The RACER Mailbag, April 2

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: First time question, long time RACER fan: IndyCar needs to differentiate itself from F1 and other racing to new fans. What is more different than an intimate Sunday with the world’s best racing fans at The Thermal Club!

Five thousand fans at Thermal Club, with incredible access to cars drivers and announcers, vs the embarrassing 5,000 (maybe) fans at TMS. It’s not exclusive, it's available to an average race fan, with tickets at $475 for the weekend. This is very fair. I travel to Chicago Bears games and often pay much more per ticket for four hours of "entertainment." I also pay that much for GPLB for full access (photo pass and a race day seat).

I’ll take Thermal. Don’t hide from the small crowd, promote it as an awesome close-up and amazing experience. It's at a fantastic venue that we gearheads can only dream about. Find a non-racing celebrity to promote and be at the race. If Thermal would allow the access, show the crazy cool cars that "live" there and we only dream about. We all know only the rich can afford it, but that's race cars, it is what it is. I've been to 86 open-wheel races, and am a big fan of the Indy 500 and the Milwaukee Mile, but oval racing looks terrible with empty stands. The background of mountains and palm trees looks good on TV. The small crowd is not that obvious and is part of this unique race.

Thoughts, Marshall?

Bob (lifetime race fan)

MARSHALL PRUETT: F1 is the most exclusive form of racing on the planet and features exorbitant costs to attend, so IndyCar is doing the opposite of differentiating itself from F1 by doing exactly what F1 does but minus the packed houses F1 gets at those crazy prices. So IndyCar ends up looking small and unimportant.

According to Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles in a call on Friday, Thermal had “3000-ish fans.” To the person tuning in to watch who doesn’t visit RACER.com every day to digest every piece of IndyCar news, all they’d see is a bunch of cars and nobody there to watch them. Not sure how to spin that as a positive. Don’t get me wrong; the place is amazing and I’ve enjoyed every visit since the first for preseason testing in 2023. But if I focus on what’s best for IndyCar while it’s trying to become bigger and more known, holding races in the middle of nowhere with a tiny crowd just ain’t it.

Fix that by at least getting 10,000-15,000 people there to fill some grandstands, and it becomes viable.

If an IndyCar drives by and nobody's there to hear it, does it make a sound? Jake Galstad/Lumen

Q: I’m a longtime IndyCar fan – old enough to remember the heady days of CART, which probably peaked around when Nigel Mansell came to town.

I’m wondering if it’s just me or is something missing this season? Is there a decline in the star power of the current crop of drivers? I’m a 35+ year fan and even I don’t know squat about half the field this year. Don’t get me wrong, I know there’s some serious talent currently racing, but if I were to walk into a bar and start talking about the amazing IndyCar Series, who would the average person recognize? Scott Dixon? Will Power? "Maybe" to both, am I right? Of course there’s some others like Josef Newgarden, Pato O'Ward and Colton Herta just to name a few, but I’m pretty sure I’d get blinky eyes of non-recognition in return here in Australia.

In my humble opinion, IndyCar and FOX would be wise to get on the horn ASAP to get any of the old legends like Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Mario (it doesn’t help that Michael has gone AWOL), Al Unser Jr., Helio, Robby Gordon… heck even Colton’s dad and Tony Kanaan are there every weekend and would have great perspectives, no?

Jason Mulveny, aka Bananaspeed, Sydney, Australia

MP: First question I’d ask is what’s different about this year? Palou, Herta, Power, Dixon, O'Ward, Newgarden, etc., have all been the marquee drivers for the last three or four years, and there’s nothing unique I can think of so far in 2025 that stands out as unique from last year, or the year before, etc. The same lack of CART-era star power is old news; Helio and Dario and Danica Patrick were the most recent drivers with big crossover appeal, but Danica left after 2011, Dario was forced to retire after 2013, and Helio’s been Indy-only since 2024.

But IndyCar also hasn’t had a TV partner that’s been as motivated as FOX to try and build today’s stars into bigger names, so are we going to poop on them for failing to fix decades of poor efforts by the series and its former broadcasters… after all of two races?

There’s also the generational item at hand. Almost everyone you mentioned as legends, except for Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan who are actively involved today, have no relevance to those who either weren’t born or weren’t following when they were big deals. What would a 25-year-old IndyCar fan care to hear from Robby Gordon, whose last IndyCar start came when they were 4? Might be fun for those older fans, but is having old legends on the broadcasts going to move the needle? I just can’t see it.

Let’s give FOX some time to try and improve the situation before turning the presentations upside down.

Q: Curious, do you believe that anyone in charge at IndyCar peruses the comments section of RACER IndyCar stories?

While mostly good/positive overall, the beating the hybrid takes is just hilarious! It is nothing more than extra weight with zero return on investment. How can/why would they continue with something that is clearly not breaking the zero sum game? Can it really be the OEMs? Do they believe the buying public is this blind? It's not relatable to street cars (as Mark Miles tried to say).

And the new car can't get here soon enough.

Brian David

MP: Not the senior executives, no, but some others do. Granted, they don’t need to read the comments at the bottom of articles to get the pulse of the fans. Plenty of folks blast the series through its myriad social media accounts, so IndyCar should never be unaware of what people are thinking.

IndyCar went hybrid because it offered it to its manufacturers -- after receiving a lot of feedback from the auto industry that it would improve the odds of signing new engine suppliers -- and the offer was accepted, signed into the supply contracts, and then when the series changed hands and the new owner didn’t want to go hybrid and stalled the process, the offer and contracts were raised and it eventually happened.

Hybrids are incredibly relevant -- today. But the conversation needs to shift to whether they will be in the coming years when that new car is meant to arrive. I think of the hybrid IndyCar like tribal tattoos. For a few years, those tribals were quite popular and whatever percent of people jumped on that trend and went and got those designs applied to their bodies. And when I see those tattoos today, my mind goes straight to 1998 or whenever the fad was at its peak, and then I think about how nobody is asking for tribal tattoos today. It was a moment in time, and in 2025, it’s just a dated thing -- a time capsule on someone’s arm.

It’s probably time for IndyCar to start thinking of hybridization in the same vein. Nobody I know expects hybrids to be a thing in a few years, so does IndyCar hold onto something that’s likely to be out of style by the end of the decade, or does it take a bold step and jettison the thing so it isn’t a modern series with a time-capsule car?

Q: The Thermal race reminded me a little of an F1 tire race, but in an F1 race the teams all talk about different strategies yet after they crunch the numbers they end up pretty much doing the same thing, even with different chassis. Listening to the broadcast crew for the race, I think Townsend Bell said that he talked to four different teams and they all had different strategies, and that panned out in the race.

Given that the teams are all on the same chassis, I'm curious about why the teams had such different strategies and were all over the place? Obviously, Palou/Ganassi called it right, but was there anything else throwing off the teams?

Matthew

MP: Yes, thankfully. And that’s feel. None of the front-running teams I spoke with felt they had done enough running on either compound to know exactly how long each would last, so they took different approaches to how to start the race and clocked how teams using the compound they weren’t using survived and then made the call on how to structure the rest of their tire deployments.

New alternates for O'Ward. Used alternates for Lundgaard and Palou. Others on new primaries. Track how long each lasts, track the lap times for each from start to finish on those stints, and make the moves needed with your driver -- based on where they were on track -- to give them the best chances of moving forward. Regardless of whether it’s 10 different models of F1 cars or 27 nearly identical Dallara DW12s, it’s all just teams of people making decisions on what they think is going to get the most out of their cars and drivers.

Tire strategy was an educated gamble right across the field. Michael Levitt/Lumen

Q: Is there any way IndyCar cuts its losses and stops going to Thermal Club? As a fan watching on TV, seeing a track that I can likely never go to due to limited tickets and exorbitant prices isn’t interesting. There is no energy, I suspect, largely because there are so few fans at the race. The racing sucks, and no matter how cool James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell try to tell us it is, it does not translate to TV.

If IndyCar is going to go to a track with no fans, I’d rather see them on an oval (Phoenix maybe?) where at least there may be good racing. There are not currently enough oval dates on the schedule. IndyCar would do well to get back to its roots. Thermal is nothing more than a rich man’s playground and makes IndyCar feel out of touch with the average fan.

Brian Z, Phoenix, AZ

MP: I will be surprised if Thermal returns as a championship race. Not unless another race falls off the schedule.

Q: Felix Rosenqvist ran over equipment in pit lane and didn't get a penalty, and Hinch said nobody got hurt so he probably won't a penalty. If you run over equipment you get a penalty, right?

CAM, LA

MP: Apparently not. This surprised me as well. I was told by an official that no harm was done, so no in-race penalty. Not sure that’s the best way to uphold a high level of expectations. Also, on the wonky application of rules/penalties, Colton Herta and Robert Shwartzman weren’t docked any points in the drivers' championship because the technical compliance violations on their cars were "non-competition" items. What?

So if a driver drives a car that wasn’t in compliance with the rules in a motor race, and scores points in a motor race where the series finds their car to be out of compliance after the race, and the series thinks it’s enough of a deal to write a press release and tell the world about it, how would the driver be excluded from the penalties?

The teams were fined and lost entrants’ points, but running over wheel guns and two cars being illegal -- again, we didn’t know a thing about this until the series told us -- but the refs just swallow the whistle on the drivers? Not a good look so far in 2025.

Q: Do you think there was ever a consideration to – or why wouldn't they – red-flag the Thermal race until the broadcast issue was resolved so the largest audience (TV viewers) are able to see it? Wouldn't sponsors prefer this to get their exposure?

Craig C,

Slinger, WI (home of the fastest paved 1/4 mile oval!)

MP: I can’t imagine it crossed the minds of race director Kyle Novak, unless it was unsafe to run the race due to the race control cameras and radio communication with the corner workers. Games keep playing when there are technical difficulties with the broadcast, so it wasn’t a surprise for the same approach to be taken with a motor race.

Q: Regarding your comment in last week's Mailbag about being patient with the hybrid since this is the year of the hybrid -- well, the hybrid has added some drama again, not in performance but in failure. It is time to end the folly. It adds nothing to the racing. Get rid of it, and of push to pass. The drivers already have two actuators to help in overtaking other cars, they are called the brake and the accelerator.

Michigan Matt

MP: Sometimes I feel old when I hear the "kill the hybrids with fire" comments whenever they cause problems. If we applied the same mindset during the CART and Champ Car eras, the cars would have no engines and no transmissions, because they constantly failed.

But I get it. For some, poor reliability is an unfamiliar thing. I’m not shocked by it, but that doesn’t mean my unbothered view on hybrids having issues is the right perspective.

Q: Ever since I started watching IndyCar racing long ago, when a car entered the pits, there was a pit timer clock. FOX seems to have eliminated it. It seems that FOX has de-emphasized pitting in general, often coming back from a commercial when cars are leaving the pits. I happen to find that aspect of the race interesting. Any chance of getting this back?

Also, I was wondering what happened to Dixon in qualifying and the race? He was top three in round one of qualifying and then did not even match his time in group two, not making the fast six. How can Palou have such a fast car and Dixon seems to be lagging? Seems like a continuation of last year.

Finally, there seemed to be a story to be told during the race with a battle between veteran drivers Newgarden, Dixon and Rahal all battling for mid-pack. It was barely mentioned until toward the end of the race

Michael L, Walnut Creek, CA

MP: Great question on the pit stop timer. It’s standard on FOX’s NASCAR Cup broadcasts. I was told Dixon was run off the track by O’Ward on his one qualifying flyer and that halted his advancement. Dixon has a new race engineer (for him, not for the team) with Brad Goldberg, so give them some time. But Palou is proving to be a generational talent, in the same way Dixon was for most of his career. Nobody has been able to solve the Palou puzzle, including the greatest driver of his generation.

