Dear Danica,
Citizens here know a bit about the business of IndyCar racing. We therefore write to offer some unsolicited yet humble advice. Do with it what you will.
You have made public your interest in NASCAR. As a lifelong IndyCar fan, I implore you to turn south, get the best deal you can, even if it's in the Nationwide Series, and go. Run - do not walk and do not look back - because the present direction of IndyCar racing will be of little benefit to you.
You're the Special Surprise in a box of cereal that the kids don't want.
You do not need to race at airports, parking lots, harbors, parks, city streets or any other temporary circuit. These "events" are the unmistakable signs of market rejection. I imagine that you have already figured this out. If so, then we suggest that you trust your instincts because your instincts are good. Phony racing circuits aren't your forte, anyway.
That said, the type of oval racing you'll do in NASCAR will be unlike anything you've ever done before. I suggest that you get in a midget or sprint car this winter. Competing in front-engine, tube-frame cars with lots of horsepower and little downforce is good training for the rigors of NASCAR. You'll learn a lot and be better for it.
What about winning the Indy 500? Yes, you could do it some day. But, much as it pains me to write this, so what? The IRL now serves its team owners and their managers, engineers and drivers who want to accumulate as many laptops, electronic gizmos, and road and street races as possible. Make no mistake - they all hope you stay. They would love to use you as an asset to underwrite a product that consumer rejection has bankrupted twice and likely would have a third time if not for mergification. Don't do it. The Indy 500 will suffer for it, and so will you.
NASCAR and its teams are fundamentally sound, professionally managed enterprises. Did you notice during your Carolina tour that NASCAR teams look like real, operating companies? Did you see guys molding, fabricating, and tooling in those shops? Strange, isn't it?
You see, Danica, NASCAR teams began with nothing - they earned everything they have, and they're still working for it. IndyCar teams inherited market acceptance and consumer demand but chose to throw it away, financing their whims with underwriters including shareholders, tobacco companies, auto manufacturers, drivers and their rich parents, scam artists, dictators, narcotics traffickers, governments, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, each other, and, most frequently, supply chain arbitrage. Who has time to build a multi-billion dollar business based on mass market acceptance when you're having a really swell time racing at an airport in front of a solid crowd for Texas high school football?
The remaining IndyCar teams intend to race the way they want to race, and they fully expect to convince a new enabler to pay for it. They'll probably pull it off, too, with help from Apex Brasil. Sure, names of other "sponsors" will adorn the cars and event titles, but most of the cash will have come from the behemoth. Danica, the Brazilian industrial supply chain has nothing to offer you. You're already in demand right here. If you go to NASCAR, then the demand will actually extend to the race track. You'll have to get used to it.
Danton, Marat and I wish you well. Selfishly, we hope you stay. We love Indy cars and believe that you could help revive the sport. But we see the emerging strategy, and we know how this story ends.
On behalf of the Committee of Public Safety
Yours,
Roggespierre
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