The hosts share a lively discussion starting with a surprising Toby Keith rumor before diving into an exclusive tour of the Lockheed Martin F-35 assembly plant. They explore the impressive manufacturing process, meet test pilots, and reflect on the plane's role as a stealth surveillance tool. The conversation then shifts to the Arlington IndyCar race, praising its exceptional track design, event execution, and strong local support, calling it the best street race IndyCar has hosted. They also discuss race highlights, TV ratings, and the promising momentum for the series.
The guys saw the Lockheed Martin F35 facility in Texas before the race. And what a race it was! The guys were blown away by the 1st year of IndyCar at Arlington.
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"And her job is to literally get in every F-35 that comes off the line, which is three a week, mind you, at $100 million a pop."
The F-35 is a very advanced fighter jet used by the military. It can fly fast, avoid being seen by radar, and do many different types of missions.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, stealth multirole fighters used by the U.S. and allied air forces. It is known for its advanced stealth capabilities, sensor fusion, and versatility in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
"And so she used to be an Air Force pilot and she flew the F-14 and then kind of met her husband"
The F-14 is an older fighter jet used by the Navy. It has wings that can move to help it fly better at different speeds.
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the U.S. Navy from the 1970s until the mid-2000s. It is famous for its variable-sweep wings and role as a fleet defense interceptor.
"You go to a plant and a big part of the QC of a new car is once everything's put together and it rolls off the line,"
Quality control means checking the car to make sure it works right and is safe before it leaves the factory.
Quality control (QC) in automotive manufacturing refers to the process of inspecting and testing vehicles to ensure they meet required standards before leaving the factory. It includes checks on safety features, functionality, and performance.
"You test that it can accelerate to 40 miles an hour, that it can stop, that the left indicator works,"
0-60 time means how fast a car can go from stopped to 60 miles per hour. It shows how quick the car is.
The 0-60 time is a common performance metric that measures how quickly a vehicle can accelerate from a standstill to 60 miles per hour. It is often used to gauge a car's acceleration capability.
"that the left indicator works, that the right indicator works,"
An indicator is a blinking light on the car that shows when the driver wants to turn left or right.
An indicator, also known as a turn signal, is a light on a vehicle that signals the driver's intention to turn left or right. It is a basic safety feature required on all cars.
"that the wipers work, that the hazard lights work, that kind of like super basic high level"
Hazard lights are blinking lights on a car that tell other drivers there is a problem or danger.
Hazard lights are flashing lights on a vehicle that warn other drivers of a problem or emergency. They activate all turn signals simultaneously to alert others.
"The primary purpose of the F-35 is actually a stealth surveillance plane that has the capacity to evade situations if it were to get into it."
A stealth surveillance plane is a special kind of aircraft that can hide from radar and watch what is happening without being seen. It helps gather important information safely.
A stealth surveillance plane is designed to avoid detection by radar and other sensors while gathering intelligence and monitoring enemy activity. This capability allows it to operate covertly in hostile environments.
""New Detroit has some upgraded pit lane suites with the dual pit lane. It's obviously a very important race to General Motors...""
In car races, the pit lane is where cars stop during the race to get new tires or fix problems. Having two pit lanes means more cars can get help at the same time, making the race smoother.
The pit lane is a designated area adjacent to the race track where teams perform pit stops during a race, including refueling, tire changes, and repairs. A dual pit lane means there are two parallel lanes for pit stops, allowing more cars to be serviced simultaneously, which can improve race efficiency.
"It wasn't, I'm not gonna say it was on par with a Formula One temporary circuit event, because it wasn't, but it was the closest thing I've ever seen."
Formula One is a type of car race with very fast and advanced cars that race on special tracks all over the world.
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of international single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the FIA, known for its cutting-edge technology, high speeds, and prestigious global events.
"It beat Formula E, it beat any of the temporary stuff the NASCAR has done."
Formula E is a type of car race where the cars run only on electricity and race on city streets.
Formula E is a class of motorsport that uses only electric-powered cars, focusing on sustainable racing and often held on temporary city street circuits.
"It beat Formula E, it beat any of the temporary stuff the NASCAR has done."
NASCAR is a type of car racing mostly done in the US with cars that look like regular street cars but race very fast on oval or other tracks.
NASCAR is a popular American motorsport series primarily featuring stock cars racing on oval tracks, with some events on road courses and temporary street circuits.
""Well, and look, first year streets, first year temporary circuits are tough. There's always challenges, there's always unforeseen things,""
A first year temporary circuit is a new race track set up in a city or temporary place for a race. Because it's new and not permanent, there can be unexpected problems that make the race harder to run smoothly.
First year temporary circuits refer to race tracks that are newly constructed for a racing event, often on city streets or other non-permanent locations. These circuits pose unique challenges such as unforeseen logistical issues and track surface problems.
""First year street courses are tough. And I would say this one exceeded all of those other ones in terms of execution," "
A street course is a race track made by closing off city streets for a race. These tracks are different from regular race tracks because they have sharp turns and less space to go off the road safely.
A street course is a race track laid out on temporarily closed public roads within a city, rather than a permanent racing facility. These courses often have tight corners, limited run-off areas, and unique challenges compared to permanent tracks.
"Like first of all, I wanna talk about the track first and foremost. A 2.7 mile street circuit is almost unheard of. And the fact that they didn't have to stick solely to city streets, which kind of usually limits you to a lot of 90 degree corners or 180 degree corners,"
A street circuit is a race track made by closing city streets for a race. It usually has sharp turns and less space to drive off the track safely.
