Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers might be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embody a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday will probably be saved for the next week.
Q: First time query, very long time RACER fan: IndyCar must differentiate itself from F1 and different racing to new followers. What’s extra totally different than an intimate Sunday with the world’s greatest racing followers at The Thermal Membership!
5 thousand followers at Thermal Membership, with unbelievable entry to vehicles drivers and announcers, vs the embarrassing 5,000 (perhaps) followers at TMS. It’s not unique, it’s obtainable to a mean race fan, with tickets at $475 for the weekend. That is particularly reasonable. I journey to Chicago Bears video games and infrequently pay way more per ticket for 4 hours of “leisure.” I additionally pay that a lot for GPLB for full entry (photograph move and a race day seat).
I’ll take Thermal. Don’t disguise from the small crowd, put it up for sale as an superior close-up and superb expertise. It’s at a incredible venue that we gearheads can solely dream about. Discover a non-racing movie star to advertise and be on the race. If Thermal would permit the entry, present the loopy cool vehicles that “dwell” there and we solely dream about. Everyone knows solely the wealthy can afford it, however that’s race vehicles, it’s what it’s. I’ve been to 86 open-wheel races, and am a giant fan of the Indy 500 and the Milwaukee Mile, however oval racing appears horrible with empty stands. The background of mountains and palm bushes appears good on TV. The small crowd will not be that apparent and is a part of this distinctive race.
Ideas, Marshall?
Bob (lifetime race fan)
MARSHALL PRUETT: F1 is essentially the most unique type of racing on the planet and options exorbitant prices to attend, so IndyCar is doing the other of differentiating itself from F1 by doing precisely what F1 does however minus the packed homes F1 will get at these loopy costs. So IndyCar finally ends up wanting small and unimportant.
According to Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles in a name on Friday, Thermal had “3000-ish followers.” To the individual tuning in to observe who doesn’t go to RACER.com every single day to digest each piece of IndyCar information, all they’d see is a bunch of vehicles and no one there to observe them. Unsure find out how to spin that as a optimistic. Don’t get me unsuitable; the place is superb and I’ve loved each go to because the first for preseason testing in 2023. But when I give attention to what’s greatest for IndyCar whereas it’s attempting to develop into larger and extra identified, holding races in the course of nowhere with a tiny crowd simply ain’t it.
Repair that by a minimum of getting 10,000-15,000 individuals there to fill some grandstands, and it turns into viable.
If an IndyCar drives by and no one’s there to listen to it, does it make a sound? Jake Galstad/Lumen
Q: I’m a longtime IndyCar fan – sufficiently old to recollect the heady days of CART, which most likely peaked round when Nigel Mansell got here to city.
I’m questioning if it’s simply me or is one thing lacking this season? Is there a decline within the star energy of the present crop of drivers? I’m a 35+ yr fan and even I don’t know squat about half the sector this yr. Don’t get me unsuitable, I do know there’s some severe expertise presently racing, but when I had been to stroll right into a bar and begin speaking in regards to the superb IndyCar Sequence, who would the common individual acknowledge? Scott Dixon? Will Energy? “Perhaps” to each, am I proper? In fact there’s some others like Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta simply to call a number of, however I’m fairly positive I’d get blinky eyes of non-recognition in return right here in Australia.
In my humble opinion, IndyCar and FOX could be clever to get on the horn ASAP to get any of the outdated legends like Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Mario (it doesn’t assist that Michael has gone AWOL), Al Unser Jr., Helio, Robby Gordon… heck even Colton’s dad and Tony Kanaan are there each weekend and would have nice views, no?
Jason Mulveny, aka Bananaspeed, Sydney, Australia
MP: First query I’d ask is what’s totally different about this yr? Palou, Herta, Energy, Dixon, O’Ward, Newgarden, and so forth., have all been the marquee drivers for the final three or 4 years, and there’s nothing distinctive I can consider up to now in 2025 that stands out as distinctive from final yr, or the yr earlier than, and so forth. The identical lack of CART-era star energy is outdated information; Helio and Dario and Danica Patrick had been the newest drivers with massive crossover attraction, however Danica left after 2011, Dario was pressured to retire after 2013, and Helio’s been Indy-only since 2024.
However IndyCar additionally hasn’t had a TV associate that’s been as motivated as FOX to attempt to construct immediately’s stars into larger names, so are we going to poop on them for failing to repair many years of poor efforts by the sequence and its former broadcasters… in spite of everything of two races?
There’s additionally the generational merchandise at hand. Virtually everybody you talked about as legends, apart from Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan who’re actively concerned immediately, don’t have any relevance to those that both weren’t born or weren’t following once they had been massive offers. What would a 25-year-old IndyCar fan care to listen to from Robby Gordon, whose final IndyCar begin got here once they had been 4? May be enjoyable for these older followers, however is having outdated legends on the broadcasts going to maneuver the needle? I simply can’t see it.
Let’s give FOX a while to attempt to enhance the scenario earlier than turning the shows the other way up.
