The RACER Mailbag, March 26

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: Don’t want NASCAR. Just want competence. FOX failed us. Too much to ask for IndyCar, apparently.

Richard Dulany

MARSHALL PRUETT: A first-time problem with a blown circuit breaker, one that took 21 minutes of racing away, is being treated like the biggest failure imaginable by some who I can only assume live in a world of perfection where they never make mistakes or are subject to misfortune. It happened. It was bad. But nobody died. This wasn’t a hospital that lost power and went dark in the middle of a surgery. We didn’t get to see 21 minutes of a damn boring stretch of the race. If anything, the timing of the problem made the race better since some of the nothingness wasn’t aired. Pato O'Ward led, and kept leading.

If it happens again this year, yes, there will be some serious questions to raise about competence, and one or more people will probably be relieved from their jobs. For now, let’s get back to real life and call the Thermal dropout what it was: an aberration.

Q: Darn it FOX! You screwed up a really good racing event with your technical problems. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I like the Thermal track, though it could use some safety barriers in certain areas of the track, and some grandstands. It could use some other support races like the Trans Am series and International GT series. Alex Palou is on a different level and I was hoping for a historical moment with Pato O’Ward and Christian Lungaard having aa historic Arrow McLaren 1-2. But Palou reminded me of Alex Zanardi when he dominated the series from 1997-98. I’m wondering if he’ll end up in F1, especially if Liam Lawson struggles with Red Bull Racing?

Alistair

MP: Alex certainly deserves a look from F1 teams, but it’s hard to make the argument that the perfect fit to replace a young driver with a decent amount of F1 experience who’s struggling is with a young driver with far less F1 experience. And pitting him against the best driver in F1 who’s crushed every teammate he’s had, barring Daniel Ricciardo, who killed his own career by leaving for Renault.

Palou is amazingly talented and would be a steadier operator, but the team wants instant speed and effectiveness, which wouldn’t be something Alex should be expected to summon. Given two guaranteed years? Yes. In this situation? Stay the hell away.

Oh, he’s also under contract to Chip Ganassi Racing, which has sold all of its sponsors for the 10 car on Alex being its driver. So there’s that minor obstacle.

If anything, Alex Zanardi's 1999 season stands as a cautionary tale against trying to turn IndyCar/CART dominance into instant F1 success. Getty Images.

Q: Not sure if this was a FOX coverage thing or what. I noticed during Sunday’s race at Thermal that the track edge kept changing from light blue to red? Just curious as to what I was seeing. Thanks for any insight!

Hisham Bate, Indy

MP: The curb is painted different colors in different areas.

Q: I know you are going to get a ton of letters regarding the FOX broadcast. I get that technical issues can happen, resulting in the broadcast feed getting lost. However, FOX switched to the NASCAR broadcast from Homestead, but the ticker at the bottom stated the NASCAR race was at Martinsville. Oops.

That just leads me to the point that FOX still has work to do on its graphics. When Palou caught O'Ward with 10 to go, the broadcast tags/flags showed Pato in first and Palou (right on his bumper) in third. FOX tried it again, but again Palou was listed as third. Those positions listed on the flag graphics disappeared. I can see they have not done anything about covering up the sponsor logos on the cockpit hoop for the in-car feeds. Sponsors are going to be pissed, and it puts the team owners in a really bad spot.

Social media was busy Saturday with the broadcast graphics mistakes. McLaughlin in the No. 3 had Sting Ray Robb's cartoon face, among other issues. I'm not trying to pick on FOX, but these are broadcast basics in the year 2025. Once, can be forgiven, but not two races in a row. The technology and knowledge is there. Heck, they’ve broadcast NASCAR for years and years. It's not a good look.

On the positive side, the warmup show is great and needs to continue.

John Balestrieri, Waukesha, WI

MP: Definite grace period given during and after the first race with the graphics, and the widespread issues in simply delivering the graphics to the international audience. But it was clear that three weeks wasn’t enough time to get the majority of the problems solved, and in fact, some new ones emerged. (Sting Ray McLaughlin was amazing.)

Where the blown circuit breaker was a fluke thing that didn’t warrant the hysteria that followed, there’s some serious quality control issues for FOX to address with its graphics and presentation. I heard from international fans on Friday and Saturday who were blown away by the 10 steps back FOX took from St. Pete to Thermal, with wrong feeds being shown, missing graphics, and mismatched audio -- the booth talking about one thing and the footage of something entirely different being displayed.

Most of that was cleaned up by the race, I’m told, but the shocker here is this isn’t a case of FOX taking its first crack at broadcasting a brand-new sport. This is the same network that airs NASCAR, the NHRA, and has had F1, American sports cars and Le Mans as staples within the last decade. Why, exactly, it’s now missing so many of the basics on the domestic and international IndyCar feeds is a head-scratcher, for sure.

This has nothing to do with lacking passion or excitement or talent. This is, as former IndyCar president (and college football player) Jay Frye likes to say, failing to execute the simple stuff like blocking and tackling.

Q: The way Devlin DeFrancesco reacted to Scott McLaughlin challenging him over their collision after the race was disgraceful. He clearly drove into McLaughlin, and on the warm-up lap for goodness sake! DeFrancesco has no right to be in IndyCar, and never has. He's only there because of his money, and I'm tired of people like him, Sting Ray Robb, Nolan Siegel and Kyffin Simpson hoarding seats while genuine talents like Linus Lundqvist are left on the sidelines. Pay drivers have always been a thing, but so many teams have them this year, some of whom have no business being there and it's all due to rising costs. What can be done?

I appreciate that was more a rant than a question so apologies. Thanks for everything you do!

Jordan, Warwick, UK

MP: Easiest way to remove paying drivers from IndyCar is to help the teams who need paying drivers to find the $8-10 million required to run the car, and the couple of million a paid driver would expect to receive.

