You're In Charge Of IndyCar For A Day, How Do You Beat F1 At Their Own Game?

IndyCar recently unveiled its new-for-2028 chassis, the Dallara-built IR-28, to somewhat muted fanfare. The current car has been in play since 2012, and it's about time America's premier open-wheel series gets its crap together to bring an updated look to the sport. There have certainly been some positives and negatives for the series since it was purchased by Roger Penske in 2019. This is probably a positive move, but there are so many things that could be done to improve the sport that seem to be ignored. I want to know how you would fix it. 

I am an avid IndyCar fanatic, and I've attended the Indianapolis 500 every year since moving back to the Midwest half a decade ago. It's an incredible race at one of the most important race tracks in the world, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Unfortunately, I haven't really been capable of recommending any of the other races on the calendar to fans, as the series bends toward predictability. There are really only three teams that can win on a given weekend, and maybe two capable of pulling off a championship. Álex Palou is, once again, mopping up the field practically every week and is well on his way to his fifth championship in six seasons. 

Even having said all of that, the racing is significantly more interesting than the show that Formula One has been putting on in recent years. F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport because it's globally known, it leans into its drivers as characters in a soap opera, it has a broadcast package that makes it easy to watch in every international market, and it works overtime to sell that package to sponsors and fans. IndyCar has the better on-track product, but hasn't figured out how to wrap it up in the pretty packaging that F1 does. 

Sound off in the comments below with your suggestions for improving IndyCar and we'll discuss it. Then I'll pick a few of my favorites to recap for everyone else on Monday.

Here are three things that IndyCar could do to push itself into the limelight and show F1 fans that they should be watching this on Sundays instead. 

The first thing it needs to do is to stop being so America-centric. Only three American drivers have won IndyCar titles since 2000, the reigning champ Palou is from Spain, and the sport's most popular driver right now comes from Mexico, and yet the series travels to Canada but doesn't set a foot south of the border. There are no rounds outside of North America. To make matters worse, there are 18 rounds this year and more than half of them are within a day's drive of Indianapolis. There are two races in Wisconsin for Pete's sake. Why isn't there a Mexico City round already? Why not make an effort to run all of the iconic European tracks that F1 is abandoning, like Spa-Francorchamps, the Nürburgring, or even Barcelona?

Second, the series needs to push its relationship with its broadcast partner more. When Fox came onboard as the carrier of IndyCar, I was optimistic that the race series would see exponential growth year on year. That has certainly been the case for some events, as race viewership is up 18% across the first 11 races of the year so far. I want to see better for the sport, and I would like to see Fox do better for the series. As mentioned earlier, I'd especially like to see better broadcasting internationally. And a better broadcast team. Somehow Fox let the best personality in the IndyCar grid escape to Formula One when James Hinchcliffe joined the Apple TV crew. Buxton was a good get for Indy, but pairing him with Hinch would be next-level.

Finally, I think the new car will answer some of the issues that plague the current car, but IndyCar needs to figure out what it can do to entice additional manufacturers into the sport. I know that's been something they've worked on for the last twenty years, but they need to commit and make it happen. With IMSA and the World Endurance Championship getting a dozen new manufacturers to join their sports car prototypes classes, why can't IndyCar? They're just shooting themselves in the foot at this point. 

So that's my question for you: if you were in Roger Penske's shoes for a single day, how would you influence the sport that we all love so much for the better? What are your choices that could shape the future of American open wheel, and why? Do you think the cars are the problem? Do you think the drivers are the problem? What about the tracks? Maybe it doesn't get better than Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Road America, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but what else would you add to the season schedule? 

Maybe you want to give them power-up zones like Formula E. Or you want three different tire compounds from Firestone to choose from instead of the two they have now. Maybe you think IndyCar should race exclusively at Indianapolis, like what the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie does over in Germany. Or maybe you think the series should be building 1,000 horsepower V8 monsters again, and aiming for 250 mile per hour average lap speeds at Indy. 

It's your show for the day, how are you running it?