A street circuit is a race track composed of temporarily closed-off public roads in a city, featuring tight corners and limited runoff areas compared to permanent race tracks.
""...but it became very clear very quickly that hot tires and brakes was a pretty sizable advantage. Yeah, and I mean, it's funny though...""
Hot tires are tires that are warmed up so they stick better to the road, helping the car go faster and handle better. Cold tires don’t grip as well and can make the car harder to control.
Hot tires refer to tires that have been warmed up to their optimal operating temperature, providing better grip and performance on the track. Cold tires offer less traction and can negatively affect lap times and handling.
""...but it became very clear very quickly that hot tires and brakes was a pretty sizable advantage. Yeah, and I mean, it's funny though...""
Hot brakes are brakes that have warmed up from being used a lot, which helps them work better at first. But if they get too hot, they might stop working as well.
Hot brakes are brakes that have been heated through use, which can improve their effectiveness up to a point by increasing friction. However, if brakes get too hot, they can fade and lose stopping power.
""...I think the easiest one is just give everybody a new set of tires that goes into the Fast 6 and make it a little more even.""
Fast 6 is a part of qualifying where the six fastest drivers race to see who starts at the front in the main race.
The Fast 6 is a qualifying format used in IndyCar where the six fastest drivers from earlier rounds compete for the top starting positions. It is designed to create a competitive and exciting shootout for pole position.
""You know, Kirkwood had kind of pit stop problems all day long, lost a lot of ground to Polo in that sense,""
During a race, drivers stop briefly to get new tires or fix their car. How fast and well this is done can help them win.
A pit stop is a pause during a race where a driver pulls into the pit lane to refuel, change tires, or make repairs. Efficient pit stops are crucial for maintaining or improving race position.
""passed him and then left him, had a green and white checkered. No, green and white to a checkered. A one lap shootout and the race after caution.""
In some races, a special flag with green and white colors means the last lap is happening. After this lap, the race finishes.
The green and white checkered flag is used in some racing series to signal the final lap of the race. It indicates to drivers that there is one lap remaining before the race ends.
""No, green and white to a checkered. A one lap shootout and the race after caution.""
Sometimes, after a pause in the race, drivers get just one lap to race and decide who wins. This makes the finish very exciting.
A one lap shootout is a racing situation where competitors have only one lap to race for position, often occurring after a caution period. It creates an intense, high-pressure finish.
Select text to request an explanation
This is Off-Track.
Guys, did you hear that Toby Keith died?
I did.
Not super recently though, James.
But I just found this out.
This is entirely new news to me.
I'm not being insensitive here.
Right, right.
How did you find out?
Well, like 30 seconds ago, we tried to start this recording.
Yeah.
And we were screening him with the Whiskey Women in Gold.
And I was like, what's that about?
And you just said, RRP, Toby Keith.
So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I assume you know, but.
Yeah.
No, I did know.
I also just, I was listening to the song.
Should have been a cowboy.
I've always enjoyed it, related to it a little bit.
Part of me believes it.
And then also like all three of those things are pretty neat.
They are neat.
But I would also just like to point out that while James no longer
enjoys sour patch kids because he hates fun, happiness, children,
and color, yeah.
Oh, we're throwing color in there now.
Good, good.
Yeah, he likes a gray, dull world.
No, you will eat a worm that is not yummy.
So, first of all, these are smart sweets.
Not an ad.
Love these things.
They're quite yummy.
Second of all, when this whole completely false sour patch kid debacle took place,
I was readily confronted with fans who brought me copious amounts of sour patch kids.
And I have consumed them all in short order after getting them actually.
So, again, whatever this complete wizardry of lies you try to bestow upon me about not
liking any of those things, it's just wrong.
Everything about it is wrong.
I want the fans to know that.
I want to put a pin in wizardry of lies.
Yeah, I know.
It doesn't make sense.
I mean, I don't know.
No, I like it.
And we're going to bring that back in about, I don't know, probably 10 to 15 minutes, James.
All right.
And then I have a rant that I want to go on for just a...
I like that.
The people like Alex's rants.
They will like this.
They will not.
You say that, but I feel like that's what they gravitate to.
Well, you'll see.
Okay.
You'll see.
I apologize to anybody with, you know, onomatopoeia or whatever, because I am eating my gummy worms.
I apologize.
I was supposed to warn you ahead of time.
That was the deal I struck with a fan in summer race.
I've got three more for now, and then I'll stop.
But James is not a man of his word.
So he lied to you.
I don't know what your dreams are.
Care about people as much as you would think.
No, I do.
I just, I had to eat something.
Not as much as yourself.
Not as much as gummy worms.
Yeah.
Not as much as your mouth's happy.
I kind of respect that.
I respect those priorities.
Like, I get it.
No, man.
No.
People don't even taste, people don't even taste gummy.
No, we're near this good.
People don't taste, we're near this good.
Okay.
Stop.
It's like, if you bite somebody, it's like,
in this case scenario, it's like that iron,
metallic-y blood taste.
That's not good.
Stop.
How hard?
Stop.
Who are you?
Other word, I'm not eating people.
Stop.
Let's move on.
Let's move.
Stop.
Along.
So.
I'm going to be like that guy in the Daniel Dye video.
I feel like I'm the only person that hasn't watched this yet.
And I'm not going to, but.
Why?
It's just a guy being an idiot.
And then it's friends realizing he's going to be an idiot.
And not stopping him, which is a little sad,
but they just walk off and let him continue to be an idiot.
The only thing that, the only thing about that whole situation,
again, I'm not seeing it.
