Checking in with Will Buxton

This is off track.

Hello. Hello. And welcome to Off Track

with Hinch or Rossi today.

Uh, just me, not even any Tim, which is great, but I'm joined by my good buddy, will Buxton. Hello. Will.

Hello? Uh, hello. Hinch. You're up there.

Yeah, you're, that's true.

You're right, you're right there.

Uh, as we record, it's what, Monday Post Elkhart? Yes.

Post Road America. Um,

and we are both biting time in our hotel rooms before we head off to our respective planes.

To the same place actually. Yeah. But on different planes.

Weirdly enough, I'm going to Milwaukee to fly to Chicago to fly to London.

And you are going to Chicago to fly to Boston. To fly to London,

Correct?

Yeah. The world's a weird place. Yeah.

But hey, technology, ain't it? Grand.

Um, look, I, we've been wanting to have you on for a couple weeks and so I apologize for the slight delay in this, but That's Okay. We've been quite busy.

We have been a little busy.

Um, and the, the main reason for it was, you know, we had you all, you had, you know, you and t Bell on obviously when the announcement was made that we were all going to Fox.

And, you know, one of the things I think a lot of people were talking to you about and asking you about was what are you most looking forward to?

And you were getting to experience your very first Indie 500 Race day Yeah.

On the ground. And you got to do it from

the power position of lead commentator, , seeing it for the first time, which is quite, uh, quite something, quite something special.

So I kind of wanted to just do a bit of a month of May recap and see what it was like for you in this new role going through the greatest month in racing. So now that the

Hangover is over, Right.

Right. Now that we've had, we've gotten through Detroit,

we've had our weekend off, we're back racing and everything's all, all well and good.

But let's, I mean, let's start right at the beginning because you know, as you mentioned, you have watched the 500, you know, a lot.

You're, you're a fan of the sport. You always have been.

You've been to Qualifying Weekend, but first time doing the race itself.

Yeah. First time being there through all the practice.

What kind of pre-me prep, like explain the level of pre-me research that you did.

Um, A lot like , , I mean, you know, I have, I have folders and folders and folders.

Um, but for the 500 I was just, I was just handwriting notes for weeks and weeks and weeks.

And, and that meant going all the way through to the start, like literally to when the circuit was built in 1909.

So I did everything like down to, as, as even made it to the broadcast, like the mathematical formula that they used to design the circuit.

You know? So, you know, I had like reams

of information on the history of the pagoda and the number of times it had been rebuilt or burnt down or all of those things, you know, not to mention, uh, you know, what had happened every year and every race winner and the interesting facts that had happened in those races, just to try and, you know, lock it all in.

Um, 'cause so much of what I, I knew about Formula One and know about Formula One had had kind of come in by osmosis, but this was very much a, you know, I had to learn it and I had to sort of get it to go in.

So it was all, it was all handwritten.

Um, but it was great 'cause when, when you were doing, um, the test, when you're doing the open test and you and Alan were kind of like having discussions and I was like texting you through it and you were like, who's the Italian winner? And I'm like,

I'm like with Corrections . And

I'm like, I know this one, I know this one.

I've researched this.

And you were like, how do you know that?

And I'm like, today I've been doing pre-war research and you were like, God's sake man.

Um, so yeah, fun things.

And you know, I never got to bring out my favorite, my favorite nugget, uh, for the 500, which was the link between the Indie 500 and James Bond, which was the, in 1932 count, Louis Roski raced, um, and Za Broski was the designer and driver of Chili Chili Bang Bang, which was an actual car.

Okay. And Chi Chi Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming

who also wrote, but the fascinating thing as well is that, is that Z Broski was married to, uh, a member of the Asta family, thus giving him a link to the Asta Challenge Cup.

So I, dude, you know, me, I just nerded out over all detailed big time.

Yeah. And big time. Loved it. It was great.

But that's the thing, I mean, over, what do we do, 36 hours of practice or something like that, you know, I think, I think we figured out by the end of the month and maybe we'd done 80 hours on air if you'd tot it up, indie GP and practice and qualifying and Brace Day, it was like, it was like 80 hours.

That sounds like a lot. Yeah.

But yeah, that's feels like about what we did.

Uh, so why, why handwriting for you?

Does that just like help lock it in more than, you know, typing it out?

