The RACER Mailbag, April 12

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.

ED's note: We had a few letters from readers last week wanting to know the identity of the person shown speaking to Devlin DeFrancesco on the TV broadcast after he climbed out of his crashed car at TMS. According to the team, it was "Coach Hector," aka DeFrancesco's personal performance coach and trainer Hector Maradiaga of Infinity Sports Institute in the Miami area – MG.

Q: Wasn't Texas run at night at one point? If so, does nighttime affect the racing dramatically?

Shawn, MD

MARSHALL PRUETT: It was, and it does. It’s the swings in temperature from the start of the race to the middle and latter stages when thinner air becomes thicker air and influences downforce, which can be tuned throughout the race -- within reason -- by teams during pit stops, and with the change in downforce, you’re also at risk of burning off your tires if you start overly light on aero and cause the tires to slide.

Q: While the seating chart and number of grandstands for the 2023 Honda Indy Toronto are the same and the promoters don't anticipate adding additional ones, it's evident that the current pit lane has to be reconfigured to fit a 27-car field. As you know, the pit lane that has been in use since 2016 barely squeezed in 24 full-time entries last year. I know that the promoters and IndyCar have a plan. That's great, but what is it?

The reason I am asking is so I, and no doubt others like me, can figure out the best place to sit if we want to have a stellar view of the action in the pits. The promoters usually post a Festival Map diagram that shows people how the track and its infield is laid out, but the only track map that is on the site right now is for 2022. If you could get IndyCar and Honda Indy Toronto's promoters to shed more light on this, it would be appreciated.

David Colquitt

MP: Based on a conversation I had with IndyCar's Jay Frye about this exact Toronto pit lane scenario during the offseason, this year’s race will indeed squeeze 27 cars onto the same location as last year.

Q: Were you able to speak to Evi Gurney or anyone else at AAR about the Dan Gurney autobiography? If so, what's the latest update? We've been hearing (for years now) that Evi is going through photographs. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see his autobiography in print.

Rick Johnson, Lynnwood, WA

MP: I fly down to LA on Wednesday and will head straight to AAR. I’ll get an update while there, Rick.

Q: I’ve always wondered how the GTD teams pick what car they run, and how that may be different from the GTD PRO teams. Is it driver preference? Business interests (like, I’m a Porsche dealer so I’m going to run Porsche)?

Bill Jackson

MP: All about the preference of whomever is paying the Pro-Am GTD bills, including the manufacturers. (That part’s supposed to be a secret). Take the new AO Racing team. Owner/driver/financier PJ Hyett is a lover of Porsches, so they run a Porsche. Could be a dealership thing, like Paul Miller Racing which has run just about every GT3 model made by a brand they represent -- BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini come to mind among the cars they’ve raced that have a direct link to what they sell on the street. And then you have the privately funded Magnus Racing, which has run every GT3 car on the planet and frequently switches brands to ensure it is using the hottest model of the season. GTD PRO teams are, almost exclusively, fully funded by the factories.

IndyCars under the stars at Texas was a thing until pretty recently. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

Q: I watched every minute of the race at TMS, as I do every year. I was amazed when I read the story on RACER that the race attendance improved significantly. Sorry, but that doesn't pass the eye test. No secret that huge portions of the grandstands are closed off and have been for years. But the grandstands that were open had so few people that it was painful to watch. In fact, after a few laps, it was obvious that the director of the broadcast was taking pains not to use shots that showed how empty the stands were.

Ovals are the heritage of IndyCar. While I love seeing them run on street and road courses (I've been to Mid-Ohio 15 times), it is sad that there are only five ovals on this year's schedule. TMS needs to stop yapping and actually put fans in the seats, and Roger and his folks better figure out how to help.

Bob Isabella, Cleveland, OH

MP: Nowhere in the story did we state there was a significant improvement in attendance. I wrote that there was a double-digit percentage increase in ticket sales, and that there was a visible year-to-year increase, but we also included a photo that clearly demonstrated the stands were anything but full.

The story was a deserving nod to the track’s new efforts to do better, and as I noted, they didn’t say what exactly that increase happened to be. If it was 10 percent, and there were 5000 people last year, it means there were 5500 this year, or some variation on that theme. Whatever it was, a double-digit increase is meaningful, considering how poor attendance was in 2022.

I’ve hammered Texas in the past -- last year being the most recent -- for the poor efforts to grow its IndyCar audience, so what purpose would barking at the promoters again, after they’ve demonstrated an improvement, happen to serve?

