The RACER Mailbag, February 12

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.

ED's note: Submissions for this week's Mailbag closed before news broke of Jay Frye's departure from IndyCar, but keep sending your letters in and Marshall will answer them next week.

Q: It seems IndyCar is in its most precarious situation since the dark days of The Split.

In light of recent news and public comments, what are the odds that Zak Brown partners with a few other team owners (Andretti, MSR, Juncos?) and Liberty to create a rival series that allows for a more open development concept/IMSA-style BOP? Race as a support series for all of F1's Western Hemisphere stops and develop a standalone calendar for the rest of the year. If the series elects to be devoted to road and street courses, it could take a Superformula tub, allow for limited development with an engine BOP and create a really compelling and fast formula.

They could take off the month of May to still run Indy in RP's series, but a breakaway series in a joint venture with Liberty Media influenced by the CART/Champ Car ethos could be a breath of fresh air.

What do you think?

Jah from the ATL

MARSHALL PRUETT: Through 2024, I had a single team owner tell me they were keeping a firm eye on Penske Entertainment’s decisions and actions in the next year or two because if things didn’t improve in a variety of areas, they’re prepared to leave IndyCar at the end of the current chassis/engine formula. That owner was an outlier at the time.

I’ve had a second owner say the same thing in the last few weeks -- fearing they might need to pull out of IndyCar and find a more functional organization to race within -- which means it’s not just one owner thinking this, but two.

Or, more accurately, two who are comfortable enough with their very real concerns to share those thoughts with me on background. My fear is there’s more than two. I’ve had a third say effectively the same things as the other two, but I didn’t believe them. They sounded more like they were saber rattling more than suggesting a serious thing they would do.

What you get from Penske Entertainment is the same "Everything Is Awesome" routine, but I just don’t know if they realize how the ice is thinning.

As for teams and Liberty starting a breakaway series, I can’t see it.

Penske owns or controls almost all of the marquee tracks, and most teams can barely afford to compete today with old cars and an array of popular-ish tracks. Losing most of those venues and needing to pay for new cars and engines would be a back breaker unless an idiot with a spare $100,000,000 in hand was found who wanted to fund it.

Leaving IndyCar isn’t going to help the series in any way, obviously, but it’s Penske’s job to strike the right balance between budgetary needs and return on investment in order to satisfy and keep the other 10 teams. Penske has a product to sell and it’s really expensive and, depending on select take by some teams or manufacturers, is getting close to being unworthy of buying in the coming years.

Bring back The Split! Maria Grady/Motorsport Images

Q: While there are plenty of things IndyCar would like to do to make the series more modern and flashy, we've discussed ad nauseum why many of those are difficult or damn near impossible. It really irks me, though, when there are simple things that wouldn't cost the series much, but would make huge strides towards making it look like it belongs in 2025.

I could list several, but here's one that not only irritates the crap out of me, but one that could be fixed right now: the lack of a mobile version of its website. When I go to IndyCar’s site on my phone (Android here, so I can't speak to Apple users), I get the full web-based site. There are parts of the site I can't even access because the site is designed for a monitor, not a small screen. This experience is enough to make me leave the site after about five seconds, and I'd bet my bottom Dallara that I'm not the only one.

Mobile-based browsing has been around for a few decades now, and when I see a website that doesn't work on my phone, my first thought is, "Who are these rinky-dink people who are living in the dark ages?" Usually it's local businesses or sites that have been dormant since Danica Patrick was shilling for GoDaddy, not a top-tier racing series. Frankly, it's embarrassing, and it doesn't make the series seem professional or technically advanced.

So, in the immortal words of Scotty Mac, get amongst it ladies and gentlemen! We might have to wait a few years for other technology to get an update, but this isn't a new formula. It's a website. The owners need not sign off on it, it shouldn't cost a huge amount of money, but the dividends it would pay are well worth the effort.

Dave, North Carolina

MP: I’m told a brand-new IndyCar.com site is about to go live. I’ll go out on a ledge and suggest IndyCar’s site will be optimized for mobile browsing, because if it’s not, why bother?

Q: Seeing the Josef Newgarden Indy commercial right before the halftime celebrations at the Super Bowl was awesome. I hope IndyCar was able to get a lot of exposure considering FOX spent a pretty penny. Will we expect to see other drivers featured in a commercial in the future? Or is FOX staying with the Josef, Pato and Alex commercials?

Handsome Jo

MP: In the future, yes. In the near future, no. Those are the three main driver features for the season, as I’m told by FOX Sports. I don’t know what they are, but I’m also told that other, non-driver promos are in the works, and we can assume the Indy 500 will be a big part of those efforts, along with launching the season at St. Pete and settling the championship late in the year.

