The RACER Mailbag, February 12

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. ED’s note: Submissions for this week’s Mailbag closed before news broke of Jay Frye’s departure from IndyCar, but keep sending your letters in and Marshall will answer them next week. Q: It seems IndyCar is in its most precarious situation since the dark days of The Split. In light of recent news and public comments, what are the odds that Zak Brown partners with a few other team owners (Andretti, MSR, Juncos?) and Liberty to create a rival series that allows for a more open development concept/IMSA-style BOP? Race as a support series for all of F1’s Western Hemisphere stops and develop a standalone calendar for the rest of the year. If the series elects to be devoted to road and street courses, it could take a Superformula tub, allow for limited development with an engine BOP and create a really compelling and fast formula. They could take off the Month of May to still run Indy in RP’s series, but a breakaway series in a joint venture with Liberty Media influenced by the CART/Champ Car ethos could be a breath of fresh air. What do you think? Jah from the ATL MARSHALL PRUETT: Through 2024, I had a single team owner tell me they were keeping a firm eye on Penske Entertainment’s decisions and actions in the next year or two because if things didn’t improve in a variety of areas, they’re prepared to leave IndyCar at the end of the current chassis/engine formula. That owner was an outlier at the time. I’ve had a second owner say the same thing in the last few weeks — fearing they might need to pull out of IndyCar and find a more functional organization to race within — which means it’s not just one owner thinking this, but two. Or, more accurately, two who are comfortable enough with their very real concerns to share those thoughts with me on background. My fear is there’s more than two. I’ve had a third say effectively the same things as the other two, but I didn’t believe them. They sounded more like they were saber rattling more than suggesting a serious thing they would do. What you get from Penske Entertainment is the same ‘Everything Is Awesome’ routine, but I just don’t know if they realize how the ice is thinning. As for teams and Liberty starting a breakaway series, I can’t see it. Penske owns or controls almost all of the marquee tracks, and most teams can barely afford to compete today with old cars and an array of popular-ish tracks. Losing most of those venues and needing to pay for new cars and engines would be a back breaker unless an idiot with a spare $100,000,000 in hand was found who wanted to fund it. Leaving IndyCar isn’t going to help the series in any way, obviously, but it’s Penske’s job to strike the right balance between budgetary needs and return on investment in order to satisfy and keep the other 10 teams. Penske has a product to sell and it’s really expensive and, depending on select take by some teams or manufacturers, is getting close to being unworthy of buying in the coming years. Q: While there are plenty of things IndyCar would like to do to make the series more modern and flashy, we’ve discussed ad nauseum why many of those are difficult or damn near impossible. It really irks me, though, when there are simple things that wouldn’t cost the series much, but would make huge strides towards making it look like it belongs in 2025. I could list several, but here’s one that not only irritates the crap out of me, but one that could be fixed right now: the lack of a mobile version of its website. When I go to IndyCar’s site on my phone (Android here, so I can’t speak to Apple users), I get the full web-based site. There are parts of the site I can’t even access because the site is designed for a monitor, not a small screen. This experience is enough to make me leave the site after about five seconds, and I’d bet my bottom Dallara that I’m not the only one. Mobile-based browsing has been around for a few decades now, and when I see a website that doesn’t work on my phone, my first thought is, “Who are these rinky-dink people who are living in the dark ages?” Usually its local businesses or sites that have been dormant since Danica Patrick was shilling for GoDaddy, not a top-tier racing series. Frankly, it’s embarrassing, and it doesn’t make the series seem professional or technically advanced. So, in the immortal words of Scotty Mac, get amongst it ladies and gentlemen! We might have to wait a few years for other technology to get an update, but this isn’t a new formula. It’s a website. The owners need not sign off on it, it shouldn’t cost a huge amount of money, but the dividends it would pay are well worth the effort. Dave, North Carolina MP: I’m told a brand-new IndyCar.com site is about to go live. I’ll go out on a ledge and suggest IndyCar’s site will be optimized for mobile browsing, because if it’s not, why bother? Q: Seeing the Josef Indy commercial right before the halftime celebrations at the Super Bowl was awesome. I hope IndyCar was able to get a lot of exposure considering FOX spent a pretty penny. Will we expect to see other drivers featured in a commercial in the future? Or is FOX staying with the Josef, Pato and Alex commercials? Handsome Jo MP: In the future, yes. In the near future, no. Those are the three main driver features for the season, as I’m told by FOX Sports. I don’t know what they are, but I’m also told that other, non-driver promos are in the works, and we can assume the Indy 500 will be a big part of those efforts, along with launching the season at St. Pete and settling the championship late in the year.