The RACER Mailbag, November 20

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: Why did Sebastien Bourdais not sign with Meyer Shank for IMSA like his Cadillac teammate Renger van der Zande? Was he signed elsewhere before everything was finalized with Acura? Was there only one seat? Politics of racing?

Kim

MARSHALL PRUETT: Seb was retained by GM/Cadillac to race in the WEC. He and Renger went to/stayed where they were wanted most.

Q: I have been studying this year's oval IndyCar races and have a few observations:

After several years of oval domination, Josef Newgarden had a tough time this year. While he did win the Indy 500 and the race at WWTR, his other oval results had to be disappointing to him after the dominance of the previous years.

Meanwhile, his Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin established himself as a force to be reckoned with on ovals. Scott had two wins a second and a third, qualified on the pole four times and second twice. He led by far the most oval laps at 554, more than double that of second-placed Will Power with 240 and almost one third of the total oval laps (1666).

Team Penske continued its oval domination. The three drivers led a total of 895 of the 1666 laps, or 53.7%. They led more laps than all the other teams combined. In addition, the team had a record of five wins, two seconds and three thirds from the seven oval races. They also had five poles and five other front row starts, including a complete shutout of the front row at the Indy 500.

Despite this dominance they did not win the championship, which supports the notion that the best all-around team that finishes well in all disciplines will be the likely champion, as seen by Alex Palou's third title in only four years with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Finally, I have to give a big shoutout to Colton Herta. After five years of disappointing oval results, a fourth, two fifths and two sixths, he qualified well in 2024 and got a win and a third. Perhaps these oval performances will continue and put him in the upper echelon of title contenders.

I can't wait until next year to see how things unfold. Despite the doom and gloom championed by many of the Mailbag readers, IndyCar is the best racing on the planet.

Doug Mayer

MP: Agreed, Doug. Despite its many problems and shortcoming, most of those items do not detract from the on-track product. Important year ahead for Penske. Its driver trio is simply amazing. Full stop. It’s the streaky nature of their amazingness that has kept them coming up just shy in the championship runs since 2020 while Ganassi’ has taken four of the last five.

McLaughlin looks poised to have a breakthrough in that regard. He doesn’t need to hit home runs in every race. A couple of dingers and a steady diet of doubles and triples will make him an IndyCar champion; it’s the exact formula Palou has used to stifle Penske’s gaudy stats.

The 2025 grid isn't even full yet, but you can already count McLaughlin among the title contenders. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: With Roger Penske buying GPALB and the exclusive right to stage races at Long Beach until 2028, is Green Savoree the next company he's thinking of buying? They own four tracks, and three of them need way more attention and investment. The St. Pete GP is only one that seems OK, but it still could use having the IMSA WeatherTech series added on to make it a proper big-time event – an East Coast Long Beach.

I do hope Roger doesn't mess what Jim Michaelian and his team have done for LBGP for 50 years. If anything they need few more TV monitors, better speakers and a better booking agent to attract better acts, especially for a city like Long Beach that has great local original music scene.

The other main question is, can Roger convince the Long Beach council to re-up the next contract? Or Will Liberty Media with Chris Pook or NASCAR bid for the next contract?

Dale Gribble, Arlen, TX

MP: Green Savoree would need to be for sale for that to happen. Forsythe was interested in selling to the right buyer. I miss the days of St. Pete being an IndyCar/ALMS event. Penske’s track record is one of taking control of or starting events and investing or making significant improvements, and if I’m the city council, that’s something to bank on.

Q: I can't say enough how happy I am to see the current positive vibe of sports car racing both in IMSA and WEC. This is all thanks to allowing LMDh and Hypercar solutions to be available for prospective manufacturers to utilize! GTP will be all the richer for it, and my yearly Rolex 24 trip since 2016 will be even more exciting with Aston Martin's stunning Valkyrie joining the line-up of awesome machines from the current OEMs.

