The RACER Mailbag, September 10

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 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: Did Will Power himself really decide it was time to make a change from the team where he has had outstanding success?

Mike Talarico, Charlotte

MARSHALL PRUETT: Will did as many high-value free agents have done and ask for exactly what he wants, which in this case was a longer runway with Team Penske, then held firm to that ask, and rejected a lesser offer. So yes, he did turn down the offer, because what was offered didn’t align with what he wanted.

It’s a classic ploy, right? If you don’t want someone to do something for you, offer them what they don’t want… and they tend to go away.

Power had something better in the works with Andretti and, as RACER’s David Malsher-Lopez wrote, didn’t waste his time with what Penske wanted to formally present him with in a contract signing.

Feeling wanted is an important thing, and this became a marriage that ran its course. At least from the Penske side. Power was keenly interested in keeping it together and tried and maintain the relationship but the folks in charge of the team – before and after the firings in May – were cold to the concept. It’s their loss, but life moves on.

Q: Here I am sitting at my work desk and the Willy P announcement just dropped. As much as I try to be OK with this, I must admit, I am not.

I know that Will is in the latter part of his career but I still hate seeing the possibility of it being really close to the end. The part that is not making sense to me is the part where Will is Penske’s latest champion, and he is also still capable of winning. So what am I missing? In my mind it is a no-brainer to keep him. What goes on behind closed doors with these decisions that regular folks like me aren’t able to see? In my mind I would think you would want to keep your champion around, but clearly what I think and how business works don’t seem to correlate.

Mike, Rawlins, WY

MP: I’m reminded of Roger Penske’s decades-long reference to his employees as ‘human capital.’ Viewed one way, it’s a warm expression of value for the people who comprise Team Penske, and in this case, their innate value, like assets, like money.

And then there’s the cold interpretation of describing people – flesh and bone – as ‘human capital,’ like value-based commodities to keep, trade, or release, based on their ability to generate profit or some other form of worth.

Clearly, Team Penske arrived at the conclusion that as an asset, Power’s value had declined and he was no longer worth keeping in the portfolio. Your question, which is the same I raised here in the Mailbag for last month or two, is the same: How can Penske devalue Power’s worth to this degree?

If Power was a trading card sent into PSA for grading, I don’t think he’d get a 10, but you’d expect at least an 8. The difference here is Penske’s grading of Power is a 4, which makes no sense.

Prior to the start of the season, when I interviewed former team president Tim Cindric about extending Power’s contract, he mentioned something about Will winning the Indy 500 as a situation that would guarantee continuation. It blew my mind. It also provided a deep insight into the status of things – Power would need to pull off a miracle to stay – that said the climate had turned rather frosty. And here we are, despite it making no sense, and the icy pre-season take on the matter has come true. 

It’s not lost on me that in 2025, a year where Team Penske got more wrong than right with its decision making in IndyCar, it capped the season by making its biggest blunder of all by undervaluing and jettisoning Power.

I think many of us are accustomed to the decisions from Team Penske being sharp and driven by plain and common sense we can all see. It’s when we can’t find that logic where we question ourselves – we must be the ones missing something – but the handling of Power’s end-of-career phase is a reminder that, like its most recent season, this monolith is more than capable of going in odd directions.

Main takeaway, however, is this isn’t a mistake from their viewpoint; this is what they wanted. That involves ownership of the decision. So if it works, we’ll have the latest in a long line of strong evidence that I’m an idiot. And if it doesn’t, well, that will be sad because a struggling Team Penske doesn’t help the series in any way that comes to mind.

I want to see the titans of each sport beat the heck out of each other on the way to settling the championship. Team Penske falling into a state of irrelevance last season only helped Palou and Ganassi to run away with the title before we reached the halfway point in the season, and that’s not good for the show.

Nonetheless. Malukas will be fast and should win a race or two. No clue what happened to McLaughlin last season, but based on past performances, he should be able to return to form. There’s no way Newgarden can have three terrible seasons in a row, so I’m confident he’ll be a stronger contender for the championship. But… that’s all based on the Team Penske we knew through 2024.

I don’t know the Team Penske we saw in 2025, and with all the ongoing changes inside the team since May, it’s hard to predict what will emerge in 2026. Was 2025 an aberration? Other than Palou’s ability to go for four titles in a row, I can’t think of any upcoming themes that will be more fascinating to follow.       

Q: “The more we are able to remove our conventionality, the better we will be in being able to keep the attention of mainly the young generation of fans who always need to be attracted to something new.” That’s a quote from Stefano Domenicali in a recent New York Times article. If that is the mindset of the CEO of a motorsport that is a juggernaut internationally and, increasingly, in the U.S., you’d think a more prosaic outfit like IndyCar would be making similar observations. Bueller?

Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, CA

MP: Newer people like newer things. Older people like older things. Wild stuff! 

Q: As a new transplant to the Seattle area, I had an awesome time attending the IndyCar race in Portland this year.  

But given the small (but passionate!) crowd and past-their-prime facilities, I was unsurprised to see that both IndyCar and NASCAR are passing on Portland for 2026.

Barring some substantial investment in PIR, I’m holding out some hope that Circuit of the Northwest materializes as a viable alternative. They have a slick website with endorsements from Zak Brown and Don Cusick among others, but local news here makes it sound like they’re still short on funding.

