And yet somehow manage to show only one car at a time.
Three races total before May is still far too few for sure, even with Thermal becoming a points race. Not sure what the financial details are, but everyone seems to say it pays a decent amount more, so hopefully this lets the series promote some more events on their own or take a discount on sanctioning fee to make a prospective event at a NASCAR or SMI track work. The team owners are also really happy today, which is a major breath of fresh air compared to much of the rest of the past year or so. NBC has been a good TV partner, and a big upgrade over the previous ABC/NBCSN arrangement, but this year in particular has a critical stretch coming up where there are just too many races on USA and Peacock and there’s such a big dropoff there.
I'm disappointed the Charlotte Roval never came to fruition with an Indycar. I was there when Newgarden did the test on the track, was awesome to see. I think you'd need to remove that final chicane though for Indy to run there.
He finished 3rd in NXT as a rookie last year and would be sitting 3rd again right now if he hadn’t withdrawn at Road America. Also, he was just a part of a class-winning entry at Le Mans for the sports car team Zak Brown co-owns. He’s a good driver with a good potential but you can’t say with any certainty he’s better than Pourchaire. There are some rumors swirling around about Arrow’s future with the team and the possibility that Siegel’s dad may have bought into the team but nothing substantiated yet.
It does come as a surprise. McLaren seemed to like Théo.
All P&Q will be on FS1/FS2. Same with the NXT races.
MP mentioned in his mailbag today that IndyCar was keen to return to Texas but that the other side needs to want it as well. It’s apparent that the new management is all-in on NASCAR and making sure that spring date is as successful as possible given that it’s their only Cup weekend now. Unfortunately, this is kinda what people had feared when Eddie Gossage (RIP) retired a few years ago. He was the most ardent supporter of IndyCar racing at Texas even if it came as somewhat of a financial detriment to the track.
I don't get why it would have to be a spring date. I'd think the track would like a fall weekend with a major series. Maybe they think they'll get a second Cup weekend again and they want to keep all possible dates open, just in case?
The spring weather is quite a bit fairer and they’d run into conflicts with Cowboys and Rangers home games in the late summer/fall dates, which ate into attendance. Supposedly for 2023 the track offered a September date, not really in good faith since the series already had Milwaukee and Nashville booked and it’d just run into the exact same issues they’d had with hosting the NASCAR weekend.I don't get why it would have to be a spring date. I'd think the track would like a fall weekend with a major series. Maybe they think they'll get a second Cup weekend again and they want to keep all possible dates open, just in case?
My feelings on street courses are well-known here. Those last TMS races will be difficult to live up to.
I guess that makes sense, although I find it hard to believe there are only a couple of hundred thousand ticket-buying sports fans in the metropolitan area. The Indy audience is smaller than NASCAR, though.
Rossi and Sargeant?
Lots of interest from the paddock in Sargeant for sure, and reestablishing that relationship with Prema from his F3 season a few years ago might make the most sense of all. I think the team were also said to want one veteran and one young driver. Would be a great fit, imo.
I'd say Askew should be in the running as he's also working behind the scenes with GM on the IndyCar side.
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