The RACER Mailbag, September 16

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: Based on IndyCar’s recently announced new licensing standards and how Penske Entertainment Corp. now identifies success in Indy NXT as the primary benchmark for licensure to go IndyCar racing, shouldn’t NXT racing truly prepare drivers for the top of the ladder by featuring both pit stops and different tire compounds?

The current NXT Dallara IL-15 is getting a bit long in the tooth. I think the only significant upgrades since it was introduced almost 12 years ago are the addition of the halo in 2021, and this year’s Xtrac P1414 transmission upgrade.

A new NXT car is inevitable, just as rookie IndyCar drivers will inevitably have to learn the skills and nuances of pit stops, plus primary vs alternate tire performance.

So, for the NXT series, why not just accept the loss of turning 60 or so IL-15s into prized toys for a few wealthy track day owners/drivers, and then maximizing the total cost of ownership efficiency of the original DW12? 

IndyCar teams are already facing significant investments in purchasing new IR28 cars before 2028, and the teams that also compete in the NXT series know they'll eventually have to fund an equipment upgrade there, too. And every DW12 is going to be obsolete in 18 months.

There would obviously need to be some serious engineering to adapt the smaller AER engine to the chassis, plus significant suspension and aero changes. The goal would be making the car difficult to drive on the edge while retaining the tire wear characteristics that drivers need to understand. Adding pit stops also introduces strategy options. And while losing the hybrid technology means the cars can’t self-start, oh well. Nobody likes hybrids anyway.

Would this pencil? 

Bill Tybur, Phoenix, AZ

MARSHALL PRUETT: This concept has been floated on a regular basis, and it continues to have merit. Even Dallara loved the idea about 15 years ago when IndyCar sought new Indy Lights concepts and Dallara’s grand idea was to build… a simplified version of the DW12.

On the first note, Indy NXT, and its previous iterations, truly prepares drivers for IndyCar. Of the 25 full-timers from 2026, 14 did at least one season in NXT/Lights and seven were champions. 

Adding pit stops and tire changes would be great, but I don’t know if Indy NXT teams can afford to build out their staffing needs to accommodate this, and I also don’t know what it would do from a tire cost standpoint. I’d love for NXT drivers to get the experience you mention, but not at the expense of team health and series health if it pushes annual budgets to an all-time high.

It would likely comes with meaningful costs to Dallara as well. Ramping down IL15 support and manufacturing would help on one side, but maintaining DW12 support and manufacturing while also supplying and supporting the new IR28 would be a resource curveball. With the magical appearance of money, everything’s possible. Just can’t see how this works out without costs going up, and that’s where most teams would baulk right now.

We could try to come up with page after page of photos about IndyCar driver licensing standards or whatever. Or, we could have fun. So, we're searching for 'F1 driver lifestyle' photos, then scoring them out of 10 based on how accurately they reflect that driver's lifestyle. Kicking things off is 11-time Grand Prix starter Guy Edwards "working on a piece of writing at home" in 1974. Lifestyle score: 9/10. Edwards was famously good at finding sponsors, so chances are high that's a sponsorship proposal in that typewriter. David Phipps/Getty Images

Q: There is a lot of talk about Josh Pierson and whether he will be allowed to join the Foyt team. Will there be an official announcement from the team or IndyCar on his future? If he had already signed a contract with Foyt and is not allowed to compete, should we expect a lawsuit to follow.  We had enough distraction with Palou and his legal problems.  We don't need any more distractions away from the track.  Do you have any inside information on a forthcoming announcement?

Dave

MP: If Josh ends up driving for a team, yes, I’d expect an announcement. If he doesn’t, then no, we don’t usually get an announcement for a signing that isn’t happening.

As I read the new licensing memo, my first thought was something like, “Aaaah, this is a full CYA on any future lawsuits which provides coverage to defend against anyone who’s denied and who decides to sue.” So, I can’t say if anyone will sue because they’d need to sue for us to know they’ve sued. But as I read it, the policy appears to give the series coverage in the event it is sued.

At the same time, I’d hope every team has some sort of explicit phrasing in their contracts that indemnifies them from being sued if the driver they’ve signed is refused by the series. A driver’s contract is a bit like a promise to be taken to the big dance, but only if the driver can get ahold of a ticket to the dance from the owner of the club.

If I had inside information on an announcement, I wouldn’t be revealing it in the Mailbag; it would be presented in a proper story. 

Q: Could you fill in some of the reasons why NTT would want to be such a major IndyCar sponsor as a Japanese company?

Here is what little I know:

• NTT = (nominally) Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (computers and chips, too?)
• No current IndyCar race in Japan
• One Japanese driver, with a one-race deal for the Indy 500 (Takuma Sato, two-time Indy 500 winner)
• I think they were a sponsor earlier with Ganassi?
• Perhaps a technology partner for Honda/Japan motors/components?

I am stumped.

Tom Fitzgerald, Las Vegas, NV

MP: And I’m confused. Why would a Japanese company like Honda spend five times what NTT spends per year in IndyCar? To promote and drive sales for what it sells in the world’s largest open market. Why would a Japanese company like NTT spend to be the title sponsor of IndyCar? To promote and drive sales for what it sells in the world’s largest open market. This is a point of confusion? I thought that’s how international sales and promotion worked.

NTT finds value in being the title sponsor of the series to increase awareness of its company and to create new business opportunities for itself. Just like every other series or team or driver sponsor, I think, regardless of their nation of origin? Like German logistics company DHL, which has dealings in the U.S., and sponsors Alex Palou’s entry. Are we thinking DHL should just stick to Germany? Again, I’m confused.