INDYCAR: Miller's Mailbag, 8.23

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Miller’s Mailbag, 8.23

Always genuine, never lite: It's Miller time. Here's the latest Q&A from SPEED.com's IndyCar guru.

Robin Miller | Posted August 23, 2012

The cost of replacement parts continues to thrive as an active topic of interest between team owners and the IndyCar Series. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

Hello open-wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just email me at . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.

~Robin Miller

Q: I noticed on Twitter the Wind Tunnel rumor mill said that the owners want to take over IndyCar. Can you elaborate more as to why? Is it true? And most importantly do they realize if they do that IndyCar is dead after that? Obviously they failed with CART. I believe it's a NO WIN for them or the fans. They managed to botch everything and ran CART into ground and it will kill any/all momentum that IndyCar has left. I still will go to the Indy 500 until it dies off.

Gary McDonald

RM: If these few owners take over then Indy will likely be the only race left in a couple years anyway. I reported Sunday night on Wind Tunnel that a few owners and another racing entrepreneur were serious about trying to buy the series. Two of the people in this scheme were anti-CART so draw your own conclusions.

Q: Please do not say the owners are going to buy the series. Haven't we been down this road before? This has been one of the best years in IndyCar. The Indy 500 was phenomenal, the racing's been great and the new car is racy. The championship is wide open. Randy Bernard, I think, has done a good job. For anything to be successful, you need stability at the top. I don't understand.

Roland Newrones

RM: The owners have drawn a line in the sand over the cost of Dallara parts and it will come to a head this weekend at Sonoma. But the whole group isn’t in favor of owning the series, just a select few in the lynch mob who want to take over and get rid of Bernard.

Q: I couldn't help but email you after watching Wind Tunnel. Have these car owners who want to buy the IZOD IndyCar series been sniffing ethanol or too many exhaust fumes? Everybody knows how owners running the series worked out! No matter who is in charge, half the paddock will hate him/her and half the paddock will like him/her and all of the owners will be on each side of that fence at one point or another. Whatever happened to Andrew Craig, Chris Pook and all the other former CART/Champ Car/CCWS CEOs the owners ran out? You should call a bunch of them and get their take on what’s going on right now. I'm sure they could give you an interesting perspective. Randy had done a great job considering his lack of knowledge of racing and the shark infested waters that make up ownership. You need to call-out these owners so the fans can vent their frustration with these self-serving jackasses.

Scott St. Clair, Erie, PA

RM: I don’t need to call anybody to understand this is the worst idea since 25/8 at Indy in 1996. Owners with self-interests and massive egos always make bad managers and, if this does happen, it will fail miserably. I kind of called these guys out back in June and when the time comes it will be reported in full.

Q: With Randy Bernard wanting 19 races in 2013, and assuming the current 15 tracks, plus Houston are on next year’s schedule, what three tracks do you see taking us to 19? I've heard Michigan, Pocono, Austin and New Orleans mentioned recently, but are there any others that could be dark horses, and is September 1st a realistic date to announce the schedule or are we going have to wait a bit longer?

PS. Please tell me that IndyCar plans to introduce standing starts next year from the FIRST race of the season & not halfway through the season.

Graeme Watson

RM: A couple owners and one promoter told me that Randy has a clever idea to expand the schedule but we can’t share it just yet. I think Pocono is about 85 percent to go with Houston and there’s another eastern date being looked at as well but New Orleans and Palm Springs are likely at least a year away.

Q: So let's say IndyCar decides to go back to Pocono next year. I would love to go back up there where the weather changes forty degrees within thirty minutes, but I already know what to expect because I saw CART there years ago. It was exciting. People who don't know need to be enticed somehow. Sell tickets at $35 or $40 MAX and I think you get a decent crowd. That's $5 to $10 higher than the WOO show. However, the infield was $40 for NASCAR at Pocono this year. Why not use that as your high end knowing IndyCar can't possibly draw as well? Seems to me that more butts in the seats is way better at a lower price than trying to charge $50 or more and ending up with a 1/4 of a grandstand?

Dave Long, Reading, PA

RM: Absolutely, ticket prices must be very reasonable for the first couple years to try and build back the audience. Milwaukee did that earlier this summer and a butt in the seat buying a hot dog and a souvenir is better than empty aluminum.

Q: Any word/rumors on Fontana ticket sales? Is 20k actually optimistic? Will it be back next year or could MIS replace it?

Kevin Anderson

RM: All I’ve heard is that the infield has been sold out for quite some time but I’m not sure if that’s roughly 10,000 or more. I think if 25,000 showed up it would be a roaring success considering how bad it was in the end with IRL. But I doubt if any decision is made until we see the bottom line.

Q: I agree with you that Indy Cars needs a longer season and a solution seems easy — South America. The fans in South America are passionate, the weather is generally good and circuits are plentiful. You could sell the Brazilian, Columbian and Venezuelan drivers all over the place down there and the marketing would be a cinch. Then move the series up to North America in March or so and have a good long six-month season through August/September with a three-month break and the first race in South America in December/January. I can’t believe sponsors would not jump on the chance to market their name to a few million race fans in Brazil. Didn’t Argentina have an F1 race for a while? There has to be ample circuits that could be brought up to snuff fairly easily.

Sean Jones, Grand Rapids, MN

RM: Another early race to go with Brazil would be good and IndyCar wants a couple of foreign races with big sanction fees — just have to see what country that is. Yes, Argentina had a grand prix from 1953-1980.

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