For those of us who were there on pit lane or in the stands on April 2, there was a feeling of encouragement that Texas can and did do better, and was given a ton of footage to use to draw a lot more people in next year. If, after a whale of a 2023 race, sales are flat in 2024, there’s no hope for the future. But for now, with the track’s renewed interest in IndyCar, I can’t find a reason to ignore the positives and dwell on the negatives.

Q: Will IndyCar be using any of the new aero updates this year at the 500? The tracks are super-different. I'm wondering how much, if any, crossover there is with the new parts. Also, if the caution didn't fly, do you still take Newgarden as your winner?

Ian

MP: IndyCar will have new stability wickers and new rear wing mounting plates that will allow for more downforce to be cranked in for race setups. There’s more that I’ll put together in a written piece and a video once we get to the open test later in the month. Minus the last caution, Pato would have been hard to beat.

Q: The race at Texas was fun to watch and Josef Newgarden found a way to out-duel Pato O’Ward, who really should had won the race. Anyway I hope we see more races on ovals next year, although at times I do feel for those drivers who races on one-and-a-half mile tracks like Texas. I would like for the series to return to Milwaukee, New Hampshire, Michigan and Nashville Speedway. But most importantly, add several races in the northeastern part of the United States, especially now that Atlantic City is building an F1-style track and Pittsburgh has a new road course track near the airport.

Alistair, Springfield, MO

MP: We wrote a few months ago that IndyCar is looking at making a return to Milwaukee, and The Mile continues to rank as the best chance for a new (old) venue to return to the calendar. I’d love to see a few more ovals on the schedule as long as the tracks have strong odds of being half full.

Q: Does TMS have a Roval configuration that Indy NXT could use?  Trucks/NXT/IndyCar...that would be a value!

Gordon

MP: Not that I recall seeing, but I’m sure they could cobble one together.

Q: The Texas race was awesome and the new aero options for the cars seem to have been well-received by the drivers. Just as it seems the sweet spot has been hit aerodynamically, will the upcoming hybrid formula make everyone start back at zero?

Rob, Rochester, NY

MP: Great question. There will be a ton to process as the handling with change with the added weight in the back of the cars with the ERS units. We’ll have that extra weight for the tires to handle, plus the deployment of 100-ish extra horsepower, which will tax the tires in new ways. We’ll have a new superspeedway front wing that should make more downforce and help to balance the cars. But as you note, there will be a lot to learn; there’s changes coming to the bodywork internals to cool the ERS units as well, so teams will have performance and care and feeding lessons to undergo.

IndyCar figured out how to make Texas racy... just in time for the new regulations to come along and potentially throw a spanner into the works. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images

Q: Recently I watched the original IROC series on YouTube. For those that don’t remember, it was a series designed to feature 12 of the best drivers in the world from sports cars, IndyCar/USAC, F1 and stock cars. Names such as Unser, Foyt, Follmer, and Donahue drove equally prepared Porsche Carreras in four races that were all shown on ABC’s "Wild World of Sports."

After watching the amazing race from Texas, I think IndyCar has a newer version of IROC -- the International Race of Countries. Looking at the top 12 finishers, we had three Americans, two from New Zealand, and one each from Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, England, The Netherlands and Spain.

If I were IndyCar I wouldn’t worry too much right now about trying to race in another country. Instead, I would promote the heck out of the foreign drivers we already have in the series. I would work overtime with NBC and the various racetracks to promote these drivers so we can learn about their background, how they came to IndyCar, and the unique history and culture of their home countries. It is said diversity is a strength, and for IndyCar it truly is.

Rick Schneider, Charlotte, NC

MP: It wasn’t so long ago -- well, maybe it was -- where the CART IndyCar Series had a Nations Cup to honor the cool array of domestic and international talents on the grid and based on finishing results, there were winners and losers each year. Not sure if a Nations Cup fits today’s sensibilities -- I’m sure some jackasses will claim IndyCar is being "woke" (whatever that means) by trying to be inclusive -- but if there’s value to be found in it, there’s a simple formula that can be adopted from the CART days to bring it back to life.

Q: I’d like to understand why my Texas paddock pass this year was only usable for Sunday morning, (8:30-10:30). Not only was the value of this $75 ticket greatly diminished by not allowing me access on Saturday, it (more importantly) diminished the value of my entire weekend and was very disappointing.

I consider myself a zealous motorsports fan who goes to four or five events per year. IndyCar is my true love. However, TMS needs to keep in mind the competitive impact COTA puts on them for my time and money. I am blowing off MotoGP (which is visually an amazing experience) because I’ve attended NASCAR’s COTA weekend and now went to Fort Worth the following weekend for IndyCar. A primary reason I go to Fort Worth is to leisurely mull around the garage, be within arm’s length of the mechanics and drivers, and just to soak in the experience. I preach this unparalleled access as the most important thing to anyone I’m trying to convert into a fan. I’m sure they tire of hearing it.

