It has been a busy last few weeks.
Between the NASCAR season starting, Formula One and IndyCar each starting, plenty of previews and then the opening weekends themselves, there hasn't been much time to look at some of the little things that are going on around these series, IndyCar in particular.
With the first race behind us, and a month until the next one, there is some time to catch-up on what has happened away from the racetrack and ponder what certain changes will mean for the future.
IndyCar Rule Changes
Prior to the St. Petersburg weekend, IndyCar announced a handful of rule changes. Most of them, if not all of them, make sense on paper and contribute positively for the competitors.
The big one we saw at St. Petersburg in qualifying. The first red flag in each qualifying round will result in the clock stopping. This is to maximize the opportunities for teams to set a representative lap and not have teams caught out when on a flyer or getting up to speed. If there are any additional red flags in a round, the clock will continue to run.
This was a fair change. Occasionally, there would be a qualifying session where an early red flag would come out, very few teams had set a true flyer, five minutes would be lost, the teams would then be scrambling to get a lap in, another red flag would happen in the scramble, and that would effectively end the session, and the likes of Ben Hanley or Dalton Kellett would advance to the second round and start no worse than 12th despite never being faster than 21st in any of the practice sessions leading up to qualifying.
Pausing the clock once should buy the teams enough time. Will that occasional absurd qualifying round happen where someone backs into the second round? Probably, but it will be more of an exception than in the past.
Also changed in qualifying is the clock no longer starts when race control declares the cars may leave pit lane and begin out laps. The clock will start when the first car crosses the alternate start/finish line to begin the first qualifying lap of that round.
I have always thought it was odd that the clock would start but for the first 90 seconds it would just be cars getting up to speed. It does kind of make sense, but also steals a lap or maybe even two depending on the circuit from the drivers. This should again allow for qualifying results to more accurately depict who is fast and who is not.
IndyCar deserves credit on this one.
Alternates at Gateway
Along with the announced changes to qualifying (as well as some technical adjustments that give the teams more downforce options at the superspeedways), IndyCar announced that the series would experiment with an alternate tire compound at Gateway.
Like it does with road and street courses, Gateway will require the teams to run at least one set of the primary tire compound and alternate tire compound during the race.
I love this decision, and I am fascinated in how it turns out.
We saw in St. Petersburg the alternate tires last about 15 laps less than the primary tires. That isn't a bad thing, and at a place like Gateway, it could significantly shift the strategy of that race.
As the surface has aged, Gateway has become a more lively event than its first few years on the calendar. Last year had 520 passes, the most in a Gateway race since it returned to the calendar in 2017. It is still a tough place to pass at, and introducing an alternate tire compound could force the teams to adopt wildly different strategies.
Looking at it in percentages, if the alternate tires are only in their sweet spot for 40% less than the primary tire, the teams are going to have change how they run Gateway. Theoretically, it should erase fuel saving because if the alternate tires can only go about 35-40 laps and the fuel stint is about 60-70 laps. If a driver is running two seconds off the pace over 25-30 laps at Gateway, he will be nearly three laps down by the time he gets to the end of the tank. That strategy isn't going to work. It should also be noted that Gateway will be a day race in 2023. If it is brutally hot, the tire fall off could be substantially greater, meaning the alternate stint could be worse.
And that's a good thing! We aren't sure how the alternate tire will perform, but it should not last as long as the primary tire. If everyone has to run one short stint, between 20 and 30 laps shorter than a full stint, Gateway will be mixed up. Some teams are going to suffer that alternate stint immediately at the start of the race and look to be out of it only to come back as other teams have to take on the alternate tires. There could be teams that save the alternate tires for the end of the race and then be praying to have enough for the final laps.
The only other qualm on Gateway and the alternate tire compound is what happens if it rains?
For road and street courses, if it rains during the race and at least three teams put on wet tires, the requirement to run both the primary and alternate tire compound is waved. For ovals, there is no wet tire compound. Rain can end the race prior to a team putting on the alternate tire compound.
What happens then? It isn't inconceivable. It rained last year at Gateway, and for a moment it looked like the race have ended in that moment. If we get to lap 180 at Gateway and a rainstorm moves in that will last 15 hours and the leader has yet to use the alternate tire, what is the call? Is a rainstorm going to be a get-out-of-jail-free card? That's not going to be fair to the rest of the teams and not in the spirit of the rules. Weather shouldn't get a team a pass.
Then what? In the rulebook, rule 15.4.2.3.1.4 states any car that fails to comply with using each compound in the race will be a one-lap penalty. Nowhere under article 15.4.2.3, which covers Gateway race tire rules, does it mention rain, what happens if the races is shortened and if that prevents a team from using the alternate compound. Based on the current interpretation of the rulebook, if rain ends the race and a team hasn't used the alternate tire that team should receive a one-lap penalty. There are no provisions for rain. If a team hasn't used the alternate tire compound, not matter what, it should get a penalty.
If it comes to that it will be one controversial conclusion to the final oval race of the IndyCar season. There is still six months until that race. IndyCar will probably look over those rules and set the final regulations as Gateway approaches, but the series cannot ignore this and must address it accordingly.
