The RACER Mailbag, October 23

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: What’s the latest regarding Jamie Chadwick in 2025? The Andretti Global website shows a roster of drivers for their NXT program, but no Jamie. She recently tested at Barber. A step up next year? Might Andretti field four full-time cars?

Michael Andretti appeared to play a significant mentor role for her. Does his recent departure from day-to-day activities have a bearing on her status?

Terry J., Maryland

MARSHALL PRUETT: Jamie is her own woman, and the lack of opportunities to go IndyCar racing with Andretti have been known for a while; she’s been focused on charting her own path, with her own sponsors, so no, Michael’s ouster hasn’t been related to where Jamie’s career is headed.

Her goal is IndyCar, as our F1 reporter Chris Medland wrote yesterday, and the issues she faces include acquiring a significant budget to interest one of the few teams with seats left to sell, and the few seats that are available.

She was exceptional in Indy NXT, but far from dominant as Louis Foster and Jacob Abel, and Caio Collet, routinely outran her. That’s why I was hoping she’d want to do one more year of NXT, become a true title contender, and use that output to draw greater interest from IndyCar teams that might be willing to run her at a reduced price.

Placing seventh in the NXT standings with one win and one pole wasn’t enough to get a Dale Coyne Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, or Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to offer a bargain rate to drive for them. So, it’s a need to put together a strong budget, and fast, since there are lots of interested buyers for the best drives.

Q: Curious if you have heard anything regarding our 2024 Rookie of the Year? I know Kyffin Simpson is to be placed in the No.8 car but I feel that should have been announced by now. Is there any hope of Linus Lundqvist retaining the No.8 after all? Or is he destined for the sidelines again?

Handsome Jo

MP: Kyffin is currently testing in Europe with his race engineer, according to two sources on Monday, and that wouldn’t be the case if he wasn’t headed back to IndyCar with Ganassi. Linus is among the top contenders for the one or two paying seats left in the series, but isn’t racing for Ganassi in IndyCar.

Simpson’s Ganassi journey (or ‘Journie’, apparently) is just getting started. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Q: You may have addressed this before and, if so, I apologize. My question is, with the new Charter system in place now at IndyCar, is this going to affect the one-off teams for the Indy 500? I’m particularly interested in the Dreyer & Reinbold team. I sure hope that DRR again gets another shot. They’ve been dedicated to the race for 25+ years.

Speaking of DRR… do you know if Cusick Motorsports will again team up with them next May? It appears to be a solid partnership, especially for a ‘small team’. On Carb Day this past May, I was walking by the DRR garages. I saw Don Cusick in the garage, and I yelled a hello to him. He said hello, and he came out to talk with me and my friends. He even let us go in the garage and have our picture taken next to Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car! I couldn’t believe that. We spoke for a good 10 minutes after that.

Don is such a nice man, and he really seems to love IndyCar, and the 500. Lots of passion. Though I read a rumor that he may be buying into Juncos Hollinger, I hope that Don and his team are back with DRR again in May. The Indy 500 needs teams like theirs in the race.

Ted Yezman, Sonoma, CA

MP: As Dennis Reinbold told us in a story a few months ago, being excluded from the charter could be the thing that leads DRR to leave the series in the near future. We’ll see if that was just his frustration talking or if there’s true intent behind it.

Don Cusick has been one of the great gifts to IndyCar fans. I’ve heard more stories about Don and his wife welcoming fans into the DRR garage, or into something at Thermal, or sending crew shirts or other memorabilia as fundraising or giveaway items for charity, than I have of any other team or entrant.

I texted Don on Monday night and he says yes, he’ll be back with DRR and announcements are forthcoming.

Q: I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s Mazda MX-5 Cup race. How many guest drivers will there be? Will we see Parker or the Mayor? How about next year? Who would you like to see in the series as a guest? I’d like to see a guest driver every weekend.