My first take was that it was a cost-saving measure by TMS, but I don’t know. Why would you not allow us paying fans that access Saturday? Was it a request from the teams because they’re tired of us being underfoot while they work? Was it to make the VIP experience of sponsor guests more exclusive and valuable? I am genuinely curious. This very close proximity to the inner workings and employees of my favorite sport is what separates it from F1, MotoGP, NASCAR, and all the stick & ball sports. By taking away Saturday and compressing everyone into the paddock before race starts on Sunday, it changes my value proposition of my weekend significantly, and I’m not sure I’d take the time to go up there and see it if that’s the same next year.

Jim, Austin, TX

MP: I hear you, but the structure IndyCar came up with for Saturday was indeed different than anything we’ve had in a while. The cars left the garage between 7:30-7:45am for pit lane, returned from 9:00-10:30 or so, then went through pre-qualifying tech and returned to pit lane where they stayed for most of the afternoon. By the time they got back to the garages, teams were angling to get their work done and leave as the NASCAR Trucks took over the rest of the day with their race.

If I paid for a Saturday garage pass I’d have been pissed, because unless I was there before the sun came up and watched a little bit of action before 7:30, and came back for that 90 minutes from 9:00-10:30, there wasn’t much to see with that cars out on pit lane. I guess there would have been more time in the late afternoon, but I’d assume most folks would rather watch a race.

Q: I went to Texas in 2021 and 2022. In 2022 they were offering pit/garage passes again (after COVID) and they were good for all weekend. This year, I heard, there were only garage passes and they were only good on Sunday before the race. I will never go to an IndyCar race without pit/paddock passes for the whole weekend. I can watch the race on TV. To go to a race, the major attraction for me is the access.

Who made this decision for Texas this year? Was it the track or the series? They need to know this was a bad idea.

Craig

MP: Unless it’s a track the series owns or promotes, tickets are handled by the owner/promoter of whatever venue they visit. There was one consistent complaint from fans this year heading into Texas, and it was the $75 price for the garage access you mentioned that only offered a few hours of access, with that ticket being an addition on top of whatever ticket you needed to buy to get into the event.

Q: Rick Mears has always advocated for more horsepower and less downforce at Indy. The series is going in the opposite direction. I'm curious as to why?

Mike DeQuardo, Elkhart Lake, WI

MP: And that was very much what it was like in Rick’s era: Lots of power and not a ton of downforce, which is why most drivers weren’t flat on the throttle every lap. Through his final Indy 500 in 1992, we can also say those CART cars weren’t as aero sensitive as today's, and without an apron that widened the arcs that could be used, it was indeed a different time. The IndyCar formula since 2012 has been low power and varying levels of downforce and drag, and depending on the bodywork configurations, we’ve had more or less downforce and it’s shown in the racing.

We’ve listened to the brave men and women who’ve raced DW12s at Indy, and especially in recent years, they’ve told us that more downforce would be helpful to create stability in the draft and inspire more passing attempts. I’ll take the words of a Scott Dixon or Helio Castroneves on the topic and hold them in as high a regard as anything the Rocket might offer.

Q: Any insight into Will Power's issue at Texas? It seemed to be a setup problem that dramatically affected his tire falloff. Really strange that it didn't seem to be a problem for Josef Newgarden. Was it just different setup choices, or was something wrong with the car?

Alan, Orlando, FL

MP: Josef being a rocket and Will having problems is a perfect example of how it doesn’t matter whether drivers are on the same team. Rosenqvist was on pole and immediately went backwards as the balance was off -- too nose-heavy -- and Pato did nothing but go forward. Happens all the time. Losing a wheel while trying to leave the pits was unfortunate for Power and the No. 12 Chevy team; you only get two or three bad days out of the 17 races if you want to vie for a title and he used up one within the two opening races.

Q: Two questions on the Garage 56 entry this year from Hendrick: Since the car is pretty modified from the Cup car, how does the spare chassis and extra parts supply work? Does Hendrick and company have an ample supply of extra parts? I’d hate to see have a crash in the lead-up to race and them being forced to withdraw. Additionally, what sort of stint length/lap count should we expect between pit stops?

Grant, Maryland

MP: The custom parts will be replicated, for sure, but the car is by no means heavily modified. We’ll need to see what the car does for lap times during the pre-event test day before stint lengths come into view.

