Robin Miller's Mailbag for December 16, presented by Honda Racing/HPD

Questions for Robin can be sent to millersmailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t always guarantee that your letter will be printed, but Robin will get to as many as he can. Published questions have been edited for clarity. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of RACER or Honda/HPD.

Q: First, I hope you are doing well and staying safe! After reading the Andretti Autosport announcement that Colton Herta is moving into the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda, I'm wondering what that means for Hinch? I thought he was all but confirmed in the No. 26 for 2021? Will he take the No. 88 (essentially a swap), or is he now looking for a ride?

Rob Pobiega, Lemont, IL

RM: I think Genesys will be Hinch’s primary sponsor for Andretti, and it will be for the full season and be announced early in 2021. I’m fine thanks, and too old to do anything fun or dangerous.

Q: With Herta moving to the No. 26 car does that mean the No. 88 is in danger of not running in 2021?

Ron Hutson

RM: I guess it depends on whether George Michael Steinbrenner IV and Mike Harding stay involved. It kinda sounded like Colton was thanking young Steinbrenner for helping him get to the top in the press release, like maybe they were done as a team, but hopefully we’ll still see him around.

Q: Thanks for the great weekly updates on everything happening in IndyCar. We folks in Canada love our local boy, James Hinchliffe. Has it been announced that he has a full-time ride for the 2021 season? If not, what do you see in his racing future, besides working with you at NBC?

Steve, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

RM: I said in my earlier answer that I think Hinch is set, but I know he wants to stay racing as long as possible before he turns to television to make a living. I just hope he lets me drive him around after he and Little E take over NBC.

Q: What has happened to Oliver Askew? Has he been cast away by IndyCar because of his accident?

Mike B.

RM: He still wants to run IndyCar but not a lot out there at the moment, so in the meantime he has a ride for IMSA’s endurance races.

Q: Formula 1 races all over the world. When was the last time that IndyCar raced outside of the United States?

Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY

RM: If you count Canada it’s 2019, but otherwise it was Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2012.

Q: What is the status of the new Indy car coming in 2023? Also, what are the chances of the apron being added in the next couple of years?

Sam Smith

RM: Haven’t heard a word about the apron for a long time so I imagine it’s a real long shot, and the next car’s status is chronicled in this story Marshall wrote in June.

Robin has a hunch about Hinch. Barry Cantrell/Motorsport Images

Q: Thanks so much for the excellent Xmas gift list. What a great year for racing books! Could you please recommend which book focused on Offy engines I should get first?

Having been to the first Long Beach Grand Prix and many more, and having listened to the establishment members of the Can-Am paddock react to the first Shadow in the pits, and getting to listen to the small Shadow group as they set up the car, I know which two off your list I have to start with. Merry Christmas Robin, and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you for your tremendous gift of accurately communicating the passion of real racing.

Rick, California

RM: None of those books focus on the Offy and I’m not sure any of them even mention it, but you can try and find a book simply titled ‘Offenhauser’ written by Gordon White.

Q: One of the questions in a previous Mailbag included a tantalizing reference to "what the paddock thought of the Whittingtons." I'm mainly familiar the story of their later legal woes, but you don't get three cars qualified for Indy on just dumb luck. Could you elucidate on the relationship between the Whittington brothers and their competitors?

Ben Malec, Buffalo Grove, IL

RM: No, but you can get three cars qualified if you have cheater engines, and that was always the story. I played golf with Don once and he was OK, but nobody seemed to know much about any of them and I think they were reclusive for a reason. One Indy legend used to say they were "nice boys” who made their money off trailer parks. Sure they did. That’s why they paid cash for a Cosworth.

Q: Just curious to know if there was ever a time when you questioned what you were doing by writing about the races and the drivers. What drivers that we have lost affected you the most? Have you ever witnessed a year that you will more glad to see over than 2020? Here’s to a much better 2021!

Jim McGlynn

RM: Art Pollard got me started racing and his death in 1973 at Indy was the first time I ever lost someone close to me, so obviously it hit pretty hard. We played basketball, baseball and poker together, plus went to concerts with his wife Pat, and he was just so much fun to be around. I think we were all glad to see the end of 1966 (six USAC drivers were killed that season), and 1973 because May was so brutal.

Q: In a perfect world F1 and IndyCar should have the best available drivers, but as you know, we have pay drivers. Is it better to have fewer teams in these series with the best drivers, or full fields with pay drivers?