Yeah. Or just reading it on a, you

Know, oh, totally.

There's, there's something in the physical aspect of writing it and it kind of took, took me back to like being at college and handwriting notes.

And then I used to write over the top of the notes and keep writing of like five, six times until it kind of went in.

So yeah, I dunno, it's like, yeah, back to being a teenager again and, uh, and just handwriting all of my, all of my notes.

But it, it, it seems to go in, um, and then, you know, once the race starts you just, you're just in the moment.

Um, but the whole experience was amazing.

And actually doing the NDGP was really helpful because you get the lay of the land and you know where you are and where, and when someone says, be here at this time, or, you know, you've got a, you've got a, a 10:00 AM you, wherever it might be, you know, you, you know where the compound is, you know where the pagoda is.

You know, if someone says you've gotta be here at a, you, you know, the fact that Yeah.

Garage N 34. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and the fact that it's a very different layout

that there are the, the physical garages there and you know where everyone's going to be.

So that was really, really helpful as well.

So, you know, we go into practice week and everyone had prepped you that practice week is this like slog of, of a week from a television standpoint.

Uh, we, we survived it, but I mean, first I really Enjoyed it.

Say your first six hour day in the booth of, you know, four or five know six consecutive or whatever it was that we did.

Yeah. By the end of day one,

were you still like, oh, this is great.

Yeah. Or were you like, that was a lot of talking. Uh,

There was a lot of rain on day one, so we kind of, we had, well that's true.

We had lots of delays, but, um, it was like F1 testing, you know, and I Yeah, I Remember you said that.

And I always really enjoyed those broadcasts because they, it, it's really kind of like light and fun and, you know, day one, I missed my lunch break because nobody told me I was supposed to be going to lunch at that point.

And by that point I'd missed my window.

'cause Townsend wanted to go and take his lunch, and then you need to go and do yours.

And I was like, well, I might as well just stay here now, um, and eat Twinkies. Uh, so

so with whistles in them. Yes, exactly.

So, um, I love that.

And then, you know, day two, day three, same kind of thing.

It's just, it's so nice just to have that, that looseness and that freedom.

And I guess for us in the booth as well, you know, it reps are so important and that month of May was the first time that we'd had so much time together because the early part of the season was really disjointed.

We'd, we'd have a weekend and then we'd have almost a month off and then another weekend and then almost a month off.

And, you know, it's, it's way better if you can just keep the reps going so you learn consistently and day to day you can make the changes and, and make it better.

Um, so, you know, practice is practice, whether it's cars on track, or whether it's us in the booth, you know, every, every lap, every minute on air is, is important in terms of, you know, getting the setup. Right.

It, it's funny because we interviewed David Lucas on this show last week, I think.

And uh, you know, one of the things we were talking about was how there was this, and you know, I think we even mentioned it on, on the broadcast.

Yeah. You know, this, this weekend, this, which was coming

to that team with the form they had at the end of last year with David's, you know, stock where it was, everyone was kind of expecting him to step in and immediately be in that sort of fighting in the top tens pace.

And the first few weekends were kind of a struggle.

They were disappointing from a results standpoint, even from a general speed standpoint.

But his point was, you know, we always said that once we get through May, that's when it'll start hitting.

Because in May you spend an entire month locked in the same garage, but these guys, and you get so much face time, you get so much working time, so many reps, like you say, that it all sort of hits.

And for us in the booth, it's, it's sort of a similar situation.

Yeah. Right. I mean, three of us are new working together.

A lot of the people behind the scenes are new, working either together or new working in IndyCar or hadn't done a 500.

So a lot of people were kind of going through that same sort of thing.

So we get through practice and then comes qualifying weekend.

Yeah. Which you had been part of before,

but I mean, tell me, you could feel the emotion and the tension and the stress that is qualifying weekend from this position. So

This, this is gonna sound really weird, but, um, I think qualifying is, is it's, it's probably my favorite weekend in racing.

Um, those two days. It's not weird at all.

And, and I, and I think honestly like on a par maybe even more enjoyable than the 500 itself because the jeopardy is so high.

And I love the, the stick or twist nature of it.

The fact that everyone's trying to improve or, or, or having that balance of, well, I think I'm just about, okay.

And actually a P 15 is pretty good, so I'm just going to, to stay there.