We had the same observation -- the top four at Thermal were all next-generation drivers. Rosenqvist, in fifth, is deceptively old at 33, but those ahead of him are all in their 20s. Granted, 44-year-old Power, in sixth, covered the most ground in his run from 21st, so the old guard is by no means ready to be retired.

Dixon still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Or tucked into his racesuit. Paul Hurley/IMS Photo

Q: The IndyCar ratings weren't great, and surely everyone's asking why IndyCar schedules its race directly against Cup, and the answer is probably TV. My question: Why would FOX choose to compete against itself by airing both races simultaneously?

William, Texas

MP: I feel fairly confident in saying NBC aired IndyCar on cable and Cup on its network while it had both series, so I don’t know if Thermal was a broadcasting unicorn. Racing series work closely with their TV partners to map out their calendars, and in some cases, a FOX will have the logjam that occurred last weekend. When Cup has 300 races per year, or whatever number it is, there’s bound to be a crossing of swords. I don’t see how it won’t continue to happen, and especially when Cup moves from FOX to NBC in a few months.

Q: I was truly disappointed that FOX still – after two races – has not been able to give live updates during qualifying. These updates made qualifying so much more intense and dramatic during the Peacock era. Now, we have to wait for commentators reporting after each driver has completed his lap, and/or a very delayed update of the timing board.

It also seems there have been fewer camera position along the track, mainly noticeable during replays of incidents at the St. Petersburg race.

Apart from that, having been a Formula 1 fan since 1964, I truly enjoy the IndyCar series. I got hooked on the competitiveness when I started to watch in the late ’80s. Truly the best racing series in the world.

I do not really care too much about car development and/or the necessity to have the latest technology, I just enjoy the racing. Having said that, I just wish both IndyCar and Formula 1 would go back to using V8s. Nothing beats the sound of a high-revving V8.

Peter Carell, Texas

MP: Feels like FOX has one more race to get its act together before the honeymoon is at risk of being over. And not just for getting the calls right, and the graphics right, but also to put up an audience figure that’s closer to what came out of St. Petersburg. The pre-season hope and belief was that an average of 1 million viewers per race outside the 500 was possible, and by that, I mean at least 1 million people tuned in per race, not adding up the 16 non-Indy races and getting an average of 1 million.

That chance went out the window at Thermal, and I truly hope it’s over 1 million at Long Beach because if it isn’t, the production shortcomings won’t be overlooked and the dreams of prosperity from a big new audience will be called into question. Definitely didn’t expect this to be a topic of concern.

Q: I just want to highlight how inspiring Robert Wickens is! His Instagram is so inspiring – what a great guy and a great attitude! Glad to see him racing!

Geoff Branagh

MP: He’s the best guy. And completely unchanged as a racer. The same inner ferocity that propelled him before his crash is here, and is just as hardcore today.

Q: Thermal is a fun track to drive, but the race can be a bit meh. I think they need to extend the straight leading to T4 by about 300~500 meters, same for the one leading to T10. And maybe make T10 slower if they have space for that.

On the looks, it'd be nice if they made their curbs like Motegi (including width). That would look more professional, less club-ish. What do you think?

Also, considering the financial level of the people in that place, isn't IMSA the series that should be racing there?

William Mazeo

MP: The Penske family, Greg Penske in particular, is who I’ve been told is super-tight with Thermal’s leaders, so there’s a reason why IndyCar is there instead of IMSA. Unless they can pre-sell 10,000-15,000 tickets, no series belongs there.

It’s an amateur track, designed for enthusiasts. It’s exactly what the members want.

Q: Both IndyCar and NHRA constituents are incorrect by claiming to have the fastest racing on Earth. That belongs to the National Championship Air Races, Jet Class.

That is, unless flying through the air isn’t considered “on Earth.”

Parker, Dallas, TX

MP: Yep. A bunch of territorial pissings over nothing. Let’s not forget the Land Speed Record racing as well.

Q: Watched Thermal and waited to see last week's Mailbag of reviews before speaking out. Yes, IndyCar needs the venue until it can be replaced. Yes, they could reconfigure the track for better racing, and maybe add seating for 20,000. But in the end I think Thermal bolts. It will never generate the fan experience you get at every other venue when security is limiting your movements. When this becomes too much of an intrusion, they will back out.

This is a secure wealthy community playground. Their interests are selling the remaining building lots and collecting the annual club dues and protecting the privacy of the owners who bought in to be able to drive their supercars above the speed limit. when they want to.

I don't think they want 20,000 fans roaming the neighborhood every year, or all the infrastructure needed for a weekend production. Maybe it survives as a preseason test track, but it's not back next year. Your thoughts?

Jeff, Colorado

MP: I do not believe there’s a desire to host a huge amount of people. The sanction fee is said to be $2 million, and I’m sure at least another million is spent to put on the event. If I’m a private club like this with zillionaires as owners/members, I’m looking at $3 million (or whatever it is) as the greatest and cheapest advertising spend imaginable. To get two hours of airtime on big FOX? I think of the event as a super-inexpensive membership recruitment tool that can be spun as a two-hour network infomercial. Great interest in showing thermal can put on a giant professional racing event? Not a chance.

Two weeks in, the Thermal Club questions are starting to wear on Jarno. Michael Cooper/Getty Images

Q: If I understand correctly, the hybrid unit in IndyCar charges by capturing energy while braking. But at the IMS oval, cars typically will run around the track full throttle, not needing to brake for the corners. Other than braking for pit entrance and for occasional traffic, will the hybrid units even charge and be useful? Or are they just dead weight?

Rob Morton

MP:.Here's a feature that explains it all, Rob.

Q: I own a Mini Cooper, and several years ago, the MINI Takes The States event ended at the The Thermal Club. I was really surprised when IndyCar ran the race last season at Thermal. My guess is that in the original planning of the property, there was really very little – if any – thought given to hosting professional events. So the question that I have is, what is behind the organization wanting to host an IndyCar event?