Q: Marshall, as most of your RACER followers are aware, you’re a beer guy. That said, do you have a favorite racing themed pub or car along the IndyCar calendar?

I heard about some great photos and race memorabilia at Siebkens near Road America and the old Seneca Lodge when Watkins Glen was a stop. Any others? I was lucky enough in the early '90s to have had a pint at the original Bucks in Lexington, Ohio before the fire. The signed photos, helmets, gloves and various parts adorning the place was a Mid-Ohio treasure!

Yanie Porlier

MP: My answer sucks, and it’s a no. There are some great bars in terms of fun with friends (Siebkens and Seneca are go-tos), but I rarely go out to have beers once we’re done at the track. That’s usually saved for before or after the event, or on days where there’s no on-track activities like at Indy. I have a fairly strict (but occasionally bendable) rule on beer, which is if I can see through it, I won’t drink it. So that excludes most readily available bars on the road. But I did enjoy whatever ale I had with some IndyCar friends last year at the Daredevil Brewing Co. on Main St. in Speedway. In fact, we were enjoying a pitcher when our phones started blowing up with the RLL FBI raid, and before long, we needed to put the pint glasses down and focus on the pressing matter at hand.

There’s one or two breweries I absolutely love, with one in Michigan and the other in Wisconsin, and I hope to visit both this year. No clue if they have taprooms/bars/restaurants, but I would like to go see where the happiness is made.

Q: So all three FOX IndyCar ads were shown at critical points of the first half of the Super Bowl. Guess you’ll never have to field another letter critical of FOX’s commitment to promoting IndyCar?

Brian, Ohio

MP: My brother, this is IndyCar, where fans can and will complain about anything.

Q: I'd be curious to know what you think of the three driver/IndyCar promos aired on FOX? Kudos to FOX for doing this, especially during the Super Bowl marathon last Sunday.

For me it was Newgarden, O'Ward and Palou in that order because it felt like JoNew was into it more than the other two.

Tom Patrick, Baja California

MP: I thought they were phenomenal. Perfect tones, spoke to the three extremely different personalities features, and had some fun. I’d rank them in the same order.

Doesn't look like Bobby Rahal cared about how see-through his beer was at Mid-Ohio in 1986. Motorsport Images

Q: We often see videos of teams practicing pit stops, but what about less routine repairs after crashes or mechanical failures? Do teams disassemble and re-assemble the cars frequently enough that they become proficient naturally, or is there dedicated practice for repairs? Is the process different when a team is learning a new car?

Brandon Clarke, Milford, OH

MP: Great question, and indeed most teams do practice performing emergency repairs across all series where damaged cars are allowed to resume after visiting pit lane or a remote garage. Noses, tails, bodywork, and suspension are the normal areas where the practice takes place.

Mechanics do grow familiar with what they’re working on, so this is more about the coordinated dance of who does what, since nobody wants to sit and wait for one mechanic to do one thing before another does the next. It’s in the all-hands orchestration where the speed comes in, hence the practicing at the shop.

Q: After watching my first Daytona 24 Hours, I've fallen for IMSA (after fully getting into WEC last year) and will definitely be watching it more now. I want to watch more, but there is quite a big gap between the first and second rounds. I would like to know why that has such a big gap?

I was surprised to hear another manufacturer has chosen ORECA for their LMdh program, while Multimatic still only has one. I know we don't know costs, etc., but I'm shocked more people haven't gone with Multimatic, given how many WEC/IMSA victories Porsche has (both with Penske and JOTA). Why do you think people aren't choosing that manufacturer? It can't just be money...

Dan Mayhew, Cambridgeshire, UK

MP: Keep in mind that Multimatic also makes the Aston Martin Valkyrie, runs Ford’s factory GTD Pro IMSA program, and builds its GT3 cars. And those are just the things I can think of; I’m sure they’re doing more than that, and probably some other things for manufacturers we don’t know about.

It’d also suggest the Porsche 963 program, where it builds the entire car, is the only customer GTP/LMDh effort on the planet, which means Multimatic is busier than most constructors with four factory cars plus privateer cars to support across the globe. If there’s one grossly underused constructor, it’s Ligier, with a single Lamborghini to support.

As for the gap, it’s the biggest race of the year, which is followed by the second biggest race of the year. The WEC takes a month off after Le Mans and does a six-hour race. IMSA takes six weeks off after Daytona and does a 12-hour race at Sebring. And fits in a test (this week) at Sebring as well. As I wrote last week, I’d love to fill the gap later in the month, but don’t foresee it happening.

