The RACER Mailbag, February 15

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.

Q: Regarding your article “Chevy set to make first IndyCar ERS run at Sebring,” if there are supply chain issues with the new ERS -- which were meant to fit to spec 2.4L engines -- how does staying with the current 2.2L engine not create more problems?

Rob, Rochester, NY

MARSHALL PRUETT: The ERS units were designed to fit the spec DW12 chassis. The 2.4L engines were designed to fit into the DW12 in the same exact way -- same mounting locations -- as the 2.2L. More problems haven’t been created.

Q: First off, if I was an IndyCar owner I would be pissed off to learn of the latest Leaders Circle deduction. You would think Mr. Penske and company should have announced this last November, but in my opinion they were worried that if they did so, they might affect the car counts for 2023. First the Indy Lights Freedom 100 goes away, then the money reduction, and now the double-points at the Indy 500. Wow.

AE, Danville, IN

MP: I don’t think taking $150K off of each Leaders Circle contract would have changed a thing on the car counts. But keeping all the team owners in the loop would have been nice.

Q: Any word on what’s going on with Nicholas Latifi? All the chatter about a move to IndyCar seems to have dried up. Is the issue that team owners are only interested if he pays for his ride, which his family can do but may be unwilling to do so?

Anthony P, Detroit, MI

MP: Same Latifi who was reported to be joining Ganassi? (Kidding). I have no clue. You are absolutely correct in saying that no IndyCar team would hire him -- not when you’re known to not bring a budget and have no results to show that you’re worthy of being paid. If it isn’t IndyCar, it’s a big step down to sports cars and anonymity.

Q: Who do you have for series champ, Indy 500 winner and Rookie of the Year? Has there ever been a better race driver name than Sting Ray Robb?

Brian Henris, Fort Mill, SC

MP: My heart says Will Power becomes a three-timer, but my head says Alex Palou. Alexander Rossi for the Indy 500 (the dumbest, most meaningless prediction in racing), and Agustin Canapino as RoY.

Yes, Rufus Parnelli Jones.

So the 2023 IndyCar champion is in this photograph, but exactly which guy it is depends on which of Marshall's body parts is doing the talking. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

Q: Can we convince more of the IndyCar teams to follow the process that F1 teams are utilizing to create buzz for the season? IndyCar teams can’t do build-ups around new cars, but they but still can release paint schemes/graphic designs, make team announcements on drivers, team managers, changes in process, etc. because it is a great marketing tool! McLaren’s staggered release of the new design and driver lineup at least gave us something of interest to read and discuss with our IndyCar brothers and sisters.

There is absolutely no buzz around IndyCar other than watching past and current partners fighting to get on the F1 bandwagon. Ford to F1 instead of Indy because of fuel and electrification of the engines… what is Roger waiting for to bring in change? How does Ford to Red Bull hurt Andretti and Cadillac’s F1 hopes? As F1 continues its expansion into America and more and more U.S. sponsors join F1, what will be left for IndyCar? IndyCar needs some creative elements with a tight cap that teams can innovate around to give us something to discuss other than just plan spec racing.

Old Grumpy Fan

MP: I’ve often wondered the same things about the long-running lack of presentation standards between the series and its teams. Arrow McLaren, since McLaren’s arrival, applied its Formula 1 standards to revealing its annual liveries and whatnot, and have owned this space. The sheer lack of coordination between the series and the paddock to help elevate IndyCar’s appeal is yet another head scratcher.

And even when a great young team like Juncos Hollinger Racing goes through a lot of effort to re-imagine its logo and colors and does all kinds of great photography of the cars and team to share with the media, we had another head scratcher. When was that release sent out? On a Saturday, when nobody is looking for IndyCar news in January, about two hours before the start of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, when absolutely nobody cares about IndyCar news because the racing world is focused… on Daytona. So for those who picked up the story, it got posted and quickly buried as hourly race updates and all manner of other content gave it no time to soak. Planning. Coordination. Timing.

Q: We are now within 100 days of the Indy 500. What is the projected car count we can expect to see at the Speedway? Any possibility of a true bump day? Are there any serious one-offs still lurking out there?

Dale, Chesterfield, VA

MP: We’ve got 32 confirmed entries with confirmed drivers, and the 33rd, the second Dreyer and Reinbold Racing Chevy, is happening, but they just aren’t ready to confirm the car’s pilot (RC Enerson’s name is often spoken in conjunction with it). Barring a big-name driver wanting to do the race (Jimmie Johnson, etc.), I think Honda’s done with leases at 17, and that would leave Chevy to pick up any additional entries. The Bowtie’s at 16, so if a third from Foyt or a deal from someone to run a car for Paretta Autosport or another hopeful emerges, it could be a party.

The good news is we’re already at 33. The bad news is we might not have a lot of drama on qualifications weekend.

Q: For those complaining about the lack of engine suppliers in IndyCar, can you please provide a history lesson regarding the engines that were utilized back in the '30s to the early ’60s? To my recollection, it was the Offenhauser as the vast majority choice of engine back then with a few other manufacturers sprinkled in. Were the complaints just as loud back then than they are today?

James Michener, Albuquerque, NM

MP: Out of curiosity, how would IndyCar’s engine supply history from forever ago have any relevance to today’s series where the rules are completely different and participation -- unlike the eras mentioned -- is restricted to factory supplies from auto manufacturers?

Q: As of this writing (February 12), the schedule for the GP of St. Pete hasn’t yet been released. Do you know why this is? Just out of curiosity, I took a look to see if the next race (Texas on April 2) race weekend schedule is up, and it sure is. Just seems like it should for sure be out by now, as we are three weeks away from the race itself.

Eric, Mequon, WI

MP: Just checked on February 14 and it’s still not there. No clue.

Q: As much as I am unhappy about Penske and Ganassi dominating the racing, I still am excited about the start of the IndyCar season in three weeks. The chassis may be 12 years old, but they still look really good, especially in road course trim. I would love to see McLaren move into the top three and win a championship, if not the 500. Any chance the next chassis be acceptable for stock engines, even EV? The world is changing rapidly; flexibility, I believe, is the path to a bright future. A series performance balancing could allow for multiple drive systems, they could also have off-the-shelf power trains available. As good as the racing is to watch, I just am concerned about future viability.

Mike, Chicago

MP: This is the big fork in the road the series does not yet want to face. I’ve written the same about its future engine formula; something rigid like the formula we’ve had since 2012 won’t work while the auto industry is undergoing such a rapid technological changeover from ICE to hybrids and EVs. Whatever they end up doing, and whenever they end up doing it, I sure as hell hope there’s no balance of performance nonsense included. Let the best propulsion system win. BoP is the worst.

Q: I’m probably the only person who thinks like this, but I’ve always found the Bus Stop/Inner loop chicane at Watkins Glen kinda goofy and ridiculous.

Three reasons:

1. The history behind it. A few years ago, I asked Miller (in this same Mailbag) what the reason behind it was, and he replied: J.D. McDuffie’s fatal crash in 1991. Fair enough, but that was then, and this is now. Safety technology has made a lot of progress in 30 years, whether it’s the cars (materials, safety cells, crash structures) or the track (barriers, run-off areas). Besides, that was a NASCAR Cup Series race. IndyCar is the fastest racing series to have raced there since then and these are probably the safest and the strongest of all the race cars that have ever been built. I don’t know how the safety standards in Cup compare to those in IndyCar, but even though the chicane might make sense for the former, isn’t it a little overzealous to also use it in the latter?

2. The track configuration. While I do see the point of putting a chicane right in the middle of a super-long straight, for example at Le Mans or Paul Ricard, this one is quite different, in my opinion. The (back) straight here is only a half mile long and is preceded by some esses with a very steep uphill climb. Therefore, I don’t think we’d see cars running four abreast coming into the "Outer loop" corner (the fast right-hander after the chicane). It’s a corner whose run-off area is now almost completely made of tarmac, so isn’t the area at this moment already safe enough?

