IndyCar about to make another serious blunder

Jay Frye

Here we go again. IndyCar wasted tens of millions of dollars on the aero kits to try and open up the competition a bit and what did it get them? An unhappy paddock and TV ratings still in the dumper and races being cancelled due to lack of attendance.

Instead of spending those millions putting all the races on network TV because ratings greater than 1.0 means more sponsorship in the paddock, they opened up the competition and got nothing for it.

And now they are talking about making the same stupid mistake again.

In a conversation with RACER on Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar President of Competition Jay Frye revealed the series has started to evaluate its spec Dallara DW12 chassis for areas that could be opened up for teams to control.

"One of the things we're trying to do for 2017 is deregulate some things a little bit," Frye said. "Because we have regulated so many things for so long, you want ingenuity."

Frye and his competition department staff have asked IndyCar teams to provide feedback on specific parts and regions that could be converted from spec to free for development.

Insanity is the only word one can use to describe this thinking.

Instead of first putting all the races on network TV so the series and its teams first get healthy financially, and then talk about opening up the rules to development by the teams, IndyCar is putting the cart before the horse once again.