The RACER Mailbag, July 2

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: Being a reporter, what is your opinion on Newgarden skirting the media after crashing out the last two races? Any word on when the schedule will be released? They offered 2026 ticket renewal at RA this last week, but didn’t have the dates like they usually do.

Chad West, Salem, WI

MARSHALL PRUETT: I’d have done the same thing. Josef’s in the midst of his most miserable season, ever, and with two consecutive kicks to the nuts at WWTR and Road America, the last thing I’d want to do is answer dumb questions from idiots like me about things that were rather obvious.

If it was a rookie or a journeyman driver, I’d have different expectations. But when you’re a two-time champion and a two-time Indy 500 winner, there’s a certain level of privilege that’s been earned.

Thought we’d have the schedule soon, but it might be a month or more out. Road America in late June has been a staple.

Q: Given Jeff’s question in the previous week’s Mailbag about an IndyCar movie, it got me wondering whether an IndyCar movie would be better as fictional (similar to the worst movie of all time), or something based on a true story. I always thought the infamous Brat Pack would be a great idea to build a movie around as it features comradery, rivalry and a great personal story of friendship and the highs and lows of the sport. The bus trip would be an outstanding focal point of the movie to provide light-hearted humor and help connect the audience with the drivers.

Franchitti’s ascent to championship contender in ’99 as well as TK stealing an almost certain first career win from Papis at Michigan would add a great element as well, and a young Hinchcliffe meeting his hero in the paddock in Toronto. The charisma of Greg Moore, coupled with that fateful day would captiv ate an audience emotionally. Papis winning his first race in the 2000 opener and then paying homage to the iconic red gloves would be a fitting final scene to the movie.

The end credits could go on to tell the tales of what happened in the future, such as Franchitti going on to be a four-time champion and three-time Indy 500 champ, Papis going on to be a steward for the series, TK becoming a series champion and Indy 500 champion, and Castroneves stepping into the seat left vacant by Moore’s passing and going on to join the illusive 4-time winners club. The film could conclude by telling of Greg’s legacy, and of Hinchcliffe carrying a pair of his hero’s gloves in his fire suit during his qualifying attempt at the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

Alan Bandi, Sarver, PA

MP: I’m disappointed in myself for failing to think of this, Alan. What a truly exceptional idea with so many touchpoints that create a perfect arc.

Q: Road America observations:

Very entertaining race with all drivers taking an elbows-out approach.

Tough for Dixon to have to pit with 2 laps.

Graham fast in qualifying but goes backwards come race day. What happens overnight with him.

Nice comeback for Malukas after getting punted on the first lap and I saw him hit a lug wrench on pit exit and didn’t get called for it. Maybe race control missed it.

Hot day to race so the photo of the day had to be Santino getting served a brewski from the crowd after parking his out of gas race car

I understand next year’s schedule is soon to be released. Any scuttlebutt on Denver being added?

Jeff, Colorado

Dixon’s latest fuel mileage masterclass fell just short. James Black/IMS Photo

MP: When I asked about Denver last month, I was told no sooner than 2027, and it’s still in its formative stages. A track that runs around the Denver Broncos’ NFL stadium is possible.

Q: Kyffin Simpson’s currently in 16th in the standings. If he finishes inside the Leaders Circle this year, can we drop the “ride-buyer” epithet? There are several guys with much bigger reputations putting together weaker seasons right now. Seems like Kyffin is developing pretty well as a driver.

Duncan in Ottawa

MP: He is. Hard to understate how inexperienced he is compared to his contemporaries. I can’t think of another IndyCar driver with so much left to learn once they reached IndyCar, which makes his improved form – three top tens and two top sixes in June – something to praise.

Q: I guess IndyCar, Road America and those four guys dodged a bullet when Robb crashed. If his tire catapulted the car to the other side it’d have been tragic. From the onboard the fans behind looked too close as well. Why does the fence end so early in that point? It looked quite obvious it’d need to go further.

William Mazeo

MP: I’d assume the post-race review that took place under Jay Frye continues with whomever today which means the incident and ideas for future improvements were chronicled.

Q: Any word on a potential indycar race in the Northeast? Absolutely massive untapped market, if there’s any way in. Thanks for all the work you do covering the series 🙂

Antara, Connecticut

MP: Not yet, but the series knows it’s a glaring omission from its offerings and has spoken in a tone that suggests it is serious about addressing the issue.

Q: I’m reading the Foyt book by Art Garner and WOW. Really puts into perspective how great AJ was. We need to celebrate him more…. Even if he doesn’t want us to. I understand that teams had dirt champ cars and pavement ones… when the rear engine revolution came.. did anyone try a mid-engine car on dirt?