Giancarlo Comparato

RM: IndyCar has weeded out the Milka Dunos, of the world and most of the guys who bring money today are also very competent like Marcus Ericsson or Alex Palou or Rinus Veekay. IndyCar is pretty healthy in terms of good teams, so let’s leave it where it is right now.

Q: IndyCar has been quite the landing spot for drivers that have raced in Formula 1, like Rossi, Sato, Chilton, Ericsson and Bourdais, among others. But assuming a seat is open and the financial backing was there, which of our current crop of IndyCar drivers do you think are ready to race and make a successful transition to F1 and why?

Brandon Karsten

RM: Hard to pick one, so Newgarden, Rossi, Palou, Rosenqvist and Herta would be my candidates, but they could only be successful in a good car and there’s only a few of them, so the odds are stacked against them before they turn a wheel.

Q: You mentioned in the Dec. 9 Mailbag that Roger Penske doesn't take pay drivers. I recall that Danny Ongais had a ride in a Penske car in 1987 that wound up going to Big Al due to a crash, I believe. Was Danny maybe the one exception that brought money to Roger for a one-off at Indy?

Andy R., Brighton, MI

RM: I imagine Ted Field could have paid to get Danny that ride, but I never saw any indication that’s what happened and R.P. prides himself in hiring the best available, although Ongais was on the downside of his career.

Q: After reading (not watching) that George Russell won the pole in the Mercedes and could have easily won the race, it seems to me that Mercedes could save $40 to $50 million and just hire one of the backmarker drivers at a million bucks or maybe less instead of Lewis Hamilton. Do you really think the salaries paid to the top four or five drivers in F1 are justified in that they represent true driver superiority?

Matwood Stout, Oxnard, CA

RM: They represent what a few F1 teams budget for drivers and a handful of them (Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc) seem to be a cut above, although Georgie Boy sure had people talking about the car vs. the driver. A teacher or a nurse makes $40-50,000 and a guy driving a race car makes $20 million? Of course it’s absurd, and it’s what the market can handle, but I imagine there are 10 guys on the F1 grid that could win in a Mercedes. Only a few drivers ever moved the dial on TV or packed the grandstands with their presence, and I’m talking A.J., Parnelli, Mario and Gurney in IndyCar and Petty, Earnhardt, Stewart and Gordon in NASCAR. Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Nigel Mansell had big followings, but Ayrton Senna drove the F1 show like nobody else. But most superior drivers have superior equipment.

F1's proving to be a pretty good IndyCar feeder series. Motorsport Images

Q: This is probably a question for Donald Davidson. I just read on RACER.com that Sato's 2020 Indy-winning chassis is being retired. Do you know how many of the Indy 500 winning cars are still in existence and accounted for? I know a few chassis won more than once. It would be an interesting story (or short book) on the history of and the rescue or demise of each (at least for us Indy 500 geeks).

Jim, Indy

RM: Not going to bother Donald so I asked my pal Mike Lashmet, the longtime IndyCar mechanic who now runs the Vintage Indy Registry and has chased down old Indy car treasure for the past 30 years. Here’s what he says:

“I’m guessing a bit, but think just about every Indy 500 winner is accounted for save for Kelly Petillo’s 1935 winner and a few others. Obviously they’re not all in the IMS Museum. For instance Ricky Duman has Eddie Cheever’s car in his Turn 4 Restoration shop right now. But I agree it would make for a marvelous piece, or better yet, a book!”

Q: I hope you're in good spirits and will have a Merry Christmas. I was at home reading the fantastic book ‘Second To One’ about all the past second-place Indy 500 finishers, and I was in particular reading about Peter Revson. I didn't know much about him other than having ties to Revlon Cosmetics, but it seems he was quite a talent. Do you having any antidotes about him or the IRP road course where he won his only USAC race?

M from Michigan

RM: In my first year covering Indy for The Indianapolis Star I tracked Revson down after he’d started last and finished sixth in the Repco-Brabham. I remember asking him if he was surprised to get such a great result as a rookie, and he said: “It didn’t surprise me, but nobody thought I could make this race and I imagine nobody expected me to make it to lap 10, but I like this place and I’ll be back.” Then I saw him again in July after his IRP win and he basically said maybe now people won’t think he’s just a rich kid out there playing race driver. He was a talent, and I liked his swagger.

Q: Last week you had a question about a racer or writer who had a bar in Wyoming, NY and you weren't sure but you were right – it was ‘The Assassin’, aka Brock Yates. He opened the Cannonball Bar in Wyoming NY (just outside Warsaw) shortly after the first Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea Trophy race. I stopped in a few times for a cold beer. It has been closed for a number of years now.

