Q: A few years back, there was talk about a group trying to make a movie about the very first Indianapolis 500. You even wrote about it here. Is this dead as far as you know?

Andrew Howard, Fort Wayne, Indiana

RM: Yep, not sure what happened but after all that hoopla it just vanished. I had dinner with one of the guys who showed me the track and where the cars were supposedly being built but that was three or four years ago.

Q: Call me crazy but I would like to throw this out there. When reading about the schedule and a few people made some comments that IndyCar is scheduling around NACSAR and its good business. I got to thinking that what if IndyCar tried to take on NASCAR head to head of course line up the races on ABC when NASCAR is on Fox and let the viewer’s compare. Chances are during the loooong green flag runs NASCAR has had over the last few years viewers are likely to flip to something why not give them the option to watch better action in the IndyCar series. So I guess the question for the mailbag: am I crazy?

Matt Hartman

RM: Not crazy, just hopelessly optimistic. The NASCAR rain delays swamp IndyCar races in ratings so trying to avoid a head-to-head battle is always advisable.

Q: With Milwaukee starting at 4 p.m. there better be heat races before the race, shown live online. No reason for that race to start that late. Speaking of heat races, please tell me they are returning to Iowa?

Ray Hando

RM: Well that’s 3 p.m. local time but I’m always in favor of 1 o’clock starts so people can get home on Sunday night and you’ve got a much better chance of drawing some Chicago fans. Yes. Heat races at coming back to Iowa.

Q: A lot of people are talking about how Indy cars need more horsepower and it relating to more exciting racing. My question ... why is no one talking about giving the cars more torque? Cars with more torque would be more exciting on the road and street courses with the amount of horsepower they have now. Watching the cars get in and out of the turns quicker would if anything add one more thing to watch for during a race. Staying excited for the 2013 season and the future by being a fan of the racing, drivers, race courses, and the development of the cars!!!!

Josh Z., Delaware, Ohio

RM: I think high HP like the old CART days implies more torque because watching a Lola or Reynard squirt off the corner in the ‘90s with 900 HP was breathtaking. Today’s cars/engines certainly don’t get your attention like that but the good racing hopefully holds your attention.

Q: I was reading about how Bill Simpson is now tackling football helmets (no pun intended) and I began to think about what all this guy has done for safety in sports. I was looking to see if he was in any Hall of Fame and saw he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Detroit but I was wondering, what is the quintessential Hall of Fame for racing? NFL has Canton, MLB has Cooperstown, but what about auto racing? Of course NASCAR has one but they don't count ;-)

Bill, West Palm Beach, Fl.

RM: Simpson was voted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame in Michigan in 2003 and should be in the one in Talladega as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s. He was the pioneer of racing safety and his football helmets will be a success like everything else he touches.

Q: Thanks for the Chili Bowl coverage again this year. It’s very appreciated and its one of those hidden gem events that you really need to get to, if you are a true racing fan. I am sure all of the IndyCar owners and brass that weren't there, enjoyed reading about it as well. I see that Chad Boat, Kyle Larson and Kevin Swindell all had success this year. Do any of the "deep thinkers" in the IndyCar world realize how pathetic it is, that none of these three have any future in the top rung of AOW and all three are likely to be racing in various NASCAR divisions soon? I'm sorry, but if there isn't any room for any of these three truly talented drivers (which just follows a long list of drivers before them in the past two decades who also were ignored by the Indy Car "braintrust") then our sport is heading nowhere. IndyCar needs to be about Graham Rahal, JR Hildebrand, Josef Newgarden and Conor Daly battling it out against Bryan Clauson, Chad Boat, Kevin Swindell and Kody Swanson. That's the way it used to be in the 50's, 60's, 70's and even the 80's. The best American road racers against the best American oval racers. Without the best (or basically any representation from the one genre that makes up the majority of what AOW racing is all about), IndyCar will continue to be looked at as second rate and the Indianapolis 500 will continue to be not nearly as important in the American sports landscape as it could be.

Jim Hendricks

RM: I would seriously doubt if 90 percent of today’s IndyCar owners even know what the Chili Bowl is and the new regime wouldn’t be caught dead at a dirt track. Randy Bernard went in 2010 and 2011 and saw the talent and passionate fans and did his best to get at least one of these throwbacks (Clauson) into the Indy 500. Swindell is as smooth on pavement as anybody and Larson is the new Parnelli Jones but both will be in stock cars this year.

Q: Didn’t know the story about Jimmy Caruthers until recently. Amazing that he won a USAC championship while battling cancer. How good of an Indy car driver was he and how good could he have been? Also, do you have any memory of his racing brother, Danny?

Tony, Atlanta

RM: Jimmy’s Indy-car career was just starting to take off when he got sick the first time and he was cut down in his prime. He was a good racer with a great sense of humor (“don’t ever try to out-brave a cancer patient” was his favorite line) and Jimmy packed a lot of life into a short time. Danny might have been even better but he was killed in 1971 warming up for a midget race and won the USAC championship posthumously. Their father, Doug, was a longtime midget owner and they were a family of racers that promised great things.

Q: FYI, the RFD-TV website has shirts and hats available. If people want to support Randy Bernard, buy them and flaunt them at "George Town" this May.
Benny "The Thing" Dixon

RM: Thanks. That will go good with my ‘I Hate Robin Miller’ hat from 1996.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED.

Robin Miller brings 40 years of experience to his role as SPEED.com's senior open-wheel reporter, and serves as a frequent contributor to SPEED Center and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain.