Q: Patrick Long appears to have a great relationship with Roger Penske. Is there any chance we’ll ever see this talented young American Road Racer in an Indy Car?

DavenSue

RM: I would doubt it with Briscoe, Power and Castroneves under contract. And Graham Rahal waiting in the wings. But Patrick is a good shoe who showed well during his open wheel days in Europe. It would be nice to see him in an Indy car but I'm thinking he's resigned himself to sports cars.

Q: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced that the schedule for the month of May will be shortened by one week in 2010. Is this a short term situation given the US economy? Or, will we see a two day qualifying format over the long term?

Mark in Indy

RM: Until the economy turns around and we've got 50 cars going for 33 spots, I doubt we'll ever see four days of qualifying again because it's so unnecessary.

Q: How did Bobby Unser figure out how to cheat the pacer lights in the mid-70s?

Jim, Calgary

RM: There was no pit speed limit so Uncle Bobby could come into the pits at 170 mph, stop for two seconds and blast back out. Under a caution, if he stopped five or six laps in a row (which he did), he could gain a whole bunch of race track. As he likes to remind me: "I didn't cheat Robin, I just out-smarted USAC." That he did.

Q: What is Tom Jensen smoking at SPEEDtv.com? Jimmie Johnson the #1 driver in all of the world? You or I could finish in the top 10 weekly in the #48 car! Granted Johnson is a very talented driver but 1st? What would your top 10 be? I'd have to put Juan Montoya as #1, simply because of the ability he has shown in anything he jumps into, plus Ganassi's team appears to be getting their act together car-wise. I would love to see what JJ could do in an open wheel car. Columns like that make me yearn for the old IROC days. Remember Zanardi trying to come to grips with those cars? Classic! IROC in the late 80's, early 90's gave me even more respect for guys like Little Al and Robby Gordon.

Scott St. Clair, Erie, Pa.

RM: Tom doesn't smoke but drinks heavily (how else could you cover 36 stock car races?). No, seriously, given his achievement, Johnson has to be the driver of the year but ranking drivers has always been subjective. Should Valentino Rossi and Ben Spies be included? Tony Schumacher?

Q: When I asked many months ago about the possibility of the IRL having standing starts, on-board starters, more chassis and more engines, you stated we have to put Tony Cotman in charge. You've said the same thing to other people also....so, can you give us a little background on Tony Cotman?

David Crandon

RM: Came from New Zealand, started as a mechanic and worked his way up the ladder at Team KOOL Green. Real clever at race strategy (ask Michael Andretti) and then he was hired to run Champ Car's racing program. Became the chief steward by default and did an outstanding job. More integrity and common sense than I've ever seen. Introduced the standing start to Champ Car and also rode herd on the new Panoz DP-01 and the rules. Left Champ Car for IndyCar when he saw the handwriting on the wall and has been in Barnhart's shadow the past two years. He's our ONLY hope for the future.

Q: How good was Paul Goldsmith? When AJ, Mario, and others ran both IndyCar and NASCAR, why did they have so much success? Were the cars more similar to one another than today’s cars?

Matt Converset

RM: AJ Foyt told me once that Goldsmith was one of the best all-around drivers he raced against so that's a pretty good endorsement. I think those guys raced sprinters and roadsters and if you could handle them, you sure as hell could drive a stock car.

Q: With all the talk of OW vs Stock car drivers surging again w/Danica's announcement I thought back again to why AJ and others so easily succeeded in both. For one thing, they "grew up" driving roadsters, front engine, rear drive cars that by all accounts were absolute beasts to drive. Secondly, most, if not all drove in the supporting USAC stock cars which made for great weekends at MIS and other tracks in the early 70's. My questions tho are about those USAC stock cars. Were the rules similar or the same as NASCAR? Were they purpose built for USAC or sourced from NASCAR teams? And were the owners/teams the same as they drove OW cars for or did the drivers (like Waltrip, Earnhardt et al in the sportsman/Busch series) run their "own stuff".

Bob in Peoria, Ill.

RM: The USAC powers like Norm Nelson, Jack Bowsher, Butch Hartman were dirt/pavement combos and completely separated from NASCAR. AJ drove NASCAR for Ray Nichels, Holman/Moody, Wood brothers and himself among others, while Johnny Rutherford drove for Smokey Yunick and Mario for Holman & Moody. Bowsher dabbled in NASCAR and Holman/Moody ran some USAC stuff as well but I'm not sure about the rules governing both.

