Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers will be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embrace a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday will likely be saved for the next week.
Q: First time query, very long time RACER fan. IndyCar must differentiate itself from F1 and different racing to new followers. What’s extra totally different than an intimate Sunday with the world’s finest racing followers at The Thermal Membership!5 thousand followers at Thermal Membership, with unimaginable entry to automobiles drivers and announcers, vs the embarrassing 5000 (perhaps) followers at TMS. It’s not unique, its accessible to a median race fan, with tickets at $475 for the weekend. That is particularly reasonable. I journey to Chicago Bears video games and sometimes pay far more per ticket for 4 hours of ‘leisure’. I additionally pay that a lot for GPLB for full entry (Picture go and a race day seat).I’ll take Thermal. Don’t cover from the small crowd, put it on the market as an superior close-up and wonderful expertise. It’s at a incredible venue that we gearheads can solely dream about. Discover a non-racing movie star to advertise and be on the race. If Thermal would permit the entry, present the loopy cool automobiles that ‘dwell’ there and we solely dream about. Everyone knows solely the wealthy can afford it, however that’s race automobiles, it’s what it’s. I’ve been to 86 open-wheel races, and am a giant fan of the five hundred and the Mile, however oval racing appears horrible with empty stands. The background of mountains and palm bushes appears good on TV. The small crowd is just not that apparent and is a part of this distinctive race.Ideas, Marshall?
Bob (Lifetime race fan)
MARSHALL PRUETT: F1 is probably the most unique type of racing on the planet and options exorbitant prices to attend, so IndyCar is doing the other of differentiating itself from F1 by doing precisely what F1 does. However minus the packed homes F1 will get at these loopy costs. So IndyCar finally ends up wanting small and unimportant.
In keeping with Penske Leisure CEO Mark Miles in a name on Friday, Thermal had “3000-ish followers.” To the particular person tuning in to look at who doesn’t go to RACER.com on daily basis to digest each piece of IndyCar information, all they’d see is a bunch of automobiles and no person there to look at them. Unsure how one can spin that as a constructive. Don’t get me improper; the place is wonderful and I’ve loved each go to for the reason that first for Spring Coaching in 2023. But when I deal with what’s finest for IndyCar whereas it’s making an attempt to turn into greater and extra recognized, holding races in the midst of nowhere with a tiny crowd simply ain’t it.Repair that by no less than getting 10,000-15,000 individuals there to fill some grandstands, and it turns into viable.
If an IndyCar drives by and no person’s there to listen to it, does it make a sound? Jake Galstad/Lumen
Q: I’m a longtime IndyCar fan – sufficiently old to recollect the heady days of CART, which in all probability peaked round when Nigel got here to city.
I’m questioning if it’s simply me or is one thing lacking this season? Is there a decline within the star energy of the present crop of drivers? I’m a 35+ yr fan and even I don’t know squat about half the sector this yr. Don’t get me improper, I do know there’s some critical expertise at present racing, but when I had been to stroll right into a bar and begin speaking in regards to the wonderful IndyCar Collection, who would the typical particular person acknowledge? Scott Dixon? Will Energy? ‘Possibly’ to each, am I proper? After all there’s some others like Josef, Pato, and Colton simply to call a number of, however I’m fairly certain I’d get blinky eyes of non-recognition in return right here in Australia.
In my humble opinion, IndyCar and FOX can be smart to get on the horn ASAP to get any of the outdated legends like Paul Tracy, Dario, Mario (it doesn’t assist that Michael has gone AWOL), Al Jr, Helio, Robby Gordon… heck even Colton’s Dad and Kanaan are there each weekend and would have nice views, no?
Jason Mulveny, aka Bananaspeed, Sydney, Australia
MP: First query I’d ask is what’s totally different about this yr? Palou, Herta, Energy, Dixon, Pato, Newgarden, and so on., have all been the marquee drivers for the final three or 4 years, and there’s nothing distinctive I can consider up to now in 2025 that stands out as distinctive from final yr, or the yr earlier than, and so on. The identical lack of CART-era star energy is outdated information; Helio and Dario and Danica had been the newest drivers with massive crossover enchantment, however Danica left after 2011, Dario was pressured to retire after 2013, and Helio’s been Indy-only since 2024.
However IndyCar additionally hasn’t had a TV companion that’s been as motivated as FOX to attempt to construct right this moment’s stars into greater names, so are we going to poop on them for failing to repair a long time of poor efforts by the collection and its former broadcasters… in any case of two races?
There’s additionally the generational merchandise at hand. Nearly everybody you talked about as legends, aside from Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan who’re actively concerned right this moment, haven’t any relevance to those that both weren’t born or weren’t following after they had been massive offers. What would a 25-year-old IndyCar fan care to listen to from Robby Gordon, whose final IndyCar begin got here after they had been 4? Is likely to be enjoyable for these older followers, however is having outdated legends on the broadcasts going to maneuver the needle? I simply can’t see it.Let’s give FOX a while to attempt to enhance the scenario earlier than turning the displays the other way up.