3. The chicane layout. This isn’t really a replica of the old Spa-Francorchamps Bus Stop, but more of a fast zigzag that IndyCars could fly through only shifting down to third gear. So not only does it do a mediocre job at slowing down the cars, but it also slashes about 300 yards of what could be a sexy overtaking area along with a bravery test.

With all that in mind, if IndyCar is considering Watkins Glen as a potential future "new old" venue, would there still be a point in using the chicane? Maybe this is crazy but couldn’t they shortcut it and just go straight into the "Outer loop" corner?

Xavier

MP: Are we talking about the same chicane that generates what feels like one-third to half of the passes in every WGI race, either coming into the chicane or exiting? And are we of the belief that bravery isn’t a factor in most passing attempts into or out of the chicane? Not sure I follow here. It was an insanely fast section prior to its addition; I get that and appreciate that. But nobody is trying to play around and risk tangling wheels and getting fired into the trees at 200 mph for the sake of "sexy overtaking."

So, F1 fans are talking about the new cars, NASCAR fans are talking about this weekend's Daytona 500, IMSA fans are still basking in the debut of the GTP cars, and in IndyCar fans are arguing about the layout of a track that's been off the schedule for six years. That's how you know the off-season is too long. Scott LePage/Motorsport Images

Q: As a fan of several sports outside of IndyCar, I find it difficult to understand how IndyCar couldn't set up a live stream for Thermal Club. We literally used to have more cameras operating at my high school football games than the IndyCar preseason test.

It got me thinking about the next time IndyCar puts a car on the Thermal track. I find it hard to believe that the Thermal Club would be capable of hosting an in-person event for fans, which leaves me with the option of a broadcasted pr-eseason scrimmage race. As amazing as it would be, I don't see Thermal or IndyCar paying for track upgrades specifically for a broadcasted/non-attended race. I still like the idea of a pre-season scrimmage though. Maybe they could do it at Laguna Seca. Just a thought.

Ian

MP: The track is more than capable of hosting fans and an IndyCar race if they choose to spend millions to make it happen. It’s all about willingness and desire. I think we adequately covered the streaming failure in the last Mailbag, and we’ve been to Laguna for Spring Training a long time ago; the 2003 Champ Car event there was the first racing-related thing my future wife attended and she enjoyed it.

How’s this: IndyCar doing the same old things at the same old places isn’t going to help grow its awareness. I realize IndyCar at Thermal, with zero fans and no streaming, was all but invisible in that regard, but I’d rather see them go back next year and fix the mistakes that made it a dark event than pick the same old places where there’s little to gain in the local market.

Q: Part rant, with a genuine question included: NASCAR ruins everything. NASCAR reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway years ago, decimated the road course, and next is California Speedway/Fontana. I know the needs and desires of a few lowly club level road racers don’t amount to a hill of beans, but losing yet another road racing facility in the western U.S. is a bad thing. What little interest I had in NASCAR ended when the phony rules to enhance the show became the primary focus and the actual racing became secondary. Playoffs, arbitrary yellow flags, stages. NASCAR puts on a show and sometimes a race breaks out.

Now my conspiracy theory: NASCAR’s quest for total domination continues; the current generation car is configured as a road race car disguised as a Cup car with sequential gear box, independent rear suspension, single center lock wheel nuts, aero diffuser, etc. NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series now have road course races where IndyCar runs (Road America, Portland, IMS road course), or previously ran (COTA), and now street courses. Do you think there is any real risk that more road course and street race promoters will dump IndyCar and switch the events to NASCAR? Will IndyCar eventually become a single race at IMS in May? Thanks for your efforts and insights.

Dion Johnston

MP: No I’m not concerned about NASCAR supplanting IndyCar. NASCAR has enough races as it is, and too many -- at traditional Cup venues -- aren’t troubled with packed grandstands. NASCAR has a single street race, not multiple street races, and let’s see how those cars fare on one of the lamest and tightest layouts in recent memory.

