Why Ed Carpenter thinks IndyCar should stop driving hybrid cars
NEWTON, Iowa (WISH) — Longtime IndyCar driver and team owner Ed Carpenter didn’t mince words after he ended Iowa’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 on top of Kyle Kirkwood’s car.
“We’re spending a lot of money to make our racing worse,” Carpenter said in a video shared with News 8 from Always Race Day.
Carpenter’s referring to IndyCar’s new move to hybrid units, which started at Mid-Ohio last weekend. There weren’t many negative comments made after the Buckeye State’s rolling road course. That changed after a couple of races on the newly resurfaced Iowa Raceway.
Sunday’s race saw little movement on the leaderboard. The first of two cautions didn’t come until lap 101 when Agustin Canapino got loose on the back stretch. That timing proved lucky for Will Power and Alex Palou, who benefited in the pits from the slow down and never gave up their respective Nos. 1 and 2 positions.
“Get used to this,” said Carpenter, who was involved in a four-car pileup during Sunday’s last lap. “The ovals are going to look like this, I think, until we figure out how to get the down force tire right and figure out how to get some weight back off of them.”
The new hybrid builds add about 100 pounds to the open-wheel racers, the “most expensive 100 pounds” Carpenter said he’s ever put on his cars. The extra weight is making it hard for drivers to follow opponents close enough to make moves to pass. Less passing means less lead changes and less entertainment for fans.
“I understand why we’re doing the hybrid so we can say we’re a hybrid series, but it’s costing us a bunch of money, making the product worse. I don’t see the point,” Carpenter said. “We’ve got too good of a product to take a decisive step back in our product by something of our own doing.”
Carpenter said he’d like to see the series not use the hybrid for the rest of the schedule.
IndyCar has six races left, four of which will be on ovals. The series hits the streets of Toronto on July 21 before getting back on an oval at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois August 17.