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 printed. Questions acquired after 3pm ET every Monday will likely be saved for the next week.
ED’s observe: Submissions for this week’s Mailbag closed earlier than information broke of Jay Frye’s departure from IndyCar, however maintain sending your letters in and Marshall will reply them subsequent week.
Q: It appears IndyCar is in its most precarious state of affairs because the darkish days of The Break up.
In gentle of current information and public feedback, what are the chances that Zak Brown companions with a number of different staff homeowners (Andretti, MSR, Juncos?) and Liberty to create a rival sequence that enables for a extra open improvement idea/IMSA-style BOP? Race as a assist sequence for all of F1’s Western Hemisphere stops and develop a standalone calendar for the remainder of the 12 months. If the sequence elects to be dedicated to street and avenue programs, it might take a Superformula tub, enable for restricted improvement with an engine BOP and create a very compelling and quick method.
They might take off the month of Might to nonetheless run Indy in RP’s sequence, however a breakaway sequence in a three way partnership with Liberty Media influenced by the CART/Champ Automotive ethos might be a breath of recent air.
What do you suppose?
Jah from the ATL
MARSHALL PRUETT: Via 2024, I had a single staff proprietor inform me they had been preserving a agency eye on Penske Leisure’s selections and actions within the subsequent 12 months or two as a result of if issues didn’t enhance in quite a lot of areas, they’re ready to go away IndyCar on the finish of the present chassis/engine method. That proprietor was an outlier on the time.
I’ve had a second proprietor say the identical factor in the previous few weeks — fearing they may want to tug out of IndyCar and discover a extra purposeful group to race inside — which implies it’s not only one proprietor pondering this, however two.
Or, extra precisely, two who’re snug sufficient with their very actual considerations to share these ideas with me on background. My concern is there’s greater than two. I’ve had a 3rd say successfully the identical issues as the opposite two, however I didn’t imagine them. They sounded extra like they had been saber rattling greater than suggesting a critical factor they’d do.
What you get from Penske Leisure is identical “The whole lot Is Superior” routine, however I simply don’t know in the event that they understand how the ice is thinning.
As for groups and Liberty beginning a breakaway sequence, I can’t see it.
Penske owns or controls virtually the entire marquee tracks, and most groups can barely afford to compete at present with previous vehicles and an array of popular-ish tracks. Shedding most of these venues and needing to pay for brand spanking new vehicles and engines can be a again breaker until an fool with a spare $100,000,000 in hand was discovered who wished to fund it.
Leaving IndyCar isn’t going to assist the sequence in any manner, clearly, nevertheless it’s Penske’s job to strike the fitting stability between budgetary wants and return on funding in an effort to fulfill and maintain the opposite 10 groups. Penske has a product to promote and it’s actually costly and, relying on choose take by some groups or producers, is getting near being unworthy of shopping for within the coming years.
Carry again The Break up! Maria Grady/Motorsport Pictures
Q: Whereas there are many issues IndyCar wish to do to make the sequence extra fashionable and flashy, we’ve mentioned advert nauseum why a lot of these are troublesome or rattling close to unimaginable. It actually irks me, although, when there are easy issues that wouldn’t value the sequence a lot, however would make enormous strides in direction of making it appear to be it belongs in 2025.
I might checklist a number of, however right here’s one which not solely irritates the crap out of me, however one which might be fastened proper now: the dearth of a cell model of its web site. Once I go to IndyCar’s website on my cellphone (Android right here, so I can’t converse to Apple customers), I get the total web-based website. There are components of the positioning I can’t even entry as a result of the positioning is designed for a monitor, not a small display screen. This expertise is sufficient to make me depart the positioning after about 5 seconds, and I’d wager my backside Dallara that I’m not the one one.
Cell-based searching has been round for a number of many years now, and after I see an internet site that doesn’t work on my cellphone, my first thought is, “Who’re these rinky-dink people who find themselves residing at the hours of darkness ages?” Normally it’s native companies or websites which have been dormant since Danica Patrick was shilling for GoDaddy, not a top-tier racing sequence. Frankly, it’s embarrassing, and it doesn’t make the sequence appear skilled or technically superior.
So, within the immortal phrases of Scotty Mac, get amongst it girls and gents! We would have to attend a number of years for different know-how to get an replace, however this isn’t a brand new method. It’s an internet site. The homeowners needn’t log off on it, it shouldn’t value an enormous amount of cash, however the dividends it will pay are nicely definitely worth the effort.
Dave, North Carolina
MP: I’m advised a brand-new IndyCar.com website is about to go stay. I’ll exit on a ledge and counsel IndyCar’s website will likely be optimized for cell searching, as a result of if it’s not, why hassle?
Q: Seeing the Josef Newgarden Indy business proper earlier than the halftime celebrations on the Tremendous Bowl was superior. I hope IndyCar was capable of get plenty of publicity contemplating FOX spent a fairly penny. Will we anticipate to see different drivers featured in a business sooner or later? Or is FOX staying with the Josef, Pato and Alex commercials?
Good-looking Jo
MP: Sooner or later, sure. Within the close to future, no. These are the three primary driver options for the season, as I’m advised by FOX Sports activities. I don’t know what they’re, however I’m additionally advised that different, non-driver promos are within the works, and we are able to assume the Indy 500 will likely be an enormous a part of these efforts, together with launching the season at St. Pete and settling the championship late within the 12 months.