Q: How did Linus Lundqvist perform during his test with RLL Racing? I was happy to see social media posts after his runs but RLL certainly didn't provide any on track action on social media when he was testing. Do you know of any deals to have him race in a couple races this year? I am a big fan of when it was Team Rahal back in the day, hopefully they can find that Rahal/Swedish magic again from the 2000-01.

Not the racer Stefan Johansson

MP: We wrote about the test in a story I did with Bobby Rahal and Linus; he was as fast as any of the RLL drivers at Texas and, more importantly, was extremely valuable in helping the team to find chassis improvements to use at future ovals. Other than the upcoming Formula E test with Andretti Autosport, I’m not aware of any open-wheel races on the horizon for Lundqvist.

But I would place him near the top of any stand-in lists teams might have if they have any injured drivers or if they decide to make an in-season driver change. We could see a decent amount of driver movement for 2024, and I’d hope Linus is seriously considered for any openings that arise. Barring one or two promising Indy NXT rookies who might rise to the top, the rest of the current field is comprised of drivers he whooped in 2022, so if we’re talking about young talent, I think Linus will continue to stand as the best option for IndyCar teams to consider this season and next.

Lundqvist did everything he needed to in his test at Texas, but there's still no immediate path to a race seat. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: Forgive my poor memory, but sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, IndyCar did a fan survey. Everyone was encouraged to participate as if our very lives depended on it. So, has anyone seen the results of this survey? What was learned from said survey? Let me guess. More ovals? Better marketing? Was this another waste of time on the part of IndyCar?

Seems there is interest in IndyCar going to Argentina. I like the idea, but I looked up Termas Rio Hondo on a map. Nice track, but it’s literally in the middle of nowhere. Is the track in Buenos Aires fit for IndyCar?

Tulsa Indycar Fan

MP: I’m feeling confident IndyCar has seen the results. Most entities that do fan surveys keep the information to themselves, but on occasion, some or all of the results are shared with the public. If it isn’t readily findable through a Google search, I’d assume this one wasn’t.

Speaking with Ricardo Juncos at Texas about an IndyCar race being held at Termas Rio Honda, he’s confident 130,000 people would show up. The MotoGP event there last year reportedly had 186,000 people over three days.

As an aside, Laguna Seca is in the middle of nowhere. Mid-Ohio is in the middle of nowhere. Road America is in the middle of nowhere. Iowa Speedway. Barber Motorsports Park…

Q: I've watched some edited footage of the in-car cameras and see at times the camera turn right/left or around to look backwards, and I also see the lens getting cleaned. Are there individual people controlling each car's camera?

Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ

MP: If the camera is moving, yes, no doubt, there’s a remote camera operator.

Q: Why is it that I have to go to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcasts to learn about the backgrounds of Josef and Scott Dixon? Close to an hour of pretty darn good interviews on both. Are they hard-hitting? Of course not, but I learned so much about how they came up through the ranks to where they are now. Come to think of it, why aren’t you doing these?

Lee Johnson

MP: Why do you believe you have to go to Dale’s podcast to learn about these two, or others? How long have you been listening to podcasts? I just checked and I’ve had Dixon on my podcast 17 times since it launched in May of 2016. I’ve only had Newgarden on seven times, but combined, it’s been almost 12 hours of visits. And we’ve covered all aspects of their careers, from Veins of Milk video shoots to learning oval tricks from Dan Wheldon.

For those who’ve been in or covered the sport in whatever capacity, we’ve been there and done that, so rehashing the backgrounds of 10-20-year veterans in podcasts, videos, or words that already exist would be repetitive. For an IndyCar outsider like Dale Jr., a Dixon or Newgarden is new territory, which is why you get new takes on old topics, and I’m thankful he’s doing them and bringing our people to a wide new audience.

Q: Why does F1 allow cars to change tires under red flag? They put so much effort into not altering the race with virtual safety cars and keeping the pits open under full safety car. They keep the cars in parc ferme during and after qualifying. And then they just give everyone free pit stops under red flag. It completely ruins the race strategy.

Why?

Kyle 

CHRIS MEDLAND: I wish I knew! At times it seems like a good thing because it allows damaged cars to get a few running repairs and adds to the excitement of a race -- keeping more cars running tends to be a positive -- but on the whole it does ruin strategies. I'm with you, it shouldn't be allowed, but I believe it's to ensure drivers are restarting on tires they are happy with. If you're on an old set of hard tires for a grid restart it could even prove a bit dangerous, but I'd rather see them not being allowed to change tires unless they return to the pits after the lap to the grid.

