Pruett: Late in the season, IndyCar’s former CEO was considering doing away with the Leader Circle program in favor of a return to traditional prize money payouts, with a reduced engine lease rate for those who signed on to the new-old merit-based payout system. Is that something you’ve decided to carry forward, or will you stay with the existing Leader Circle program?

Belskus: We're sticking with the Leader Circle program for 2013.

Pruett: How many cars are you planning to cover under the 2013 Leader Circle?

Belskus: At Milwaukee, we committed to the teams that the leader circle program would be for 22 cars. You end up in some… for the top 22 season points, you end up in some conversations about when someone drops out of that, do you fill that slot or not? And that's still an ongoing conversation between us and the teams. But we intend, we committed to 22 and intend to offer it to the top 22 in points, and whether all 22 of them can rise to the occasion or not remains to be seen.

Pruett: What’s the biggest area of improvement with IndyCar you’ve targeted to attack while you’re in charge of the series?

Belskus: We are in the process of developing a strategic vision, the strategic plan. I think it's premature, I think that's really the top priority is get a good long-term plan in place here. I think from that we’ll flow a lot of, we’ll make a lot of decisions based on how that plan comes together and what that plan ends up looking like.

Pruett: Sanction fees have been a good tool to improve IndyCar’s bottom line, but it has also kept the series away from certain venues based solely on what promoters are willing to pay. Do you foresee any changes to this policy—especially if lower fees could mean reinvigorating a long-starved open-wheel fan base at a track like Elkhart Lake, for example?

Belskus: Our schedule is critically important. And we know we have fans in markets that aren’t served today with IndyCar racing and we very much want to find opportunities to have a presence in those markets.

Pruett: With Lotus out of the picture, can we expect engine leases for all those who want them in 2013?

Belskus: Well, supply and availability is very important. Yeah, we would want to be able to introduce new teams, we want to be inclusive. Obviously, our manufacturer’s ability to service bigger groups can be limited in terms of more than they had planned and so, yeah, that is an ongoing conversation and dialogue. But at the end of the day, we do want to be inclusive.

Pruett: I spoke with Dallara recently who reiterated that they’ve agreed to an across the board parts price reduction, but have been waiting for the series to formalize that agreement. We also heard of the rebate back to the teams that had been agreed upon—when can we expect to see that finalized and the entire ordeal put to rest?

Belskus: I've been speaking with some team owners about it, we’re looking to move quickly on that. Again, I've worked through it with the teams and their buy-in to the process and my hope is that’s in the next, say, 30 to 45 days that we have a resolution of that.

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.