Q: I'm an IndyCar fan. Over the past two years, I've began to watch F1/NASCAR races in order to quench my racing thirst (15-16 IndyCar races just doesn't do it). Today, I've read two articles, from the Speed and Indy Star sites, that discuss next year's Indy Car schedule and Mr. Bernard's goal of 19 races. F1 holds 20 races a year and NASCAR 30+. With that said, why would Indy Car, at the very least, not set the bar at 20 races a year and go from there? Is it a lack of money/sponsorship within the series or an overall lack of interest in North American venues to hold enough races?

Cody, Indianapolis

RM: IndyCar does need 19-21 races but the teams also need better TV ratings to acquire more sponsorship so it’s a vicious circle. There seems to be a renewed interest from tracks and cities because the racing has been so good this year.

Q: I don't know why people really believe that "competition" in chassis would actually bring down costs. Seems to me that idea only works in large markets. IndyCar is not a large market. There are very few customers. The development costs for a chassis have to be very high. That cost is borne by the customers. If you have two chassis manufacturers you are going to have twice the R&D to spread out amongst a small number of customers. Doesn't sound like a recipe for cost reduction to me!

Bill Jurasz

RM: I believe you have correctly identified IndyCar’s mantra but there is a legitimate concern about the local cottage industry being shut out.

Q: Can you please explain why Don Panoz was able to design and build a beautiful, lightning-quick race car that even teams like Dale Coyne and Eric Bachelart could afford parts for but (there isn’t) a suitable replacement as the IndyCar Series tries to roll forward? Even the rich are unhappy. How can they be so incompetent? Every year regardless of the awesome racing, we fans are subject to negative press about one thing or another. Good grief.

Luke, Alberta, Canada

RM: Without seeing the contract and price list, I cannot draw any comparisons but, according to the owners, the price of the car and its parts are higher than originally promised so that’s the rub.

Q: I just finished watching the Toronto Indy race on ABC, and while I subscribe to the Always Bad Coverage moniker, it seems ABC has been doing a better job of covering action in the race as of late. That said, I come here not to praise ABC but to bury them, as they missed another restart this race while in commercial and failed to set up a couple of other restarts in time while Marty and Goodyear (who to be fair has been doing a better job) jabbered about some extraneous matters.

Restarts are often the most exciting parts of the race — Bruton Smith wants to artificially manufacture more of them in NASCAR — so it boggles my mind how ABC can miss so many of them. ABC missed THREE restarts during the Indy 500, and while a great race saved their bacon, this is a fundamental racing coverage failure in my book. Missing any restart is inexcusable, but missing multiple restarts is practically criminal for a race broadcaster. How does ABC not understand this and when are they ever going to be held to account for their failures?

Andrew, New York, New York

RM: I think IndyCar is so far down the totem pole at ABC that nobody cares about the product (other than Indy) or how it’s delivered so missing restarts at Indy or Toronto is hardly of consequence.

Q: If teams can get out of engine contracts because Lotus is so bad why can’t IndyCar get out of the contact with ABC because it’s so bad? I don’t know why they did live coverage because everything in that race was a replay or was not shown at all or was shot from two miles in the sky. The coverage was terrible from coming back from commercial and missing restarts to black screens to talking about cars in pits and not showing them. But the best was the quote “Wow did you see that on side by side?” Yes, when you were in commercial!!! It's amazing-with SPEED’s F1 coverage the announcers are 1,000 miles from the race in a studio and still do better commentary and really have knowledge about the racing and the mechanics of the cars. Hopefully ABC can get its act together by Mid-Ohio but I doubt it they probably think they did a good job!

Tony, Mamaroneck, NY

RM: No buyouts, IndyCar MUST have a network presence even if for only five races. The good news? NBC’s crew will do Mid-Ohio but it will be shown on ABC.

Q: I’m a life-long Indy car fan and am curious for your point of view on the popularity of IndyCar? It seems from the things I’ve read this season, that most of the important numbers like TV ratings (although not where we would like to see them) are up. Attendance seems to be up quite a bit outside of Texas, but with Game 7 in the NBA that night at the same time, that was predictable. It seems like sponsorship has been easier for most teams to obtain as well. What I’d like to know is what you’re personally seeing? Have you had more hits for your articles on SPEED.com? Are more people commenting to you on the web or via email? Are you seeing or hearing more of a buzz around the country? Is there any other gauge that you’ve noticed that I’ve left out?

Ryan Martin

RM: Attendance was down at Texas, up at Barber and Milwaukee, steady on the street circuits and encouraging at Indy while TV is about the same as a year ago for most races (not very impressive). Marshall Pruett monitors our web site for interest and I believe IndyCar’s numbers are very good and this weekly Mailbag continues to be a well-traveled forum. As far as a national buzz, more tracks seem to be interested in IndyCar but the mainstream media isn’t jumping on board yet.

Q: I just wanted to pass along something that I thought was remarkable about the open wheel racing community. My girlfriend is the special events manager at the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana. Bob Jenkins has been kind enough to be the emcee for the past few years at the RMH Golf Tournament but, because of his wife's health problems, declined this year. Sarah Fisher and Scott Goodyear stepped up and co-emceed the event even though the temperature was 105. Scott played golf with his son and Sarah came later for the dinner. Not only did they show up but they stayed even after the air conditioning failed at the Broadmoor Golf Course with emcee duties and staying to the bitter and steamy end of the dinner program. I just thought it was worth mentioning because I know neither one of them would want publicity for it. It just shows to me what really good people are part of the open wheel racing community.

Phil Berg, Southport

RM: Thanks for sharing that info, Sarah and Scott are good people who “get it.’’

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.