Q: Whatever happened to the GP of Vietnam? Do they have any plans to hold the race, or is it a casualty of the COVID era?
Walter Fox
CM: It was initially COVID that stopped the race being held, but then it was political developments that ended that race. Hanoi’s ex-mayor — Nguyen Duc Chung — was a huge driving force behind the event, and he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges.
Without Chung, there was no clear momentum to ensure the race would take place, and F1 itself picked up significant money for the contract not being honored by the race organizers, so I doubt there were too many complaints as it simply sold that space on the calendar to one of the many other bidders.
I actually visited the circuit when it was being built and as because was all private money behind it, I can’t see it being rekindled anytime soon despite the track being there now.
Q: When do you think we will see international races in the NASCAR Cup series?
Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY
KELLY CRANDALL: While I can’t give you a specific timeline, I believe NASCAR is moving toward that more today than ever before. Having a presence in a foreign country is a big deal to the sanctioning body, and they are very proud of the international series they have, such as NASCAR Mexico and the Euro Series. But if they were able to bring their top stars to another country, it would be a massive win. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about potentially going to Montreal next season, and while that might not be as signed and sealed as many expect, it’s on NASCAR’s radar. It was also rumored that Mexico might be in play sometime in the future as well. Time will tell, but it does seem to be something NASCAR is seriously considering as it continues to find ways to evolve its schedule.
Q: Almost three-quarters of the 2023 Cup season is over. Who is the driver of the year? What was the race of the year? Why is it taking so long for NASCAR to release the 2024 schedule?
Kurt Perleberg
KC: William Byron is my driver of the year. Between the wins and his continued development as a weekly contender, Byron should be considered a legitimate top-five driver in the Cup Series.
It’s hard to pick one race, and that’s not a cop-out — it’s just that everything runs together, and individual races become easy to forget. But I really enjoyed the Cup Series races at Darlington and Kansas this season.
Your guess is as good as mine on the schedule. I’ve been hearing “two weeks” for what has felt like two months. It now seems like it’ll be October, and my guess is that some of what NASCAR was working on for next year must have had some hurdles, which has caused the delay. The rumors about what the schedule is going to look like continue to change on a weekly basis.
Q: In light of the Brennan Poole crash directly into the pit wall at very high speed at a high-speed racetrack, tragedy was narrowly averted.
Had the car dug into the grass and start barrel rolling, as so often happens at high speed, and it could have vaulted over pit wall. Worse, maybe a round of green flag pit stops are underway and there are dozens of pit crew workers totally exposed to a car coming at them near 180mph.
What will NASCAR do? Surely it just cannot sweep it under the rug, as a very serious flaw in safety was exposed for everyone to see.
Concerned in Colorado
KC: From Elton Sawyer during his weekly SiriusXM NASCAR Radio call:
“It’s great to know that no one was injured… All in all, things went as well as you could expect in that situation. But as we said before, safety is not a destination, it’s a journey, and that doesn’t just account for the vehicles that we race, but it’s also the facilities that we race at. We’ll take a much deeper dive on our facilities on the NASCAR side as well as our partners at Speedway Motorsports. We’ll look at that particular incident. Is there anything we can do different?
“If you look at some of our other facilities where we have a pit wall, if you will, between the pit road and the racetrack, and there are some facilities that are just not an option. But we will, as we always do, go back and take a much deeper dive into that at that facility and look at all facilities, as we’ve said numerous times. Whether it’s adding tire packs or SAFER barriers or additional walls or close out where cars can get in there and make contact with other areas of the racetrack that we don’t need vehicles. We will take a much deeper dive on that …”
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, September 23, 2014
Q: Remember when Senna was undecided whether to drive for McLaren in 1992 and he tested one of Penske’s Indy cars at Firebird? Just speculating, how do you think Senna would have done at Indy?
Late Apex
ROBIN MILLER: Emerson Fittipaldi was trying to convince him to come race in CART, at least the Indy 500, and he seemed keen on the idea after the test. Driving for Penske with his talent, I think he’d have done just fine. Can you imagine having Mansell, Senna and Fittipaldi at Indy that May?