The RACER Mailbag, June 18

On Jun 19, 2025

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: Do you think Honda will hang around even though they won the Indy 500, with all the negative headlines that Roger Penske is generating?

The other is with Dodge announcing it will enter NASCAR Truck Series in 2026.We all know that’s just a badge, they all run Ilmor engines. With TV ratings being up – and I hope they continue through the rest of the season – hopefully that might entice Honda to hang around and maybe draw some interest for some other manufactures now that IndyCar has put a firm date on it.

AE, Danville

MARSHALL PRUETT: Might be semantics, but Roger isn’t generating the headlines. Actions by his teams are the causes of the headlines. Yep, that’s the hope.

Q: I’m no longer frustrated but genuinely mad. Pitwall fencing along the straightaways should be mandatory for all IndyCar venues. Do we need a death or horrific injury on live TV before this happens? Robin Miller had been talking about this for years. It’s time for IndyCar to finaly act. Make this two things in IndyCar I never want to see again.

Rob, Rochester, NY

MP: Some went up, for a brief period, at the Indy GP when the big crash sent flying parts over the wall in the mid-2010s. Other than that, I’m OK without them being installed, but I might be in the minority.

Q: What is wrong with RLL, specifically Graham Rahal at Gateway? Slowest finisher behind the rookie Abel in a Coyne machine. As a fellow Buckeye and lifelong Rahal fan, I’m just glad everyone is having fun. The crowd looked really good, we should definitely do more short ovals in prime time.

Speaking of, let’s never run St. Louis in any other time slot than after dark.

Hope you and Shabral are doing well. If it’s all right, I’d love to re-share the link to donate her fight.

Bring back Watkins Glen.

Phil, Chattanooga, TN

MP: Sweet of you, Phil. The fight continues, seven years on. RLL’s going through fairly typical growing pains, but the problem here is it looks and feels like a continuation of the problems they’ve had for a number of years. In reality, the team’s engineering group has gotten bigger and stronger, but it’s still a newish thing, with new members added or others moved to different cars or different roles. When that happens, you tend to get a lot of hit-or-miss weekends, which is what we’re seeing with Juncos Hollinger Racing as well, and JHR has gone through a nearly identical engineering change and growth phase during the offseason.

Graham’s output at the Indy GP was the peak for the team so far, but I’d point to rookie Louis Foster as the real through-line of potential for RLL. He’s a rookie, but he’s usually the fastest in qualifying or the strongest performer on race days. If he could just get to the end of a few races without cartoon anvils raining down on his car, RLL’s fortunes would be vastly different.

Q: I can’t help but think that all of the controversy surrounding Team Penske over the last two years is starting to have an effect. With all of the personnel shake-ups, is some of the Penske magic disappearing? It looked to me like Newgarden’s spotter missed the call to tell him to stay high. I could certainly be wrong about that, though.

Doug Mayer, Revelstoke, BC, Canada

MP: It doesn’t take much for a championship-winning organization to lose its edge. Think of Alex Palou’s contractual dramas in 2022 and how that took his sharpness away while trying to defend his title. Will Power took the crown in 2022 and then had his wife’s life-threatening health issues that made it hard for him to focus and repeat in 2023.

And then imagine what it must be like to deal with repeated imbroglios among the team as a whole and how that could make life harder to maintain the same supreme level of execution. Then see the three senior-most leaders fired, with at least one of them ranking as beloved by all, and that’s an emotional storm to try and survive. Team Penske’s had a forever reputation of being cold and robotic, but if you spend any time with the crew on pit lane, or in the garages, you know the newer and younger version of the team is anything but that. That said, they’ve also signed up to work for a team that expects perfection, and that takes a different personality – one that comes with mental fortitude and discipline.

Of those who remain, they’re incredibly strong, and talented, and that’s why the team was able to show up and show out at WWTR until the myriad problems and misfortunes took the trio out of the race. Hard to say how the month-long mess has affected the team as a whole, and it would be strange to think it’s had no impact, but when I think of all that’s gone wrong for Penske from Indy onward, most of it is a torrent of bad luck or driving errors.

Road America, where Power won and Newgarden finished second last year, feels like the perfect place for the team to put an end to this maddening streak and get back to where they belong.

Can Road America spark another reset for Team Penske? Joe Skibinski/IMS

Q: No matter the state of IndyCar management or controversy, I’m still optimistic about IndyCar’s future for one reason that we all saw Sunday night: IndyCar racing is fantastic! This race had everything. That said, I’m simply too jazzed up to sleep right now and I’ve got work tomorrow. Maybe Sunday night racing is optimal for FOX’s schedule, but not mine. Is this race going to be back to Saturday night for next year’s event?

Also, sometimes I feel like we curmudgeonly IndyCar fans get too caught up in the milieu to simply enjoy the sport. I’ve been guilty of this. Sunday night made me remember why I love this sport.

Bruiser from KY

MP: Said it many times last year and let’s say it again: IndyCar’s short-oval hybrid package is awesome. The hybrid weight remains an issue on road and street courses, but it is amazing on the non-speedway ovals. The Indy 500 was quite good, don’t get me wrong, but WWTR, Milwaukee, and Nashville were really special last year and WWTR did it again on Sunday. Assuming the tires match the track and cars at Iowa, we can hopefully add it to the list as well.

No clue where it falls next year, but the prime time slot was a gem. The 2026 schedule is said to be imminent; I was told confirming Mexico City after NASCAR’s race was the request, so we’re on the clock to find out where WWTR lands and whether IndyCar and FOX can convert a few more races to prime time slots.

Q: With how the commentary team brought it up, I’m sure you’re going to get a lot of complaints about the “delay” between Foster hitting the wall and the caution being thrown. I would like to toss in not my two cents, but a slightly more valuable five cents about what I noticed once full-speed replays were shown.

It is difficult to time accurately from my sofa at home, but best I can figure there was less than five seconds between Foster hitting the wall and Newgarden hitting Foster, and yellow lights started flashing about a second before Newgarden hit. That’s a three-four second reaction time by race control – unless they were looking directly at Foster when he hit the wall, as was clearly the case later with Malukas, they weren’t going to be much faster.

So I don’t think race control should be criticized for that delay. Frankly if that was the worst we ever saw from them, I would be quite happy.

As for the race overall, I consider Gateway the worst oval on the schedule… but that very well could end up being the best oval race of the season. And hey, looks like we might actually get a title fight this year!

FormulaFox

MP: Kirkwood left Indy down an impossible 150 points to Palou. Then Palou gets wrecked by Malukas and then the Ganassi team has its first significant miss of the season on setup with Palou. Then Kirk goes on a two-fer and slices that 150-point lead in half to 75 leaving WWTR. We do indeed have a title fight.

I hear you on the big crash caution. It did seem to take a long time to appear; my stopwatch had it at 4.75s and the collision itself at 5.25s after first contact by Foster. Where this reaction time is odd is found in the first and essentially identical crash in Turn 4 with Will Power, and my informal time-to-caution was 2.5s.

Then near the end of the race, Malukas has a repeat of the Power and Foster impacts at Turn 4, albeit much lighter, and the time-to-caution was approximately 1.3s. It was nearly instantaneous. Why, then, the middle crash for Foster took between two and four times as long for the yellow lights to be activated on the steering wheels and lights encircling the track, is beyond me.

