This was purely a safety issue and had nothing to do with speed. If that were the case, F1 and all other major open wheel formulas around the world would have followed suit, which is obviously not the case, aside perhaps from Formula E, but that's not a major series just yet. It was because cars were climbing up each others and taking flight at 220+mph while inches from one another, and not because there was an aerodynamic gain to be seen in the first place. I'm sorry but no, Indycar was a victim of trying to imitate NASCAR and its close racing and the TV ratings that went with it, and nothing else. They visited and still visit ovals that are not suited to open wheelers, and needed solutions in order to not end up with more deaths like those of Dan Wheldon, Paul Dana and even Greg Moore back in the CART days. Superspeedways made for stockcars and openwheelers do not belong together, and they never will.
I don't care how exciting or close the racing will be, they're absolute eyesores and they could have been done much better... I don't care about the semi-enclosed fenders, but the wings on wings on wings are absolutely ridiculous. Going "green" is not an excuse to have cars that look like crap.