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INDYCAR: Miller’s Mailbag For 7/29
We've got a fever, and the only thing that'll satisfy it is More Mailbag. Here's 32 Q&A items from the best Indycar scribe on the planet.
Robin Miller  |  Posted July 29, 2009   Indianapolis, IN
The Marines sponsor an American team with a Brazilian driver. The National Guard sponsors an American team with a British driver. Should those decidedly American sponsors require one of their own to represent them? (LAT)
Hello open wheel types and thanks for all your questions. I intend to answer your questions every week during the season, so just . Don’t feel left out if I didn’t directly respond. I appreciate your interest and passion.

A quick note to all the good folks who write in every week. I got some erroneous information regarding Brian Barnhart being the person who chose not to recognize the past records of USAC, CART and Champ Car. Al Unser Jr. wanted to make sure I knew Barnhart does care about the history of Indy cars and it's the IndyCar PR department that chooses to refer to Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr. as the all-time winners. But, if they say the all-time winners in the context since IRL was formed in 1996, that's fine. Marshall has a few quotes from the PR department in his column this week. And as long as they keep the IndyCar history record book, we can all get along. Actually, IndyCar needs to sell that updated book every year.

~Robin Miller

Q: As I had said last week. Omigod! How good is Will Power. Great performance in Edmonton. I wonder if his Penske contract allows him to race for other teams when he is not scheduled with Penske?

Martin Moriguchi, Phoenix

RM: I seriously doubt if it does but I can tell you Will would rather run whatever races Penske picks for him than drive full-time for just about anybody else in the paddock. He's a bad ass and I imagine The Captain will find a place for him next season.

Q: After two good races in a row we get another snoozer. How many laps were the leaders unable to pass backmarkers? Except for a few laps near the end Edmonton was a Penske parade. BORING!!! The IRL needs more than a band-aid to fix this. If they can't come up with a push to pass how about putting rocket boosters on those Dallara turds? That might keep our interest. Attention people at 16th and Georgetown.... you are boring us to death. We need a fix of real open wheel racing now!!!

Bob Hendrickson, Englishtown N.J.

RM: Honda will introduce its power boost this weekend in Kentucky and supposedly it's good for 5-15 horsepower. Not nearly what push-to-pass was in a turbo Cosworth but it's a start and maybe it can initiate some passing.

Q: I was surprised at how difficult it was to pass at Edmonton. I had thought these airport type circuits (like Cleveland) were easy to pass on. Can the course be altered a little for better braking zones? When will someone make Ed Carpenter get out of the way? In Formula 1, as fuel burns off, laps times decrease significantly. Why is this not the case with Indy cars? Does it have to do with the overall weight in combination with horsepower?

Ken in St. Pete

RM: Not sure why Edmonton has promoted more passing the past two years but it was Cleveland-like in the first two of Champ Car -- plenty of action. A couple full-course yellows would have certainly helped break up the monotony but at least Marco refusing to get out of the way bunched up the top five for a while. Don't think Ed was in the way too often over the weekend. Lap times do usually decrease as the fuel goes away.

Q: My local CBC station did a spot on the 6-o-clock news about the Edmonton Indy that went to great lengths to say maybe the race doesn't have much support here. It really demonstrated poor research. The segment sought to show that there is little support for the Indy and that maybe it should not be renewed. There was a spokesperson billed as a "sports marketing expert." He twice referred to the event as "NASCAR," and they interviewed him AT THE TRACK! Next, the camera panned near empty stands (during a lull in the action) to reinforce the point that the city doesn't support the Indy. I was there today, in fact, the food, vendor and paddock areas were absolutely jam packed - and don't forget, today was only practice day. I would estimate 30K in attendance today. Now, while the race has "lost money" the past few years, it remains one of the best attended Indy races outside of the Indy 500 itself. BTW, Helio got a warm reception from fans after practice and laughed at some good-natured ribs thrown his way. He even came out to meet and sign autographs.

Earl McKenzie, Edmonton

RM: I would estimate 20,000 on Friday, 35,000 on Saturday and 55,000 on Sunday (think there were 45,000 permanent seats not counting the suites) and, as I wrote last weekend,
Edmonton has become the best Canadian venue. The fans come out early and stay late, they're knowledgeable and there's plenty of them. Indy Lights has never run in front of so many people. If the race had started at 1 p.m. instead of 4 o'clock, you might have had more people from Calgary, who didn't want to make a three hour drive on Sunday night.

Q: A comment during the IndyCar broadcast said that the Penske cars run so well because their shock program is so highly developed that they have a mechanical grip advantage. Here's my question: Does IndyCar have many rules with regards to the shocks or is it just minimal specifications? Does Penske build a better shock, or is it a case of "a shock, is a shock, is a shock" and Penske just knows how to tune it better? The reason I ask is because everyone has been saying the small teams have parity with Penske and Ganassi on the road course, but at Edmonton both teams started and finished with a lock on the top 5. Justin Wilson won at The Glen, but since then it seems like the top two teams just upped their game and put everyone back down in the pecking order.

Curious Joe

RM: Shocks and dampers are fair game and it goes without saying that Penske and Ganassi are on top of those two areas, among others. I believe AGR went to Penske shocks recently or tried something regarding the valving of the shocks. Anyway, you've got to remember that Briscoe, Castroneves, Dixon, Franchitti and Power are all damn good road racers so it's not that big a surprise. And it's still not as lopsided as ovals, where those two teams NEVER lose.

