Driver Interviews 2025 Part 2

This is off track.

Scott Dixon here at Media Today.

Is this your first thing for media today?

You start, uh, nah, Because you just kind of started though, right? Just started.

You're the early site. I like it in the first hour. So

You're still fresh.

I'm pretty fresh. Okay. You haven't been asked the same, but

It's been like the 24 hours of thinking about this whole episode going on that we have to do today. You know?

Well, you've been thinking about this for 24 hours. Yeah. Everybody

Thinks about the media day .

Or maybe it's just me. Maybe that's my problem.

That's, this is why you, this is why you go into car racing.

You're just, just so jazzed about the, and Get media.

I get get paid for this and race for free, man.

That's how it goes. .

You get paid. Uh, do you get paid per word?

I don't know, because I don't That'd be, that'd be a cool way to earn a living.

Yeah. Maybe start talking a little bit more too .

No, they're obviously just paying you too much because you don't talk that much. Oh,

Yeah. I dunno about that.

That's not how it Goes.

Yeah. All right. Well we still have the, the fresh face.

Scott Dixon early in his media day commitment, um, not your first media day.

You've done this a few times. Um, on Sunday,

you will start your 408th IndyCar race.

Yeah. That's a lot. That's so

Consecutive, right?

I think it's more than that. Maybe. I don't know. No, I

Think that's Total.

That's the total. Yeah. You're consecutive.

That sounds, that sounds better.

Lower than, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. But it is gonna be the most of all time you are now,

as of Sunday, the most experienced IndyCar driver in history. Yeah.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing either, .

I don't know. You know, I think, um, let's keep it positive.

Yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's a great thing.

You know, obviously longevity.

Um, had a cool video, uh, message from Mario who, uh, who I'm surpassing, which is, which is very cool.

Um, and which we're very lucky to have the likes of, you know, him and, and, uh, AJ as well.

Still coming to most of the races, which is really cool.

And you couldn't have a bigger and better advocate for the sport.

So, um, yeah, I dunno, not really thinking about my 408 star apart from trying to win it. Fair

Enough.

Yeah. But I'm sure it's one of those things you'll look back

on and have a little bit of, uh, you know, fun memories over, especially getting to do it here. Yeah,

Absolutely.

The timing is, uh, quite crazy.

Um, didn't really know about it, I think until maybe St.

Pete or somewhere around there where somebody had mentioned it.

So, um, yeah, the timing is, is crazy, man. .

It's sweet. Someone mentioned it at St. Pete. Yeah.

So before the year started, you had no idea that you were gonna break this record this year?

No, I didn't even know that the, that, yeah, the record was even close.

I had no idea, man. .

Well, that kind of makes sense.

'cause when you think about it, I mean, Mario raced until he was 53, 54.

Yeah. One of those two. Yeah.

I've got some time left. I was gonna say,

I mean, Nine years or eight Years.

How, how much do you wanna extend this record ?

We'll go for that. Let's try that.

You know, no, who's got the record for that?

It's gotta be AJ maybe, what was he, 56 or seven for the oldest seven or something?

Yeah, I don't know that one. I don't know.

That's pretty, I'll have to look that one up, but I mean, Elio's gonna try to break that one first, you know. That's

True. He's got

A couple years on you's 15 now he's 50.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Allegedly 50 .

He's More like 52 Or 53.

So Yeah, I've seen a couple different versions of his passport. So

That story might change here pretty shortly, I would imagine.

Yeah. He's got a couple, a couple black market

passports that he is been going wrapped.

Scott, the, uh, a lot of the talk this year, uh, around, around the speedway has been with the hybrid and kind of how it's changed the handling of the cars a little bit.

Made it a little trickier, I think to some degree.

You've got, you know, as much, almost as much experience as anyone around here.

Elio's again got you. By a few. Yeah.

But are you finding that it is a kind of big step from last year and, and definitely trickier to drive?

Uh, it's definitely trickier.

I think the, you know, we've seen some big crashes and I think, you know, part and parcel with that is that once it kind of does get away, it's, you know, it's a big pendulum, you know, kind of like feeling back there.

It's really hard to kind of recover from it.

Um, you know, I think in any time when you're getting ready for qualifying, you definitely, uh, you know, explore those limits.

And we had some moments, but luckily they were, they were kind of smaller.

Uh, one, the workload is a lot higher.

Uh, luckily in qualifying, the strategy that we picked was kind of low on the workload, which was, which was nice.

Uh, but in the race, you know, you're doing two deploy.

You're doing it every time outta two, you know, you're regioning every time at three, and then vice versa on the front strai.

So, uh, it, it's pretty full on.

But definitely has changed the car.

I think in the recent years that we've had.

You know, the aero skewing kind of changed it a little bit, but not as much.

Uh, but this one has been a pretty big shift for sure.

You've driven, I don't know how many different types of chassis iterations of IndyCar at the Speedway.

Do you have one that's a favorite?

Uh, probably not this one. . Um,

It's just the car has evolved to being quite heavy.

Right. You know, the power is the same

or less, you know, it's, it's, um, they're not very fast cars, you know, they're kind of more of a junior category car now.

I think even a lot of the road courses and street courses were maybe a second or two faster than any lights, you know, where they, when I first came in, we were probably 12 seconds a lot faster in, in the early days.

So, um, as far as 500 cars, um, you know, I didn't come here until the first time in 2003.

So that I, that generation was quite fun too.

'cause you had a mix of, you know, Telara GForce, right.

Uh, you were able to, as a team, work on kind of small boxes where there was fences on the front, rear wings to floors to wheel, you know, flips and all those kinds of things.

And it was quite fun to go through that process.

You know, now it's pretty locked down, which is great as well, uh, because the competition is just through the roof and it's very hard to find those small details.

So, I don't know. I, you know, through the earlier era,

I think was, was a little more fun and a little more different just because every time you got in the car, it was something kind of new.

Yeah. Um, but I really do hope, you know,

I dunno when the new car's gonna come, they're talking 27, you know, that might be 28.

Hopefully I'm still racing at that point, .

Um, but I think that the, the cars are definitely in need of, of being lighter and definitely a lot more power.

Yeah. And like, I mean, back in those days you could,

you could set your car up and trim to away, uh, where you really try to separate from the pack and, and pull those leads.

You can't really do that now, can you?

No. You know, you might have the scenario

where you can maybe break away a little bit and then have some lap traffic that you can kind of peel through and create that separation.

And, and maybe over a long green stint you'll see it.

But yeah, the year I won, you know, uh, we were able to trim way out and, and, uh, get the break on the restart and then, you know, just pull away, which, you know, nobody can probably in, in recent history can remember situations like that.

So, um, you know, maybe if they bring the new car in, it has like a bigger rear wing, you know, right now we kind of just have a bit of a trim tab.

Yeah. , uh, you know, that kind of does a little bit.

And I asked, actually, I said, what happens if we take that thing off?

Yeah, yeah. Like, can we qualify without it

and, you know, do a different configuration.

But, um, yeah, the, the times have changed, but I think the racing is, is better than ever, man.

Like, at this place. It's crazy. Crazy.

And, you know, the qualifying this year was a little bit more exciting, I think, than what we've seen.

Yeah. Just in terms of the balance,

getting the car in that, that sweet spot.

But also, you actually sort of touched on it, keeping it simple in terms of the procedure inside the car.

Yeah. There's so many things that the drivers can do now.

So you're saying you guys took, took the opportunity to maybe like, throw some of those away and kind of keep it a little more simple from inside the cockpit?

Well, I don't know. I don't know whether it was luck

or not, but for us, that was actually the better strategy.

Right. You know, you're fighting over hundreds

of a mile an hour, uh, and, you know, it seemed like one side of, you know, the kind of, the garage was really stuck on one strategy earlier in the week, and then everybody kind of shifted, I think, to similar stuff that we were doing.

Um, but yeah, you know, I've, I've forgotten to, you know, redo the weight jack.

Right. , and luckily I've done it in corners

where it didn't make too much of a difference.

But we've seen, you know, even the likes of Carl Lawson testing where he forgot to do it went straight into the fence.

So, you know, it's, it's, once you get one of those things in the sequence outta whack, it's, it's kind of hard to recover from.

Right. So yeah, as they say, try and keep it simple, man.

And, and, uh, that was definitely the way that we tried.

And even I think in my last qualifying attempt, I didn't even have to shift, which was kind of nice too.

So, , yeah, just Go, go flat, turn Left, focus on the stands and see who's waving and things like that. You know, ,

Do you, you know, you're, you have in Nessi, two teammates in in Polo and, and Kevin Simpson.

You got the technical partnership with MSR, with Felix and Marcus.

Do those guys kinda look to you at a race like this with all your experience and say as much as the engineer will tell you, oh, well if you do this during qualifying and move this and switch this switch and flip this knob, or whatever, you might find one, 100th of a mile an hour.

Yeah. Yeah. That gets drivers excited.

But then you look over to the goat and he's like, not gonna do that. ,

I'm gonna focus on driving the car.

Yeah. Just turn left, man. Um,

Do they kind of gravitate more towards you or do they try to, you know, follow the engineer's path and go to that the last nth degree?

No, I would still, I would still be fighting for that too.

You know, the, the weight jacket thing, I think over the four laps is maybe, is it a 10th of a mile an hour or something crazy?

You know, I'm like, do we really need to bother with that?

Right. 'cause if you forget it, then the car's destroyed.

Right? So, um, but then you get into the thick of it

and you, you know, you see it on the sermon and it's a gain, and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna do that as well.

So it, it, it, it's the whole, you know, situation of just being extremely competitive and, and the whole group is that way.

So, you know, uh, I think the, the team has done a real good job of, of the alliance that they have with MSR, uh, obviously, you know, two ex teammates that I had inside gsi.

So it's been super easy.

Um, you know, Alex has been off to a tremendous start this year.

Uh, so no, it's, it's, it's a competitive environment that all of us push each other as much as, as any single person.

You've got a, a second row start for the race this year.

Uh, you've, you've done it all.

You've run the gamut here at the Speedway.

Are you, are you at the point of your career and like, the level of experience that you've got where you kind of think there's not really much to plan.

You're in a good spot, you're at the front ish, that's kind of where you want to get B lap one 50 anyway.

Yeah. So is it sort of go

through the motions, let the race play out?

Or do you try to kind of map out sections of your race?

I want to be leading by term one, man, , I'm gonna jump the start. Jump

The, if you wanna go for it, let's go.

Um, You know, I think the biggest thing I've learned, and and probably the same for you, is that you just gotta be ready for change.

Mm-hmm . You just gotta be on your toes, you know?

I think you can't really, yeah.

You visualize, you know, things that you're doing and seeing the check of flag first and the stops going well and all that kind of jazz.

But ultimately, you know, I think you, if you go in with too much of a, of a set, uh, mindset, you know, of what you think's gonna happen and it changes, you know, what's the point of that?

So, you know, I think the biggest thing for me is, is, is, is not really, you know, committing to too much.

You know, I think we, we just have to be ready for change.

And I think that's the same for everybody.

You know, I think it's so many points during races.

Did you think you had a chance?

Maybe not, you know, you were gonna maybe finish top 10 and then, you know, the CS part and the strategy you're on was, was gonna work, you know, last year I think we were on the perfect strategy and then, you know, we had that one caution and it kind of reset things and we just didn't have the speed.