I'm going purely based off the previous video.
The group chat that we have.
Some guy did something dumb on the internet.
And what I like about the whole end game of this scenario
is that there were repercussions for being online,
which is so rare these days.
Is it?
Yeah.
I mean, compared to what it could be,
I feel like people get away with an awful lot.
I mean, certain people in certain positions don't.
I feel like getting canceled has been a thing
that is very frequent in our world in the past three
to four years, much more than it ever was.
I suppose.
But I feel like, again, not having actually seen the video
and knowing very little context about what happened
and what transpired.
I chimed in online just based on when somebody said,
Daniel Dye insults IndyCar driver David Malukas.
And I was like, oh, well, who's that guy?
And then I Googled his name.
I typed up Daniel Dye.
And the first thing at Autofilled was punched crotch arrested.
And I was like, I don't think I need to know anything
more about this guy.
Tells you a lot.
Tells you a lot.
Anyway, moving on from that dude.
Obviously, it was Arlington Week last week.
And in the buildup to Arlington Week, Alex,
before we get to Arlington Week itself,
we got to go on a little field trip.
And I know that you've already posted about it.
I was still putting mine together.
So some people know, a lot of people know,
but we got to go visit.
I think we also told people on here,
but we got to go visit the Lockheed Martin assembly plant
where they build these little things called F-35,
fifth generation fighter jets.
Maybe you've heard of them.
And I got to say, pretty cool experience.
Pretty freaking cool experience.
All I've been really thinking about
since we went on Wednesday.
So we're recording on Wednesday.
So for the past seven days is, well, that plane,
it's brothers and sisters, it's predecessors,
it's successors, everything else
that the United States Air Force is made up of,
everything else that Lockheed Martin is involved in.
And let me just say,
if I wasn't a cowboy or a race car driver,
I would have liked to have been involved in that
in some way, shape, or form.
Probably more than the cowboy,
potentially more than the race car driver,
if I'm honest with you.
I didn't know cowboy was even in the mix.
It is.
It's a pretty cool ideology if you really break it down.
Yeah, we did just sort of brush over him
saying that he kind of wished he'd been a cowboy.
We probably should have dived a little bit deeper into that.
We'll maybe circle back on that.
We're gonna talk about this
because it's gonna transition really well
into the Wizardry of Lies.
So James set this entire situation up
via a couple listeners of the podcast.
And I didn't really know what to expect going into it
other than we were going to get a tour of a facility
and obviously it's a defense contractor
and there's some very secret stuff that happens there.
And maybe we could get to see some things
from behind a glass window, 50-foot view sort of situation.
And that was not the case.
First of all, we were welcomed with our names
above the front desk on the screen
as airplanes on the screen were flying by.
So that was cool thing number one.
Well, no, cool thing number one, if I may interject,
was as we were trying to find the parking lot,
sorry, as we were for those who are not watching on YouTube,
go watch on YouTube, but Alex just accidentally had balloons
come across his screen.
As we were trying to find the parking lot,
we're like driving down this two-lane road.
I'm not getting, we looked to our right,
well, there was a loud noise to our right.
So we looked to our right.
And as we were driving down the road
and F-35 is like taxiing out of its hangar
towards the runway and we're just kind of like,
we have arrived.
Oh my God.
That was place on earth.
So we get, we get welcomed.
What if it was the wrong F-35?
What if it was just like, yeah, it's Carl.
He's a collector.
He just, he's got the place next door.
That's still in F-35.
Super cool.
We could dedicate an entire episode to this,
but we're not gonna, because we don't have time.
Maybe we will in the off season.
We get welcomed into like,
what felt like a scent, calm room of sorts.
Like we were in like a U shaped board room
with screens and microphones.
And there was like six people to our left
and three people to our right.
And sitting on chairs are custom F-35 bomber jackets
in green with our names on them
and our nation's flag and the F-35 logo.
And we have-
I did notice they had that Canadian for you there James.
We have no pads, pens and they're like,
here we go.
And I'm like, am I, are we, are we going?
Are we gonna, are we-
Is this training day one or is this our new life?
And they then proceeded to take us down
the entire one mile assembly line,
which is the same assembly line
that was used during World War II
to build the planes that they were building back then.
And to see really from start to finish, truly start to finish
an F-35 be built.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
And I don't know if you wanna share any details about that
that wowed you before we get to next part James,
but I thought that was incredible.
Yeah, I mean, like you say,
a nearly mile long building, right?
Which as Alex mentioned,
was originally constructed to build bombers in World War II
and it became a like national historic site.
So they're unable to change like the footprint of it
because it's like a protected building now.
So they've just had to retrofit over the years
as the technology and the different planes have evolved.
So there's retooling and retrofitting the same space
that built bombers for World War II
is now producing the latest generation fighters in the world.
And Alex and I, and this is a comparison
that we kind of made a bunch while we were there.
We've been to a lot of automotive plants, right?
We've seen assembly lines of road cars be built
and things like that.
And I've been to like bearing factories
and microprocess semiconductor plants and things like that.
Seeing something on the scale of a fighter jet
being built in an assembly line sort of format
was unbelievable.
And then obviously these are just like super complex machines
and seeing how it all comes together,
all the kind of different departments.
It was age is incredibly fascinating
and just be so impressive
how they have assembled this building,
this process to put these things together.
And at one point we got to kind of walk up onto this platform
so you're sort of higher above
and you can see sort of the expanse of the building
and you can see the whole,
like all the different stages, right?
You can see the whole process from where it starts
with kind of four components of the fuselage
and then you add the wings and you add the engine,
you add all the flight and the trolls and all the,
dude, it was just incredible.
