INDYCAR: Spare Parts Price Saga Brought To A Conclusion

After nine months of discussions and negotiations between INDYCAR, its teams and Dallara regarding spare parts prices, the chapter has finally been closed.

Marshall Pruett | Posted January 17, 2013

The IZOD IndyCar Series has finalized a reduction in spare parts prices for its teams, effective immediately through March 15th, 2014. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

After nine months of discussions and negotiations between INDYCAR, its teams and chassis maker Dallara regarding spare parts prices, the chapter has finally been closed with the Italian constructor agreeing to re-write portions of its supply contract.

Team owners were informed by interim IndyCar CEO Jeff Belskus about the tentative agreement during a meeting on December 6th, with a 14-percent reduction in parts prices and a 15-month freeze on that rate serving as the terms the series had arrived at with Dallara.

The formalization of those terms was made known to the teams late Wednesday night in a technical bulletin that was distributed by Dallara.

Dennis Reinbold, co-owner of the Panther DRR IndyCar team and the owners' appointed representative on the spare parts negotiations, told SPEED.com that while the deal didn't necessarily come to a conclusion as expected, he's glad to see the topic put to rest.

Panther DRR co-owner Dennis Reinbold led negotiations on behalf of the paddock. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

"From that [December 6th] meeting we as a group did express our displeasure at how long it took to come to a resolution, and I think Jeff [Belskus] thought, 'OK, it's time to do something, let's move on,'" he noted.

"Did we have a vote? No, but I thought [from the meeting] it was kind of settled. Getting something done so we can move on? I'm in favor of that. We've been hashing this thing around for quite a while."

Some owners I spoke with weren't overly pleased by the lack of a formal proposal to (and agreement by) their group, or the fact that Dallara, rather than the series, acted as the defacto messenger for this rather important piece of news.

But as Reinbold suggests, despite some owners being less than pleased with how the final decisions were made, or that the estimated $50,000 to $60,000 in annual savings the cost reduction is a smaller sum than they desired, achieving closure on this hotly debated topic is in the best interest of all involved.

"Personally, I'm happy to move on," he confirmed. "We have bigger things we need to focus our attention on. It was never going to be perfect, but it's better than no decision like we had all last year. The in-fighting is hopefully now a thing of the past.

"We sat down and had a very civil meeting with the series in December and I think that's great. That's what we need."

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.