Have you heard anything through the grapevine about how solid their plans are?

Brad

MP: I met one of the Northwest track leaders last year at a major event, but it wasn’t an IndyCar race… I’ll check in and see if anything noteworthy emerges. As a crew member, I got to race at the Kent road course a couple of times when it hosted SCCA Pro Racing events (Formula Atlantic and whatnot back in the day) and it was awesome. Amazing state, and I’d love to see IndyCar, IMSA, and others have a reason to go racing in Washington. 

Q: I grew up cheering for Rick Mears, and even after his retirement from driving I enjoyed seeing his steady, wise presence on Team Penske at the track. ‘‘Tis a great shame that the emeritus driver role is no longer en vogue at the team. 

A lifelong, now former Team Penske fan, when and where can I order my new No.26 DJ Willy P shirt and hat?

George, Colorado Springs 

MP: I’m not a big fan of Aaron Rogers, but I did love his response last weekend as the new quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers after beating the New York Jets, his former team which lost faith in his abilities. From ESPN:

“There were probably people in the organization that didn’t think I could play anymore,” Rodgers, 41, said after the game. “So, it was nice to remind those people that I still can.”  

My first thought after hearing Rogers’ take was of DJ Willy P.

“I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets,” he added.

Power’s stepping into a car that went winless last season, so there’s no guarantees, but if that No. 26 Honda is capable, he can indeed beat the people who lost faith.

Q: The IndyCar season was successful. TV ratings were good and the future is bright with FOX having skin in the game. Any idea when the 2026 race schedule will be announced? All other major racing series have provided theirs.

Mike Hickman, Beech Grove, IN

MP: Obvious statement, but if it were close, it would be here, which tells me there’s a lot that’s still going on in the background. If it was just a case of going to all the same places, there would be no delay, so that’s another tell. Arlington’s announced. Toronto moving to Markham is announced. It must be something else that’s new and in need of significant planning and finalizing that’s holding up the schedule.

I’ve had two people in the paddock say they’ve heard Mexico is on life support. Could that be it? What about doing something in Washington DC, which is said to be a concept from FOX Sports? The UFC event on the south lawn of the White House has been confirmed for June 2026 – no specific date, yet – so could we see an IndyCar race around DC’s streets bundled for the same weekend? If it happens, it won’t be the first time a major racing series has competed on the streets of the capitol.

Of course we want the schedule ASAP, but I’m less worried about its arrival date and more focused on it being awesome. And if that’s what the extra time brings, it can be late every year.  

Q: So with Power going to Andretti, Herta going to F1/F2, and Malukas most likely to Penske, what are your predictions for the rest of the field? Will Lundqvist get a drive, and will PREMA stick around?

Dino, New Hanover, PA

MP: Linus is on the short list at Coyne and Juncos Hollinger. He’s the best free agent on the market, and by free agent, I mean a driver who isn’t already committed to a team, like Malukas, despite the lack of public confirmation.

We’re only a week or so out from the finale, and while PREMA isn’t speaking, I’ve heard there’s been some – but not a ton – of outreaches from team members looking for work at others teams. If the ship was sinking fast, I’d expect to hear of mass calls to find new homes.

Q: What was the worst racing series of all time? For me, it was the old NASCAR Sportsman Division that ran at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway in the early- to mid-1990s.

It was just a bunch of weekend short track drivers in old Winston Cup (at the time) equipment and also known for its bad wrecks and fatal crashes.

Kurt Perleberg

MP: I can’t think of a single series I’ve followed that was always garbage. Eras, though, for sure. The first year(s) of the Indy Racing League were painful to watch, but also had some thrills. My go-to, though, were the formative years of Grand-Am’s Daytona Prototype formula. The ugliest cars imaginable, slow as hell, and nobody showed up to watch. But, the low-buck formula also made it possible for a ton of teams to step into the series – Mike Shank being one of them – and go on to bigger things.    

Q: Given that drivers can adjust brake bias, front and rear suspension, have P2P and use of hybrid energy, is there any particular reason why they are not allowed to adjust front and rear wing angles from the cockpit?

Phil 

MP: I’ll assume you mean IndyCar, and if so, the answer is simple: Because the series chooses not to allow it. I wish there was a deeper answer, but it’s the same reason we don’t have see-through bodywork or engines that run on vodka. Those are both possibilities, but nobody in the series has decided they must happen, so they haven’t.

Q: You don’t have a season like Dennis Hauger did and not have a path forward. So, any news, rumors, ridiculous scenarios?

John B, Waukesha, WI

MP: Just what I wrote about in the last silly season update.  

Q: My comments come as an IndyCar-first fan. It’s my favorite form of motorsports. I also like Formula 1.

One of my greatest motorsports memories was walking around the CART paddock and seeing a bunch of fans and drivers huddled around a TV watching a Formula 1 qualifying session. Everybody burst into celebration when Jaques Villeneuve put his car on the pole.

As a Colton Herta fan I would like nothing more than see him in F1, and if it takes him taking a step back to F2, so be it. I want an American to root for in F1, and I want an American that we watch and know to root for in F1. I want Colton Herta in F1. If he goes to F2 in 2026, he will be in F1 the following year.