Yeah, I mean, I could go on for 20 minutes
about all of what I was blown away by it,
but we don't have time for that.
Then we kind of went to,
well, we got to meet some of the workers at the factory there
and shake their hands and hear a little bit of their stories
and also their profound excitement for IndyCar being
back in the greater Dallas area, which was fantastic.
We got to see some other buildings
that the plane goes through for vinyl touches, let's call it.
I don't want to, I don't know what we're allowed to talk about.
Yeah, shoot.
I don't know either because that one room is that odd man.
Yeah.
And then we got to go out to the flight line
and we met one of the chief Lockheed Martin F-35 test pilots.
Her name, and I'm going to screw up how to say her name,
it was Monessa Bowzar, I think is how you say her last name,
but really, her name was Siren,
and that's how she introduced herself to us.
You have people with call signs?
You have people with call signs, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I want a call sign.
And her job is to literally get in every F-35
that comes off the line, which is three a week,
mind you, at $100 million a pop.
I mean, 80 to 100, depending on how you spec it out, but yeah.
Okay, well, yeah, I mean,
depending on if you get heated seats or not.
Right, right, right.
Do you have the performance package, you know?
Are you going for the 24 inch rims?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Carpet insurance.
Oh, it comes with it.
Or as we like to call it, not healthcare.
Well,
well, we're going to get to that.
Not really, but we're going to touch on that.
And so she used to be an Air Force pilot
and she flew the F-14
and then kind of met her husband
and he's also pilot in the military.
He now also flies F-35s, but he's still active duty.
And she was like, well, I still love flying.
I love airplanes.
So how can I still do this?
So she just now gets to play with all the brand new F-35s
and run it through his paces
and then come down and write up report
as to why this one ain't as good as the other one,
which is a such a sick job.
Like that is incredible.
And again, to like make the comparison
to an automotive factory, right?
You go to a plant and a big part of the QC of a new car
is once everything's put together and it rolls off the line,
they take it to do like a really simple test.
You test that it can accelerate to 40 miles an hour,
that it can stop, that the left indicator works,
that the right indicator works,
that the wipers work, that the hazard lights work,
that kind of like super basic high level
surface level stuff for the most part.
Checks on those boxes, off it goes, right?
In this case, the goal is to try and break the plane, right?
It's like, see how fast it can go,
see how aggressive it can turn,
do all the crazy things that it might have to do
at some point in combat,
make sure nothing's wrong with the plane
or the systems or anything,
and then we can ship it off to the customer
because we don't want anything going wrong
once it's in a customer's hands.
So like her job isn't baby this thing around the block,
it's flogged the out of it,
and there's four different flights
each plane has to do before it's cleared.
And so yeah, so she was one of eight
who does this full time.
And as Alex said, it's three planes a week
and there's got four planes,
or sorry, four flights per plane.
And this is just what they do.
And man, like, it just sounds like so much fun.
Oh, incredible.
A lot of pressure, but all cool jobs,
all fun jobs have a lot of pressure.
Test pilot is like one of the most terrifying jobs
I think you could possibly have on earth.
For sure.
But although coming out of that factory,
learning about their QC and the tolerances
that they have to have,
I'm sure it's pretty well sorted at this point.
We were like, do you guys have any capacity
to build some race cars?
Your QC tariff is a little better than what we're used to.
And then what else?
So then we got to go kind of behind the door a little bit
into like a locker room, if you will.
And James got to put on a G suit.
We got to put on a $265,000 helmet that goes on
when you strap into an F-35
and kind of see a little bit of what the pilots are seeing.
And then we got to get in a static, mind you,
but still a simulator and fly the plane.
We got to sample a variety of different things,
landing on an aircraft carrier,
flying through mountains, shooting stuff.
So that was all very cool.
And just to wrap on that before James does,
so I obviously posted about it
because it was a super cool moment for me
and huge amount of appreciation to-
We just as an aviation nerd alone.
That had to be incredible.
And the people that helped set it up, it was amazing.
But as is par for the course in the world we live in today,
a lot of very upset people, a lot of very upset people
about my, and I'm saying this in air quotes
for those that don't watch this on YouTube,
my association in air quotes again
with a defense company in the climate of today's world.
Ah, interesting.
What I want to say is just a couple of things
and really it's talking specifically about the F-35.
So while the F-35 is a fighter jet
and while the F-35 is capable of getting strapped down
with munitions and things
and going and creating holes in the ground,
that is not necessarily its primary purpose.
The primary purpose of the F-35
is actually a stealth surveillance plane
that has the capacity to evade situations
if it were to get into it.
It is not an F-16, it is not an F-22,
it is not a plane that is meant to go blow up
and shoot things, right?
And so much so that it is a plane
that is actually a joint venture
with other countries around the globe.
There's buyers of it in Italy, Germany, Canada,
Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, South Korea,
like the list, Saudi Arabia, the list goes on.
There's like 18 flags that this plane flies under.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is
sometimes the joys and luxuries we have
in our country in our day-to-day life
is built by a network of defense and surveillance
and deterrents, right?
It's not necessarily a hammer that gets dropped, right?
Because if you think about society
and how long we go between situations like this,
it's really a long time.
But what keeps everything level on a day-to-day basis
is all of the deterrents that exist.
And the F-35, you can think of it as a deterrent
that a lot of other countries have as well.
So James and I going to this was, A,
getting to see a really cool thing
that is pretty awesome
that the United States of America is building.