As far as Formula 1 goes with the next set of engine rules, we must remember that motorsports almost always moves forward. It is rare to go backwards. As much as the V10s have a lot of appeal, it would be a step backwards. We have been there and don’t need to go back. I would hope that the FIA and F1 would not do that. We should be about breaking new ground and not plowing previous fields.

DeeAnn, Cathedral City, CA

MP: My comments on an inexpensive infomercial might answer the first question, and on the V10s, I’m coming to accept the fact that many fans today don’t hold the same deep-tech interests as their predecessors. The amount of "kill the hybrid, kill the gimmicks, kill the road-car-relevance nonsense, and just give me great racing with pretty cars that go fast and sound great" comments I see and receive cannot be overlooked.

Best-sounding IndyCars I know of were the 2.65-liter CART/Champ Car turbo V8s. Made gobs of power and torque, and they sounded so good. It’s old tech, but I’m guessing that newer fans who’ve only known the 2.2-liter turbo V6s would fall in love with those turbo V8 CART motors if that formula returned. Since IndyCar has gone almost completely spec, I’m starting to fall into the "just gimme pretty cars that go fast and sound great" club.

Q: This would be of course easier said than done, but after reading the article about Formula E's Evo Sessions, I thought what a great idea! It's time for IndyCar to do this, but in a different way. Bring back the celebrity race at Long Beach in 2026, but have it be automotive or racing-based content creators. As part of the deal they would create content about the IndyCar Series and also their prep and race experience. There are lots of influencers out there like Donut, Supercar Blondie, Laurabtlrr (her Instagram handle, not a typo) and many others that could really help spread the message of our beloved series.

How difficult would this be to pull off? Obviously paying for it is the biggest challenge.

Eric Z, Lancaster, NY

MP: We lost the Toyota Celebrity Race after decades and decades of fun due to budget cuts (and a decreasing quality of star power) and so many of the cars being battered in the races. It wouldn’t be hard to recreate, but would take a manufacturer with a willingness to sacrifice 15-20 cars for our crashy amusement. Also, with the auto industry being on pins and needles with tariffs and profits, I don’t know which brand would want to answer to its shareholders by letting influencers trash its cars for fun.

Those sensibilities didn’t exist back in the day with the celebrity races, but today, I wonder if it would come across like a restaurant throwing away perfectly good food for a stunt to generate TikTok views. Might not be in a climate where unnecessary waste would be well received by all.

What would be cool is to see IndyCar, via Indy NXT, or its cousins at the USF Championships, create and film a racing boot camp for some of the favorite auto-related influencers.

Q: I’m curious to know if FOX is working on adding real-time timing to qualifying broadcasts as we had with NBC, where we'd see tracking info on drivers' laps -- the green and red timings that made it easy to see if someone was on pace to move into the top six to advance? That has been severely lacking so far through the first two races. Even if it isn't the same format as NBC had in the past, an F1-style system with yellow/green/purple sectors would at least be something.

Matt

MP: I don’t know, Matt. I’ll try and find out. I’d also say FOX has struggled to deliver on the things they’re currently doing with its graphics. Not sure adding what you’ve mentioned (totally agree on the need) would be the smart call while kinks are being ironed out on what’s already on their plate.

Q: Any insights into why Marcus Ericsson fared so poorly at Thermal after having had decent practice and qualification sessions? I would have thought he'd have been able to make up more positions after his off-track excursions during the race, but he just stayed mired in the back of the field.

Chris Pericak, Charlottesville, VA

MP: Here’s what Marcus said after the race:

“It was a bad day for me. I made a couple of mistakes that were very costly. The first on the first lap when I positioned myself not in a great spot and spun. We were sort of recovering after that, and the Bryant Honda felt OK. We had some decent pace, overtaking some cars, and we had a good first pit sequence. We managed to stay in position, but on the out lap I was pushing hard to keep position, and I spun in Turn 9, flat-spotting the tires. We had to stay out, though, or else we would have gone a lap down. From then on, it was really a struggle. The car just wasn’t the same after that. It was a really tricky day and we were just playing catch-up and trying to recover at that point. Tough day, but the Bryant crew did a great job as always and we’ll look forward to Long Beach.”

Just imagine a thought bubble full of Swedish swear words. Paul Hurley/IMS Photo

Q: Many comments about Thermal. Here are some facts.

1. The Thermal facility is a very successful business, which means that its prime customers are wealthy enthusiasts.

2. The IndyCar race is not intended to sell Fords and Chevys to its members, but one new member equals the sale of many of these.

3. Thermal was not allowed, by local authorities to have any grass, so track run-off areas remain desert gravel. Local golf courses can have as much grass as they need.

4. Therefore, we placed wide concrete edges around all the track surfaces to prevent dust and gravel from being sucked onto the asphalt by race cars.

5. These are painted to ensure clear visibility of track edges and are red/ blue/green to differentiate the three different individual tracks that can be used simultaneously when needed.

6. The high walls are required to limit sound at the property boundaries. They work well for 84db county requirements, but do not allow much trackside viewing or grandstands.

7. Safety zones are defined by county requirements to collect water on site during 100-year flood conditions, and the run-offs are not allowed into these areas. Why not? A county requirement.

8. How safe was the track? How many yellows, safety cars or crashes?

9. Trackside signage is for TV, not just for spectators.

10. TV coverage, camera positions, etc., need to be improved.

11. Every race facility is different and the track layout varies depending on the business requirements of the facility. Indianapolis is great for the 500, but awful for Thermal’s older enthusiasts in powerful GT cars.

12. Thermal’s tire wear issues are related primarily to IndyCar-spec tires. Not any issue for our Porsche GT3 Cup cars when we raced there.

13. Temperature was hot, but nowhere near 1983 Cleveland’s 100F and 99% humidity.

14. The IndyCar track should include the north desert course next year, which was not previously viable due to few member houses at the time.