Q: Why don't the powers that be, get rid of ANY AND ALL hindrances to drivers in regards to helmet radio cables, pop off tubes, etc. With the belts. tight cockpits, snug headrests and HANS devices, drivers have a tough time to bail out of a car in an emergency. Tony Kanaan's experience in Edmonton was a perfect example; He was caught by the helmet radio cable (and maybe some other cables) from exiting the car to escape flames. With Bluetooth technology everywhere, why can't a Bluetooth transceiver be installed in the helmet or even attached to the HANS device? I was so proud of the sportsmanship of the Penske and TCGR teams in reacting so fast and coming to TK's aid. Maybe the good old days spirit still lives on.

David Sutton

RM: Not sure anybody's thought about it so I'll forward your suggestion to the IRL tech folks. It is a bitch to unhook everything and, as Kanaan said immediately afterwards, thank god for the quick response of the Penske and Ganassi teams.

Q: Do you think it will be possible for any new administration to continue, much less advance IndyCar beyond this season? The long term deal with the "Versus" network, the long term deals with tracks (i.e. Infineon) that are on the verge of being broken, the inability to come up with a formula, and the yawn-fest high speed parades all seem to be dragging the series in the wrong direction. Could we see another USAC/CART breakaway with the team owners running things?

Napalm Nick, Locust Grove, VA

RM: Not sure there's any solid plan for the new car or engine right this moment but it might not matter since just about everyone is searching for money and not having much luck. With TG not able to help teams like the old days, we may be screwed until 2012, providing IndyCar makes it that long. The standing joke the past few weeks has been that Tony George is going to start a breakaway series next year. But seriously? No, I don't see any owners groups forming, although Kevin Kalkhoven said never say never last weekend when I asked what would happen if the IRL were shut down or sold.

Q: With all this talk of the Hulman-George sister selling the IRL or not, who do you think might be some prospective buyers? I know you said possibly Forsythe (although unlikely), formation of a new CART style series, or one of the current team owners (likely Penske, Ganassi, or Andretti. Probably Penske cause he's really the only one who can swing that kinda coin). But who else?? Also, I know from your past posts that buying this series is not too enticing an investment, what I don't understand though, is why? What are the annual running costs of this thing, and how much is coming through the door as income? And why is the overhead so much? Between ticket sales, TV money, merchandising, and sponsorship how are they not covering themselves?

Hollywood Sheen

RM: The rumor lately has been John Menard going in with TGeorge to buy the IRL and I called Menard two weeks ago. He said he wants to do whatever is necessary to help open wheel racing survive (including being the title sponsor) but that he was told the IRL was not for sale. Operating the IRL costs somewhere in the $50 million neighborhood ($26 million alone in TEAM money) and the payroll is staggering. No title sponsor, no big TV money like NASCAR or F1, and it's not a pretty financial picture. I imagine if IndyCar could get down to only losing $10 million a year it would be happy.

Q: I'm a huge Dan Wheldon fan and still rank him on ovals alongside Helio, Dixon and Kanaan, but surely his decision to leave TCGR and go seek a bigger contract from a far less competitive team has to go down as one of the worst career moves in history. He ultimately chose to go from championship contender to midfield, and even though he says Panther can win races and championships he must have missed the last six years as it obvious to everybody else in this current IRL they have no chance. So what I'm asking is has Wheldon's ego (upset about the Kanaan thing) and greed lead to the death of his career as I can't ever see TCGR or Penske having him, and I'm not sure Michael Andretti would want him back. So what is left for Dan Wheldon?

Nick, United Kingdom

RM: First off, do you really think he left Ganassi? Chip had a verbal commitment from Kanaan before he did a 180 and then Dario got the seat. Wheldon didn't have many options, not to get paid what he's making, but now I understand he wants out of Panther as quickly as possible. I asked him a couple weeks ago about going back to AGR and he just smiled and said he had a contract with Panther. But his agents were in Toronto and there's been talk of missed payments and some heated conversations so I'd say he's out of that ride regardless of what happens in the next couple months. It's puzzling he's so good on ovals and struggles so much on the road courses he grew up on. But it doesn't look like there's much out there for 2010.

Q: With Gil de Ferran’s team considering/moving to the IRL next year with Sato and/or Simon Pagenaud, Danica moving to Team Target, any potential Andretti-Green keeps TK, Marco, and signs Will Power (who I'd have thought would have gone to de Ferran Motorsports with the Penske connection)? And, if SeaBass does decide to come to the IRL, would he consider AGR or would he only go to NHL? In my opinion, if all those moves do pan out, it would create one of the deepest IRL fields, especially if Vasser's team can get it together and potentially find money for Bruno or Servia and/or P.T.

Kevin

RM: We think Gil is going to have a 2-car IndyCar effort in 2010 with Sato and Pagenaud (I said Dixon was a possibility as well but Ganassi has an option year) and Adrian Fernandez and Duncan Dayton could also come to open wheel (one or two of them might stay in ALMS P2 as well, depending on ACURA's decisions) which could really be good news for Buddy Rice, Tracy, Tagliani, Servia or Junqueira. Maybe even David Brabham. Or a J.R. Hildebrand (IndyCar needs young Americans) or James Hinchcliffe (IndyCar needs young Canadians).

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