Q: The penalties for Malukas and McLaughlin both felt necessary and unavoidable. The very next stop for Malukas under green required the exact same launch. It’s just the fast lane was empty. How were drivers supposed to get out of the box into the transition lane without hitting crew or equipment for the car ahead?

IndyCar kind of has to call the penalty, but ouch.

Ryan in West Michigan

MP: I always default to the question that isn’t being asked: How, then, did the other 20-plus drivers get out of the box without hitting equipment and go to the slow lane instead of the fast lane? If it was such an impossible task, we’d have seen dozens of combined penalties throughout the race.

Not much to debate when it comes to Malukas’s penalty. Chris Jones/IMS Photo

Q: Enjoyed Sunday night’s race very much, but the Newgarden crash really panicked me for a brief moment when I thought that his cockpit might be vulnerable had it been a little closer to the pit lane.

I watched a few replays and want to know if, in fact, the driver’s head is vulnerable to intrusion from something like a narrow wall or pole if the worst possible scenario occurs? Were you able to talk to him after the crash?

Tom Patrick, Baja California

MP: I didn’t speak with him. Yes, despite the aeroscreen and halo, these are open-wheel and open-top cars, so a pole could go into the cockpit from the top down. Other than that, the upper halo ring is what acts as a barrier for walls and whatnot from coming across a driver’s helmet.

Q: What happens to an IndyCar tub after it has been damaged beyond repair? I’m thinking of more severe wrecks than those that might become show cars or rollers for pit stop practice. Does the whole thing end up in a landfill, or are there any components that are able to be salvaged and grafted onto other cars?

Pete, Rochester, NY

MP: Depends on the situation. If it’s not broken apart, yes, a show car or pit stop car is the common route. If it’s worse, or a fatality was experienced, being destroyed and sent to a landfill had been done. There’s nothing significant that I can think of to graft from a DW12 tub onto others.

Q: I don’t fully understand my love for IndyCar. I have accepted this and I guess those around me have as well. Like a romantic relationship, especially early on, there are nervous butterflies, jealousy, embarrassment, a heightened concern for one’s physical appearance, pure joy and then later, deep trust, unconditional love and a bunch of other stuff that is not fully understood.

Sunday’s race at WWTR was awesome. Hopefully, a first date with IndyCar for many. Yes, I was embarrassed for Jack Harvey when he was a little too late for the grid walk, worried he made a bad impression with hopefully millions watching. Yeah, a network cameraman fell over a driver while chasing him, landing on the ground with his camera pointed back at his own face. I had nervous butterflies during the formation laps when drivers were expected to change from three wide to two hoping they would get the start right. I experienced pure joy when it looked like 10 55-gallon drums of Shell race fuel exploded simultaneously along the straight.

Later, watching drivers race wheel to wheel two or more wide, Conor Daly running the high-line sans some stupid NASCAR racing glue just like everyone wants drivers to, and all of this with the highest level of deep trust and maybe just a little unconditional love? I relied on Hinch and Townsend to help me understand, and ultimately just accept unconditionally, fuel mileage and pit strategies, along with Will Buxton. As much as I wanted Conor to win and then several other drivers who were rotating through the winners circle in my head, I got to see a celebration that for many years has been kept secret on television, the champagne podium celebration.

It’s good to know that IndyCar will always be there for me, just like my lovely wife who loved Belle Isle and tolerates the Detroit GP. I personally loved it. Now begins the arduous process of figuring out how to make WWTR a worthy camping trip?

Jeff, Eaton Rapids, MI

MP: Favorite letter in a while, Jeff. Thank you.

Q: Hello! I have two items:

First, the commentators in the FOX booth, mostly Will Buxton. seemed to think IndyCar should have punched the yellow button much sooner for the crash involving Foster and Newgarden. Will seemed extra-critical. Was it really a mistake?

Second, I never thought I’d miss the Mailbag as much as I did last week. Just so you know, I love me some Mailbag.

John, Downers Grove

MP: Kind of you to say, John. Sometimes the commentators get super grumpy about something and then half of the questions for the Mailbag are about the super grumpy thing, and I often disagree with their take. This isn’t one of them.

Maybe the button needs to be bigger. And yellower. Michael Levitt/Honda

Q: I usually spend my time writing to you about IndyCar’s failure to change course with their hybrid decision that has really proven to be total dud. Expensive for teams, and adds nothing to the on-track product.

On Sunday I found myself with a pit in my stomach after watching the crash between Josef Newgarden and Louis Foster. While the crash was unfolding, I immediately flashed back to the horrible day of 9/15/01. Louis and Joseph were fortunate; it could have been much worse.

Can IndyCar explain what took so long for the track to go yellow after Foster hit the wall? Will Buxton on the FOX broadcast commented that it took at least five seconds for the yellow to be displayed. Later in the race, when Malukas contacted the wall, the track immediately went yellow. Was race control asleep at the switch? What was Newgarden’s spotter was relaying to him as Foster was bouncing off the wall?

Michigan Matt

MP: I’m sure they could, but would formal explanations change anything? As noted, two of the three Turn 4 crashes had caution lights on in 2.5s or less. The big one was around 4.75s, which is a long time when 1.3s and 2.5s were seen in the other two.

Would a faster yellow have prevented the big one? We don’t know. Maybe. Possibly. What was or wasn’t being said to Newgarden from above or pit lane to warn him of the crash? We don’t know.

Using the end results, it feels safe to say Foster’s crash wasn’t detected as it was happening, and if it was, you’d expect the person in charge of switching the caution lights on to hit that switch ASAP. So it either wasn’t seen right away, or there was an issue with the switch or the system from being activated.

And if Josef’s spotter saw it happen when it happened, or it was seen by his strategist on pit lane, you can assume they’d have said so with zero delay. So it either wasn’t seen right away, or someone was on the radio at the time and the message couldn’t be delivered, or there was another issue.

Overstating the obvious, but if race control saw it happen, there’s no reason for them to not hit the switch because they did it early in the race when Power had the same crash. So, it wasn’t seen at the time of impact or there was a technical issue. Same with his spotter/pit lane. Otherwise, the light’s on in 2.5s or less, or he’s told to take avoiding action well before he’s out of Turn 4.

Q: It’s good to see that the date change (I assume because of NASCAR) didn’t appear to affect the attendance at Gateway.

The last time I went to Gateway in 2021, was a very last-minute decision but I was able to purchase tickets at around 3pm on race day, and go and have a decent race to watch. This year was the first time I could go since then, but I only found out on race day that it would be possible. However ticket sales had already ended despite the grandstands not being full. I assume that the track would rather have had my money than not. Do you know if there is any particular reason why ticket sales ended on race day?

Ian, St Louis

MP: I don’t, and that’s bizarre. It was a decent crowd, but there were empty seats. Maybe the seats were sold and the potential for poor weather or some other reason kept folks from sitting in them.

Q: Referencing back to the ICONIC project before the DW12/V6 era, has IndyCar engaged with fans, universities, and businesses for input on setting objectives for the 2028 engine, chassis and marketing?

Craig, Newport Beach, CA

MP: Not to my knowledge.

