Overheard at Pocono – CFH in trouble (3rd Update)
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| Wink Hartman |
Wichita businessman Wink Hartman is leaving Indycar as an owner for at least this season and maybe longer, due to the instability of the energy market.
Hartman says he is making the move in fairness to his other business interests, at least until energy prices stabilize.
"It was just a matter of, racing takes millions and millions of dollars. It's not wise for me to jeopardize what I've worked all my life to build over racing," Hartman said over the phone. "It's something I have enjoyed, and something I will hopefully join in again. But if not, that's fine. I have well past 15 companies to run."
Ed Carpenter will take over CFH racing, the team Hartman previously had a partnership with. Josef Newgarden will also continue driving for the team.
"I decided in fairness to the team that I should withdraw from the season at least, or maybe longer until energy prices stabilize," Hartman admitted. "Ed Carpenter is going to continue with ECR Racing, and Josef and he will be the drivers for the team."
01/27/16 This Racer article by Robin Miller details something AR1 reported during the Pocono IndyCar weekend last August: the CFH Racing partnership could be in danger (see below).
At the time we were told the partnership between Sarah Fisher and the team could be in danger due to falling oil prices but were unable to ascertain whether that meant a break up between Fisher and longtime partner Wink Hartman from Ed Carpenter or Fisher from the CFH Racing group that formed prior to the 2015 season. Miller's article, in which Fisher notes she will be at the Indianapolis 500 in May, although unsure of what capacity seems to suggest the latter: a break up between Fisher and the remainder of the group could be imminent.
In the bigger picture, these are not good times for IndyCar as teams continue to struggle to put together commercial packages that provide ROI for sponsors.
08/30/15 Track President Brandon Igdalsky said attendance was down slightly from 2014 for the Pocono 500 and he is not sure the track wants the IndyCars back and is probably looking for a reduced sanctioning fee from IndyCar.
08/22/15
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| Sage Karam |
Local favorite Sage Karam met with the media about a half hour prior to Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying for tomorrow's ABC Supply Co. 500.
Sage was asked As your season comes to an end, how he reflects back on it? How was this first experience for you?
"Definitely just a learning year, rookie year. Lots of ups and downs. Started out with a lot of downs, now I think it's starting to go up from here.
"You know, I've just been having a lot of fun and learning. Sometimes I learn too much in a day and I can't process it all. But when you got teammates like Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball, it's so hard to bring something positive onto the team because they know so much.
"That was my main goal this year, to contribute in a positive way.
"I think now this latter part of the season, we've been able to contribute to some weekends in a positive manner. Like today, you know, this is a big weekend for Dixon and the championship. He needs a good race. For us to go out there and be able to show speed, give him data, help him out as much as we can, that's helping the team.
So far I feel like I'm doing everything I can this weekend for the team and also for myself. Having a lot of fun."
Another rookie Stefano Coletti crashed in practice this morning. While there was no replay shown at least here in the media center, according to the AR1's sources in turn 3, Coletti hit the outside retaining wall pretty hard in turn 3. The #4 KV Racing Technology Chevrolet then moved down the front stretch before spinning after the start/finish line. Coletti did not take part in qualifying.
As for Karam, his status for 2016 is currently unsettled. While Karam is contracted long-term to Chip Ganassi Racing the prospects for next year, will come down to surprise, surprise: funding. And as of now, said funding is not in place.
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| The future of young Josef Newgarden is a big topic of conversation here this weekend at Pocono Raceway |
Speaking of Ganassi, rumors in recent weeks have linked CFH Racing driver Josef Newgarden to the team, perhaps as a replacement for Tony Kanaan. We are hearing that will not happen, and we were told there is a greater likelihood Newgarden will wind up at a Honda team, perhaps in a second Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry.
We're not sure Newgarden's future has anything to do with this, but we also hear changes may be coming at CFH Racing. It's been somewhat well known throughout the season that not all has been copacetic at CFH Racing, which formed this season via a merger between Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. And it would be reasonable to assume that they could become two separate teams again.
Mark Miles is here in Pocono and talked about next year's schedule. “Fontana is a difficult situation. We think it’s a great track. But the one that we couldn’t collectively get over is that they would like to be the finale.
“We’d love to be on a super speedway. But they also need to be at night. And that was true if we put them late – like late September. We are not comfortable with an event ending at 1 a.m. on the East Coast. Our paddock understands that.
“In the end, we need to reach more people and it’s hard to do early in the morning."
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| Mark Miles |
“I was just talking with a fan earlier, run the race for local purposes and delay it. You can’t do that," Miles said. “It’s not something we love happening. I hope people understand for the growth of the series, we need to crown our champion with a lot of people watching."
How about when the season will begin in 2016?
“It’ll start a little earlier, I don’t know exactly how much yet, but at least by middle of March (which is when St. Petersburg is currently scheduled, March 11-13), to at least middle of September.
“About the same total number of races. I expect there’s a race or two like Fontana that won’t be with us (like New Orleans and maybe Milwaukee and Pocono). We announced Boston on the Labor Day weekend. A lot of talk about Phoenix and it’s no secret we’re close to the finish line to get it back on the calendar. And a couple other events we’re still working on."
Miles also spoke about goals of increasing attendance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on an annual basis, and what that entails for the Verizon IndyCar Series on the whole.
“The last couple years have shown that the race would go again. We had a total of 400,000 for the year in 2013. We need to get that to 600,000 for ’18. We’re well on our way after two years," Miles said.
“The 500 is growing. The Grand Prix is now there. It’s because of concerts like Rolling Stones, although not many like that. There are more during races. We brought back Vintage Racing. There will be more announcements for IndyCar fans.
“We are determined as we can be to make sure the success Speedway in May radiates out to help the IndyCar series. You can’t have a great 500 without a great league."
Speaking of the league, we rumored over a month ago that an offer would be made to buy the IndyCar Series. We now hear an alternate proposal will be made to the family whereby they would not take ownership of the series unless the Hulman-George family would prefer that. However, the crux of the deal has not changed and it's expected that the family will love the idea once it's presented.
We wish we could tell you more, but now is not the time to break the story wide open until the presentation is made to the Hulman-George family. We'll leave you with this – suffice it to say that something has to be done and the deal sounds like a phenomenal plan. As we said in Milwaukee, the racing in this series is too good not to be watched by more people. Something has to be done.
Look for the Hondas to be better in the race than qualifying this weekend. When the cars are trimmed out Chevy appears to have less drag and qualify better than the Hondas, but in the race, when the wings are cranked up for more downforce, the Hondas are more competitive. Why? Because Chevy have done a better job with the drag vs. downforce balance.
Word is that James Hinchcliffe will be back in the car in the autumn for offseason testing as soon as his doctors say he can. James has not shaved his beard since the accident and he is not going to shave it until just before he gets back in the car. Sponsorship-wise he is set for 2016.
Rumor has it that Takuma Sato expects to be back with AJ Foyt Racing in 2016. At Andretti we hear only the Hunter-Reay car is set for 2016, so there is still a lot of work to do before 2016.
It was a pleasure to see Father Phil again in the Pocono looking fairly good considering his health problems. Father Phil was the CART Chaplain for many years. Mark C. and Brian Carroccio reporting live from Pocono for AR1.com