The RACER Mailbag, January 22

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: I read that Mike Cannon has abruptly left PREMA. Is that an accurate report, and if so, do you know why? There has been a massive turnover of engineers, technicians and managers the last several years, so this isn’t a huge surprise. Does he have a new destination? Can’t imagine he would find something more appealing.

Dave

MARSHALL PRUETT: One of the great things about working in racing as a mechanic and the other things I did from 1986-2001 was making a ton of friends who remain in IndyCar (and IMSA) today. One of the negatives, at least in a professional capacity as a reporter, is some of those conversations with friends in the paddock are of a personal nature and aren’t subject to sharing at the time they happen.

But Michael later chose to share his side in a public forum, and said it was due to the team ignoring his input and feeling his experience was being wasted. There’s more to the story, but falls under the between-friends category.

Cannon was only at PREMA since the end of last year, so this was indeed a surprise. I’ve heard from two team owners who are interested in acquiring his services, and doubt we’ll get through the next Mailbag or two without his confirmation at a new (or former) team.

Q: Do you have any information about what happened to Benjamin Pedersen after being dropped by Foyt in 2023? Did he hurt his chances in the series that badly with his antics at Mid-Ohio that year?

Matthew Houk, Columbus, OH

MP: Mid-Ohio didn’t hurt his chances. The team wasn’t great, and his family allegedly got the deal of the century with a three-year, $9 million contract, but with the numerous crashes, including the destruction of a chassis on the first lap of the season, that three-year budget was said to have been used up mostly in Year 1. There were other allegations about missed payment deadlines, and those misses opening the door to exiting the contract.

I haven’t seen the contract, so I can’t tell you what’s real or not real. But the fact that the kid was replaced by Sting Ray Robb, who was rumored to bring $9 million for a single year, suggests what the team needed to survive as a two-car program.

I always liked Benjamin. He didn’t get much of a chance to show us anything. Given a second season, with a better team than he had in 2023, I think he’d make a more positive impression. Not saying he’d be bothering the top half of the field, but he wouldn’t be parked at the back.

Q: What a great response to the question/comment from Mike in Michigan, and yes I am a Rush fan as well. That said, despite my age (73) I identify with younger people on most things and in the case of IndyCar we are aging out of relevance.

Of all the owners who make their opinions known, Zak Brown comes closest to nailing the fundamental problems with the series. I start with the machines themselves and we state the obvious in saying that they, too, are aged out.

There is little about them that excites, and the only reason to watch is that the racing is fantastic and the drivers are, for the most part, tier one players. But as you said, that alone does not make it work. Watch races from the golden era in the 1990s, and the fields were not tight, with the quality up and down the grid far more variable. However, the cars themselves were weapons, and when they all started/warmed up on the grid it was incredible to the senses.

As an aside, I was on the false grid at Long Beach in 2017 in the Can-Am feature that year. I was in my M8F big block, and as I was sitting waiting to get on to the blend line, James Hinchcliffe saw me and this car and said, “That is f### awesome!” It was the visceral sensation of that power and sensory overload that clearly was in his mind.

As for the cars, put them on about a 200-pound diet, bring up the power and let’s use a real state-of-the-art chassis. We are not recreating F1, but we can have something very sexy, fast as hell and far less maintenance. I really wonder if the ownership looks beyond 12 months in this business.

Management at the top has to get younger and re-invigorate the program. You say this in your piece — the C-level people need to be in their 40s and 50s, not in their 70s and 80s.

IndyCar will never be F1. However, in North America it can be far more influential and an additional race in Canada other than Toronto, a race in Mexico and perhaps in South America have to be consummated. I fail to understand how they have not run with the popularity of Pato O’Ward to secure a major event in Mexico City or Monterrey.

FOX is a big plus, the Dallas event will be a big deal and the broadcast team will be first-rate. I am still a fan, but for goodness sake, let’s take some risks.

Emmett, Dallas, TX

MP: Lots of interesting thoughts here, Emmett. From a racing perspective, Penske Racing — the era before the rebrand as Team Penske — was all about taking risks, pushing everything to the edge and beyond at times in the name of not just beating the opposite, but destroying them. Much of that same spirit lives on the team today, but I can’t say I recall seeing that cavalier approach at Penske Corporation, of which Penske Entertainment falls within.

Spending a small fortune to conceive and make “The Beast” and utterly dominate the 1994 Indy 500 with a motor that exploited the far reaches of the rules — which were waiting to be exploited — and making history with that ballsy decision? You bet. Read John Oreovicz’s book on the project; you won’t be disappointed.

Doing something bold and boundary-pushing with a business, and IndyCar is indeed run like a business by Penske? I’m sure I’m wrong and have missed the examples, but I’m unaware of anything that would be considered wild when it comes to business decisions. I continue to hope the ultra-conservative approach we’ve seen so far with Penske’s ownership of IndyCar does not carry over into the upcoming chassis and engine formula it is creating, but I won’t be surprised if it does.