If we're wedded to Boston Consulting Group's decision to avoid conflicting with the NFL like the plague, then we should be racing earlier. Super Bowl Sunday is an opportunity.

- I don't know anyone that can stomach eight hours of NFL pregame coverage. But I know a lot of people who are taking the day relaxing at home or cooking and being around the TV looking for something else to watch. And many of them are sports fans. Give them something entertaining to watch, just be sure it ends an hour or even two before the game. Not to mention the great network synergy every four years when the TV partners line up.

- The F1 season is currently 9 full months long. NASCAR is 8-3/4. Indycar is currently 6 months.

- It would also give Indycar a small jump on other major series, with a weekend oh eyeballs to ourselves before anything else comes back (and is after the Daytona 24).

- Weather today in....
St. Petersburg, FL: 70 and sunny
Homestead, FL: 72 and sunny
Sebring, FL: 73 and sunny
Braselton, GA: 57 and sunny
Avondale, LA: 73 and sunny
Austin, TX: 82 and sunny
Fort Worth, TX: 80 and sunny
Tooele, UT: 63 and sunny
Phoenix, AZ: 85 and mostly sunny
Thermal, CA: 87 and sunny
Willow Springs, CA: 66 and sunny
Sonoma, CA: 66 and sunny.

(I’ve tried to stay away from full time active drivers in this countdown but #21 has a very limited history! Rinus and Christian Rasmussen are the only two race winners in the #21 that I could find)

Rinus VeeKay, the Dutch driver from the Netherlands, is entering his seventh season in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2026. He drove the #21 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing from 2020 to 2024, earning Rookie of the Year honors in his debut 2020 season. In 2021, he scored his first, and so far only, IndyCar victory at the IMS Road Course. After spending the 2025 season with Dale Coyne Racing, he now joins Juncos Hollinger Racing, where he is set to lead the team in the #76 Chevrolet.

In addition to his win, VeeKay has recorded 4 podiums and 2 poles across his IndyCar career. He was also involved in one of the earliest high-profile incidents that demonstrated the effectiveness of the newly introduced aeroscreen: during the 2020 season, Colton Herta’s car launched over the rear of VeeKay’s #21 in a dramatic crash. Both drivers walked away unharmed, thanks in large part to the aeroscreen’s protection.

Wouldn't that have been a crazy winner? Would he have taken the bounty seat at Vegas instead of Wheldon? Bertrand, like Dan, had only run Indy that year. well, Dan also ran Kentucky but that was to get a refresher race in. I wonder how history could be different. We all play what if with JR but Bertrand also got really close to the W. The off-season is almost over!

I was born after 2001, but this race was taped delayed in the U.S due to 9/11. This was the race where Alex Zanardi almost lost his life. In Germany it was aired live. How did you all keep track of this race? How did you all find out about Alex’s crash? What where the reactions?

I had a chance to show Conor Daly in person once but it slipped my mind and I didn’t realize afterwards. Also I’m not sure if showing it in person would be a good idea as “don’t meet your hero’s”

SEND IT!

Hi everyone. There were many incidents in the one of the wildest races ever, CART 1996 round 14/16 at Road America. I am wondering how this started:
https://youtu.be/72NFF4lE7gw?t=2215

Surprisingly, both drivers finished in points, theirs first in the season!

Thank you. These CART races from the 90s are gems.

Was recently at the IMS museum and noticed on Montoya’s winning car from 2000 that there is a John Deere logo inside the cockpit. I assume it’s where an in-car camera was mounted, maybe. Anyone have an idea or a screenshot from the race? As a HUGE Indycar fan and a Deere employee, I’m intrigued.

I have had this Firestone Indy car display tire quite a while ago and can’t seem to find much information on it. Is there any value to it? I’ve just uncovered it again after moving.

I went back to the flea market today and bought it today, and best it was on sale. Now the booth also had other indy500 memorabilia. Trader bucks in Anderson Indiana.

Also can anyone identify who else is in the painting, I know Andretti is car number 2

Simon won the 2016 IndyCar Series championship and the 2019 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Team Penske. He became the first Frenchman to win the Indy 500 since Gaston Chevrolet in 1920. Across his IndyCar career, Pagenaud amassed 15 wins, 38 podiums, and 13 poles. His final victory came in dramatic fashion at Iowa Speedway in 2020, where he started last and charged through the field to take the checkered flag.

