Q: Reading the new mailbag, and questions about how Lotus might fare, starting from so far behind, brought to mind some nagging questions I've been harboring.
In the past few years, Lotus has seemingly spent enormous sums of money ambitiously building a bunch of concept cars, and plastering their name on every form of major motorsports--F1, sports car, and this year, INDYCAR. While the marquee has certain come back into prominence, with a passel of road cars, and building the rolling chassis for Tesla, the company itself has been a loser for its parent company, Proton, for many years, which itself has just been sold to a private equity firm. There are rumors that the new owners will put Lotus up for sale as well. It doesn't take an MBA to wonder where all the money that Danny Bahar has been spending so freely is coming from, and wondering if, and when, that well is going to run dry. Do you have any insight as to how much John Judd is getting for his engine? And how much support the Lotus teams are getting for painting their cars black and gold? And let's say Lotus is sold, and the new owners decide that they can't afford to continue bankrolling this spree, what happens to Lotus' engine in INDYCAR? Did they sign a binding contract as a supplier, or will they be able to pull out? If, after a check bounces, Judd decides, or worse yet, a court, decides that all those engines are now collateral to be seized, what happens to those teams? Does Randy Bernard have a contingency plan in case Lotus' house of cards crumbles? I could, and prefer to be wrong, but it would be foolish not to at least keep such a scenario in mind. Lastly, what are the chances we'll see a Ford-Cosworth show up again in INDYCAR?

John Q.

RM: I went to the Lotus press conference in LA a couple years ago when Bahar announced he was going to be competing in F1, INDYCAR and Le Mans and my comment then was that he must be loaded. I have no inside information to your questions but I was told the new owner is committed to make the INDYCAR engine program work. We shall see. I think Randy has talked to Honda and GM about a possible bailout if Lotus should go away. If Penske can talk Ford into coming back, I’m sure Cosworth would like to play.

Q: While all the press at St. Pete went to the rumors of the Texas races, some of us in the Poconos found the appearance of Brandon Igadalsky (President and CEO of Pocono Raceway) at St. Pete to be more interesting. He was a guest of Randy Bernard, and after the event said on Twitter he was there "just as a fan." But it seems odd a superspeedway that has just spent millions on renovations president to attend his first Indy car event as just a fan. So how did this "fan" meeting go? Is this a major step forward to Indy cars finally returning to a track built specifically for open wheel racing 40 years ago, where Mark Donahue and Penske won the first ever race there? And don't forget Pocono is just a little more than 3 hours north of Baltimore, 2 hours north of Philly, and 2 hours west of New York City. I would argue no track could ever give the series more exposure in major markets than Pocono.

Spike R., Mt. Pocono, PA

RM: I have a story on SPEED.com addressing Pocono but for now let’s just say it’s possible.

Q: We are hearing a lot talk about the 2013 season already. That isn't a bad thing but a lot of speculations. First off, are Richmond, Loudon and/or Kentucky in consideration? If they go to Austin wouldn't a split of Austin in February/March (possibly with V8 Supercars?), Texas in June and then Houston in September/October make sense? I also read that Pocono, along with Phoenix are being considered and what about Road America?

Ray Hando

RM: Richmond and Phoenix are on the list, as well as Pocono but you’ll have to read my story on SPEED.com to find out everything. It should be posted Wednesday evening.

Q: Watching the race and thought it was odd that INDYCAR doesn't have Barrichello listed as a rookie (even went to the starting grid PDF on IndyCar's website to confirm it). They have Katherine Legge listed as a rookie but she has driven some of these tracks when she did here CART stint a few years ago. What's up with that?

Mike from Salt Lake City, UT

RM: Rubens will be classified as a rookie only at Indianapolis and, to me, that makes perfect sense. He’s only a rookie on ovals.

Q: My question is after St. Petersburg race, Chevy domination was impressive, you think that Honda will step on their game and you think it was a mistake to go with only one turbo?

Guillermo Calvillo

RM: I don’t think we can make any determination until after four races but, supposedly, Honda went with a single turbo because it might be better on an oval and Indianapolis is its main goal.

Q: I thought St. Pete was good and from your talk on Wind Tunnel you seemed to feel it was OK – typical street race. Honestly, I did doze off the last dozen laps. Thank goodness for DVRs - I could rewind. But I thought the rest of the race was good. Like you said, the drivers were just like professional drivers. Imagine that. No idiotic, impatient wrecks like we’ve been witnessing in the past. Finally!
When Will power took off in the beginning, I was thinking: Oh no. Not a W. Power domination race. It could have been. But surprisingly, his early pit stop was his demise. He didn’t really claw his way up to the front and the other pit strategies seemed to work out better. No matter what year or what equipment, those Penske guys are the top dogs. They’re very smart and can bring the best out of whatever car they race. Case in point, the KV cars weren’t up there as high as the Penske cars and they are also Chevy. Helio is not my favorite, I don’t even know why. But his positive attitude is always nice & his fence climbs were cool & touching this time. Besides Scotty D, I didn’t see much Honda power action up front. Is Honda a little low on power at this moment, or is it something else?

Bob Irvin

RM: Simon Pagenaud qualified sixth and Graham Rahal had the third fastest lap of the race but Honda seemed to lack the torque of Chevy and that difference was only a couple tenths.

