Oilpressure

If you have followed this site for very long, you know there are two things that I don’t do very much of – interviews and breaking news. This is more of an opinion site. I let others do the interviews and the reporting. Then I sort of take it all in, let it digest and then give my take on it, for what it’s worth. That and $7.95 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks or whatever trendy, pretentious and over-priced coffee shop you frequent.

We’ve already learned this week that Felix Rosenqvist has signed a multi-year deal to stay at Meyer Shank Racing (MSR). I think that’s a good move for both parties. We also got confirmation that Marcus Armstrong will be his teammate in the No. 66 car that David Malukas has vacated now that the season is over. I don’t think many people were too surprised at that move, as Chip Ganassi racing continues to downsize in preparation for the upcoming charter system that will limit teams to only three charters. Although Michael Shank insists that they have 100% control over who drives their cars – I’m sure it is sheer coincidence that Ganassi and MSR are entering into a technical alliance for 2025.

I don’t think many were surprised to learn that Callum Ilott is joining PREMA for one of their two fulltime seats in the series for 2025. This is a good hire for them, and an equally good opportunity for Ilott, who was jettisoned from his seat at Juncos Hollinger Racing last fall, long after most seats had already been filled. Many believe the second seat has already been filled by Ferrari reserve driver Robert Scwartzman. That doesn’t really move the needle with me, but only because I am very unfamiliar with him.

But there was some news that came out late Wednesday afternoon that sort of overshadowed any other IndyCar signings or news.

If you are a business owner, I cannot imagine a more terrifying scene than having someone in a cheap suit arriving at your front desk, with an FBI ID in one hand and a warrant in another hand; followed by a multitude of humorless agents in black FBI vests. Yet that is exactly what happened Wednesday at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL).

Not too much is known as I write this Thursday night, but it appears to center around a former Andretti Global employee that moved to RLL and some intellectual property that apparently belonged to Andretti and was also moved to RLL. Is that vague enough? Not a whole lot of information is out there, but it is serious enough to get the FBI involved and have RLL staff leave their laptops and phones behind as the RLL employees were asked to leave the premises.

It has been reported by Marshall Pruett of Racer.com, that the FBI showed up at Andretti Global back in August, so it’s easy to connect the dots on this – unless the FBI has suddenly decided to have random raids at Indianapolis-area race shops.

I will not even begin to offer a take on this, because I don’t have one. From what I can tell, anyone offering any take or opinion on this is merely speculating because everyone involved is being very tight-lipped. RLL released a very generic statement on Wednesday night and no one is talking at Andretti Global.

So there’s the news if you haven’t heard it, but I am not offering an opinion on it, except – it probably isn’t good. The FBI doesn’t have a history of showing up unannounced because they had heard about something very good going on, and they just wanted to confirm it before giving a certificate of appreciation. They can be investigating suspected criminal activity, or sometimes it’s for pure intimidation. And if you think this is something new, remember – the FBI was used to intimidate Howard Hughes time and time again in the late 1940s, for political and business purposes.

So this is one where it’s wise to let the process play out, without forming or offering an uninformed opinion. It’s possible that RLL is guilty of doing something very sleazy or underhanded, but it’s also possible that they are being unfairly targeted. And don’t assume that it’s Andretti Global that is the one targeting them. There may be something going on that none of us know anything about.

Who knows? This may be just the very tip of the iceberg of something really big. Let’s all withhold judgment until this whole thing plays out.

George Phillips

Please Note:  Two weeks ago, I had plans of devoting my entire weekend to relaxing and watching football. Instead, I ended up taking Susan to the ER and she was admitted for abdominal surgery. Her surgery was completely successful and they found no cancer. She is now home resting comfortably as she recovers. All is well with her, and while there were far more important things going on two weekends ago – I never got my football weekend. So we are going to try it again this weekend. Therefore, I will not have a post here on Monday Sep 23. I will return here on Wednesday Sep 25. – GP

This entry was posted on September 20, 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.