Q: With the exception of FOX having broadcast issues, the race at Thermal wasn't bad. Because of this, the ratings aren't going to tell the whole story, but if Thermal wants IndyCar back, let's do it. It wasn't their fault. Was it a snoozer? No. Was it edge of your seat the whole time? Also no. Tire strategy/deg decided the race and I really liked that uncertainty hanging in the air the whole weekend. Which leads me to the fact that I liked seeing Palou chase down O'Ward on different tire strategies.

I'm bummed for both Pato and Lundgaard, who both had a strong weekends. But as Chip said during the warm-up show, Palou is only just scratching the surface. I expect and want Thermal to come back with the planned tweaks to open up the track to better racing, and fill the huge gaps early in the '26 schedule.

If there are other venues willing to step up for IndyCar to replace Thermal, then the series can have those discussions. But having a balanced schedule at the start of the season (rather than having the typical breakneck pace at the end) would provide a more consistent TV product for the fans who just waited six months for the series to return, only having to wait three more weeks after the season opener.

Rob Peterson

MP: Thanks, Rob. I didn’t see much during the majority of the race that was entertaining -- not until the last pit stop gave Palou the ability to track down and pass the McLaren drivers -- but we all see different things that leave individual impressions.

Next year’s calendar, akin to 2024 with the Olympics pushing races to clusters on either side of that break, has a week and a half of World Cup for FOX to air in June that will likely have a similar effect.

Thermal: Still polarizing. Perry Nelson/Lumen

Q: I've been following IndyCar/CART for decades, traveling to visit many of the venues. But watching a tire-saving exercise on a fanless, featureless track through rich guys' backyards, I ask myself, 'Would I want to be there?’ Road America, Indy, Long Beach. Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca… sure, but Thermal Club, no, not even if they paid me. Shouldn't IndyCar race race exclusively at places that stir the viewing public's imaginations?

How is it for you journalists? Do you find yourself wanting to be there?

A. Jenkins, Ontario, Canada

MP: It’s like a racing spa or resort where the guests are treated like kings and queens, and most everybody feels important. But it’s not a spa or resort. It’s the private playground of the ultra-wealthy, which is a strange thing to experience as a temporary guest. This isn’t going to an event where wealth and opulence is on display, like a Monaco Grand Prix; this is being greeted at the gate by heavily armed private security and walking about inside a members-only residence. Big difference.

The event was capped at 5000 people, which the track said they came close to reaching. But with so few grandstands, and those grandstands placed far away from pit lane, it was bizarre to be at a motor race and never hear the crowd. No loud cheers. No "ooohs" or "ahhhs" when something interesting happened.

And I’m by no means an expert at counting people, but I’m not sure I saw more than 500-1000 people in the wide-open paddock space between sessions. Also, with no other racing series present other than IndyCar, there wasn’t much for anyone to do when IndyCars weren’t on track, so I assume the majority of attendees went to the infield/paddock area during the down times.

Those I spoke with who bought tickets seemed to love everything about the event. But there’s no denying that it was plain weird to be at a full championship round and see and feel no impact from fans. No energy to boost the sessions. Nothing. Had the feeling of a band or a comedian getting no reaction from a silent crowd. It also reminded me of COVID-era races that were either completely or mostly muted.

Again, those who were there had tons of positive things to say, so from that respect, it was a win. In the context of a normal race weekend where an abundance of passionate fans bring an electric vibe, it was completely dead.

If it continues, it needs a major rethink on being opened to 15,000 or 20,000 fans with basic tickets being no different from any other race. Races are awesome for many reasons, and one of the biggest elements is the fans. That key ingredient was missing, so the whole thing felt off.

Q: FOX! What a joke. About a third of the way through the Thermal race, the video suddenly goes still and FOX FS1 announces that FOX is having technical difficulties with the race and welcomes us to the NASCAR race! What a poor showing for FOX. Is this what we can expect the rest of the year? Naturally, I turned the TV off.

Jerry, Houston, TX

MP: The good thing is nobody is overreacting.

Q: It’s a shame that FOX had such a technical glitch. Very disappointing. I’m a big admirer of Palou, I wonder how things would’ve worked out if the often-confusing race control group had enforced what seemed to be a fairly obvious impediment issue during qualifying? I don’t think Alex would have been in the Fast 6.

Good run by Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard. I’m happy for TK. Also, although not vying for the front, it was a decent run by Andretti Global. Yes, that team will always be an Andretti stable to me!

Skip Ranfone, Bluffton, SC

MP: Polesitter O’Ward ran Dixon off the track in Turn 1 in qualifying with no penalty, so at least they were consistent.

Q: I wanted to write in and say I was wrong about the tires after St. Pete. Not sure where the fragile greens went from St. Pete but this race created tire differential and great racing. What did the passing stats say this time?

P.S. I can't believe DeFrancesco got mad at McLaughlin after the race. Eventually Scotty Mac was like, 'Dude, there's a reason you got a penalty.' That was embarrassing for Devlin.

Ryan T

MP: There were 246 passes, 208 for position, and 11 of those were inside the top five.

Q: In the story about Thermal’s future you quote Bud Denker as saying "talks have been very good." Maybe good for the Penske bank account, but clearly nobody is reading the room, as it were. You say 5000 in attendance: wow! That's certainly a rip-roaring success, but where were they all? Not one was ever seen on the broadcast but then tickets started at $475 according to the website so maybe the fortunate few were sheltering in air-conditioned surroundings.

The last few laps of wheel-to-wheel were great to watch, but what a less than inspiring race circuit with a ribbon of racetrack between dirt and a few palm trees and a total absence of fans, probably because no grandstands, and heavens, a billionaire boys club wouldn't want race riff-raff anywhere near their precious enclave.

If signing FOX was a coup to find new fans and viewers of IndyCar racing then it is clear that the series has completely lost the plot staging an event in a rich kids' playground.

CH

MP: Here’s a point raised by a friend in the paddock last weekend: There are many important IndyCar venues for sponsors, and auto manufacturers in particular, to promote their brands in that market and hopefully sell a nice number of cars there through the boost of racing with IndyCar. But how many Chevys and Hondas were bought by Thermal Club members to park among their Aston Martins and Lamborghinis and Porsches? Or by the limited volume of fans forking out a ton of money to be on the grounds?