Q: Can you explain how Dixon got the lead, then pitted and kept the lead at WWTR? I was confused and have talked to several who do not understand how that worked.

Brian Hartman

MP: All about timing of the lap 195 caution for Malukas getting into Turn 4. Dixon was 12th on lap 188, then had the 10 car, the 76 car, then the 4, 21, 26, 5, and 8 pitted from in front of him by lap 191, then the 3 pitted on lap 192, and he was up to fifth. Then the 27, 66, and 14 pitted on lap 193 and he was promoted to second.

Then the 18 pitted on lap 194, one lap before the caution, and when it went yellow, he was leading and every driver was at least one lap down to him… Nobody nearby needed to pit under the caution, so Dixon went in, got fuel and tires, came out, and was still in the lead due to having that one-lap advantage when he went in on lap 200.

He lost the one-lap advantage by pitting, but was still in first place, and took the lap 207 restart in first. Just wild.

The timing of the caution for Malukas played right into Dixon’s hands. James Black/IMS Photo

Q: I’ve heard that Honda (probably Chevy/Ilmor too) gives away a few free engine leases to their favorite/top teams or drivers. Is that true?

Tyler, Milwaukee

MP: Yes. For decades. And by most manufacturers in top racing series.

Q: How long before Roger Penske or Chip Ganassi start looking at Kyle Kirkwood, assuming they’re not already? He seems the real deal, but I suspect he’s locked in at Andretti for the foreseeable future?

Gareth Holt, London, UK

MP: He’s signed through at least 2026, so I’m sure he’ll be a hot commodity if he doesn’t sign an extension with Andretti.

Q: How is it possible that Kyle Kirkwood’s car went through tech inspection after he won the race in Detroit? His front wing was damaged (by his own action) and this could lead to a dangerous situation on track. Other than that, the front wing did not meet the necessary measurements. What makes this different from the Indy 500 where cars got fined after technical inspection?

Barend Blom, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

MP: I genuinely don’t understand how this is a mystery. The wing was broken. And not broken in a way that provides an advantage, but created a disadvantage. So it’s not subject to the same rules of inspection. It’s been that way in racing forever. Two NASCAR Cup drivers tangle with each other, have damaged bodywork that no longer conforms to the bodywork template, and those drivers aren’t penalized on post-race tech. Same thing here.

Q: Do you have an update on Linus Lundqvist’s 2025 race year activities? Any likelihood that he might return to IndyCar in 2026? He sure seemed to have a very good rookie year at CGR in 2024 to come up empty in IndyCar for 2025.

Tom Fitzgerald, CPA, Las Vegas, NV

MP: Other than hearing he’s suing Ganassi, no, I’m not aware of any race dates on his calendar.

Q: I have a few questions regarding Indy Car. First, what is the small shark fin on the top of the right sidepod for?

Also, while watching qualifying on TV for the 500, the announcers spoke of Jacob Abel’s crew trying to cool his heat-soaked engine after a too-slow qualifying run. I get what heat soaking is. They were running cooling fans into the radiators. etc., and even had him go out and run a slow lap or two to cool it down. So is there a way the crew circulates the coolant while the fans are blowing the air into the radiators? Also, why not just run the engines at high idle when they come in and spray the radiators with water, which would cool them down in about a minute or two? Is that against the rules, or would it maybe cause damage to the engine?

Gary Stanton, Mondovi, WI

MP: Communications antenna. Against the rules. Teams could do all kinds of smart and quick things to bring engine temperatures down if they were allowed.

Q: Does Dennis Hauger have an IndyCar seat promised to him next year? Going from F2 to Indy NXT doesn’t make sense from a career development perspective.

Will, Indy

MP: It makes sense for a driver like Hauger who did three seasons in F2, was going nowhere after a best result of eighth in the championship, and decided it was better to stop wasting time trying to get to F1 and to give the U.S. a try.

As most IndyCar team owners have told me, a F2 driver who was never inside the top five is going to be better and more developed than almost any front-running Indy NXT driver, which checks out (see C. Lundgaard, two seasons of F2, best championship finish of seventh).

Smart move by Hauger, who’s making the other NXT rookies and veterans look underwhelming.

Q: In a response to the question about Honda’s involvement in the last Mailbag you cited reduction in cost as one of their primary concerns.

It’s an old topic and I have read multiple times that the costs are too high for producing more engines. (I believe this made engine leases somewhat scarce some years ago.) Is that still the case? If so, this has always seemed backward to me. I can understand that R&D drives costs up, but isn’t the payback in leasing as many engines as you possibly can?

I always figured that any engine manufacturer’s primary investment was in R&D (high risk/reward trade-off) which pays back when they sell/lease more units, which drives the average cost down. Not sure how much R&D is going into a spec engine, but even so why would producing fewer engines be more cost effective for Honda?

Further, if IndyCar engines are low sophistication spec engines (i.e. R&D relatively low compared to most motorsports) why can’t Honda, whose core competence is manufacturing efficiency make money? Don’t they have a break-even number of engines they have to lease, and anything above that is profit?

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that they don’t have the infrastructure to produce more engines and would have to invest in more factory capacity or re-allocate it from another race program.

Mike

MP: Fairly straightforward answers here. Chevy is given a fixed annual budget to work from with its IndyCar engine program. Same with Honda. If that wasn’t the case, and both could spend freely, they’d have facilities that are five times as big, have a thousand-plus employees apiece, and make 1200hp engines that are junk after each session.

But since that’s not that case, unfortunately, they have to supply and support what they can with the budgets they’re given. And as we’ve seen, that’s covering 13-16 full-time entries each and a few one-offs at Indy. Has nothing to do with efficiency or manufacturing capabilities. It’s managing a limited budget.

As we’ve documented since the current formula debuted in 2012, every lease comes at a loss. I could never get Chevy or Honda to say what the exact number was, but when I asked, “Is it under a half-million per lease?” I got a laugh from former HRC technical director Roger Griffiths, who said, “I wish.” So making more engines and signing more leases isn’t a money maker; it’s a money loser.

That’s part of their budgets, which can be considered a marketing expense since both are known to spend eight figures per season for all that’s involved to supply engines.

IndyCar engine supply is a numbers game in more ways than one. Chris Jones/IMS Photo

Q: I’ve been amused by the recent discovery of cars being caught out of spec.

I love the old NASCAR stories about how teams bent the rules – (innovation until caught). The creativity of the Smokey Yunicks of the world is fascinating.

I know the importance of image for IndyCar team sponsors makes the impact of getting caught difficult to justify for the teams. My question is in two parts. First, how much cheating goes on in IndyCar today? With a spec car, a small increase in performance can have a significant impact on the team’s performance.

Second, with your experience as a mechanic and team manager, do you have any cheating stories where the statute of limitations is over, and you can share?

Wally, Eden Prairie, MN

MP: Hard to answer how much cheating goes on today because if it was known, those are the kinds of things that would get mentioned to IndyCar.

My career was pretty boring from that perspective. We intentionally changed the rev limit on our Oldsmobile engine in qualifying at Charlotte in 1997 (I think it was Charlotte) to 500rpm above what was allowed (I think it was 11,000 and should have been 10,500) when we were convinced the Menard team was blowing way passed the 10,500 limit – it was pretty obvious to our ears – and had alerted officials to our suspicion.

