Danny Sullivan, 1985 Indy 500. Image by IMS

Q: Always love your driver stories from the past. Compared to some of your readers from the ‘60s or ‘70s, I’m a lesser old-timer from the ‘80s, with my first introduction as a teenager being the 1985 Indy 500. Naturally Danny Sullivan instantly became my favorite driver. I know he did TV commentary in late ‘90s CART. Do you know what he is up to nowadays, and any good stories? On a side note, I must have been a dedicated fan as I believe I was one of the few that actually enjoyed his acting on Miami Vice!

Doug Sohn, North Richland Hills, TX

RM: These days Danny plays a lot of golf by his Pebble Beach home, travels the world making personal appearances, does a little F1 stewarding when asked, and pretty much enjoys being Danny Sullivan. I think his best story is the perseverance he showed to make it as a race driver against steep odds, and yes Garvin Brown helped him a lot, but Danny had a drive beneath those Hollywood looks and made it all the way to the top. He’s a good guy, and a good ambassador for IndyCar.

Q: You sort of hint on occasions about schedules and/or driver lineups. How often do you get inside info but cannot post it? Any good stories on inside info you knew but could not say a word?

Ron, Toronto

RM: Oh my god, almost weekly during the season. But when you do something for 50 years and people tell you things in confidence, you better honor their wishes or they will never tell you anything again. That’s why I’ve always been able to get scoops, because people trust you not to burn them and wait until the appropriate time. Then, when the timing is right, you can leak it or suggest it, but you never want to write or say anything that is going to derail a deal. Even though it hasn’t been announced, I’ve been saying and writing that Felix Rosenvquist will be Dixie’s teammate in 2019. Chip says it’s just a rumor, and his manager, Stefan Johansson, says he’s working on it, but I got some good info from someone I trust, so I’m confident it’s going to happen. And this kid is a badass. Today I’m sitting on a great little story, but can’t use it yet because it’s not quite done, but IndyCar fans will like it. Silly Season is always fun, and tracking down new venues – those are things you guys love to read.

Q: Let’s see if I have this figured out. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will, on Black Friday, play golf in a match play event, for a winner-take-all prize of $9 million. Then I looked back at the prize money for the Indianapolis 500 in 2018 and I found that the total purse was $13,078,065 and the winning share was $2,525,454. The Speedway lists these numbers on its website and seems to be very proud of them. The teams spend millions of dollars a year to race, and the drivers put their lives on the line each and every lap, for this measly amount? There is something drastically wrong with these numbers. Please IMS, get out of the Stone Age and pay these gladiators what they are worth!

Dale Christenson

RM: As I’ve written, preached and bitched for a decade, the 500 purse is a joke, and so is making the drivers get up at the banquet and “thank” the Hulman/George family and IMS for their check (which isn’t close to what they really get since, $200,000 goes right off the top to the owners in the Leader’s Circle). And a third of the field was insulted with $203,000 (the tire bill from Firestone is half of that). I’ve told Mark Miles to sell a title sponsor or presenting sponsor for the Indy 500 for $10 million and throw it all in the purse – $5 million to win and $500,000 to start the race. Then get $1 million for the Fast 9 to divide up on Pole Day. It’s insulting for drivers to hang out their ass for a race that grosses north of $40 million in a couple weeks and get paid like jalopy drivers.

Q: My brain started going into convulsions after reading about the Chris Windom/David Byrd hookup. I wrote to you a few weeks back about a Red Bull-type short-track driver program that would use Lights as a stepping-stone. Mr. Byrd seems like he could do that for Windom. Why is the Lights Series overlooked for guys like Windom? Certainly a season of Lights and maybe a test in an IndyCar for the 2019 season in preparation for a two-three race IndyCar shot in 2020 is a much better way to give Chris, and other short-track guys, half a chance at doing well in IndyCar or just at the 500.

Nobody has a real chance for success at without some sort of proper formula car experience. Am I missing something? Is Mr. Byrd only interested in getting guys to Indy for the sake of it? A season of Lights can’t cost that much more than the month of May, can it? It would be such a huge benefit to everyone if a realistic approach was taken to getting a short-tracker to Indy, or better still, a full season of IndyCars instead of a one-off at Indy because of a ‘this is the way it was done 50 years ago approach’

Eric Z, Lancaster, NY

RM: David Byrd picked up the torch for Bryan Clauson after Randy Bernard got BC to Indy in 2012, and he brought Windom to Indy last May for Lights, but unfortunately, Chris crashed in practice and the car couldn’t be repaired. Byrd helped with the James Davison project this year at IMS and his goal is to bring Windom to Indy someday, but Lights are expensive and you just can’t snap your fingers. Davey Hamilton and Byrd are about the only two guys who make the effort to keep a connection from USAC to Indy, but running Lights full-time costs a couple million to do it right and Windom has a full schedule of USAC racing, so picking and choosing would seem to be the best option.