But B, it's also showing a little bit of gratitude
and respect for the luxuries
that we do have on a day-to-day basis,
that this plane helps kind of protect.
So I just want to get that out there,
that this is not any of us supporting anything
other than cool technology
that helps keep our world safer.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%.
Also the United States,
the United States has had F-35 since what they were announced
in 2001.
They've been around 25 years since announced, right?
They've been used by Republican
and Democratic administrations.
They've been used for things that you agree with
and things you don't agree with.
The fact that we're making something like this
in the United States is cool and should be celebrated.
And like you said, is an international effort.
Right. And you're a plane nerd, right?
100%.
Like these...
Anyways, keep your wizardry of lies
out of my internet.
And here we go.
He brought it back.
And here we go.
That's impressive.
That's actually, that's well done.
That's all I've got to say.
I wasn't sure how we were getting there.
Well said, sir.
Retweet.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, just can't thank
Darren and Nick and Bo and the whole team over there,
Siren, everybody that we got to hang out with
and tour us around.
The one thing that the comment that I made to Nick,
Alex after the weekend, or sorry, at the weekend,
because we got the chance to bring some of them
to the racetrack and show them around your car
and much shorter tour, less impressive,
but you know, still cool.
Way less cool, yeah.
The thing that I loved about that tour,
and this is going to be one of the best tours
going to be fairly unrelated everybody.
So just bear with me.
I apologize, but I want to give them credit here.
Alex and I have done a lot of tours of things.
Very lucky.
You know, our job affords us some really cool opportunities
to go to some cool places, meet some cool people
and see some cool stuff.
A lot of, often, often, some of these tours are,
especially if there's like filming involved
or some content capture.
It can sometimes lead to a bunch of standing around
as you're moving from place to place,
then they set up to do X, Y, Z,
and then you do X, Y, Z, and then you move on to the next thing
and then you wait around as they set up
or whatever, whatever.
I mentioned this to Nick
and you and I didn't have the chance to talk about this,
but I was so impressed on how well that tour was scheduled
in the sense that we got carted from one place to the next.
The film crew was there set up waiting for us.
And then when we got back on the bus
to go to the next thing,
like the photographers outside the bus
when we show up to get the pictures that they want,
like we were never standing around waiting for something
really in that whole time.
And I was just always kind of super impressed
that when we got somewhere,
there was already people there kind of to accept
that we were there and move through the program.
And as a result, we got to see and do, I think,
a lot more than we maybe would have otherwise.
So just...
It was the least governmental thing
about the entire organization, I think.
100%.
Yeah, that's a great point.
But incredible experience.
Glad that we got to share the IndyCar world
with some of those folks.
And I love my jacket and our little model F-35 planes
that we got given,
which can sit proudly next to your model of your plane,
which is basically the same.
I mean, they both fly.
You can fit way more people in yours.
So you may be kind of winning.
You may be kind of winning.
How does the payload compare, though?
Well, let's put it this way.
You could probably...
So Alex is a six-seater plane.
You could probably cart six people one at a time
to Florida for Indy in less time
than it would take Alex's plane
to do one trip with six people.
But say lovey.
Relax.
How many times have you worn your...
My bomber jacket,
because I showed up to the racetrack Sunday with it on.
I wore it to dinner that night.
I went out to dinner with Buzzkill
and I wore it to dinner that night.
And I wore it one other time since I've been home.
I like it.
We basically already established
that we're just gonna go as F-35 fighter pilots for Halloween.
We're just gonna buy some aviators
and wear our jackets and just go.
It's not a costume.
This is real.
It's legit.
It's got our names on it.
So it's not like we're trying to be somebody else.
We're trying to be ourselves
to our honorary F-35 fighter pilots.
Mine is will be.
I mean, no, you guys should obviously go as each other.
That way you're still dressing up.
I don't want to be kidding you.
You should go as Alex.
Alex, you should go as well.
So let's talk about Arlington,
because it deserves a lot of talk.
So much so that I want to just skip over the ECR 20 recap.
The quick 30 second montage to appeal those
that are interested, which is probably a three.
A solid week and start to finish.
Not where we want to be yet
for making steps in the right direction.
Long Beach will be another step forward.
So stay tuned.
All right, Arlington.
Holy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a first, I think, on the show.
That was the first thing of that one.
Yeah.
That's definitely a bleep, right?
That's a bleep.
That's a bleep.
You're gonna have to cut that.
Where do I begin?
I don't even...
I'm so excited.
I don't know.
It's hard to know where to go after.
Yeah.
All right.
I feel like I'm the only guy that hasn't said
bleep yet on the show.
So now we've got the trifecta.
There we go.
Nobody knows what we're saying,
because it's all bleep and it's hilarious,
so we can move on.
The old TL.
I'm leaving that in, because no...
What are you gonna do with that?
The guesses are gonna come flowing in.
So, all right, Alex, let's look at it this way.
What were you expecting, right?
Because coming into it, there was a lot of hype,
there was a lot of expectation,
there was a lot of things we'd heard,
but we've heard that a lot of times,
and it doesn't always match.
So what were your genuine, realistic expectations
heading into it, and then maybe level to some...
Explain the level at or above or below that it was.
Okay, three-pronged answer.
What I was expecting of it was essentially New Detroit.
New Detroit has some upgraded pit lane suites
with the dual pit lane.
It's obviously a very important race to General Motors
and to Penske Entertainment,
and there was a lot of investment put into it,
because these races aren't cheap.
They're very expensive to do.
And for a startup event,
there was some,
what do I, how do I say it?
Elevated experiences at Detroit.