Q: How much money does Honda and Chevy spend on the IndyCar series? Over $10 million or $50 million? What cost do they have? Motor R&D, materials, build man hours and marketing? Just wondering what ROI is needed to make it worth it. If Honda leaves, could Penske have any engine spec he wants since he is part (main?) owner of Ilmor?

Steve Mattiko

MP: Safe to say they both commit tens of millions per year, but they don’t share the real numbers, nor do they hand out their annual operating costs, so unless you’re one of the precious few people at Chevy and Honda who have access to the budgeting software, there’s no way to answer the ROI question.

If Honda leaves, I do expect a return to spec motors unless a replacement for Honda is found, and at that point, would that manufacturer want to spend a ton and do their own engine or save a ton and lease a spec motor that has none of its ideas or individuality included?

Q: Do you believe scaling back was Tim Cindric’s choice? It just seems odd to me. Is this part of a greater reorganization of the team? Especially given Penske's age and current responsibilities of running the series?

David Tucker

MP: It was his choice. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Tim last week while sitting in our car before the Indy NXT test at Laguna Seca kicked off, and Tim sounded happier and more relaxed than I’ve ever experienced. He was candid in his explanation of how it came to pass and reasons for it in a story that came from the call; might be worth giving it a read.

Q: Any idea how the MX-5 Cup season is scheduled? I miss them at Road America. Do we get the Mustang Challenge because Ford has more influence?

Joe in Illinois, waiting for spring

MP: Love the series. No clue how it’s scheduled.

Q: Has IMS set the dates yet for the open test?

Don Weidig, Canton, OH

MP: April 23-24.

Q: Regarding your comment about female drivers not racing ground effect IndyCars: Desire Wilson drove full sliding skirt ground effect Formula 1 cars at Brands Hatch (12th fastest in the Goodyear 1980 tire test days), and at the South African Grand Prix in 1981 where she stalled on the grid then drove from 15s down and last on the first lap to ninth, passing, among others, Nigel Mansell and teammate Eddie Cheever. She then had a minor crash when allowing race leader Nelson Piquet to pass and got on the marbles.

Steering was so heavy during fast turns that the car had to be set up before the turn and just driven flat out.

AW

MP: That’s awesome. Unfortunately, a single example doesn’t change the point or history. Simona De Silvestro was an outlier as well. She’s by no means large, tall, or wide, but her frame was one that allowed her to add an exceptional amount of upper body muscle to race the DW12 on road and street courses in 2012 and 2013 when downforce numbers were in the 5000-pound range.

And when IndyCar and its manufacturers lost their minds in 2015 with aero kits and all-time highs in IndyCar downforce was achieved, she did the two opening races for Andretti, first on a street course, and then on a road course. And she, uniquely, was able to get the job done, and returned a few years ago with ECR and Paretta for more.

I’m not a lover of power steering, but I’m also not a fan of amazingly talented women being outliers behind the wheel in IndyCar outside the ovals.

Q: Hear me out on this: IndyCars don’t look like Champ Cars from the '50s. And if you showed Robin Miller a photo of a DW12 in 1979, he would have laughed you out of the building. Can you see a world 25 years from now where IMSA and IndyCar have merged? Imagine running the Daytona 24, Petite Le Mans, the Indy 500, Long Beach and the Iowa Corn 250 with the same cars. While I love IndyCar, I’m pretty sure I would just love anything that goes fast for 500 miles on Memorial Day weekend. And you can’t say the new prototypes wouldn’t look cool as hell in 11 rows of three!

Will

MP: I sure hope we don’t have that merger. I love both series, and for what make them uniquely different. But I would love to see an oval race at the Speedway with a packed field of GTP cars. That would be amazing.

Q: When you have all the info available, can you please share the team-by-team IndyCar crews (engineers, strategists, chief mechanics) like you did last year?

Daniel Martins, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

MP: I definitely will, Daniel. Not sure if it will be before St. Pete, but I’ll try.

Q: What type of engine do you anticipate Ford will use for its sports car program: DF series, X series, EcoBoost or an entirely new powerplant from Cosworth?

Jonathan and Cleide Morris, Ventura, CA

MP: I’d be surprised if it isn’t a version of the EcoBoost twin-turbo V6, but really hope it’s a variant of a Coyote V8 with a flat-plane crank to give us another naturally aspirated V8 in GTP, but one that sounds nothing like Cadillac’s epic 5.5-liter NA V8.

