Q: What a disgusting embarrassment for IndyCar. Who in the world thought that clown that did the invocation at Nashville Sunday was appropriate? Regardless of your religious beliefs, anybody that witnessed that deserves an apology from Penske Entertainment. As a former pit lane employee with IndyCar, the invocations given by Jason and Chuck from IndyCar Ministry were always a moment of reflection prior to the next two hours of chaos. That was worse than the Steven Tyler anthem..
Paul, Indianapolis
MP: This sure was a polarizing thing. I didn’t care.
Q: Is there any word on the schedule expanding to maybe 20 races in the coming years? Any other ovals that could happen? Richmond might race well based on what we have been seeing (regardless of Miles’ chalking up personal wins based on not going back to old tracks).
P.S. Pato O’Ward being filmed hammering down the slice of pizza for a minute before noticing the camera and winking without changing his chewing pattern was great. He is a natural. The series needs to follow him anywhere he wants to go, including Mexico. Maybe they will send some cameras when he races NASCAR.
Jordan Glenn
MP: There’s talk of adding one race, which would push the calendar to 18 races unless one of the current stops is dropped. I haven’t heard of more ovals being readied for addition.
Before leaving Indy I took a moment to visit the billboard Pato put up in honor of Mark Miles. It’s spectacular.
Q: Before the long, dark, cold winter sets in, with the sun not shining until next year’s first race, do you know anything specific about the drivers that are not on salary with their teams, and what they might be doing in the off season?
Do they have regular jobs? Are they racing elsewhere? Not your Dixons or Powers or Hertas, but people like Harvey and VeeKay and Stingray or Pietro? Oh, don’t forget Conor Daly, Mr. High Groove-Good bye!
I asked Robin Miller about this a few years ago because I heard that JR Hildebrand taught some engineering classes at his local university.
Sean Raymond
MP: If you watched Jersey Shore back in the day and recall their GTL — gym, tan, laundry — routine, it’s pretty similar for all IndyCar drivers, paid or paying, with their GMGSSGG — gym, more gym, simulator, streaming, gaming, golf — routines.
For any of the IndyCar regulars you’re familiar with, they earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, at the low end, and low/mid/high millions per year. If they work at a business during the offseason, it’s one they own and are trying to grow, like Graham Rahal’s GR Performance, which just opened a giant and beautiful new facility next to his father’s racing team (and across the street from Group 1001, the source of Andretti Global’s financing) in Zionsville, Ind.
Q: Mark “The Mouth” Miles has commented in the past that IndyCar doesn’t want to go back to tracks where drivers were killed or severely injured. If that’s the way they feel, why are we still going to IMS?
There are lots of great ovals around, just need to find sponsorships. Any hope?
Mike, Cincinnati
MP: It’s never lost on me how only a few letters are needed to change “ironic” into “moronic.”
If a quality oval brings a proposal to Penske Entertainment, I’m sure it would welcome the outreach. I’m unaware of any “new” old ovals being in play in the short term.
Q: I am absolutely gutted for Will Power after his seatbelt became undone during the race at Nashville, destroying any chance he had of winning the 2024 IndyCar title.
Is it rare for the clasp on a driver’s belt to become undone like that, causing a safety issue and forcing a driver to have to pit? When is the last time this happened? I heard something about the belt clip being redesigned recently. Has the cause of the failure been determined? If a crew member was to blame, how would that have been dealt with post-race?
David Colquitt
MP: Yes, extremely rare. Not the fault of a crew member. Hard to say when it happened last since it takes making such a failure public; the last most of us recall was also with Penske with AJ Allmendinger in the Indy 500. I checked in with the team and the source of the failure hasn’t been determined. The belt/restraint system manufacturer Schroth asked for the system to be preserved as-is for them to disassemble and investigate on their own and they’ll report back to Team Penske once the process is completed.
Q: With Ganassi downsizing from five to three cars, how likely is it that they’ll field a fourth or even fifth car at the Indy 500, and who could drive it? Any surprises possible?
Is there any chance of seeing a German driver in IndyCar in 2025 or 2026? There were some rumors about Dale Coyne talking to Mick Schumacher, which would be huge for German IndyCar fans. But I doubt it’s serious, is it?
Frank Lehmann
MP: On Ganassi and an extra entry, it would depend on sponsorship first, and the quality of the driver. If the team has a great sponsor and the ability to improve its organization through improving its financial resources, running an extra car would make sense. And/or if it had an amazing driver who could run up front at Indy and improve its odds of winning, and the team was able to hunt and secure funding, that would be the other reason. Rinus VeeKay comes to mind as a no-brainer, if he doesn’t land a bigger opportunity.
The prospect of simply running a fourth for the sake of it — with a funded but unremarkable driver — is where the team would likely focus on its three full-time entries instead.
Within the paddock, Dale Coyne is said to be offering full-season opportunities for somewhere in the $6 million range. If Mick has $6 million to spend with Dale, I’m sure he’d welcome him into one of the seats. To my knowledge, Mick isn’t shopping a big-money deal to become an IndyCar driver, but maybe that could change in the months ahead.