They told us the Menard ECUs were checked and they were all legal at 10,500. We couldn’t figure out how that was true, so we set ours to 11,000 to see if they were actually looking. We didn’t change our gearing, so there was no concerns about revving the motor above 10,500, and sure enough, they checked, saw we weren’t legal, but also looked at our RPM traces and saw the motor stayed under 10,500, and we were told to correct it and weren’t penalized.

Years later, the story of Menard modifying their wiring harnesses to connect to a hidden second ECU with the non-10,500 rev limit made the rounds… Our little stunt was to inspect whether the inspectors were doing what they said they were doing, which they were, but when a team allegedly installs a second ECU to hide its high-revving capabilities and all the inspectors see is the fake 10,500 limit in what they think is the one and only ECU, you have a problem.

Q: In response to John from Ann Arbor’s message about volunteers cleaning up the Speedway: The volunteer groups get paid by IMS for the work. The groups use the Speedway cleanup job as an annual fundraiser.

Rocky, Indianapolis

MP: Great to hear!

Q: In the 6/4 Mailbag you mentioned Andretti Global being better without Michael there. This surprises me. Without asking for specifics, is this due to performance or interpersonal dynamics, cough, Cadillac F1, between he and the moneybags Towriss and Walter? Most of us believe IndyCar, and Andretti Global, is worse off without Michael there.

Also, since it still is Andretti Global, can we assume the check Michael received had a lot of zeroes on it?

Mike DeQuardo, Elkhart Lake and Sheboygan

MP: I’ve asked a lot of people there about the change and yes, all have said the team is better after the change, so that’s the internal take. A greater investment on the engineering side was made as well, I’m told, which likely accounts for the team being a threat from the start of the season.

I agree – I don’t believe IndyCar is better without Michael, but the team itself does seem to be more competitive after the change. I can’t imagine Michael left without many new zeroes.

Q: Had a discussion with my brothers while at IMS for eight days of practice/racing this May. We’ve eaten at Charlie Brown’s, Long’s, Workingman’s Friend, and the Mug. Not all in the same day or even the same trip, but it got us thinking. What was Robin Miller’s daily trifecta/pick three? Charlie Brown’s for breakfast? Workingman’s lunch? Mug dinner? Box of Long’s at the desk? Did you ever complete one of these with him?

Team Stache

MP: I knew you didn’t eat at all in the same day because dead people don’t write letters.

He swore off Mug in the later years. Had all with him except Charlie Brown’s. He’d bring Long’s in on a regular basis. There’s a Mexican restaurant that was a favorite, but more for the conversations with friends than the food itself. His palate was unlike anything I’ve seen with a human adult. Constant barrage of sugary sodas and candy. Donuts. Burgers. Plain potato chips. Cold fried chicken. No vegetables. Etc. If this sounds like everything a toddler wants, you’re correct. What a life.

What a life indeed. IMS Photo

Q: If IndyCar drops back to a single engine supplier, how about going back to multiple tire manufacturers as a differentiator? Seeing all of the Goodyear marketing around the 500 this year made me yearn for the days when tires were made to optimize both performance and durability. (And when Big Al and Bobby drove for opposing teams.) That should make for better racing, and something for Hinch and Townsend to talk about other than tire deg during road and street courses.

Fred, St. Louis suburbs

MP: Not so much. What makes soft tires get even softer and gripper and create a lot more deg? Competition between tire manufacturers. I’d love to have multiple tire suppliers, regardless of how many engine suppliers are in the series. But you also get grip battles on road and street courses and short ovals, so there will be downsides for one of the brands and fields of spent rubber lining the tracks.

Q: After all the hoopla, haven’t seen the Driver’s Eye view helmet cam recently. Technical issues? Cost issues? Teams/driver complaints?

Greg Lepore, Charlottesville, VA

MP: We did a story early in the season that mentioned it was scheduled for use at four events.

Q: How good was Palou’s car at Indy? I watched a lot of the practices and it looked to me like he was absolutely equal to Newgarden in pace and in traffic. It appeared to me he was playing possum and telling everyone he was not in Newgarden’s league. Everyone, especially the FOX crew fell for it. Was he as good and fast as I thought?

MP: Without a doubt. But if anybody didn’t know Palou was due for a win at Indy, they weren’t paying attention when he arrived as a rookie in 2020 with Dale Coyne and qualified seventh and returned with Ganassi and finished second in 2021. He was fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2024. I can’t think of anyone who was more ready than Palou to get his first 500 victory.

Q: With a little time passed since the 500 and the flood of feedback and discussion kind of dying down, one thing stuck out to me that I hope IndyCar is aware of (and if not, this entry raises). I know you don’t work for FOX so I’ll save most of my criticism or not about their broadcast for another venue.

My complaint that I hope IndyCar will take note of is the quickly deteriorating state of the post-race traditions. For several years now the winning driver has stopped on the start/finish line, which was fine at first for Helio to climb the fence, but now with the elevator ride to the podium, and especially with TV bringing the NASCAR-style post-race out to the track, the post-race traditions almost didn’t make it on air this year before the TV window closed.

Hopefully IndyCar leaders will remind drivers of the importance of the post-race traditions, and will strongly encourage them to come straight to victory lane, ask the TV partner not to bring the interview out to the track, and I dare say maybe even get rid of the elevator ride up to the podium.

Joseph, Atlanta, GA

MP: Not sure if you’ve caught any of the Cup races on Amazon Prime, but those have been amazing, and a lot of it is due to the importance placed on pre- and post-race coverage. I realize there’s a giant difference between free time to chat in a tight network TV window and the endless free time on a streamer like Prime. But if staying on FOX isn’t an option, maybe making it standard to kick to a FS1 or FS2 would be a worthy workaround. I’m watching the NBA Finals and you get a solid round of interviews on ABC and then it’s straight to ESPN for more post-game interviews and analysis.

F1 does a brilliant job of this as well, where the end of the race is only the end of the race, not the near-end of the broadcast. You get a ton of insights, analysis, and driver/team principal interviews. With FOX, so far, the end of the race is dang near the end of the broadcast, and that just makes it hard to get new fans to sink their teeth into the series and also leaves the longstanding fans wanting more than what they’re getting.

The race ends at the checkered flag, but the coverage doesn’t have to. James Black/IMS Photo

Q: Watching a couple of Le Mans documentaries from the 1980s, I noticed what looks like rows of chain link fences in some of the runoff areas, particularly at the bottom of the hill after the Dunlop Bridge before the Esses and in the Ford Chicane. I would have thought a gravel trap would have been sufficient enough to slow an out-of-control car down. It looked pretty dangerous should any of the open-cockpit cars hits one of the fence posts the wrong way, and could seriously hurt the driver. I’m glad we’ve come a long way in terms of track safety.

Had chain link fencing ever done more harm than good when slowing a car down? While on the subject, what’s been the sketchiest track safety measures you have seen in your career?

Brandon Karsten

MP: Chain-link fences… definitely not good. First thought is Toronto through 1996 where the fencing was behind hard objects like the exposed tree that Jeff Krosnoff struck and died from. Texas had light poles in front of the fences, which Davey Hamilton hit and suffered brutal damage to his legs and feet. I think it was Toronto in 2013, getting ready to shoot the start in Turn 1, where I noticed I could freely move the fencing positioned atop the barriers. There was nothing that actually connected the fencing to the barriers, which meant we’d have been strained through the mesh if a car got into it.