Couple of years ago at Indy, Santino radioed to Larry something along the lines that AJ was right about something that helped him, either in the race or in qualifying. Do you recall? Did we ever figure out what it was? Is it not astonishing that his knowledge still can be applicable today!?

Tim, Stamford, CT

MP: Art Garner is a national treasure. I bought his AJ book after I got home from the 500 and have it on my reading list. Same with the new book from Red Bull F1 mechanic Callum Nicholas.

No clue on if anyone ever tried a mid-engine car on dirt; just not something I’ve followed. Same for a radio comment from the 2023 Indy 500.

Q: AJ, Mears, Dario, Kanaan, Rutherford…they have timeless expertise to impart. Such a cool and unique thing in our sport. You don’t see legendary quarterbacks on the sidelines coaching up younger versions of themselves in the Super Bowl, but we do have many of our legends – and some of the newer aces like Briscoe and Hildebrand – directly engaged and downloading their wisdom to great effect.

It’s time for IndyCar and other sanctioning bodies and tracks to rethink the paved areas outside the painted white lines on these road courses. It’s perfectly fine to have run off area at the end of a long straight as long as its an area that does not provide an advantage or “relief” for just going wide. At Road America, the areas at the end of the front stretch, Turn 5 and Canada Corner are beyond absurd at this point. There should not be pavement beyond the apex of any turn. Pavement beyond the white line should be for safety only. It should not be able to be raced on or just a new line. Since the pavement is not going away, they should put a secondary line four or five feet outside the white line and if you hit it, it’s a penalty. The real solution is put three or feet of grass outside the white line before any pavement excluding a straight runoff.

As for the drivers – and we see this in F1 too – a guy on the inside of a turn with a guy clearly alongside running that guy clearly off track and going off themselves should be a penalty as well. Kirkwood did it to Power and Herta did someone else as well in Canada Corner. The list doing it at the end of Turn 5 is long as well. It’s just not good, professional racing. Out of bounds calls need to be made.

Mark, Milford, OH

MP: Meh. I’m picturing dinner plates in Milford with perfect separation between the meat and vegetables and freakouts when the peas roll across the divide and touch the mashed potatoes. I’m more concerned about the quality of the meal than the orderly presentation.

Q: As a diehard Andretti Global fan, it’s been painful to see Marcus Ericsson struggle so much since signing with the team for 2024 and beyond. Personally, I expected Marcus to bring consistent high level results in the No. 28 car and push Colton and Kyle week in and week out, while intimidating the field with a true three-headed monster. The results don’t lie – this hasn’t come close to happening, even though it appears the three drivers have strong chemistry that any team would be envious of. Is Andretti considering letting Marcus go after the 2025 season, and possibly replacing him with Dennis Hauger? Marcus is so likable from a fan perspective, again, it’s painful to even ask.

Ryan R

MP: Marcus has a three-year contract which runs through 2026. If they were to part ways, I’d assume it would require a mutual agreement and a significant payout. It’s the last thing I’d want for him because if that happens, he’s done in IndyCar as a full-timer. He got his wish to be paid at Andretti and has been a force for them at the Indy 500, but this has been a rolling nightmare in 2025.

Needs to stay in the car and turn his fortunes around because that’s the only way he extends his runway in the series. He was never the top guy at Ganassi, but he finished sixth in the championship for three straight years, and that doesn’t happen by accident. If it were to end with Andretti like it sits now – 21st in the championship – it’s hard to see who picks him up, which is why he needs to continue and try to get back to his top 10 ways.

Typical weekend for Marcus this year has a solid qualifying run followed by disappointment in the races. On only two occasions has he improved his starting position, which speaks to how much the year has gone awry. He had six top 10s on his debut with Andretti which led to a disappointing 15th in the championship. He has one this year – a sixth to start the season – and sits behind Nolan Siegel in the standings. Reverse the Indy 500 penalty and he’s got a fine second-place finish and sits higher in the championship, but that ain’t happening.

If Andretti is serious about turning things around with Ericsson, who is clearly capable of being a top-10 guy, now’s the time to get creative and experiment over the second half of the season to see how far they can improve.

The frustrations are piling up for Ericsson. Chris Jones/IMS Photo

Q: Myles Rowe is holding his own in the Indy NXT series but I don’t think he’ll be in IndyCar next season. He’s a talented driver but he’s 25 and some of these drivers are much younger than him and by this time some of these drivers are already in IndyCar. I hope I’m wrong but he could end up in NASCAR or the IMSA series. I would love to see a Black driver in IndyCar but maybe once Lewis Hamilton retires from F1 we might see him in the series which would be like Messi coming to play in Major League Soccer.