People argue about what solution is better, but both are excellent. With LMDh, big makes like GM, Porsche or Honda can get involved using their powertrain tech and design language as well as other tricks of the trade developing a car that is very much their own without having to start from scratch with a custom monocoque and other bespoke parts.

For Hypercar, a large manufacturer that wants to build from scratch and take up the task of developing everything for the challenge, or to provide a car available for purchase such as Toyota or Ferrari, can do so too. What's more, a smaller manufacturer that doesn't make its own engines can still build their own vehicle and represent themselves accordingly, like Glickenhaus did.

This logical approach has given us so many cool cars to enjoy on track and excellent racing. I hope this momentum continues to carry on. Even though it's years away, the hydrogen concept race cars Alpine, Hyundai, and Toyota have shown off have me feeling positive about the future for sports car racing! Cheers to that and a bit of positivity for the Mailbag.

Derrick Fonseca

MP: There’s no real debate to have; both formulas are excellent and provide manufacturers with the option that best fits their desires and financial capabilities. I don’t know what to do with all of this Mailbag warmth and kindness!

Q: Do you think any of the IndyCar teams with open seats are interested in splitting a seat between two drivers? Like Coyne’s approach of having Katherine Legge run ovals and bringing in different drivers for road and street courses last season?

Surely the drivers would prefer a seat all to themselves, but I’m thinking a shared drive is better than no drive at all, right? I know the number of different drivers per car is now limited by the charters, so teams won’t be able to swap in a new driver every race.

Do you think teams would only split a seat as a last resort for money reasons? Could teams could go this route for performance purposes? Or would they pretty much always prefer to stick with a single driver for a given ride if they can?

Luke, southern Utah

MP: Interested? No. Forced to out of financial necessity as you mentioned? Yes. Teams want to vie for championships and race wins, and unless we’re talking about splitting a seat among champions and race winners, it’s a recipe for losing out on titles, which is obvious, and makes winning races extraordinarily hard because of the lack of continuity and chemistry.

Same thing in most sports where a player sits on the bench and might not get into a game for a decent stretch of time -- when they do go in, you rarely see brilliance because it takes time to get warmed up mentally to be at 100 percent. It’s no different for a driver who sits out road course or ovals, and only on rare occasions -- Mike Conway as Carpenter’s road racing ringer comes to mind -- does it get you to victory lane.

Q: I noticed that Meyer Shank will have Scott Dixon in the No. 60 Acura for all of the endurance races and Felix Rosenqvist for Daytona only. It seems interesting to me that Dixon is in for all the endurance races over their own driver in Rosenqvist. How does this come about? Is this at the request of HRC to have Dixon over Felix, or was it something where Rosenqvist doesn't want to do all of the endurance races?

Joey, Florida

MP: No disrespect to Rosenqvist, but if it’s between him and Dixon, for any job, Dixon gets the nod. And because this is the factory Acura team, which is heavy funded by Acura, Acura/Honda’s longstanding top dog Dixon is the immediate choice for the brand. Palou is also in "favored son" status with Acura/Honda, which is why he’s in for all the enduros in the sister car.

Felix loves sports car racing. I’d also say that with MSR’s IMSA team leaving GTP at the end of 2023 as the best team in the class, and it returning with almost all of the same people in place for 2025, that it’s incredibly solid. The IndyCar side is where MSR made strides last season, but still fell short of expectations. Having him focused on IndyCar, where the greatest gains are needed, sounds like a very Shank move.

If a team has Dixon available, it's safe to assume he's Plan A. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Q: Peter Kerr wrote in last week about track limits. I'd agree that in some cases they border on ridiculous and are bad for the look and the spectacle. When there isn't a consequence for a driver getting it wrong my interest goes down, but I know the asphalt runoffs aren't going to go away or be reduced in size.