Desire Wilson had a one-off drive with Tyrrell for the 1981 South African GP. She retired from the race, while the event itself lost its world championship status and ran under Formula Libre rules due to the ongoing war between governing bodies FISA and FOCA. Motorsport Images

Q: In my opinion, now that NASCAR owns Racing Electronics, it has no interest in supporting IndyCar or NHRA. As a result, Racing Electronics scanners are practically useless at any event that is not NASCAR. Their current scanners cannot be computer programmed at home like the Uniden BC125AT, for example. Their scanners have proprietary connectors and the software has never been available to users. Manually programming their scanners is an exercise in frustration, as Harry Staruk expressed in the Mailbag.

Best bet: Sell the RE scanner and buy the Uniden. There is at least one website that has, in the past anyway, posted a computer file of IndyCar frequencies ready to transfer to the scanner.

David, Waxhaw, NC

MP: Thanks for the intel, David. It has been a long time since I used a scanner.

Q: I propose we remove 250 pounds (114 kilos for our international fans) from the next IndyCar by removing the driver altogether and have each driver pilot the car remotely. Ensure the aeroscreen, now called the NTT Data FullDataInsightTM Drivers' and FOX partners' DashboardTM, prominently displays the driver's name and photo (yes Chip, we know they're Your Cars, but the general public would like to know which drivers are driving Your Cars).

Each driver will have their own, full-motion simulator. This can be a shared location at IMS, but the better-funded teams will have their drivers run from their own facilities. Will Buxton, Townsend, and Hinch can also drive the sims before each race to give their unique perspective. Think of the possibilities for Content Day! Of course there will be internet lag at remote tracks, but that plays into the strategic part of the sport; I'm sure Craig Hampson (fellow Jersey guy!) and Mike Hull would love that.

Ed, Jersey

MP: I like where this is going. But let’s make it like the Pacific Rim movies where the drivers are suspended in bio-mechanical suits -- all in the same circular room, though, facing each other, so it’s super awkward -- and have the run in place to make the car accelerate, lean left and right to turn, and slow their pace to brake.

Q: I agree with the writer who criticized last year's traffic flow after the 500. I’m hoping it was so bad because the rain delay caused the race to end so much later, meaning people who might have tailgated or otherwise delayed their departure left ASAP to get on the road to drive home.

If that’s not the case, I’m going to be very unhappy. But seemed there were dumb decisions made by traffic control that limited options for fans leaving. Some friends who joined me for their first 500 questioned my frequent praise of the traffic flow, and I’m not sure they’ll come back.

Hopefully Doug Boles and IMS can get whatever Speedway police changed for 2024 returned to past practice.

Rick Gevers

MP: Amen, Rick.

Q: Big Possum has read Sad in Illinois John’s submission about tires back in the day. Not sure about the faster part with harder compounds, but they would be a whole lot cheaper for all racers everywhere. Big Possum reminds all that during Mario’s 1969 Indy 500 win they could not get the right rear tire changed so he ran the full 500 miles on the same right rear Firestone. Big Possum remembers that the Firestone/Goodyear tire wars dominated the sport back in the day -- each company dumped tons of money into racing and fought for the services of top drivers (read "gave them lots of money"), to the extent that in some cases they dictated what driver drove for which team.

When Big and Little Possum were racing Kenyon midgets Don told us a story about Lindsey Hopkins, long-time IndyCar owner back in the day. Brother Mel was driving at Indy for Hopkins and Don assembled the car in his shop in Lebanon, Ind., for Mel to drive in the 500. Big Possum asked Don about Lindsey Hopkins and Don’s reply was that he was a fine Southern gentleman (who happened to be on the board of Coca-Cola at that time). Anyway, on to the tire war story:

Apparently Lindsey asked Chris Economaki if he know Wally Dallenbach -- Chris said he did, why do you ask? -- Lindsey replied he is going to be my new driver, whom he had never met. It was a Goodyear deal -- the tire companies were assigning drivers to cars, often without the car owne'rs input, such was the big-dollar power that was unleashed on racing. Larry Truesdale was the Goodyear racing tire guy and could make or break a driver’s career not only in IndyCar, but also F1. When Larry called, you jumped.

Big Possum is not sure about hard tires making racing worse, but they are a huge expense. Big Possum drove a short track pavement late model back in the late 1970s, early '80s -- the years begin to run together. We ran the whole season (one night a week) on the same set of Goodyears. Big Possum also drove a D Production Triumph in the SCCA national series and made the 1967 Runoffs at Daytona, again on the same set of tires all season (regrettably crashed in a first-lap melee). When Little Possum was racing National level karts, we were putting on stickers every time we turned around, at a huge expense.

Big Possum has long advocated for cost reduction in racing, and tires would be a big part of that. Racers will spend themselves into oblivion without supervision. Rising costs equals reduced fields, which equal fewer spectators… you can see where this is going. As an aside, Big Possum is convinced that possums are better predictors of the length of winter than groundhogs. Just sayin’.