Steve

MP: I haven’t seen the entry list, but if Dale Jr isn’t racing, what meaning does life hold? I want to see Newgarden and Pato try and recreate the finish to the Indy 500 across the entire race.

Q: I read the question about Hailie Deegan in last week’s Mailbag, and your reply. I have followed her career. Hailie did not seem to ever be getting the best cars in NASCAR, it appeared. Tony Stewart had her racing in his SRX series and she held her own with the equally-prepared race cars and some very good drivers. I’d love to see her racing sprint cars or midgets on dirt in very good equipment.

Pete Pfankuch, Wisconsin

MP: In her first-ever laps in the Dallara IL15-AER Indy NXT car, she ended the session 6.0s off of the fastest driver on the IMS road course after 23 tours of the joint. With a break and some time to digest the car and the track, she returned for the second session, did 44 more laps, and cut her deficit to the fastest driver to 3.8s.

A gap like 3.8s is massive, of course, but considering her progress and brutally tall learning curve, this gap should be carved to something closer to 2.0s by the end of the offseason. Seven-time Trans Am champion Ernie Francis Jr went through a nearly identical learning curve when he turned from a lifetime of piloting big and boxy sports cars to open-wheel.

He was out of touch to start, continually improved, and was respectably inside the top 10 by the end of his second and final NXT season in 2023. She’ll have every opportunity to follow Ernie’s arc at HMD Motorsports.

Q: You’ve covered the departure of Michael Andretti extensively, however I just wanted to say how incredibly sad I find this.

I’m somewhat indifferent to Michael, however whether it’s the link to a genuine motorsport legend in Mario, his achievements as a driver but arguably it’s his role as a team owner starting in the Andretti Green days to what it is now is more impressive. He kept four cars on the grid for many years when IndyCar struggled to field high quality entrants and respectable grid sizes.

His commitment to Indy lights when the series was fielding 8-10 cars, and a while a driver’s nationality isn’t important to me, he’s given opportunity to Americans in a way Roger and Chip never have. The ambition to be in other series was also commendable.

Was the F1 dream is Icarus moment? From the outside at least his tone and demeanor after securing the massive investment from Group 1001 and Guggenheim appeared to change. Trying to shoehorn Formula 1 teams to bend to his will was also just massively naïve.

Can we assume that post-investment, Michael gave up majority ownership? Like many, I don’t believe for one minute he just decided to go and sit on the beach in light of his ambition to keep growing.

2025 without an Andretti in the paddock is just very sad.

JK

MP: I haven’t seen any paperwork that spells out who owns what at Andretti Global after Michael’s exit, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn his departure involved selling most or all of his stake to Towriss. A person who owns half (or nearly half) or more of a team doesn’t just turn into a special advisor and brand ambassador while wielding big decision-making power. Agreed, it’s just sad.

Q: Big Possum is a big fan of Alexander Koreiba and hope he gets the funding and the chance he deserves in his quest to compete in IndyCar.
Big Possum has never seen anyone so dedicated to the sport and the eternal search for funding – Alexander certainly has the talent, personality, drive, determination, and PR skills necessary to be a successful IndyCar driver. It will now be up to the racing gods – may they have mercy on him.

Big Possum

MP: Amen.

Q: What is it about Road Atlanta makes it unsuitable for an IndyCar race? Would it be possible to make track changes to make it suitable, and what would those changes need to be?

Ben Greenwald

MP: The extreme speeds at multiple sections of the track and insufficient runoff area to slow an open-wheel car in those areas. Turn 1 is a perfect example – a brake failure there in a GT or a prototype would look like a plane crash, but those are cars with roofs, full cages, and a ton of crushable structures. An IndyCar has none of those things.

IndyCars would be spectacular at Road Atlanta. So would the magnitude of the accidents if a car went off at speed. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Imahes

Q: I was wondering if Ganassi has finalized its IndyCar lineups for the 2025 season? If not, have you heard anything that would help with who they might sign?

