Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers will be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embrace a query usually tend to be revealed. Questions acquired after 3pm ET every Monday might be saved for the next week.
Q: First time query, very long time RACER fan: IndyCar must differentiate itself from F1 and different racing to new followers. What’s extra completely different than an intimate Sunday with the world’s greatest racing followers at The Thermal Membership!
5 thousand followers at Thermal Membership, with unbelievable entry to automobiles drivers and announcers, vs the embarrassing 5,000 (possibly) followers at TMS. It’s not unique, it’s out there to a mean race fan, with tickets at $475 for the weekend. That is very reasonable. I journey to Chicago Bears video games and infrequently pay far more per ticket for 4 hours of “leisure.” I additionally pay that a lot for GPLB for full entry (picture go and a race day seat).
I’ll take Thermal. Don’t conceal from the small crowd, advertise as an superior close-up and superb expertise. It’s at a incredible venue that we gearheads can solely dream about. Discover a non-racing celeb to advertise and be on the race. If Thermal would enable the entry, present the loopy cool automobiles that “stay” there and we solely dream about. Everyone knows solely the wealthy can afford it, however that’s race automobiles, it’s what it’s. I’ve been to 86 open-wheel races, and am a giant fan of the Indy 500 and the Milwaukee Mile, however oval racing seems to be horrible with empty stands. The background of mountains and palm bushes seems to be good on TV. The small crowd isn’t that apparent and is a part of this distinctive race.
Ideas, Marshall?
Bob (lifetime race fan)
MARSHALL PRUETT: F1 is essentially the most unique type of racing on the planet and options exorbitant prices to attend, so IndyCar is doing the alternative of differentiating itself from F1 by doing precisely what F1 does however minus the packed homes F1 will get at these loopy costs. So IndyCar finally ends up wanting small and unimportant.
In keeping with Penske Leisure CEO Mark Miles in a name on Friday, Thermal had “3000-ish followers.” To the individual tuning in to look at who doesn’t go to RACER.com day by day to digest each piece of IndyCar information, all they’d see is a bunch of automobiles and no person there to look at them. Unsure spin that as a optimistic. Don’t get me flawed; the place is superb and I’ve loved each go to because the first for preseason testing in 2023. But when I concentrate on what’s greatest for IndyCar whereas it’s attempting to turn out to be greater and extra identified, holding races in the midst of nowhere with a tiny crowd simply ain’t it.
Repair that by not less than getting 10,000-15,000 folks there to fill some grandstands, and it turns into viable.
If an IndyCar drives by and no person’s there to listen to it, does it make a sound? Jake Galstad/Lumen
Q: I’m a longtime IndyCar fan – sufficiently old to recollect the heady days of CART, which in all probability peaked round when Nigel Mansell got here to city.
I’m questioning if it’s simply me or is one thing lacking this season? Is there a decline within the star energy of the present crop of drivers? I’m a 35+ yr fan and even I don’t know squat about half the sphere this yr. Don’t get me flawed, I do know there’s some critical expertise at present racing, but when I have been to stroll right into a bar and begin speaking in regards to the superb IndyCar Collection, who would the common individual acknowledge? Scott Dixon? Will Energy? “Perhaps” to each, am I proper? After all there’s some others like Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta simply to call a couple of, however I’m fairly positive I’d get blinky eyes of non-recognition in return right here in Australia.
In my humble opinion, IndyCar and FOX can be sensible to get on the horn ASAP to get any of the previous legends like Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Mario (it doesn’t assist that Michael has gone AWOL), Al Unser Jr., Helio, Robby Gordon… heck even Colton’s dad and Tony Kanaan are there each weekend and would have nice views, no?
Jason Mulveny, aka Bananaspeed, Sydney, Australia
MP: First query I’d ask is what’s completely different about this yr? Palou, Herta, Energy, Dixon, O’Ward, Newgarden, and so forth., have all been the marquee drivers for the final three or 4 years, and there’s nothing distinctive I can consider up to now in 2025 that stands out as distinctive from final yr, or the yr earlier than, and so forth. The identical lack of CART-era star energy is previous information; Helio and Dario and Danica Patrick have been the newest drivers with huge crossover enchantment, however Danica left after 2011, Dario was compelled to retire after 2013, and Helio’s been Indy-only since 2024.
However IndyCar additionally hasn’t had a TV companion that’s been as motivated as FOX to try to construct at present’s stars into greater names, so are we going to poop on them for failing to repair many years of poor efforts by the collection and its former broadcasters… in spite of everything of two races?
There’s additionally the generational merchandise at hand. Nearly everybody you talked about as legends, apart from Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan who’re actively concerned at present, don’t have any relevance to those that both weren’t born or weren’t following after they have been huge offers. What would a 25-year-old IndyCar fan care to listen to from Robby Gordon, whose final IndyCar begin got here after they have been 4? Is perhaps enjoyable for these older followers, however is having previous legends on the broadcasts going to maneuver the needle? I simply can’t see it.
Let’s give FOX a while to try to enhance the state of affairs earlier than turning the shows the wrong way up.