Q: While not Rush, to paraphrase Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” we need to accept certain inalienable truths: Cleveland, Texas, Michigan, Nazarath, Indy NXT at the big track will never return, successful IndyCar drivers will always generate F1 rumors (most will never go), driving an active F1 track is a horrible idea, drivers will always complain, teams will always try to skirt the rules, and as we get older, racing was always better in the past.

Also, random and sad fact – the DW 12 has contested approximately 12% of all IndyCar races in the history of the sport. Now I’ve depressed you, since I may be writing this after having a few Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’s, two questions:

As his career winds down, have we collectively minimized the greatness of Will Power? Everyone talks about the greatness of Scott Dixon, and he really is one of the greats. But Will Power… he is fourth on the all-time wins list, has two championships, and an Indy 500 win. Also, the most poles in the history of the sport. Yet I worry some people view him as a less combustible Paul Tracy. Maybe folks should view PT as a less successful version of Fast Willy P?

Next question: With the Canadian GP conflicting with the Indy 500, any chance there are some modifications in start times for both events? For instance, would FOX be open to a 12 noon ET / 11 am CT start for the 500, with F1 starting around 3pm (vs 2pm), and then you roll right into NASCAR around 5:30? I know there is worry about race overlap, but if all TV networks (including Amazon here) work together, it can still work.

I can’t imagine F1 would want to start Canada at 2pm (normal time) with a projected finish at 3:45(ish)pm, that could conflict with the finish of the 500. I’d assume that is a win for IndyCar, especially in year one of a new rules package when a team will most certainly have a massive advantage and a driver would be out in front by 10-15 seconds. [ED: This letter arrived before the Canadian GP/Indy clash was confirmed].

John Tabasco

MP: No doubt on Power. But Dixon has six championships. Different league to everyone. Will is an all-time great. Full stop. I just hope he can retire with either a third championship, which would be huge, or a second Indy win. Alex Palou’s only been here since the start of the decade and has three championships, an Indy 500, and could be on his way to a fourth title. Newgarden has two and two since 2012. I’d guess most fans would put Josef atop Alex and Will since he has the two Indy wins.

Of the 27 full-time IndyCar drivers, only four are champions. Will’s one of those four, obviously, which is a big deal. He’s tied for third on the list among those four with Newgarden, and only Newgarden has multiple 500 wins. Moving up on either list would certainly make it easier to position him even higher in that pool of all-timers.

I hope Roger Penske, Doug Boles and Eric Shanks from FOX Sports hold the damn line and do absolutely nothing different with start times and broadcast plans for next year’s Indy 500. The day IndyCar adjusts the Indy 500 for the Canadian Grand Prix, they may as well wave the white flag.

Next year’s Canadian GP/Indy 500 clash is unfortunate (and dumb), but the two races are not expected to overlap every year. Kym Illman/Getty Images

Q: Help a fan learn more please – my research came up short.

1. What was the IndyCar year with peak power? I know boost loss and rev gains probably evened out, but which year was top? 2000?

2. When did the guys stop rev matching on downshifts?

3. When would you say was CART closest to F1 in terms of road/street course pace?

Udo Schueller, Germany

MP: 1972-75. When paddle-shifting was introduced. Likely in the latter half of 1994 and 1995 when F1 sought to lose power and speed in the wake of 1994’s crashes and deaths.

Q: Zak Brown stated that his F1 drivers are not interested in doing the 500. He did say there could be a surprise from the F1 team. What is the surprise? I’m thinking maybe they have interest participating in the Indy road course race? What are your thoughts?

Chris, Cincinnati, OH

MP: I was on that call with Zak and he mentioned it in context of the Indy 500. Zak loves Little Al and owns one or two of his CART cars. I keep waiting to see posts of Al at PitFit getting ready for a 500 return with Arrow McLaren.

Q: Why was Santino Ferrucci not DQed after his car was found to be illegal at Detroit? It seems that the Indy 500 penalties set the bar for what would happen. It just seems like different results for similar violations.

Paul, Indianapolis

MP: Because we don’t live in a world where every infraction comes with the death penalty. Doing 55.1mph in a 55mph zone is different than doing 100 in a 55. Or should a speeding ticket for 55.1 cost just as much as the 100mph fine?

The car wasn’t below minimum weight. If it was, it would have been DQd. It was above minimum weight, but the team got the amount of driver ballast wrong. There was nothing like it at Indy.

Q: I have a few random things.

1. I doubt there was ever a day when F1 and IndyCar raced so close to each other geographically on the same day as Barber/Miami this year.

2. I know Roger Penske has his reasons but it can’t help the Detroit attendance with NASCAR racing in Michigan the following weekend.

3. Prime’s coverage of NASCAR has a fuel mileage graphic so they can tell who is saving more or less. It would be great to adapt that to IndyCar with all the talk about “hitting their fuel number.”

4. I think I agree with Zak Brown talking about rising budgets not necessarily being bad for IndyCar and weeding out the bottom teams. Think about an IndyCar budget vs NASCAR in the early 2000s compared to today. Same with F1 (pre budget cap). I don’t think the relative cost is too much, just the public perceived value of the series isn’t high enough and needs to change. Raise the profile to match the budget instead of trying to lower a budget to fit the current value.

Andy Brumbaugh

MP: OK, but so we’re clear, you can “weed out” today’s bottom teams, and then what do we have? New bottom teams. And then you can weed them out. And then you’d have new bottom teams. Just the way it is in sports where they keep score. There will always be bottom teams. What this is really about is getting rid of teams that aren’t super wealthy, which sounds like the most un-American thing possible. Kick out the people who’ve been here, for a good while, and who help develop drivers and engineers and crew that get snapped up by the bigger teams, for what reason, exactly?

Fun note: Pato O’Ward made his IndyCar debut driving for Mike Harding. Then Carlin Racing. Then Arrow McLaren. Nolan Siegel? Dale Coyne, then Juncos Hollinger Racing. Then Arrow McLaren.

I totally understand where Zak’s coming from with wanting to create more exclusivity to drive value up, but where do you set the criteria? Is the first tier of safety reserved for teams that have won championships? If so, AJ Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Chip Ganassi Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and Team Penske are the only five who are locked in.

If the second tier is teams who’ve won Indy 500s, it’s those five plus Meyer Shank Racing. So that’s six out of the 11 teams.

That leaves five to consider for booting out of the series. Want to know what Arrow McLaren has in common with Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing and PREMA Racing? Zero championships and zero Indy 500 wins.

Ouch. Karl Zemlin/IMS Photo

Q: The Indy 500 is the only race with multiple days of on-track practice, and I would assume the rest of the tracks don’t have enough. Based on your experience, the current car, and available data to gather/analyze, what’s the minimum amount of on-track practice time a team needs for a full race weekend? Let’s assume it’s a one-car team, there are no gremlins, and race-representative track conditions. Is there a direct relationship between the number of cars and time needed, does this stand for each track type (IMS, short oval, road course, and street course), and how much can the DIL-simulator compensate?

