Indycar News & Rumors.

[chunterer]

The Palou affair, then Malukas getting shafted and now Pourchaire?

All this jerking around back and forth. What sort of messaging does this send out to the paddock and the wider motorsport world?

Pourchaire cancelled his Superformula contract to take the AMSP drive fgs!

Is there some money issues looming at the team or something?

So what will likes of Pato, Rossi think about all this?

[broadrun96]

Well there was some discussion of Malukas training outside of their regime and was talked to about it. And that happens when you break a deal. And if you believe some of the Twitter stories Arrow is leaving at the end of the deal, I've seen this off season of after 25. Siegel has more connections to funding but his family isn't paying out the nose to put things on the car but I'm sure they're chipping in something. Theo brought nothing from what it appears, but apparently F1 teams were interested still and multiple teams in Indy have already called him

[NaBUru38]

McLaren swaps drivers like tissues

[Yannick]

And now on to the Boogity where other sports are king that see themselves as direct competitors to IndyCar for attention of viewers. I hope this deal is better than the Motorsport Games deal.

The lack of date equity for Laguna and Gateway is weird because shifting events around to different months has usually resulted in the events leaving sooner or later. But there is not much you can do when the new TV partner asks for it, is there?
Also, despite Thermal becoming a full round, the gaps in the schedule are still there and, as my forespeakers have said, ending in August is weird. Maybe, that opens up the schedules of some IndyCar drivers to make guest appearances in Cup races later in the year when team orders in NASCAR promote Chase participants.
Yet, we know little on how worse off the new offer from the departing broadcast partner has been.

The recent driver change at AMSP is a surprise indeed. Here's hoping things don't go Askew. Regarding Askew himself, here's hoping he is doing well whatever he is doing these days.

[broadrun96]

I need people to understand OTA is NFL/NCAA after Labor Day and the new deal was premised on being ALL OTA coverage. Thus you do NOT schedule after that weekend. Most weekends a third to half of the population numbers can be estimated to tune in for some football game, this number does have some double counting in it but they play from noon to around 3 am Eastern on Sat and 1-midnight on Sundays. Fox is a bigger college partner and growing with more games each day, and FS1/2 are crammed with games from noon-3am already so Indy would be lucky to be on the app and even then buried in football options. There are 70 games the first Saturday of the season with another 25 Thurs and Fri. Nearly all of those are broadcast in some manner, have to remember it's not just TV time but crews and production equipment. Come Sundays the NFL has 1 and 430 matches that cover the entirety of the country or folks watch the NFL provided update channel across the league, each of those games draw more for bad matches than a good Indy 500 does. Yes, Fox may only have an early or late game for some but they will have at least 3 games at each time slot so Indy cannot be a national broadcast. It's simple economics and they want more eyeballs on it, an early end to the schedule isn't a loss when they can guarantee OTA to advertisers for all rounds. They are the ONLY racing series in the US to have all of their races free to view.

Laguna moves as much for TV as trying to get the race in around the track and weather. It's moved multiple times and is not at risk of being removed with the work the track has had done and the management fighting, it is their headline event.

No one is going from an Indy ride to jump in a Cup car late in the season, there's no plus for anyone there. Only team crossover is Ganassi and Penske, none of their drivers are brimming with Cup experience, or publicly noted desire.

[Yannick]

Thanks for the reply. Little did I know that NFL is that huge. Sounds like TV ratings for NFL games must be in the double digits easily.
That raises the question: How did CART manage to keep their late-season events alive in the 90s when the racing season went on until the end of October?

[broadrun96]

It’s easily in to the double digits, individual games draw 25 million views and broadcast windows can draw 20 million consistently. CART had the advantage of MUCH lower NFL ratings of the day and tobacco money for team funding. Look at old liveries vs now, how many times did teams run different main sponsors in a year? Now Penske, Ganassi and Andretti all run varying cars by week now, Penske even tweeted out the liveries of the week Tuesday for Laguna. Even IMSA got fat piles of cash from one of the most profitable businesses of all time, loss of that money hurt racing of all series more than other sports. Now IMSA runs either commercial factory partners, driver partners or pay drivers and even major Indy teams need driver partners. Coke used to be all over racing and now only occasionally runs in series and spreads money across a group of Cup drivers instead of a single car.

College football outside of championship/bowl games can pull 8-10 million but can have 5 of those games each Saturday. Not as big an animal but still high in the ratings each week. Indy drew 5 million for the biggest event of the year for comparison

[NaBUru38]

CART didn't have Saturday races, so it had no clashes with college football.

ABC and ESPN never had NFL on Sunday afternoons, so they did (and still have) room for motorsports. And ESPN2 was also available for Sunday night races.