I hadn’t thought of that angle until it was mentioned, and I’d assume that kind of feedback has been given to the series.

Q: Perhaps I’m biased because I live in Los Angeles, but I have come to love IndyCar at Thermal. I also think Thermal is a unique and valuable component of this year’s, and future, IndyCar schedules.

The track atmosphere is truly one of a kind. It is understated and relatively uncrowded, and fans are free to roam and find unique viewing areas on the front side of the course. The amenities, setting, and weather are second to none on the entire circuit -- including the venerable and fantastic Indianapolis Motor Speedway and fabulous Road America. This weekend, we even had the In-n-Out burger truck on Saturday and Sunday!

I also think that the proposed longer, higher-speed course (with more areas for grandstands and suites) would make better racing and only add to the fan experience. It should be a destination race for IndyCar fans from all over North America and beyond.

I think Thermal deserves a spot on future IndyCar schedules!

Kenneth A. Ehrlich

MP: Great to see you there again, Ken. Agreed. As it is, it doesn’t work, except to pay Penske Entertainment a nice seven-figure sanctioning fee. With changes -- many changes -- it could be a winner.

You could probably get a decent view from that little tower thingy on the left. Perry Nelson/Lumen

Q: Great day if you’re a Palou fan, he was on warp speed the entire race. Decent day for O’Ward, Lundgaard and McLaren, though I was hoping for that F1/Indy double 1-2. Honestly, I can’t think of much that happened during the blackout as I switched to the IndyCar app. Seemed the broadcast came back online at the right time.

My thoughts on Thermal: Too expensive, it’s out of the way and where are the grandstands? It should remain as a pre season test track. If it is kept on the race calendar, then Indy should change the layout every year, I think the track is versatile enough to accommodate that. What do you think?

Not that Stefan Johansson

MP: Agreed on all fronts.

Q: Reading through driver comments after the Thermal race, it seemed like a lot of the Chevy drivers mentioned hybrid problems, specifically overheating.

I noted mentions from O'Ward, Lundgaard, McLaughlin, Ferrucci and a few others. Were Honda drivers having the same issue and just not talking about it, or is there some systemic issue with the Chevy-Ilmor implementation that does not affect Honda? Could Pato’s issue help explain why Palou got by him so seemingly effortlessly?

Ed Joras

MP: I checked with Honda after the event and other than one or two small issues that were quickly resolved, the majority of the problems did fall on the Chevy side from Friday onwards. Some were technical, meaning they were specifically related to the energy recovery systems, and others were induced by using too many blockers and spiking temperatures to the point where the ERS units shut down until they cooled down.

Q: I wanted your take on the upcoming new technical/car package for the series.

For the best part of 20 years, there hasn’t been any meaningful direction on a technical package. It never seems to be a conversation. All you hear is "racing is too expensive, cut costs," etc. Despite the recent inflation and your great article explaining the many reasons why the costs are what they are, IndyCar remains significantly cheaper than most other top series.

We’ve seen IMSA, F1, WEC and NASCAR go through multiple technical iterations in this time, to varying degrees of success. But ultimately, each series is fresh and current in different ways. None more so than in sports cars.

I appreciate IndyCar has had different owners/leadership group during the past two decades, but what do they want the series to be? More of the same with another unambitious car and engine package to last the next 12-14 years? Or be brave and reach for the stars and see who follows them? Is there any push from the more ambitious team owners for something better?

Racing at every level is expensive, anyone who’s competed at local/club level can testify to that. A repeat of the DW12 and engine formula would be so disappointing.

John Keane

MP: I’ve got a lot of stories to knock out on this topic, John, and most follow exactly what you’ve raised here. Does IndyCar do more of the same and fail to stand out in the racing/sports entertainment world, or does it swing for the fences with a mind-bending design with an engine that makes people run to the fences to see and hear the thing? I hope it’s the latter but fear it’s the former because I just can’t think of anything truly bold or outside-the-box to come from Penske Entertainment. But now would be a perfect time to break that trend.

Q: Here’s a recap of the IndyCar coverage from the Thermal Club this weekend:

Will Buxton: "Tires. James, tires tires black tires, red tires tires tires?"

Hinch: "Tires tires red tires black, tires tires tires tires tires. Townsend, tires tires tires?"

Townsend: "Tires tires tires black red red black red tires tires! Tires tires tires tires red tires black red tires tires."

Buxton: "Kevin, tires tires tires?"

Lee: "Tires tires red tires tires tires black black red red black red."

Buxton: "Tires. Tires. Tires…"

Steve I., South Jersey

MP: Tires, Steve. Tires.

Q: Excluding the loss of coverage, I wasn't impressed with the FOX broadcast of the Thermal race. The very nature of the track seemed to make it hard to provide coverage. It seemed that locations for fixed, staffed cameras were somewhat limited as well. I would hope that this is not the normal expectation for what viewers should expect. This is just my personal opinion, and would be interested in what your thoughts are.

Craig Nelson

MP: It’s an interesting observation, Craig. And yes, the layout does conspire against more creative camera placement because almost every camera operator was placed inside the track. A significant portion of the track is lined by tall walls that separate the private homes from the circuit, which means setting up cameras in those regions isn’t possible since the space in front of those walls doubles as runoff/impact zones and the space behind the walls are personal residences.

Unless some of the members want to invite FOX Sports to use their balconies to shoot back at the track, I’m not sure how the matter gets resolved.

Q: I read your Indy 500 entry list article, and was curious to know what options, if any, Katherine Legge might have? I remember seeing she had secured a full budget – what are the odds of something materializing for her? And if it doesn’t, why is that, give she secured the budget? She’s a solid driver. And what does her non-entry mean for the sport? Personally, I think the 500 is better with Kat and e.l.f. on the grid.