Atilla Veyssal, Madison, WI

MP: The short answer is IndyCar could do one-day events at every venue, but promoters want at least two or three days of revenue-generating opportunities to cover their costs. Unless IndyCar cuts its sanctioning fees to adjust to single-day events where tracks can earn enough to pay the fees and make a profit, which isn’t likely, the three-day standard is here to stay. WWTR’s two-day deal is great, but it’s a rarity. One long opening practice session for teams to learn the tires and deg profiles, fuel mileage, and long-run setups, then qualify, and then race.

It would make for better racing because fewer teams would be fully educated before the start of the race. No overnight simulator data, DIL support, etc. It would make for less perfect cars, and that’s where the fun comes in. When almost everybody is heavily prepared for the big test, the scores are high. When more teams are having to make more guesses than they want, you get more risers and fallers, and that’s where drama is made.

Q: I saw a picture of a GTP car with the fenders off. I could just see how it would look with a wing on the nose and all I could think was, “Why aren’t we doing this?”

If a new IndyCar is going to cost the teams too much, just go with established tech. Then, bring along all those manufacturers. I know the IMSA engines don’t fit in an IndyCar chassis. Fine.

In business, “Keep It Simple, Stupid” is a well-regarded strategy I’m sure Mr. Penske can appreciate it. Fenderless GTP cars. It really doesn’t need to be more than that.

So, what do you think?

SJK

MP: Those Penske Porsche 963s go for $3.9 million apiece. Costs about $1.2 million for a new Dallara DW12. Tech support for a year in GTP isn’t too far from the cost of an annual IndyCar engine lease, so yes, there’s a steep difference in vehicle prices. Fenderless GTPs are just fenderless IMSA cars, not Indy cars. I’d rather stick with true open-wheelers.

Q: So, it is time to at least start talking about the new car and engine.

Even if the series keeps a 2.2-liter engine with an ERS (or not an ERS) or a new engine formula, shouldn’t they build the new car with a pretty universal set of fitments so that a broader engine formula could be applied given the uncertainty of the racing engine market? In other words, a lot of different engines should be able to be fitted to this car. If, for nothing else, options, right?

A lighter, sleeker, more nimble, total change in the view of the car is needed. This car is old and has a nose that looks like that of a mosquito. The series needs to avoid 15 years of “they had a chance to make it look modern and they only went halfway.” Have you heard anything new on the car design?

We are many years now from the Boston Consulting Group findings. Do you know of any other means that Penske is trying to gain information to address the ever-changing landscape of motor racing and entertainment in general?

I was all-in on driving to Gateway, but on a Sunday night with work the next day… terrible scheduling, right?

Tim Gleason, Chicago, IL

MP: Hard to make a car lighter, sleeker, and more nimble if the engine bay needs to carry a wider array of engines which could be wider, taller, and heavier, FWIW. I don’t believe Roger or his executives lack information to address the changing landscape of racing and entertainment. The question that’s missing is what do you think they should do with that information?

What are we going to be left to talk about when we actually do have a new car? Karl Zemlin/IMS Photo

Q: All the recent tech violations and the penalties doled out to IndyCar teams make it seem like somebody woke up to these penalties when this may have been happening all along.

Nevertheless, it seems silly to make every little piece like the molding around the gearbox, some items around the hybrid unit in the cars, to need to abide a certain default standard. My view is the opposite. While IndyCar can make the suggested standard for mounting any of these parts to be a certain way, they should make these items to be open for teams to explore the best way to do these mountings and fitting provided it meets the base specifications in terms of loads, Force, weight, tension and whatever applies.

It’s incredible to think that IndyCar has gone complete 180 degrees from what it was 20 years in terms of being spec. Their aim should always be to make it more open for teams to explore the best way to do things

Shyam

MP: I don’t entirely disagree, but I sure as hell wouldn’t include safety components in that freedom. Doug Boles repeatedly mentioned in the penalty press conference for the two Penske cars that the attenuator, like every other safety item, isn’t free for teams to mess with as they see fit. There’s a reason why Penske’s modifications were illegal, and that’s because it involved a safety device. Those items are IndyCar’s forbidden fruit. They were long before May 18, 2025, and will remain that way long after. As for the rest, yes, I hate the idea of mechanics being terrified to make the tiniest assembly error, and not for the sake of speed or safety, but because it isn’t 100-percent spec. But that’s also nothing new.

Have we lost the plot with the hyper-perfection-only approach that’s taken root since Pole Day? Yes. But that’s what IndyCar has chosen to embrace.

Q: I have two untimely questions, as they should have been asked earlier in the IndyCar season:

I believe Barber was the race where everyone was forced onto a three-stop strategy by needing to run two sets of each tire. Why was this done and not repeated so far (I don’t watch practices)? In my opinion I would have rather seen any tire mandate dropped to open the strategy.

When the boost is turned up for Fast Friday and Indy 500 qualifying, about how much life is taken away from that engine (percent or miles)? I believe this boost is equal to non-oval spec boost, so do oval engines tend to have a longer life?

Atilla Veyssal

MP: Indy GP, not Barber. It was done for the reasons I and others wrote in our stories about the rule change. The same engines use three levels of boost at different tracks and adjust as needed, so no, there isn’t a boost-to-life equation. They blow up or survive in all three boost levels. Failures tend to happen most often when they’re close to the 2500-mile change-out.

Q: I stopped for gas and a coffee the other day at a Sunoco station in rural Pennsylvania and was amazed at all the signage there was for Sunoco’s partnership with the Stake F1 Kick Sauber team. On the flipside, I was at my local Honda dealership for service the next day and not a single mention of Honda being in IndyCar and having just won the Indy 500. I don’t get it.

Dave from JC

MP: Does the Daytona 500-winning manufacturer have a nationwide dealership promotional campaign created, approved, mass produced, shipped, and installed from coast to coast within three weeks of the victory? If so, Honda is lagging. If not, maybe Honda, or Chevy the last two years, etc., is working on something that won’t happen overnight within a massive corporation. And if Honda isn’t, then maybe there’s another reason. Maybe give it a few more weeks and then let’s sound the alarm?

Q: Does the drivers’ championship need to be larger than a series’ biggest race for the series to be healthy?

This question has lingered in my mind leading into this year’s Indy 500. I started following IndyCar in 2019 and was born after the split, so I have zero pulse on IndyCar’s heyday and if this has always been its case.

I would guess that the F1 drivers’ and constructors’ championships have always been bigger than Monaco, and for NASCAR I would guess that currently their crown jewel races are larger, but pre-“post-season” they weren’t.

I believe the answer to my question is “yes” but both IMSA and the WEC break this. Is it due to their formula, marketing, or something else?

Atilla Veyssal

MP: Not sure I fully understand the inspiration for the question. Most sports fans remember the winners of the biggest events in whatever they follow, and that big event is integral in the health of those sports. But there are outliers, of course. Monaco is F1’s biggest, but victories there seem to have lost the same internationally recognized importance. Meanwhile most F1 championships this decade, with last year’s as an exception, have been dreadfully boring, but F1’s popularity has only risen.

