Q: In a recent column Curt Cavin says “. . While Comcast still has not resolved its contract dispute with DirecTV, IndyCar officials say there are no plans to stream Versus races in 2010 on the series' Web site. . . .” (almost at the end of the article) So even LESS people will have access to the video in 2010 (because of Versus/DirecTV dispute) and the IRL has no plans to stream the video? Add to that the following … Deciding to award a race (Sao Paulo) to a location never used before, an organizer with ZERO experience, and give them 3 MONTHS to accomplish the monumental task of creating a street circuit ?? Deciding (or not deciding) to again make NO decision about the chassis or engine rules for the future, and leave it to the owners to roll out their own proposal? What happens if the IRL rejects the Delta Wing … the owners gonna create their own series? I’d suggest they call it CART and we can re-play this movie all over again. Are the lights even on at the IRL offices? If they are they must surely be pretty dim bulbs. If you tried, you couldn’t make worse decisions than the ones the IRL “management” seems to be making. Is there any hope for the IRL?

Steve Barnes, San Carlos, Calif.

A Mailbag regular asks exactly what criteria is used to allow particular drivers to obtain an IndyCar. (LAT)

RM: IndyCar.com streams every race, not the VERSUS broadcast, on its web site so you are able to watch the race if the DIRECTV dispute isn't settled. As for the chances of another war, it's certainly possible if IndyCar and the Hulman-George family decide they don't like the Delta Wing car. The only hope, on the racing side, is Tony Cotman. But Terry Angstadt is doing a good job on the marketing side so, yes, there is hope.

Q: I just finished reading your mil bag for 12/24. The first question and reply referring to the so called *Road To Indy." I checked on the IRL site, under the drivers bio's and found there are a lot of current drivers that didn't go through this so called road, including Ms Patrick. My question is, I heard rumor that the IRL is trying to block Simona De Silvestro from driving in the IRL next season, because they say, she hasn’t done Indy Lights. From what I have read so far, from her test in Sebring earlier this month, she can handle that car with the best of them. Yes, she has no oval experience, but when the merger happened, neither had a lot of the Champ Car drivers. Have you heard any on this and if this is true, why would they do this? Do they not want another woman driver to challenge or even beat their Ms Patrick?

HyFy Man

RM: Milka had no experience so she had to test on ovals for 2,500 miles before she got OK'd to drive (must have been a pretty lenient observer, eh?) and Simona will have to go out do the same thing, according to Cotman. But I think IndyCar would welcome a good cat fight.

Q: It seems almost a third of your mail bag questions are always along the lines of you or the question-asker wondering why USAC drivers (Cole Whitt, Brad Sweet, Chad Boat, etc.) never get a shot in Indycars. As a 20-something fan who views dirt racing as something for the local tracks, my response would be: if they WANTED to be in Indycars, they'd I would see them in Joliet plying their trade in the Star Mazda races at Autobahn or Indy Lights at Chicagoland. Why should we expect an Indycar owner to hand their multi-million dollar ride to a USAC shoe when there are bunches of employable Indy Lights and former Indycar drivers not getting a ride? Am I missing the point of your/their complaints? And wouldn't YOU rather see Hildebrand, Pagenaud and Summerton racing?

Nick, Indycar fan from Illinois

RM: I don't expect the IndyCar owners to hire any of those kids but I would love to see new, cheaper cars and engines so maybe a USAC owner or builder like Joe Devin or Dan Drinan could bring Boat or Sweet or Hines to the Indy 500. Remember, the only good thing the IRL did was get Tony Stewart, Steve Kinser and Jack Hewitt into the Indy 500. Getting a half dozen of those USAC starts in the lineup would be good for the credibility of the event, make some fresh storylines and probably make a bunch of new fans or bring some old ones back.

Q: Is there any way to convince Jeff Belskus or Mari Hulman-George to fire Brian Barnhart? Seriously. What it would it take? Don't they read what us fans write and understand what we want? My guess is Barnhart doesn't want the new car, but the vast majority of us do. The heck with Dallara, we need a chassis built here in America. How long has it been since that happened (Penske cars I guess). What ever happened with the Falcon chassis? How about an American chassis with American power--nah, makes way too much sense. If this new car and engine is as affordable as they say, do you think American manufacturers will come back?