As an American F1 fan I’ve been waiting for this moment. Do it, Colton! Do it for me.

Mark, Buffalo, NY

MP: As a self-avowed glass-half-full type, I’m struggling to find the positives. I might be in the minority here, but I have no enthusiasm for this move.

Colton leaves IndyCar on a down year when, for the first time since he arrived in the Harding/Andretti team, he was demoted to P2 by a teammate, and not by a little, but on a regular basis by Kirkwood. He was Andretti’s best driver last year, but the roles reversed as Kirkwood was the team’s only winner in 2025 and took fourth in the standings to Colton’s seventh.

Based strictly on results, if TWG Motorsports wanted to send its best American to F1, Kirkwood would be packing up his belongings and preparing to move to Europe.

I don’t know if Herta lost some motivation in his seventh full season of IndyCar, but if so, it wouldn’t be unique or something to warrant criticism. Most athletes hit that wall at some point – and more than once for those with really long careers – so if that’s a factor in how the fierce and locked-in Herta of 2024 who placed second to Palou was slightly less effective in 2025, a change of scenery with racing in F2 and F1 test driving could be the cure.

Great guy. Great family. Like you, I’m hoping everything good comes to pass for him in the coming years. But for now, I can’t shake the springboard being a relatively quiet year in IndyCar. I wish this was happening at the end of 2024 when he was the hottest driver (not named Palou) in the series.

Fingers crossed this move brings a return of the scary-fast Herta who torched his rivals at will and who had F1 teams tripping over themselves to offer development contracts a few years ago when he tested for McLaren.

If this grand plan brings that version of Herta back to the world, we’ll all be rejoicing.

Q: Well that sucks for Roger Penske that Will Power decided to quit and move on to another team… Did Will overplay his hand by hiring the big-time agent at the beginning of the season?

Brian, Ohio

MP: Proof positive that everybody sees things in their own unique way.  

Q: What the hell is Penske thinking? Definitely an odd year for Penske, and much of that oddness came from within the not-so-rule-following area of the team. I like Lil’ Dave but maybe he needs one more year at Foyt to really move the needle. He was really starting to impress toward the end of the season. One more season to back it up and maybe get a podium or a win would’ve been nice to see.

Also, I know last year I made a comment regarding Kyffin Simpson and you said to give him another year. I’ll give credit where credit is due, he did impress here and there but at the end of the season 21st (from last year) to 17th in the standings, I still remain unimpressed.  

Not that Stefan Johansson

MP: So what if I asked you to give him another year…

Kidding aside, I hear you, but I also look at him and see six top 10 finishes including a fourth on an oval (Nashville), a third at Toronto, and a fifth at Detroit – two street courses where a lack of talent tends to be exposed by hitting walls or other drivers – where he did the opposite of what you might expect from a sophomore. And he didn’t just keep the car off the walls; he was fast and smart.

So, to your greater point, yes, P17 isn’t remarkable. But then I look and see he was just 11 points behind Santino Ferrucci in a Foyt-Penske entry, and 15 points behind Alexander Rossi, and I don’t feel as bad about Simpson’s yearlong output.

His third year in IndyCar will answer the bigger question of what kind of future he’ll have. When his teammates finish first and third in the championship, and their technical affiliates at Meyer Shank place sixth and eighth, there’s a reason to be underwhelmed by 17th in a car that can place inside the top 10. So that’s the sizable year-to-year goal. Crack the top 10 in 2026.

It won’t be easy, but the excuses of youth and inexperience are much harder to make in a driver’s third year while piloting a car for the team that’s won five out of the last six championships. In 2025, we learned Kyffin has real talent, and it was expressed sporadically. That’s the story for most IndyCar drivers.

Out of 17 chances, the majority come close to hitting the bullseye two or three times, maybe four, and that’s about it. That’s what Simpson did. If that turns into six to eight next year, he’s among the elite and has a top 10 year. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll know he’s destined for a mid-pack career.    

Q: By the time this gets to you, all of the Colton Herta news may finally be out of the bag. But my question is, why not just make him the Cadillac reserve driver next year and give him the four FP1s he needs to make his Super License? Another racing journalist says this is possible. This would make a lot more sense than sending him to F2, where he is unlikely to win while dealing with cars, tires and tracks he doesn’t know.

I also can’t stand how much noise there will be from the F1 superiority toadies who will use that as evidence that IndyCar is indeed lesser. Assuming Checo and Valtteri are on multi-year deals, this raises a problem of what happens to Colton in 2027, but I see that as the case even if he goes to F2 and wins.  

Regarding Fox buying in, I’m excited about the many possibilities and I see the NASCAR crossovers that are already happening as extremely valuable for getting more exposure. What I really want to see is for them to shed the fear of the NFL and expand the schedule into the fall. Am I wrong in thinking there is an opportunity here to schedule some races for directly after an NFL game on Fox to take advantage of that lead-in?  

Adam, Simi Valley

MP: Per RACER’s Chris Medland, Herta needs six points, not four. If you’re going to prepare someone to race in a new and different series, I can’t find the wisdom in having them skip racing in favor of sporadically driving the car a handful of times in single practice sessions. As much as I hate the look of a nine-time IndyCar race winner needing to race in F2, it does tick a lot of boxes by keeping Herta in competition, while learning some tracks for the first time, and getting him attuned to the European way of motor racing. What he experienced racing in Europe while in his teens was only a taste of the differences.