And even if I drop down to 18th, 19th, I'm still gonna be okay with that.

Like, um, you know, and the fact that it was the first time with the hybrids and the cars were, were pretty skittish and we had some really big accidents from people who we wouldn't have normally expected it from.

Um, that made it even more kind of on the edge.

Um, but I love that, you know, it's, that was probably the longest broadcast we did as well.

All, all month, you know, that is first thing in the morning till last thing at night and you don't stop there is, you know, we were literally in an ad break running to the toilet, running back Yeah.

And headset on just in time. Welcome back.

You know, it's like, it was, yeah.

It's, it, it's so intense, you know?

And we're getting food sent up to the booth and we're sitting there literally just like two, you know, two bites of a hamburger before we come back on again.

And I loved that. That was really, really fun.

What what was so funny for me is I was, uh, you know, like you, you end those days, right?

They're marathon days. Yeah. They're exhausting.

'cause you're mentally, you've gotta be on that whole time you're talking that whole time.

You've gotta be engaging that whole time and then you get home and you're just absolutely exhausted.

But then I was looking at my phone and I was looking at like, the pedometer on my phone and how many steps I'd taken, and it's like, yeah.

I'm like, oh, I'm absolutely wrecked.

I wonder how much walking around I did today.

And then you're like, wait a minute. I

sat in a booth all day.

It's like, you've done 2,400 steps today. It's like, that's

Not even, it's not that's horrendous.

Like you've done done 1500 or like, like thousand Steps.

You zero physical activity. Yeah.

But you're just absolutely exhausted, Wiped, like, absolutely wiped.

Um, and do you know, it was, it was really, it was one of the, the, the mad things about that as well was, um, my wife and and daughter came out for the month of May as, as, as you know.

'cause um, we, we spent a lot of time together, uh, in May.

Um, but her parents came out as well just to kind of help with the transition to America.

And they were there for the first two month, uh, weeks of the month.

And then as soon as everything for the 500 started, they went home.

And it was really weird because suddenly that was the point at which I was gone every day, right.

From, from like six in the morning till like seven, 8:00 PM at night.

I was, I was out, I was, I was at track and then getting home and just dead.

So for those two weeks, that's probably the weeks when she needed her parents there more than the first two weeks.

Right. Um, lessons

Learned.

Yeah. Very, very definitely. Um, a lesson learned.

But, uh, no man like that, that week of just the intensity of practice and still not really knowing who was where going into, into qualifying.

Um, and then rolling into the Sunday and the, the storylines that hit then, you know, Penske being kicked out, um, the, the Dale Coin drivers having a knock on another out, um, Schwartzman like getting Paul.

And that was, for me, that was really emotional as well.

'cause I, I know Robert really, really well and I know the premier guys really, really well.

And yeah, you know, similarly, you know, people ask me at the start of the season, you know, how, how do you think it's going?

And I, I kind of compared my journey to premise's journey in that it's all very new and it's all completely different.

And, you know, I've set myself on fire a couple of times, like, you know, like, like Robert's car did at Thermal.

And, and there there have been a, there have been some highs.

There have been some, some lows about a couple of races that I've, you know, crashed out.

But, um, you know, it's, it's kind of that, that that period of learning.

And, but watching Robert do it and knowing his story and knowing, you know, the emotions behind that, and then being able to go and do an interview with him afterwards.

And we're both new kids on the block.

And yeah, here we are both about to go into our first 500 together in that kind of prominent role, him on Pole and Me and to do, to lead comms.

It was, um, there was something really lovely about that, that that really just resonated with me.

It was, it was really nice.

It's someone a bit poetic about it all. Yeah.

Um, So I just wanna backtrack.

It has to have, you mentioned that the Penske drama as someone in this role, right?

Yeah. And in this role for the first time at the 500

is something like that, is some sort of controversy.

Like, does the journalist in you kind of like, love that there's a, a story to dive into?

Or would you rather for your first time not have had something quite so dramatic and polarizing happen? I'm,

I'm actually really glad that we did because, um, we set out our stall in that moment of we are not gonna skirt around it yet.

We, we are new to this and we need to be, you know, playing the game.

And, and we don't wanna upset anybody or annoy anybody, especially when, you know, they kind of thing run, they're under series.

Um, but at the same time, you have a responsibility.

You have a journalistic responsibility not just to tell people what's going on, but to be very honest about it and to come at it fairly, um, but from, from all angles and, and bring it in.

And I think we did that. And, you know, we, we,

the discussions we were having off mic during that point, you know, we, the folks won't at home won't know this, but, you know, Tim Cindrich was, was ready and available to talk.

And we made the decision then that we weren't gonna have him on air until we'd heard from Rocket about, about what had been found.

Because we were all adamant journalistically, yourself, me, Townsend, you know, we made that decision on the flight in the booth.

No, we have to hear the prosecution before we hear the defense.

Right. And I think that was,

that was absolutely the right way to go.

And then, you know, and then, and then Tim sort of, you know, said what he said and I think we would then right.

To also call that out and say, you know, it wasn't arbitrary.

It's his black and white.

So, you know, this is where we're at.

Um, I hope we dealt with that.

I think we dealt with it well.

Um, I hope the fans thought that we dealt with it well.

Um, and that we didn't skirt around it.

You know, we, we did ask the questions and we, and we have continued to ask those questions, um, uh, as the season's gone on, uh, no matter what it is, you know, whether it's race control or whether it's, you know, the, the officiating or the the scrutineering.

Um, yeah, I think that's, I think that's really, really important.

'cause you set your stall out early and say, no, we're gonna, we're gonna do this properly.

Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely.

Um, I want now to move on to the highlight of the month.

The big show itself, the weenie 500 on Carb Day. Oh

mate, , I really hoped you were gonna go there.

Uh, Yes. Forever

Do, I mean forever. That will give

My first Oval race .

That's a, that's a great point.

Um, That's a great point.

I just love the fact that we kind of knew nothing about Yeah.

I don't know, I don't even remember if we've talked about this on the show yet or not, but like we knew very little.

We heard nothing about it until like a week and a half before.

And we only kind of started getting details like 48 hours before this was happening.

We weren't sure exactly what we were calling, what was really happening.

Well, the tone of what we were supposed to be doing.

Pam, our producer, had been really excited about it for a while.

And I think we all kind of thought, it's not gonna happen.

Like this is, this is just right.

You were like, Roger's, Roger's not gonna let this Happen.

This, this isn't gonna fly. And um,

and Pam's like, no, this is gonna be great.

It's gonna be really, um, and we were like, okay, cool.

And then I don't think we realized the scale of, of what it was gonna be and that it was actually gonna be a race broadcast.

And I remember getting to the platform with you and Townsend and we were just kind of huddling and we went, right, we've got to do this absolutely straight.

Like right if, 'cause 'cause if we, if we goof around with this, it's, it's gonna be too goofy and it's it, you know, play it straight.

And it was, it was so the right thing to do because it, it was just, it was so fun and, um, and, and play it.

And there were moments where by playing it straight, we were almost all, uh, you know, in just fits of laughter and trying to hold it together. Yeah. Um,

I mean, if you re-watch that broadcast pretty much anytime there was silence of more than five Seconds, it's because the three of us are all just trying to not laugh, Gone like absolutely gone.

Um, and You and your slippery wieners in turn three. Yeah.

And, and, and Wow. You know? Yeah.

And, and, and, but just all of it, You know, people, people will ask me, oh, you know, so, you know, the first oval you ever called was the Indie 500.

And I'll be like, funny story actually , it was Foid six giant hot dogs.

Um, I love the fact that, you know, because the Pacers were, were, were playing that week.

The New York dog got booed, uh, every time around.

But mate, honestly, like the way the fans reacted to it as well at the track, there was 70,000 people there for Carb Day.

Right. And the genuine cheer, uh,

was just, there was something beautiful about it.

It was so silly and it was so innocent and, and just so wonderful.

Um, I loved, and do you know what I'll completely, honestly, you know, I've been a Formula One races where there hasn't been that, that noise of, of cheering for a driver over the line.

Right, right. As there was the weenie 500.

Like it was, yeah, it was nuts.

And I think it, kids loved it. The broadcast was fun.

It kind of went viral 'cause it went, it went everywhere.

We got on Sports Center. Um, pat McCafe had it on, hi.

I think they were watching it live, uh, on Pat McCafe show.

Like it was, it was completely crazy.

Um, and totally unexpected.

I guess, you know, the question is like, what could we do next year? Like, like

I know, I was just gonna say, we've used all of our, of our wiener jokes.

Yeah. , willies

Time to be back or will it be something completely different?

I, I said No, but dude, the merch as well, I went into to, uh, one of the merch stands and everyone was like, with their Palolo shirt or their Colton Herter shirt, you know, they were picking up a weenie 500 shirt.

Uh, yeah. Sold, uh, sold, sold out. Yeah.

Completely sold out. Like it was huge,

Huge extent.

And so I thought, 'cause we caught in the stands, a bunch of people wearing like the hot dog costume, like the full body hotdog costume.

Shout out to the Simpson sister or Katie Simpson and her sister.

Um, and I assumed they were selling these at the track.

Okay. 'cause I'm like, that would make sense. Yeah.

No, no, I learned 'cause friends of ours were wearing them.

I'm like, no, no. They went out

and like premeditated got these suits with the intention of wearing them for the weenie fight.

People were looking like they were amped up about it.

And the anthem, the hands over your stomachs.

I wish so good.

But you know what's really weird for me now is so, um, back home again in, in Indiana.

Like I, 'cause it's my first time, like I heard the, when I, when I try and sing it, I can sing the first line of back home again in Indiana.

But the second line Morph Song, it's Too good.

That's too funny. All right.

Uh, did you sleep well Saturday night before the race?

Um, yeah. Yeah. I, I, I,

I You felt good, felt prepared, yeah.

Did sleep well. Um,

But I don't think I will next year because I didn't know what I was getting into.

You don't know what you don't know. Ignorance is bliss.

I'm Robert Schwartzman. Dunno what you dunno. , right?

Yeah. Um, no, uh, I had no idea.

And, um, I was more nervous about the pre-race show because we've got, you know, we have our normal setup that we take to every race weekend.

But for the 500 there was, you know, four times, Three setups and Yeah.

Yeah. The amount of trucks and a green room and more staff

and you know, bill Richards who, you know, directs the, the Super Bowl and all of that.

And these guys were, you know, it was big time and a huge investment and I was more, you know, and Chris Meyers like one of the best in the business and, and he's hosting one desk and I've gotta host the other desk.

And it's like, okay, don't <inaudible> this up.

Um, so that's, that was big pressure.

That was the biggest pressure for me was, was going into that.

Yeah. And, and honestly, like, that was my, my real kind

of thought process that morning was get through that and then like, sell into the race.

You gotta think of it, like, think of it as, you know, for, for people listening, it's the, the pre-race show is a, is a scripted feature length film.

Yeah. Right. But live, so think the the,

the pre-show is like a, like a live piece of theater.

Yeah. Right? Like, go and see a play.

You gotta hit your marks, you gotta hit your timing.

Like we've got commercial, everything is to the second.

The race is a free flowing improv. Right.

It's, it's a lot less structured because you're just reacting to what happens.

Yeah. But the pre-race show is so different to what you

and I do for most of our broadcasts throughout the year, which is improv and, and, and reacting to what you're saying. And even

Our, you know, when we do like the warmup show or if we do pre-race segments, or, you know, you and I, we've done F1 pre-show and post shows for years, their improv.

Nothing in there is scripted.

And also not having to hit commercial breaks and Right.

And we are Main Fox, it's a two hour show and you've got to hit your marks.

And, but the weird thing is, is that sprinkled into the scripted elements are still moments of improv where you are asking questions.

Sure. You're eliciting answers.

You don't know what those answers are going to be.

You have to react to those, you know, you've got an interview with Alex Palolo on the desk, you no idea how, what, what he's gonna say, how long his answers are gonna go, what he's gonna talk about, where you pick up off the back of what he said, and then what that leads to.

But you've still got to get out exactly at the right time and lead to the next piece and look at the right camera and, you know, and this and that and, and, and all of it.

So it's, it's improv and it's scripted and it's everything within the bubble of like, the most focus, the most investment as well of the year on this, on this huge show.

Um, and I'd never been a part of anything like that before.

And that was, that was huge fun. That was huge fun.

Yeah. It was wicked. Yeah, it was great. It was fun.

What was, this is the classic kind of cliche question everybody gets asked.

What you, what was your favorite part of the pre-race ceremonies?

What's your favorite element of pre-race ceremonies?

Taps? Yeah.

That, that really got me.

Like, that really got, because I'm from a military family, uh, so that yeah.

That the thing about that now I'm kind of getting a bit bit misty about it.

That was something very, very special.

Um, yeah, that was, that was the one for me.

Yeah. That's, I that's a popular answer

because it is, I mean, you've got this stadium with 300 plus thousand people in it and it's just Silent. It's

Dead silent.

Yeah. And it's one, one note at a time, Ugh.

From this singular trumpet.

But do you, it's incredible. That's so tough

to, to to play.

Like, you know, we have in the, in the UK we have the last post, which is kind of the, you know, our version of that.

Um, and I, I grew up as a trumpet player, um, oh, in a way.

Yeah. And like in, in the UK it's normally played on a bugle

rather than on a trumpet, but it's because you have to change your <inaudible> because it's all played open.

There's no, there's no keying on a, on a, on a trumpet. Um, and

Oh, I actually don't think I've even noticed that. Yeah.

There's no, there's no, there's no keys.

It's all open because it was, because it was originally played on a bugle, a Bugle. Um,

There's no, oh, wow.

Yeah. So you, so, so every note is just a change

of your omnisure.

So, so how, how you pucker your lips and the amount of air and how tightly it's, it's the air is squeezed through in order to raise the pitch or lower the pitch.

And that's why very often you'll hear the notes crack.

Um, Every note was just, it was like dead in the middle.

It was so well played. Um, and so I also Oh, that's amazing.

From a musical perspective, I was gonna say, yeah.

I was appreciating it as well. But, um, yeah. Right.

Incredible, absolutely amazing moment.

That's, I I learned something today.

I love that little little piece of info.

Um, so the race happens. Yes.

Everybody, everybody saw the race After a delay.

We, yeah, eventually it was a small delay. Yeah.

It wasn't like the, the year before, but that was, That was kind of fun because we kind of got into, I that actually kind of helped 'cause that got us into a rhythm of, we got 30 minutes to fill in the booth.

And so we were kind of like, oh, we're doing our own little extra pre-show now.

Um Right. Which kind of settled everything in,

but then yeah, then Scott goes and stacks it.

So we're like, are we gonna get a three wide start?

Are they gonna single file it?

Because theoretically it's a restart because the race started under caution, but then we did get a three wide start.

And, and then you're in like, And Then you're in it's go time And then it goes and it, and it goes like another race.

It's just a long race. Yeah.

Uh, but you get through it, we have a first time winner.

We have kind of history be made in, uh, in a couple different ways.

And at the end of it all, Um, What was kind of the overwhelming feeling when we went off air.

So I am not happy on Sunday night ever.

And you know, that, like, you know that last night , you know, when, when you were, when we were having A, which is still insane.

We we're still fighting about that, but okay.

Yeah. But you know, it's, it's me.

I'm never gonna be never gonna be happy with the job that I do ever.

Um, I don't think I, I didn't understand it still until Monday night.

And it was going to the celebration dinner and talking to all the drivers afterwards and actually getting to see everybody and the recognition that one guy and one crew are related.

And there are 32 other crews and 32 other drivers who are utterly devastated.

You know? And at that moment you're like, okay, this,

this is way more than just a race.

Um, and even, even the Monday morning, you know, I didn't, I I knew what it was about, but I don't think I truly got it until, until Monday night.

And that's something that I will take into next year because the, the importance and the impact of it.

Now, I, I, I understand that now.

And I didn't until, and I've gotta be honest, I didn't until Monday night.

It was just, and also I think, I think Sun by the end of Sunday, we were all just knackered.

Um, yeah. I think I'll, I'll know how to pace myself better,

um, next year. It's,

It's one of the things you experienced as a driver too, right?

The first time you go through the month of May, I think no matter what role you play in that sphere, by the time Sunday comes around, you're just like, we just want to get the race going.

Like we're just so over all the buildup, it's time to just go and get going.

Yeah. Um, and kind of the same situation for, for everyone.

Have you watched the race broadcast back? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have, I have.

Um, I watch everything back, you know, um, 'cause you got to, you, you have to go through and, and make notes and figure out what you, what you did that you liked and what you did that you didn't like.

And as always with me, there's about 98% that I wish I'd done differently. .

Uh, but, you know, there you go. It is what it is.

You know, coming into this, I was gonna ask you to kind of give yourself and then the broadcast as a whole, like a, like a midterm report card grade.

Okay. But I don't even want to hear it

because you're gonna give yourself a, a, a criminally low grade, which is not fair or Accurate.

Yeah. I think I'd probably fail myself. I think I'm

on .

You're such an idiot. You've

Been, I've been kicked out of college and I've been, I've been sent back to take my s sat t You've been held back a grade.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Um, my, my scholarships on the line.

Um, yeah, listen, I I I, I think that the great strength with, with our team is, is that, uh, every weekend, but also every day, you know, we're taking learnings and we're recognizing ways that we can improve.

Um, you know, I think that the pylon is a really good piece of evidence of that and how much that has evolved from the first weekend to now.

Um, not just, you know, the fact that it, it works more often than not now.

Um, but also the sizing and, and how things are shown.

And, you know, this, people might not have noticed, but you know, we, we've moved from highlighting the top five to now highlighting the podium.

And, and so that allows more space for more drivers on the lower part of the, of the, of the pylon.

And, you know, these are, they may seem like little changes, but they're actually quite big changes in terms of how we're presenting the information and uh, you know, tires and all those kind of things.

So those, those modifications are happening there.

And that's a very kind of visual representation of the changes that are being made within the, within the group every single weekend.

You know, we have an amazing team, but very few of them had ever broadcast IndyCar before.

Some have never broadcast Motorsport before.

So it's a massive learning curve.

They're, they're hugely experienced in other sports and, and they come with a, a wealth of, of, uh, award-winning experience.

Um, but IndyCar is, is unique.

It's unique within Motorsport.

Um, and it's, it's funny because, you know, the season is so short that, you know, by the time we've been doing this for six months, we're we are then on a six month hiatus.

So yeah. So I look, I'm still finding my feet.

I think we're all still learn.

You you always learn, you know, in, in, in whatever you do, whatever job you do, you learn every day.

Um, but uh, we, we, we are getting there.

I think I'd give us a, I'd probably give us a b, like a BB minus.

Um, I'd give myself a d you and you and you and Townsend get an a plus. Um, no,

No, that's not those words.

That's not, you don't get to do that.

That's why I, yeah, I did. I retracted the question.

Oh yeah. Sorry. Now no, we edit this,

so I'm just gonna bleep that part out. Yeah, fine.

Yeah. Whatever the mark is, just bleep it.

I give us a beep.

Well, yeah, exactly. Well look,

I think you've been doing a phenomenal job and it's been such a blast getting to work alongside you the first half of the year and see the growth and see the enthusiasm and see the whole group all coming together and getting better and better.

And I think it's coming across in the broadcast and from what I hear from people, you know, we ran into a lot of fans this weekend in Elkhart Yeah.

Who had, you know, some really good things to say about the work that Fox is doing and the production team's doing and the broadcast team's doing.

So, um, so far so good, bud. Yeah, I

Think so.

And uh, and do you know what, what's really cool as well, you know, obviously we all focus on the, on the figures that we get after the, after the races, but I think something that, that maybe hasn't been spoken about as much is actually how much the Fox promotion is, is helping the footfall at racetracks, you know, from St.

Pete, the busiest St. Pete that anybody can recall.

Long Beach was jam packed. Indy 500 was a sellout.

Like, you know, everywhere we go, the, the promoters are saying this is huge.

We've, we've sold more tickets than than ever.

Um, and that's a big part of the promotion as well.

So I think, you know, to, to our bosses at Fox, like amazing job that they've done with the promotion, not just in terms of getting it out through the TV to people, but getting people to come to the track as well, because it's really cool man.

It's great. Great to see how busy the races have been.

Yep. And we still have a bunch to go.

We still have eight races left.

Uh, we get a, we get a week off I races In nine weeks or something.

Like, this is mad, Some mad stretch, but it's gonna be fun.

Yeah. So buddy, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

Uh, great work as I've been saying. Thanks buddy.

Safe travels. We'll wave to each other

from different planes.

Going to the same place you are, You are upstairs, so I'll probably, I'll see you before we, before we go and fan that.

I'll see you in the UK next week, mate.

Alright, sounds good buddy. Safe travels. Bye mate.

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