Jonathan, Plainfield

RM: My understanding is that some of the owners have expressed their displeasure about Barnhart to Belskus because he's definitely against their new car concept. We do need Indy cars built in America at reasonable costs for a series that is grossly overpriced. It starts at the top and, besides making sure he gets more airtime on qualifying than any of the drivers, what exactly has Barnhart done for the good of Indy car racing in the past decade? Oh yeah, he changed the oval track package last summer to make things more competitive. Oh wait, that idea came from Ganassi's engineers. I know, Brian demanded that Honda and Dallara slash their prices or he'd find some other players. No? Oh, the owners are pushing this cheaper car/engine concept.

Q: With the 2000s ending I would like to know who thought was the best CART/CCWS/IRL driver of the decade, best CART/CCWS/IRL race you saw, most disappointing driver of the decade, worst decision of the decade (besides not reuniting until 2008) and most unforgettable moment in CART/CCWS/IRL of the decade?

Ray Hando

RM: I'd have to go with Montoya, the 2001 CART race at Rockingham, England, (virtually no practice on a green track and a dogfight between de Ferran and Brack to the end), Jeff Simmons (because he had so much potential), too many to name and probably watching Alex Zanardi make his final laps at Germany in 2003.

Q: I only started watching Indy Racing in 2005, so I am still trying to get a grasp on the whole "split". What was it the made Tony George start his own league? CART must have been having some issues, because it only took three years (?) for CART teams to start jumping ship. If CART was in its heyday, why were teams leaving? If the IRL was a new league in 1996 how did they manage to survive and a supposedly thriving league in its prime fail in just five years. There has to me more to the story then just Tony George taking his toys and not playing with others? Another question on a different note, how much of role did it play that Milka was driving a Toyota in the ARCA test. It appeared several of the top cars were Toyota's and honestly I was stunned by the fact that Milka did that well.

Sid

RM: Here's the short version to all your questions. Tony wanted to be king and the CART boys never really made him feel very important. CART's heydays were 1993-2000 and the teams started leaving when Toyota and Honda jumped ship. TGeorge spent millions and millions of dollars keeping the IRL afloat. Cmon on, Milka is a natural. I've always said that.

Q: Was there any talk in 1996 of CART sending over it's best eight teams to mop up the competition in the IRL? I realize they tried to run at Michigan on the same day and that Tony George had instituted the 25/8 rule resulting in a boycott, but it seems to me that had CART sent its best to Indy that month and mopped up, the war would have been over right then and there. Without the Indy money, I would assume a lot of the original IRL teams would have been in a world of trouble. Just something I've always wondered about.

Mark Lauman, Atlanta

RM: It may have been discussed but not seriously enough. If CART shows up at Orlando and Phoenix, the IRL is dead in the water. Of course the CART owners were happy to sell their old cars to the IRL teams and Ford was more than willing to provide turbocharged Cosworths for '96. CART never took the IRL seriously until it was too late.

Q: Just wondering how the Indycar off-season is going, testing wise? Any drivers having luck in finding rides or anything new that wows you, or any rumors floating about a old face in a new place? Or just any rumors that has more fire then smoke for 2010. 2009 seemed to have its moments. And some really bad blunders like any of the ovals the 1st half of the season competition wise. But I would like you to kinda give your best/worst moments of the past year. And what you would like to see on the horizon to 20-10, and beyond. Will I see PT or Oriol? Hows RHR looking at Andretti?

Billy Mitchell, Bay City, Mich.

RM: There's no off-season testing allowed. Nothing new, other than wondering if RHR will have a fulltime gig with Michael Andretti and Gil de Ferran can find the funding to field a car.

PT looks good to go for Indy and both Canadian races and Rahal wants Servia if they can find a sponsor. Best moments of 2009? Tracy's charge at Toronto, Power's victory at Edmonton and Wilson's win at The Glen. Most riveting? Watching Castroneves as the jury read their verdict at Miami. Worst moment? Bruno getting bumped from his ride after qualifying at Indy.

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.