Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers might 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 will likely be saved for the next week.
ED’s word: Submissions for this week’s Mailbag closed earlier than information broke of Jay Frye’s departure from IndyCar, however preserve sending your letters in and Marshall will reply them subsequent week.
Q: It appears IndyCar is in its most precarious scenario for the reason that darkish days of The Break up.
In gentle of current information and public feedback, what are the percentages that Zak Brown companions with just a few different staff house owners (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 yr. If the sequence elects to be dedicated to street and avenue programs, it might take a Superformula tub, permit for restricted improvement with an engine BOP and create a very compelling and quick components.
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 Automobile ethos may very well be a breath of recent air.
What do you suppose?
Jah from the ATL
MARSHALL PRUETT: By means of 2024, I had a single staff proprietor inform me they have been retaining a agency eye on Penske Leisure’s selections and actions within the subsequent yr or two as a result of if issues didn’t enhance in quite a lot of areas, they’re ready to depart IndyCar on the finish of the present chassis/engine components. 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 could want to tug out of IndyCar and discover a extra useful group to race inside — which implies it’s not only one proprietor considering this, however two.
Or, extra precisely, two who’re comfy 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 consider them. They sounded extra like they have been saber rattling greater than suggesting a severe factor they might do.
What you get from Penske Leisure is identical “All the things Is Superior” routine, however I simply don’t know in the event that they notice how the ice is thinning.
As for groups and Liberty beginning a breakaway sequence, I can’t see it.
Penske owns or controls virtually all the marquee tracks, and most groups can barely afford to compete right now with outdated vehicles and an array of popular-ish tracks. Shedding most of these venues and needing to pay for brand spanking new vehicles and engines could be a again breaker except an fool with a spare $100,000,000 in hand was discovered who needed to fund it.
Leaving IndyCar isn’t going to assist the sequence in any method, clearly, but it surely’s Penske’s job to strike the appropriate steadiness between budgetary wants and return on funding to be able to fulfill and preserve 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 want 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 inconceivable. 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 like 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 may very well be fastened proper now: the shortage of a cellular model of its web site. Once I go to IndyCar’s web site on my telephone (Android right here, so I can’t converse to Apple customers), I get the complete web-based web site. There are elements of the location I can’t even entry as a result of the location is designed for a monitor, not a small display. This expertise is sufficient to make me go away the location after about 5 seconds, and I’d wager my backside Dallara that I’m not the one one.
Cell-based shopping has been round for just a few many years now, and after I see an internet site that doesn’t work on my telephone, my first thought is, “Who’re these rinky-dink people who find themselves dwelling in the dead of night 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 women and gents! We’d have to attend just a few years for different know-how to get an replace, however this isn’t a brand new components. It’s an internet site. The house owners needn’t log out on it, it shouldn’t value an enormous amount of cash, however the dividends it might pay are nicely well worth the effort.
Dave, North Carolina
MP: I’m informed a brand-new IndyCar.com web site is about to go stay. I’ll exit on a ledge and counsel IndyCar’s web site will likely be optimized for cellular shopping, as a result of if it’s not, why hassle?
Q: Seeing the Josef Newgarden Indy industrial proper earlier than the halftime celebrations on the Tremendous Bowl was superior. I hope IndyCar was in a position to get quite a lot of publicity contemplating FOX spent a reasonably penny. Will we count on to see different drivers featured in a industrial 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 essential driver options for the season, as I’m informed by FOX Sports activities. I don’t know what they’re, however I’m additionally informed 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 yr.