Ben, Chicago

MP: Here’s what I started to write for a story on the topic, and after multiple calls to Kat with no returns, it will live here as a Mailbag response:

Katherine Legge has the sponsors, crew, and engine to make another run at the Indianapolis 500, but she’s missing the key component to tie all of those pieces together at IndyCar’s biggest race. If she can find a team that’s willing to lease a Dallara DW12 chassis, the multi-talented racing veteran would become the last known entry for May 25’s "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Driving for Dale Coyne Racing last year in the No. 51 Honda, the Briton made her fourth Indy 500 start but dropped out early with motor problems and placed 29th. Thanks to ongoing corporate support to back another run at the Speedway along with sustained interest from Honda to provide power for the program, Legge has an opportunity to improve on that unrewarding result and has been actively seeking a team to either run her in an extra entry or agree to lease a spare car to assemble her own effort.

So far, the 12 existing IndyCar teams have either filled their vacant Indy 500 seats or been unwilling to make a car available for Legge’s independent use. With the clock winding down to next month’s Indy Open Test, she’s at a pivotal point in the process; if a chassis doesn’t appear soon, the project will meet a swift end.

If someone makes a car available for the 500, Legge is ready to roll. Travis Hinkle/IMS Photo

Q: "The roar of engines returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as athletes of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES prepare for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge…"

This from the IMS website -- IMS PR are at it again. Robin and Big Possum squelched this "athletes" BS some years ago but it has now reared its ugly head again. I guess each new generation needs to be schooled. See below from former Tom, Michigan who is now Big Possum:

Big Possum

MP: Heard Robin rant about this many times, but didn’t see the big problem in referring to drivers as athletes as well. Stick-and-ball athletes have crapped on drivers for ages, painting them as non-athletic, so with Josef Newgarden turning himself into the Tennessee Hulk and so many of the other IndyCar drivers transforming themselves into competitors with bodies that are just as (or more) athletic and muscled as baseball or hockey or tennis players, why shouldn’t drivers get the respect of also being referred to as athletes? Because it somehow isn’t cool?

Q: Just read an article on the internet saying that the powers that be in Formula 1 are considering dropping the hybrid in the next engine regulations. The reason is the high cost and that manufacturers are not as enthusiastic as they used to be. They want to return to pure racing engines in lighter race cars. I was shocked to see this 180-degree turnaround. If true, the aftershock of all series specifying hybrids would be tremendous. Maybe the reason IndyCar can't get a third OEM is that manufacturers really don't want to invest in hybrids in future?

Dave

MP: We have a winner! The tides do appear to be changing in the auto industry, and if that proves to be true, what you’ve read on the good old innerweb is where racing will be headed.

Q: I know it's a private club, but I was shocked to see no sponsors around the track on tire barriers/walls/etc. at Thermal Club. With the FOX deal and a lot of eyeballs on TV, you don't see that at tracks very often. Seems like a missed opportunity?

Andrew, Noblesville

MP: Referring back to that note about who exactly sponsors and manufacturers would be selling to at Thermal, I don’t know what the trackside target audience would be for most advertisers seen in racing. I do believe there were some banners in select locations, but yes, Thermal wasn’t dressed up like what we normally witness at a motor racing event.

Q: What are three major and three minor stories we IndyCar fans should pay attention to in 2025?

Ed, Jersey

MP: Fun question.

1: Significant changes taking place at Juncos Hollinger Racing, done to delete the years of institutional chaos and replace that chaos with structure and processes that should bring newfound consistency. It’s a big turnaround to implement that will take time to happen, but it’s long overdue. And it won’t come with immediate and impressive finishes. But with new managerial and engineering personnel in place, the big highs and low lows should start to smooth out. Even if it means a bunch of mid-pack finishes that don’t stand out as awesome, establishing a baseline is key, and ramping up from that point forward is where greater expectations can be held. I really like where the team is headed.

2: Nolan Siegel’s had a tough start to the season, but I’ve been impressed with his year-to-year progress. Beating O'Ward and Lundgaard is too much to ask, but he could be a pleasant surprise by the end of the season. The other two McLaren drivers are close to being finished products, so team principal Tony Kanaan spends his time on Siegel’s timing stand and treats the 20-year-old as his personal project. You can’t ask for a better mentor and guide in the first full season of IndyCar. He gets heat for his family’s wealth, but it’s not like he had a choice to be born into privilege. Smart kid, funny kid, and he’s extremely talented. Can’t wait to see where he’s at when we get to the early races in 2026.

3: PREMA’s spent a fortune coming into IndyCar, bought brand-new everything, and has a huge F1-style paddock hub/hospitality compound, but so far with the on-track part that matters, it’s been all style and almost no substance. At least one of its cars has been a source of preparation shortcomings in nearly every session, which can be dismissed to some degree due to it being a new team.

As I wrote in my pre-season preview, this is a proud and wildly accomplished European junior open-wheel team that’s hired a bunch of IndyCar veterans to complement its existing staff, but the results suggest something’s been lost in translation. This has nothing to do with on-track performance and how fast the cars are or aren’t; it’s all about the constant operational issues through St. Pete and Thermal with the 83 while the 90 has been almost flawless. Seeing them get straight at Long Beach would be good for them and good for IndyCar.

Coming soon to some headlines near you. James Black/IMS Photo

Q: With Conor Daly enjoying a full-time ride, who do you see as being the next super-sub for the 2025 IndyCar season? I know a few teams have secured backup/test drivers, but in the event of injuries or poor performance etc, who do you think gets some calls this season?

Keith Branham

MP: Keeping in mind the rule that disallows drivers to stand in at Indy if they haven’t driven the car/done a refresher before the race, I’d look to Sebastien Bourdais first. Legge is the most recent veteran to run the race to consider. And Tristan Vautier, who drove for Dale Coyne at Detroit last year, has a specific set of skills that allows him to jump into anything in an instant and be wickedly fast. His last 500 was in 2015, but the guy is the ultimate gamer. I’d put RC Enerson in there as well. Been a few years, but JR Hildebrand and Charlie Kimball are also worthy of receiving calls.

Q: Watching IndyCar qualifying and I don't see any grandstands out at Thermal. Maybe they'll set some up overnight, but where are spectators watching from? Does IndyCar even care if people come? They've already been paid appearance fee and TV money.

