The RACER Mailbag, March 11

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: I can't quite figure out what FOX is bringing to the broadcasts that is new. Leigh Diffey was the best and breathless Will Buxton's style is exhausting, but apart from these two, what great changes have been made?

CH, Alexandria

MARSHALL PRUETT: I never know if these types of questions are genuine – that you really don’t know – or if it’s just a setup to complain about the thing that’s disliked, which makes me not want to waste a lot of time on a real answer because it doesn’t look like a real question is being posed.

But if it is, the glaringly obvious answers would be: 100-percent network broadcasts. More and longer broadcasts. Drones. Unique in-car camera angles. Ghost cars and more creative/advanced graphics. Bigger production budget, and efforts. More pre-produced features. More promotions of its broadcasts and IndyCar as a whole. Dedicated driver promotional ads. More races, since FOX has been centrally involved in making more events come to life. How’s that for 60 seconds of what came to mind first?

Q: Is it or me, or does it seem like Sebastien Bourdais should have had shots at better teams and equipment after Newman/Haas folded to see what he can do in a top-tier IndyCar team? Why didn't that happen? I feel like his name gets lost a bit when we're talking about some of the great drivers of this century.

Peter S., Seattle, WA

MP: Lots to unpack. Seb won four straight titles in Champ Car, drew the interest of Red Bull, and was hired to race for its junior team in F1, Toro Rosso, in 2008 and 2009. It went horribly as the car’s basic handling characteristics were the total opposite of his basic driving needs, and as such, he hated the car, complained about it constantly, the team ended up hating him, and they split before the 2009 season ended.

While gone in F1, Champ Car died, NHR co-founder/co-owner Paul Newman died, and all of the great sponsorship that came in because of Mr. Newman’s connections eventually went away. By 2010, NHR was a team for hire, running Honda’s Hideki Mutoh and Graham Rahal for a partial season late in the year, and needed funded drivers – Rahal’s sponsors as well – to exist. It lasted one more season before folding. The powerhouse that Seb left was just struggling to survive when he returned, and wasn’t in a position to rehire him.

Also, as a Champ Car guy, and a Champ Car guy who was gone during reunification in 2008 and again in 2009, most of the winners of The Split – the IndyCar Series teams – had done two seasons in the combined series and made their decisions on who they wanted to hire. Seb wasn’t there to be hired. There was no market for his services at the end of 2009, so he was fortunate to have the factory Peugeot Le Mans program as a backstop in 2010. It took a former Champ Car team owner Dale Coyne in 2011 to see Seb’s value – after being mollywhopped by the guy – to offer road and street courses in an entry where Alex Lloyd took the ovals.

Years later, Ganassi wanted to hire him as teammate to Scott Dixon, but Coyne took up his option and wouldn't let him go. In one of those great games of "what if," there is a scenario where Coyne agrees to let Bourdais leave, Seb signs with Ganassi, and there’s no opening for Alex Palou to fill in 2021…

Bourdais was almost untouchable during Champ Car's final era, but the planets never aligned for him the same way again. Sutton/Getty Images

Q: I hate to add to the list of complainers, but I will this week. I am watching Phoenix live right now, and the amount of ads is unbearable! I am an IndyCar fan to the core and refuse to turn the race off, but if this were F1, NASCAR, or any other series I was slightly less interested in, the race would be off by now. I don't have any statistics around whether ad time has gone up in the past few years, but it feels way worse this year. 

I wish I could let FOX know that I would pay a large sum to have an ad-free stream! Or hell, even an ad-lite version where ads are only played during yellow and red flags. I recognize that racing wouldn't exist without sponsorship, but this seems extremely excessive and greedy. 

Andy, South Bend, IN

MP: I still need to watch the broadcast – I had the audio from FOX to listen to on the live internal TV feed, plus the good folks at IndyCar Radio when FOX went to commercial – so I only saw the commercial-free presentation. Your takeaway was the most common one I saw on social media during and after the race.

Q: Is the 21’s speed on short ovals as simple as, he’s young and psychopathic (and clearly very talented) so he’s willing to run lower downforce than anybody else? Or is there some other innovation (in the vein of Vitor creating a new line at Indy)?

Zach M., Marion, IA

MP: I’m gonna go ahead and call him Christian Rasmussen, since I really can’t stand the calling-drivers-by-their-car-numbers thing from NASCAR. Razz is young, and slightly psycho and has an amazing team and car on ovals, and is willing to take more risks than most. So, yes to your question, with the quality of the team, and its oval excellence, and his ability to flirt with disaster without being unsettled by the downside if it goes wrong.

He’s the most fun thing to watch these days on an oval. What saddened me at Phoenix is Razz’s swashbuckling routine, while unforgettable, wasn’t needed as he chased down and was ultimately caught out by Will Power. With a tiny addition of patience, we’re likely marveling at the crazy show he put on and then won. Instead, it’s memories of amazing bravery that ended in a most unnecessary loss.