Q: I was wondering why there will be two endurance races at Sebring in March -- one for IMSA LMDh (GTP), and another for WEC LMDh cars. Seemed like the point of setting out a common rule formula for cars from top sports car series was to allow the cars to compete with one another. It appears that will happen to some extent at Le Mans. Why not at Sebring?

Mike, Fort Worth, TX

MP: It’s because the FIA World Endurance Championship hosts its opening round at Super Sebring with the 1000 Miles of Sebring the day before America’s oldest professional endurance race, IMSA’s 12 Hours of Sebring. Just as the WEC did for the first time back in 2019 and again in 2022 after COVID scratched the event in the years between. There’s nothing stopping GTP or Hypercar teams or manufacturers from running in each others’ series, but the whole idea of hosting two giant endurance races across two days is not to cancel each other out.

In a perfect world, I'd like to see revenue sharing between the series and the teams cover all or most of the teams' operating expenses, with corporate sponsorship making up for any small shortfalls or just being pure profit (like in major stick and ball sports), though it would certainly have to be coupled with a spending cap. That said, I know the total dollars have to be there and IndyCar is a long way from having a big enough pie to sustain the field from revenue sharing alone. But could getting ahead of the curve and capping spending be a step in that direction?

Garrick

MP: We are far away from having to worry about it. The two series you’ve cited are also the two biggest and richest racing series in the world; they have enough money to warrant such things. Not so for IndyCar. Not yet, at least.

Q: Any news about Ryan Hunter-Reay? I thought he had signed signed with Ganassi and would be driving at Rolex 24 and the other longer-distance IMSA races.

Mike

MP: It’s decently well-known that it was RHR or Katherine Legge for the fourth RLL Indy 500 entry, and after Kat was announced, I can say that I heard from a few folks who were shocked to learn it wasn’t RHR getting the nod. I need to catch up with him and find out if and what else he might have in the works.

Hopefully no news isn't necessarily bad news for Hunter-Reay. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: I seem to remember Menards taking over the Buick(?) badging, and Cosworth has provided engines to multiple series. With Dallara being the sole chassis manufacturer for the foreseeable future, the badging of the engine doesn't appear to be as critical as it may have been in the beginning. Is there any chance IndyCar removes the requirement that an engine be provided (badged) by an auto manufacturer?

DJ Odom, Anderson, IN

MP: It’s more important than at any time since this turbo formula debuted in 2012. Chevy and Honda are two of the biggest financial hearts in IndyCar. From the engines they provide to teams -- each one at a significant six-figure loss per lease -- to the events they sponsor to the work and spending they’ve taken on to make the new energy recovery systems, you can’t place IndyCar at any greater risk than to suggest it’s time to push out the manufacturers and go to a generic engine. Lose a Chevy, or Honda, or both, and we have calamity.

Q: I just read Randy Lanier's book and noticed that a couple of pictures were attributed to you. What is your favorite story about him, in or out of racing?

David, Waxhaw, NC

MP: It’s more of a general thought than anything specific. Randy was just a guy. Not some young messiah who burst onto the karting scene and was pointed at by everyone as a future champion. He was a guy who loved cars, didn’t have a great direction in life (we all know that would be solved in short time) and put together a home-built Porsche coupe to go SCCA Club Racing like thousands upon thousands of people have over the decades.

And from there, and with the influx of marijuana smuggling money he’d soon have, he was able to accelerate his interests in racing and take those club talents to the biggest stages in IMSA where he became a GTP champion, raced at Le Mans, and, despite having any real open-wheel experience, he impressed in IndyCar -- ovals, in particular. His life story is wild, as we know, but I’ll always think of Randy as the ultimate Average Joe who had remarkable talent. If he’d started racing a decade earlier and was solely focused on driving, who knows how far he could have gone.

Q: I have always held Mr. Penske in high regards in relation to business as well as any racing-related endeavors, and was thankful when he purchased the Speedway and IndyCar Series.

However, after reading the story about IndyCar management taking $150k worth of Leader Circle money away from each of the 22 qualified entrants for 2023, as well as the reduction in monies for the Indy Lights champion from 2022, and some other stories along the way, I now have uneasy feelings.