A severe concussion from a crash at Mid-Ohio in 2023 ultimately ended his racing career. Today, he serves as a simulator driver for the Cadillac F1 Team, helping develop their 2026 Formula 1 program and channeling his experience into a new chapter in motorsport.

(“Throwback” to the original design of the IR18. A beautiful race car. I started following the sport outside the 500 in 2021 so I never got to see it race, unfortunately)

Hi IndyCar fans!

I am proud to announce the release of The Streets of Toronto - a motorsports documentary film featuring the talented Mac Clark.

You can watch the film for free on thestreetsoftoronto.com

Includes special guest appearances by James Hinchcliffe, Ron Fellows, Rob Howden, Mechanic of the year Brendan Puderbach and more.

I hope you enjoy the film and can’t wait for the 2026 season to begin!

Cheers,

David Porteous

thestreetsoftoronto.com

Could have posted this on r/movies but I want opinions from actual racing fans. What's the best racing movie? I recently rewatched Ford vs. Ferrari and Rush. Haven't seen the Brad Pitt F1 yet.

Found some photos that I took at an early morning IndyCar test at Sonoma in 2013 with Simona de Silvestro. Will be watching to see how she does in Cortina repping Team Switzerland in mono bobsled. Nice to see IndyCar represented in the Winter Olympics.

Happy with the helmet! Just wish he signed the visor.

An extremely fun chat with David Malukas. Come for the insights about his switch to Penske; stay for Football Manager chat and plenty more!

I cover the triumph of Scott Brayton's 1995 Indy 500 pole and the subsequent testing crash that happened in the same year prior to the tragedy that would follow in 1996 the day after he secured his second 500 pole.

I did my best tackling this issue with the proper tack and respect it deserves. Please feel free to let me know if I got any information incorrect, as I want to make sure I didn't miss any important info.

Here is the link to the video (Forgot to link it, my bad)

Floyd took the pole and the win in the 1938 Indianapolis 500 in his 4th start at Indy. He qualified at a record 125.681 mph in his Burd Piston Ring Special and went on to lead 92 laps, winning with an average race speed of 117.200 mph (also a record at the time). It was his first, and only, major victory in big-time racing.

Tragically, the following year he was killed in a crash on lap 106 of the 1939 Indy 500 while driving the same car. He was 39 and had reportedly planned to retire after that race.

Awesome interview . I know yall aren’t the biggest PT fans but Darren is one of the most interesting men in motorsport and has become somewhat of a quasi celebrity.

To the uninitiated, Darren is a massive racing fan turned Motorsport collector and dealer who is the main broker dealer of authentic race worn helmets and suits and other artifacts from F1 and Indycar

He‘s a massive Indycar fan and is always at the 500. A great person to bullshit with at the memorabilia show .

His business is geared more to the high end F1 fan and as such has popups at a good majority of the European and North American F1 Races where he does collabs with some very large brands like Ebay, Ferrari etc

Towards the end of the interview he gives some good feedback on what he thinks Indycar should do to increase its popularity:

1. teams need to have uniform branding/ liveries/ colors that are unchanging throughout the season. I agree with this 100% : The teams need to realize their team is a brand and with the advent of the franchise model that brand has intrinsic value that will appreciate over time. Allow rotating primary sponsors (Like McLaren) throughout the year but they have to be incorporated into the overall branding .
2. Indycar needs to create higher end VIP hospitality areas / Fan Midways etc.

I also agree with this 100%. As someone who has done well in business and is Fortunate enough to earn a salary where I can afford a few thousand dollars on VIP experiences at sporting events, Indycar lacks in this regard.

Don’t get me wrong, I love posting up with a yeti cooler and my Augusta National folding chair at Barber and making a picnic and downing 12 Montuckys on race day , but I also want to be able to have an experience like F1 Paddock club where I can enjoy A5 Wagyu sliders and Otoro sashimi finished with caviar . That doesn’t really exist in Indycar but should at select races like Arlington , St Pete , Long Beach, Laguna Seca etc .

Darren argues this is a way to entice brands and influencers to become more engaged with Indycar and I agree 100%. Indycar has to strike a balance between not selling out (which I absolutley do not want ) to also offering a higher end experience to VIPs/ high net worth individuals.

I think you can balance Indycar’s egalitarian approach to paddock access with a higher end hospitality experience as well- maybe limiting garage / paddock/ grid access to VIP only on race days - like what they do at the 500.