Shawn, MD

MP: Same place that we wrote about prior to the event: on the backstraight from Turn 6 partway down to Turn 7. And inside the final corners.

Q: I attended last year's race at Thermal Club and had a great time. However, this year's experience was very disappointing.

The difference between the 2024 and 2025 race experiences was remarkable. This year, general admission access was severely limited. Immediately upon arriving Friday when gates opened we were chased out of various sections we had full access to in 2024. We were denied access to the "Village" (near Turns 15 and 16), then pit lane, and again in Turn 14. All were areas GA tickets had unfettered access to last year. Folding chairs were allowed last year, but not this year.

In the end, it was clear all a $475 GA ticket allowed us to do was access the bleachers between Turns 6 and 7 and the paddock. Everything else was completely off limits. This was a huge disappointment, and I will not return.

The same thing happened at the Detroit GP between the inaugural downtown race in 2023 and the second race in 2024. In the first year, fans with any grandstand ticket were treated to full access on all three parking garage decks. In 2024, parking deck access required a separate ticket in addition to a grandstand ticket. Another race I will not attend again.

The Iowa races in 2022 were great, but in 2023 the ticket prices doubled to pay for the country music bands, which I was not interested in, so I stopped going.

I went to the inaugural Nashville street race in 2021, and three years later we all know how that turned out...

This bait-and-switch trend has become a theme with Penske Entertainment and it is really turning fans off. If I could sum up the last five years under Penske management it would be: "One step forward, one step back." For all the promise, faith and hope IndyCar fans have placed in Roger Penske, his tenure is turning into one disappointment after another.

IMSA and Formula E both offer excellent racing at a great value, and that's where I'll be spending my time and my money.

Kevin P., Los Angeles, CA

MP: I’m sorry to hear about this, Kevin. It’s one thing if your $25 GA ticket comes with no access beyond the stands. It’s another when the sucker costs $475.

Q: Looking back on my sports car fandom, I vaguely remember Scott Tucker from the final days of the American Le Mans Series. I didn't find out about his payday loan business until much later, and that he was using the money to go racing. I've come to realize that racing history is littered with gentlemen drivers who have paid for their racing ventures through nefarious means. In your career as a reporter and mechanic, if a driver or owner comes onto the scene and is funding a team through less-than-legal ways, do you and the rest of the paddock know about it, or at least become curious about how they got the money? Do you have any interesting stories or experiences of your own?

Brandon Karsten

MP: Oh Lord yes. Since this is already one of the longest Mailbags of the year, I’ll keep it short with one Tucker item: At my former FOX Sports/SPEED Channel home, I was the lead sports car reporter (Robin Miller was the IndyCar lead) and there was almost no budget put behind our sports car coverage for SPEED.com. So we were encouraged to go out and find any trades with a team or sponsor to provide travel in exchange for some extra coverage. I was starting to do a lot more IndyCar coverage as Miller was being pulled into the OLN/Versus broadcasts, so the day-to-day sports car beat reporting duties fell to John Dagys, who went on to start a website of his own after SPEED was shuttered.

He'd gotten to know Tucker and the Level 5 folks somewhat well, and raised the idea of pitching them on a travel-for-coverage trade. That got arranged for discussion at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and as the senior reporter, I was asked to sit in on the discussion. And it was bizarre. We were welcomed into Tucker’s personal space at the head of one of the transporters, and it was dark -- very dark. Scott sat at the back, in the shadows, watching us walk in. His team manager, David Stone (a really good guy), sat next to him, and Tucker said maybe 15 words while Stone led the brief interaction and agreed to support Dagys’ travel.

I’ve been in hundreds of transporters since I started in the sport, and this was the one and only time where it felt creepy from the outset, creepier during the interaction, and made me think of The Godfather when various people went into his darkened office to ask for things.

Q: I’ve been a fan of IndyCar for all 27 years of my life so far, most likely stemming from Grandpa regaling me stories of him watching his roadster heroes from Wilbur Shaw to A.J. Foyt. But one question that both of us (if he was still here) would have: Did IndyCar or FOX change the pre-race TV format to not include the invocation and national anthem? I haven’t noticed it broadcasted when watching either St Pete or Thermal.

Matthew, Beachwood, NJ

MP: I don’t know. I watched it from the house feed and can’t say if it was part of the broadcast.

Q: After last year’s embarrassing event (I would never call that a race) at Thermal, I wanted to withhold my opinion of Sunday’s Thermal Club race until after it was completed. Following Sunday’s snoozer, I’m left wondering: What’s the point of holding a race in a wealthy enclave in the middle of the desert in front of a "crowd" that looked like it was comprised of just friends and family? It looked small-time and insignificant on TV, and the racing product was less than scintillating. Do you have any idea of what market IndyCar is trying to appeal to with this thing, and do you think it will return to the schedule in 2026?

Rod, Houston

MP: I do not, and with the 50.3-percent drop in TV audience, the series has somet thinking to do about the event’s future.

How did this get in here? Getty Images

Q: Thermal was certainly one of the more interesting IndyCar races we've seen lately. I still don't know if I like the track or not. At times, with a long camera shot, it could look like an industrial wasteland with outbuildings instead of bleachers, but then you'd see the cars and track up close and enjoy some really good racing on a quite unusual layout that makes Mid-Ohio look like a bullring. The perspective changed totally. This doesn't happen at other tracks which I might prefer to Thermal, but I want them all.

Too bad about the NASCAR intermission, but the closing act made up for it. Palou is something special and a blast to watch. Poor O'Ward did everything right, drove a smart race and had to give it all up. He deserves better, but so do others.

Congrats to Penske's lone shining star Will Power. I wish we had seen more of his drive. Do you think the matter of his re-signing or not is mostly already known by the team? I fear it is, and not in Will's favor. I hope he gets great engineering and a few good breaks and finishes as the number one Penske driver.

Chris

MP: Power knows his best chance at continuing to win races is in a Penske car; Ganassi has no openings on the horizon that I know of, so he’s fighting like hell to get a contract extension.