Last year’s Indy 500 was a thriller and the championship was quite strong and entertaining. The year prior, Indy was also strong but Palou had the title in hand early. All signs point to IndyCar’s health increasing in 2025, but it hasn’t been particularly exciting through Detroit. WWTR was the best race of the year.

WWTR put on a good show. Matt Fraver/IMS Photo

Q: Marshall, you and Ron realize that the Coca-Cola 600 (or “World 600″as it was known pre-sponsor days) used to run on separate days? This is what allowed Bobby and Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough to race both on the same weekend. There were times the races were almost a week apart!

Also, about that “last Sunday of May.” The 500 was on Memorial Day (May 30) proper through 1970, then moved around until settling on the Sunday of the three-day holiday weekend in 1974, which is also the first year both races were held on the same date.

Jim Thurman, Mojave Desert, CA

MP: Thanks, Jim.

Q: I recall an article around the time of Malukas Wristgate. I believe you mentioned that one of the issues McLaren was having was that Chevrolet didn’t want to help them with Malukas’s contract because they didn’t view him as a tier 1 driver… Does Honda have the same driver ranking system as Chevy? Do you have any insight as to who is considered tier 1 drivers and so on? With Will Power’s 2026 location floating around, is he someone that Chevy would step in and say “hang on a sec, he’s one of ours” and help keep him in a now-tie? I’d imagine Palou is a Honda untouchable, as well as Dixon and maybe Herta/Kirkwood?

Tim, Connecticut

MP: As I understand, Honda/HRC was heavily into driver deals until a few years ago when just about all of the personal services contracts across whatever series it was in were not renewed. In IndyCar, yes, I believe Alex and Scott are part of the family. I don’t know if Colton or Kirk fall into that favored status. Hard to say if Chevy would come out of pocket, but I do know that Verizon loves Will, and I reckon that’s more important right now.

Q: I want to drop my completely unsolicited two cents on oval race attendance. I’ll start by saying I have attended few in the past; and would love to go to more. However, here’s my stumbling block.

First, I live in Baltimore. For me to attend any IndyCar race, much less an oval, requires hours to days and thousands of dollars’ worth of travel. Once you get there, tracks aren’t always in the greatest towns or parts of towns, and sometimes not even in a town.

Conveniences and services can sometimes be lacking. On-site parking, food and drink can be an issue. Then there’s the sightlines. At Pocono, you can only really see a tiny open-wheel car for like 300 yards of that giant track. Also, where I get caught up is that at least half the races I go to are significantly interrupted by weather (NASCAR, too). Despite claims I read on the internet, no one can control the weather, it is what it is. But after a while it starts to take a toll. Second, the past few seasons haven’t really produced great oval racing.

Despite what the previous paragraph might say, I want to go to ovals. I want to go to many. Yet it’s hard when in my climate-controlled basement there’s a giant HD TV with a private toilet and fridge full of reasonably-priced food and beer. Yet in all of life, when somebody wants something enough, they will make the sacrifice. What can IndyCar do about my inertia of not wanting to spend precious time and money to go maybe watch a boring race, maybe watch it rain? I don’t know. There’s probably not an answer. The onus is on me. I guess if I really liked oval racing as much as I claim; I’d do what it takes. I just wished it was a little easier.

Shawn, deep in my own head

MP: Except for Iowa, last year’s oval races were some of the best I’ve seen in decades. Sometimes we buy tickets to far-away games and concerts and those games and concerts fall short of expectations. So you either give up hope and stay inside for the rest of your life or allow yourself to have hope and for that hope to not always be fulfilled. Not sure what IndyCar can do to guarantee anything here.

Q: Giving an errant driver a drive-through penalty for ending another driver’s day due to avoidable contact is not enough. It provides no compensation to the victim. Five or 10 championship points should be deducted from the errant driver and awarded to the victim. Your thoughts?

RLE

MP: Big believer in the punishment fitting the crime. Hit someone and their race is over on lap 33? Your race ends on lap 33. Knock someone into the wall and they lose two laps getting pulled back by the safety team and seeking repairs in the pits, you lose two laps. If a player commits a flagrant foul that takes a rival player off the court for medical assistance or out of the game altogether, the penalty shouldn’t be giving up some free throws and getting to stay on the court. Whatever your actions bring to the other player are the actions visited upon you. Call it the Shared Fate rule.

The mistake by Malukas at Detroit when he nerfed Palou from behind is the highest profile example of this in recent races. Malukas isn’t a dirty driver; I don’t believe for a moment that it was intentional in any way. But intent doesn’t change the fact that Palou’s race was ended by the actions of Malukas. Palou was out on lap 72, placed 25th, got five points, and the sponsors on his car were no longer capable of being seen by fans at the track or on the FOX broadcast, which is what they pay for.

Malukas got a drive-through penalty, completed 100 laps, finished 14th, got 16 points, and his sponsors were seen for the entire race. The “Shared Fate” plan would have the offending driver parked, given the finishing position one spot lower than whoever they took out, and the same points.

The “Shared Fate Rule” sounds kind of ominous. James Black/IMS Photo

Q: After reading about the details about McLaren’s new Hypercar program I saw it’s also connected to Zak Brown’s sports car program. I know I’m wearing my aluminum hat for this one, but is it possible that McLaren purposely hired Nolan Siegel for the intent of hiring him for its Hypercar program? Maybe Nolan’s time in IndyCar is being used to give him some more experience and to shape him up for Hypercar. Nolan after all did win his class on Zak Brown’s team. Let’s also be honest, even though Nolan had his moments in IndyCar, he does have a lot more success in sports cars. Can you see something like this happening, or is Wisconsin cheddar getting to my brain?

Ukyo Tachibana

MP: No. This wasn’t a case of Nolan being hired. This was a investment made by the Siegels to place Nolan in the third car.

Q: Joint question for Marshall and Kelly:

The term “conflict of interest” has been thrown around a lot this year in both series. Even Denny Hamlin has said on his podcast he had a problem with Jim France funding a car through Spire. Isn’t the fact that Mr. Hamlin drives for one team and owns another its own “conflict of interest”? Players in other sports are not allowed to own any part of teams in their sport, why should they be allowed in NASCAR and IndyCar?

Mark, Milford, OH

MP: Well, in IndyCar, Roger Penske isn’t a player. He owns the game. And competes with a team he owns in the game he owns. And uses engines in the cars he owns, in the team he owns, in the game he owns, made by a company he bankrolled to found and co-owns.

This would be Robert Kraft owning the NFL, owning the New England Patriots, and owning the company that makes the footballs his team uses.

Denny Hamlin owning a team while driving for another is nothing like those conflicts, right? It would only become a conflict if he drove in a manner for Joe Gibbs that allowed the drivers on the 23IX team he owns to benefit. And if that were to happen, I’m confident he gets fired by Gibbs and suspended by NASCAR.

KELLY CRANDALL: If you look hard enough, there could be plenty of things seen as a conflict of interest. Jeff Burton being a broadcaster of races his son Harrison competes in. Dale Earnhardt Jr. being a broadcaster and calling Xfinity Series races when he owns teams in the series (although he no longer does that). Denny Hamlin driving for one team and owning another. Again, you could keep looking and find more and more, and really it’s subjective as to what someone views as a conflict of interest. I’m not sure I would want to get into having rules in place dictating that a driver cannot own teams. But it’s going to be out in the open and leave those drivers up to questions and skepticism over conflicts and decisions, and as long as they know those questions are going to be there and answer them, I’m OK with it.

