Welcome to the wandering racer musings mailbag thing — nah, that sounds weird, let’s try again. Anyway, send your stuff, questions, rants, love letters even, to us at [email protected]. We dig it. Just a heads-up: slap a question in there if you want to see your name in lights, or ink, or whatever this digital stuff is.
So, here’s a deep dive: How’d Palou stack up against the legends? Three titles in five years sounds, well, pretty nuts if you ask me.
Randy from Milwaukee hits first. Lucky guy.
Marshall Pruett here. Brace for impact. Just five people in a century and change of IndyCar have out-champed Palou. Five. He basically turbo-boostered his way up through the ranks in a mere five years. He rocked up with Dale Coyne Racing in 2020, blazed through his sophomore year with a title, kinda slipped in his third year with contract drama (oof, who hasn’t been there, distracted at work?), but then — boom — two more back-to-back wins. Let that soak in.
Ah, about those 13 wins — next up for him are folks like Sneva, Pagenaud, Montoya, and some other legends. Just putting that out there, casually shocking.
Palou has that Franchitti/Johnson stealth mode — clinical, efficient, and eerily cool under pressure. Teamwork makes the dream work, and this guy co-authored the IndyCar Championships guide or something. He topples even Scott Dixon — the current Jedi Master of Franchitti tactics. Risk management? The dude could probably give a TED talk.
Okay, yeah, he hasn’t nailed an oval. Yet. But he’s been close, and there’s a wicked Indy track record there — pretty darn solid top 10 streaks — you see what I’m hinting at?
Next question! BTCC showing up live in the US on RACER Network. Sweet, right?
Dan Mayhew from UK gives us some good vibes. Man, I’ve loved BTCC since those SPEED Channel days in the ’90s — before they spammed it with “Pinks!” Couple of breaths there, seeing how RACER’s gonna shake things up.
IndyCar stuff now. Viewer grumbles, early-season blues — what’s up with that mix?
Mark from Milwaukee chimes in. FOX ran sick ads, only for the early races to be… meh. Suggests tossing an oval in early to spice things up — easier said than done, right? Ovals aren’t exactly grow-on-trees things, plus fan interest, blah blah logistics… but point taken.
Timing issues? Overlooked or blundered — I don’t know. April 27 race — cool idea too. Just a side note there — F1 and IndyCar not actually clashing like that. They go back-to-back — efficient TV time or something, not exactly catastrophic.
Alright, rambled enough. Should we start a podcast or what?
