The RACER Mailbag, July 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 12pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: With the potential sale of a RLL charter to DRR, I’m curious to know what happens to the money? I believe you indicated Penske Entertainment owns the charters. If that’s true, what’s the motivation for a team to sell? Do they receive a percentage?



Vincent Martinez, South Pasadena, CA

MARSHALL PRUETT: Teams receive the majority of the money. Penske Entertainment is understood to take a percentage from the sale and the purchase. 

Q: Two IndyCar questions. First, has single-car qualifying on road/street courses gone away? Secondly, except for Indy, can we have alternate tires for all other ovals going forward? 

Rob, Rochester, NY

MP: It’s been trialed on street courses, so I’ll wait to see if the single-car returns for the Fast Six at Markham. I love the potential increase in risers and fallers with the primes and alts on ovals, but that didn’t really happen at Nashville.

Q: Now that the IndyCar video game has been delayed until 2027, is there any chance iRacing will be able to scan the new Markham track in time for its release? Could you check on this with IndyCar's brass? I would have to imagine that D.C. wouldn't be part of the game, given that it's a one-off event to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

David Colquitt

MP: Rather than wait for the brass, I’ll just suggest they will be included since iRacing does the track scans that FOX Sports uses in every broadcast.

Q: Following the Nashville weekend from my couch, it felt like IndyCar was the target of the cartoon anvil.

The World Cup game hitting extra time might have served as a wonderful lead in, but the Nashville rain was uncooperative. Then they had to shorten the race (heat and/or East Coast local news concerns) when it finally ran on Monday. Did the weekend have the same feeling in person?

Kyle 

MP: It did. We (on the teams and media side) were ready for the start to be pushed back, but the rest was just brutal. The heat, to start, was no joke. Nashville’s track policy, which is somewhat common, I’m told, does not permit fans to bring umbrellas, which sure didn’t help for sun/heat protection or the huge rain deluge Sunday evening.

Between the 90F weather and high humidity that likely made showing up to a World Cup watch party sound like a sweaty mess, and the rain and lightning that turned a 5pm-ish local start into a postponement around 8pm, it didn’t look like the event had a lot of ticket-buying takers.

Without the opportunity to have all of the fans file into the grandstands for Sunday’s race, it’s hard to offer a visual comparison to what we had in 2024 and '25. But at least in speaking to some friends who were at Nashville last year, they said it felt like a smaller crowd was onsite in 2026. It’s by no means a formal metric, but I also didn’t see much to suggest a larger crowd had joined us at Nashville, and if that’s accurate, it’s a shame.

I feel for the series, the track, its promoter, and the passionate fans who paid full price to be there Saturday and Sunday. The decision by whomever to close the pits and paddock on Monday to fans who bought pit/paddock access, and to offer $10 tickets to those who wanted to take advantage of the delayed running of the race, did not sit well with some who invested significant time and money – and needed to extend their stays with added hotel nights and/or rental car days, and take another day of PTO – to see the shortened race take place.

I also realize teams and the series and the track and the promotions group had to spend more to come back on Monday, but firstly, I’m mindful of the hardcore fans, who planned and saved and spent to be there for Saturday and Sunday, and felt like they were of lesser importance on Monday.

Nobody leaves a rain delay feeling fully satisfied, and this event was a definite reminder of the guaranteed frustration that comes with unexpected change and the decisions that are made.

The fans at Nashville deserve all the medals. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

Q: I just wanted to give the Messi of the Year Award to Penske Entertainment and FOX for creating a total mess at Nashville. I paid for two flights, rental car and hotel to watch a decent NXT race with no big car main. They totally crapped on dedicated paying fans. But we could watch the World Cup? Who cares?

Plus the screens were so far away from the stands that had actual human race fans in them that you needed the Hubble Telescope to see it. If one would really rather watch that than IndyCar, for which I paid for premium seats.

Bad Deal Mr. Penske, Mr. Boles and FOX!



Skip Ranfone, South Carolina

MP: I’m hoping some sort of offer will be made to those like yourself, Skip, provided the race continues next year which, I’ll admit, seems like a big question mark.  

Q: Wondering with the release of the new video game coming in 2027 whether drivers will be with teams as of the 2026 or the new 2027 line-up. Do we get Dixon in papaya? Looking forward to re-engaging in some IndyCar e-racing next year.

Doug Elmore

MP: Since it’s not coming out until some point in 2027, and since that’s a delay from the previous statement from IndyCar that it would be out in 2026, are we confident Dixon will still be driving, and in papaya, whenever it does arrive? I’m kidding, I think.

Assuming it does debut at some point next year, I’d have to hope it would have the cars and drivers from the correct year. If it doesn’t, I won’t know what to say.