AW

MP: If you think a 14-point submission is a one-off this week, y’all, keep scrolling.

Q: Reading through the March 26 Mailbag, I think my response to Thermal is different than most.

Yes, the race was a snoozefest until the last pit stops, and the series doesn't look great playing in front of a few wealthy folks. Thermal would be better suited for Spring Training.

But I found some real gems in the FOX coverage. During one of the practice sessions, they had an overview of the brake bias adjustments, with some terrific virtual schematics of the hardware – I went back and watched it twice! As an engineer and long-time fan, I like the virtual peek under the hood. They also had some "ghost views," where they overlaid the laps of two different cars, to compare speed and car position during the lap – really interesting and informative!

I hope they get the sponsor concerns resolved with those telemetry HUD displays on the halo. I've been envious of that view in F1 coverage, but this FOX/IndyCar execution is even better. And they had push-to-pass time in there for Thermal. That HUD is a treat, and I sure hope it stays.

I only hope that FOX finds a way to keep push-to-pass and tire selection on the main broadcast screen, too. A few bumps in the road, but the bones of top-notch broadcasts are coming together.

Tom Pate

MP: The DW12 animation FOX had made is a delightful addition to the broadcasts.

Q: Racing drivers aren’t athletes? That’s the dumbest take I’ve seen from a Mailbag reader in quite some time. I was lucky enough to spend a morning in Multimatic’s sim a few years ago, was reasonably fit, and it was hard work. And that was an air-conditioned room with no firesuit and a fraction of the physical forces. I’m quite sure a two-hour race IndyCar race at somewhere like Barber on a hot day would be more than enough to roast some possum, were someone to put one in a car.

Jonathan Gitlin

MP: Last stick-and-ball star I can recall saying stupid things on this subject was former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb in 2018.

Q: Just a comment on referring to race drivers as athletes. I took a two-seater ride at Indy last summer with Davey Hamilton. Coming out of pit lane, my head was plastered to the right side of the cockpit all the way around the pit exit through Turn 2! I flew fighters in the Air Force and know what g-forces are like. I can assure you after only doing two laps at a comparatively pedestrian pace that race drivers are indeed athletes. I can’t imagine doing that for close to three hours, among 32 other cars, at speeds well over 200 mph and no power steering! I have a new appreciation for their efforts in the cockpit.

Joe, Spooner, WI

MP: To the defense of older fans who bristle at drivers being referred to as athletes, it’s worth mentioning that in the 1960s and ’70s when Robin Miller fell in love with the sport, drivers smoked, drank, ate things that clogged their arteries, and did little to no physical training. It just wasn’t a thing, with rare exceptions.

So for that imprinted vision of a manly IndyCar driver, it probably would have been someone wolfing down packs of Marlboros and 24-ounce steaks and raising hell all night until the bars closed.

But just as times change, professional drivers have changed.

Q: IndyCar had this push for hybrids because that’s what Chevy wanted, from what I understand. Honda did not. The introduction of the hybrid has not enticed any additional manufacturers and potentially pushed Honda out of the door. It’s only come at big increase in cost to the teams, and has had essentially zero impact with the fans. It also made the car unnecessarily heavier, has had very little performance or racing impact, and has been the source of quite a few mishaps already this season with the hybrids not activating, overheating, etc.

If hybridization was done to create manufacturer or fan interest, and it has done neither, and it has only been a source of frustration and additional cost, why on earth is the series still doing it? We are almost a year into it and it’s just an expensive anvil tied to the car. Have there been any teams advocating for taking them off and acting like it never happened?

Ross Bynum

MP: It was Honda, not Chevy, that held IndyCar accountable for making the hybrids it promised.

Yes, most teams would love to have them gone tomorrow. I haven’t done a team-by-team poll, but I’m confident I’d get 12 kills and zero keeps.

The series is still using hybrids, which have yet to complete a full season of racing, because its rules call for hybrids, and it has contracts with Chevy and Honda to race as a hybrid series, and Chevy and Honda have spent small fortunes to make the systems. The “I don’t like something, so make it disappear in an instant” responses are understandable, but have no connections to reality.

If hybridization is going to leave, it will come in an orderly manner, with buy-in from the manufacturers who have valid contracts that require hybridization, unless Penske wants to get sued. Super easy to call for immediate changes, but since it’s a business and a professional sport, whiplash changes aren’t made on major items like this.

Q: I’m a newish fan of IndyCar and have a question about the IndyCar schedule and why there aren’t any ovals before the Indy 500? I feel like a small oval early in the season after St. Pete could add some intrigue to the early schedule and mix things up a bit compared to the start of this season. Is there a reason there aren’t any before the 500?

Rob

MP: Great question, Rob, and that changed after the 2023 season when we had the awesome 1.5-mile Texas oval on the schedule in April as a tune-up for Indy, but Texas elected against continuing with IndyCar in 2024 and there have been no other ovals that have wanted to move forward from their summer slots. I loved it when the season, back in the CART days, launched at the one-miler in Phoenix. Great energy, great crowds, and plenty of thrills. I’m with you here -- an oval early in the season would bring a great change in place of nothing but road and street courses.

As the CART field took the green flag for the 1990 season opener in Phoenix, the number one song on the charts was Taylor Dayne's "Love will lead you back." Not sure what will lead IndyCar back to starting the season on an oval, but we hope they find it,  David Madison/Getty Images

Q: . This is my first time writing to RACER and I have a lot of questions.

1. Does Penske Entertainment know how they want to evolve the identity of IndyCar with the new car? Do they know what IndyCar's identity is, or should be?

2. Do you know why IndyCar stopped the "Rate the Race" questionnaire on its website? It was basic but had room to grow with more targeted feedback. How else does IndyCar solicit feedback from fans?

3. Do you know if FOX Sports considers the coverage outage at Thermal to be an outlier? Do you know if there are folks in IndyCar/Penske Entertainment that are working with FOX Sports to ensure this issue/a similar one doesn't happen again?