There’s no ‘fear’ of the NFL. It’s a fact, a terrible decision that’s been fully proven with audience sizes that speak to how the NFL is the only thing that matters when IndyCar is an option. And that was when IndyCar wasn’t on FOX. Now it’s on the channel that cares more about the NFL than any of its rivals.

FOX opens its Sundays with pre-game shows, then airs morning and afternoon games. And then Sunday night Football takes over, aka, one of the most viewed broadcasts of any kind each week, on NBC. But if there’s a two-hour window for IndyCar races in there that don’t start at 6am or 11pm, I’m all for it.  

Q: How do you read the press release from Penske? Did Power jump or was he pushed? I can only see two possibilities. 1) He was pushed, but as you’d expect, it’s being done with a lot of respect and graciousness making it look more like a decision. Or 2) He actually did make the decision to move to Andretti because he has presumably a multi-year deal and I can only imagine, if you take the press release at face value, he was offered one final year at Penske. 

Abraham Zimroth, Staten Island, NY

MP: Here’s a pro tip: If you want to read things that are insightful, educational, honest, or entertaining, go ahead and ignore the quotes in newsy press releases. They’re mostly written by PR reps, and sometimes have the approval of the people the comments are attached to.

On the media side, the fabricated quotes or bleached quotes – sanitized to meet the desired message or tone – are often all we get until the person or people in question are willing to speak directly, and in this instance, that wasn’t offered.  

Q: Here’s a question that I’m sure others are probably wondering too. With Power now moving to Andretti for 2026 and beyond, do you think it’s possible they bring in Tim Cindric to pair with Will once again?

Paul, Lake In The Hills, IL

MP: I’d think Cindric might have a say in whether this would be possible. If it interested him, it would be a brilliant move by the team.

Other than recruiting Ganassi’s Mike Hull, there’s nobody else with a more impressive record of IndyCar wins and championships this century than Cindric, and based on Andretti’s record of routinely coming up short to Ganassi, Penske, and now Arrow McLaren, there’s a strong case to be made that something more than a driver change will be required to vie for bigger spoils. Yes, it’s driver vs driver, but in reality, it’s team vs team, and that’s where the major differences are found.

Power is an amazing hire who will make the team better, but the team behind the drivers needs to make big strides to catch Arrow McLaren and Ganassi.    

Q: My question about Will Power going to Andretti is; will Power have any drives with their GTP team in the enduros? Has he driven top level sports cars before? And if he does, do you think he’ll be an absolute monster in those cars?

Kyle, MA

MP: He’s wanted to go sports car racing forever, but Penske wouldn’t allow it, according to the many times I asked Will. The WTR team might be owned by TWG, but it’s not Andretti’s team; it’s a full factory Cadillac program where all of the drivers are chosen by WTR, not Andretti, and selected by Cadillac. To that end, Power’s now a Honda driver in IndyCar.

Just as we haven’t seen any of Andretti’s Honda-powered IndyCar drivers in the WTR Cadillac lineup this year, I wouldn’t expect a now-former GM driver to get asked to drive a GTP car he’s never raced for a factory team that opposes the brand he now represents in IndyCar. But maybe Acura will extend an invite for Power to test with Meyer Shank Racing.

Palou was meant to be in a factory Acura/MSR car for Petit Le Mans, but I’m told he had to decline with the McLaren lawsuit coming to a head, and Herta was the other candidate, but is also said to have turned it down with the upcoming rerouting to Europe.

Q: I have been reading the harsh words and thoughts hurled at Team Penske for the situation with Will Power and I wanted to provide an opposing viewpoint

First, Will Power continues to be an excellent driver, and I believe he will be successful with Andretti Global.

What I believe has happened is a coming together of many things where this ends up being the best decision for all involved. Sports history his shown us this before, where teams’ long-time stars are not a part of the long-term future and sadly tough decisions have to be made. Look to the Cubs, trading stars from the 2016 World Series team which netted the current youth which has helped the team be resurgent.

This is what I believe we are seeing at Team Penske. Team Penske is not saying David Malukas is better than Will Power. They realize that Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin could be there for the next 10-12 years, Will would have been a few more years. With a complete management overhaul and more coming (based on Diuguid’s quotes), they are looking to refresh with a driver who they can see in a seat for the same length or longer than Josef or Scott. Build a group of drivers together with the new team structure as a unit. Jonathan Diuguid has done an amazing job building up the IMSA and WEC teams from scratch, couldn’t he do the same with the IndyCar side, where they have a great history and great team members?

Again, while Will could have been helpful there, maybe the team should have to find their footing with all of the pieces in place from the start. There will be growing pains, but based on history I believe Team Penske will find their footing and be back fighting for championships.

Brad, Yorktown, IN

MP: It’s an interesting take, Brad. Said here many times that Will obviously wasn’t the team’s future, beyond doing a few more years, or however long it went. This was clear for all to see.

But if we’re talking about feeling a need to do a refresh, the conversation should be about what needs freshening, not what’s old. If the old thing was also the stale thing, that’s the item to prune and toss. But Will doesn’t fit that criteria.

