The RACER Mailbag, March 4

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: So, where does Linus Lundqvist go now? It’s frustrating that he doesn't have a ride in IndyCar, but even more frustrating that he doesn't appear to be racing at all. Have you spoken to him?

Not that Stefan Johansson 

MARSHALL PRUETT: I’m not expecting anything this season – not unless a driver is unexpectedly dumped – but he did have meetings with two teams at St. Petersburg, one big and one midfield, and says he has a manufacturer who is interested in his services, so I’d look more to 2027 for a return than this year.

But he does show up to most races with his helmet, suit and seat to be prepared to step in if there’s a need. He’s a licensed IndyCar driver in 2026, and as you often hear in other sports, "the greatest ability is availability," which Lundqvist hopes to turn into an employment opportunity in the coming months.

Q: It’s 30 laps into the St. Pete race and it is completely unwatchable. All the commentary is focused on strategies (fuel saving, mandatory tire usage, remaining push to pass, coasting of all things,) based on various rules rather than driver skills. This ain't racing; certainly not the racing I grew up with (46 Indy 500s under my belt). Not sure how listening to this will attract new fans. I'll try the Radio Network for Phoenix.

Carl Schmidt, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

MP: I hear you, but the first half or more of most St. Pete races are boring as hell, and only improve later in the race, which happened again, to a degree, with the Kirkwood drop-off and the shuffling that happened with Lundgaard and McLaughlin. Last year’s race had some great moments but wasn’t a thriller.

Can’t argue with your overarching point, but I also can’t find the specific thing about Sunday’s race that stands out as greatly different from previous snoozers. 

Q: With Will Power having so much trouble on the brakes during his first race weekend with Andretti, it brought this question to mind: Are brakes an area of the car that teams have the ability to design and manipulate such as they do with dampers, or is this an area of the car that is supposed to be spec? Does Penske run a different braking system than Andretti or vice versa?

Tom Anderson, Mesa, AZ

MP: The brakes at the wheels are spec, and the master cylinders are spec, but there’s individualization available around the master cylinders where differing springs can be added to alter feel and response. Sizing of the brake lines is also open, I believe, with using -2, -3, or -4 AN lines, which alter the pressure and force required from the driver. The brake pedal stems are also open to customization, which adds another layer to the feel and response characteristics. For Power, whatever he had at Penske – which would have been unique in many ways – it's a case of his Andretti team trying to find the magic combination among the many options available to replicate what he had and liked. It's a bit of a guessing game since no two brake pedal assemblies are the same and Penske isn't going to tell them what to do to make Will happy and fast..

Power couldn't catch a lucky break – or brake – during his Andretti debut. Mike Levitt/Getty Images

Q: Love to have the IndyCar Series back on track. The thing that is sticking in my 65-year-old mind is every time I see Kyffin Simpson’s No. 8 livery – seeing the blue and yellow Sunoco car again –  just makes me smile and brings back so many memories of a hero: Mark Donohue.

Bill Peer

MP: The car is gorgeous. 

Q: What was Alexander Rossi's pit strategy? Four stops, but the head-scratcher is lap 15 since he pitted on the first caution. I think he could have finished around Rinus VeeKay without that stop.

Is Firestone still supplying guayule tires? On the broadcast there wasn't a mention of guayule in the tire materials, and I assumed Firestone would continue the green sidewalls branding.

Atilla Veyssal

MP: No guayule. Wrote a whole story about it last week. Rossi’s pit strategy was one of a driver who qualified last and needed to do something different than the leaders if he wanted to have a chance of not finishing last. He pitted four times while the top drivers stopped twice. The alternate strategy helped Rossi to go from 25th to 16th. 

Q: During the off-season we read a lot about the Andretti Global IndyCar team. Tons of money. Strong engineering staff. And the hiring of a championship-winning driver in Will Power. Yet with all of the necessary resources they still couldn’t eliminate their most feared adversary, the cartoon anvil, that took Power out twice in the same corner. I thought when Herta headed over to Europe it was finished with the team. But now the Andretti team may have no choice but to petition IndyCar for a new car number. 

Rick Schneider, Charlotte, NC

MP: I mean… they qualified second and finished fourth, so I don’t know if it was that bad of a first race. Power was playing from behind since the Saturday morning crash, so that was unfortunate for him, and Ericsson was strong for the first half but faded/set himself back while block-fend-ing, and then there was Kirkwood, who had an issue in qualifying and motored from 15th to fourth.

As a team, it wasn’t a stellar event with all three cars factored in. But a fourth for Kirk and a sixth for Marcus to open 2026 is something they can work with. Power sitting 22nd after one race is where the challenge lies, and yet, with a typical Power short oval run on Saturday, he can cut that championship deficit in half.