In my mind, still a long ways to go in a lot of respects,
not just talking about the track layout,
but just the overall event experience.
So I was expecting that.
And then, when I kind of got a little bit more insight
on the Washington DC race,
and realized how much time and effort was being,
had to be redirected, to that,
I would say my expectation was lowered a notch
from the original expectation of New Detroit.
And when I got there, and I don't say this lightly,
it was...
It wasn't, I'm not gonna say it was on par
with a Formula One temporary circuit event,
because it wasn't, but it was
the closest thing I've ever seen.
It beat Formula E,
it beat any of the temporary stuff
the NASCAR has done.
It was the next best thing to an F1 event.
And I say that from the quality of the build of the track,
from the aesthetics of the track,
from the event atmosphere itself,
from the promotion of the race,
from the location of the race,
from the ergonomics of the race.
Ingressy dress, things like that.
Exactly, the staffing,
the knowledge of the security that was there,
having never seen this before,
everything met and exceeded any expectation
that you could possibly have,
and it was 100% the best street course race
IndyCar has ever had,
and it is 100% the benchmark for all of them going forward.
Man, it's, I'm with you,
like I was, I don't wanna say skeptical,
because that's not true,
like I had belief it was gonna be a good event.
Apprehensive.
Apprehensive.
Cautiously optimistic.
Right, yeah, exactly.
Cause the thing is is like.
I think you pessimistic,
but we've been right down before.
Well, and look, first year streets,
first year temporary circuits are tough.
There's always challenges,
there's always unforeseen things,
like even Miami Formula One had a couple disasters,
Vegas Formula One had a couple disasters.
First year street courses are tough.
And I would say this one exceeded all of those other ones
in terms of execution,
like in terms of like what the actual potential is,
and what the first year execution was,
I think was very close.
Like there's obviously always room to make things better
and things can grow,
but like for a first crack at it,
it was unbelievable.
And you nailed all the important things.
Like first of all,
I wanna talk about the track first and foremost.
A 2.7 mile street circuit is almost unheard of.
And the fact that they didn't have to stick solely
to city streets,
which kind of usually limits you
to a lot of 90 degree corners or 180 degree corners,
like no disrespect,
you look at the track map of Detroit and you're like,
oh yeah, like they're going downtown.
There's nowhere else to go.
Like this is one of the least inspiring layouts.
Look at DC.
This one you look at, you're like,
oh, that looks like Coda, right?
That looks more like Coda than it does Detroit.
And going through a parking lot
and gives you some freedoms
that going down exclusively roads does not.
They were willing to, and thus did,
remove and eliminate some curves
to make some turns work
that wouldn't have worked otherwise.
But it was wide.
The corner types were varied.
They was fast.
They was slow.
They was technical.
They was simple.
There was a little bit more elevation.
I was just gonna say,
there was way more elevation
than I thought there was gonna be.
And was the back straight a little bumpy?
It sure was.
But like, is that something that can be addressed
going forward?
It sure is.
And outside of that.
I wanna segue that
and I want you to finish everything else.
The back straight being bumpy,
that was a big topic of conversation
because it's bumpy, so it's bad.
No, it's not.
Because it's bumpy
because there was a lot of bumps close together.
But they were generally quite small bumps.
So the bump frequency was kind of like this
and it wasn't super violent.
Like there was a couple that were a little hard.
When you compare it to a Toronto,
old Toronto or New Detroit,
the bumps, the car's doing this.
Because they're big bumps that are separated.
And that is just, it's so annoying.
Like it's not and it's painful
and you have to completely change the car setup
to compensate for that.
And just going in a straight line
whereas this, it wasn't like that.
The braking zones were generally pretty smooth.
So I just wanna mention that on the bumps.
Like even if they don't fix it, it's not a problem.
It's a frequency, not a magnitude issue,
which is what you have at some other tracks.
But yeah, the way,
I said this in the pre-race show
for anybody that watched,
but like I can, I'm being pretty honest when I say that
since I stepped out of IndyCar,
the first time that I felt genuinely like jealous
and like, God, I wish I was out there was that first May.
And the second time was last weekend.
There's been exactly two times where I've like really wished.
I was like, ah, I wish I was out there.
The rest of it, like this is how I know I'm happy
and where I'm at in my life and career
because that's it.
Like I did the first Indy, which kind of makes sense.
But in four years, that was it.
Until this weekend.
Last year?
Weird, but I just didn't get it.
I thought maybe, but it just didn't happen.
And so, yeah, I was so impressed when I did,
I did the track walk just so I could see it all up close.
I was blown away.
You had to drive the track.
I did.
I got to do a couple laps in the pace car
and I didn't want to stop.
Like I was like, this is when I was like,
dude, I just need an IndyCar to go drive around in now
because this looks like so much fun.
And it looked great.
The fences were new.
The block was new.
The banners were all over the place.
The paint, first I painted a bunch of stuff.
It was the right kind of paint,
like the FIA gritty, grippy paint.
So that helped drivers, not hurt drivers.
10 out of 10.
So who do you guys describe the credit for this?
Who got it right?
Was it everybody?
Was it IndyCar?
Was it Jerry Jones?
Was it Java House?
Was there anybody who was like the driving force
behind it being the big thing?
Or just everything came together?
It seems to me, and Alex, I would love your take on this,
but it seems to me that it was like just one
genuinely really collaborative thing.
Because I don't think any one of those entities
that you mentioned could do it all on their own.
And I think that every single one of the ones
that you mentioned all played a part.
So for sure, like IndyCar and the design of the track,
Tony Cotman and his group did a phenomenal job
with this thing.