Indianapolis 500 Entries
One IndyCar race down, and all eyes are on the Indianapolis 500. Not really, but before one IndyCar race was run in 2023, 32 Indianapolis 500 entries were accounted for.
Along with the 27 cars that ran in St. Petersburg, the 15 Hondas and 12 Chevrolets, there will be Marco Andretti in a fifth Andretti Autosport car, Tony Kanaan making his final IndyCar start in a fourth McLaren entry, Stefan Wilson as a one-off for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Ed Carpenter back as an oval-only driver for his own team, and the most recent addition to the entry list was Katherine Legge in a fourth Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry.
With 17 Hondas and 15 Chevrolets accounted for, we are one away from a full field, and it gets tougher to see where that final entry will come from.
In all likelihood, Chevrolet will field one more car, but where? Team Penske has said it is not expanding, as has A.J. Foyt Racing. McLaren is maxed out. Ed Carpenter Racing has said it is maxed out. It is unlikely Juncos Hollinger Racing will go to three cars. That leaves Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, which has run two cars four of the last five years at Indianapolis.
D&R very well could do it again in 2023, though its regular driver Sage Karam said he would not return with D&R if he were to do Indianapolis this year, and its other driver from 2022, Santino Ferrucci, is full-time with Foyt.
As for Honda teams, they are nearly all fully subscribed as well. Andretti isn't going to run a sixth car. RLLR isn't going to leap up to five when it just committed to four for the first time. Chip Ganassi Racing is highly unlikely to run a fifth car. Meyer Shank Racing does not do anything knee-jerk, and it will not add a third car this late in the game. That leaves Dale Coyne Racing, which has run three cars at Indianapolis previous.
Coyne had been looking to get 2022 Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist on the IndyCar grid. Lundqvist has his scholarship money for the championship, but it is greatly reduced compared to past Indy Lights champions. It would be the start to an Indianapolis 500 entry, but that would likely be the only race Lundqvist would get this season.
At most, if D&R runs two and Coyne materializes a third, we could see 34 cars and one car going home. Two car or more going home just isn't going to happen. It is most likely we will only see 33 entries.
Fontana's End
For two and a half years we had been preparing for the final race around the two-mile oval in Fontana, California after plans were announced to convert the track into a short track back in September 2020. The final race finally came last month with NASCAR's weekend.
As for the short track project, the timeline is very much undetermined. When the Clash was being held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the start of February, NASCAR confirmed Fontana would not host a race in 2024 due to the reconstruction, and 2025 sounded unlikely.
If 2025 is unlikely, but has a slim hope, that means the track isn't going to be ready for February 2025, but at best be ready for October or November 2025. However, I have a hard time envisioning NASCAR giving Fontana a playoff race as its return to the calendar as a short track if it is uncertain the track will be ready in time for such a date. At best, 2026 is when Fontana is back on the calendar.
There is also a world where Fontana does not return. NASCAR sold over 80% of the property to developers, leaving only 89 acres for the short track project.
Fontana represented the last superspeedway. Opened in 1997, it was the last two-mile oval constructed in the United States during the racetrack boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2002, new racetracks, especially paved ovals, have not be sprouting around the country. Outside of Iowa Speedway, opened in 2006, there hasn't been a paved oval opened with any national prominence in nearly 20 years. It is unlikely we are going to see any built anytime soon, especially those the size of Fontana.
Bulldozing Fontana is bulldozing a one-of-a-kind track. It is losing a circuit with its own personality. For a series like NASCAR that wants different venues and different track characteristics, Fontana is exactly what it should want on its schedule, but now it is disappearing for a proposed short track that is sounding more like a myth than reality.
It is hard to knock NASCAR when it made over a half-billion dollars on the sale. If any of us were sitting on a half-billion worth of property, we would definitely take the money and run, but in NASCAR's hopes of getting its cake and eating it too it could fall short. NASCAR is hoping to construct another short track and increase the number of short tracks on the its schedule, but if the Fontana rebuild becomes too bogged down and abandoned, it will be a colossal failure.
There was likely never a world where Fontana could remain untouched as a two-mile oval, but for the last three seasons NASCAR could have easily added a short track race or two and let Fontana be. NASCAR has owned Iowa Speedway for nearly a decade. It hosted multiple races for NASCAR's lower divisions from 2007 through 2019. It is more than ready to host a Cup race, and could have been on the schedule at any point over the previous three seasons without Fontana ever having to be carved up.
If NASCAR is willing to return to North Wilkesboro, a track that was abandoned and decrepit for nearly 25 years and still has dated facilities, Iowa is more than qualified to host a race tomorrow, and Iowa could do it for a fraction of the cost. It wouldn't require any refurbishment that is for sure.
Business decisions aside, Fontana was built as a speed palace meant to dazzle us, and as the surface aged, it became a gritty track, showcasing the best of car control especially as drivers fanned out four and five wide into a corner. That racing cannot be found anywhere else. It will never be recreated either. A true loss.