4. I believe FOX Sports has improved IndyCar advertising. How come they don't promote or advertise the mobile app, though? I love to use it while watching the race live.

5. Hot take: I believe Roger Penske should sell his NASCAR charters in order to gain necessary money to invest in IndyCar to grow the series. Thoughts?

6. IMSA and WEC recently aligned their regulations. How plausible do you believe an alignment will happen for some or all of IndyCar, Super Formula and F2? Each series uses Dallara chassis.

7. Penske's ownership of IndyCar has appeared to sour [semi-] recently. As people who cover multiple series, what is your pulse? What do you believe to be the pulse inside Penske Entertainment?

8. Is there any indication Jay Frye wants to continue in any capacity in any motorsports team/series?

9. Do you have advice for how to start a career for a racing team, whether it be as a garage technician, in race strategy, or a role in the team shop? I am targeting an industry switch, have an engineering education, and am passionate about motorsports (particularly IndyCar). I've sent approximately 35 applications over the past two weeks and though I haven't heard back from all, those I have were denials. I've also sent emails to teams asking if there are employees willing to have an informational interview regarding openings.

Atilla Veyssal

MP: Thanks for joining in. But please be mindful that the Mailbag is a weekly thing. There’s no reason to send in nine questions at one time.

1: No.

2: No clue. I visit their site maybe three times a year. Wasn’t aware the poll existed.

3: Of course. It’s happened once, which makes it an outlier. Yes, of course they’re working on solutions to prevent it from happening again.

4: FOX Sports isn’t IndyCar, so it isn’t FOX’s job to promote IndyCar’s app. It has its own app to promote.

5: Roger Penske is a billionaire. If he wants to invest more in IndyCar, why would he need to do so by weakening his championship-winning NASCAR program?

6: Why would three series that have nothing to do with each other, that are owned by different people, and run in completely different markets, decide to align?

7: I don’t work within Penske Entertainment, so I can’t offer an educated opinion on its internal pulse. The general tone in an IndyCar paddock today is one of hope that Penske will start to make the series bigger and better, this coming after his first five years of ownership where very little happened. FOX is the catalyst. But skepticism is high among some owners I speak with, and that’s due to the five years of relative inaction. This is the year to take a meaningful step forward, so the paddock is watching. In IMSA, it’s just a really warm place to work.

I spoke with David Land at Sebring to get his thoughts on covering IndyCar and IMSA, and he was taken aback by the differences. On one side, it’s positive and cohesive and full of support. The other…not so much.

8: Yes, I speak with Jay at least once a week and stay tuned. [ED: Or better yet, read this story, which was published as this week's Mailbag was being prepared].

9: Yes, and it’s the same I give to most folks who ask the same question: Go to the places where you want to work and meet the people who would hire you. Racing is a tiny world of employment opportunities reserved for those with experience or the schooling to fit the job opening. It’s like a closed society.

If the best you can do is send blind emails and applications to people who don’t know you and who see you have no experience in the field you’re interested in, have you done anything other than present yourself as an anonymous individual with no expertise to offer? Teams get dozens of those emails each week. If you’re going to replace a racing veteran and take their job, you need to be extraordinary in the same discipline and, in most cases, have established a relationship with the right people at that team or teams to be seen as an upgrade.

Showing up at race after race and speaking with the same owners and managers shows initiative. Sending emails is the opposite.

Q: I will avoid the politics of the day as much as I can, and the emotional response we all have about them. But what I wanted to know is how these automotive tariffs, if they are implemented, are going to affect our sport in general? Will the German and Japanese manufacturers like BMW, Porsche, Lexus and Honda, and so many more OEMs who now have to charge 25% more for their imported cars to sell in the USA, experience reduced U.S. sales, and then possibly scale back their participation in a unsavory market? First thing to go, usually, is the racing program.

What about the teams crossing the border into Canada and Mexico to race? They will have a ton of more paperwork and itemized parts list to register, and that will drive up expenses for all the teams. Will they even want to cross the border now? And then there are the engineering firms outside of the U.S., such as Multimatic and Dragonspeed and many others that are involved in all disciplines of international and American racing. What border tariffs are they subjected to? Do you have any concerns about the impact of these tariffs in the racing community?

Paul Sturmey, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

MP: As you’ve pointed out, financial hardships bring trimming of non-essential expenditures, and there’s nothing that’s more unnecessary than auto racing. The tariffs situation is too new to know if and how they’ll have a knock-on effect in the auto industry, but if sales start to suffer, yes, we can expect to lose manufacturers from our favorite series.

I’ll never forget the call from my boss at SPEED.com in early December of 2008. I was running my little endurance racing team at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill and was exhausted; he was on ET, I was on PT, and he called morning ET to tell me to wake up and start writing that Audi just announced it was pulling out of the American Le Mans Series, effective immediately. Audi kept its 24 Hours of Le Mans program, but axed its U.S. program due to the recession we’d fallen into.

Audi was the biggest brand in the series in terms of popularity and activation. It sent a message that even the headlining manufacturers will cut bait and leave. Anxious times ahead.

Can't find a photo of a tariff, so let's go with a shot of Lucas Luhr gliding the Audi R10 TDI around Laguna Seca in 2008. Darrell Ingham/Getty Images

Q: With it looking more likely than not that IndyCar will become a single-engine supply series, why on earth would they keep the expense of adding the so-called hybrid into the mix? It adds nothing to the show, no manufacturers are interested, as they already have F1, WEC/IMSA and FE for all that, it’s killed the racing, so why keep the added cost, weight and the troubles that it brings? The only thing IndyCar needs to focus on is getting folks interested and getting eyeballs on their product. Lighter, faster, sexy-looking cars that sound incredible and have enough downforce to get them within at least a couple seconds of a F1 car – or even faster – would do wonders.

