Q: If I have to hear anybody say the phrase "more exciting for the fans" one more time then I think my head would explode. I'm talking about all top racing series in general not just INDYCAR and NASCAR, but what's the deal over recent years of track owners and sanctioning bodies making constant changes in order to keep people happy? Have they become so desperate for ratings and attendance that they feel changes need to be made? Just 10 years ago things were not this way so what changed? I admit some gimmicks are good (like double file restarts) but others are just ridiculous (4 wide racing in NHRA? what the heck?) (Changing Bristol again just so that we can see 25 cautions and bad tempers? that's extreme) I guess this is a new era of racing where gimmicks and the quality of entertainment take top priority. One last thing, will the 10 position penalty be in effect for the Indy 500? I'd hate to think that the polesitter could potentially be starting in a spot where he doesn't belong just because of an engine change.

Derrick, Lancaster PA

RM: I guess competition for the entertainment dollar has permeated racing as well and, other than flat track motorcycles, not sure anything is the same. My understanding is that the 10-spot penalty will not be in affect during May.

Q: Robin, the last mailbag has me worried about you. Do you honestly believe casual fans don't care about speeds at Indy or how the car looks? Speed means EVERYTHING at Indy. In my opinion, the reason INDYCAR has suffered such low ratings is because the sport went away from it original formula of track records, engine drama and new chassis every few years. Fans (casual and die-hards) want cool looking fast cars. I looked back at the 1991 500 and there were 6 chassis and 4 engines! Here's the bottom line, straying too far away from a successful formula is what has killed the sport. Indy needs to get back to what worked and speed is a huge part of the formula. And please spare me the "money" talk. Racing is expensive in any economic climate. Think I'm wrong? Post a poll on SPEED and the Indy car Facebook fan pages and see what they say. I bet ya a track dog speed is more important than marketing the drivers or anything else you come up with.

Mike in Newburgh.

RM: There is no denying that Indy’s lack of attendance at practice and qualifying the past 15 years can be directly traced to a lack of innovation and track records (plus The Split). But let’s be honest here. Going 250 mph around a track that was built 100 years ago is insane. The cars are going so fast through the turns there is no reaction time and barely time to see the number. I’d much rather see cars run 250 down the front straight and then have to back off and hit the brakes.

Q: Do I remember when they broke 150 mph, 200 mph, 225 mph and 230 mph at Indianapolis? You bet I do. Do I remember when they stayed the same or less each year? Absolutely not! We look at with great interest in the increases of technology and speed because Indy, Moto GP or Top Fuel represents the most extreme in engineering and human achievement. Is it expensive? Of course but it attracts more people to these events. Look at Top Fuel at NHRA. They have reduced the quarter mile back to 1000 feet and regulate the heck out of engine development all in order to keep away from that terrible 230mph mark. Their attendance and trouble attracting sponsorship shows a decline over the last 10 years. If they had increased shutoff space and let them use their ingenuity in development we would be safely running over 340 mph. We would be eagerly waiting for someone to break 345. Same with Indy. Go forward or die a slow death

Len Ward

RM: I watch NHRA and the competition holds my attention, not whatever speed flashes up. That’s kinda what’s happened at IMS. Last year’s Pole Day was as dramatic as possible with Alex Tagliani upsetting the big teams and the speed didn’t seem to matter.

Q: The race at Long Beach was great and I expect you'll receive a lot of favorable comments. There remains, however a long-standing and glaring gap in the open wheel sport in the USA - the shortage of American drivers. In the latest Road & Track, Derek Daly wrote an articulate and forceful assessment of the lack of American drivers in the highest levels of racing. His observations are self-evident but, sadly not new. The absence of effective driver development efforts, particularly by open wheel team owners is well known and long-standing. Open wheel racing will simply never obtain strong fan support to challenge NASCAR until fans have "local" drivers to root for! I applaud the Mazda programs, but they are mostly remarkable by the fact that they are unique in this country - and that many of the driver participants come from other countries to do so! Do you see any improvements in the future? I'm aware that the economy is tough, but there seem to be numerous drivers from other countries able to get development drives so that's not a total excuse. The second team by Ganassi for Rahal and Kimball is unique but the absence of contributions by Penske, for example is equally noteworthy. How obvious does this have to be for American team owners invest in their own future by developing drivers that fans will identify with and follow?