By sheer results, Power has been Team Penske’s freshest driver in recent years. He also happens to be the oldest. Those two things can coexist, if allowed. Penske chose against allowing it.

Scott Dixon, IndyCar’s oldest driver at 45, just finished third in the standings. He was nowhere close to matching Palou, but he still won a race and proved to be the third-best IndyCar driver of 2025, yet only the second best on his team. And Ganassi is in no rush to farewell Dixon.

Hell, using Team Penske’s math, every driver not named Palou should be fired; O’Ward, the closest driver to Palou, ended the year 196 points down to the championship winner. For the sake of context, the gap between first and second in the standings was more than Sting Ray Robb earned for the entire season (181).

Fighting to make sense of this is no longer worth our time. It’s done. Power’s moved to his new team. Penske has exactly what it wants. Let’s reconvene in a year and see if the change was a genius move or if it backfired.

Q: Well, as odd as it may be in our current age, Mario Andretti did move to F5000 to enhance his F1 chances. Seemed to work well considering he became 1978 F1 champ. The situation isn’t identical, but it is similar. Plus Colton needs to get the Super License points. The game plan still pursues Michael Andretti’s desire of having a U.S. team in F1 and Colton as one of the drivers. Good Luck to Colton and Will Power next year. I still want to see Colton at Indy on Memorial Day weekend and not standing in the Cadillac garage with earphones on.

Skip R., South Carolina

MP: Mario’s first f1 race was in 1968 with Lotus, the same year F5000 was introduced as an SCCA class, so the timeline doesn’t work. Also, Mario never ‘moved’ to F5000; it was one of three to four series he raced in at the same time, including IndyCar, F1, and sports cars. 

Q: I admit that I’m an old school Foyt/Indy fan and despise all things Penske. Newgarden/Helio play and played characters for the camera. Not Power. I respect talent and honesty, and hope he dominates that Andretti Galaxy Universal Interstellar comedy team. Advice for Malukas: Get ready to hate your life

David Monnett

MP: I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. 

Q: I think the big, unanswered question this week is whether Will Power takes Colton’s seat behind the drums for The Zibs.

Ed, Jersey

MP: I’m told The Zibs are going to play at COTA F1 this year. 

Q: I noticed with the Pato O’Ward and Callum Hedges crashes that it appeared the front suspension entered the tub  – similar to Hinch’s crash. Did I see that correctly? I thought IndyCar had fixed it. Not sure about NXT.

Here is a YouTube video of Hedges’ crash.  

One other point, I’ve been a Penske fan since the Mark Donohue days. The way Will Power was handled was disappointing. Definitely not Penske Perfect. I’d expect the team to have more class and not leave Will hanging in the breeze while they were making a decision. I understand it’s a business, but this was just a lack of class and respect. Not a good look for Penske especially after all the issues they have had this year. 

What say you?

Wally, Eden Prairie, MN

MP: I’m looking for the part where the suspension enters the tub, since there was nothing shown to support that claim. Do you mean the suspension was flattened against the tub?   

Q: So, Will goes to Andretti and swaps a Chevy for a Honda and brings all kinds of little tidbits of Penske info with him. I think he’ll be fast right off the trailer and in contention every race. Malukas goes to Penske swapping a Chevy for a Chevy, but I think there will be a Penske curve to learn and he will mess up before settling in. VeeKay goes to Foyt, swapping a Honda for a Chevy, and with the Penske/Foyt collaboration just picks up where he left off. Fast.

Interesting to see who sits in Dale’s two seats.
Your thoughts?

Jeff, Colorado, counting on a Denver race in ’27

MP: Already covered a lot of this in stories last week, so the one new item I’ll add is this: Malukas managed to finish 11th in the championship with a pit crew that wasn’t overly burdened with speed and consistency.

Among the 27 entries, David’s No. 4 Foyt crew ranked 19th in pit stop performance. He’s headed to a No. 12 Penske car that ranked fifth on pit lane.

If he does nothing different in 2026, the upgrade in pit crew/pit stops alone would propel him inside the top 10. 

Q: With the schedule changes in the coming year, mainly thinking the shift out of Toronto and the focus on street racing and bringing the racing to the fans, my question is should IndyCar consider a street race in or around Marion County?

It is no secret that the biggest pocket of IndyCar fans live within two hours of 465. Of course with the finest racing venue in the world present, maybe it does not make a ton of sense. However, rather than 40k-50k making IMS look like a ghost town before the 500, why not shift to a Labor Day weekend race in one of the suburbs of Indy or just go downtown for a street race?

I am picturing something around one of the new sports/concert venues in Hamilton County. I imagine with the right promotion and maybe a few concerts staged around the weekend you could easily draw 100k+ for the weekend. The Hamilton County Sports Authority seems destined to bring more to the county and there is no shortage of businesses that could get involved and reap the benefits. Perhaps I have already answered my question with the presence of IMS. 

Kaleb Hartman

MP: It’s an interesting idea, Kaleb. Not sure IndyCar/IMS want to create a local rival event, but to your point, the Indy GP has never taken off, nor has it felt like more than a schedule filler. If the idea is to make IndyCar look and feel special at all times, I’d be all for experimenting with a local street race if there’s a way to make it a success without risking a reduction in attendance for the 500.