Reducing the Leaders Circle payout for 2023 will be difficult for several of the teams, but I am more interested in how they plan to spend the $3.3 million in marketing? Have you been privy to any of the discussions  on how this reallocated money will be spent? More local advertising for races? More TV commercials for IndyCar races? Promoting driver personalities?

It is concerning if the series is taking monies from the teams, but not providing any insight into what it will be used for, or expected benefits. That causes IndyCar fans to become concerned and suspicious of IndyCar management.

I would believe there has to be a three- to five-year business plan for IndyCar, and it would be nice if they could share some things with the fans to provide some hope for the future of the series, since right now it just looks like IndyCar is taking money away with no positive future outlook, or benefit to the health of the teams and series.

Rod, Fresno, CA

MP: I haven’t heard where the monies will be distributed, but I pray it’s heavily skewed towards social. My first guess was that they’d want to hire a new VP of marketing first before committing that person’s budget in areas they may or may not agree with. But, that also involves an assumption that the new marketing VP will have the autonomy to decide where their budget gets spent. And with the season set to start in two weeks, I’m not sure they can afford to wait to get that hire done, so let’s just say I look forward to learning where this is headed.

Whatever new social initiatives IndyCar may or may not have in the works for this year, it's a safe bet that Mika Hakkinen would not have been able to enjoy them on this absolute brick of a phone that he was packing after his maiden F1 win at Jerez in 1997. Motorsport Images

Q: It's only two days after I pitched the idea of IndyCar doing some exhibitions at GRIDLIFE events to capture the youth market in the Mailbag, and here I see the announcement that the NASCAR Xfinity race at Road America will feature support races from GRIDLIFE Time Attack cars as well as their wheel to wheel series (GLTC). IndyCar, I will always love you, but will you please stop falling behind?

Gabe in NWI

MP: This is an interesting Valentine’s Day card, Gabe.

Q: This being Daytona 500 week, I thought I would bring up the fiasco that was 2011 and the tandem two-car draft.  That has to go down as the worst type of racing all time. What happened with the rules package and aerodynamics that year that led to that debacle?

Mark C, Tampa, FL

KELLY CRANDALL: Tandem drafting. Pods. Lovebug racing. Whatever you call it, it wasn’t popular with some fans and drivers. But two cars are faster than one, and that was why drivers were so quick to tandem draft. The rules package at the time made it very easy for the cars to suck up in the draft, and once they were together, they could stick together and pull away. But it seemed to only work with two cars because as soon as a third tried to tag on, the tandem broke.

One big reason the tandem draft worked is the restrictor plate and radiator were the perfect sizes -- it took quite a bit to make the car overheat. So therefore, you’d see one driver push for a few laps and then switch with their dancing partner. To stop that, NASCAR officials implemented a rule change where the restrictor plate was increased by 1/64 of an inch, and the radiator made smaller to try and make the cars overheat quicker and make tandem drafting less of an option.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, March 19, 2014

Q: I was saddened to hear of the passing of Harold Leep. Now there was one guy who should’ve gotten a lot more attention nationally than he did. Having seen every series that ran on the dirt tracks of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri in the 1960s, including the touring USAC sprint cars (when guys like Rutherford, Andretti and the like still participated,) nobody, but NOBODY, could throw a sprinter through a corner like Harold Leep. He was just as good in the longer wheelbase super-modifieds of the era, too.

Leep would already be tossing his car sideways while his competitors were still hard on the throttle at the end of one straightaway. But he’d be two car lengths ahead of them on the next because he was so fast through the turns. I overheard him counseling a younger driver on that very point once: If you want to improve your lap times, slow down sooner on the straights because you can get hard on the throttle sooner through the turn. Anybody who saw him drive would understand the wisdom of his words. R.I. P. Mr. Leep.

Steve C., Ithaca, NY

ROBIN MILLER: Lee Kunzman raced with Harold and told us of his immense respect for him at lunch last week, so that’s a pretty good endorsement. He also said Leep was a helluva boxer and a few drivers learned that the hard way.