The RACER Mailbag, June 24

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 12pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: Is there any possibility that Penske places Felipe Nasr in a Foyt car next year for evaluation?

Bruce, missing Pocono, from Philly

MARSHALL PRUETT: I believe Felipe is under contract to Porsche for one more season. All I can say is if Penske is willing to fund that season and get him into a Foyt car, he’d be a revelation. And with questions over Newgarden’s tenure after 2027, Nasr is the perfect guy to get spooled up next year, to learn ovals, and to have at the ready if needed in 2028. He absolutely wants to be in IndyCar. He’d be an ‘old’ rookie, but he’s one of few drivers that come to mind who I think would be a title contender in two years. 

Q: Santino Ferrucci is one of my top three favorite drivers, and judging from the silly season article I get the feeling that if he is not back with Foyt, he will not have a ride in IndyCar next year. Is this the feeling you are getting as well? 

Chris F, Charleston, SC

MP: When I put together a silly season story, I call the folks who own or run the teams to understand what they’re thinking and what they’re facing, and outside of Foyt, I heard Santino’s name mentioned by a few teams as someone they had on their lists. I didn’t have anyone tell me he was P1 on their list, but it was good to know he’s drawing some attention. If it’s not Foyt, there’s one other team where I think he’s got a good shot, but I am concerned for him if the rest of the season falls off the rails.  

Q: Marshall, I saw this on Facebook and had to ask if it’s true:

“Coming through the ranks in racing, I was always a historian in regards to racing in general. Huge respect and admiration for the past and how we got here. Talking to previous generations then was always enlightening and the ever present ‘back in my day’ was always interesting. The Quest was always More Power, More Speed, Challenging a driver right to the limit to keep the car on the track, it’s honestly what truly set drivers apart from each other.

“Looking back at the ‘90s era when I was climbing the ladder and comparing Dario Franchitti’s lap record at Road America of 1m38.9s from 30 years ago to today’s IndyCar time of 1m44.5s… I wonder where did it start to go the opposite way? 5 seconds off the pace of a car from 30 years ago is a big slow down...”

What is your opinion? Is this factual? Pretty lame if true.

Craig B, Melbourne, FL 

MP: Pole in modern peak performance 2016 manufacturer aero kits was a 1m42.2s by Will Power. Alex Palou set the fastest laps within qualifying at 1m43.498s in the opening knockout round. Dario’s lap record was set in a car that weighed hundreds of pounds less than today’s and likely had an extra 150hp.

Yes, the low-power engine formula chosen in 2012 continues to underwhelm compared to the best days of the CART IndyCar Series when Dario set this in 2000 and Gil de Ferran set the 241.428mph at Fontana in qualifying in 2001. If you were there to see the CART speeds, and are here today, there’s no doubt that it’s lame. It has been for a decade and a half, so there’s nothing new to report.

But if you didn’t get to see the CART insanity, there’s nothing lame about the current cars because there’s no context so say otherwise. They’re incredibly fast and thrilling to watch at a 1m43s or similar. This is what IndyCar is, and has been for a really long time. Shitting on it in 2026 isn’t going to change the past, or change what’s coming in 2028.  

'CART was better' is the IndyCar equivalent to 'bring back V10s' in F1. Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Q: Please accept my overdue gratitude for helping make my family’s first Indy 500 incredible. All your tips over the years, from Charlie Brown’s to IMS Museum, and where to sit, and all the reporting you continue to do each week helped make it a fantastic trip. 

My question is about your story a few weeks ago featuring Doug Boles saying that he and Fox want to bring bumping back. What is happening in 2027 that would make it any different from 2026, when the series clearly struggled to field the minimum 33 cars? 

Team Penske clearly did not want to run additional cars, nor did Andretti or 
Ganassi. Some reporting suggested there weren’t enough engines available. With reporting that Dreyer may be looking at a merger with Juncos, and the series banning non-charter teams from entering most races, it looks to me like it would be harder to even get to 33 next year.

What am I missing?

LA Indycar Fan

MP: Great to hear you got the most out of Indy.

Next year is the last year of the old chassis. No reason to leave spare cars sitting in the shop. The belief is more teams will want to run through their inventory since there is nothing expected for a collector’s market. These aren’t priceless cars to preserve. They’ll be mostly worthless, so why not try and earn some extra money to pay for the new 2028 cars by fielding extra entries at the 500? That’s the rationale I’ve heard, at least.

Q: What is a 'technical 'corner or series of corners?  The Fox IndyCar commentators use that description often across different tracks, except ovals. I've never heard corners described thus by F1 commentators. 

A. Jenkins, Stirling, Ontario

MP: Sounds like something to ask the people who are saying it, since I don’t know how they define whatever it is they’re attempting to describe.