Carpenter Critical Of IndyCar’s Hybrid Switch And Quality Of Oval Racing

Source: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment / other

NEWTON, Iowa. — The planned rollout of IndyCar’s hybrid engine has certainly been a unique one. Typically when you see significant new formula changes to a particular racing series, you see those changes implemented during the off-season.

Due to a few things outside the series’ control, IndyCar has implemented the hybrid engine midway through the 2024 season and now has two races under its belt.

The reception of the hybrid has been mixed among those in the IndyCar paddock. Ed Carpenter, who owns his own team and drives a part-time oval-only schedule, is not a fan.

“I understand why were are doing the hybrids. It’s so we can say we are a hybrid series,” Carpenter said to reporters after the second race of the Iowa doubleheader. “But, it’s costing us a bunch of money, making the product worse, I don’t see the point.”

Carpenter said the hybrid is the “most expensive hundred pounds” he has ever bolted on his racecars. He feels it has done nothing to impact the racing and that the series was too hasty in bringing it in without enough tire testing. he said it is asking a lot of the car and the tires to bring in this kind of system.

Carpenter is also sounding off on the quality of racing on ovals now in the NTT IndyCar Series. His concerns appear to be valid as there was not much passing on the track during the race outside of the laps close to the start and restarts. In fact, there were zero passes on the track for the lead in both the races at Iowa.

Much of the race was referred to as a “parade” of single-file cars by many fans clamoring for more action on social media. Pato O’Ward even told the NBC broadcast of the race that the race was “a snoozer.”

“Get used to this,” Carpenter bluntly said. “I tested at Milwaukee, Nashville, I talked to Alex (Rossi) after he tested Gateway, the ovals are going to look like this, I think, until we figure out how to get the downforce and tire package right and get some weight back off of them.”

Much of the vitreal when it comes to ovals revolves around this particular car only being able to viably run on the bottom line of the turns. IndyCar oval racing used to be a staple in that drivers were fighting tooth and nail for position three-wide all the way around the track.

This car and the makeup of the ovals the series races on has made that time of close-knit racing impossible says Carpenter.

“I saw a car yesterday get off-line under yellow and almost crash,” he said. “If you get off-line, you’ll crash. That’s how ridiculous it is to drive these cars around here right now. If you are not on THE line you’re screwed.”

Much of the hoe-hum nature of the racing at Iowa this past weekend is being blamed on the repave of the corners during the off-season. The corners were also treated so that the tires of NASCAR’s heavy stock cars could get around the track, a happening eerily similar to what happened at Texas Motor Speedway which many speculate is a main reason that oval is not on this year’s calendar.

That coupled with the weight of the current Indy cars and the hybrid are a concoction of bad racing as described by Carpenter.

“With the weight of these cars it’s so hard to follow,” he said. “If you can’t follow and get close, you can’t make passes. It’s a challenge. It’s something we are going to have to figure out as a sport because we’ve got too good of a product to take a decisive step back by something of our own doing.”

“We can fix this,” he continued. “I love this sport. I love our fans. We are spending a lot of money to make our racing worse.”

Carpenter said if it were up to him, he would remove the hybrid for the rest of the season.

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