Q: The Texas race used to draw a decent/good crowd. I was there when the NASCAR Trucks ran the night before. I crewed for a small Truck team and it was our first race. The next night we went back and had dinner there and watched the IndyCar race. Texas at night is amazing! Or, it used to be.

But I don’t blame the folks that stayed away. Tickets are not cheap. Do you want to spend your limited funds on a race that has been really poor the last several years due to the PJ1 on the track? I’m not a Texan, but have been there enough to know that a March race can be a roll of the dice for weather. Combine that with the PJ1 history, the NCAA Tournament going on, the early start time, and I’m not shocked at the turnout. Even If I lived walking distance from the track, I would not have attended.

The Texas race can come back, but it will take time. It will take several more years of no PJ1 and cars working that second groove to get the racing fully back. Have a good product, and people will show up. Have a bad product for several years, change things up for start time, and people will naturally stay away. It’s not rocket science. Texas was once one of the best races on the schedule. The PJ1 ruined it. But now that NASCAR has gone away from its terrible aero package, the PJ1 is unnecessary, and with time, the Texas IndyCar race can be an excellent race once again.

John

MP: You know how some businesses really make you feel like they want your business and others make you feel like all they care about is extracting every dollar you have? It definitely seems like if IndyCar and TMS come to a new agreement and the series returns, some sort of make-good-on-past-bad-deeds ticket pricing should happen.

Q: All the oval talk in the Mailbag lately has me wondering what really went down with the Richmond deal. Originally, I believe IndyCar had a two-year deal to race there. I seem to remember that both races got canceled as we went into the COVID-shortened season. What ultimately led to both of the races getting canceled? Presumably, race two could have/should have been on the schedule last year, but wasn’t even given the chance after the first year was canceled. Who initiated the deal to bring IndyCar to Richmond ,and what led to things souring so quickly that both races were hastily canceled?

Appreciate all the hard work that goes into Mailbag – always start my Wednesday here.

Alan

MP: Thanks for the kind words, Alan. Here’s what I got from the series:

After a great Firestone test involving Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, IndyCar was excited about a return to Richmond. Dennis Bickmeier, who recently announced his departure, was a huge proponent. Ultimately, COVID took plans in a different direction. The series remains open to future discussions and opportunities to return.

Q: With all the recent talk of Milwaukee returning to the schedule, I thought I’d put in my two pennies. The last time I went to The Mile was 2012 and 2013. On the official site it lists attendance at 22k for 2012 and n/a for 2013.  Believe me, in 2013 my wife, me and about 40 other people watched the race. I had been there eight other times, and it was obvious it was over. Like any other venue, you’ve got to have paying customers to put on a show. Why would anyone want to try and promote The Mile again?

Indy number 42 coming up in May.

Jackson Pell, South Bend, IN

MP: I’m never sure how to read situations like this, because we always have a group of passionate “Bring back the ________ race” folks, and it’s human nature to want that to be an indication of a big interest for that race to be brought back to life. But it usually ends up being a small number of people instead of thousands upon thousands of motivated attendees. Robin Miller always said it was somewhere between five and 10 super-active forum members talking up the need for Kevin Kalkhoven to buy CART that led the late Australian to do so — a case of mistaking a handful of consistently loud voices as being a sample size of a greater audience that didn’t actually exist.

It’s been almost a decade since IndyCar raced at Milwaukee. I loved the place, but that’s a lot of years that have passed where fandom has waned and locals have become accustomed to life without the event, and that’s never a good thing.

We’re not running photos of Cleveland and Milwaukee in the same Mailbag, so how’s this instead: Roger Penske giving his Chaparral 2A some gas in the 1964’s 7th Annual Times Grand Prix at Riverside. Motorsport Images

Q: In last week’s Mailbag, Tommy Boy was complaining about announcers drowning out the sweet sound of the engines. I have the same issue with announcers that feel they have to fill every second of any sporting event with nonstop babble, especially one whose name rhymes with “No Luck.” I have a center channel sound system at home and installed an on off switch for the center channel. When turned off the center channel is eliminated cutting off the announcers leaving only the sounds of the event. I call it my “Joe/no Joe” switch. Oops! I gave him away!

Bill Phypers, Brewster, NY

MP: A great home stereo hack, Bill.

Q: I’m one of the biggest IndyCar oval fans you’ll meet, and the IRL oval days made me a fan. I’ve read a lot of conjecture about the attendance at Texas in the Mailbag over the past two weeks, and I’ve been to the race five or so times since 2011, but here’s the deal: It’s, frankly, not that fun. The track is a hike to get to, like most ovals. There’s nothing going on around the track. There are no support events. Probably more damning that anything is the feeling of  “nothing special going on here.” It’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy… as attendance dwindles, that feeling of “nothing special” gets worse and people don’t go back. My last couple of years living in Texas, I didn’t go back as it simply wasn’t fun. Although, the sights and sounds of being at the track can’t be beat.

At road and street courses, on the other hand, you can get closer to the action. You can walk around to different vantage points. There are typically other races going on. The paddock is closer, so fans can meander around closer to the cars. Even if it has a small crowd, the close quarters still make it feel special and exciting.

Essentially, you end up with ovals feeling like just a race in the middle of nowhere, and a road or street event is a party. And let’s be honest, nobody wants to drive out to a field in the middle of nowhere expecting a party and nobody be there, race or no race.

Ross Bynum

MP: I lost track of how many times I felt this exact thing during the early days of the Indy Racing League, Ross. There were a few events that had solid crowds, but way too often, we’d be on pit lane at Random Oval X and I’d look up and say to a teammate, “It looks like they forgot to tell people there’s a race going on this weekend,” or, “Looks like all the fans dressed up like aluminum seats” because that about the only thing staring back at us from the grandstands. I’ll keep chanting my same old mantra: While it’s rebuilding and slowly growing in popularity, IndyCar cannot afford to go to tracks — of any kind — where it looks small and unimportant.