A hopeful Ganassi fan,

Reid

MP: Yes. Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, and Kyffin Simpson. Simpson’s formal confirmation might be here before the end of the month, but there’s never been a question about whether he’s continuing.

Q: Life-long IndyCar fan here, going back to 1953. We used to talk about businesses and describe some as being out of business, but just not realizing it yet. Honestly, that is my view of IndyCar. It appears that the powers are working like hell but not making any progress.Each year is just trying to have 16 or 18 races, several of which have abysmal attendance, and the next year seeing a couple drop off and they’re trying to replace them to have a full schedule.Then repeating the same thing the next year.

It appears there is so much competition for the fans, for sponsorship and for TV time that it’s a never-ending fight but nothing really happens. They’re essentially treading water. Where am I wrong, and how does the series look in three, five, eight and 10 years?

James Riddle, Highlands, NC

MP: Texas fell off the calendar for 2024, but it’s only been additions in recent years outside of that change with Nashville, Thermal, and Milwaukee being added, so I’m not sure the facts support that take.

There are some events with abysmal attendance — Laguna Seca, Detroit, the Indy GP, and Portland stand out first – and we have no data on Thermal until it hosts its first points-paying race and welcomes a larger crowd. WWTR/Gateway has been in a steady decline, which is sad, after the first few races there on IndyCar’s return looked truly impressive. Texas was depressing for crowd sizes, but that’s gone, and then you have Milwaukee, which surpassed all expectations, and Nashville Speedway, which did the same.

The reality is there’s more good on the per-event attendance side than bad. But it could always be better. As for treading water and IndyCar’s future, next year will be hugely impactful in how its future plays out.

Depending on the team, budget increases are said to have been 30-40 percent in 2024. There’s no financial relief coming to the full-time teams by way of the charter, since it doesn’t include profit sharing or any kind of percentage of the new TV contract, so team will need to find investors or new/more sponsorship dollars to cover off that extra 30-40 percent needed to operate.

Depending on how many new investors can be found among the many teams, and how good the all-FOX broadcast ratings happen to be to then sell at a higher rate to sponsors, next season will set the stage for whether teams can sustain themselves in the new and far more expensive IndyCar Series.

The only other option is to make changes to the series to reduce costs, and the only effective way to do that would be to start cutting races. Dial the schedule from 17 races down to 13, which reduces the engine mileage and engine bill, and cuts the tire usage and tire bill, and the wear and tear, and consumables, and travel costs. But nobody wants fewer IndyCar races, not with a six-month offseason, and that’s not what Penske will do. So that means dialing up the revenue. Critical year ahead.

Q: Found this on sale at my local Farm & Fleet for 20% off. Just confirmation IMSA has been doing things right.

John Balestrieri

MP: To go with the Bimmer, there’s an awesome Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 GTP that Lego offers. There was also the special-edition Doritos with the Cadillac GTP on the bag that came out late last year. The new AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Hot Wheels of ‘Rexy,’ IMSA’s most popular car, have become the hottest car to find—which is nearly impossible to acquire.

I wish I knew why IndyCar either loses in its attempts to do similar things, or is overlooked, but I suspect it has something to do with the Legos and Hot Wheels of the world wanting cooler and newer cars to feature. Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised with new IndyCar items to buy for the holidays.

Q: Like many of us ‘purists’ I haven’t taken this news about Michael Andretti’s stepping down lightly. To me, the name Andretti is synonymous with American racing and not having Michael in the IndyCar paddock or on the pitstand on race day seems almost criminal.

The exploits of Mario in the 1960s served to inspire my lifelong interest in motor racing and I have always followed the Andrettis over these many years. As a writer of fiction, my novel series was inspired by these folks and I consider Mario to be a national treasure, a man who not only understood the concept of driving any race car fast but in many ways created the concept of a driver promoting himself. How long before even Mario will cease to be a part of a race weekend in IndyCar? I can’t get enough of Mario’s YouTube interviews where I always seem to learn something new.