W Beadle

RM: Can’t disagree with Derek’s assessment but most of today’s owners truly don’t seem to grasp the fact we need some American heroes. Rahal wouldn’t have a ride with Chip unless he had a sponsor and Hornish was the last Yank in Penske’s lineup five years ago. Indy Lights is nearly void of Americans yet Newgarden should be making people take notice. I guess we should be thrilled to have 7 of the 26 drivers this season from the good ‘ol USA.

Q: Being stationed in Germany (and soon, Afghanistan), I regret not being in the states to watch the races, since I cannot view them. It’s great that INDYCAR has free live timing and scoring, as well as the IMS radio network feed, but it would be even better if they had live streaming video to put it all together. All I can get out here are highlight reels on EuroSport, as well as highlight videos from INDYCAR’s YouTube channel. I know they have posted previous races in their entirety, so I can only assume that there is some legal bind preventing them from posting the latest races in full right away. Am I right on this? I’ll even go as far as saying that I would pay to watch a feed! Also, I could not help but notice that I have come across a substantial number of Indy car followers out here in Bavaria. Considering that the DTM series has two awesome races at the Hockenheimring (pretty much between Nuremberg and Stuttgart) and the Norisring street track in Nuremberg, if INDYCAR had any future intention to tap the European market, these tracks might make for a good doubleheader with the DTM. What say you? Does the Chipster have any stake in the DeltaWing about to race Le Mans? I’ve always been curious why he hasn’t commented on that group’s progress, much less lend a driver or two. I still think it’s a lost opportunity for INDYCAR! Laying down four good ones from the heart of Bavaria,

C. Brian Link, Pilot/"War Eagles"

RM: Streaming is a rights and money issue but I like paying so much a month, providing it’s reasonable. Germany supported the CART oval races in Germany so I guess it’s always a possibility. No, Ganassi and the Delta Wing are no longer together.

Q: Enough talk already about Delta Wings and Lotus engines. Let's get to what real race fans want to talk about - GOSSIP! I know you weren't there, Robin, but I'd like your take on this one. My dad, who thinks A.J. Foyt not only walks on water but can drive on it as well, likes to tell of an incident he swears he witnessed firsthand. Seems he was at Winchester for a sprint or midget race in the early 1960s. He walks into the restroom and hears Parnelli begging AJ to let him win the race that day. Sound plausible? I say ridiculous. Your thoughts?

Cletus Cobb

RM: Not only did that never happen, it was a thought process that wasn’t possible between these two.

Q: Before I get to my brief rant, let me say again how nice it was to meet you in the paddock area at St. Pete. I hope AJ enjoyed the t-shirt you were on your way to give him. I'd like to add my two-cents worth on the penalties handed out for "unapproved" engine changes. If the series feels like it needs some mechanism for enforcement on this issue, why don't they use a MODIFIED version of the rule in F1, where a team is allowed X-number of engines per year? In F1, I believe the number is 8, but it could be any number: 5, 6, 7, but don't assess a grid penalty until a car has used up its allotted number. It wouldn't matter whether there are actually that number of engines available, but it would give the teams more control over how they test and want to manage their program. Given the challenges all the teams are facing this year (and even more so for Lotus,) it just seems ridiculous to penalize the teams in this first year of development, and maybe even next year as well. I also want to disagree with the guy who said that people who attend street races don't know anything about racing! I grew up attending races at the dirt short tracks of Oklahoma watching Jackie Howerton, Emmett Hahn, Buddy Cagle and Al Lemmons; I've been to the 500, as well as to amateur SCCA meets. In other words, I'm a race fan and love to go where my schedule allows, regardless. I now live a stone’s throw from The Glen and would happily go back there again, but since it's no longer on the schedule, I go where they ARE racing. I think people just need to support the series whenever they can, and not make assumptions about the pedigree of their fellow attendees.