In F1 there are very few Tilke-era tracks I get much much excitement from as an observer, and it looks like they'd be even less enjoyable in person due the distant location of seating anywhere other than a straightaway. The re-issue of Zandvoort is a pleasant exception. It's hard to imagine how they were able to get it certified when others are reduced to coming off like parking lots with arbitrary lines painted on them.

A second issue with the huge concrete runoffs is that the racetrack itself loses visual definition when these areas appear to be nothing other than a continuation of the track surface. Along with this, the translation of the car's speed gets diluted and diminishes the spectacle. Only the very talented and brave can drive an IndyCar or F1 car at full commitment, but the telecasts don't come close to doing all they can to make that obvious. A possible simple and partial solution: Why not paint or stain the runoff concrete runoff areas to mimic the surrounding terrain?

For example, when either side of a straightaway is lined with grass, color the runoff concrete in a similar shade of green starting where the two surfaces meet, and maintain it until it gives way again to a natural surface or other defining elements. There is no shortage of how this could be applied (roller, sprayer) and it could be permanent or not. You lose nothing in the safety department, don't have cars stuck in a gravel trap and the track looks more like a track.

Do the same to "green out" the portions of alternate track configurations that aren't being used on a given weekend. This would reduce a lot of visual distraction, make some tracks look less bush-league and allow the tracks themselves to stand out and translate better on camera.

In the realm of F1 the cost would be very small, and I'd think pretty minimal to IMSA and IndyCar. How much it might help is tough to say, but it wouldn't hurt and wouldn't require much to try.

Here’s some very high end iPhone graphic work to provide an example:

George Moran

MP: You have a highly creative mind, George. I like it.

Q: NO! Michael Cannon leaving Foyt impacts two teams, especially at Indy. Where is he going?

Brad, Muncie, IN

MP: Not sure. He’s gotten a lot of calls and was due to meet with some teams by the time you read this, which is good news for him. I’d think every team that hasn’t won the Indy 500, or hasn’t won it in a long time, would be vying for his services.

Q: Will the Dallara IR-27 coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Dallara/IndyCar partnership?

Will Stroll's Aston Martin follow McLaren's footsteps by expanding to the IndyCar Series by becoming a major shareholder of Dale Coyne Racing using Honda engines by 2026, and help Lance Stroll move to the IndyCar Series?

Therius Oktavio

MP: It will! He will not.

Q: Will IndyCar (or RACER) post which FOX channel will be broadcasting what?  I assume qualifying will be on one of the cable channels. What about Thermal?

I find it frustrating trying to find which ESPN channel the F1 sessions are on. Hopefully, the IndyCar website will include all the details.

Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ

MP: I feel confident that IndyCar, FOX, and RACER will continue to share tune-in information.

Q: First-timer here. Recent IndyCar fan. Fell into Hinch and Rossi's podcast which led to me watching Indy, which lead to wanting to know what was actually happening. Your comments about PREMA being baked into the equation and teams that worked in the lower tier series got me thinking. I was under the impression that Abel, and those other options, could have made the move up if they wanted, but they didn't have the appetite or ability to move up and PREMA showed up with all their European money and said "we are rich, we will take risks!" And they simply took the opportunity that others weren't able or comfortable to take.

Kyle Shirley

MP: Great to hear on your path to IndyCar. Bill Abel could buy PREMA with pocket change, and bought a new car before PREMA had announced it was entering IndyCar, so I wouldn’t position things in the way of one being wealthy and cavalier and the other being timid.

Nobody was willing to give Abel an engine lease for a single-car entry, which is how the team wanted to start out. It was two or nothing. Rather than working to help an invested Indy NXT team owner to get a lease, the series fell in behind newcomers who were willing to do two. Fair enough. That’s their choice, but Chip Ganassi started with one car. Dale Coyne started with one car. Mike Shank started with one car. Bobby Rahal started with one, etc. Loyal folks to IndyCar, and look where they are today.

I have nothing against PREMA; it’s the principle of not backing someone like Abel, or Henry Malukas, in favor of a new entity, with no history of supporting the series, over one who does today.