I don’t want to speculate about the financial issues with Dan Towriss but know the cold shoulder they got from F1 has to be behind a lot of this. The FBI investigation of Rahal has to have something to do with this, too, I’m sure. For his part, I know little about Michael’s expertise as CEO of such a substantial company. I also know his open criticism of Roger Penske may have been a mistake (but The Captain should recall his original part in forming CART).

On a more positive note, I am very optimistic about the race in Arlington and hope that event will prosper and grow into something like Long Beach. I agree the GP in Indy in mid-May is a bad look for the sport as it appears the effort is needed to fill out the schedule.

James Herbert Harrison, Overland Park, KS

MP: I take solace in the people behind the Arlington GP; the area is billed as an entertainment hub, and the race is being put on by the teams and property/promotions group there. They can’t afford to have the race turn into a low-turnout turkey because that would hurt their businesses and reputations, so I expect all of the parties to go hard in the sales and advertising side to fill the stands and the hospitality suites. I’d expect the first few races to be really strong that way; sustaining it will be the challenge because that’s always the challenge.

Q: I just saw Andretti Global announced Dennis Hauger as rounding out their 2025 Indy NXT 2025 roster and noticed Jamie Chadwick was not among the listed drivers.

As one of just three drivers with a win in NXT in 2024 and all the positive accolades Michael Andretti had given her, it seemed almost like a given she’d be back for 2025. Is this the next casualty of Michael’s “stepping away from the day-to-day operations?”

This has been one of the most somber silly seasons I can remember.

Joseph L., Westchester, NY

MP: Nothing related to Michael. Jamie decided she’s ready to move to IndyCar, and that’s where her sights are set.

Q: Will the IndyCar Series undergo a chassis and engine development freeze for 2025-2026 in order to shift focus for 2027’s all-new car and engine formula? Will TRD’s rebrand to TGR NA be a precursor for IndyCar return in 2027?

Therius Oktavio

MP: IndyCar has not frozen any rules, nor will it, until it decides what its future engine formula and chassis formula will be. They need to know what the future rules are before they can hit the stop button on what we have today.

Q: My question is most specific to IndyCar and IMSA since they’ve concluded their seasons, but Kelly and Chris are welcome to add their thoughts as well. What would you see as the biggest ‘sliding doors’ moments of the 2024 season in the respective championships?

For me, the biggest single moment in IndyCar was probably not P2Pgate, but Detroit. It was the big moment of vulnerability for Palou, and Penske managed to collectively fumble their chance to make up ground. I think that was the point that the season changed from a tight fight to a fight where the competition felt emotionally like Alex was going to walk away from them again.

In IMSA, I think it was Watkins Glen. The Acuras were so fast, but unable to match the competition at switching their tires on at the restarts. Perhaps it was the extra data from WEC, perhaps it was just luck, but that to me stood out as the moment when the WTAR effort was ruled out of being a title contender and the Penske Porsche march to the title took on a more ominous tone.

But I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Duncan, Ottawa

MP: My mind goes directly to Milwaukee and Will Power’s spin while Palou was experiencing a nightmare of a race. Detroit was a factor, but Penske and Power had a perfect opportunity to capitalize on Palou’s misfortune on an oval and gave it all back with the season all but over.

My IMSA moment was during the offseason when an interpersonal issue at RLL led its technical director to leave and join PPM. The 963s have a zillion different setup options, which made it hard to find the right path at many races in their debut season, and with Brandon Fry inserted for 2024, a more streamlined approach was taken that had an immediate effect. Fry left RLL and the BMWs sank while the Porsches sang.