Steve C., Ithaca, NY

RM: A.J. liked his shirt and we appreciate your rant.

Q: I just got done reading thru the 4/5 Mailbag and the comments and suggestions about how IICS can be successful. (Nice to see those positive suggestions in addition to the traditional bitching!) As always, a lot of the comments pointed to our brethren at NASCAR: even if you hate them, you have to admire their domination of the media conversation. One way that they are very different from the OWS over the last decade is the consistency of their product. That is particularly true of their drivers: the "cast" of their "show", if you will. When NASCAR trotted out 42 cars every single weekend, if you were even a casual follower you could pretty much name the driver of every car just by looking at the number. And, if you were a regular viewer of the weekly "NASCAR-show", you were familiar with more than half of them and developed an interest in some of them. I mean, come on, did Michael Waltrip make his money as a top driver? No, but thanks to NASCAR's PR-machine he was a media-ready face for sponsors and promoters and had a very, very long career, right? Contrast that with the last several years of the IRL-managed OWS: I'm a die-hard fan and I seldom knew who was driving the cars outside of the top-six even when I was trying to keep track. And, even if I knew the guy/girl's name in one of those tail-ender rides by the end of the race they probably wouldn't be in the car the next time I tuned into the "IRL-show." We finally have a cast of capable and interesting drivers in the series (much like CART in the 90's, to be honest). The best thing that Randy can continue to do is to lean on the owners to pick a driver and stay with that driver for the year so that they can promote them. If not as one of the "stars" of the IICS-show, at least one of the likable supporting cast members. They already have Will Power plastered all over the Verizon ads… so we need to see the rest of the cast. That way, when the casual fan tunes in that can say "Hey! There's that likable Newgarden kid. I wonder how he's doing?" or "There's Servia: what's that on his helmet this time?" Build your cast ~ build the brand.

Royal M. Richardson, Chester, NH

RM: You are spot on. Continuity is everything in racing at least in terms of driver recognition. When I think that Buddy Rice or Tomas Scheckter don’t have rides but NASCAR can still find wheels for old fogies like Elliott, Labonte, Schrader and Waltrip it’s very indicative of the problem. But those four guys I mentioned have a ton of loyal fans and it’s from years and years of being out there.

Q: Josh Desotell (Michigan) was asking about IndyCar racing games (Mailbag 3/21). One he may have missed is RFactor (and RFactor 2 coming out now). This game allows the sim-racing community to create series and tracks, and it has been HUGE. I have raced INDYCAR series there, and I would bet there are various series and vintages to choose from. Most of this is free after you purchase the software as well. Can you pass this on?

Earl

RM: Consider it passed, thanks Earl.

Q: Well they finally posted the prices for tickets that were not purchased in the first offering of the premium seats. The most expensive option is to spend $40,000 annually and get 8 premium seats per year. Next comes a $5,500 PSL with $1,250 per ticket to a LOW price of a $1,500 PSL and $375 per ticket. Now these are season tickets (I don't see any dates to say what the season is) so maybe if they do have several events (they do have Aussie V8 Supercar scheduled early next year) then those ticket prices might be okay but that is still a pile of money especially with that PSL charge! I don't think that many people are that interested in F1 in America to support those prices; attendance of the most recent events would seem to support that. They also say tickets to the F1 event only will be on sale later in the summer; I will be interested to see how many seats they have left in the areas now on sale and what the prices are. I sure hope they make a go of it as they have a lot of neat things planned for the facility outside of racing but I live less than 100 miles from the track, I could come home every night, and I can't afford to go! Maybe I am wrong but I can see a lot of PSLs on sale in the next couple of years.

Tom in Waco

RM: Thanks for the info Tom. Remember, the series once said it didn’t care if anybody showed up to watch an F1 race because they had the greatest worldwide TV package and audience. So I’m guessing they’re not nearly as concerned as the Austin promoters should be.

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.