Eat Like An Indycar Driver - Indycar Dad - Ep. 2

Hey, it's IndieCarDad, and today we're doing Eat Like a Driver, and today's meal was provided

by Kiffin Simpson.

Now, if you've ever seen Kiffin in person, the dude is a beast, so, of course, his meal

follows strength training.

So today I'm at the gym first to do a strength workout, usually I do cardio and strength,

but today, strength only, and then we're going to eat like Kiffin Simpson.

Look, I'm no fitness expert, I do have my Detroit Grand Prix shirt on though, but

I probably expect the drivers to do an exercise like this, you know, like, check out that gas

pedal foot going, and then you can switch it off to heavy braking foot.

Not bad, huh?

That's part of the routine, I betcha.

It's time to do some abs.

My gym has this thing, you know, this thing, and my gym also has this one, so you know,

damn well, I'm going with this bad boy, until they put some firestones in here, you know,

I'm going to use the MotoGP style tire.

Meow.

I see the drivers doing this exercise, you know, for their neck, and I've been doing

it a little bit, and I realize what's going through the mind of every driver when they

do this exercise.

I'm probably thinking, who's the last guy that wore this headgear?

Did they wash it afterwards?

Because it seems like you sweat on it a lot.

Like, if I had that paddle award kind of money, I'd buy my own one of these and bring

it with me to the gym.

But I don't have that paddle award kind of money, so I'm going to have to grab

a wipe when I'm done.

I've been going to the gym for a long time, like 40 years, and for some exercises, I've

pretty much done the same weight the whole time, but in honor of my IndyCarQuest, I'm

going to upgrade from one weight to a heavier weight.

Here we go.

I think I can do it.

All right, strength training's over.

I'm going to go home and recover by eating the same thing that Kiffin Simpson eats.

All right, recently I did a Eat Like a Driver, Felix Rosenquist edition where I ate seven

eggs, and that went pretty well.

So I decided maybe this should be like more of a recurring theme.

So I wrote to a bunch of drivers saying, hey man, you know, I am an IndyCar dad

and kind of wondering what you eat.

And I got a response from Kiffin Simpson, who's actually one of my favorite

drivers and certainly one of the fittest.

So, and Kiffin wrote that he doesn't really have a meal plan from his nutritionist.

I guess when you're like 20-something years old, you don't need one, right?

But he did say that after a strength workout, he eats the same thing.

He likes it because it's a lot of protein, even though it's kind of boring.

So that thing is one pound of ground beef.

It's about the bougie kind.

It's like grass-fed and all that.

And then he has it over mashed potatoes.

And I doubt Kiffin Simpson, maybe he is, maybe he isn't.

But I doubt he's making mashed potatoes subscribed.

So I got the package kind, butter flavor.

So there's 440 calories in the whole bag of mashed potatoes.

And there is 1,000 calories in a pound of ground beef.

I imagine I'll drain some of the fat off.

I don't know if Kiffin is or not.

I'm guessing he is.

And there is, oh boy, 76 grams of protein in a pound of ground beef

and 8 grams of protein in a package of mashed potatoes.

So that's, if I'm not mistaken, that is 84 grams of protein,

which is about a lot of protein.

So here we go.

I'm going to cook it up.

I also mentioned to Mr. Simpson in response that I could not eat such a meal at my age

and be able to poop for the next two days.

So I'm figured I needed to add a vegetable.

And I decided that baby carrots, because Kiffin Simpson is a bachelor kind of dude.

I don't know how he lives.

I don't know the man.

I've met him before, but I don't really know him.

But I'm guessing he's probably holed up in some apartment in Indianapolis

sometime of the year.

And I'm guessing, I'm just guessing he has a giant TV and a black weather couch.

I don't know.

Just guessing.

But I also guess in that a guy that eats a ground beef over mashed potatoes

probably doesn't do a lot of vegetable prep.

So I went with baby carrots.

So I need baby carrots.

And then Kiffin says that he eats his ground beef bland.

He says it's bland meal.

But in his honor, I'm going to use some Caribbean jerk seasoning,

you know, because it's from the Cayman Islands on my ground beef

because I'm too bougie to eat plain ground beef.

Sorry, Kiff.

All right, there we go.

We're going to start.

I'm going to cook it up in my stainless steel pan.

And this really, all you do is boil some water and then mix it in there.

So and then baby carrots, you just eat out of the bag.

So let's see how I do eating an entire pound of ground beef

and an entire package of mashed potatoes.

That does seem like a lot of food.

Give it a go.

All right, I got my bowl of mashed potatoes and a pound of ground beef.

It's a daunting amount of ground beef like this is a giant pile of ground beef.

So I'll give you a time lapse.

I'm going to try to eat it.

I don't know, dude.

Kiffin might be might be a challenge.

So let's see.

Okay.