Abel's plan to run a single car was a dealbreaker when the time came to find an engine partner. Which is a bummer. Motorsport Images

Q: I thought I’d bring a change of pace to the Mailbag, stepping away from the usual inquiries and venting sessions. This time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on something different: Which IndyCar and endurance drivers do you think are the most underrated, and why do they often go unnoticed in the racing world?

Mike, Rawlins, WY

MP: Thanks for the fun questions, Mike.

Palou tops the IndyCar list. He’s respected among his peers for the clinical way he goes about winning championships, but he’s not fully feared or respected for his outright speed. Ferrucci is a close second. He’s been marginalized and disrespected for years as an oval specialist and nothing more, but that’s always been lazy. He’s just a damn good racer, no matter the track.

On the sports car side, new IMSA GTP champion -- and now a four-time IMSA champ -- Dane Cameron comes to mind, especially after being dropped by Penske. I’d also include Louis Deletraz. He’s buried deep in the shadows cast by more popular and successful drivers like Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, but Deletraz is WTR’s secret weapon.

Q: I wondering if there is any talk of PREMA bringing in a driver coach for ovals this season? Callum Ilott has little experience and Robert Schwartzman has absolutely no experience on ovals. It sounds like the best way to try to bring them up to speed. If Conor Daly is available… just saying.

Dave Surgent

MP: It’s a great question. Conor is working hard to raise funds to continue racing in IndyCar, but if that doesn’t happen, he’d be a perfect candidate. Or Simon Pagenaud. Don’t downplay Ilott’s rapid growth as an oval driver. He was no joke in 2023.

Q: I've heard that A.J. Foyt won't sign Le Mans memorabilia. Do you know what the reason is?

Joe

MP: I hadn’t heard that one. A.J. signed my 1967 Le Mans program a few years ago, along with Dan Gurney, so I haven’t experienced what you reference. It’s among my most prized possessions.

Q: Do you expect to have interview with Dan Towriss anytime soon to get his take on the Andretti ousting?

Tommy Plahitko

MP: I do not. They sang the same song about the change, so I can’t see why he’d say something different.

Q: A friend of mine raced open-wheel modified stock cars around the Northeast. Since we only turned left, the circumference of the tires was critical to the handling of the car. The air that you would normally put into tires contained enough water vapor that would heat up and expand the tire enough to throw off the set up of the car affecting the handling on a long run. To prevent this, we used nitrogen to fill the tires.

So if (theoretically) a Formula 1 team was using water to cool the tires from the inside, why wouldn't the same effect happen? While an F1 car would weigh around 900 pounds less than my friend’s car, I would imagine the higher speeds and downforce in F1 would create a similar effect. What am I missing here?

Ed Friend

CHRIS MEDLAND: I won't pretend to be the technical expert here Ed, but what I can tell you relating to the F1 tire rumors was you didn't see them on our site because my digging told me to steer clear of it. It was very quickly dismissed by the FIA after the race weekend, too. I don't know if the exact reason you give is why it wouldn't be realistic, but it seems there was no evidence of teams actively putting water in the tires in an effort to cool them down.

That said, if such a practice had been attempted, I'm sure it would have been with plenty of planning and theory behind it, rather than just a "try it and see what happens" approach. Early temperature control when the car is at its heaviest (with its highest fuel load) could be particularly important, but as mentioned, there was no evidence hinted at by the FIA.

Q: Now that Monaco doesn't interfere with Indy 500, will we see any F1 drivers running the Indy 500? Who do you think would do well in the 500?

David Tucker

CM: I'd love to say yes, but Indy takes up much of the month of May and the F1 schedule still wouldn't make it simple at all. The month looks like being an epic one for North American fans, with the Miami GP at the start of the month, followed by the Canadian GP and then the 500 itself. But it could well be that Montreal clashes with 500 qualifying and even if it didn't, it would be really tough to avoid missing out on any track running at IMS while also not missing an F1 session somewhere.

