The RACER Mailbag, May 11

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the upper volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll wordplay as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received without 3pm ET each Monday will towards the pursuit week.

Q: To gear up for the 500, I watched a DVD this week from Rare Sportsfilms well-nigh the 1972 race. One segment featured Harlan Fengler riding virtually the Speedway in a street car showing off IMS’s brand-new circumspection light system, which featured lights and numbers to alimony the race cars going at a unvarying pace of 80 or 90 mph while under caution. At first thought, this seems like a pretty good system compared to the pack-up we see today, which results in what seems to be some unnecessarily long yellows. Why was the circumspection light system abandoned? Are competitors happy with the system we have today? I guess there’s widow excitement upon the restarts, but on the surface the practice of keeping cars at a unvarying pace under yellow seems to be a increasingly pure approach. What instigated the pack-up method? What’s your preference?

Mark Founds, Mason, OH

MARSHALL PRUETT: Well, there was that whole lawsuit by Roger Penske with the PACER lights system that took months to reconcile the winner of the Indy 500, then took Mario’s second win yonder and awarded it to Uncle Bobby that answers the first part. (Rather than rehash the whole thing in the Mailbag, my pal Dave Scoggan did a nice piece on it here).

I haven’t heard the current yield of drivers mutter well-nigh Indy 500 restarts since former series president Randy Bernard had them going double-file. Unless we’re talking well-nigh a restart with one lap to go, we tend to see the suburbanite in second or third reservation the leader and a bit of back-and-forth take place. I’m fine with single-file.

Q: Do you think McLaren is having second thoughts well-nigh Herta, considering he’s made so many suburbanite errors this year? Meanwhile, O’Ward is shining.

What’s the problem with Daly? It was unchangingly thought he just needed a full season with one team to put it all together. I noticed while VeeKay became your No.1 self-ruling wage-earner in your silly season update, you didn’t plane mention Conor. Is he in the mix for a seat next year?

Tim B.

MP: It does seem to be a specimen where Colton hasn’t been the same 1000-percent locked-in-and-focused guy we’ve seen the last two seasons. Despite doing our end-of-day videos, I haven’t had the time to do a deep swoop with him on the subject, so increasingly to follow there.

I did, however, connect with Conor without Barber and he was amazingly honest in his towage of why the year has not gone the way he’d hoped. Look for that story this week. He signed a multi-year deal, so he’s good vastitude 2022.

Q: I’ve never once watched a sporting event based on who the announcers were. And never didn’t watch one for the same reason. And I am willing to bet that’s true of everyone watching. I’m a huge fan of Jr. And we all stipulate Danica is a polarizing figure. I don’t know if I understand why NBC feels the need to jazz up the set list of the 500. Is someone on the top floor of Rockefeller Center thinking increasingly people will tune in to the most-watched motor race based on the talking heads?

Shawn

MP: I’ll watch an NBA game just considering Kevin Harlan is doing the play-by-play, but I hear what you’re saying. It’s our biggest race, so while I stipulate that it seems highly unlikely the event will see a noticeable ratings uplift by having Dale Jr and Danica back, I understand why NBC wants to add pieces of flair to the broadcast.

Q: I was watching one of the F1 pre-race shows and they were talking well-nigh a slum on the nose of the car that directs the airflow from front to the drivers cockpit area. I am wondering if IndyCars are doing the same thing, as it might possibly provide some relief due to the aeroscreen?

Shyam Cherupalla

MP: Racing in upper ambient temperatures with radiators positioned on both sides of the cockpit that run at 200F or increasingly will unchangingly make for a toasty cockpit experience, with or without an aeroscreen. IndyCar has used ‘nostrils’ in the DW12’s nose since 2020.

Q: I read your latest silly season article. I think you should included two current F1 drivers: Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll. There are reports that Latifi will be dropped by Williams at some point of the middle of the season. With the valuables he has, I could see him getting a largest ride in IndyCar. Then there is Lance Stroll and his father Lawrence – there are reports that he will put Aston Martin up for sale and sell it to Audi.

If that happens and Lance Stroll is dropped from the team, dare I say that Lawrence Stroll could help Lance by ownership an existing IndyCar team like Dreyer and Reinbold and maybe bring Aston Martin as the third engine in IndyCar? By the way, IndyCar and IMSA should add a race at the new Miami Autodrome.

Alistair, Branson, MO

MP: IndyCar could definitely use increasingly Canadians. I’d rather see Alberta’s Parker Thompson get the nod than Latifi or Stroll, but the kid doesn’t have family money to propel him into the series. Maybe young USF2000 race winner and Quebecois Thomas Nepveu will get there first.

Q: What is the witchery to DRS? You can’t get the car to go faster through raw power so you do it by reducing drag? Is 200mph all an F1 car can do? In the pre-race, Danica said these are the fastest cars. I’m confused. The incoherent commentator said DRS gave an spare 12mph. How many HP of push-to-pass does that take in the current IndyCar?

I get these cars are overwhelmed with aero and all that downforce ways drag. But really folks, either get some of that stilt off and test the drivers worthiness to alimony the car under them, or get some increasingly horses.
There were a couple of incidents. Both seemed to me to be the fault of the trailing car. Now, these guys have super licences – you know, the ones that IndyCar drivers don’t overly seem to be worldly-wise to earn – and they don’t know they’re next to flipside car in the middle of a decreasing radius turn? Really?

I watched the race considering I was curious. At the end, what I felt was disappointed and yellow-eyed for IndyCar to get when to racing.

John Maggitti PhD

MP: Well, F1 had this thing where passing was sighted well-nigh as often as Bigfoot, so DRS was the wordplay to F1’s passing problem. They are doing 200-plus in a straight line, which impresses me; thought I saw 208mph on one on-board last weekend.