Q: OK we have 26 confirmed driver/team combos with engines confirmed to start the season. The Indianapolis 500 has spots for 33 starters. Assuming all 26 entrants from St. Pete start the 500 (hopefully losing none to injury from accidents before the 500 that would prevent them from racing). Who will the other 7-10 entrants be attempting to claim the final seven spots? If Rahal enters Luca Filippi and Michael Shank enters Paul Tracy and Andretti enters Sebastian Saavedra that makes 29. Will Dreyer and Reinbold enter two more cars (maybe Ana Beatriz) will Rahal have a 3-car team at Indy with Baguette or Pippa taking the 3rd seat? Will Panther put Buddy Rice in a second car again? If might a good fit for Carpenter and Walker to put Scheckter in a 2nd car. Wouldn’t Ed and Tomas make a good duo at Indy or on all the ovals? If all of these drivers get deals that totals 34 drivers. What about Alex Lloyd or Townsend Bell? Will Schmidt and Davey put a 2nd or 3rd car on the grid at the 500 with Wade Cunningham? I’m just curious if your hearing what additional programs are gaining steam towards the 500 and what will the engine breakdown at Indy be as far as numbers for each manufacturers. Will Lotus get up to 10 entries by then?

Brady Hawxhurst

RM: Michel Jourdain, Bryan Clauson and John Andretti are potential drivers as well as the ones you named and I hope Scheckter makes it back.

Q: When you put a loop bumper on the rear of a go-kart behind the back tyres, to prevent climb overs, they are known as Elephant Ears! So from now on the back bumpers on Indy cars shall be referred to as ELEPHANT EARS !

Randy, London , Ont. Canada.

RM: Thanks Randy, we prefer Kardashians.

Q: I don't remember the glory days of CART; I wasn't even a racing fan then. I don't have age old memories of "how it ought to be" or any other such rubbish. All I had until this year was Dallara and G-Force crapwagons with second rate drivers, lousy sounding (and worse smelling) engines and tiny crowds. My first open wheel race was an IRL event at Nazareth that was red flagged more than it was green. But not knowing any better, I loved it because those second rate drivers and their teams give their tiny crowds great access to their crapwagons, signatures, paddocks, etc - and that's been worth all of E.J. Viso's wrecked Dallara bits' weight in gold to me. For me, ignorance was bliss and I've been screaming from the rooftops in support of IndyCar knowing it was a good OVERALL product; even if the taxicabs got bigger crowds, at least I never fell asleep on the couch watching INDYCAR...So now that we have so many good, positive things happening in the sport, I don't understand why on earth there is still so much negativity surrounding INDYCAR. Everywhere you look on the Internet, the most vocal fans are the ones who do nothing but complain about the cars, the schedule, Danica, etc. I know trying to quiet the vocal minority by reasoning with them is futile since they are complainers by nature, but we need to do our part as dedicated, passionate fans to push all the positive things into the spotlight. If every single one of us excited, positive fans posts something as simple as "Excited for Milwaukee to come back!" that will be enough to suppress a huge part of the whining and complaining that's out there and show the media, potential sponsors and the public that IndyCar fans aren't just a bunch of nostalgic, dysfunctional whiners not worth their investment. With that in mind, I'd like to offer the following challenge to your mailbag readers this week: next time you read an article, forum post or anything else online about IICS that talks about any of the great things going on this season, post a positive, supportive comment about it. Don't engage in a debate with anyone or try to defend any positions; just be genuine in expressing your feelings about all the great things happening this year. If nothing else, it will make our shared online community a better place to be as we talk about our favorite form of racing. Looking forward to the rest of 2012!

Gabe

RM: A positive rant about the negative vibes and a challenge to fans.

Q: Please tell Sebastian from Richmond Hill to check out the Honda Indy Toronto's web site under spectator guide. It lists all of their policies. While you cannot bring in water in bottles they allow you to take empty plastic water bottles into the ground so you can constantly refill. You can refill them at fountains, washrooms located in, The Allstream Centre, Direct Engery Centre. Not to mention there are several water trucks that the organizers place throughout the grounds and close to the stands. You can't bring in a cooler or outside food but if you have a medical condition for example diabetes and need juices/snacks bring a doctor's note of which security cannot refute. Sebastian is right that aside from Pizza Pizza and Shoeless Joe's there isn't quality food options. A lot of it is heavily over-priced.

Also, I'm assuming Sebastian hasn't been to the race post 2009 where the security was like the airport and ticket takers beyond inept. They were replaced for 2010 onward. I haven't seen anyone run into difficulty and it was smooth sailing through the gates last year and in 2010. If people read up on the policies in the spectator guide on the web site before buying tickets or going there shouldn't be any issue. Also, I'm not sure why your reader's e-mails went unanswered but I have always known Charlie Johnstone and his staff to reply to everyone who writes. In fact, in 2009 Johnstone answered every complaint about security and policies people sent him. I recently met him and found him to be nice guy. The Honda Indy Toronto staff has been nothing but flexible from my experience.

Geoff in Markham

RM: Thanks for the fan guide update to Toronto.

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

Robin Miller brings 40 years of experience to his role as SPEED.com's senior open-wheel reporter, and serves as a frequent contributor to SPEED Center and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain.