2026 IndyCar News / Misc.

RLL are taking some big swings at leadership and engineering personnel as well. Could be a big bounce back year for the team.

Mick, at the very least, should draw a lot of international eyeballs to the series. Has the potential to grow the brand quite a bit if he pans out.



 
FLRacingFan said:
RLL are taking some big swings at leadership and engineering personnel as well. Could be a big bounce back year for the team.

Mick, at the very least, should draw a lot of international eyeballs to the series. Has the potential to grow the brand quite a bit if he pans out.



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"F1 veteran", lol

Great news though, looking forward to seeing him a lot.
 
donthaveanickname said:
"F1 veteran", lol

Great news though, looking forward to seeing him a lot.
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More and more I’m seeing “veteran” to describe someone with two or more years of experience in something.

donthaveanickname said:
He's the first German driver in IRL/ICS history if I'm not mistaken. The last one to make a start was Lucas Luhr in 2013.
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Germans have been exceedingly rare in AOWR history. Timo Glock did the full 2005 Champ Car season but obviously didn’t get to run the 500.

 
Mic will be ok. The Hass was such a pig he couldn't do anything with it.

Mic is a F2 and F3 champion, so it's not like he's slow or anything. He just never got a fair shake.
 
Sting Ray Robb was formally confirmed for another year with JHR. It still remains to be seen whether PREMA are a going concern, as rumors have been swirling around them since May and latest rumblings are they have an offer on the table to sell. Until then, both Ilott and Shwartzman are under contract for 2026. The final open seat at DCR has a few different players involved, including but not limited to Grosjean, Daly, and Lundqvist.

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There appear to be minimal conflicts with NASCAR in this season’s TV schedule. Portland will conflict with the Cup race at Iowa, the Indy GP against O’Reilly at Watkins Glen, and Nashville against Cup at North Wilkesboro - but Nashville will have the huge benefit of a lead-in from the World Cup Final.

St. Pete will lead in to Cup at COTA once again, and Kansas Cup will lead in to Long Beach. Spain-Saudi Arabia WC match also leads into Road America.

Should all set up pretty well for viewership.

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Doc Austin said:
Mic will be ok. The Hass was such a pig he couldn't do anything with it.

Mic is a F2 and F3 champion, so it's not like he's slow or anything. He just never got a fair shake.
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I hope he settles in nicely in Indycar.
When he crashed and broke 2 Haas cars in two in 2022 (his 2nd year),
I knew his time was nearing an end with the team. He did, however, go
on to have a couple top ten finishes that year.
 
Watch full-length INDYCAR SERIES races from Phoenix Raceway back-to-back in this live marathon — counting down to the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 1 at noon ET on FOX.
 
aunty dive said:
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When this first got mentioned late last season as something FOX wanted to do it seemed very unlikely, and it seems even more so now with only six or seven months away from when it would theoretically happen. Sure, USDOT may be pushing for it, but the logistical hurdles with such a short lead time and the schedule published seem almost impossible to overcome and it would need Congressional approval for all of the sponsors to be able to appear.
 
FLRacingFan said:
When this first got mentioned late last season as something FOX wanted to do it seemed very unlikely, and it seems even more so now with only six or seven months away from when it would theoretically happen. Sure, USDOT may be pushing for it, but the logistical hurdles with such a short lead time and the schedule published seem almost impossible to overcome and it would need Congressional approval for all of the sponsors to be able to appear.
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Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of using the White House, DC roads, etc. as venues for profit-making media companies?
 
I'm late to this but a street race in DC, along the National Mall as they're talking about, would have long straightaways and actually be quite intriguing and would be visually spectacular.

But this event would be about Donald Trump, the same way the World Cup has become the Donald Trump Cup, and that would completely derail its potential.

This should be a thing that's planned out and done down the road.
 
HoneyBadger said:
I'm late to this but a street race in DC, along the National Mall as they're talking about, would have long straightaways and actually be quite intriguing and would be visually spectacular.

But this event would be about Donald Trump, the same way the World Cup has become the Donald Trump Cup, and that would completely derail its potential.

This should be a thing that's planned out and done down the road.
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Aren't most street races promoted by cities as tourism draws? The last thing DC needs is spending money to get people to come somewhere they're already coming anyway. The Mall is surrounded by a week's worth of monuments, museums, tours, etc.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Aren't most street races promoted by cities as tourism draws? The last thing DC needs is spending money to get people to come somewhere they're already coming anyway. The Mall is surrounded by a week's worth of monuments, museums, tours, etc.
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Trump wants to have a bunch of major league events on the week of July 4 (which is on a Saturday night BTW) as part of the Semiquincentennial celebration. That's the angle here.

I mean, realistically, you'd want to do this in late Spring after the Cherry Blossoms, August when Congress is in recess, or late September in Washington when tourism is down, and on a weekend where the Redskins Commanders and Nationals aren't in town.
 
HoneyBadger said:
Trump wants to have a bunch of sporting events on the same week in July as part of the Semiquincentennial, and he wants to be the guest of honor for these high profile events. That's the angle here.
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Yeah, I get that. I was commenting about possibly doing it right in future years. I think most street races are three-year contracts, and I don't think city leadership is interested in even one.

As you and others have noted, it's way too late to put this together for this year. Sorry, Your Highness, this requires advanced planning beyond just the royal decree; and nobody's going to shut down streets of the nation's capitol on the weeks leading up to Independence Day.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Yeah, I get that. I was commenting about possibly doing it right in future years. As you and others have noted, it's way too late to put this together for this year. Sorry, Your Highness, this requires advanced planning beyond just the royal decree; and nobody's going to shut down streets of the nation's capitol on the weeks leading up to Independence Day.
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In fairness here, IMSA had a street race in Washington, DC in the middle of July about 20-25 years ago. But that race was held in the parking lot at the old RFK Stadium. And it was a one and done.

There are already going to be weeks of road closures in DC leading up to the 4th of July. They have the Army Parade in June, they'll have the Capitol Fourth deal which is always huge, the UFC fight, and a bunch of other stuff. And people around there are used to traffic being absolute ****.

I lived a half hour away from DC and I usually went up Silver Hill and took the train.
 
HoneyBadger said:
I lived a half hour away from DC and I usually went up Silver Hill and took the train.
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My in-laws went about two years ago and spoke highly of the train. WMATA is a big customer of the railroad signaling, safety, and control company I used to work for. Ironically, I've never been on an urban mass transit system.
 
The prospective D.C. event would take up the date of August 23rd, which is smack in between the Markham and Milwaukee weekends. David Land said his understanding is that it would actually take the place of one of the Milwaukee races so that the calendar remains at 17, and that makes me even less enthused for this if it happens. I do agree with Andy that generally speaking, a D.C. event would be very cool, and I think everyone can understand how sorely IndyCar is currently lacking in presence in the Mid-Atlantic. But if it’s only a one-off in the context of being a part of the Government’s America 250 celebration, I’m not sure how successful it can really be. But perhaps the series, teams, and their partners aren’t in a position to say no to a potentially large one-time weekend exposure.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Yeah, I think this is more up to Roger than anyone else. Do we know if anyone has approached him with a proposal for this pipe dream?
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It’s definitely under consideration and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens. For the reasons already laid out, I also wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen. Bold stance, I know. But I think every party involved holds at least some level of interest in making it a reality.
 
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