Obviously, the Jones family and the Cowboys
and the Rangers and everybody that offered it up,
wanted it to be there.
This is a big thing, man.
We talked about this before,
and I'm hoping we're having the same conversation
at the end of July when we get out of Markham.
The difference between a town that wants you there
and a town that's like, oh, you're doing a race here?
Like it makes a night and day difference.
The promotion of the event locally was better
than I've seen in a long time.
And here's one of the examples.
I checked into my hotel.
This happens all the time.
I told you this story.
I checked into my hotel.
20 plus miles away.
20 plus miles away.
Not in the same city.
And they were like, oh, so are you in town
for one of the conferences?
And then I get this all the time.
Most of the time, nobody knows there's an IndyCar race
in town.
I said, no, we're actually here.
I'm here for the IndyCar race.
And the guy goes, oh, the one in Arlington.
Yeah, that looks really cool.
But we've heard a lot about that.
And I was sitting there, I'm like, you've heard of this?
Like I was floored 20 miles away, like Alex said.
So local promotion was great.
The track was great.
IndyCar did their part.
Java house obviously coming on board,
did a lot of activation.
They had you busy as hell in the week leading up to it.
And man, the fans turned up.
Friday, I could not believe how many people were there
for a first day of a first year event on a weekday.
All the way through to Sunday, when there was a weather issue,
like there was potentially bad weather sold out
and we bumped the race up and it still was packed.
Like I feel like they have to add more bridges next year
because the bridge crossings were like
a mile long lineup to get across.
But like the biggest complaint I heard
is there wasn't enough food, merch, bridges,
whatever for all the fans, which is a good problem to have.
And that's the kind of thing you fix
from year one to year two.
Yeah.
No notes.
No notes.
The only thing that I will say is,
you know, Bud Denker, who is the president
of Penske Corporation, I think it's his title.
I think so.
And has his, he wears a lot of hats,
but he really takes a lot of pride in these new events.
I'm not gonna say it was solely his idea,
but he was the driving force behind the dual pit lane
in Detroit several years ago.
And what that has allowed, and we're gonna see it again
in Markham this year, is it's allowed us to explore venues
that weren't previously able to be explored.
And that's such a game changer, right?
Whereas before, maybe we could have never been here
because there wasn't enough straightaway
that was accessible to have a pit lane
where you could have 25 cars stacked nose to tail
in 40 foot boxes and that sort of thing.
So I think his, the risk that he took
for kind of pioneering that and seeing if it worked
in Detroit in front of the world was huge
and it is paying huge dividends.
So I just wanna give that shout out.
It also visually looks awesome
because we've got some sick drone shots
of when all the cars are leaving pit lane
and they kind of cruise along with it.
Like it looks really cool.
And it would seem that people saw that
because you mentioned that the TV start time
was moved up an hour the night before, mind you.
And 1.335 million people still watched
which is the first time Indy Karris had three races,
over one million viewers since 2008,
which is this is when you and I flew back together.
So I'm gonna steal your words
because I feel the exact same way.
This is the first time that I've actually felt
that Indy Karris actually has truly positive momentum
and is on an upward swing
instead of just these small glimmers of hope.
This is actually a pendulum shift,
people are paying attention, people are interested
and the sport is growing because of it and it's incredible.
It is so great, man.
It's because I was so happy about this week's rating
for so many reasons.
The first two weekends of Indy Karris,
there was some NASCAR presence, right?
In St. Pete, granted it was trucks on Saturday, but still.
And then obviously Phoenix, the doubleheader
and everything about Phoenix.
So if you wanted to try to draw,
make connections there, you could make that argument, fine.
We didn't have some crazy lead-in
that was maybe gonna skew the numbers a little bit,
which is something that happens in TV
and we take those wins when we can, everybody does,
that's just part of the game.
We, like you said, had that late change in the time
and it just, you said it,
it just feels for the first time legitimately
like we're rolling, we're rolling.
We've got some like, the snowball is at the top of the hill
and it's got a little bit of inertia now.
And I'm so excited, you know, we've got a week off.
Obviously three weeks in a row to kick the season off,
I think was great, keeps everybody interested.
Now we've built a good storyline.
We've had three different winners.
We've got a guy leading the championship
for the first time in his career.
We've got all these cool things.
We're gonna head to a few staple events next
in Barber and Long Beach, which is always a good one,
provided we're not up against the Masters.
And then we're into the month of May.
And so I'm just genuinely buzzing,
just so excited with how everything's going
and it's a lot of hard work from a lot of people
in a lot of different areas, but it's great.
So we've only got a couple of minutes left.
Let's just touch on the race quick.
No surprise that Andrade Global was super quick.
Marcus Erickson took his first poll
in this new single car format for the Fast 6.
What did you think of that in 30 seconds or less?
I thought it was okay.
It wasn't quite as awesome as I was maybe believing it to be,
but it's the first attempt at it.
And I'm not saying it's not gonna be awesome,
but I was a little, I think I was a little let down,
but that's just my opinion.
Is that because the first guy out was the fastest?
Yeah, and nothing against Marcus,
but it became very clear very quickly
that hot tires and brakes was a pretty sizable advantage.
Yeah, and I mean, it's funny though,
like those cars were so good that even Polo was like,
yeah, I don't know, like the gap was pretty big.
So he's like, I don't even know if I could have done it.
And obviously you get to race day
and you see what Kirkland was able to do.
Those cars were obviously pretty hooked up,
but either way, definitely some tweaking.