I fear, just as probably most folks do that have followed the series for years, that IndyCar will choose what they consider is the safe route and we’ll end up with nothing but a rehashed version of what we have now, and have had for over a decade now. I get the fact that certain teams get free engines and even some pretty big checks from the current two manufacturers, but that’s about to come to an end when Honda packs up and leaves. The only way to replace that lost income is with new sponsors, by having a product that gets folks attention, and gets folks to tune in to watch it, and that means going all in on creating something that makes people’s jaws drop. Cost savings looks good on the front side, but if you’re not creating a big enough buzz, the sponsorship money is going fade away, and those upfront cost savings have now cost you everything.

The current package has absolutely killed the racing since its inception, and now all we can hope for as far as any real action at the front of the field is if someone got their tire strategy right or wrong. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say each team would have to spend $100k per car, per race weekend for an engine. That’s $2.7 million per race weekend or $45.9 million per year for a manufacturer that could produce a high-revving V10 or V8 that sounds amazing, and when packaged inside a lighter-weight car that produces seven or eight thousand pounds of downforce, the results would be amazing.

I’d bet there’s a manufacturer out there that could produce such a product and still make pretty good dough themselves. And who knows, maybe if there was a huge increase in interest/viewership, maybe other manufacturers would be interested in IndyCar again.

But sticking with anything remotely close to what they have now is going to kill any hope of anyone else joining the party, as who cares about joining IndyCar if no one is watching? IndyCar's only hope for gaining any traction is to become the series that dares to become what people actually want to see, and what people want to see isn’t a dumbed-down version of F1 or IMSA technology.

On another note, I also believe that with all the money IndyCar currently spends, it would be worth every penny to go back now and do a 500-mile race at Michigan. I believe there’s more interest in that now than they realize. Just doing one superspeedway per year isn’t cutting it any longer.

TK

MP: Preaching to the choir, my friend. Written the same thing -- about the need to go big on creativity and avoid doing more of the same -- and continue to preach the same points you’ve raised. If the next car, the follow-up to 15-plus years of a twin-turbo V6, is… another twin-turbo V6, but as a htbrid, in a relatively familiar visual package, I don’t know how that changes IndyCar’s fortunes in a meaningful way.

Last thing IndyCar needs is for its new car to come out, turn some laps, and have folks using the "That’s the same picture" meme.

Last superspeedway we did was Fontana and it made Thermal looked packed. I’d love to go back to Michigan, but is there an appetite to even half-fill the stands?

Q: Will Tino Belli be collaborating with Chris Beatty again on the next chassis design? Regardless, what do you make of Beatty's "Velocity" concept he published a few years back?

On to a similar-looking car, what ever became of the T1 Turbine project you wrote about almost seven years ago? Could wingless designs like these produce the speeds we expect from modern IndyCars?

Pete, Rochester, NY

MP: To my knowledge, Chris is not involved. But I do understand Tino is playing an even larger role in designing the car than I first reported. The T1 Turbine never went beyond renderings. Take a ton of downforce and drag away, and you get giant speeds on the straights and turtles in the corners, so depending on the straightline speeds and the speeds in the turns, it could end up being a wash on lap times and lap speeds.

Q: Big fan of the Andrettis for years. I understand wanting to get Colton Herta to F1, but why isn’t Mario knocking down Alex Palou’s freaking doors? Pato O’Ward is already with McLaren. I understand Alex is under contract with Ganassi, but I thought he was allowed to leave if it’s for F1. There is no driver in IndyCar that is more ready and has more potential for success in F1 than Alex Palou! He should already be on the F1 grid. Mario is missing the obvious!

Dan, Grand Lake St. Marys, OH

MP: Who says Mario isn’t knocking down Alex’s door? With Mario’s son having created all kinds of problems for himself by saying too much, I’d expect the GOAT to keep current conversations under wraps.

Q: What’s up with Sebastien Bourdais? He has effectively vanished. No more interviews, no top-flight IMSA drive with Honda, BMW, Porsche, or Chevy – especially Chevy – and he’s mired in a midfield-at-best LMP2 ride? Seb is better than this. Are we seeing gradual retirement?

Dan

MP: Sebastien is a factory driver for Cadillac and with the Ganassi GTP program going away, he’s been deployed to the factory FIA World Endurance Championship as one of the leaders within the JOTA program. He added a full-time IMSA LMP2 program since there were no conflicts, so he’s actually doubled his racing calendar, which is far from gradual retirement.

If you're looking for Bourdais, the cockpit of this thing isn't a bad place to start. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

Q: Would you have a favorite memory to share from your many trips to Long Beach as a fan or in the paddock?

Yanie Porlier

MP: Two fast ones come to mind (trying to keep the Mailbag below 10,000 words, which is only 200 words away). I think it was the 1995 weekend and I was there as an Indy Lights crew member with Genoa Racing. We’d worked late into the night on one of our two cars (don’t remember why) and were staying at some roach motel a long distance from the track, so I opted to skip the drive to and from and slept in the cab of our tractor. It was fun and a bit strange to be the only person sleeping inside the paddock and to see the sun come up and the track come to life.

Second would be 2017 and a special gathering by Ford to celebrate and honor the 50th anniversary of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt winning Le Mans for the Blue Oval. The great PR man Kevin Kennedy invited myself and Robin Miller to be there for the private filming beforehand, and we spent maybe 45 minutes or so with my hero (Dan) and Robin’s hero (A.J.) and got to do our own interview with these legends among legends. At Miller’s insistence, the four of us posed for a photo once we were done, and the look on my face is equal parts “I’m not worthy” and “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Dan had become a dear friend, but the two of them, together, in a private setting, on the anniversary, was pure magic. I had them sign my 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans program, which sits in a vault today.

Q: I had a chance to meet Roberto Moreno at NOLA Motorsports Park last weekend as he was the driver coach for Kiwi Motorsport. I hope all fans get a chance to see these feeder series and meet the young drivers and, in my case, an F1 podium legend.