Power’s best opportunity to carve a chunk out of Palou’s points lead went up in (tire) smoke at Milwaukee. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images

CHRIS MEDLAND: From a Formula 1 point of view, I feel like there’s multiple when it comes to this season. Almost all of them relate to Norris versus Verstappen, and in particular his start in Spa cost him a good chunk of points, as did the yellow flag in Baku qualifying that turned what could have been a potential fight for a win into only three more points than Max on a day Verstappen was struggling. Same for Monza, too, where a lead at the end of Lap 1 could have been a win and an extra ten points over Verstappen at that point.

For a one-off moment between the two, though, it would have to be the end of the Austrian Grand Prix at this point. If there’s no contact and Norris gets the move done cleanly, he gains seven points on Verstappen instead of losing 10 as it played out. That swing of 17 points would mean right now the gap would be 40, and everything would be far more likely to go to the wire.

But I also wonder if Ferrari and Charles Leclerc can be included in this now. He’s got two in particular – in Canada where Ferrari got the approach to the weekend all wrong, and in Silverstone where a gamble on strategy failed. Even just two solid results there would put him around 20 points closer (so about level with Norris) and perhaps with the car looking good right now he’d be a true threat rather than massive outsider.

Q: How does the Testing of Previous Car programs work for engine customer teams in F1?  My understanding was that customer teams return engines at the end of the season or when the engine’s life is up. With Haas and Toyota having a partnership, will Toyota be receiving engines from Ferrari to run the old Haas cars?  I don’t understand why Ferrari would let another engine manufacturer have access to its engines in that way, or why Toyota would want to advertise on the current car that it doesn’t have anything to do with from a manufacturing standpoint.  

Will Coffey

CM: I wouldn’t describe it as Toyota receiving engines – they’re going to be the Ferrari power units that Haas has already, and the TPC program will be possible because some Toyota personnel are able to join the Haas operation, but it’s still a Haas-run project. Haas will likely be paying Ferrari to keep or repurpose the two-year-old PUs for testing purposes, but it will still be Ferrari engineers running the power unit as is the case with customer teams – they have people embedded from the works manufacturer – so there’s no real access there for Toyota. Ayao Komatsu also told me that there are agreements in place about protecting IP from both sides, so there are no concerns on that front.

In terms of Toyota advertising, it gives them huge reach and exposure. Right now it’s even better for Toyota because for zero effort it gets the visibility F1 offers – even this question and answer is coverage it wouldn’t have had – but moving forward, that visibility will be alongside its technical and manufacturing input.

Q: How has Sauber/Audi not signed Bottas?  He’s a proven winner in a good car, he’s helped develop a championship-winning car, has eight wins, and Lewis said he was the best teammate ever. Why is there seemingly no interest? (Maybe there is but we don’t know about it.)

I’d hate to see him close out his career and I think he’d be an asset to any team.

Jim Doyle, Hoboken, NJ

CM: My information is that Valtteri is very much on Sauber/Audi’s shortlist, to the extent that some sources suggest it’s a done deal that hasn’t been announced yet. There have been other names in the frame though, and lots of different discussions, so I haven’t been able to confirm anything at this stage, but there is definitely interest and I think he’s the most likely driver that will be alongside Nico Hulkenberg next year.

Bottas can look ahead to a future with Sauber/Audi, if paddock chatter is anything to go by. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

Q: August 19, 1975 was the darkest day in Penske Racing history: What started out two days earlier as a tire failure on Mark Donohue’s March 751-Ford at the Hella Licht corner at Osterreichring resulting in him having a “bad headache” ended up killing him two days later.

I’ll never forget that dark afternoon, hearing the news on Philly’s WCAU 1210, as Donohue was a local hero from nearby Marcus Hook, PA; and due to his influence, put me on the path to engineering school.

Fast forward to Sunday’s Cup race at Las Vegas, and this troubling tweet by Kelly Crandall crossed my feed:

[Data point No. 1: We’ve also already in just the last year had Simon Pagenaud and Kurt Busch – both of whom, incidentally, previously raced for Penske – forced into retirement due to head injuries. ]

Given that NASCAR is a half-assed sanctioning body as well as RP’s history with his first big star (sorry, Gary Bettenhausen), does Team Penske have its own concussion protocol which goes above and beyond NASCAR’s?