Alistair

Springfield, MO

MP: I keep waiting to see the same ferocity from Myles in NXT that was on display in USF2000 and USF Pro 2000. The Andretti team is the class of the field this season, but even so, it’s a surprise to see Myles without a win at Abel. He’s holding fourth in the standings, and needs to turn that into second behind Hauger or Hughes if Roger Penske is going to view him as being ready for consideration in IndyCar.

And if that doesn’t happen, Penske will have a tough decision to make. Fund a third season of NXT, which is rarely a good sign for any driver when it’s needed, or pivot to an Indy-only opportunity for Myles with AJ Foyt Racing? Rowe’s a great kid with a great family who’d be loved by fans in IndyCar. But for that to become possible, hardcore results in NXT need to happen.

Q: Any chance we see Gavin Ward back in IndyCar, maybe back at Penske? Or was that relationship irrevocably broken when Ward moved to Arrow McLaren in the first place?

Deb

MP: Anything is possible. He’s been contacted by a few teams. It wasn’t a pleasant separation with Penske, and he’s become protective of his peace. Going to work as a team boss again is a perfect way to surrender that peace, so if he returns, it would likely be in a technical director-type role.

Q: What do you think is Ferrucci’s biggest deficiency holding him back from getting an offer from a bigger team? Is it his past behavior in Europe or just the lack of an open seat? Ferrucci seems to pass the most cars every race so being a better qualifier would help his case but the kid’s fearlessness has me as his biggest supporter. I’ve heard rumors of Malukas going to Penske and from an outsider like myself I can’t see the obvious difference between Ferrucci and Malukas. How do team owners view the two?

Mark in Bay St. Louis

MP: Santino is under a multi-year deal with Foyt, and he’s ninth in the championship ahead of names like Herta, Rossi and Newgarden, so he’s in a great place. But he should be a serious talent to consider when his contract expires.

At 27, he’s still young, but has been in IndyCar since 2018. The ugly European exit is long forgotten within the paddock. If he keeps performing at this level, I’d expect some bigger teams to take a look, but he’s not a typical modern driver who has no life, just trains all day and lives on his sim and social media. He’s very much his own person, doesn’t take s**t from anybody, has very strong opinions he isn’t afraid to share, and that’s not what some teams want – at least the bigger teams. Pato’s about the only exception, and that comes with the protection of being IndyCar’s most popular driver and having a boss in Zak Brown who talks more s**t and gives his full support to O’Ward.

But if we’re simply talking about talent, Ferrucci is making it hard for bigger teams to drum up excuses for looking past him in the coming years. He’s a big personality, which I’ve always loved. Hopefully he’s able to stay with the Foyt team, which adores him, and become a title contender there.

Ferrucci does it his way, and it’s working. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

Q: At the Road America race, I found Conor Daly’s driving off with the tow rope still attached to his car after being rescued disconcerting and was surprised not to hear/read anything about it after the race. Members of the AMR Safety Team were getting ready to disconnect the rope from the car when Conor drove off. You can see the startled workers jumping back to get out of the way. Lucky that no one had their hand on the rope or that the swinging rope didn’t smack one of the safety team as he drove off.

Prior to on-board starting, this wouldn’t have happened, but now it needs to be addressed. I remember that this was discussed last year with regard to the driver using the on-board starter when stalling in the pits, but has this been addressed for on-track rescues? Seems like there should be a protocol where the driver can’t leave until someone gives him a “go” sign or, if this already exists, there should have been a penalty.

Mike

MP: If you rewatch the exchange, an AMR Safety Team member is telling Conor to hold while the tow strap is being removed. Conor obviously did not, and was given an immediate penalty to serve for “Failure to Follow the Directions of INDYCAR” when the caution lifted. The series’ displeasure with Daly’s move was expressed in the penalty, which was a rare stop-and-hold for 10 seconds instead of the more common drive-through. You know you effed up when sitting idle on pit lane as an official watches a countdown timer is what you’ve been given.

Short of standing in front of the car to block a driver from leaving, I’m not sure what else to do, and even in that situation, I’m not a fan of asking the safety response team to function like trackside police and use their bodies as barriers. Makes sense for a pit lane official, but a member of the safety crew shouldn’t have to do more than stand to the side of a front wing and give hand signals to a driver to stay or go.

Q: Watching the Road America broadcast the next day there was lots of commentary about drivers running the alternates, I believe it became a red race. Like my question about overcuts and undercuts, is the best tire a matter of the difference in deg and the resulting pace drop off? How much can the weather play into this?

Atilla Veyssal

MP: Yes, it is. The compound that delivers the best blend of grip and lifespan for that grip is deemed the preferred tire. Weather is the biggest determining factor since ambient temperature and track surface temperature directly affect tire life and performance. Using generalisms, if it’s cold, the primaries might not perk up and give the kind of grip that’s desired, but maybe those cool conditions bring the alternates into frame as the happier tire for the day. Add 30 degrees to the day, and that might swing things in favor of the primaries for grip and duration and push the alternates to their thermal limit and bring their lifespan way down.

