Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers could 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 acquired after 3pm ET every Monday shall be saved for the next week.
Q: Why doesn’t IndyCar let vehicles qualify one after the other on highway programs? Wouldn’t this clear up the interference drawback?
JRW, AZ
MARSHALL PRUETT: I’m not towards the thought, however because it isn’t achieved in every other open-wheel championship that I do know of — huge or small — it’s not like IndyCar goes towards the grain.
Additionally, there’s been a factor that’s developed lately the place no matter variety of of us and too many collection consider each driver, on each qualifying lap, ought to have Moses parting the best way always. I don’t know precisely when that perception took off, however it’s lame.
Profitable qualifying is about timing and making runs at one of the best home windows of alternative. It’s a part of the technique. In the present day, each crew and driver is seemingly anticipated to have a 360-degree view on each second of their qualifying classes, and in the event that they impede any individual by 0.1s, they get penalized. I simply don’t get it. If it’s blatant, give them a penalty. If the driving force is asleep on the wheel and completely clueless, give them a penalty. In any other case, minor inconveniences are a part of the expertise.
This isn’t drag racing with devoted lanes for every qualifier to be protected against one another. IndyCar drivers are given equal time and alternative to make use of the observe on the identical time to ship their greatest laps. In the event that they fail in that equal alternative because of a slower driver being in the best way, effectively, that’s a part of the equal alternative, not a assure.
Q; This was among the best race weekends that IndyCar has ever had, with two nice races which will have energized the necessity for extra quick ovals due to the stunning crowd that confirmed up for the Milwaukee 250. I want they’d go old fashioned and have two races like they did from 1949-1983 after they raced after the Indy 500 and on Labor Day weekend. Maybe by 2026 we might see Richmond, New Hampshire, Michigan and Homestead.
And since Pato O’Ward was complaining in regards to the missed alternative to race in his hometown nation of Mexico, perhaps they might add the oval race at Autódromo Internacional Miguel E. Abed in Pueblo, Mexico, which has similarities to World Large Expertise Raceway.
Alistair, Springfield, MO
MP: The Indy-to-Detroit routine simply seems like a large drop-off in spectacle and status. Indy-to-Milwaukee? That’s a confirmed winner.
Who’s going to say no to a day of IndyCar racing and fried cheese curds? James Black/IMS Photograph
Q: So long as there’s been TrackForum, followers have complained that “all IndyCar wants is healthier advertising”. It’s 2024 and regardless of the advertising genius of “I’m Indy”, the chorus nonetheless stands.
I believe a part of the issue at present is that Penske Leisure both doesn’t perceive or doesn’t care in regards to the digital area. Responsive design for the net has been round since a minimum of 2008; it’s what makes content material wrap to suit your pc, cellphone, or machine display. It’s so previous (in internet growth years) that folks don’t even check with it as responsive design anymore; it’s there by default. Nevertheless, indycar.com isn’t responsive on desktop, cellular, or the IndyCar app, so you possibly can’t learn full tales. (I hooked up a screenshot of indycar.com on cellular on Friday of Milwaukee weekend for context).
The weekend schedule will not be on the IndyCar.com homepage; it’s a click on away, hidden below ‘Race particulars’ (which you must scroll all the way down to see – and since the positioning isn’t responsive, it’s obscured by the race countdown timer). The homepage doesn’t provide notifications, which implies the one individuals who know what’s occurring throughout race weekends are individuals who both set up the IndyCar app, or people who find themselves sufficient to go to indycar.com and know the place to click on.
I get notifications from the Android IndyCar app that classes are beginning, over 45 minutes after they begin. I bought a notification Observe 1 at MKE began 47 minutes after it started. There aren’t any notifications when classes are about to start out, and even the weekend schedule prematurely. Hyperlinks in notifications don’t go to the story within the notification, simply the app’s homepage, which implies it’s good to discover the linked story on the homepage.
I don’t understand how IndyCar can develop the game’s footprint after they don’t appear to grasp the fundamentals of delivering digital content material. It’s unhealthy person expertise, and a nasty impression for followers.
Ed, Jersey
MP: Thanks for writing in to share your experiences, Ed.
Q: As I watch Milwaukee Race 1, one thing that’s been bugging me has triggered me to e-mail you. When manufacturing reveals an in-car digicam view, within the decrease proper nook they present the brand of the digicam sponsor.
Contained in the cockpit throughout the rim of the halo the identical sponsor’s title is displayed. The brand names additionally seem on the rear wings for backward digicam photographs.
It appears that evidently it might assist viewers establish vehicles in the event that they put a nonetheless shot of a facet view of the automotive carrying the stay digicam shot. I don’t affiliate Mission Meals with Rossi’s automotive coloration scheme of the week, for instance. I see their title on display, so the digicam brand field is redundant.
Please cross that suggestion to race TV manufacturing crew.
Pat, Indy
MP: NBC, you’ve bought one race left to maintain Pat.
