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It has become a custom at this time of year for everyone to either make New Year’s resolutions, or to develop some type of wish list. I stopped making New Year’s resolutions in the 80s, because I quickly learned that I rarely kept any of them beyond January and I found it depressing every time I failed at them. It was just much more pleasant for me to not set any goals that I knew were unreachable. Besides…did I really need improving? For those that don’t understand sarcasm, that was a joke.

I rarely make wish lists either, because my wishes are always self-centered and/or unrealistic. Wishing a million dollars would land in my lap is not very realistic. If I actually wrote it down as my wish for that year, I’m most likely going to be very disappointed on Dec 31 that it didn’t happen.

Of course, I have certain basic wishes for every year. I hope that my wife’s health continues to improve throughout 2024, just as it did this past year. My health is excellent, and I wish that to continue also. I also wish good health for all of my friends and family – not only for this year, but for the years to come. I think just about everyone reading this has the same basic wish list for themselves and their family.

But this is a site dedicated to following the NTT IndyCar Series. Different people have different priorities for the upcoming season – which starts in just a little over two months, by the way. Something that I wish for, may be the one thing someone else does not want to happen. That’s why such lists are fun to put out, to see what different people want. Without rambling on anymore, here are just a few of my wishes for the 2024 IndyCar season, in no particular order.

No More Hybrid Delays: By now, we were supposed to have a full season of hybrid-powered 2.4 Liter racing behind us. Then the 2.4 Liter engine was scrapped in favor of the same 2.2 Liter engine formula that has been in use since 2012. As we all know, the hybrid component was pushed back to 2024 a little over a year ago. Last month, we learned it has been pushed back again to “sometime after the Month of May”. At first, I was in favor of pushing the launch of the hybrid engine to the start of the 2025 season. But after Honda made it clear that costs need to go down if they are to stay in the series beyond 2026; one would figure a third engine manufacturer is the easiest way to bring down costs. Any further delays for the debut of the hybrid will most likely result in scaring off a potential third engine manufacturer.

Resolve the Honda Situation: Speaking of Honda, last month the Japanese automaker dropped a bombshell. They have been involved with Indy car racing since 1994, and have been a tremendous partner to IndyCar for the past couple of decades. They have let it be known three seasons ahead of time, that their costs need to be lowered in order to justify their return on investment. That can be done by either drawing in another engine manufacturer to relieve the financial burden currently carried by Honda and Chevrolet; or increase the costs of the engine leases per team.

The quicker answer is to increase the cost of engine leases, but that may create a problem for the smaller teams. Overall, it’s best for everyone if a third engine manufacturer can be found. It’s probably about as realistic as that million dollars landing in my lap, to expect a third manufacturer to be signed by the end of this calendar year – but my wish is for significant headway to be made in 2024, to the point that it can happen early in 2025. Losing Honda (or Chevy) would be a massive blow to the series that may be too great to overcome.

Re-sign NBC to a New Deal: The TV deal with NBC comes to a close at the end of this season. Negotiations are underway with NBC and possibly other potential partners for the TV rights for 2025 and beyond. I love NBC’s coverage of the series. Their full race weekend coverage on Peacock is superb, and gives fans access to all of Peacock’s racing and non-racing content. We cut the cord in December and haven’t looked back. I just wish we had done it sooner. Peacock is a deal even at full-price. Since we still get our internet from Comcast (for now), we pay only $2.99 per month for Peacock, but would not hesitate to pay full price if we had to. Even an NFL Playoff game will air exclusively on Peacock on Jan 13.

I don’t want any other entity involved with broadcasting IndyCar – not The CW, not Amazon, ESPN or any other group out there. We know what we have with NBC. Keep them in the fold. Change is Bad!

A Meyer Shank Rebound: One of the biggest mysteries of the 2023 season was the dramatic drop-off of Meyer Shank Racing (MSR). It’s not like they were a major power to begin with, but since joining the series as a part-time team with Jack Harvey piloting their lone car, they had been making steady improvement. Expectations ratcheted up when Helio Castroneves won his fourth Indianapolis 500 in 2021, in their first outing with a part-time second car.

Harvey left the team at the end of that season, and was replaced with former Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud. With two drivers that had excellent pedigrees in their cars, the future looked very bright for 2022. Instead, it was a very rough season and 2023 was even worse.