Q: Chris, I read your article about “getting the majority of the decisions correct” and I’d like to ask a question and offer an opinion. Did the Albon incident necessitate a barrier repair? That was never communicated on the broadcast, as far as I can tell. Fans were told the red flag was for gravel.

I actually don’t have a real issue with the second red flag, just the fact that it requires a standing restart. It doesn’t matter what track you’re on, having a standing restart inside of five laps to go is incentive for drivers to take big risks. Gaining four places on a restart/start isn’t unheard of. For a team that is struggling just to score points, gaining four spots could be the difference between 10th and eighth in the constructors title at the end of the year. Late race red flag restarts should be behind the safety car.

Ryan in West Michigan

CM: Yes, the Tecpro that Albon hit was dislodged. It might have only been a relatively quick fix to put it back in place (I'm not sure if it was so badly damaged that the section needed replacing, but that's usually done quickly too), but it was part of the scene that needed marshals to do their work.

You're right about late restarts and the incentive, but surely it's still down to driver skill? Execute your start well and you can gain, or at least ensure you don't lose out. As with any restart, there's always going to be winners and losers; sometimes it'll lead to a situation the majority of fans like, others the opposite, but I think it's best to be consistent one way or another. Interestingly, after Kyle's question above I think it's better to trend towards grid restarts with new tires, but if drivers weren't allowed to change them then maybe rolling starts are a smarter move (although getting everyone to agree on the cut-off would be tough!).

Q: I have a question about the last non-restarting restart of the Melbourne race. How was it decided that the last lap would just be a ceremonial parade than an actual restart?

Shawn, MD

CM: It was an actual restart, it's just there weren't any laps left to race on. So the lap out of the pits to the grid was the final lap of the race, meaning that as they crossed the line to resume racing, the race immediately ended. They could have said it was a grid start but that's really taking it to the extremes to launch across the finish line from there, and at some tracks the finish line is before the grid anyway.

It may not have had the "green flag with three to go at the Indy 500" vibe, but that last restart in Melbourne was a restart. Lionel Ng/Motorsport Images

Q: It looks like many of the rule-making authorities are beginning to unravel. FIA, F1 and NASCAR have all had very public issues between themselves and teams. The latest debacle between NASCAR and Hendrick appears to be the worst. Having a ruling overturned, NASCAR has laid out a heavy-handed "play by our rules or don't play at all" position, not to mention that they still want all the money. 

Not sure that you can provide an answer to this, but how has motorsports allowed this level of discord to not only occur but grow? If calm, intelligent discussions can't resolve internal conflicts, then the end is nearing for racing as we have known.

Craig

KELLY CRANDALL: The public issues between NASCAR and its teams aren’t really anything new. The teams and drivers have the loudest microphones (literally, by using the media), whereas NASCAR is consistent in keeping its cards close to its chest and not doing business in public.

However, the recent story of the teams not meeting with NASCAR got a little overblown when the word "boycott" was used by some. The teams had informed NASCAR the night before they were not going to attend the meeting because it didn’t seem the issue that they wanted to talk about was going to happen.

Regarding the appeal ruling, I wouldn’t say it’s that you have to play by their rules. If that were the case, NASCAR would hand down penalties like a dictatorship without an independent committee that can then overturn them. NASCAR doesn’t want that. The series is very angry that the points were given back to Hendrick. So, what it did, as it usually does after an appeal, is take a look at the rule book and find where it can tighten up the language. In this case, it wants to make sure that points are a part of the penalty and that the appeals panel can’t wipe those away.

Points are the deterrent, not fines. Those mean nothing to the bigger teams. Going forward, I wouldn’t worry too much about the level of discord. We’ve seen that everything gets worked out in the end -- but feelings are going to get hurt in the process.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, April 9, 2014

Q: Back in the late ’70s and ’80s I used to go to Indy every first Saturday in May for Pole Day. I took a friend there and we saw Tom Sneva break the 200mph mark. That was great! I haven’t been back for qualifying since the split, but I’ve been thinking about going again. With the changes to qualifying this year, which day -- Saturday or Sunday -- would be the best day to attend?

Oh, and by the way, why have you softened so much in your email remarks? I miss the old Robin!

Barry, Fort Wayne, IN

ROBIN MILLER: I think Sunday because the Fast 9 is always entertaining and Saturday more or less just sets the preliminary grid unless Sunday gets washed out. Beating on the old IRL or Champ Car was like clubbing baby seals but IndyCar’s product (the racing and depth of the field) is much better, and while I don’t always agree with Derrick Walker, he’s doing a good job and is trying to right the ship. I’ll get meaner when the weather warms up.