The RACER Mailbag, April 22

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 hate IndyCar’s one-lap Fast Six. The drivers don’t have time to get their cars right, it’s too much pressure on the drivers, and it doesn’t represent who is the fastest. The starting order matters; it shouldn’t be like that. They should get at least two laps or go back to the old format.

CAM in LA

MARSHALL PRUETT: It absolutely represents who is fastest. Six drivers go out, record lap times, and the fastest is on pole, followed by five others who are ranked in order of their speeds. I have no clue how an opinion to the contrary could be formed.

Qualifying is all about the pressure; the single-car format only heightens this dynamic. Racing is all about mastering or failing in whatever conditions are presented. So we shouldn’t qualify or race in the rain? Or when it’s too hot or cold or windy? Just when the car is perfect and the conditions are perfect?

We just saw six of the fastest IndyCar drivers given the hardest task at Long Beach, and the guy who was on pole in 2024 and was among the fastest leading into single-car qualifying put it on pole. If Felix Rosenqvist didn’t represent who was best among those six, I don’t know what we’re talking about.

Q: I must say Dennis Vitolo was either a part of or had a front row seat for some of the strangest crashes in IndyCar history. Of course, everyone has seen him crash on top of Nigel Mansell in the 1994 Indy 500, and he was about to get a tow in the 1991 Detroit Grand Prix when Mario and Michael Andretti crashed in the same corner he was stuck in. 

When I hear his name come up, it's spoken in the same derision as Dr. Jack Miller and Milka Duno as if he lacked the talent behind the wheel. Seeing his stats, he only got a handful of starts per year in CART or the IRL through the 1990s and early 2000s. I'm willing to give him the benefit of a doubt if I knew a little more about his story. Was Dennis considered a gentleman driver and what is your assessment of him as a driver? 

Brandon Karsten

MP: Vitolo was a Sting Ray Robb or Devlin DeFrancesco of his era, a "sportsman" compared to a hired professional. Spent years on the open-wheel ladder, learned enough there and had enough skill to compete in IndyCar, and was able to bring considerable funding to teams to make driving an Indy car possible. I saw him drive throughout his junior and IndyCar days and he was not terrible, but wasn’t amazing, and that’s what you’d expect from someone doing select races each season for small teams who take paying drivers. Hard to offer a deeper insight since there was nothing to draw from that would form a major revelation.

That’s the big difference between a Vitolo and a Robb or DeFrancesco, who’ve had multiple seasons of full-time IndyCar racing to develop their skills in a consistent environment. But let’s not be mistaken; Vitolo was seen for what he was: A sporadic competitor for small teams who was rarely recognized unless something went wrong. It’s also a shared reality with today’s paying drivers. 

Vitolo was part of a long tradition of drivers who were slower than most of the people they raced against, but still faster than the rest of us. David Taylor/Getty Images

Q: Long Beach was the second race in a row where the in-car feeds in the IndyCar app kept freezing up. You have to get out and back in to make it work again and watch a few more seconds. I reported this in the app, but of course never heard anything back. I know you cannot do anything, but maybe by putting it in the Mailbag, it will be seen by someone who can do something about it. It really reduces my enjoyment watching races. Thanks.

Craig

MP: Thanks for sending this in, Craig.  

Q: Can someone either tell the FOX producer and director that nobody wants to watch the 14th-place car drive around with nobody near him, or fire them both? This obsession that they had with Newgarden just because he’s on a different strategy is maddening. The announcers have said on multiple occasions that the strategy isn’t working, but yet they won’t find another focus on track. Can we please watch cars that are competing to win the race, or at least watch cars on track that might pass someone? If anyone other than the producer or director thinks this broadcast is compelling, I’d be shocked!

Brian, Phoenix, AZ

MP: I’m sure someone can. And that someone is you, Brian.

Also, Long Beach was a snoozer. There was nothing happening of any interest until a debris caution arrived late in the race. Newgarden’s strategy play was a gift because it provided something to follow when there was nothing else to follow. Rosenqvist was leading Palou, Palou couldn’t match his pace, and the others behind them were falling away. But the suggestion here is to ignore the one interesting thing and focus on the nothingburger?

Charles Barkley time: C’mon, man.

Q: With gas over $4.00 a gallon everywhere, how much fuel did the two-stoppers save? Newgarden pitted on lap 11 and 37. That’s 26 green flag laps. Will Power went to lap 32. Are drivers saving handfuls of laps not running flat-out? I always thought it was a lap, maybe two.

I ask because Newgarden coming in when he did put him in traffic and made the race boring again. Some more clear air laps would have seemingly made a big difference. 

Ryan in West Michigan 

MP: Yes, drivers are saving handfuls of fuel by not running flat-out. They’ve been doing it for the 100-plus years since racing became a sport. Running flat-out not only consumes more fuel, but it also accelerates tire wear, and in a race where the series requires every driver to use two sets of the least durable tire, all of that maximum-attack pace was going to drain the fuel tank and drain the performance out of the tires at a faster rate than those who weren’t on Josef’s strategy.