP: It was a solid crash, but it wasn’t a “big one” where the car was mostly trashed. ECR has great mechanics and, frankly, that’s how long it should take to turn that crash around and get a repaired car back on track. VeeKay’s the best driver at ECR, has stellar engineering behind him, and with some extra time to massage on the car after he got into the Fast 12 on Saturday, they were able to get him up where he belongs. Ganassi did the same with Lundqvist’s car after his crash; it wasn’t as perfect as it was before the crash, but they put in the time to get it as close as possible once time was on their side.
Q: Saw your appearance on Speed Freaks which I think was recorded before Tim Cindric’s and the race team engineers’ suspensions. At recording time, you didn’t think Mr. Penske was taking the situation seriously. So, we’ve now had the suspensions and qualifying. In the post-qualification interview, Penske goes out of the way to praise the suspended employees for getting the team the front row results. Is that a class move, or a clueless tone deaf one?
David Parker, Jersey City
MP: It’s just an expected part of how they do things. When you own everything and control everything and are beholden to no one, you do whatever you want.
Q: Does the Indy 500 still award double points? Could one of the perks of charter membership be changing the 500 qualifying order to practice speeds for the charter members and then non-charter entries after that? All the other ovals go based on practice time and going out from 11:00-12:30 is an advantage.
Don
MP: It does not. They could.
Q: Do you know which engine manufacturer is getting the better mpg?
Jake
MP: We need to get into full-tank runs on Carb Day to get an understanding of how the leading Chevy and Honda teams fare with stint length, assuming we get some full-to-empty runs.
Q: With regard to engines: I know teams are tire limited for the 500, but, they seem to really be racking up the miles at will over the many practice sessions. Do they have an engine count for the Indy 500 alone? Does it count against their annual allotment? Do they all drop in a fresh engine the Friday before the race? Or are these engines able to withstand an ungodly amount of miles?
Also, “100 Days to Indy” is a snooze fest. Another IndyCar missed opportunity. It’s pretty clear some drivers just don’t want to be filmed. Newgarden fulfilled his basic obligation to Penske but is shown in a limited fashion. Pato loves the camera. Felix and Ericsson are not livewires. Power is only mildly interesting. Same each week. Pretty similar to last year…
Why aren’t they showing some of the characters like Ferrucci (because he doesn’t live in Indy)? Even though he is not my cup of tea, Sting Ray Robb might be interesting. No Catherine Legge, Teddy Porkchops, Malukas, Rossi, Grosjean flying his plane, etc.
I’m assuming a lot of drivers don’t want to be bothered because it‘s pretty much the same drivers each week and it’s similar to last year. And it seems Penske Entertainment just took the easy way out.
John Dowling, Ann Arbor, MI
MP: Teams are doing a normal amount of lapping. With all of the rain delays, there’s been a compression of time so it’s been busy since they lost a ton of time due to rain. Full-season teams use their regular motor allotment coming into Indy and are given fresh motors for the race and then go back to their normal motors as part of the four engines/10,000 miles per lease program.
I haven’t seen any of Season 2, so I have no insights to offer on what they have or haven’t done. Let’s see what they chose to show in the final two episodes.