Honda and Chevrolet staying in IndyCar with factory charters

Marshall Pruett was all over this story, and I’d say it’s the biggest story in IndyCar since Roger Penske bought the series. It’s the first development that really seems like it augurs growth and success, like a much bigger version of the news last year that FOX would buy a stake in the series. Incentives rule everything around us. It is very important to have mission-critical partners like broadcasters and engine manufacturers with skin in the game, so IndyCar’s success is their success.

The push for the first new IndyCar since 2012 has been excruciating, but clearly satisfying the engine manufacturers was the central issue. They’ve finally done it. The new formula is good, but giving them charters to field factory-backed cars is even better. That will let Honda and GM (and hopefully some more, eventually??) have their own engineers work directly on race cars. Honda is already talking to Meyer Shank about entering the factory car with them, which is a beautiful parallel to how the MSR Acura GTP program is run in IMSA. I love this. It’s all upside.