We know Fernando Alonso would do well, and I don't think it would be a surprise to see Max Verstappen be really adaptable, too. But then there are some other drivers who seem to have really analytical approaches who also might cross over well, such as Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri. I'd probably add Kevin Magnussen to the list due to his bit of IndyCar experience and love of U.S. racing.

Q: While checking out other racing websites, I came across an article about a film regarding the F1 race at Imola in 1982 and the rivalry between Gilles Villeneuve and his teammate Didier Pironi. The documentary was released in 2022 and is directed by Torquil Jones. I was able to view it last night on YouTube. Wow!

It covers the events leading up to the grand prix, and the tragic betrayal (according to Gilles) of Pironi stealing the win from Gilles at Imola, and how it contributed to his death at Zolder two weeks later. Gilles' wife, JoAnne, is interviewed as well as Pironi's girlfriend, Catherine Goux, who was pregnant at the time of his death in 1987 in a power boat accident. Also interviewed are Gilles' two kids, Jacques (who comes across as a bit of a jerk) and his daughter Melanie, as well as Alain Prost and Jackie Stewart. This documentary, along with Senna, are by far the two best F1 documentaries I've ever seen.

Jerry, Houston

CM: Do you know what, Jerry, to my shame I still haven't watched this! My wife went to a screening but I couldn't make it, and since then I've just never remembered to go looking for it. But I heard good things at the time and your review has certainly put it front of mind again.

As an aside, I love that more and more motorsport stories are getting told in this way, and giving more depth to the sport. F1 in particular has really grown its fan base over the past six years and these are really valuable productions for both existing fans and newer ones to be able to engage with its history.

You don't need to be great at reading body language to recognize how Villeneuve felt on the Imola podium in 1982. Ercole Colombo/Studio Colombo/Motorsport Images

Q: Will we see any Mexican-born drivers besides Daniel Suarez in the NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City?

Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY 

KELLY CRANDALL: I imagine there will be interest, but nothing has been confirmed. Logistically, it would probably be easier to find a ride in the Xfinity Series race than in the Cup Series race, but we’ll see who has open seats when the race gets closer.

Q: With NASCAR’s current playoff system, we often see champions who may not have been consistent front-runners in the regular season. This structure seems to reward drivers who peak during the playoffs, particularly in the final race at Phoenix Raceway, rather than those who perform well all season. Do you think this approach accurately reflects a true season champion, or does it prioritize entertainment over showcasing the best driver across the full season?

Handsome Jo

KC: All of the drivers and teams know the format and what it takes to win a championship, but the format does lean toward trying to make it as entertaining as possible. Personally, I’m fine with the format because I don’t believe there have been any fluke champions. Joey Logano didn’t have the best regular season but it wasn’t like he wasn’t showing up and trying. However, if NASCAR were to tweak the format, then I’d be interested to see what they come up with. I’m fine either way.

Q: Does the latest ruling mean that FRM and 23XI have to qualify on speed for Daytona and other races?

Shawn, MD

KC: Yes. If 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports choose to run as open teams, they would have to qualify for each race. They would no longer have a guaranteed starting spot.

Q: Why don’t you cover more off-road racing on your pages?

Rodolfo Sapien

MARK GLENDENNING: Your letter was well-timed, because we are indeed planning to scale up our off-road coverage in the coming months. We're still mapping out the coverage plan, but Marty Fiolka's reporting from the Baja 1000 last weekend was a first step.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, Nov. 20, 2013

Gerry Courtney, San Francisco, CA

ROBIN MILLER: How quickly he adapted to 900 horsepower and the CART tracks, but mostly how instantly competitive he was against a great field of drivers. He wasn’t intimidated or awed by his new surroundings -- he walked in like he belonged because he did. And I loved to argue with him about cars, tracks, TGBB and all things racing. But his personality, sense of humor, intelligence and sense of history made him as good off the track as he was on it.