Helio has stepped out of the cockpit and into an ownership role for 2024, except for another Indianapolis 500 appearance. Simon Pagenaud suffered a severe concussion halfway through last season, and will not be back with the team. In their places will be IndyCar rookie Tom Blomqvist and IndyCar veteran and race-winning driver Felix Rosenqvist. The team probably will not rebound enough to win a race this season, but I would hope they will at least be competitive in 2024, because they sure weren’t in 2023.

Have Ferrucci Return to Foyt: One of the best stories to come out of the 2023 Indianapolis 500 was the performance of Santino Ferrucci in the famous No. 14 for AJ Foyt Racing. Ferrucci finished third in the 500, but was a legitimate threat to win all day. This was no fluke. Ferrucci had been fast all month, and qualified fourth. The rest of his season was not great, but it was an improvement over the norm at Foyt.

With the signing of Sting Ray Robb for the No. 41, and the future of Benjamin Pedersen in limbo – the funding for the No. 14 is also in doubt. Ferrucci says he wants to return, and Larry Foyt says he wants him back – but it hasn’t happened yet. It needs to happen.

Palou Needs to Slow Down: It’s no secret here that I’ve never been a huge Alex Palou fan. I don’t deny he is an outstanding driver, but something about his personality just sort of rubs me the wrong way. My wife is a big fan, but I’m not.

Even if I was his biggest fan, I would be wishing for him to slow down some in 2024. Is it possible to be too good? Skeptics would say that the other drivers just need to go faster. Whatever the case, the second half of the season lacked intrigue as far as the championship was concerned. He delivered a beatdown like we have not seen in a couple of decades. The result was things got just a little boring, and the series does not need anything to be boring.

For Graham Rahal to Have a Strong Indianapolis 500: One of the more gut-wrenching scenes we’ve seen for a while, was watching a sobbing Graham Rahal hugging his daughter and wife as he sat on the sidepod of his car that had just been bumped from the 500 grid by teammate Jack Harvey.

All of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars were slow on the ovals last year, but it was especially noticeable at Texas and Indianapolis. Although it’s hard to believe, Graham Rahal turned 35 yesterday. The bulk of his driving days are behind him. There are hints that he will retire soon, and I think that will leave a big hole on the grid when that happens. I was not the biggest fan of Rahal in the earliest days of his career. But over time, I’ve grown to appreciate him as a driver and a person. I hope his team gives him a much better car for this year’s Indianapolis 500, where he can at least have a competitive shot. I would really like to see the second-generation driver win an Indianapolis 500 before he hangs up his helmet.

A New Video Game Deal, With a Reputable Company: We all know of the video game debacle that went on for a couple of years, before coming to an embarrassing close last fall. Why IndyCar ever went with Motorsports Games, we will never know – but it proved to be a massive mistake. The short-term fix is that IndyCar is expected to restore the relationship with iRacing. Long term, I hope they get their own stand-alone console game.

Good Weather for In-Person Races: This is purely selfish on my part. My wife, Susan, and I usually travel to about half of the IndyCar races each year. While races in the wet can be fascinating to watch on television, they are miserable to attend in-person. That goes for the Month of May also. TV viewers enjoyed watching Colton Herta slide through the 2021 GMR Grand Prix, but it was not a whole lot of fun to attend. But noting is worse than having a full day at IMS rained out for oval practice and qualifying. The Indianapolis 500 has not been impacted by rain since 2007. Let’s hope that streak continues.

Return to Texas: This season will mark the first season that the NTT IndyCar Series will not race at Texas Motor Speedway, since 1996 – the first year the track was open. The biggest question when we saw the 2024 schedule was if the omission of Texas was a one-time thing, or if it was gone for good. In nine or ten months, we should know the answer to that question. Hopefully, Texas will return to the schedule in 2025.

Safe Racing: Last season, we watched Simon Pagenaud barrel-roll at Mid-Ohio. We were all happy to watch him walk away from such a violent accident. As it turned out, that crash ended his season and possibly his career. Most importantly, he is still with us and was able to be present at the birth of his second child this past fall.

Cars today are much safer than they ever have been, but this is still a dangerous sport. My biggest wish for the 2024 IndyCar season, is that we have safe races all season long, and no driver has to miss a single race due to injury.

Those are a few of my wishes for the NTT IndyCar Series in 2024. There are others, but I don’t want to ramble on more than I already have. What did I miss? Do you agree or disagree with something I said? The offseason has only two months left. The season will be here before we know it.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on January 5, 2024 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.