Indy cars back at Phoenix? Not likely any time soon... (LAT photo) » More Photos

Q: Of late, there have been many comments made about the old tracks of the IRL & CART (Phoenix, Fontana, Road America, Michigan) that IndyCar should return to in 2010 and beyond. Although I think everyone agrees that those are great tracks, I was interested in your thoughts on any NEW tracks (speedways, road, street courses) that you think IndyCar would be a good fit for. I used to enjoy the great races on the big superspeedways in which racing took place side-by-side at 220 mph! My favorite tracks to watch were the one in Michigan and Fontana but since they have fallen into ISC/NASCAR camp – it seems that IndyCar has been shut out. Are there any other superspeedways that IndyCar might start racing at in the near future?

Arvind Mahadevan, Glendale, Ariz.

RM: The road courses in Utah and Alabama could be possibilities down the road but I think Phoenix and Michigan would be everyone’s preference for ovals. Talladega and Daytona are out of the question and Pocono is way too rough.

Q: It seems since the AOW unification interest in the series has caught the eyes of many European drivers such as GP2 champ Pantano, former F1 driver Ant Davidson, and former British F3 champ/ GP2 junkie Mike Conway. Don’t get me wrong I like diversity in any motorsport but the influx of oversea drivers is really sinking the chances of AOW ladder series drivers like Matos and Summerton to rise to the Indy car ranks. Whats the use of a ladder series when overseas drivers are sucking up all the open seats? I know money makes the wheels of the car go round but by not hiring those in the domestic ladder series makes the ladder look unskilled, poor, and neglected. How many more Jon Fogartys are there going to be? It seems to be in Indy car as a domestic ladder series driver you need some kind of relation or have tons of sponsors like Danica. What happen to those days when you can actually work your way up like Dixon and Kannan? Isn’t this just total BS?

Tou Yang, Wausau, Wisconsin

RM: Yes, it’s BS and it’s been going on since USAC took the dirt cars out of the champ car trail and lost Indy cars to CART. The foreign road racer was suddenly in demand and many of them who couldn’t find backing in F1 could bring money for IndyCar because it was so much cheaper. Alex Gurney, Buddy Rice and Fogarty never got to start one CART race and, last time I looked, the IPS/Indy Lights champs like Cunningham, Lloyd and Howard were watching. Just like Matos will be unless he hits the lottery. Or Jonathan Bomarito, Jonathan Summerton, James Hinchcliffe from Atlantics. The ladder system has been broken for a long time in open wheel. It won’t get fixed until major sponsorship returns to IndyCar and owners can afford to hire a hungry kid. That ain’t happening any time soon.

Q: You seem to keep a pretty good eye open for young talent, especially in USAC. While it seems that Dave Darland and the Kaedings are getting too old to be seriously considered for a ride in IndyCar, who do you think can come out of the USAC (and/or SCRA, WoO, NAMARS, insert other open-wheel, short track series) and transition into the IndyCar series? While it seems unlikely that an IndyCar owner would pick up a great American short tracker (God forbid!), it would be awesome to see a kid from the Midwest come up through the ranks and find success in Indy cars. Am I too much of a dreamer?
Jay Matheny, Fancy Farm, KY

RM: Yes, sadly you are. I’ve said this a million times but if Tony George had started the IRL in the late ‘80s, the USAC driver might still have a presence at Indianapolis. But that would have required the schedule staying all ovals and the car owners being smart enough to go watch a Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart or Kenny Irwin handle a 900 horsepower sprint car. John Menard gave Stewart a chance and he ran with it, but then nobody wanted to pay to keep him in open wheel and he left. Ford ran Kasey Kahne in a couple Atlantic races before abandoning that project (Kasey also tested a CART car for Rahal) and sending him to stockers. With the IRL morphing into CART, there is no chance for a USAC driver to ever get a shot because they don’t road race and, more importantly, none of today’s owners are smart enough to go watch Cole Whitt, Chad Boat, Chris Windom, Robert Ballou or Brady Bacon (all teenagers) in a sprinter. They have no chance in the IRL and, consequently, not much interest, although Brad Sweet and Boat would love to at least run Indy. They’re kids who can handle power and who already know how to race and they could be taught to road race, but nobody seems interested in trying to groom them for an Indy car. So, like Ricky Stenhouse, they’ll cut their teeth in midgets and sprints but make a living in stock cars because it’s their only option.

Q: I saw my first Indy 500 race in 1968 as a kid, and have been hooked on open-wheel racing ever since, even through the recent "lean" years. I now discover that starting next season I’ll need to pay a PREMIUM to watch IndyCar on TV. Not gonna happen! And no, I’m not going to find the local sports bar and lobby them for viewing, or buy the extra channels from my cable provider, or watch the few races that make it to network broadcast, etc. I can’t travel to see many open wheel events, but enjoy watching everything I can, or record it to view later.I guess I’ll just watch Formula 1 – FOR FREE – and put IndyCar behind me. I smell the end of IndyCar – guess it had to happen sooner or later.
Steve Wild

RM: So you get SPEED free to watch F1? I just can’t imagine VERSUS costing too much a month, but I understand your frustration. A buddy of mine in Phoenix swears only 10 percent of the city has VERSUS available to them but that sounds hard to believe. At least you can watch Indy (and four other races) for free.

Q: From reading the Mailbag all year, I get the impression the Panoz company is the best chassis design firm running, and that the IRL will be at a loss until Dallara copies their design or Panoz displaces them as the sole chassis supplier. But what about the Panoz that was in the IRL? I remember several teams including RLR running a Panoz IRL chassis in the past, and I think some "Indy on a shoestring" team tried to qualify one this year before they put it in the wall. If the Panoz is so much better looking, why is Dallara the only one that made it out? Is it because the Dallara is cheaper? Is it because the Dallara is faster? I heard the Dallara had a wider sweet spot than the Panoz, but it would seem the Big Three at least could have figured that out. Enlighten me please. While the Dallara might not be as pretty as the Panoz, if it is faster, that should be more important than looks.

Andy Bauer, Plainfield, Ill.

RM: There was a time when the G-Force (aka Panoz) and Dallara were pretty equal, and then it seems like Dallara made a big jump and just took over. I know one of the complaints of one major IRL team with Panoz was keeping up with parts and spares. Make no mistake, the Panoz Champ Car of 2007 was anything but a dream to work on (according to the mechanics) and it had some major labor pains. But eventually it ran as good as it looked.