Q: I watched the first five or so laps of Thermal. No joke, I fell asleep until the last round of pitstops and woke up to see that essentially nothing had happened or changed since lap five. Sure, the Palou vs Lundgaard battle was nice to see for a third of a lap. Palou chasing down and passing O’Ward was intriguing for a minute. But three laps of decent racing to do not make an exciting event. If I were a new fan that tuned in because of the FOX promotions, I would’ve done exactly what I did as a long-time fan and fallen asleep.

I hope the series is making tons of money off the event. I hope rich people are opening up their wallets like never before. I hope the race at Thermal is funding Milwaukee, Iowa and Nashville. I hope that’s why it’s on the schedule, because simply from an event and entertainment perspective, it’s quite lame. The racing isn’t good. The visuals are terrible because there’s essentially no one there. I know people don’t tune into races for visuals, but for a new fan tuning in for the first or second time, its jarring to see IndyCar racing at essentially an empty facility.

There’s been talk at length about how IndyCar doesn’t need to be at places that make it look small, like ovals with tens of thousands of empty seats. If that’s part of the reasoning abandoning many ovals (I know it’s 99% financially driven), then that should also apply to Thermal. It doesn’t feel like an event. It doesn’t look like something exciting to be a part of.

F1’s racing may be mostly boring, but at least the events look and feel special. The stands are full. Everyone is decked out in team gear. There is excitement around the event. That look and feel of something special is why St. Pete, Long Beach, the 500 and Road America are successes. Going somewhere like Thermal is the antithesis of that.

Ross Bynum

MP: Please report to the Penske Entertainment offices in Indy and enjoy your new role as VP of Common Sense.

Q: How long will it be before Hailie Deegan and Sophia Floersch are racing in the NTT IndyCar Series?

Kurt Perleberg

MP: Somewhere between a while and maybe never. Floersch, a young open-wheel veteran, was 1.3s off of Dennis Hauger’s pole at St. Pete on her debut and started 17th out of 21 drivers. Deegan, a total open-wheel novice, was 3.5 seconds off of pole, and last, more than two seconds off of the next slowest driver.

With four cautions at St. Pete, nobody was put a lap down, but Deegan did a good job of staying off the walls when some others didn’t and took 14th and last among drivers on the lead lap. Floersch was 12th. No way to say what’s in store for them with IndyCar after a single NXT race.

Q: Arrow McLaren had two great cars with two great drivers at Thermal, but why didn't they put one car on the same strategy as Palou? it would make sense to me, but what do I know? Was it Kanaan being new at running a team?

Jack, Ft. Pierce, FL

MP: That’s not how teams work. Drivers and their race strategists collaborate on their starting tire choice; the team principal doesn’t dictate who’s starting on what. Having one of the two cars mirror Palou to start would have been wise, with Lundgaard being the easy choice.

Q: After reading last week’s Mailbag I didn’t realize there was so much of a backstory to what happened with Honda and the hybrid. So my first question is, if the other engine manufacturers in talks with IndyCar said they wouldn’t enter the series without a hybrid, where are they now.

Also, are Honda and Chevrolet trying to make a connection between the racetrack and the showroom? If so, why don’t we ever see an IndyCar or engine on display in any of their showrooms? In the 1960s the saying was “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday,” where you might see a Ford driver win in a Ford Galaxy then fans buying Fords the next day. Do they believe the hybrid in the series is generating sales, or is it just a marketing tool?

Finally, I noticed the Vegas NASCAR Cup Series race was sponsored by Pennzoil, and it was also the sponsor on the 22 car. I’ve seen NAPA in Cup Series racing and drag racing. And NHRA has many other companies such as O’Reilly Auto Parts, Lucas Oil, Peak, Royal Purple and Mac Tools. If there are as many gearheads in IndyCar as the other two series, why are these companies not sponsors in IndyCar?

Rick Schneider, Charlotte

MP: We keep waiting for them to arrive. Great question on Chevy and Honda. Every company mentioned has a choice to be involved as sponsors in any series. Most have decided, in 2025 at least since many have been sponsors in the past, to pass on IndyCar. Lucas Oil, however, continues as a longstanding sponsor of Arrow McLaren.

Q: Is Gavin Ward interested in returning to motorsports?

Bob

MP: He is, but he’s in no rush. Spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Gav catching up on the drive to Thermal Sunday morning, and he’s in a good space, loving being home and being a husband and dad, and continues to have teams inquire about his availability. Once "gardening leave" is over, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t pop up and help a team to do better and go faster.

He'll be back. Michael Levitt/Lumen

Q: I would like to know your thoughts on how the hybrid motor technology will affect passing at the 500 this year?

Saw the first billboard advertising for the Milwaukee IndyCar race yesterday...

Ed R. Oak Creek, WI

MP: I can offer some dumb and uninformed speculation, but we really need to get the full field out for the late April open test at the Speedway to see what they look like in hybrid specification and hear from the drivers about what they can and can’t do as a result of carrying that extra 105 pounds at the back of the cars. How do they handle in a qualifying simulation? In a pack? What adjustments can be made to optimize their performance over long runs? There’s no other track with a car spec that’s similar to the 500, so we need to get there and find out if and how the first hybrid Indy race might play out.

Q: You mentioned in the March 19 Mailbag that IndyCar is trying to hold off IMSA. I'd contend that IMSA has overtaken IndyCar. Attendance for the Rolex 24 and Sebring 12 Hours were both sellouts, and the racing was much better than IndyCar. Peacock is much better than FOX -- $8 for a month is great, even with too many commercials (on commercial-free). IMSA’s schedule is better. The only race IndyCar has is the Indianapolis 500, maybe Road America.

Mark, Springfield, OH

MP: When it comes to crowds, with that exception for the biggest single-day sporting event with Indy, I’d have to agree. I cover about 80 percent of both series live and on the ground these days, and people are turning up for IMSA. Ignoring Thermal, people also turned out for St. Pete, which was awesome.

But when it comes to the TV audience sizes, there’s a clear edge held by IndyCar. It’s not up for debate because facts are facts.