Q: I know Colton Herta is chasing his dream, and I respect that. But isn’t going down to F2 making IndyCar look even worse?

I don’t argue against the Super License. I even agree with it from a business side. F1 wanted to protect its ladder system, and there is nothing wrong with that. I just wish they’d take IndyCar more seriously. But is IndyCar taking itself seriously enough?

You shouldn’t need points to be in F1 if you are good enough in IndyCar. And that should happen because IndyCar is a professional series with a lot of talent in it. But that would require a better car, wouldn’t it? Something that makes sense for a F1 team and for F1 itself given the skills needed to find the speed window at such high pace.

I remember reading some F1 drivers saying that a Testing of Previous Car program with any modern F1 car is better than a season in F2. So why doesn’t IndyCar design a car that is within five seconds of F1 pace? That would be around ’09-’13 F1 rule cycle pace. Being a spec series gives a lot of freedom to choose your pace.

Engine power is already almost there. They also had a KERS system. The weight would need to go down by a lot which means lighter, more fragile parts. But then drivers just need to stop driving like they are in Cup cars. And that would be a plus for F1 to take IndyCar drivers more seriously. Homegrown IndyCar drivers would be more respected, and the weak F1 names would have less chances of finding seats in IndyCar. Both contribute for a more positive view of IndyCar.

I know this brings a problem on the ovals. But can’t they really keep the current stuff for ovals (with a new aero)? When you buy a new car, you also buy the oval parts. If you crash a tub or any other parts in an oval, you need new ones. Wouldn’t keeping it give the same costs in the end (or less if the road course car ends up cheaper)? All teams already own those. And with time, the charters will cut the number of teams trying to join. From a viewership side, it’s clear the Indy 500 isn’t suffering because it has an old car. So, can’t it be done?

Of course, IndyCar could just say “we don’t give a **** about what other people think” and keep doing their own thing. In this case, I wish F1 would turn F2 into something like Moto2. A bigger series, closer in pace to F1, more like its own world championship with professional drivers making a living there, going to F1 when called. If that was the case, Herta going there would make more sense.

William Mazeo

MP: I continue to dream of a day where people accept IndyCar as its own thing, which existed before F1, and doesn’t need to contort itself to be more like F1, or to appeal or earn respect of supposed F1 fans or teams or drivers.  

Q: Regarding the question of why Nashville is called a superspeedway. The Nashville fairgrounds is called Nashville Speedway, so they had to call it something else. Typically a superspeedway is two or more miles in length.

Joe Mullins

MP: Yes.  

Q: NASCAR used to call anything over a mile a superspeedway. I believe when Dover Downs built the new track they wanted to be sure it wasn’t confused with the Fairgrounds, which was called Nashville Speedway for a time. So hence the name Nashville Superspeedway. Go to the Fairgrounds .596 and then to the 1.33, and it does look huge.

Ricky, Tennessee

MP: Maybe we just need to break free from ‘super’ and go with Awesomespeedway, Excellentspeedway, or Greatspeedway.  

Q: In the past few years there’s been a clamoring for ‘simply’ adapting IMSA GTP engines to IndyCar, with the dream of Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Porsche, Lamborghini, et al., bringing brand competition, and Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday marketing dollars to the series.

Unfortunately, size matters. Sports car hybrid power units were too big for the DW12. just as they will be for the next generation Dallara chassis that IndyCar will be using. 

So why not four-bangers? Is it a perception problem? A sound issue? The Offy ruled Champ Car racing for decades, getting its first win at the Indy 500 in 1935, and picking up its last at Trenton in 1978. I don’t recall any complaints about the scream it produced, in either normally aspirated, supercharged, or turbocharged form.

In 1983 Nelson Piquet won the F1 championship with a 1500cc BMW M12 four-cylinder engine powering his Brabham. It supposedly pumped out over 1400hp in qualifying, and 1000hp in race trim. This engine was also used by the ATS, Benetton, Arrows, and Ligier teams in the mid-80s.

Brian Hart built the four-cylinder engine that introduced Toleman’s Ayrton Senna to the world (and Alain Prost) in the rain at Monaco. A.J. Foyt set a closed course speed record in 1987, driving what was essentially a March IndyCar chassis with a swoopy, long-tail body powered by a heavily modified four-cylinder Oldsmobile Quad 4.

Zakspeed built a turbo variant of the Ford Cosworth BDA four-cylinder engine for sports car racing in 1982, and Dan Gurney’s AAR Eagle MKIII cars were so dominant in the early ’90s IMSA Camel GT series that Nissan and Jaguar quit racing.

Every major manufacturer makes cars with four-cylinder engines, and they can all build engines that would fit the power/size/reliability bill (even if the dreaded and value-iffy hybrid systems have to be retained). The trick would be coming up with the regs and rule book that would attract participation. Is this a bridge too far for IndyCar?   

Bill Tybur, Tempe, AZ 

MP: Lots of amazing examples, Bill, with the newest being 32 years old.

Mazda is the only modern manufacturer to select a four-cylinder turbo for its big program with the IMSA DPi campaign that started in 2017, and it took years and untold millions to get the things to keep from exploding. Once reliability was found, the Mazda RT24-Ps became serious contenders for occasional wins, but never eclipsed the twin-turbo V6 Acuras or naturally-aspirated Cadillac V8s.