[Data point No. 2: While CART/IRL/IndyCar has used the services of Doctors Henry Bock, Terry Trammell and Steve Olvey – outstanding trauma surgeons all – for many years F1 used Dr. Sid Watkins, who was a top British neurosurgeon. Hmm…]

Separately, when CART went bankrupt, IRL bought its medical trailer, which included a CT scanner. Does NASCAR now have a similarly-equipped state-of-the-art medical trailer?

Dan Schwartz

KELLY CRANDALL: I am unaware of any internal protocols at Team Penske. A driver is responsible for working with their individual doctors to be cleared when a medical incident arises. After he was sidelined, Kurt Busch had to work with his doctors on getting cleared to return, which he never did. Chase Elliott, after the skiing accident, had to work with his doctors to be cleared to race again.

NASCAR has the drivers go through baseline tests at the beginning of the season that can be referred back to when needed, and then there is the protocol they must pass in the infield care centers after each crash. Blaney went through that after Saturday’s crash in practice. If he is continuing to feel bad this week, it is up to him to take the steps necessary.

Q: I’d have to assume that someone keeps score of the NASCAR drivers’ points the “old fashioned way.” If there were no stage points and playoffs, who’d be the leader?

Shawn, MD

KC: I’m sure someone is keeping score but I don’t know why when the playoffs have been in place for 21 years (and in its current format for 11 years). Who cares who the leader would be? It means nothing.

Q: Love those photos/captions. Hilarious. MORE JARNO TRULLI! 

John Becker

MARK GLENDENNING: Glad you enjoy them! Jarno became the Mailbag mascot by accident. When something big happens (say, a championship-winning team is found to be fudging with Push to Pass), that usually translates into us getting 11 pages of Mailbag letters about it, which potentially means needing to find 11 photos of the same team owner looking serious. That’s no fun for anybody, plus we’d probably run out of usable photos.

So I started dealing with those scenarios by ignoring the subject of the letters completely and just hunting for the most random photos I could find, and began to notice the vast range of things that Jarno Trulli was talked into doing for photographers over the years. There’s Jarno petting a cat. Jarno wearing a silly hat and pretending to captain a ferry. Jarno inspecting a production line. Jarno with a cow. We haven’t yet run a shot from Jarno’s phase of wearing his hair in a little top-knot that made him look a bit like a pineapple, but it’ll happen at some point.

Two things to note though. First, it’s all done with nothing but love and respect for Trulli. The first Monaco GP I covered happened to be his first and only win in 2004; I interviewed him several times over the years, and he was unfailingly easy to work with. In Hungary one time we had a very long and pleasant chat about his winery, Podere Castorani. (The wines are worth checking out if you can find them – really good quality at their price point).

And second, his Mailbag appearance last week was the first one that actually related to a letter. I was double-checking Toyota’s best finish in a grand prix, and it turned out Trulli equaled it with his second place in the 2009 Japanese GP. That was Toyota’s (and Trulli’s) final podium, and came in Toyota’s third-last race before it left F1.

THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, October 21, 2015

Q: I’d seen you refer to Elmer George in previous answers and I understand that he was Mari’s husband and Tony’s father and a VP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But I want to know if he was a good race driver?

M. Jennings, Calistoga, CA

ROBIN MILLER: Elmer was the 1957 USAC Midwest sprint car champion and won 11 features during his career. He was called ‘King of the High Banks’ for his prowess at Winchester, Salem and Dayton (shown ABOVE with A.J. Foyt) and captured his one and only USAC Champ Car main event at Syracuse, N.Y. in 1957. He made three starts at Indianapolis (1957, 1962 & 1963) with a best finish of 17th and best start of ninth in ’57 but never took the green flag after tangling with Eddie Russo on the pace lap.

Story originally appeared on Racer