Well, I'm putting down this monster mash of potatoes and beef.

Let's talk about Kiffin Simpson.

So I said it before and I have an upcoming video about this where I predict.

I do my predictions for 2026 driver position driver standings.

And Kiffin Simpson is going to be my pick.

Actually, he's going to pick for second most improved driver 25 to 26.

He would be first except Joseph Newgarden had such a terrible 2025 awful 2025 that he'll be my first pick.

But Kiffin Simpson is seriously on the come up.

You know, he might have got to Indy car a little bit early.

But he was development driver at Kenassi for a little bit.

And while he was development driver, he won the European Le Mans series and LMP two.

So it's not like this guy isn't winning races.

Also, I know a lot of people think of him as like a gentleman driver or rich kid driver.

But I'm not quite sure he's of the same cut as some of the others because I usually look at a driver's past amount of wins.

And so some drivers like Devlin, for example, or Dalton Kelly.

Some drivers like Dalton Kelly hadn't won a race in the five years prior to Indy car.

Like he just never won.

And as someone who's raced in the past, getting to the victory is different than running at the top.

Like winners are winners.

And a guy like Kiffin Simpson is a winner.

He has won races.

So and last year he had three top fives.

He was fifth at Detroit.

That's my home race.

He was on the podium at Toronto and he was fourth in Nashville.

So he had a couple of DNFs and he finished, I think, like 17th in the points.

But this guy is on the come up like we're going to see, I think, a really good 2026 from Kiffin.

Also, if you see the guy in person, he's an impressive physical specimen.

He's in really good shape and he's really focused in the pit lane.

So again, that's our guide Kiffin.

Is it all due to this meal?

We'll see.

I doubt I'm going to have like a super focused week.

I'm not entering any races this week, so I won't be winning any.

But that's our guide Kiffin.

I'm going to keep eating this giant pile of beef and we'll see how my like a racer turns out.

Well, I ate all the ground beef.

I didn't eat the whole pack of mashed potatoes, probably about half the pack of mashed potatoes.

So I'm going to say that's about 85 or 80 grams of protein.

That's a lot of protein and I'm full.

I didn't want to finish it to be honest with you, but that's what I'm here for trying to play the game.

You know what I mean?

So anyway, I'm going to have a couple more carrots here just to balance my meal.

And I'll go take a recovery nap and then I'll let you know how it goes.

All right.

It's been a bunch of hours since I tried the Kiffin Simpson diet, which is what I'm calling the one meal he told me eats.

So it was a very hearty meal.

It took me a long time to be hungry for dinner.

I did not snack.

Not that I normally snack a lot, but I had no snack cravings whatsoever.

The protein was very satisfying and for the amount of calories consumed, the protein level was very, very high.

So I could see how if you're doing a strength and cardio training like a professional athlete like Mr. Simpson, that this would make 10 a sense.

And also I like the simplicity of it.

If you got a busy life or you're not a great cook, you know, boom, boom, mashed potatoes, ground beef, great.

Some suggestions.

One or two things I might add was I might add some onion, like some sauteed onion to start.

And I know that not everybody wants to chop an onion, but at the grocery store in the freezer section, they have pre-chopped onions and you can just take a little bit and add it to the dish.

I might also add some like red or green bell peppers might be a good choice as well.

Also, they make these little cans of like roasted chilies that you can find in the Mexican section of the grocery store.

That might be a great addition to your ground beef.

Taco seasoning is another choice.

Just onion and garlic powder might also elevate it a little bit to make it more day to day consumable if you're getting tired of it.

I think a lot of people might add cheese to this, but that might add some fat in it, given Simpson doesn't want as a professional athlete.

So I think a vegetable component might make the dish a little easier on the digestive system with a little fiber and also better for your long term health with the vitamins and minerals that those vegetables would add.

So not to be like all up in your biz, but if I were eating such a high protein diet, I would be quick to add something like that with it.

But it was tasty and easy to make and high in protein.

So and no ill effects on my body or anything like that.

Not that I'm a professional athlete because I'm barely athletic and I am active, but not like athlete active.

I just go to the gym every day.

So there you go.

I appreciated most of all, Mr. Simpson, I want to say thank you because I appreciated your response to me.

I messaged you on Instagram and you got back to me and that helps me do fun things like this.

This was very fun and if you have more info or if you want to send workouts my way or any of the other drivers want to send workouts or menu things,

I am interested in seeing how a grown man trains like an IndyCar driver.

So thanks everyone for watching.

I'm Tom.

This is the IndyCarDad podcast and I'm a super IndyCar fan and I'm just trying to make it fun and interesting to see all the things about IndyCar.

So that was Eat Like an IndyCar Driver.

Thanks for watching.

Eat Like An Indycar Driver - Indycar Dad - Ep. 2

Porsche Cayman

About this episode

Original notes