The answer to your question is manufacturers have lots of input on what does and doesn’t interest them, and with IndyCar’s engine rules, nobody I know of asked for a four-cylinder. If it’s what they wanted, we’d have them in the cars today or being build for the next car. But that isn’t happening, so that’s the message to receive.   

Q: The issue I have with the ‘second seat at Red Bull is a bad seat’ theory is that you wouldn’t expect a rookie on any team to be that close in performance to a champion teammate that is fully integrated into the team.

Is there a chance the car is fine, Gasly, Lawson and Albon were too young, Perez grew old in 2024, and Yuki just isn’t a match for Max?  

How many drivers on the grid would you expect to be a match vs Verstappen over a full season?

Will, Indy

CHRIS MEDLAND: There’s two aspects to this Will, and dealing with the second question first, I don’t expect any to be a total match for Verstappen over a full season. But I think some of the very best would run him pretty close at many races and beat him a few times.

In terms of the drivers you list, I think when you have to suggest three different reasons for five different – high-quality – drivers not performing, and it’s extremely unlikely. The common denominator is the seat, not the driver. Checo, for example, was only 34 last year, that’s really not old in F1 terms.

I do think all three of Gasly, Lawson and Albon were rushed through too soon, but Albon also hit the ground running fairly well initially, and it was in his second season that he struggled more. It shows that young drivers do have the potential to perform if the car is working to their liking.

And in many ways Yuki was the perfect candidate – plenty of experience at the junior team, still young, and very quick. And his results have been very similar to what we’d been seeing from Checo late last year, and I imagine Liam if he’d stayed in the seat.

Max papers over the cracks because he’s that good, but he would also perform brilliantly in a car that was more compliant to other drivers, too, and that would give Red Bull a better chance in both championships.

Q: I can’t understand why Colton Herta who has been racing IndyCars for years doesn’t qualify for a Super License while Kimi Antonelli earned enough points to qualify when he was only 18?

Help an old man understand.

Terry

CM: The FIA Super License was designed to prevent pay drivers buying a seat without the necessary results to back it up – essentially aiming for a minimum level of performance. It also then allowed the FIA to create a clear pathway to prepare drivers for F1 through F4, Formula Regional (FR), F3 and F2.

With the FIA having full control over the regulations of those single-seater championships, they can make sure they’re best-suited as a ladder towards F1, and therefore have given them more Super License points than other series that they don’t have jurisdiction over (such as IndyCar).

IndyCar is strongly recognized – aside from F2 it is the only category that offers the full 40 Super License points to the champion – but the points reduce from there, whereas if you win some of the single-seater championships under the FIA’s remit – F4, FR, F3 or F2 – you score good points.

Antonelli won the Italian F4, German F4 (both worth 12 points), FR Middle East (18 points) and FR European (25 points) championships across two seasons to earn his Super License, while a top six in F2 was also worth a further 10 points. Consistent results on the ladder meant he reached the total.

Colton has always been close thanks to P2 in the IndyCar standings in 2024 (30 points) but P10 in 2023 (1 point) and P7 this year (4 points) leave him just short. A top four in the standings this year would have earned him enough points, so he wasn’t far away at all.

Q: The lopsidedness of the FIA Super License system was very much in the news this week. What, if anything, is ACCUS doing to remedy this situation and why hasn’t anything seemingly been done in the past?  With three F1 races in the U.S., the FIA should be more accommodating.

David, Waxhaw, NC

CM: I’m not sure the number of F1 races in the U.S. should have anything to do with the Super License system, but I do agree that IndyCar should receive more points. I can partly see the argument of only offering a full Super License to the champion, but the speed in which the points drop away from there (30 for P2, 20 for P3, 10 for P4, 8 for P5, 6 for P6, 4 for P7, 3 for P8, 2 for P9 and 1 for P10) is the issue for me.

If you finish top five in back-to-back IndyCar seasons that’s very impressive, and not a one-off result, yet it might only yield 16 points. There’s even a scenario you can do three consecutive years in the top six and not even be halfway to the points total, which is ridiculous.

But ACCUS is always fighting a bit of a losing battle, as IndyCar needs to be true to its roots and deliver the championship it wants. By that I mean the regulations, the racing rules, the tracks used (such as Superspeedways or old-school road courses) that might not necessarily meet FIA criteria for F1.

That’s why the FIA-led championships – F4, Formula Regional, F3 and F2 – receive strong weighting, because many of them are series that are tailored to prepare drivers for F1, and race on the same tracks etc.

IndyCar is not a feeder series for F1, whereas those championships are, and for them to remain that way then they need to have the most points. For example, if you gave IndyCar the same points as F2, then junior drivers would have a choice to make and more might chase an IndyCar seat as a stepping stone, which could reduce the quality in F2 but also arguably devalue IndyCar as not the top-level end point it should be.

When Herta was looked at by Red Bull two years ago, I know the FIA and ACCUS had discussed Super License points fairly recently, and I believe it is constantly under review to make sure the balance is deemed to be correct for both sides of the Atlantic. Herta’s planned move for F2 could bring that back into perspective moving forward.

Q: I’ve noticed recently that there has been a lot of advertising for the Las Vegas GP around the other F1 tracks. Are they having trouble selling tickets? Is the race in danger after the current contract is up? Inquiring minds want to know!

