Q: College football started this week and my 4K channel lineup is alive. Any idea when motorsports will get in on the action?
Shawn, MD
MARSHALL PRUETT: Since motorsports is a completely disconnected and independent sport with no unified sanctioning body and different broadcast partners across every conceivable network and platform, that would be a no. While we’re asking questions that have no answer, how long is a piece of string?
Q: I tried to find this out via Google, but I was unable to do so. May I ask you how Bob Varsha is doing? For the last 35 years or so I felt he was easily the best motorsports broadcaster in the United States, and I have met him on two or three occasions at races. I know he was seriously under the weather, and I wanted to know how he was getting along these days. I hope you will pass along my best wishes to Bob.
David Lind
MARSHALL PRUETT: Bob fought and beat cancer a few years ago and keeps busy with whatever opportunities come his way. He’s the best.
Q: I attended my first professional road race in 1968 at the Road America Can-Am. Can you ask your statistics boffins to look up the fastest laps ever for Can-Am cars and then USAC/CART/IndyCar for common tracks? I’m remembering The Glen, Mosport, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Laguna, Riverside and probably Sonoma. I expect the Can-Am record to be by the Penske/Donohue/Porsche 917-30. I do understand that track paving has changed and some configurations also, but still, I’m curious.
Rick, Lisle, IL
MARSHALL PRUETT: I have one friend who specialized in IndyCar statistics, and he does things on his own free time. Sports car stats aren’t in his wheelhouse, and while I could go and do the hours of research for you, that’s not the purpose for the Mailbag. You can satiate your curiosity by starting here, and then going here. Please report back and let us know what you find.
Q: With Alex Palou’s second IndyCar championship in three years, will opportunities in F1 open up for him next year? I would guess his CGR contract has F1 provisions.
Mike Woodall, Kettering, OH
MARSHALL PRUETT: They may, but he’s signed a new and long contract with Ganassi, and after all of Alex’s contractual nonsense over the last year, I doubt Chip would provide any wiggle room for him to leave — unless it’s a life-altering payday for the team, which no F1 outfit would offer — before the contract is up. Alex was asked about this on Sunday, and he pointed to his age — he’s 26 — as an issue that will only get worse for F1 teams who want young, new, and malleable, not older and set in their ways.
CHRIS MEDLAND: The impression I get from chats with McLaren is that the Ganassi U-turn does not come with any F1 provisions. AlphaTauri’s interest was always a little tentative, but has softened further given the fact Red Bull already faces a choice of two from the three of Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson.
If anything, sticking with Ganassi feels like a decision from Palou to focus more on enduring IndyCar success rather than prioritize trying to get an F1 chance over that.
Q: Didn’t all this business with Palou start with Ganassi not wanting to renegotiate his contract after winning the championship? That’s the memory I have, but please correct me if needed.
Also, it seems absurd to me that Ericsson would need to continue to bring money. He’s quick, he’s steady and he’s won races (not insignificantly, the Indy 500!). Those are not the typical results from someone bringing money.
My point is that Ganassi seems to be his own worst enemy. In this sport, and many others, Worth = money. So, what message is Ganassi trying to send?
Also, as we know, Dr. Marko often says questionable things. Most recently, this would include his suggestion that Andretti should buy Alpine. It looks to me like Alpine has no interest in selling anytime soon. The upheaval in team management strongly says to me that they are planning on continuing, else why go through the BS of removing folks? Am I reading this correctly?
Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA
MARSHALL PRUETT: Alex signed a contract for an agreed-upon sum. His dissatisfaction with what he signed, while mid-contract, didn’t impress Chip. Chip might not have done himself any favors with Ericsson though, as stonewalling him until late in the game only angered Marcus, who chose Andretti’s offer and warmer embrace over the offer and longstanding rejection from Ganassi. Chip has won three of the last four championships and an Indy 500 since 2020. He’s doing OK.
CHRIS MEDLAND: I agree with you about Alpine, Don, as Michael Andretti has already said that he’s been to every team and none of them are selling. Not only the upheaval, but the recent investment from multiple consortiums that means Alpine/Renault is having to put less into the team also suggests it’s working financially for it, even if the sporting results aren’t great.
That said, the departures suggest an impatience at Renault board level, and if the next year or two results are also hard to come by then perhaps it would become open to selling at that stage.
Q: I am seeing news footage of Ryan Preece’s crash, and his black eyes a week later as he is racing again. The crash feels very similar to what happened to Simon Pagenaud back at Mid-Ohio, and Simon has been out of the car for two months now. Both of them climbed out on their own and walked away, seemingly unhurt. So what’s the difference that allowed Ryan to race again a week later? Is it the direction of the spin — end over end versus side to side? The number of times it hit the ground? Safety in the NASCAR vs IndyCar? Or is the IndyCar medical protocol that much more stringent than NASCAR’s? I am a dedicated IndyCar fan and know a fair amount about their medical team and what they do, but absolutely nothing about the corresponding NASCAR protocol.
Naomi
MARSHALL PRUETT: Doctors and physicists and engineers would need to analyze both crashes and provide the answer on the differences in forces and the respective effects visited upon Simon and Ryan. We know in basic terms that brain injuries are highly specific to the individual in how the damage and recovery process plays out, so two drivers experiencing the same exact crash would not have the same effects.
KELLY CRANDALL: Ryan Preece was allowed to race because he wasn’t injured. It’s as simple as that. He was kept overnight at the hospital, and then cleared to get back into the car.