Is there any reason IndyCar can’t come up with a basic formula and allow any constructor to supply as long as they cap the cost of a chassis for whatever is a reasonable amount? Seemingly a cost cap on purchase costs could bring in more potential constructors and increase fan interest. Dallara has been a great partner and I am an unabashed fan of theirs, however variety is the spice of life.

P. Worth Thompson

MP: There’s no reason they can’t. It’s strictly by choice.

Q: I still have nightmares about "Driven." Do I want to chance seeing the new Apple movie about F1 with Brad Pitt? It is going to be released to IMAX, which has some appeal. Wondering if you have had a chance to see more of the movie than the previews we can all see?

Bill, Austin, TX

CHRIS MEDLAND: I’ve been lucky enough to work on a project related to the new movie, which I’m not sure I can actually talk about yet! But from that I can say I think it’s definitely going to be worth a watch. There’s been some great behind-the-scenes stuff shared, and where this movie has really gone the extra mile is with the actual driving that Pitt and Damson Idris have done.

The current drivers have also been involved at different times, and there’s been huge effort in making the racing side of things as authentic as possible. The most dramatic stuff is all based in reality, and multiple personnel from within F1 have been involved as consultants to guide as much of the sporting side as is feasible.

It’s still going to be a Hollywood movie, so you’ve got to expect cheesy dialogue and a very fictional storyline, but I’m honestly really excited to see the full thing based on the way an entire team was created and the stars actually drove at real F1 venues during race weekends.

Q: The lowest common denominator at Red Bull is Helmut Marko. He fancies himself some sort of talent scout, but with a higher body count than the Khmer Rouge. He hit the Powerball with Seb and Max, but there's something about a broken clock. Maybe he should just retire and heart Amazon to play the next Bond villain?

Shawn, MD

CM: You could even argue that Marko didn’t even scout Verstappen in the sense that multiple teams were after him and he wasn’t part of a junior program, but Red Bull’s ownership of what was then Toro Rosso meant it could offer an immediate race seat in F1 and got the jump on Mercedes that way.

There has been a lot of quality talent come through the Red Bull program, in his defense – Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly are all race-winners, and Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat both scored podiums. But it’s the handling of them at certain times that has been really poor.

I actually think Marko’s harsh approach works well up to a point in the junior categories, because it does mean strong talents reach F1 after dealing with significant pressure, but at that stage it feels like someone needs to just slow everything down and give the drivers proper time to develop. And one of the issues appears to be the sometimes differing views between Marko and Christian Horner on drivers, and who should be racing where.

Marko’s made the point that the recent swap of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda was a unanimous choice from the collective management group, but behind the scenes I think there will be finger-pointing and a power struggle for autonomy over driver decisions.

Max Verstappen signed with Red Bull's junior team in 2014, but he was rocking the hats five years earlier as a 12-year-old karter. Maybe he was a Mark Webber fan. James Moy/Getty Images

Q: Ignoring Max's talent overachieving what a car should be capable of and the actual point standings, how good is the Red Bull car this year? I think it's clearly better than the Williams, Sauber, Alpine, Aston, RB and Haas, and also clearly not as good as the McLaren.

If Yuki had started the year at Red Bull and performed well, I think they would have maybe 10 more points.

Will, Indy

CM: I think you’ve got it pretty spot-on, Will. I’d have the Red Bull as the fourth-fastest car, with Max sometimes able to drag it beyond that. The wet weather in Australia was a good leveler (but when the conditions were consistent you saw Max had no answer for McLaren), and then in China there were plenty of spells where it was fourth-best.

I wouldn’t rule out Max being able to outqualify the lead Red Bull in another midfield car, potentially the RB, but I do think the Red Bull has a higher ceiling when the conditions and set-up are right.

Q: How many cars does a driver with a lead team – Penske, Hendrick, Gibbs – have at their disposal? I'm assuming the crew is not thrashing on the Homestead car on Monday getting it ready for Martinsville, correct?

David, Vancouver

KELLY CRANDALL: You are correct, thrashing on a car isn't really something you see anymore. That is, unless a team hits on something they want to try to implement into the next chassis, but it sounds like even that takes time so it’s not a quick turnaround. Next Gen, however, is pretty universal in that teams now have a car that can be used on an intermediate and take it to a short track the next week, for instance. As for how many cars are at their disposal, when Next Gen was introduced, NASCAR limited teams to seven cars at one time, per car number.

Q: With RACER having acquired MAVTV, do you have any knowledge or insight into the possibility of a new racing show? Something similar to Wind Tunnel or RPM Tonight? I have that channel on my cable network and they have some really entertaining shows, especially Racers Roundtable.

Steve, Chicago

MARK GLENDENNING: Let's hand this one to RACER Network President CJ Olivares:

"We are actively developing some new shows that leverage the deep bench of contributors, and exploring other race series that we can bring to audiences both on RACER Network and the RACER+ app."

THE FINAL WORD

From Robin Miller's Mailbag, April 3, 2019

Q: Great show at COTA; loved seeing another Herta win again. I was a fan of Bryan’s ever since he drove for A.J., so it just naturally carries over to his son. I remember back in the day of IndyCar’s peak, Dan Gurney offered a challenge to F1 for a head-to-head race. This was back during the time when budgets were probably much more comparable. IndyCar had turbocharged 900 to 1000 hp engines at the time.

Was this back when USAC was still in charge, and wasn’t there the suggestion of like $1 million prize? Also, were the budgets comparable back then?

Tim B.

ROBIN MILLER: Dan offered to run his 1972 Eagle against any F1 car in a match race, but there were no takers. There was the Questor GP at Ontario in 1971 that pitted F1 and Formula 5000 cars (won by Mario in a Ferrari) and dominated by F1 cars. The only other race I can think of was CART’s Hawaiian Super Prix, a pipe dream that offered $5 million to win and never turned a wheel in 1999. Budgets were a few hundred thousand dollars in the early ’70s, but IndyCars had more power and F1 cars supposedly more grip, although DSG felt AAR’s pride and joy was equal if not better as aerodynamics came into play.