Q: Townsend Bell said something in one of the practice broadcasts about Road America being a track where the “fastest car wins.” I know early yellows created multiple fuel strategies, but two years in a row now I had my scanner set on the pole-sitter on the pace lap and heard the pit box tell their driver to “remember to save fuel.” That was before the race even started!!! I love strategy in racing, and I’ll admit watching the TV broadcast with all the info creates drama (not so much at the track without all the info), but I’d still like to see races where the “fastest car wins.”

I would think IndyCar and their analytics could figure out a race length that would force teams into a minimum number of stops that would allow all teams to go flat out after the final stop. Do you think that would be possible, and if so, would it make for a better show?

John Z., Cedarburg WI

MP: Fuel saving takes place in every single race in every series where refueling exists. The complaint that saving fuel means drivers aren’t trying hard, or the race is less racy because of fuel saving, is growing old.

Did anyone notice the difference in speed when Driver X ran a half-second slower on lap X at Road America because they were saving fuel? I doubt it. I’ll keep coming back to the other parallels in sports: Does a wide receiver run every single route at 100-percent energy expenditure for all four quarters? Of course not. They’d be crumpled on the sidelines before the end of the second quarter with cramps and dehydration. Did we see every player on the Pacers and Thunder sprint 94 feet at maximum speed on every play across 48 minutes in the NBA Finals? Of course not. They’d be in the locker room with oxygen masks and IVs in their arms before halftime.

They conserve energy in a strategic manner to be their best across the entirety of the game to give themselves the best chance of winning the game. So why would racing, where the cars do not carry a full allotment of fuel to complete the race, be any different? Same strategy.

Drivers save fuel from the outset to give themselves strategy options and to shorten their pit stops – less fuel burned means less time waiting on fuel to be replenished – to gain an advantage and win the game.

And if we’re unhappy with drivers who don’t use maximum fuel burn each lap, shouldn’t we also be complaining about failing to use maximum tire grip each lap? Drivers also employ strategies where they do not extract 100 percent from their tires every lap to ensure those tires deliver the best average lap times over a full stint. But that also happens in F1, where there’s no refueling. Maybe it’s time to switch to drag racing where zero conservation happens.

Q: Why is North American auto racing including IndyCar, NASCAR, sprint car, NHRA, etc. (except IMSA) always falling behind world, European and Asian auto racing categories in terms of technological innovation updates every two to five years? American auto racing uses conservative policy that deemed too slow for car technological innovation updates every 10 to 15 to 20 years. I think American auto racing should adopt the European direction in order to close the gap to world, European and Asian for a road relevance. I think also ACCUS should learn from Europe.

Let’s look at Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters did in the past – they adopted the Class 1 regulations in 2019 as well as returning to Coupes in 2012 for a technological relevance.

Therius Oktavio

MP: Tariffs. It’s gotta be the tariffs.

Q: What level of importance does Penske Entertainment assign to in-person ticket sales vs. TV ratings? I could be wrong, but anecdotally, it sounds like the crowd at most (if not all) of the races this year has met or exceeded expectations. Obviously strong ticket sales are never a bad thing, but how does it compare to TV ratings in determining the health of the series and in decision making moving forward?

Dan, Charleston, SC

MP: From Penske Entertainment Comms/Marketing VP Alex Damron just for you!

“They’re both critically important and the good news is they’re both moving in the right direction. Our viewership trajectory is well-documented, up 33 percent across the season. Beyond the Indy 500 sellout, we’ve also set new attendance records at many venues this year, including St. Pete and Long Beach. One of the things we’re really focused on right now is delivering an excellent event experience that makes someone more interested in following the series year-round. That means leaning into what we do best, incredible fan access that helps generate greater interest in our sport and drivers. This makes someone more likely to engage digitally after the race and ultimately tune-in to see how their new favorite driver does the next weekend.

“Our ratings will always be extremely critical on the commercial side of the sport. But big crowds make people (GA ticket holders, sponsors, media, paddock members, etc.) feel a part of something, and also help prospective promoters understand there’s room for more growth and new events.”

Q: What can IMSA do to improve their caution procedure, and why are they unwilling to adopt a slow zone/code 60/FCY procedure? Two hours and 53 minutes of a 6 hour race were run behind the safety car. As a trackside spectator, it was not only tough to watch, but tough to follow.

Also, what can be done to fix closing the pits at the time of caution? This was the second Watkins Glen race in a row where a downpour happens, a caution flies with cars off course, and the field trundles around at idle speed unable to pit because the pits are closed, and the emergency service regulations don’t have a provision for rain tires.