So, um, yeah, just let it play out, man. You've,

You've had this long storied career, you know, accomplished so much and you've done it essentially all with one team. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, I know throughout the years you've maybe had

conversations with other teams, maybe even came close to going somewhere else, I don't know.

But with, you know, no, there's no end in sight for Scott Dix, and no one can see that.

You know, people started asking you that question a few years ago, and then they just stopped asking, because you still win races, you still compete for championships in 500, so there's no point even discussing it.

Do you see any point in your future maybe trying an indie car season with a different team?

Or do you see your, your career ending with, with Chip Asse? Uh,

I dunno, it'd probably be, that's probably an answer for Chill .

I don't know. Um, you know, sometimes you are,

you are forced out of what you would like to do, but, uh, you know, I've been part of this team now as the 24th season.

Um, you know, it's, it's like family man.

You know, I've spent more time with a lot of these, you know, boys and girls than I have with, with my own family.

So, you know, for me, um, you know, there's still a lot to accomplish.

You know, we've accomplished a lot, uh, you know, in the past years.

But, um, no, you know, I think if, if you could pick and choose, you know, it would be to finish here.

But, you know, nobody knows what, you know, next year is gonna bring, or the year after or, or what the scenarios are gonna be.

So, yeah, we'll see. Man. Seventh

Title or second? 500,

Both .

Scott Dixon Here, chosen New Garden Fresh again.

You're like the third person I think we've spoken to that's fresh from New York.

What were you, what were you really doing in New Yeah.

Well, the, the Meyer Shank guys went to SiriusXM's headquarters.

Oh. So they did a little New York thing.

That makes sense. What Were you there doing?

Just getting some, getting some nice dinner and Yeah, a Little r and r.

Yeah. There's nowhere better than New York City

for some rest and relaxation.

I couldn't agree more. Um, I, I went

and did a little fox circuit, which was Oh, cool.

Which was good. Uh, we did some morning shows, um, as you,

as you would guess in the morning.

Yes. And then, uh, we did an activation with Macy's,

which was, uh, pretty cool.

We did this with Fox. We did this, you know,

ridiculous, silly, the Ethanol, fake Ethanol commercial.

Yeah. . And then we did a, we did an activation at Macy's

with it, which was fake, but it was, um, it was very cool.

And then I got to throw out the first pitch at the Yankees stadium.

Oh, nice. Pretty fun for me. I'm a big Yankees fan. Uhhuh .

Honestly, I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee.

Most people from Nashville, Tennessee are Braves fans from, from Atlanta.

Really? Yes, because it's ver we're very close to

Atlanta. It's the closest. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Closest to MOB team,

but I was always a Yankees guy, so, um, yeah, it was a pretty cool time in New York.

Did you see George? 'cause we

Were, I didn't, no, he Was here, I think. Right? I, I,

I didn't even text him.

I, yeah, . I was going to text him, and then I didn't.

There you go. But I have his number now.

Uh, that's cool. So, I mean,

you've thrown out many first pitches, I feel like, over the years.

Yeah. A few. But Yankees was,

is that number one? Is that,

Oh, that's at the top by far.

You know, it's just like, first Time you've done the Yankees, or You've done the Yankees.

First time I've done the Yankees. It's,

but it's, it's the Yankees.

It's, no, I'm with you. So Cool.

I'm from a town that has a baseball team. Yeah, true. Right?

So like, that's the point. Yeah. Blue

Jays is Blue Jays, but like Yeah.

I had more Yankees hats growing up than Blue Jay's hats.

Yeah. No, I get it.

I mean, it's like, it's the pinstripes, it's the history.

It's just, there's just something about it that's so iconic. Yeah. Yeah. I

Love it.

Um, I do want to hear more about this activation of Macy's though.

Yeah. So like, for those that haven't seen it,

we had those commercials that Fox did the montage of, you know, Joseph and who he is.

Part of it was this like mock cologne commercial, right.

Called ethanol. Yeah.

And so you guys, did you guys actually make a fragrance?

Like what is, what was the popup? What?

Um, I, I would like to say we did, we did not. Okay. .

Okay. It would, it would be very strong , the fragrance.

I was joking potent. I was joking around with it.

I was like, you know, you just, you spray it and it just evaporates immediately.

Like, it's just the essence of, of ethanol. There's no

Actual smell. Yeah.

It's just an, it's an essence of it. Right.

Um, but it was, it was really funny to make this piece, this is what it was born out of.

You know, it came outta the commercial organically.

We were, we, I told you about this. Yeah.

We were shooting this commercial. We shot it very quick.

It was like eight hours, six sets, just cranking through it.

And this director that they had on, um, producing this young guy, really fun, really inter like, we got along very well and we got on this set.

And it's just, it's an absurd set to film this little right piece for Right.

For, for this 42nd commercial.

This is gonna be like four seconds of it, and it's gonna be ridiculous looking.

And I, I was laughing the whole time we were making it, and we just ended up ad-libbing like an hour and a half worth of stuff.

And I was like, we have to make a solo commercial just for this.

Right. There's a lot of stuff he didn't put in there

that I would've liked to have seen. . I just thought like a

Blooper reel of it. Yeah.

They, they need to, I was just thinking like, you know, ethanol, I was like saying, you know, it means it's, it's French and like, all these sort of things that are just ridiculous.

Yeah. Um, we do need the blooper reel. Where is it?

Fox Put it out. We,

I'll make some calls. We'll find it. Yeah.

You, you can get it. Yeah. We'll find it.

Um, you've done a bunch of, so like, I mean, actually we talked about this, but when those commercials came out, they were in Super Bowl.

They were, I mean, they were everywhere before St. Pete.

And I think you were saying like, walking around Nashville, you were getting people being like, oh, that's the dude from the Super Bowl commercial.

Like how cool was it to kind of see the profile bump just from that activate or that commercial, I guess?

Yeah, it was, it was noticeable.

Uh, I mean, oh my, oh my goodness.

I don't know how you could get something more impactful right.

Than the Super Bowl. Um,

but Fox really leveraged e every bit of their platform, which was incredible.

Um, I got out of a speeding ticket because of it.

What, like, real story? Alright. Yeah. Let's hear this.

Yeah, no, I was, I'm trying to think of the order of this.

So I had to, what was I doing?

I was in, I was testing somewhere.

This was after, do you remember we did a call down in, uh, when I, when I was in Florida, I was doing a straight line test somewhere mm-hmm .

And then I did a call with you guys Yes. On Ask Off Track.

Yes. It was the first one. Yes.

And we've been trying to do it forever.

It was right after that.

And then I had to go somewhere. I had to drive up north.

I think I was driving to Sebring afterwards. Okay.

And so I was on my way to Sebring to do the IndyCar preseason test.

And I got, I got pulled over doing an illegal U-turn and all wasn't Even speeding.

It wasn't even speeding the U-turn. It

Was an illegal U-turn in an intersection.

And I was like, this guy was just like sniping people. Yeah.

Yeah. Like he knew what he was looking for. Yeah. Yeah.

And I, he was way up the road from the intersection, so it was very clever of him.

And, you know, he pulls me over, he starts talking to me and right away I get the vibe.

I'm like, I'm a hundred percent getting a ticket. Yeah.

like, this guy's just trapped me sometimes. You just know.

Yeah. I was like, he doesn't care how I sound

or how polite, like I'm getting a ticket.

Then he comes back, it took him a while.

I'm like, oh, I'm definitely getting a ticket.

You like, you know, he is like, he's gotta fill It out and Yeah.

Um, you like Just Googling the commercial on his phone? .

Yeah. He comes back and he's like, you know,

it took me a minute, uh, to figure out who you were. .

He's like, you're IndyCar driver Joseph Negar aren't you?

And I was like, uh, yeah. I say he came back serious too.

So I was like, ready to get the ticket.

I was gonna be a smart ass back.

I was gonna be like, how many people?

Like, I knew I was gonna get a ticket, so I was gonna almost get in trouble with a cop to be like, how many people are you getting at this intersection?

Right, right. And then like, he blindsides me with this

and he just, he just said, Hey, be safe.

Have a great day, . And I was like, cool. Alright.

All right. I guess this worked like that.

The only way I think he knew me was because of the commercial.

You don't know that. I mean, Yeah. Maybe not.

There's not a racing in Florida. It

Just seemed like coincidental.

Like there was a lot of weird things happening as soon as that commercial came out. Yeah. Yeah.

Well you say it's a big platform.

It's a big audience that, uh, that you reach on that.

One of the other cool things that you did is I saw you went to the Fox upfronts.

Yeah. Which was kind of neat there

with the Borg hanging out with Michael Strahan. What was that all about? Yeah,

It was really cool.

I, I'd actually never been to one of these.

So, you know, the upfronts are, are essentially where they're pitching, you know, all the material that's gonna be coming out on the Fox platforms, both from the entertainment and sports side.

They had all their hitters there, you know, from the entertainment side, but then also the sports side.

And like, you know, I was hanging out with, I mean legitimately, I'm not saying this, uh, yeah, yeah. I was, yeah, I

Was gonna ask. So you can just say,

I was sitting in a room with Tom Brady and Derek Jeter and Alex Alexander Rodriguez Rodriguez and, um, Michael Strahan, um, uh, poppy was there, Ortiz was there.

Like I'd never met him.

So if you're a big baseball fan, these guys were legends.

Yeah. And so just to even go there

and to give our little pitch, our, our pitch took four minutes.

Letterman was a part of it. You know,

we're just talking about the Indianapolis 500, how it was gonna be on this platform, and you're basically selling the advertisers.

And, um, but just to be there and to be like, yeah, we're part of the mix with you guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was

Really cool.

You're in the same room. It was really cool.

You are legitimately in the same room with those guys And these guys were interested.

Yeah, yeah. Like super interested.

We got to talk, you know, they're talking about their sport, they're asking about IndyCar.

They're all coming here for the Indianapolis 500. Yeah.

They were very intrigued about the race.

Um, so it was great. It was just very legitimizing because

You're like, you're like buddies with Brady at this point.

You guys have been to a couple events together.

You're in the commercial together.

He is gonna be here on race weekend.

I don't know about that. He

would probably still be like, who is that Guy?

But I don't think it's exactly who you are because that commercial was his jawline. Not quite

The same.

I'm ingrained in his brain. He knows.

Yeah. Yeah. You live rent free race. He knows.

How does that feel? How does that feel? All right.

Uh, let's switch to the race all through practice, all through every race run that we were watching.

I sat right over there for all like 87 hours of practice.

Is that where you were? We're just on the far end. Yeah.

In the, in the corner there. And, um, we've all, at the end,

at end of every session, like T Bell and I will look at each other and be like, the two, two looks pretty strong.

Traffic is is that true?

Do you guys, do you feel as strong in traffic as you looked from the outside?

the car's been pretty good, like pretty solid.

I'll say this, you know, um, it's been a really fun timeline the last two and a half, three years.

Call it, I've only had a better car each year.

You know, I, I went into the April test in 2023 saying, don't touch this thing like this.

This is the car. Like this is what we're gonna run.

Um, obviously it changes a little bit with temperature and all that stuff, but I was like, this is the base car.

And we took that and we, we basically ran it in 23 and we didn't do anything to it.

And we came back, we tweaked on it a little bit, almost essentially ran the same car in 24.

And it was just that touch better, like we found a little ingredient here or there, but it was the same car.

And then we showed up this year, the weight's different hybrid and we just did like a couple tweaks here and there.

And it's, it's the best car I've ever had around here.

Really? In all three years. Yeah. Yeah.

So it just, it just keeps getting better.

That does not mean you'll win the race. Right.

You have the best car in the field. Doesn't mean that.

Um, but I think we have that ingredient for the share.

I I do. I I think we've got the, the team,

you know, the stars have to align.

You have to have the pit stops.

You gotta mold to the strategy as it changes throughout the race.

And you have to have the car, you know, I mean, you can win this race without the car, but it is so much more difficult to do it without the car Exactly.

Where you need it. Right. And, and I have that. So yeah.

That gives me a lot of high hopes going into the race. And

Like, you'd rather have a car dialed in like that, in race trim than if you had to pick one or the other.

I mean, obviously you want that you came from mid-pack when you won your first one.

Um, are you, are you kind of almost looking forward to the challenge at all?

You could be starting on the front row and that's great and that's cool and you're up there and the race evolves a certain way and hopefully everything plays its part and plays out that you're in it at the end.

But the thought of coming from the back and working your way through traffic.

'cause again, you've been so strong in that practice.

Is that like kind of a little bit enticing and then also answer that first?

I, I'm excited about the idea of it. Definitely.

I mean, I'm, I'm just ready to, I have to keep reminding myself that I, I, I come here for race day.

We all do. Right? It, um,

we're all sitting here working year round.

And then you get here for the month of May and it's all the practice, the buildup.

But you, you're here for race day.

This is where you feel the magic of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And you know, the last couple years I've just tried to not look at the result and say, let me just enjoy the process of racing this thing.

Right. And like getting it. Right. Right.

And here's another thing. I just started saying this today.

I told people, 'cause I love hearing where people sit and Yeah.

Yeah. Their story. How long you had your

tickets, who got 'em originally.

Like, this is what makes Indie so cool.

And I say, there's no bad seat at the Indianapolis 500.

'cause everyone loves where they sit. Mm-hmm .

It's, they're, everybody's got a good seat.

And I, I now also believe there's no bad starting spot at the Indy 500.

I think you can start from anywhere. Yeah.

You know, you got, you just have to have the car, you have to have the team, and you can win this race from anywhere.

So, you know, maybe there's some more exposure, you know, how could there not be for sure if if we had a preference, I would start up front.

Yeah, of course you're gonna limit it.

But, but you know, we just have to be smart about the beginning of the race.

And once we get into the flow of things, I absolutely believe we can fight our way to the front.

Do you have to tell yourself now that the kind of biggest strength that you need to have for the first half of this race is patience?

Are, are you sitting here being like, oh, we need to be in exposition by X lap?

Or are you just like, hang on, let's let it play out.

We'll work our way up as we can?

Or are you kind of looking at this race as like, you've got goals of progress by certain stages of the race?

No. Goals. Definitely not. Uh, not doing that.

It's a good question. You know, I think it's a,

it's a little, there's such a balance in this, you know, this racing James.

Uh, as soon as you take it easy, as soon as you're like, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna take a different approach or I'm gonna let off, that's when something bad happens.

So I, I don't want, you don't, you can't go so far one end of the spectrum where you say, Hey look, we gotta have some patience.

But I do think it is relevant to say that I think I've never started, you know, essentially last here.

I might just hang back at the start.

I might be, you know, a quarter of the way down the straightaway. Yeah. I mean,

Look at Erickson last year. Right.

You just never know. I mean, you know,

and this is a very mixed up grid.

Mm-hmm . One, probably one

of the more mixed up front rows we've ever seen.

Probably. Yeah. So I, I do think you need patience,

but when it comes to the race itself, you, you just cannot change your natural approach.

I think I've gotta drive the car, uh, the way I naturally do, the way I've been driving it all month, the way, you know, what feels right to me, I'm not gonna second guess it.

You know? And that doesn't guarantee anything.

You can always get caught up in something, but I think you put yourself more at risk when you overthink and you try and pull yourself back.

Is that where you're going if you get a third?

I don't know. Same spot. It's a good question.

You know, I, I, I knew I only knew on the first one Right.

That I was absolutely doing that. Right.

The second one, I, I didn't, I didn't necessarily have a plan for it.

I didn't expect to win it a second time.

I didn't expect to win it the first time.

I'd like given up on it. I was like,

whatever, I'm never gonna win this race.

Um, and so then the second time through people, are you gonna do it again?

I had no idea. Did not expect to win it again.

And I want, I don't wanna say I panicked, that's not what it was.

I did my best to find a different option.

Mm-hmm . Very hard,

very hard limited options.

There are such limited options here at the Speedway. Yeah.

Which is unfortunate. This is the one place

that I can find and that I knew of.

Yeah. That you could access the crowd.

I would recommend trying the snake pit in three . Just see,

Just the world.

Well, we know where Connor's going. . Okay. Yeah. True. A hundred

percent .

A hundred percent. Well, hey man, uh, you're doing it from,

from the other end of the field, but going after history on Sunday.

Best of luck in the 500 Pound.

Thanks James.

Scotty Mack. Scott McLaughlin, the captain

of the thirsty threes.

I am Correct.

Uh, where'd that come from? Thirsty threes.

Um, I don't, like, me and Ben were playing video games.

My, my engineer and, and he, we were drinking What what video games, Like Call of Duty.

Okay. Yeah. And I, I cracked one and, and

and just said, oh geez, I'm thirsty.

Yeah. Yeah. And he goes, oh yeah, we are the thirsty threes.

I was like, oh, I like that .

And, and I didn't think it was gonna stay, but, um, we just did it for once and it worked.

And honestly, the fans loved it. Yeah. Yeah.

And people jumped on board and it was awesome.

I love that it came over a Coors Light and a Call of Duty, basically.

Yeah. Silver Bullets, man.

A lot of good things come from them. Hi. Be

Exclusively good experiences.

Silver Bullets. Uh, you, we were just talking, uh, you're,

you're starting, uh, 12th in the race.

Uh, 10th, 10th, 10th. Yeah. Inside row four.

Yeah. Inside row four. Mm-hmm .

So, but you were talking about how you have to think about the row that you're on Yes.

And the guys that you're with because once qualifying weekends over mm-hmm .

You end up doing a lot of kind of things with the people in your row. Do a

Lot of things with them.

Surprising. So you landed with Rossi

and Connor. I'm sorry. That's

Awful.

I'm actually stoked. I mean, I know you hang out a lot

with Alex, but, um, and Connor for that matter, but, you know, I, uh, I'm actually excited.

Don't think I shared a, a row with either of them.

And you know, I, like last year I had my teammates and I spent way too much time with those guys, so Yeah.

See em all the time. Anyway. I was That's fine. Yeah.

I see 'em all the time. So, uh,

I'm excited. There's a good row.

So, uh, if you could pick your perfect row Mm.

Of the current Indie 500 field mm-hmm .

Who would, who would it be? Honestly,

I think, I think it's that one.

You think, you think you nailed it? Yeah. I think I have.

Only Wild Card would be like, who?

Like, like if they weren't in the field, like say, let's say Connor or Rossi was in the field.

Yeah. Who would you sub out? I, I'd say Colton. Okay.

Yeah. I get along with Colton pretty well out

and I have been on the, I have been on the road with him before.

Okay. Actually had Colton

and Ed, so that's not a bad one either.

That's not a bad one at all, because that, That's his sleeper, right?

Yeah. Yeah. People don't know, like, they just see kind

of Sirius Ed, the team owners, Sirius Ed the driver.

Yep. But he's got a wicked sense of humor.

Oh, he does. He's so funny. And I, I, I think we, like,

I got to know him more when I think it's two rows I've shared with him.

Okay. And the first one was actually a crazy one.

I think it was my first year. It was, uh, LIO and Ed.

So it was like, I've, I've, it was crazy.

Like the parade with Lio when he was going for four and stuff, it was like wild.

It was like stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alright, so explain to the people.

What are some of the things that you end up having to do with the guys on your row? Um,

You do obviously the parade.

Yeah. And they line the cars up, like side

by side and then, and then you, And you're in that pre parade room for like an hour and a half, two hours, hanging, Hanging out.

Those all the families are hanging out, you're with the kids and all that stuff.

And then, um, then you do the autograph or before that you had the autograph session.

Yeah. You sit next to the most likely at the

driver's, driver's meeting, briefing the meeting. Yeah.

Um, so you're in the bus down to the thing With Yeah.

The, the same bus on the way down.

Like, it, it would suck if you actually like, weren't with a guy that you liked.

Right. So, um,

but I mean, I, like most people in the field, I just don't that people that I don't really talk to is people I don't really know. Right. So. Right.

Yeah. So you don't like them, you

Just don dunno.

Exactly. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, um, it's a good

Thing.

So in the parade, which is one of the coolest things that we get to do, right?

Mm-hmm . I mean, that parade is, it's one

of the biggest parades in the country, I believe it is.

Yeah. It's definitely top three. Yeah.

So, such an honor to get to do it. Mm-hmm .

Uh, you get your car and then do, do Carly Lucy come with you?

Uh, not this year. Not this year. No.

It's a bit much for Lucy, we think. Yeah.

So I'm gonna do it. This will be the first

one I'll actually do by myself.

Okay. Yeah. So I'll just be out

there in my lonesome. Do you want me

To come With you or No, you're right.

Okay. Roger normally sends, um, one

of his grandkids with us.

Oh. Which is pretty cool. There you go.

So, um, I had Tanner the last few years.

Tanner is like, he will run the company one day.

, like, he's, he's, he's an incredible like 10. Yeah.

No, no. He's 10 going on 30. Yeah.

Like, he's like telling me like to, Hey man, go sign those guy's hats.

Like, he's like big promoter guy. I lo

Love the kid.

I see a few three hats in the crowd. Go sign that.

Gimme a water bottle, like sign your water bottle.

He's like, seriously like that .

And it's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. That's

So good.

Yeah. Uh, so Lucy's first 500. Yes.

Are you excited about gonna have Sharon, some of the things that are gonna, not the parade, but some of the other things, especially on race morning with, uh, with your little girl?

Probably, uh, I want to take her up for driver intros.

Do you? And like people can see her as get older

and older as the years get like kind of Ed's kids and Hunter Ray's kids and stuff.

Yep. Um, so that, that's probably what I wanna do the most.

But yeah, very excited. I like,

she has no idea what's going on right now, but 'cause she's eight months, Seven months, just under, just under eight.

And, but she, uh, like, you know, it's just cool.

We'll look back on these photos and go, you know, we've got all these videos we've taken on a camera and like, it's, it's, it's just cool me making memories like this.

How, how has Carly's may been having to kind of balance looking after you and also looking after Lucy? Uh,

I think I'm more of a handful than, oh, I guarantee her more of a And Lucy is, but um, you know, I think, uh, no, she's going really like, I'm so lucky man.

Like, Carly's an absolute superstar and um, you know, Lucy thankfully has been sleeping really well.

Um, and sleeps the whole night at the bus.

She loves the bus for some reason. Oh, that's cool.

So yeah, she sleeps her best sleeps here, so It's good.

Yeah. So the whole family's on the

Bus.

Yeah. Yeah. We got the, we got the crib in there and yeah.

Um, it's pretty tight, but, um, you know, it's, it's, it's good.

And, and, uh, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Uh, it's funny 'cause I'm talking to Rossi, you know, new dad.

Mm-hmm . Not at the sleep on the bus phase yet. I

Told him he gotta get to six weeks.

Yeah. Like six weeks is basically

when it starts getting a little better.

Right. Um, but even then it's still hard.

But we honestly, man, we were, we have been absolutely like so lucky with Lucy.

She sleeps, she slept since um, two months old.

She slept like 12 hours at night, which is kind of crazy. It's funny

'cause we were having this conversation with Polo too, right.

Because, you know, we spoke to Alex and Ben's two weeks old, right?

Yeah. So obviously that's not right.

And uh, and I've had people in the room actually say that, you know, three months is kind of like the, when they really start.

Yeah. And, but as I was talking to Paul, I'm like, oh yeah.

So my friends say usually takes about, and as I was saying, three months, he was like 12 months.

Oh. Oh, okay. I know he, yours was a little Okay.

Yours was a little harder to Yeah. Yeah.

Yours was a little settle down. Little aggressive.

Yeah. A little aggressive one.

You got little Nah, but yeah. Uh, that

Spanish influencing area. Yeah, exactly.

Which is surprising 'cause he's So chill. So chill. But,

Um, no, it, it was surprising like Oh, very.

I'm thankful. And it's half the reason why, um,

I guess I brought them to a lot of races already this year just because like Lucy is sleeping and it's just cool to have them.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, otherwise it probably you'd find, you know,

Carly was fully aware of maybe getting in a hotel or, or, but I didn't want that.

Right. I'd rather them stay at

home in their own comfort of their home.

Yeah, for sure. So it's

All good.

Is it making some of the cool things about the 500 and about this month feel more special that you're getting to share with her for the first time?

Yeah. It also just puts things in perspec perspective.

Yeah. You know, I'm just, so, I felt,

I genuinely feel like just so much more refreshed and just like excited about, you know, I, I, I've hung out with her all morning and now I'm like, okay, dad's gonna go and do his, like press conferences and muck around and then I do this and I'll be a race driver for like three hours and I go back, I'm dad and I'm cooking and I'm hanging out, I'm changing diapers, like doing my thing with Carly.

And um, I think it's really like just grounded me and just Yeah.

Yeah. It's, it's like I, I love it.

I love the role of like race driver dad kind of Thing.

Well, there's nothing more like humbling and bringing you back to earth more than like getting back to the bus and be like, you change it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Yeah.

But I was like a rockstar over here like 10 minutes ago and now I'm just like changing diapers.

Oh yeah. I getting formula ready.

Some heavy ones as shit this, this week as well, so Yeah.

Chip off the old block. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Um, but no, she's, she's, uh, she's not messing around this week.

That's great man. That's great.

Alright, let's talk your race car.

We got through qualifying mm-hmm .

And, um, had Monday practice mm-hmm .

So single lap stuff done or qualifying run stuff done.

Mm-hmm . How was it in traffic? Uh,

Good.

I mean, um, obviously we went to the backup on Sunday, uh, and uh, Monday, like this is a brand new car.

It's got all our race bits on from the week prior, but, and generally is fast.

It still is punching the same lap times in open air than it was.

So, and then we put it in traffic.

We had a couple little issues just with the way that the car was reading differently to the last one, which you're always gonna have.

But we managed to iron that out towards the end of that Monday practice.

So hopefully we have a really good carb day and we can just, uh, make that thing feel, uh, just as good as it was feeling Before.

So you're probably, you're probably thankful that we still have another two hours to just kind of go finish Absolutely.

Tuning on that thing. Yeah.

That Monday practice was huge for us.

And then, you know, the, the, the carb days is another thing, but you know, if you were gonna crash, you'd never want to crash.

But like Sunday is probably the last day you can possibly do it because it just, you need to make sure that you're dotting your I crossed and your T's with everything.

And I couldn't imagine, I know, heard it, did it a couple years ago going into a race just with a backup.

Yeah. You just driving it. 'cause

And it was not good So much to work with.

These guys are superstars, the people that put the cars together and my team.

But, you know, it, it, it's hard, you know, it's, it's not easy man.

It's not, and especially now with the hybrid and stuff.

So look, just fingers crossed, everything's all right.

But I, I certainly feel really good in traffic.

I feel like we were able to follow really close.

I'm able to, you know, make moves.

Some people can't and like eighth or ninth in line, which is, and it's been like that, that's been a trend for us in Penske cars.

So yeah. There's no doubt we can do it.

It's just a matter of putting it together.

Are you one of these guys that tries to kind of map the race out?

Or are you just take it one lap at a time?

Yeah, one stint at a time and, and not try to get too far ahead of yourself? I, I'm

Definitely, I don't like mapping it out.

I, I'm a bit more instinctive, um, just because I think I just get myself if it, if it doesn't work out the way I want it, I didn't want to like implode in some ways, which is quite easy to do.

So, you know, I just, I I just feel it out and see where we're at.

Um, you know, I've got an idea of what I want to do.

I've got an idea of what I, what I wanna do when I'm leading or, um, at some, at maybe the last lap or whatever.

Um, you know, I've watched a lot of tape.

You know, I've, I've studied this race, like this race ever since we left here last year.

Like, this has been everything for me and, and it is for everyone else.

You know, I I, I'd be surprised if the half the field's not like, like that either.

But, um, yeah, just feel really comfortable and confident.

Let's talk about last year a little bit because Qualified Pole obviously had a, a very quick race car.

Mm-hmm . Remind me. Finished six. Yeah. Six.

Yeah. Yep. So something at some point in the race

didn't play out in your favor.

Yeah. So what did, what did last year kind

of teach you about what you need outta the car?

Mm-hmm . Or where you need to position yourself

or where you need to be more aggressive, less aggressive to be one of those top three, let's say with 10 to go? Yeah.

I think you just gotta manage your intensity level a little bit.

Um, I mean I was, I've never been up the front before.

I never led the race. So, um, for me I was like really like,

like, like I started really good and made some really good restarts and was aggressive and ultimately my goal was to be out the front and just like stay there.

But it's hard to do with the zero package.

Um, I missed one restart and that was actually the restart that Joseph got me, plus like four others and put himself in position.

But, so from a driving perspective, uh, that was where I made the mistake.

Um, but then from a mechanical perspective, basically from the start, as soon as we took off my clutch by point, that wasn't actually a thing.

It was just basically I was just dumping the clutch and hoping it wouldn't stall.

And it was really difficult.

And that was a mistake by the team, but we, we, we know where we went wrong and um, it was a good learning year for us all.

Um, but yeah, the learnings that I had from that, that that race was big for me and, and where I'm at.

And then how much do you supplement that with trying to learn off what Joseph did?

I mean, you obviously have access to everything that he's got.

Mm-hmm . You know, last year's race was very different from

2023 in terms of kind of like how it ended, how it unfolded mm-hmm .

But in this case you saw, you can see the data, you can see the use of tools.

Yeah. You can see the car

positioning everything that he did.

Yeah. Do you go back

and really dive into his stuff as well? Yeah. I've

Watched his whole race And so what, what have you gleaned from what he did that's something you want to try to emulate? Um,

I think it's just the way he is attacking the restarts and, and experimenting that high line.

I mean, there's not many people better than Joseph at finding a, a, a second groove.

And, um, you know, and experimenting with that and, and that past, that happened at turn three on the last lap didn't just happen on the last lap.

Just like that. Like, he had been feeling it out.

He actually made a move there and a restart before.

Um, you know, he was feeling it out for a long time and had the confidence to do that.

Um, so yeah, like for me, I think you, you're just constantly learning throughout the, the 200 laps.

Um, and ultimately you just gotta be aggressive when you need to be and put yourself in position.

I really understand that. And, um, yeah,

I think starting like P 10 where we're at right now, like I'm lowkey like kind of excited.

Like, 'cause 'cause I, I can say a bit of few at the start, you know, I know we've got great pitch stops.

I've gotta be good on my exchanges.

We can jump a few in the first stint, jump a few in the second stint and find ourselves in a really good spot.

Halfway, three quarters of race in, you know, we're right in the game.

Do you think it's safe to say that, looking back on it, you probably wouldn't have said this last year, but looking back on it that you weren't quite ready to win? Oh,

For sure.

You, you think you are, right?

I mean, at that time, if I told you last year and I was sitting here, you know, I was ready to win the 500.

Like, I mean, if it happened, yeah.

You could say I was ready. Right.

But I, like, I I, I have learned so much in the last 12 months about like what I could do better and it's just so different running at the front Yeah.

Than it is being like 15th or 20th to 32nd. Mm-hmm .

And that's really where, where I was before, just from qualifying bad or, or whatever.

So qualifying at the front, understanding the Fast 12, understanding that all that sort of cadence throughout the week as well, um, was huge for me.

Mm-hmm.

Winning the 500 would be pretty neat.

Yes. What's the celebration like for Scott Mgl?

You know what it's like. Well,

yeah, I mean, it's silver bullets, Right?

Yeah, yeah. No, but yeah, I know,

but it's just like, I'll probably go missing .

It's like there's, like, there's, there's no like 50 50 chance you missed a drink. There's

Probably 75, like 25 in favor of like me missing Detroit.

At the very least. If I win the 500 at the

Wind photos the next morning, 7:00 AM the next morning, Sunglasses on. Yeah, no,

We're gonna be weekend at burning, just having to hold 'em up With sun.

Dude, when I want Bathurst, uh, I had a, I had a TV call time in Australia, like 6:45 AM live tv National.

National. It was a today show. Like it was.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I, I did myself a mischief on that that was like, that was bad.

But, um, yeah, I, I learnt from my mistake straight From the bar to the studio, Basically.

Yeah. That was, it was bar shower tv. Nice.

Um, but no, look, I I, you gotta celebrate the wins. Yeah.

And, um, you know, this will be like, this will be the biggest win in my career and it would be incredible and we all say it, but it just genuinely would.

I've, I've, I owe a lot to IndyCar and I owe a lot to like, been here.

And I, and I love this place more than anything.

And, um, yeah, just, it would be incredible.

And yeah, I, I, I just, I have No.

Everyone's like, well, what are you gonna do when you win?

Like, when you ask that question, I have no idea. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, I'm literally, I, I'm like lowkey.

Like I think I've, I've got like a DHD as well, like, I'm sort of like a little bit intention disorder and I, I, I, I get excited and I dunno what I'm gonna do, dude.

It could be a wild card. It could be a massive wild card.

Like what I'll do, I'm this front straight could Be pretty entertaining. But

Like, what if you like, what if you like park it, like, I'm not gonna do a burnout on the bricks, but maybe like, park it against like nose it up. Like,

Okay.

It's like old, old, like early two thousands NASCAR style where they like park it up against the wall.

Yeah. And then just did like the, the standing burnout.

But Yeah. But I don't even know if I wanna do a burn.

I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm an old, I've never, so you know what?

I've actually never stepped foot on the bricks.

Oh, you're one of those guys Like, yeah.

On the straight, yeah. Yeah. I've stepped foot on the,

like, when we're walking out.

But like, that's just how it is. Yeah.

But like, on the, on the straight.

So like, I think I'll just like, like walk the plank on the bricks for the first time. Like, I've never done it.

We caught video of, uh, VKS dad jumping over the bricks.

Even just in like, the paddock. Really? You

Will not I respect that.

Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of cool for me. It's respect. Yeah.

Yeah. I, I, for sure. I, I've never touched a trophy.

I've never touched, like, I never touched the Bathurst trophy before I won it.

Yeah. Um, and it's just a respect thing. Yeah.

How many Bathurst 1000 winners have won the in 500?

None. Why don't you be the first?

Oh, I would love to be the first. Yeah.

Best of luck buddy. Appreciate it.

Rolling. Rolling, rolling. Do you know what rolling means?

Do you know why? We're rolling? We're rolling.

It's the rolling. Yes. Yeah. You've done this before.

Rolling. You're an expert. Super.

You roll pretty well yourself. Yes, I do.

In, in a rolling machine. You roll better than most?

Sometimes. Sometimes I will. Lately more often than not.

You're rolling. Pretty well. Pretty okay. Pretty okay.

Did we start? Yeah. Okay. It's uh, no, don't change. Don't.

No, I'm not. You just wanna get more comfortable?

No, it's the opposite. I'm just

too, I need to get more comfortable.

Just get comfortable. Just get comfortable.

What kinda shoes are those? Oh, those are on,

on, I like those, those are my shoes.

Shoes. The shoes on. I run on those sometimes. Well, yeah.

Well, I mean, if you're at home, you want them off. Yes.

It'd be weird to walk around.

Do do, do, do you wear your shoes in like in your house? No.

No. Never. Never. It's a very American thing.

Did you, have you noticed that? What?

Americans wear their shoes inside. Oh yeah.

I don't understand that. I don't get it either. Yeah.

Cans don't do that. Like you Yeah, it's weird.

Hey, you come in the front door, you take your shoes off and you carry Absolutely.

Yeah. You don't wanna take your <inaudible> like

the, from out into house.

Yeah. You don want that over your house. Yeah. I dunno.

Sorry. You got, I don't

understand some stuff running around.

You have, I have one kid keep running around. You don't.

No, I don't. No. . You keep trying.

You keep, you keep pushing for that.

It's the best you will see. That's what you keep telling me.

Yes. That's what you keep telling me you need to. Okay.

So you're still, you're still loving it.

Alex didn't sleep last night, so I'm not gonna ask him.

I know, I just spoke to him.

He was like, well, it was a rough night. It gets better.

Yeah. Right. That, that passes, right? Yes.

It was like three months. Then it starts maybe a little

bit more like a little 12 months.

12. Okay. That's a lot more. Yes.

And it, it just goes up and down once you think you figured it out.

Right. Then it just goes to <inaudible>

and then you are like, oh, yeah.

Okay. But she's doing well now. She's doing great. Yeah.

How, how old is she? Two, uh, 18 months. 18 months. Yeah.

Okay. Almost two. So, walking.

Yeah, walking, running, talking, talking back.

, well, like yanga and, yeah. I have couple words.

I have a hard time understanding her. Oh, okay. Yeah.

She, she wants something and I just, here's the water and she just wants to play.

And I'm like, okay. Well, sorry. I, I, I tried.

You just want her to want what you want her to want.

So that way she What I, that way it's taking care of. Yeah.

So you, you speak to race cars better currently than you speak to children?

Or you understand race cars better than you understand your kid? It depends.

Yes. Okay. On the situation. But yes, most on both, I

Would say. Like, sometimes

You don't, sometimes I don't understand the car, the car on telling me something and I just don't listen. And yeah.

When was the last time that happened?

Because, Alex, I gotta be honest with you, so far this year, you and your car have been speaking the same language.

Well, there's some practice sessions that I'm like, ah, you know, like, this doesn't turn very well.

And then we look at data and uh, we talk with the engineer and it's like, well, maybe it turns too much.

So . And I'm like, okay, whatever

You say.

Fair enough. Um, you are, are you,

are you guys, have you moved into your house Yet?

Yes. Um, January. Oh, January. January.

Like 15th or so. What was the

House building?

Uh, whole thing. Like stressful. That sounds awful.

It's like my worst nightmare.

It's stressful, but you need to, if you do it one day, you need to allow your wife to make all the decisions. I,

I mean, that was never a question. But

She's gonna try and trap you sometimes.

Correct. She's gonna be like, okay, James. Mm-hmm .

What do you think about these two or three floors?

Right. You don't decide.

No. She already knows what the floor is.

Exactly. She's just testing you.

Yes. Yeah. So I had that trap like four or five times.

Mm-hmm . Um, it was bad for like, the first three times.

And then I understood that.

I had to say, well, I'm leaning towards that.

And then I would look at her face. Right.

And then I would say, but Right. So that one is better.

So what I, what I do, I know this 'cause we renovated, we haven't built, we Renovate. Okay. So it's the same thing. And

It's, it's, there's like three options and I'll be like, this one, and then I glance up. 'cause you can immediately

See. You can tell I'll

Be like, is awful.

Exactly. No chance on that. No bueno.

But like, if you look is my fa like you can just, you can read it. I,

So the first three times I, I completely failed.

You just like answered honestly and Yes. Don't

You that she was like, no.

Why? Why should we put this floor? Because I don't like it.

And I'm like, okay. Yeah, you're right. So yes. Um, if you,

If you can get to the point where it's like, give me three options that you like, or two options that you like.

And you're actually just actually happy with either one.

I can tell you which one I'd prefer. It doesn't matter.

No. It's still a trap. Just, just, just let her decide.

You're not selling me on the whole building a house thing.

It's, uh, Is it worth it? Are you happy now? Oh

Yeah. We're

Super Happy.

Your house is great. I'm super happy. Yes.

You love your place? Yeah, Everything's good.

I Love it.

House is good. Racing's going pretty well. Pretty okay.

Pretty okay. Yeah. I would say

Decent. Uh,

How do you feel about your qualifying?

Qualifying? Uh, very good. And then not good. Yeah.

And not good. You

Seemed, I said this to Kirkwood and I feel bad.

I'm gonna say the same thing. 'cause he was kind of like,

that's a jerk thing to say.

Okay. But like from the open test. Yes. I was like, Paul.

And then like first two days of practice, I was like, probably Paul.

And then as we went further on, I was like, shot for pole and then we got to pole and it was no pole.

Yeah. Kirkwood also had a really quick car

and then just kind of slowly lost speed for no reason and didn't understand.

Is that sort of what happened to you guys?

Yes and no. I mean, I mean, we were P one on Saturday.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's

What shot for pole.

But with the wind suddenly, like my car was, it was a struggle, but it was super fast.

Like it was easy to do two 30 threes. Right.

Um, but then on great conditions, I was struggling to do two 30 twos and I ended up doing two 30 ones.

Um, I think I went too aggressive on downforce, like too low to trim.

And I started scrubbing.

I started like fighting with it and that was like, not good.

Um, so Fex was terrible. Um, but it was my fault.

Like I was pushing for that to try and get the pole and we didn't really have it.

So, yeah. I mean, sometimes it goes like that,

But I like that you kind of put your hand up and say, that's kind of on me.

'cause I was pushing the engineers to go more.

Yeah. I wanted to go aggressive.

I mean, I was like, we're already in the fast six.

We, we were like, uh, fifth in fast, 12.

So I was like, man, the only chance I have is to go crazy on Downforce, try and make a really good first lap, second lap, and then see if I can finish.

But yeah, I got the first lap and it was Because from what I understand, Schwartz and Sato went the other way, or at least didn't trim for the fast six. They

Actually went the other way. Yeah,

They added. Yeah.

Yeah. Which, yeah,

It's so counterintuitive.

But that's what, that's the mind, you know.

But I mean the, the other years that I fight for Paul in 22 mm-hmm .

I, I was second and Scott was first. I didn't trim enough.

Then in 23 I trim a lot and I got the pole.

So I was like, man, we need to trim as much as possible.

But yeah, I mean, it's this place, man. It's this place.

It gets you like, whenever you think you have it dial in.

Yeah. And whenever you think you got it,

it just slaps you in the face and says, no, Alex, you stay here.

I'm in charge. Yes. I'll run the show. I, I will tell

You where you go.

You don't tell anyone else where you go. Exactly.

Yeah. That's, That's, that's just mean.

I don't know why it has to be like that.

It's okay. It's okay. As long as I understand.

It's like building house. You gotta respect it.

You gotta respect. As long as I respect that, it's okay.

Okay. Okay. So race car. Yes. How's the race car feel?

It depends on the session. Okay.

That's, that's not great because I mean, I feel like Superman in some sessions and I feel like we are missing a lot in some others.

Is there a correlation between the sessions where it feels good and where it feels bad?

Say like from a weather condition standpoint?

No. Oh, that's even worse. Yeah.

Just in terms of the unknown, That's not encouraging.

Okay. So you, we still have, when, when we're doing this,

we still have one session left.

Yes. Carb day practice.

Um, do we have big plans for carb day or is it kind of just Yes.

Still fast, right?

Overtake Feel like that's a pretty standard plan.

Well sometimes it works.

Yeah. Sometimes it works. Yes.

Um, do you know, I mean, how you're going to go about going fast?

Yes. I think we, we know already

what time I need from the car to go fast Compared to Monday.

Like are we big, are we making big changes for Monday? No,

No.

Big, just like details take a look. Just like, yeah.

Um, hopefully it works. Honestly, I'm, I'm happy

with the race car, but there's like five to eight other cars that I see that are faster or as fast as me, depending on the session.

So Yeah, it's gonna be tough.

It's gonna be really, really tough.

So it's even tough at this point to predict who you think the strongest car might be. If it's not you

Or Joseph.

You think Joseph Yep. Based, based on what you've seen.

Yep. Regardless of conditions. Yep.

Regardless of anything you think Joseph's the car. Yep.

He's looks very good in traffic. Yeah.

He looks the best in traffic. Yeah.

By far and consistently.

And then there's a, a small gap between first and then, uh, second to eighth or 10th, I think we, there's bunch, bunch of cars there.

It's you guys. It's McLaughlin,

it's in Kirkwood. Yeah. There's a couple of,

There's there's a McLaren.

There's a little bit of a mix there that, uh, suddenly.

But we are like, it, it's a big stack there. Yeah.

So you unfortunately are very well suited to know that coming from the back of the field to the front is very possible in a strong car.

Yeah. Because you had to do it when you were

hitting pit lane.

So I'm assuming that because Joseph's car's been so good in practice, it doesn't really matter where he starts.

You fully expect him to be up at the front fighting away.

Yeah. Lap 78, he'll be like top five.

Top five by lap. 78. 85.

85. Yeah. Okay.

I'm gonna take the over on that. Yeah.

Because I think he's gonna make progress.

But that's a lot by lap. 85.

85. But we'll see.

It'll be fine. We'll see.

Um, how do you expect or how do you plan to celebrate your ND 500 win?

I go crazy. What

Does that mean though?

Know? Because for you, you,

and I mean this in genuinely the most respectful way, when you say I'll go crazy, I mean for me, Maybe for you, it's just a normal day. I was gonna

Say for just a normal morning for me, going crazy is having like two diet cokes after eight o'clock, you know, like that.

Oh my goodness. Oh, right. Like an espresso and pushing

It.

Espresso with dessert. Calm down Alex.

Yeah. You know, you're right

Because you Just live and this is a compliment.

You live in this like perfect state right here.

You never go here. You never go here. You live right there.

Good, bad or indifferent.

And it's so, so impressive behind the wheel.

So what is no longer behind the wheel? Celebratory Alex?

Going crazy. Insane Bananas

Mean bananas.

I dunno. You don't know James? I dunno.

But you wanna know. I wanna know. I wanna know.

What do you wanna know? But I can tell you that I,

I would maybe go like maybe a full full Coke, not diet Coke.

You know? You said full fat Coke. Yeah.

Full fat and no, just pushing the limits a little bit and Wow.

Yes. And that's considering we have Detroit the week

after , you're gonna have quite the, quite the sugar hangover on Monday.

No, but honestly I would, I would, um, yeah.

If I have the that opportunity, I'll, I'll, I'll celebrate hard.

Are you gonna celebrate, like at the trak? What's

Your, whats your like Yes, I'm saying at the track.

I'm not saying outside the track. No,

No.

Okay. So you're gonna do something crazy? Yes.

Something memorable. Hopefully

Like Climbing the fence or like jumping into the thing.

Like I'm saying like, those guys have their thing, right? Yes, exactly. You're

Gonna have your, I'm not saying like, oh yeah, I'll go to the club at like 2:00 AM No, no, no, no.

I'm saying like at the track. I'll go crazy.

Something's gonna happen. Something. I

Think you should do an entire lap the wrong direction. Waving to the fans

With the car. Yeah,

Yeah, yeah.

No running. Yeah. With the car.

Come to the start finish line.

Spin around and then drive backwards.

It's not easy to spin around here. You can

Do it.

If I go to turn one and spin around, there's more room.

Okay. And then drive backwards and wave 12 fans come back.

That'll be pretty cool. It'll be pretty cool.

That would be pretty cool. I don't think

anybody's done that. Okay.

I'll take That. You should do that.

I'll do it. Do it. I'll do it.

Just do it. I'll do it. All right.

Yeah, you can do It. Yes. So it's done. Go crazy.

It's done. Okay. Done. We're gonna do it. Yes. Sweet.

We're doing this now. No, it's not.

I don't, I mean, we're rolling. We're technically recording.

I don't know if you, I dunno if we started yet. If

I just keep Oh, now we're rolling. We're rolling.

Okay. So good to

Know.

Back to making fun of LEOA lot. Good day. Good day. How

Are you?

Oh, I'm so good. Okay.

You were just telling me a story about making fun of Elio.

Yeah. How explain.

Well, you know, I've been teammates with, uh, the goat, uh, yes.

Scott Dixon. I've heard for a while. Yeah.

You may have heard of him. And when you give him a bit of,

he doesn't quite take it quite as well as Helio.

Okay. So what I do with Helio is I,

'cause I I used to, I like to make granddad jokes with both of them.

Right. and, uh, Helio's.

I think this is 25th Indie 500.

That sounds slightly high, but it's in that realm.

It is because he said it 25 times. Like it was crazy.

Okay. And, uh, this is my 24th year around the sun. Right.

So he got it. So I basically,

I was just giving him crap about how, like, can he see further than his nose sort of thing, you know?

'cause his nose is quite large. Anyway. No, .

This is terrible. Does

Does he, does he wear glasses in his helmet?

He doesn't wear glasses. Glasses.

He should, but you, you can't say anything that would offend him.

And that's why doing a, so doing an interview with him is just the Best.

But so like, is that just knowing you as I do and the competitive nature that you have, right.

The fact that he isn't reacting, is that making you just want to keep pushing a little further until you find the breaking point. Oh

Mate, I was just having fun with it.

The thing is, I don't know where any of these interviews are going.

Yes. Like, who knows? Perhaps it's gonna be like a big deal.

Like it's gonna be a headline at some point.

Some a joke that I've made. Yes. That's, that's the worry.

That's the concern. Every single interview I do,

I ask Rory, have I just canceled myself?

Mm. Because my memory doesn't extend further than the

10 last 10 seconds.

Right. The last question. Right.

You might not be canceling yourself, but you do realize he's also one of your bosses.

So you could be making yourself unemployed. .

Yeah. That would be quite a story, wouldn't

It?

Driver fired over unwelcome. Dig at team owner. Well,

I mean, if there's a way to be fired, that's probably the way I like it. You know,

It's, it's like that guy who I think who worked for Southwest and he wanted to quit.

And so he like got on the PA system and just did some like, I'm outta here kind of thing.

And then pulled the emergency door and went down the slide onto the runway.

What? That he did that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is awesome.

No, he ended up in jail. It wasn't great for him. Oh yeah.

So maybe he just, oh, that's not good.

So, so just last thing on this whole thing with your boss.

Yeah. Do you say Helio to make him angry?

'cause that's not how you say his name. You know that right?

I say his name. It's Elio.

If you pronounce the H, you're doing it incorrectly.

Oof. Okay. So I've been saying his name

wrong. This, I say, see,

I assumed that was one of the pranks that you were just digging in.

I thought it was. Hey, It's not. Hey Leo. Hey Leo.

No, no, no. That's, it's Elio. Elio.

Like H doesn't even exist. Well,

He's invited me to go hang out with him in Brazil. So

You might not be coming back from that trip.

That's, that might be a setup. I wouldn't go. That

Would be the best case scenario.

Yeah. I wouldn't go. We're gonna

cause some serious damage.

Like, we're gonna do some serious rioting and we're gonna have some fun.

And should I be saying that? No, we probably should cut. You

Have a different, uh, definition of fun than I do , but I'll leave that between the two of you guys. Okay.

We're single Pringles and ready to Ingle, bro. There

You go.

There you go. That's, yeah, that's, that's a whole thing.

, that's a whole thing. You two would,

that'd be a dangerous combination.

Oh gosh, that's not good.

Um, yeah, you can find him on any and all of the dating apps, uh, if you're interested.

Not true. Um, no. Just the one.

I'm a profess profess, um, no. Okay. In 500 Mm.

You've heard of it? Yes,

I have.

So you've, you've done it before.

Well, I had an engine failure on lap four last year. But you

Did the, the, when I say the 500, I mean the all encompassing event that is Indy 500, right?

Yes. Okay. Um, look, it's, it's a, it's a very busy event.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you, I feel like driving is the easiest part of the job at this point.

Like the last couple of days have been seriously busy.

I think we've, we finished Monday practice.

I slept that night. So that was real cool.

That's neat. And I Woke up early PJ to New York.

Thanks boss. Jim Maya. He's the, he's the man.

And then a couple of interviews, um, more than a couple actually.

And dinner.

Fly back to, uh, Indianapolis yesterday morning.

Community day school. School day, something. Mm-hmm .

Community Day. Yeah. Community day.

Uh, back to the 500, back to the track. Sorry. Photo shoot.

Uh, went to the gym, did interviews from the treadmill.

Okay. That was pretty cool. Okay.

Um, like phone interviews? Yes. Or they were Okay. No,

They were also like, uh, in person Zoom.

Oh, Okay.

Zoom interviews. Were you like running

or just like at a, at a brisk walk? It

Was a brisk walk.

My heart rate was elevated. Okay.

It was probably a zone two exercise. Got. So it's kinda like,

No, you're moving.

Yeah. So the car was on , so,

So these weren't like fitness interviews and you had to be on a treadmill.

You just needed to move and had interviews to do.

So you put the two things together.

Honestly, I need, I needed to just get moving a little bit because I'd been sitting down stationary for so, so many days.

Like, I just felt not very good.

Felix and I both were like, what I would do to just, just like, move my body for an afternoon.

Um, so I don't know how good those interviews are.

Pro probably horrendous. Not as bad as this one, but No,

God no.

I promise you it's not as bad as this one.

Um, so coming into your second month of May was there, I guess what was, what was one thing that you are glad you knew coming into May that as a rookie last year you didn't know and maybe kind of caught you, caught you off guard?

Wow. That's a good question.

I'm, I honestly feel like I'm still learning every single day.

Mm. Like every day. I'm, uh, eyes wide

Shut.

Oh, , Is that a Thing?

I think I might see your problem actually.

, we'll talk offline, but we might be able to, it's gonna go a lot smoother from here on out. I promise you. It's

An emotional rollercoaster this month.

Mm. Like some days are so good and I couldn't tell you why.

Uh, and then some days are horrendous.

And I probably could tell you why You got a better idea as to why. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah.

Like, uh, last Saturday was one for the one for the record books.

The personal record books. Yeah.

If there was a goodness world record book for my life, that'll be a chapter dedicated to, to Saturday . Um,

What would the title of that chapter be? Uh,

Make sure the error balance is right. . .

Noted. Okay. But look,

and I'm sure you've talked so much about, well, all of this, but sorry, that's the nature of the job.

Uh, you had your incident on Saturday. It was what it was

You were calling it, by the way.

I was, I was Did you enjoy that?

No, I never enjoy that. You kidding me?

It's not what you wanna see.

I've been there, I've done that.

It was kind of, it sucks. It was kind of interesting to,

you know, when I watched it back 800 times with all the separate media departments, um, you guys are like spot on with your commentary about how, what, what I'm experiencing in the car.

Right. , um,

Again, been there.

I think it was, I think it was, uh, Townsend that was like, okay, he's a bit high here.

He is a bit afraid to turn in. He's clearly on the nose.

And then you've said something like, he's hit his knees here.

There's nothing worse than hitting your knees during that crash.

Yeah. But you've, you guys have got like spot on.

So it's like , you, you've done that before.

We're doing our job. Okay.

Well, so let's not talk about the crash.

I wanna talk about something else.

I have unfortunately experience with, and that's Sunday. Mm.

So what happened Saturday? Lead you to have to go to Sunday?

Mm. Just the emotion of, and the, the panic

and the awful feeling in your gut that is bump day.

Man, I can't even describe it.

like it's no, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna say Saturday was, was the worst.

Sunday was the most nerve wracking. Right?

Because you're sitting there watching everybody go and you're just sitting in their engineering office all day.

And I watched McLaughlin's crash and as a driver, you know when a car is on the limit, right?

You when you're watching it on tv.

And I saw his, his first lap and I saw his second lap and I was like, man, why are you still pushing?

Like, you're so, like, you're, the car is skating.

Like you're so trimmed. Like it's practice, man.

Like, oh, I couldn't even watch the TV in the end.

I like looked away from the TV and just watched the live timing.

And um, and then I was just watching the live timing, like kind of scratching, like, oh my gosh, I'm nervous watching this.

Sure enough goes yellow. And I just, you just know. Yeah.

Like, and so the whole day I'm like nervous just watching everybody go.

And then I was like, I got to a certain point and I was like, I'm not gonna watch any more TV because like, when I get in the car, you just gotta do your thing.

Right. You just gotta trust it.

Like you said, you actually text me and said, trust the damn thing.

And that's like maybe the best advice I received on Sunday.

Yeah. Um, so just, just like got clear in my head,

just do the job and you know, we were fairly downforce for that run.

Um, you know, probably not as much as you, you would've thought, but, you know, we're safe on downforce, so we weren't gonna have any massive surprises.

Just gotta go out there, do the job.

But on those four laps, like are you just listening for something to go wrong?

Are you waiting for a twitch or a, a, a cough of the engine?

Something that, you know, could just throw the whole thing out the window? ?

No, I wasn't waiting for a car of the engine.

I, I trusted Honda, but I gotta say that on the out lap and the prep lap, um, I'm like, now I'm super like, okay, where are we?

Where are we? Okay, what do I need to do?

Before we even start, because the day before I was like on the left, I was thinking, Ooh, this is a bit crispy. You know,

This is, it's sharp, this is a Bit sharp, but it's fast.

When I turn, when I go to mode two, this is Gonna scream, This thing's gonna be fast.

But, uh, on that occasion or the whole of Sunday, I was kind of like, yeah, I'm gonna go a bit right.

I'm gonna go a bit forward. I'm not gonna

on the weight jacker and bars.

Like, I'm just gonna be a bit conservative here.

And so I was like, my senses were super heightened on that warmup lap.

And when I'm actually in the rhythm, you know, you know what it's like.

You just, you hit your marks and, and you do the best you can.

So starting from where you are, do you have a plan for the race yet?

Do you know what to expect going into turn one from back there?

Um, what do I expect? Uh, that's my favorite question.

What do I expect from the first lap?

Because you had never predicted indie car start, but, um, I'm surrounded by some very quick cars.

Mm. Um, let me ask you this.

What would, what would you be doing if you were starting P 30?

The E 500? Make

Sure your brakes are warm on the, on the last pace lap.

Real? Yeah. Okay.

Turn one's pretty gnarly in a 30 car draft. Yeah.

There is no air. Oh man.

You will be in third gear and like 120 miles an hour, You know?

Okay. I completely agree.

You know, but, uh, last year Dario said that to me, me as well when I was starting maybe 16.

And, uh, Dixon who was starting right behind me, I don't think he even lifted .

Like, I think he went round T one flat on the high line on the cushion.

Yep. You know? Yeah. Using the cushion.

Just sitting up on the right rear. Just Yeah.

The whole way around. The first corner past about

If the outside's free take it, but 15th and 30th it's twice as bad.

Yes. Numbers math?

Uh, well I think it's Colton starting ahead of me. Sure.

Um, history says he's gonna do something interesting. Mm.

So sit back and watch, sit back and watch.

You're gonna have your, you're gonna have your popcorn and you're just gonna be watching.

Probably won't have my popcorn. I probably have my

hand on that ball About .

Staring with, staring with your knee.

And you've got both bars just ready to go, huh?

Well, I'm gonna have my popcorn up in the booth watching.

I look forward to seeing what kind of trouble you can get into, buddy. Best of luck. Thanks

Mate.

Thank you very much. I'm happy I haven't canceled

myself on this interview. Yeah.

Yet. Good job. Never a dull moment with Paddle Award.

We're just talking, uh, pet's social media accounts.

Does your dog have its own social media account?

Both of them. Both of 'em? Yeah. Well, it's, uh, Rocky.

May he rest in peace? He's dead. Mm.

I'm Sorry to hear that. He,

his account's still living Okay. Through my mother.

Right. So she's just channeling Rocky. Rocky.

Yes. Rocky's Energy Still posting on his behalf.

Norby? Yeah. He's still going strong. He's

Alive.

Okay. Yes. And are we, like, are they on multiple platforms

or you just kind of stick Just Instagram.

Just Instagram. Honestly, we never post on their,

on their pla very rarely.

But I mean, how many followers does he have?

They both have like 10,000. I think. It's not bad. Decent.

It's not bad. I bet you could start getting deals.

I think you could start getting no, no deals, endorsement deals. Yeah. We

Haven't yet.

I think we have to get to like a hundred thousand to get like, good endorsement Deals.

Is that when it starts?

Probably. I mean, worth the time. What's,

How many, how many Instagram followers do you have?

I have. You're kind of a big deal,

aren't you? ? I think you are.

No, I haven't hit the million yet, bro.

What are you close? Yes. .

Well close. You have more?

That's like more than the indie car as a series has bro. Like eight

50. Like eight 50

Or something.

That's a lot. 8 45. That's a lot. That's a lot.

So do you get like endorsement deals?

Just like, do you get paid posts?

Do you get people that pay you just to like posts?

Hi, I'm Pat Ward and I wake up every morning and I drink this coffee and No, I, Let me tell you my face routine.

Let me tell you my moisturizers that I Use, I'm after the big stuff. Oh,

You don't want those? I

Don't like wasting my time with like small stuff because Okay.

You don't get outta bed for less than 50 grand. I get

it. . Leave it there.

Careful how you answer that question. Oh man.

How's media day going? Media day until now. Obviously

It's going off the road.

I mean, you've done your homework. You're not asking

me anything that I've been asked today.

So it's actually been quite pleasure being here, you know, just talking to you, but just answering the same question.

Yeah. About the cheaters and about what? Oh, I had no

Questions about that. Expect that wasn't even on my list.

About what the, what to expect of the Indy 500.

Okay. I'm gonna ask you one

that maybe you've already been asked.

Sorry. Because you, you, uh,

in an interview you said something that I thought was kind of cool, uh, talking about qualifying.

You were just like, I just want to be on the front row.

Yeah. I just wanna see nothing going into turn one. Yes.

And you've got that. Yes. How does that feel?

Oh, amazing. Yeah. Yes.

I've been manifesting third for some reason.

The whole , I know people manifest first, but I've been manifesting third in qualifying the whole month.

actually even before the whole month I was like, you know what?

I just want a shot at the front row. Um,

Manifesting first is, so 2024.

I mean, I'm so manifesting first on Sunday. Well, yeah,

Obviously, But un qualifying.

Mm-hmm . I wasn't hyperfocused on pole.

I was just like, I just, I just want a car that's quick enough to be on the front row.

And we made that happen. And you

Made, it was a good run, man.

Like you guys had some serious pace. I

Know.

I was kind of sad though. I

thought we had more speed than that.

We just magically lost half a mile an hour, just kind of randomly.

Felix was a little bit the same. I've

Heard a lot of drivers say that like their car on Fast Friday was like awesome or something.

Or maybe even the first run on Saturday and then just speed just disappeared.

Yeah. That's indie though.

You know how it's like, like one day you're like, Ooh, Fickle Creature.

Yeah. Next day you're like, mm.

Because for me, like I was watching, you know, all 400 hours of practice 'cause that's what you do in my job.

And I was, I was struggling to figure out where your guys' pace really was.

Like your single car pace. It was hard to tell.

'cause like on the no tos you weren't always that high.

But like, you look good in traffic, but couldn't quite figure it out and then Yeah.

Come qualifying. Like were you guys surprised

after the week of practice that you had the pace that you had?

Or was it kind of expected?

It just wasn't showing on Tuesday and Thursday.

So I've e every Indy 500 that I've done, especially qualifying, I've always believed that, you know, car's gonna be fast enough, car's gonna be good.

Um, but it's always a battle to get in just to the fast 12 for me.

Like my car's always been the slowest of all.

Um, this year that was thankfully not the case and my car was very fast.

So, um, I was just kind of going into it with no expectation.

I was just, that's why my expectation was like, not pull.

I just wanted a chance in front row. Right.

That's why, that's why that was what I was looking towards because I mean, the best that I've had is fifth, um, in qualifying.

And I just, I just, I just wanted to be in the shot, you know, in the front row.

You wanna be on, on the picture with the front row? Yes.

Front and yes. Not in center, but front

and left from the picture side. Just

Outside front row. Perfect.

So you're just gonna, like, you're just gonna haul mail around the outside, leave, leave the first lap. What do you think?

Um, you can't plan a start, but No, but do you want it?

I mean, if one of em chokes, I'm not gonna break .

Well obviously that , so Yeah.

I mean, if I have the chance to do that, I'll do that.

But, um, if not, I'll slot into third happily. Yeah.

That's not a bad place to spend the first a hundred laps.

Yeah. Right. Um, everyone's been talking about

how the hybrid has made these things a little harder to drive.

Right. Do you agree? Is that, is

that something that you It's just the, The window of error has narrowed even more. Okay.

And I feel like some of the, oh, I'm crashing, but then you end up magically saving it.

I feel like that's, that's come down.

That's the percentage of that being a save right now is Now it's just, oh, I'm crashing. Like,

Oh my God.

Yeah. So it's been gnarly, man. It's been a lot of crashes.

Mm-hmm . Cars flying as well. Cars aren't meant to fly.

That's not been a good thing to see because if that happens in the race, you don't wanna see cars flying in the race.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's been a bit of a,

I know people aren't talking about it, but for someone that is in the seat and sees the other cars fly mm-hmm .

As well. If you're in one,

that's probably gonna fly as well.

It's not awesome. Not a great feeling.

No, it's not. But I, one of the things I've noticed is

that it's, it's all quick cars that are crashing.

So does that tell me that to be quick, you've gotta have it that much more on, on the edge because it's not the guys that are 24th, you know, it's a anasi car, it's a Penske car, you know, it's an andretti, it's a McLaren.

You know, we've had the big teams, the big drivers have had these issues.

Yeah. I think it's the guys that are really playing with,

with that fine little bit of extra that you want to get out of it.

And I mean, you've seen the consequences.

It just, it'll give you an I I feel like the car gives you an idea once and if you ignore it, it's gonna bite.

Right. Okay. Um, it's like an angry partner.

It's kind of like You get one warning. Yeah. One

Warning an angry parent.

Yes. I think you get one warning. Right.

And then you're just holding your breath and you're like, don't get pissed off.

Because even Scotty kind of said that. Right.

He said he was talking to me and I didn't listen and Yeah.

And that's what happens. Yep.

So you and I have talked about your, one of my favorite things to watch is the last, your onboard of the last like 15 laps of the race last year because it's the most like on edge, gnarly balance I've ever seen.

And a guy not crash. Yeah, me too.

And that's even after like that big save that you have.

I know too. Like that was, I dunno

how it was like 40 laps to go or something on that one.

So you clearly have an ability to keep the car on this knife edge around this place, But not always.

Well, I mean, so knock on wood.

I mean, so far, so far so good. He's been okay.

But, but like, does it, do you think that gives you an advantage with how, how the cars are now?

Because to go fast you have to be in that kind of world?

Or are you nervous that like, putting it in that realm you're gonna step over because you've been comfortable having it like that?

Maybe not comfortable, but, um, able.

It's my, it's like, it's like it's my last resort. Okay.

Yeah. If I don't have a car that's good enough, I know

what to do in order to make it work ish, but it's gonna be kind of miserable.

Yeah. Um, and I just, I, I, I don't want to lose,

use my last resort if I don't need to.

And I only use it when it, like, when it's, when it, like, when it, when it counts.

Mm-hmm . So, um, yeah.

I much rather not have it right there.

, uh, you see all the other guys just chilling, you know, like, and I was, yeah.

I was, I was flirting with dude shunting dude.

It was nervous. Every corner,

Every time.

Um, but I know I can count on my ability when I need to.

Right. But you need

to pick your fight and when you're using it.

Right. If you get too comfortable with it,

you're, it's gonna bite one, You can't rely On it.

You cannot rely on it.

You have to try and make it the best as you can without having to use it.

Yeah. But if I need to, I know that it's there to save me. .

So three years in a row, you've been in the fight at the end.

How much has those, how much have those races kind of taught you about what you need to win this race?

You need to get the timing right.

You need to be second, the last five laps of the race.

The not 10, not 15, not 20. The last five laps of the race.

You have to be second. Um,

and you can't make decision based on someone else making a stupid decision.

Right. And at that point, I feel like you're, you just,

you need to, you need to do what you have to do with what you have in terms of is, is your car stronger in one and two?

Is it stronger in three and four?

Which is a lot of the times something that you're battling through the, through the, through the lap.

Like, you, you can get a run out of four, but you can't get one out of two.

You know, and that's what you're kind of battling.

So for me, it's just being able to diagnose that through the race.

And it changes from first stint to like the eighth stint or seventh that we do.

Car changes. Man, a ton.

Like last year I didn't start so loose, we was just getting colder.

It was cooling off and the thing just came alive and the pace was so fast.

Mm-hmm . Um, so I was,

I was wiggling . I was

Clinching.

Yeah. Yeah. Wiggle going. Yes.

So I think you just, you have to believe that the, the decision that you make is gonna be the right one.

And that's what I'm going for this year.

It's, if I put myself in that position, whatever I choose to do is gonna be the right one. Right.

'cause we've had that discussion about last year and like, there's nothing you could have done different.

Right. Like, you made that decision in that moment.

That made sense. Yeah. So is there even any point of trying

to plan out the last lap?

No. 'cause it doesn't matter.

You gotta just make that call with the information you have at the moment.

You just gotta make sure that you're there. Yeah. Yeah.

Because if you ain't there, you don't have that chance.

So if you're there, uh, um, The hard part's being seconded with five ego.

Yeah. Like, that's literally the hard

Part. And then just go right there and

Just keep on swapping.

Yeah. Yeah. And then

I feel like when you start overthinking, that's where you're gonna, you're gonna be like, oh my God, I should have done then.

Yeah. Yeah. So you just, your gut will lead you, right?

Mm-hmm . Um, when you start overthinking,

that's when it doesn't.

Joseph talks about how his whole like, jump into the crowd thing was something that he'd thought about.

Like, if you ever won this race, he wanted to do something cool.

Have you thought about anything like that?

That if you win this race, what you would do or what the celebration would look like, other than milk and tequila, which, you know, you've already said you wanted to do.

Um, you know what would be so cool to like open up somewhere for people to come onto the straightaway. You

Wanna try to open the track up?

Yeah. So that fans can rush the track. Yeah. Yeah.

You would not be a super loved guy by the staff at IMS, but you would be forever loved by the fans of, I just don't see an opening.

What about like, climbing up into the, into the flags Stand Climbing onto the flags stand. Yeah.

Yeah. So like go through the

Like through the fence? Yeah.

Go through the fence. No. And then go up the ladder

and then in the flags stand you can like address the crowd.

No, I'll address them while I'm on, on the bricks. On the bricks. Yes.

All right. So you're just gonna hang by the bricks.

Honestly, I just Have no idea what you're gonna do.

It's gonna come, you're gonna follow your gut. I'm

Gonna follow in in the morning guts. Yes.

On the day. That day I'm gonna follow my gut

and I'm just gonna, it is just gonna be me .

So you never know what that means.

You're so good at that and people love you doing that buddy.

Best of luck in the 500. Thank you.

Maybe this is the year, sat here with willpower on Thursday.

What is, we call it media day, right? Mm-hmm . How are you?

You, you enjoying your media day so far?

I am. Yeah. 'cause I've been early for everything

and it's over after this.

This is, there's no way you're done after this. I am.

You're done by 1130. Yeah.

Crazy that I would be Isn't that crazy?

Real? By what time did you start?

10. That's not enough time, I don't think.

I think someone's lying to you. No, I'm done.

No, I'm pretty sure you're not. David.

Yeah, he's left the room.

He's not, uh uh, I'm done. No, this is

The last thing, Man.

Well then I'm gonna drag this out for an hour. Good.

I like that. It's a fun chat. Okay. People will enjoy it.

People will enjoy it. Marcus won't.

No. Marcus is the, The next

Guy Jack is gonna be really, and all the drivers behind you Yes.

Will be a little bit upset. Um, okay. Look.

Hmm. How's your, Hmm?

Just Say it. Okay. Look, let me ask you this.

Here's what I really wanted to ask you.

Uh, obviously some stuff happened on qualifying day mm-hmm .

And you weren't allowed to go for your shot at poll. Yes.

Were you bummed about that in the sense that you thought you had enough to maybe shoot for poll?

You've, you've won more polls in this series than anyone else.

Yes. You don't have a poll here? Yeah.

I know it's something that you really wanna add to this ev Yeah.

You had a good car, you had a good shot.

Did that, was that make make it sting a little extra?

I don't think I had the car for pole.

No, I don't think so. What do you think it could have?

I was, my car was not, we weren't the, the quickest.

We certainly had a car, maybe front row, but probably second row.

Yeah. But yeah, it was a very strange circumstance when

you're fire up Yep.

Firing up and then pull you back. Yeah.

The funniest thing, the funniest thing is the whole thing is watching my manager Orel serve his face.

He's standing like right there, and as the car goes pulled back, he's sort of like, like, This isn't how this Goes.

It was what's happening. Strange.

Like it was almost worth it to see his face .

It was just like, it, it would be awesome if it was a prank Yeah.

On him because He, you organized the whole thing, just Prank.

Yeah. He just organized the whole thing. It was a prank on

him because the look on his face had someone next to him.

He is like, he didn't say anything.

He just kind of started looking around like, what's going On?

Well the track's that way. Well, well,

Well, yeah, it was a very, like, this sort of prank I'd like to do, but it wasn't a prank. So

What were they telling you inside the car?

'cause you're already bolted in Yeah, right.

You're helmets on, you're just sitting there waiting to go and all of a sudden they start towing you back.

Well, I was aware before I got in that there was an issue.

Okay. Um, you know, so you've prepped with the attenuator,

not really prepped, but watching this go down that potentially we have a problem, but I just kept my mind clear and I'm gonna get in the car, we're probably gonna run.

Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't even think there was a,

you know, we're not gonna run.

Um, and then yeah, Qualifying this year seems to be, you know, we talking to the drivers, they're all kind of talking about how the cars are a little more on edge.

Mm-hmm . Harder to drive. Are you finding the same thing?

Is, is qualifying a little trickier in 25? It

Is.

It was definitely trickier. Yeah.

It was, um, it was very hard to get the balance right without being on the edge.

But then when you're on the edge, you've got more weight there, so your moment is bigger, harder to catch.

Um, and I think just the fact the car is just heavier, uh, you know, it's, it's um, it's more on the limit.

It's kind of, you definitely ran more downforce than the year before and that's probably the case in the race as well, although it's gonna be quite cool.

Um, but yes, they're certainly more on a knife's edge.

You kind of mentioned the, the cool conditions I wanted to ask you, you know, you're starting near the back at the back last row.

Yeah. Um, with the conditions kind of shaping up the way

that they look like they're gonna be cool overcast, does that make you feel a little bit better?

Because traditionally that leads to better racing and maybe when you're having to come up from the back, it can give you a little bit more opportunity to move out?

Yeah. It, it can go both ways.

Like a hot track, a hot day will certainly bring out like, you know, bring a bigger difference between good and bad cars.

So, you know, I felt like our cars are pretty good all month in traffic.

Um, So you think this helps the, helps the cars that were struggling More than you?

Yeah. I mean, last year the cool condition

that it was created a really, really intense race.

Right. And, and, uh, everyone was closer.

All the cars were good. Um,

but the fact that the cars are heavier now and they seem to be harder to find a balance, you know, you could, you kind of get these big front wash aways and obviously you can't set it up to be too loose because it, it can just snap like that.

So, um, yeah. It, it, it could be better.

It could be because people are struggling to find a balance and you can follow closer in the cool, it's hard to predict.

It really is.

You have to tackle a, what I would imagine is a bit more of a, it's already a strategic race because it's 500 miles.

It's all the stop is whatever, maybe a little bit more strategy required to try to find you some track position starting where you are.

How much harder is that gonna be with some kind of new personnel in that position on the stand?

I, I don't think that will be a problem. Yeah.

I think, you know, with Jonathan Dugood, he's been in IndyCar before.

He is done plenty of Indy five hundreds. Um, yeah.

I, I don't, you know, I think that it, yes, there's a disturbance very used to Ron.

He was very good, good at his job.

Um, but you know, the team has, you know, a lot of depth and talent and it's easy to put someone in there that's, uh, that knows the game pretty well.

And you've got Dave, he's, you know, him and I have worked together for so many years, obviously my experience as well.

I kind of understand the strategies in the car and have you done this before?

Yeah. Right. Oh, cool. .

And I can give, you know, my opinion on what I think we should do as well.

You know, I, you know, give them the information they need to make a good decision.

So, um, I'm not, not not very concerned about that.

Have you done the last row party yet?

I have not done the last row.

I was just told that I have to do it.

I must have done it before started.

You've done it. Yeah. Yeah.

So you don't, you don't remember it? You blocked it outta your mind?

I don't remember. Yeah. Strangely.

I don't remember going to the last row party. Do you know

When it is?

It's tonight. Is it tonight? Okay. It's tonight. Yeah.

So, uh, okay, so, uh, let me, let me, I'm gonna say inform you.

Let me reinform you as to what happens at the last row party.

'cause I too have been. Um, you get a,

so you're starting 30 last, you're starting 33rd.

Yes. Okay. So, uh, you get a check.

Okay. Do you know that You get a problem?

Oh, now I, maybe it's ringing a bell now, not coming back.

How Much your checks gonna for?

I think it was like 1 cent or something. It was

Be for 33 cents.

33 cents. Okay. Yeah.

So the question, this is what all the people wanna know.

You get athletes get these big checks.

How you gonna spend your, uh, prize money?

33 cents. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go on and and Google

and say, what is the best bang for your buck for 33 cents?

And I'm gonna spend it on that. It's gonna

Depend what country you're in, but, uh, It further and I'll fly to that country just To spend that 30% In the best possible Way, just to say, look, this is what I get.

Well, look, why don't we wait until Monday because maybe you'll have a bigger prize money check to Be celebrating.

And that will, that will be what I use to get a private plane to the place to spend, just to spend the 33 30 3 cents. Amazing.

Well, I hope it's a big check.

So you gotta have a nice big plane and go As far as you want.

It would be. It would be really cool. Yeah.

You go there, you get your soda drink it say, that was worth it. .

That would be worth It. That was worth it.

Best of luck. Thank you. Or maybe it's a house.

I don't know. It depends on the country.

33 cent house. Would you wanna live there?

It could be good. You don't know. You don't know. It won't

Be good.

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Driver Interviews 2025 Part 2

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