I think the easiest one is just give everybody
a new set of tires that goes into the Fast 6
and make it a little more even.
If anything, you're giving the guy who goes sixth
an advantage because his tires can sit over top
of his hot brakes for a little bit longer and heat up a bit.
But frankly, if you were fastest in Q2,
there should be some minuscule advantage for you.
I'm okay with that, right?
So then we get into the race, you know, Polo was second,
Paddle was third, some good results from guys.
Will Power was up in the Fast 6.
The race was kind of a typical IndyCar street course race
in the sense that it was two or three stopper,
you know, what are we gonna do?
Couple guys rolled the dice and went one way,
couple guys rolled the dice and went the other way.
Ultimately, I thought it was a pretty good race.
I mean, I saw some people complain about not enough action,
but like, dude, we've had a lot of street courses
that don't race particularly well.
I thought this one did.
I don't know how you fell from behind the wheel.
Like, I know you're only seeing one race unfold
in front of you, but...
I didn't really see anyone all day.
I started 10th and technically finished 10th
and got promoted to ninth.
So yeah, I don't know.
I would just kind of pound a drop for 70 laps.
Well, there was some good moves,
including a pass for the lead and the final spin.
You know, Kirkwood had kind of pit stop problems all day long,
lost a lot of ground to Polo in that sense,
but clawed him back on the racetrack,
passed him and then left him, had a green and white checkered.
No, green and white to a checkered.
A one lap shootout and the race after caution.
We didn't get to a checkered, yeah.
Which we didn't get to because of a crash before the race even started.
But no, I mean, credit to Kyle and Andretti.
They did a great job.
Brian Hurd called a great strategy.
They did a great job on that.
Congrats to Will on getting his first podium
and first real result for Andretti with the new team.
I thought that was pretty solid.
There was some great drives, you know, honestly,
up and down the grid.
But no, I just overall can't get over how great the weekend was.
So credit to all involved.
Look forward to going back next year.
Can't wait for next year.
Dude, and I got to just say this.
This is not like, not an airdrop in here,
but we had Jerry Jones in the pre-ratio.
And I was a little bit nervous.
You ignored my text saying to get him on the podcast.
No, he said, I'm aware of him.
And I refuse to go on a show that he's involved in.
But so I was a little concerned because I was like,
okay, obviously he's Jerry Jones.
He's got a million things going on.
And obviously he's been a part of this race.
And I've heard these excited about it.
But like, how much time can you really spend getting to no indie car
and like getting involved in the minutiae of what's happening?
So when we're having them on, I'm like,
man, do we have to keep these questions kind of high level?
Like I don't want to put them on the spot about something that,
you know, he might not know.
And dude, Jerry's in.
Like Jerry does his homework.
Jerry switched on because T-Bell, God bless him.
I mean, I'm not surprised.
I'm not surprised, but I was relieved because you just never know.
Like if he hadn't had the time to dial in,
I wouldn't have like begrudged him that
because he's got a lot of going on.
But like T-Bell dove in with, you know, Jerry,
a month or so ago, you filmed a commercial or a feature
with Paddow Award about, you know, the thing and about the race coming.
It was a social clip, whatever.
And I'm sitting there being like,
God, I really hope that he knows who Paddow Award is at this point.
And Towson goes, he's like,
you spent a lot of time around high level athletes.
You know, what was it about Paddow that really kind of stood out to you?
And he's like, immediately he turns squares up a town.
So he goes, it was Paddow's controlled intensity that really got to me.
And I was like, oh, damn, he was paying attention.
That's Paddow. I actually get that.
That makes a lot of sense.
And he went on like, he had a lot to add,
very jazzed about the whole thing.
And I think he's super excited to come back in year two
and make it bigger, battered, better than ever.
Yeah, man, super excited, super excited.
Anyway, that's Wellington in a nutshell.
We didn't even cover a lot of stuff that happened in the race,
but we didn't have time.
It was just great.
Go back and watch it if you haven't.
Thank you for watching.
If you did all 1.3-something million of you, that was cool.
And I can't wait next week to talk about my favorite place coming up.
Well, coming up is going to be Barbara.
We'll preview that.
We will also, because we didn't get to,
and there's not another race in F1 either,
we'll talk about the Chinese Grand Prix,
because there are a few things about that I want to touch on.
And because there's no other race,
we'll make sure we recap Nashville.
If only there was somebody that was moving
that could talk about how that's been for them.
Guys, I don't know if you've noticed,
but my internet is bomb because I set up my mesh system today,
and I have full bars everywhere in the house now.
It's cool.
Yeah, it only took you a month for the internet.
Another month, you'll have your microphone set up properly.
It'll be great.
In my defense, my desk showed up yesterday,
and it was damaged, so we had to send it back.
So I was supposed to have my full setup ready to go,
and hey, you know what, Tim?
I'm actually like, in two months, no,
in a month, I'm going to have a dedicated room for this.
I've got a little pocket going into my office for this.
It's weird.
It took you so long to move when you were just getting new furniture.
Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Yeah.
What do you mean?
All of this, oh, moving so hard, you showed challenging,
but you just got new furniture.
It's just such a good impression.
You just got new furniture.
I'm just buying a desk.
I sold my old desk, and I'm getting a new desk.
That's the same couch.
I'm sitting on chairs that can't, just f**k you guys.
I just don't understand how Alex can just sound
so much like you with that impression.
It's uncanny.
It's uncanny is how I would describe it.
It's like they were two of them.
I wouldn't know which one to shoot.
All right, I'm stopping my recording now.
Goodbye.
This has been Off Track with Hinch and Rossi.
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