Andy, Chicagoland USA

CM: Nope, that’s something that has always been the case because the Las Vegas GP is an F1-owned and promoted event, so F1 itself uses the platform of other races to advertise it. For other races, it’s an external promoter paying F1 for the ability to host a race, so F1 has already made its money from those and doesn’t have to do the promotion itself (at least, not to the same extent).

I know that the ticket sales approach was changed a year ago to try and offer more GA tickets over hospitality compared to the first year, and that ensured the attendance drop-off was minimal from year one (315,000) to year two (306,000). If they are to see a dip, then new races traditionally notice it in years two and three, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a flatline or slight decrease again this year, but have not heard of any major concerns at this point.

As for the current contract, it’s actually the final year of the original deal, but with a 10-year agreement in place with the city to continue. I actually asked a source about that this weekend in Monza, and was told it was unlikely that a full extension would ever be confirmed, but that two-to-three year agreements would be approved with the city and resorts involved, with the potential in future for promotion to be handed over to a local entity if they saw the value.

Q: How likely do you think it is that come contract renewal time, one of the McLaren F1 drivers decides to leave? I am thinking that the next time the contract of one of them is extended, the other will start looking for a seat at another top team and likely find it. What are your thoughts, and do you know when their contracts expire?

Ed Joras

CM: The current deals for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri run until the end of 2026 and 2027 respectively, but it is understood they have additional clauses that could lead to both running for a year longer than that. Given the recent form, it feels very likely that you’d see both in place as teammates until at least the end of 2027.

That would leave Norris needing a further extension first, and by that point he would have raced for McLaren for nine years, and by the end of this season he will be the driver with the most grand prix starts for the team. So it is conceivable he’d consider a new challenge, but I think that would most likely be driven by the competitiveness of McLaren under the next set of regulations.

Both would have no shortage of suitors, but the culture being created around both drivers and the team is for the long term, with key personnel also on long deals to try and sustain an era of success.

Q: Is Cadillac doing all its own chassis work on the F1 car, or does it consult with Dallara or anyone else like Haas did? And when it becomes an engine builder in 2029, will it be required to supply engines to other teams?

Chris

CM: Cadillac is doing all of its own chassis work, although the manufacture of it at this stage has been handled externally as the team develops. Team principal Graeme Lowdon told me earlier this year that the chassis is designed in-house, all test lay-ups are produced in-house, but final chassis manufacture us outsourced to normal suppliers in the supply chain.

Whenever its first power unit is ready, Cadillac will only be required to potentially supply an engine to another team if a team doesn’t have an agreement in place at a certain deadline. A supply deal is then forced on the manufacturer with the fewest amount of customers, but given the number of suppliers from 2026 onwards – Audi and Honda will also only be providing power units for one team  next year – it’s unlikely it would come to that.

Q: Some site reported Mick Schumacher gets preferential treatment from Alpine in his contract. That includes most of the new tires. How common is that in sports cars?

Also, wouldn’t that be bad for the team? I mean, I don’t expect them to be best friends. But three drivers share the car. Doing this type of deal seems like a bad idea from technical and also from working environment point. It’s not like Schumacher did anything in his career to deserve that.

William Mazeo

STEPHEN KILBEY: My understanding is that it’s not common for drivers in sports cars to sign contracts that include such a list of specific requirements, such as new tires for every session, etc. However, we do see elements of this across this area of the sport, particularly in teams where one or more drivers are funding the program.

For instance, a driver in a privateer Hypercar may have it written into his contract that he is the one to do every qualifying session (because this is a tool used to get them spotted by a factory), though this sort of line item may feature for higher-profile factory drivers, too. Bronze-graded drivers in categories like LMGT3 are also likely to be handed all the new tires in practice and most of the track time. However, that is far less likely to be contractual and instead directly a strategic move in formats where the drive time for amateur drivers is so important.

In general, though, I’d say it’s unusual for a driver to be granted such a suite of advantages over teammates in a multi-driver line-up. Now I haven’t seen the contract with my own eyes, but if it is indeed true, then clearly Alpine and Mick Schumacher must have felt that a combination of his talent and marketability warranted such treatment.

Q:  I think the Jarno Trulli pics are pure gold. I met him before the USGP in Indianapolis when he drove for Toyota. I spent most of time talking with Cristiano da Matta (actually being the punchline for his jokes about my race cooler) and wish I would have snapped a pic of Jarno. Can you come up with a Jarno pic from his Toyota years?

Steve Cox

MARK GLENDENNING: Sure. And since we’ve had a lot of fun at his expense over the years, let’s change tack and go with one of his highlight moments – giving Toyota its last-ever F1 podium (on home turf, no less) with a second place at the 2009 Japanese GP.

THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, 12 September 2018

Q: Just curious about the historically fastest cars and how that ‘power’ translated to good racing – in other words, did it make it more fun to watch, and did the drivers like the power?

Trey Kiel, Austin, Texas

ROBIN MILLER: Bobby Unser always asked John “Mandrake” Miller for more power when he drove for Dan Gurney, and the three-time Indy 500 winner says 1,200 HP was the most he ever saw. A of drivers loved all that boost, but there were lots and lots of engine failures and the races weren’t always that good.