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 embody a query usually tend to be revealed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday will probably be saved for the next week.
Q: Components 1 is within the ultimate yr of its contract with the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In the event that they’re not capable of provide you with a brand new deal, might IndyCar substitute F1 on the streets of Vegas in 2026?
Alistair, Springfield, MO
MARSHALL PRUETT: Something is feasible, however with the entire main investments made to host an F1 race, it will be a shock to see it come to an finish after three years. I’ve been to many IndyCar races in Las Vegas, and based mostly on earlier crowds, there can be a variety of empty grandstands. However with heavy promotion and ticket costs that aren’t obscene like they’re to see F1 there, who is aware of, perhaps a good turnout could possibly be generated.
Q: If IndyCar wants any affirmation that shifting to FOX was a great transfer, look no additional than IMSA protection. Not one minute of the 12 Hours of Sebring (at the least the second greatest American sports activities automobile race) was on any TV service (OTA, cable, dish, and many others.). Pathetic. I’m positive IMSA folks don’t want to listen to this, however run, don’t stroll away from NBC.
Travis, Kansas Metropolis
MP: It was unusual to see Sebring relegated to 12 hours of streaming, solely, by way of Peacock. Excellent resolution for many who’ve reduce the twine (or by no means had a twine), however most likely not for followers preferring to devour their racing by way of community or cable.
Q: Is the latest choice from IMSA to make the Highway America race a 6-hour an instance of a collection listening to from its followers? I find it irresistible and am wanting ahead to it.
Daniel Martins, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
MP: It’s that, for positive, but additionally the underwhelming response to the Indy race. Unsure a serious effort has been made to advertise the occasion, and whereas many vehicle producers have been supportive of including Indy in 2023, most haven’t come by way of with onsite activation like we see at different IMSA races.
Chevrolet, which is the official automobile/truck of IMS, was the one model I noticed ultimately yr’s race to deliver vehicles and vehicles to the halfway, and by comparability to what they do in the course of the month of Might, it was a tiny footprint and modest show. Possibly the better Indianapolis market isn’t one the producers discovered to be very important after a handful turned up within the halfway in 2023 and determined the returns weren’t well worth the expenditure in 2024.
That’s a guess, however when you may have a small-ish crowd and the vast majority of IMSA’s practically 20 producers decide out on activating at a serious endurance occasion, I can see why it will lose the enduro to everybody’s favourite occasion on the calendar. At lease in my thoughts, I view the upcoming 2h40m race at Indy in September because the final probability for IMS to point out IMSA that it ought to proceed.
Is the clock ticking on IMSA on the Brickyard? Michael Levitt/IMSA
Q: Any thought what an additional three hours and 20 minutes provides to an IMSA workforce’s funds? I do know nothing is affordable in racing, however I might’ve thought prep and attending to the monitor was the primary expense. I’m so excited for Highway America in ’26 and pray the 6 Hour stays and will get moved to Saturday in ’27 with an early night end!
Chad, West Salem, WI
MP: None. No added expense is being accrued by taking Highway America out to 6 hours as a result of it’s merely a commerce in format with Indy, which loses its six-hour race and takes Highway America’s 2h40m race. Groups have been already going to Highway America, so there’s no further gasoline prices, they usually have been already going to Indy, and many others.
Q: Is Oriol Servia nonetheless the tempo automobile driver for the IndyCar Collection ?
Yanie Porlier
MP: Sure, he’s.
Q: Final week in a Mailbag reply, Marshall mentioned that half of the Honda-powered groups have free engines, with the implication that the opposite Honda groups are paying for the engine lease. Does the identical apply to the Chevy groups, and is it public which groups/vehicles are sponsored by the engine producer?
Is there any probability that the 2027 chassis is inexpensive than the present one?
Will, Indy
MP: Sure on it making use of to some Chevy groups (not laborious to guess as the perfect get comped, however not each entry in the perfect groups will get a motor deal since some are paying drivers). No, there’s no public listing of who does or doesn’t pay, nevertheless it’s the title contenders who do.
I’ve but to listen to a case being made that has the brand new automobile being cheaper than the present one.
Q: What a couple of robustly turbocharged, hybridized, two-liter, inline 4 cylinder for IndyCar’s subsequent engine method? It might make sufficient energy, be good for weight and packaging, and there are many producers that use comparable energy crops in highway vehicles. There’s even a “Again to the Future” angle with the previous turbo Offys.
Ray Schumin
MP: A V6 turbo is the proper resolution lately. With the lengthy life being requested of every motor in IndyCar, it’s simpler to share the load of creating 750 hp throughout six cylinders than to divide that 750 amongst 4 and get to the 2500-mile minimal set within the guidelines. I like a great turbo 4, however with the complaints some followers have concerning the sound of at the moment’s engine, will probably be an uproar when a area of farty four-cylinders go by. Aside from the insane high-boost turbo fours from F1 within the early to mid ’80s that gave the impression of 1000-plus hp volcanic explosions and lasted just a few hundred miles, tops, there’s not a variety of audio magic there. Drop the mileage restrict to 500-1000, and the probabilities open up.