Big Possum

MP: Suck it, Punxsutawney Phil. Also, from what the paddock tells me, Firestone’s annual tire lease is approximately 33 percent of an annual engine lease in 2025.

Q: Roger’s drivers realize IndyCar is old, dead technology. They want to be part of exciting IMSA, hence the test at Sebring.

Mark, Ohio

MP: That would be an interesting flex two weeks before the start of the season. Also, Josef and Scot will be testing at Sebring in their IndyCars right after the IMSA visit.

Q: Honest question. Why are race fans so obsessed with two things: the past, and hating other series? People reminiscing about days gone of a handful of cars on a lead lap. 2024 was a phenomenal year for motorsports. The Indy 500 may have been the best ever, NASCAR had three of the closest races of all time, F1 with more multiple race winners than ever. WEC/IMSA amazing.

Just enjoy what we get to see. The death of the internal combustion engine is inevitable. The same people crying about today’s IndyCar formula are the same who reminisce about Jimmy Vasser destroying everyone in '96. This is the golden age, in all categories. It’s phenomenal. From IndyCar to Formula E to MotoGP. God, thank you for this. I’ll die a happy fan knowing I got to see Dale, Schumacher, Rainey, Rossi, Gordon, Johnson, Dixon, Montoya, Dario and Mr. Le Mans. Even in naming those greats, I’ve missed so many. Thank you to the lords of speed.

David Guthrie

MP: But did you get to see Cleveland?

Q: In the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s there was this phenomenon in NASCAR called start and park, where low-budget teams would start the race, run a few laps then pull into the garage, citing a non-existent issue with their car in order to collect prize money and keep costs down,

Did the phenomena of start and park ever extend to Formula 1?

Kurt Perleberg

CHRIS MEDLAND: There may have been a few instances in the distant past based on smaller grid sizes, but F1 was quite wise to the idea with its prize money being allocated on finishing positions and your place in the race at certain points. That meant if you parked up early, you weren't getting much prize money at all. There was also pre-qualifying introduced when there were too many cars, ensuring that only those that were capable of competitive performance would get to start, and if you didn't clear pre-qualifying then you didn't take part in the race weekend itself and therefore didn't get any prize money.

The biggest payouts also come from final constructors' championship finishing positions, and being in the top 10 places in the standings. That meant taking the start-and-park approach would have very little return compared to what was on offer from simply being 10th overall. I'd say a more common F1 equivalent was when certain teams used to play around with potentially non-compliant cars in testing (when the regulations weren't in force) and low fuel runs at certain times in testing and race weekends just to grab headlines in search of sponsorship money.

Jennifer Jo Cobb became the first driver of the start and park era's heyday to refuse to start a race after 2nd Chance Motorsports' Rick Russell instructed her to start and park the team's No. 79 Ford in the Nationwide Series race at Bristol in 2011. Motorsport Images

Q: It seems like the TPC program could help Cadillac get prepared for Formula 1 competition by providing an opportunity to just operate at a track as a team, practice real pit stops, and get their operations sorted, etc. However, with no previous cars, are they barred from this extra running, or is there some sort of provision that can allow them some extra track time?

Andy Brumbaugh

CM: Cadillac is not barred in the sense that if it wanted to design and build a car to previous specifications and run it as a TPC then it could, and I believe it could even run one to 2026 regulations if it wanted because technically it doesn't have a confirmed entry yet and is not beholden to the restrictions as a result. But to do so would be enormously expensive and time consuming, and wouldn't provide the return on investment that focusing on designing and developing next year's car will (like all other teams are now doing).

Until Cadillac has its entry from the FIA, it doesn't have to comply with the regulations (although the financial rules state you must in the year before you enter, so I'm told it will have to on that front), but no team would sell it a recent car either, because that would give up IP to a competitor.

I'm glad you mention it though, Andy, because it shows why new teams have to place such a value on experienced personnel, and look to hire from existing teams and those already in and around F1. That's why Cadillac has a facility at Silverstone, and why Sauber is also establishing a technical center in the UK.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, February 12, 2014

Q: Can you elaborate on the Johncock/Rutherford rivalry? I was wondering, was it about sponsors? Or just at Indianapolis? Or over several years?

J.R. from Illinois (not Fort Worth)

ROBIN MILLER: Not sure exactly when it started but it came to a head at Phoenix in 1976 or '77 after they’d tangled on the track. J.R. threw a roundhouse at Gordy, who ducked, and USAC PR man Ray Marquette took the punch and lost his glasses in the process. Don’t remember another incident after that one.