Q: After watching Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, it reminded me of an old racing phrase from years gone by… “The Call.”

One race that I was really looking forward to watching was the Cup race in Mexico City. Not to sound like the grumpy old man, but only having cable TV, I didn’t get to see it. Just wondering how NASCAR ratings are since switching some races to streaming services?

Mark

KC: The numbers have been as expected: down overall but up in key demographics (the younger audience). NASCAR expected that, and really it follows the trend that the NFL saw in its first season putting games on Prime Video. The key here is the long game. NASCAR has a seven-year deal with Prime Video, so going forward they expect, and hope, to build on those numbers and see them grow over time.

Q: Fuel mileage always seems to be an issue at Michigan, probably because it’s really 2.04 miles and not 2 miles as advertised. In fact, in the 1970s, NASCAR ran a few 197-lap races to adjust for this. IndyCar measured Texas Motor Speedway as significantly shorter than 1.5 miles, so much so that it would take 344 (instead of 334) laps to run a 500-mile race there using the 1.455-mile length IndyCar used at one point. Supposedly, Las Vegas is longer than Atlanta!

To me, it would be better for NASCAR to get these more accurate numbers to add character to each race because it would give each track a distinct charm. More importantly, are the NASCAR crew chiefs aware of these real numbers for crunching fuel mileage numbers?

Alex

KC: So, like many things in the sport, fuel mileage has evolved. We are now in the days where teams don’t always fill the car full of fuel, even to start the races. They are making those decisions based on how they are strategizing the race and how it will affect the car balance. Throughout the race, teams always weight the fuel cans to determine how much they actually got in the car during runs, and they know how much they are expected to burn during a run at each track. So, it’s down to a science of what those numbers are and how they are approaching the race.

There’s a lot of math in all that fuel mileage. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Q: We’ve got Zandvoort dropping off the F1 calendar next year and Barcelona’s contract coming to an end. Is there a chance we have fewer than 24 races for 2027? The rumors of new races in Africa, Thailand and South Korea has gone quiet lately. What tracks might be in contention for the rotation with Spa? Maybe Barcelona? Red Bull Ring when its contract ends?

What have you heard about the competitiveness of the power units for 2026? There continues to be whispers that a Mercedes is the engine to have for 2026. We heard this same in 2013, which proved to be right. What are these rumors based on if no one knows where anyone is?

Paul, Glasgow

CHRIS MEDLAND: I’ve done you dirty here a bit with the timing Paul, but no I don’t think we’ll have any fewer races in 2027 or beyond. You might have seen on Tuesday that Thailand has taken a big step forward to potentially join from 2028 onwards, and there is plenty of interest from elsewhere.

Madrid joining negates losing Zandvoort in 2027, and then as you say Spa will still be there that year too, with its “off” years being 2028 and 2030. Imola wants to come back if a slot can be found, but as I understand it there’s not the commercial weight behind it at this stage to muscle its way in until a gap appears, or rotation with Spa. Barcelona is another one that I’m told could rotate, too.

There’s ongoing interest from Turkey and Malaysia as well – at Istanbul Park and Sepang respectively, so existing tracks – and still work going on with South Africa or Rwanda, but you’re right that those feel a long way off still. Between all that, though, I don’t see it dropping below 24 races. If it did, it wouldn’t be for long.

For power unit competitiveness, it’s certainly sounding like Mercedes is likely to be the frontrunner again in terms of performance. Personnel do talk a little to each other trying to get a feel for where the competition is at, but you do also get movement between manufacturers, who can judge where one was compared to another at the same point in development (even if it was from months earlier).

General consensus is that Red Bull and Audi might find it toughest early on, but there are more unknowns about Ferrari and Honda’s potential.

Q: Canadian Grand Prix clashing with Indy 500? No problem. No clash. Indy 500 is sacred. The Canadian Grand Prix is not. I’ll look for Montreal results on RACER.com.

Brian Bristo, London, Canada

CM: Glad you’ll check the site at least! And I agree about which race will lose out more in the clash. Fortunately the new agreement Montreal just announced also seems to come with an intent to avoid that clash as often as possible. I’m told it should happen only once in every four or five years.

Q: With Cadillac F1 ramping up ops for a 2026 debut, at some point driver signings will need to become public. As Palou is apparently off the table, and with the need for experience e.g. Bottas, Perez, etc. ,matched with (hopefully) an American, why not consider the best runner-up in IndyCar this year, namely Kyle Kirkwood? His efforts have outshone Colton Herta and he certainly enjoys the positive backing of his team ownership, namely Dan Towriss and the TWG Group. Plus, on this side of the pond, he certainly has more name recognition and star power than Jak Crawford, although he lacks the Euro experience and Super License points.

Todd Owen Krill

CM: I think you’ve answered your own question there, Todd – he doesn’t have the experience of the tracks, the personnel or the Pirelli tires, but they wouldn’t take him completely off the table. Not having the Super License points, though, does. He’d need to win the championship, which obviously doesn’t look quite the impossibility it did a few races ago, but Cadillac also can’t really wait on that when it’s so highly unlikely.

I do get the name recognition point, but Cadillac has said it will only pick an American on merit, not name, and if Crawford was more likely to be successful given his path through the European ladder and F1 team programs, then I think he’d get the nod over Kirkwood.

Given Crawford still needs to maintain his top-five position in F2 to get his Super License, though, I don’t think the second seat will be firmed up all that quickly, so all Kirkwood can do is keep winning.

If Cadillac does feel compelled to hire an American, it might well consider Crawford to be on a better trajectory towards becoming that American than anyone in the IndyCar paddock. Sam Bloxham/Getty Images

Q: So do we think George Russell braked so aggressively behind the safety car to bait Max Verstappen into passing him to get a penalty point? Let’s cook up some beef, because I certainly think that’s what happened.

Ryan in West Michigan

CM: I don’t think it was solely to get the penalty point, but it definitely felt like a bit of gamesmanship, trying to show Verstappen he had control.

Given their run-ins, I agree with you in the sense that I think Russell wouldn’t have been upset if it had earned Verstappen a penalty, but I think he was also enjoying being the lead car and knowing Verstappen had to keep it clean.

If the race had restarted for a one-lap shootout, then George had fired a bit of a warning that reiterated the precarious position Max was in. And in braking as he did, it might have made Max slightly more wary of how to approach any restart.

There is so much underlying tension there, though, that I also think Russell would have had a big smile on his face if it had led to Verstappen getting a penalty.

Q: I’m an old guy who just doesn’t get some things. One of the most intriguing aspects is why the F1 prima donnas continue to whine about dirty air and the disruption to the aero package of their car. And yet, IndyCar run within inches of each other going into corners where optimal downforce is necessary to keep from plowing into a barrier. Help me out, please. What’s up?

Craig Nelson

CM: For the very simplified answer, IndyCar aero packages are spec – the same across all cars – compared to F1 cars that are developed individually by each team. That allows IndyCar to have a solution that is still high performance but less impactful on the following car, to reduce the impact of dirty air, because they can control the aerodynamics of both the leading and following car.