Greg Lane

RM: Thanks Greg, I looked on Google but obviously didn’t type in the right words. Brock was such a talent and such a character, so it only made sense he’d want to tip a few with his pals and admirers at his own place.

Q: Always love reading the Mailbag! My question is, I have about 50 books from the '70s, '80s and '90s about racing, Are there any racing museums or archives that might appreciate a donation? And not just to try to sell them off. My local library has a sad transportation section and won’t even put them on the shelves for people to look at or take out. They will just sell them. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Terry Capps

RM: I don’t know of any, and I suggest bringing them to Indy in early January at Mari Hall’s memorabilia show in the Dallara plant, except there are reams of books at those shows and unless it’s really rare, nobody would be interested.

Q: Do you have a good story concerning General Chuck Yeager? I know he’s driven the pace car and did the flyover at Indianapolis, and I once saw Chuck and A.J. hot-lap a Oldsmobile Cutlass pace car at the State Fairgrounds. He’s one guy I’m sure the drivers had great respect for.

Ray Little

RM: The only story I know is the night you spoke of when A.J. gave him a ride. All I know is that the race driver did everything possible to scare the famous flyer, and Yeager promised that if he ever got Foyt in a fighter jet it would be a big payback.

Q: The Tom Wolfe novel ‘The Right Stuff’ has been making a comeback recently with a new series on Disney Plus. In the documentary, it is mentioned that race car drivers were among the earliest consideration for America’s first astronauts. Of course, they went with test pilots. My question is, which of the Indianapolis/sprint car stars of the late '50s do you think might have taken up the task of going into space if they were offered the chance? Could you imagine Eddie Sachs being the first American in space?

John Bishop

RM: Let’s not stick to the 1950s, although Mike Nazaruk was as brave as they made ‘em along with Larry “Crash” Crockett and Jimmy Bryan. I think Jim Hurtubise, Johnny White, Bobby Unser and Sachs would have all been good candidates, because an astronaut had to be brave and ready to go into the unknown.

Jeff Loveland

PS. Robin, you can never retire.

RM: He is indeed a treasure Jeff, but I think he’s slowed down quite a bit in the past couple years and lost some of that desire to speak at functions or do his radio show. I’m not sure if he still wants to do the IMS Network on race day, but I imagine they’ll ask him. I can’t quit, I support two bookies and one gambling website and their families need me.

1954 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Larry Crockett's speed was without question, but you'd have to think it would have taken some arm-twisting for NASA to place the future of its space flight program into the hands of a guy nicknamed 'Crash'. Image by IMS

Q: Saw a piece on Jungle Park Speedway on Little E’s “Lost Speedways.” I was not aware of the rich history of Jungle Park and I am planning a side trip to see its remains on my annual trip to the 500 this year. My question is, during the episode, they referenced a book – ‘The Ghosts Of Jungle Park’ – by Tom W. Williams. I’ve tried to score a copy and it is evidently out of print. Are you familiar with this book? Any ideas on how to find a copy? Appreciate any guidance you can offer. Thanks for everything through the years!

Jim Peabody, Colorado Springs, CO

RM: I asked well-known motorsports author Dave Argabright and here’s his response:

“The gift shop at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum normally carries the book, but it appears to be sold out. The book is available from some bookstores as a collector's item retailing for $500-plus, but it’s hard to find one at a reasonable price at this stage.”

Q: Not really a question so much as just a note to say thanks for what you do. Having Donald Davidson announce his retirement really brought it home to me how much we lean on you guys for our racing fandom support. I'm getting older (I'm 50) and Indy and IndyCar has been a pretty significant part of my life. As a military family moving around so much, our traditions had to be ‘portable’, and the Indy 500 and the Ohio State Buckeyes fit that bill.

Thanks for being such a big part of that. Thanks for your passion and your selfishly biased opinions... selfish biased opinions which I share as well; that IndyCar and the Indy 500 are the greatest things since rearview mirrors, and what is best for the series, the race, and the people on and off-track who keep it alive, is what's best for me. Best wishes for you and your health this Christmas. Give a wave to the Speedway next time you drive by for all of us whose traditions must be portable and most of all, keep doing what you do. We love ya, old man!

Chris Petersen, West of Atlanta

RM: Well, thanks for the kind words and supporting IndyCar all these years, but I’m just trying to out-live A.J. and he’s so tough I wouldn’t bet against him.