2026 IndyCar News / Misc.

nickp said:
mark miles is embarrassingly bad at his job and in any other sport he would've been kicked out long ago for some reason Roger Penske allows him to stay
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They trot out Miles when Penske and co. need a scapegoat. Jmo, of course - but that is why he’s never actually associated with accomplishments and is always speaking to the media when something doesn’t go as hoped.
 
By my count, five street courses, five road courses, six ovals.

I wonder how Roger feels about playing second fiddle to NASCAR at Phoenix?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I wonder how Roger feels about playing second fiddle to NASCAR at Phoenix?
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It probably makes more sense than playing second fiddle in your own home, like they did on the IMS road course for several years. Roger has been a proponent of having an oval before the 500 and I think their perspective is they’ll take it any way they can get it.

I’d still prefer to have Richmond on the calendar, but it is what it is. The short oval package is working pretty well right now, so Phoenix should be fine.
 
kkfan91 said:
I'm interested to see the line they run, no way an Indycar is going to slam down onto the apron like the NASCAR drivers do.
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I think the dogleg was configured as is when they last raced there in 2016-2018. Wouldn’t surprise me if Santucci or Rasmussen give it a shot this time though.
 
rd45usa said:
No way they wanted to go against the 500 for tv ratings. Shocked F1 blinked first, no way Penske was gonna change the 500 start time.
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I’m not gonna pretend they did it out of the goodness of their heart for sure. Combined with the likely move to Apple TV+, running against the 500 probably would’ve gotten only a five-figure audience in the States, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.

Glad they wisened up and made the move regardless though.
 
Hauger is effectively going to be on loan at DCR next year while he prepares for a likely 2027 campaign with Andretti. DCR will benefit technically from it as well. Good deal for all involved.

 
This is a pleasant surprise. Don’t think it means a move is imminent, but I would not be surprised to see him do one more year in sports cars then come over here.

 
Doc Austin said:
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Being a Nigel F1 fan, I was happy to be at his first Indy 500 in '93 which this video
is about. I was on his scanner channel for the whole race and what I remember most
was at the early stages of the race Jim McGee was trying to coach Nigel a bit because it was
quite chaotic for the Indy rookie being in all that traffic at those speeds for the first time.
Nigel was being a bit defiant till he bounced off the wall the first time early in the race,
which at that point Nigel said "Ok Jim, I will listen to you". Nigel went on to have a strong
finish as he talks about in the video.
 
Doc Austin said:
Not sure I want Ralf commenting on every Indycar race and blaming everyone but Mick.
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The Race indicated if he impresses he’ll probably get an offer from RLL to hop into the 30, and he would undoubtedly be an upgrade over DeFrancesco. I think Ralf is easy to tune out if you know where not to look, I can’t say I’ve heard too much from him recently even though he does say dumb stuff apparently.
 
FLRacingFan said:
The Race indicated if he impresses he’ll probably get an offer from RLL to hop into the 30, and he would undoubtedly be an upgrade over DeFrancesco.
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As dim of a view as his dad took of Indycar, I'de be surprised if Mick came here. Of course, I also said Lewis would never leave Mercedes.
FLRacingFan said:
I think Ralf is easy to tune out if you know where not to look,
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It's much more fun to lampoon him.
 
Looking through the Indycar merchandise I find it odd they don't offer a wall calendar. Seems it would promote the series well with nice pictures and highlight race dates on it.
 
There appears to be a lot of uncertainty over whether they’re bringing back Sting Ray Robb in the 77 next year. Daly and Rinus would be fun, but Conor only has a partial budget to shop around at this point. VeeKay’s deal is reported to be for one year so he can keep his options open for an even more active free agency period next year.



racer.com

Daly charting next course after JHR announcement | RACER

With Rinus VeeKay positioned as Juncos Hollinger Racing’s lead driver, he's again left looking for for opportunities among the few remaining teams with openings.
racer.com racer.com
 
The Mick Schumacher test clearly went well for all parties and I gotta imagine that come hell or high water, he's appearing in Indycar next year for RLL. IDK who is going to be on the outs as a result of it. I know the expectation is DeFrancesco but if he has a contract that winds up being too bulletproof to jettison, maybe you see Graham step aside. I expect that's not the case and DeFrancesco is going to be sent packing.

Also - I do wonder if Mick will be back for the oval test that I recall David Land saying was slated for after the GT Challenge weekend coming up in a couple of days. Wasn't confirmed but wasn't denied.
 
virtualbalboa said:
The Mick Schumacher test clearly went well for all parties and I gotta imagine that come hell or high water, he's appearing in Indycar next year for RLL. IDK who is going to be on the outs as a result of it. I know the expectation is DeFrancesco but if he has a contract that winds up being too bulletproof to jettison, maybe you see Graham step aside. I expect that's not the case and DeFrancesco is going to be sent packing.
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What has become apparent the past few months is that Mick really values being the guy for a team and being able to race with great frequency, and that isn’t something his sports car career was going to fulfill for him. It sounds like he genuinely wants to get back into single-seaters and that he found the car to be very fun to drive, which most guys coming over from F1/F2 seem to say. I’m fully expecting him to sign with RLL at this point too, and it would be a boon both for the series and the team.

There have been some unsubstantiated reports that Devlin’s contract has some mechanisms to retain his funding in the event they release him, since he missed the Leaders Circle this past season. That would make things a lot easier, but I think RLL get it done regardless, since it’s just too good of an opportunity not to capitalize. They were also able to get some pretty significant involvement from HRC US for the test, and that bodes well on a couple of different fronts.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
For the benefit of those of us with minimal recognition, what's his story?
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Mick is Michael Schumacher’s son. He worked his way up the European karting and single seater ladders, won a few titles (F3 Europe, F2), joined the Ferrari driver academy and landed a spot with Haas F1 as part of their affiliation with Ferrari. His rookie season they had by far the worst car on the grid so there wasn’t much he could show. His sophomore year he had a more experienced teammate and had a couple of really big, costly crashes that sent him reeling since Haas were in dire financial straits at the time. He lost his seat at the end of that year, spent a year as a reserve driver for Mercedes, and has been Alpine’s lead driver in WEC the past two years with some really good performances put in.

His name had been associated with Cadillac and McLaren as maybe making the switch to their WEC programs while also being able to take over the reserve role for their F1 teams, but IndyCar has become a more attractive option for what he’s looking for in the next stage of his career.
 
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