Q: With the IRL starting to make some rational decisions for a change, what would it take to add Road Atlanta to the schedule? The ALMS routinely attracts a huge crowd for Petit Le Mans, and it's held the same weekend in October as NASCAR at Talladega, which is just a two hour drive from Atlanta. If the Barber road course in Birmingham can hold an IRL race, why not Road Atlanta? Road racers heap praise on the circuit, the setting is beautiful, Panoz seems to be an enlightened track owner, 5 million people live within a 30 minute drive, etc. If 100,000 will attend Petit Le Mans, which runs on a Saturday, why not add IRL for Sunday so the crowd sticks around? Helio and TK will already be there, so having Marco, Dario, Danica, Rahal, Dixon and Paul Tracy drive both events would be a no-brainer. People who follow ALMS are almost always fans of Indy Cars and F1 too. AirTran is one of Danica's sponsors, and Atlanta is their main hub. Can't somebody pitch the AirTran Grand Prix of Atlanta since Danica is staying in the IRL? What am I missing?

Bill Roberts, Atlanta, GA

RM: The only thing that's kept Indy cars from Road Atlanta has always been the concern about the cars being too fast for the circuit, or certain places. It's a wonderful track and all the IndyCar guys who run Petit Le Mans love it. But that's the only explanation.

Q: Will this new car give any team owner an incentive to give a ride to a USAC driver? If this new package is as cost effective as we hear, then why the hell wouldn’t a team owner at least consider putting a sprint car/midget driver in a seat; at least for the Month of May? I believe there is a huge disconnect of good ole dirt track racin boys and the current theme at Indy. NASCAR embraced the fact that they stole Stewart and gained Newman and Kahne, yet now, they could care less about connecting with the short-track troupe and are more focused on gaining more no-racin, brain dead, stock car morons. Now is the time for IndyCar to make us love them again! Give me Darland, Whitt, Kuhn and for God’s sake, tell Penske to put Justin Allgaier in an open wheel car and hit Chip over the head for not giving Clausen a chance in May! As you know, you’ll never meet a more passionate breed of race fans then the loyal folks at a USAC race; so if the honchos at 16th & Georgetown were smart, they would give us at least a taste of what it was like to see your driver make a run for the Pole at Indy, then hit the Sprint Car race at Kokomo the next night! See ya in Tulsa!

Nick Walters, Champaign, IL

RM: The current IndyCar owners have no clue as to who Cole Whitt or Chad Boat or Brad Sweet or Bryan Clauson is, let alone Dave Darland. But if a new concept car could be affordable (cheap by today's prices) and guys like Dan Drinan and Joe Devin could compete and take some USAC guys for Indy only, it would be an answer to our prayers.

Q: Three part question, How many cars do you see running the full 2010 IRL season? How many car might show up for Indy? An do you see Tony Stewart running an IRL team at any point with a young ace from USAC?

Paul

RM: Somewhere between 22-24 fulltimers would be my guess at this point in time. But Indy would probably be lucky to have 35-36. Stew would probably try his own team but not until GM comes back because he wouldn't be allowed to run a Honda.

Q: We hear so much about Indy Car being a shadow of it's former self - I certainly think it is - and I was wondering if you could please run down a chronological list of what the events were that lead us to this point. Simple bullet points would be good as to what went wrong when might clear up some misconceptions. This would, of course, be your opinion; but the fact is that in 1991 when I first started watching, AOWR was on top of the world and now it's barely a blip on anyone's radar except ours.'.

Sanford Santacroce, NYC

RM: Here it is in a nutshell:

1995: CART is pressing F1 for worldwide acclaim, 28 fully funded cars, record crowds, $400 million in sponsorships.
1996: Tony George starts the Indy Racing League and guarantees 25 of 33 spots at Indy for IRL point leaders. CART stages its own 500-miler at Michigan instead of coming to Indy and crushing the IRL wannabes.
1998: CART goes public. Owners go wacko. Bobby Rahal, Barry Green and Derrick Walker think they've reached an agreement with Leo Mehl for open wheel peace but it explodes at Loudon when AJ Foyt finds out.
2000: Chip Ganassi crosses the picket line and Juan Montoya spanks the IRL regulars into submission at Indy.
2001: Penske, Ganassi and AGR come to Indy and dominate.
2002: Toyota bails on CART, heads for IRL. Honda soon to follow. Penske and Ganassi bolt CART.
2003: CART crumbles, Champ Car formed out of rubble after TGeorge tries to buy CART's assets.
2008: Unification, finally. but nobody seems to care.
2009: TGeorge ousted from power by his sisters. VERUS TV ratings lower than test pattern. Once all-oval IRL announces it will have more road races and street circuits than ovals in 2010.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Robin Miller became an Indy-car junkie in late 1950s and stooged for his hero, Jim Hurtubise, at the 1968 Indy 500. He went on to work as a vent man and board man on Indy pit crews from 1971-77. Miller bought a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli in 1972 and raced it in SCCA until 1974 when he purchased a midget from Gary Bettenhausen, competing in the USAC midget series from 1975-82.

Robin flunked out of Ball State College in 1968 and began working at The Indianapolis Star sports department in 1969, covered motorsports there from 1969-2000.

In addition to his broadcast work. Miller's also covered IndyCar racing for Autoweek, Autosport, Car & Driver and On Track magazines over the past 35 years.