On the manufacturer side, IndyCar’s got two and IMSA has 19, with more arriving in 2026 and 2027 to push that number over 20.

Both struggle at some places, with Laguna Seca being a shared small-crowd scenario.

It was interesting to be at the IndyCar and IMSA weekends at Road America last year, with IndyCar happening first, and thinking it was about as full as I’ve seen it since the series returned. And then I arrived for the IMSA race at RA, and it was visibly more full than the IndyCar weekend, which was a revelation. Doesn’t mean one’s better than the other, but one’s on top with TV reach and the other seems to be on top with average attendance.

Q: During the Sebring 12 Hour race, the announcers kept saying the cars have 22% energy left before they have to pit. What exactly are they talking about?

Richard Kost, Palmerton, PA

MP: Can’t say I love this trend (it was considered and killed by IndyCar during the offseason) where liquid fuel used by the combustion engines and the electric horsepower given by the recovery systems was mashed into a "Virtual Fuel Tank" number that counts down from 100 to 0 percent with the hybrid GTP cars. It’s now carried over to the non-hybrid GT cars and basically takes the fuel data coming out of the cars via telemetry and turns it into an energy percentage as a countdown deal. Instead of saying they see car No. X has a half-tank, it’s presented as 50-percent energy remaining.

Q: Seeing the Wood Brothers tribute to the iconic 1965 Indy-winning Lotus-Ford driven by Jim Clark got me thinking: What are the five most iconic IndyCars of all time? I would include that Lotus-Ford in the top five because it was the first rear-engine car to win the Indy 500. But you can choose any five you want, using any methodology you want. What are your top five iconic IndyCars of all time?

Tony

MP: Amazing livery, for sure. I’d need a week to whittle down to five all-time great cars, so I’ll shift to liveries, with Danny Sullivan’s 1988 Penske in Miller High Life colors as one. It was a dog, but that 1987 Porsche Quaker State car was gorgeous. Uncle Bobby’s 1975 Indy-winning Eagle-Offy in Jorgensen baby blue is another. Pick one of the Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynards and Lolas from 1995-2000. Little Al’s 1990 title-winning Galles Lola-Chevy in Valvoline colors is another winner.

Lookin' good. David Madison/Getty Images

Q: Can you please touch base with our friends at WWTR to see how ticket sales are coming along since there’s been a date change from late summer to early summer? Are sales up, down, same as the late summer date? Are they expecting a good crowd? Any chance WWTR can be a Saturday night race again in the future?

Tulsa IndyCar Fan

MP: I’ll add it to my to-do list!

Q: IndyCars have occasional wheels come off from not being secured. In NASCAR, on the other hand, it seems to happen at least once per race. Is there a difference on how the lug "seats" to the wheels within their series?

Dave, NW Indiana 

MP: Clueless here since I haven’t looked up close to see how the back of a Cup wheel is machined and how it fits onto the hub and pegs on their brake discs.

KELLY CRANDALL: There's not a difference that would cause the problems. It comes down to human error. With how much time can be made up on pit road, these pit crew guys are trying to go as fast as they can because every millisecond counts. Sometimes, it’s too fast. Sometimes, it’s an error in making the gun do what it needs to do. NASCAR Cup Series racing is so close, and anywhere an advantage and time can be made, they are looking for it – and they’d tell you that, too.

Q: Could we see another Indianapolis 500 winner race in a NASCAR race again down the road?

Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY 

KC: Well, never say never, but I know of no current plans for that to happen. There have been passing comments made by drivers like Josef Newgarden about their interest in running NASCAR races. Will Power has long expressed he wanted to try it after winning Indianapolis. I’m sure there are others. But again, nothing is seemingly in the works for the immediate future.

 Q: In F1, but many other disciplines also, teams tend to short fuel their cars to save weight. Except NASCAR, they tend to pack in gas every pit stop. Is it due to the flat-out nature of oval racing, or the bigger stock car not suffer weight issues?

Bob, Texas

KC: Given the predetermined stage breaks, it is the nature of racing and knowing how to plan out strategy from a team side. And as you said, there is a lot of flat-out racing and burning fuel as there are hardly ever fuel mileage races. If those do happen, it comes down late in a race, given what the final stage length is, and a team will have planned for that. But before then, it’s likely going to be four tires and full of fuel every time.

Q: Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn’t Formula 1 as popular and successful as it has ever been? Doesn’t it draw 300,000 or more fans each weekend for its events outside the Middle East? Aren’t cities worldwide tripping over themselves to get a date on the F1 calendar? Aren’t teams worth billions? And won't F1 have as many engine manufacturers as it has had in modern times for the 2026 V6 regulations? Hasn’t most of this happened since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era?  Didn’t Ford, GM, Honda and Audi sign up specifically for the new V6 regulations?

So, tell me why the FIA and Formula 1 leaders seem to think it’s top priority to dump on the coming 2026 engines and cars, and argue that F1 can’t survive without V10s?

What’s the attraction? Is it just the screaming sound? Correct me if I’m wrong, but to get that signature sound wouldn’t you need engines that rev to 18,000-to-20,000 RPM? And producing a piece of kit that could achieve that and also last for eight race weekends would be one expensive exercise, even for F1. Instead, you're likely get engines that rev to about 10,000-to-12,000 RPM and wouldn’t sound much different from today’s V6s. They’d end up sounding a lot like IMSA/WEC Corvette engines in their Cadillac GTP cars, or the Valkyrie engine. Those aren't bad sounds, but it’s not the screaming V10 sound people seem to be lusting after.

Even if F1 goes to screaming V10s, what would be the benefit? More paying fans in the stands paying even higher prices and buying F1 branded earplugs? Higher TV ratings? More sponsors? More manufacturers? Are GM and Ford and Honda and Audi going to sign up to spend cubic millions on screaming V10s? I am dubious. Someone would have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to bring those engines forward, for what return, exactly? To me it looks like the equivalent of lighting a cigar with a roll of $100-bills. In other words, money that most automakers don’t have right now.