[broadrun96]

It's not a matter of channels being available, it's a matter of viewers on them. The non NFL OTA channels often run infomercials or cheap to air events during games and they don't pay out for other series to be on then. Saturday is used as example so late season Indy could run on Saturday to avoid NFL. It's sheer number of eyes available and currently they're taking up watching other things. The idea that Indy has ANY leverage at all to take eyes from football is a joke, the BEST rated event is a mediocre college football match in terms of ratings. You don't grow by telling your partners you want them to put you on TV against the gorilla

[bjohnsonsmith]

British driver Toby Sowery will make his IndyCar debut, in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR entry, for The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He will join fellow British driver Jack Harvey in an all British driver line up.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/06...ry-dcr-midohio

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

British driver Toby Sowery will make his IndyCar debut, in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR entry, for The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He will join fellow British driver Jack Harvey in an all British driver line up.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/06...ry-dcr-midohio

Great to see him get a shot! I wonder if the learning curve has just jumped for the newcomers with the hybrid debut, or is everybody on a level playing field with regards to hybrid driving in a race?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Colton Herta topped testing for the new hybrid system at Iowa on Thursday.

https://racer.com/2024/06/28/herta-l...y-hybrid-test/

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Colton Herta topped testing for the new hybrid system at Iowa on Thursday.

https://racer.com/2024/06/28/herta-l...y-hybrid-test/

No real surprises there

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Colton Herta topped testing for the new hybrid system at Iowa on Thursday.

https://racer.com/2024/06/28/herta-l...y-hybrid-test/

Most importantly they got really good data on the repave for the races. Hopefully NASCAR doesn't screw it up with stickem later

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by S griffin

No real surprises there

Iowa has been a track where Josef Newgarden has excelled, wining there 6 times, including both races last year. Colton Herta's best result was 7th in Race 2 last year, so I was surprised.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Iowa has been a track where Josef Newgarden has excelled, wining there 6 times, including both races last year. Colton Herta's best result was 7th in Race 2 last year, so I was surprised.

It will be interesting to see how the new surface races. The old one provided great racing and cars were able to use multiple lines.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by joeb

It will be interesting to see how the new surface races. The old one provided great racing and cars were able to use multiple lines.

Hopefully it won't diminish the racing too much. For all we know it could enhance the racing, but we'll see. Could be in for another surprise

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

It will be interesting to see how the new surface races. The old one provided great racing and cars were able to use multiple lines.

It was good for NASCAR but like Texas they're looking for ways to screw it up. Track was SOLD OUT for 2 races and drivers all said the racing was good. Management though thinks they need to consider the surface.

https://racer.com/2024/06/18/nascar-...debut-weekend/

[bjohnsonsmith]

Christian Lundgaard joining Arrow McLaren in 2025. Can't say I saw that one coming.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/07...dgaard-mclaren

[v8supes]

Whats with Arrow Mclaren? Just keep throwing drivers at it until one of them "clicks?"

[broadrun96]

Yeah, and when did they announce they fired Rossi? Well they didn't want him so declined to renew, aka fired. Guess he's gonna be an odd man out unless he's willing to take a cut or bring in a sponsor or 2

McLaren always finds ways to make it hard to like them every time they're close to being less Zak.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Yeah, and when did they announce they fired Rossi? Well they didn't want him so declined to renew, aka fired. Guess he's gonna be an odd man out unless he's willing to take a cut or bring in a sponsor or 2

McLaren always finds ways to make it hard to like them every time they're close to being less Zak.

I think this may be Ward more than Zak.
In saying that, if Arrow are leaving, if Nolan and Christian are cheaper, ('Couldn't meet him in the middle on terms', so it's about money) if there is the possibility of new sponsors along with the drivers, and if pressure is on to produce results and they can't engineer their way to the win, then replacing the driver is their only possible avenue.

I thought Rossi was doing a good job.
If I had the money, I could start own team with the discarded drivers....
McBrown Racing, with Theo, Callum, Malukas, and Alex....

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Christian Lundgaard joining Arrow McLaren in 2025. Can't say I saw that one coming.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/07...dgaard-mclaren

That is bizarre. I kind of understand the rotating third seat with young driver. But ditching Rossi who has been doing a great job this season just seems crazy.

That being said, Christian is a great driver and I'm sure he will get results.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

I think this may be Ward more than Zak.
In saying that, if Arrow are leaving, if Nolan and Christian are cheaper, ('Couldn't meet him in the middle on terms', so it's about money) if there is the possibility of new sponsors along with the drivers, and if pressure is on to produce results and they can't engineer their way to the win, then replacing the driver is their only possible avenue.

I thought Rossi was doing a good job.
If I had the money, I could start own team with the discarded drivers....
McBrown Racing, with Theo, Callum, Malukas, and Alex....

Only thing I can come up with is enough smoke around the Arrow is gone and already done paying up that there has to be some fire there eventually. Can't say I've ever seen Arrow things so no idea what they even do but I'm guessing I'm not their target so.

I just say Zak because he seems to take that same cut and tell us why the cut is a better choice like his no we'll run a naked car instead of lowering our ask. I mean it appears to have worked up but it seems to be a Zak comment rather than Ward. Maybe he just lets Zak talk more. United seems to be a bit more back seat for him but also run differently than Indy or F1

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

... Can't say I've ever seen Arrow things so no idea what they even do but I'm guessing I'm not their target so.

...

I used to use Arrow's 2-way authentification system more or less every day in my professional life a few years ago, until it got replaced with what looks like a similar solution at a lower price tag.