Instead of talking about something they can’t have for 2026, or maybe even 2030, why not talk up the coming rules reset? F1 and the FIA picked a face several years ago.  It’s time to wear it for a while before deciding it’s ugly. I’m an old guy and I remember screaming V10s in F1 and V8s in CART fondly, but it’s time to move forward.

What am I missing?

Perplexed in Kansas City

CHRIS MEDLAND: I am so glad you said this, because you speak a heck of a lot of sense. I loved the sound of the old V10 and V8 engines, and if we can get back to them I don’t think it would be a bad thing in terms of making the cars lighter and smaller, therefore potentially better for racing, but the recent clamor has been very oddly timed.

One paddock theory is it has come from the FIA because Mohammed Ben Sulayem wanted to appease some of the teams who are worried about being uncompetitive under the 2026 power unit regulations, and if he could get them on his side then it would help with the FIA’s push to receive greater revenues from F1 as part of the ongoing Concorde Agreement discussions.

It’s also a romantic idea that might get many fans to support it, at a time when the FIA has generally been painted as the bad guy on a number of topics. But I’ve yet to hear a global car manufacturer come out and say they would want to get into F1 if it went to V10s on sustainable fuel.

To give some defense to Ben Sulayem, though, sometimes you have to throw the idea out there and see what the response is.

F1 is pushing hard on sustainable fuels with the current power units, and has previously mentioned it sees that as a potential future transport solution that would allow us to carry on driving the cars we do today and using the same refueling infrastructure, rather than a wider switch to electric cars. There could well be some OEMs that would prefer that and would support the idea of a V8 or V10 return, but they haven’t stepped forward yet.

The final point that you’re right about is the fact that F1 and the FIA should be talking up the new regulations. It really frustrates me that whenever there are new rules, there’s always a negative approach to them instantly from within the sport. The ground effect cars have definitely improved racing, but don’t get enough credit for that. Now all you read are complaints about the new engine/aero trade-off, and how it could open up the field after a year that could be very close this season.

That can always happen, because you compare rules at the end of a life cycle to brand-new ones with new opportunities. But they also provide a chance to reset the pecking order and prevent the sport becoming repetitive.

If OEMs want V10s and they can run on a completely sustainable fuel to give us lighter and louder engines that improve racing as well as the visceral experience, then great. But until that is proven, and with so much investment in the next set of regulations, there should definitely be a focus on making sure the "now" part is right, and talking up the benefits.

Whatever, they still sounded awesome. Getty Images

Q: I have to believe that somewhere Sergio Perez is smiling. That Red Bull car must be very difficult to drive, unless you’re Max Verstappen of course. Is it legal to try and make the car mirror what it was at the beginning of last year? That seemed to be a much better car.

Mark, San Diego, CA

CM: Yes, you could run last year’s car, because the rules are almost completely the same (you might just need to make a couple of tweaks based on technical directives, such as those relating to flexi wings). But cars develop so quickly that last year’s car would be massively uncompetitive.

Verstappen’s pole position time last year in Melbourne – which was already race three – was a 1m15.9s, whereas the McLaren was nearly a second faster at the opening race this year. Verstappen himself was half a second up, showing the improvement in performance even if the car is much harder to drive.

Any driver would take a car that has half a second of lap time more performance potential, even if it is tougher to handle than the slower car. But I do think we’re seeing just how skillful Verstappen is that he can handle these Red Bulls, because they are making his teammates look like amateurs when they are anything but.

Q: Did Liam Lawson racing in the junior team for the second half of last season leave him less prepared for racing with Red Bull this year? Comparing Hadjar and Lawson, who were late announcements, to Antonelli and Bearman, who were announced very early, it seems like the main factor in how the rookies are performing is the amount of time they have had with their respective teams. 

Will, Indy

CM: I don’t think so, because Lawson had plenty of time as test and reserve driver for Red Bull and Racing Bulls before he was promoted into a race seat again. That said, Red Bull didn’t run a testing of previous car (TPC) program to anywhere near the extent that Mercedes did with Antonelli, so both he and Hadjar could have benefited from that approach.

I think Lawson was actually well prepared by racing, but the Red Bull has become a particularly difficult car in the last nine months, and he can’t test an old car that has the same characteristics. Plus pre-season is now so short – just 1.5 days per driver – and took place in cold and at times damp conditions in Bahrain, that all of his learning is taking place during a race weekend.

While I do think Mercedes and Ferrari/Haas prepared both Antonelli and Bearman very well, I don’t think there’s a huge amount more Red Bull could have done other than extra TPC running for Lawson this winter, given he was racing and gaining valuable experience last year.

Q: RACER magazine accurately predicted all four class winners of the 12 Hours of Sebring via the cover of Issue 332 (printed well before the race). Pretty cool. Only 67 days to go until the 500. Pulling for Conor Daly. Go No.76! Appreciate everything you do.

Matt, Niles, MI

MARK GLENDENNING: Credit for that goes to RACER editor-in-chief Laurence Foster. He was busy finishing the new issue of the magazine as this week's Mailbag was being pulled together, so I'll run the cover below as a sort of victory lap on his behalf. I'll also note that Laurence was the only person I heard pick Takuma Sato to win the 500 in 2017, so he's got some form in the prediction department.

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, March 26, 2014

Q: Gary Bettenhausen was a fantastic driver and one tough son of a gun! I remember Gary running the Hoosier 100 and during the race he had some sort of fluid leak that sprayed hot oil up onto his legs, and the car eventually failed him. I was in the Speedway Motel lounge with the head of Goodyear’s IndyCar program having a drink when in walked Gary, still in his driving suit covered in oil and dirt. After he ordered his drink he pulled up his pant leg to reveal some pretty nasty burns. But he didn’t seem to pay much attention to that little problem; he was too busy cussing his broken car! He was one of a kind.

Tony Matracia

ROBIN MILLER: They didn’t make ’em any tougher than GB, and I reckon his old man had a lot to do with that fact. He endured a lot of pain during his career but that fighting spirit always won out. We always kidded him about having his driver’s suit on hours after a race so we established the "Bettenhausen Award" for any driver still wearing his suit to a restaurant, airport or bar.