Off Track with Hinch and Rossi Mar 19, 2026

F35s and Arlington

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

47:53

Car

F-35

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.

Car

F-14

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.

Term

quality control

Quality control means checking the car to make sure it works right and is safe before it leaves the factory.

Term

0-60 time

0-60 time means how fast a car can go from stopped to 60 miles per hour. It shows how quick the car is.

Term

indicator

An indicator is a blinking light on the car that shows when the driver wants to turn left or right.

Term

hazard lights

Hazard lights are blinking lights on a car that tell other drivers there is a problem or danger.

Term

stealth surveillance plane

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.

Concept

pit lane

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.

Concept

Formula One

Formula One is a type of car race with very fast and advanced cars that race on special tracks all over the world.

Concept

Formula E

Formula E is a type of car race where the cars run only on electricity and race on city streets.

Concept

NASCAR

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.

Concept

IndyCar

IndyCar is a type of car race in the US with very fast, open-wheel cars that race on different kinds of tracks.

Concept

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.

Concept

street course

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.

Term

street circuit

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.

Term

FIA

FIA is the group that makes rules for big car races. They have special paint for race tracks that helps cars stick to the road better and be safer.

Term

hot tires

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.

Term

hot brakes

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.

Concept

Fast 6

Fast 6 is a part of qualifying where the six fastest drivers race to see who starts at the front in the main race.

Term

pit stop

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.

Term

green and white checkered flag

In some races, a special flag with green and white colors means the last lap is happening. After this lap, the race finishes.

Term

one lap shootout

Sometimes, after a pause in the race, drivers get just one lap to race and decide who wins. This makes the finish very exciting.

LIVE

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Off Track is part of the Serious XM Sports Podcast Network.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more,

please give a five-star rating and leave a review.

Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.

We are at Ask Off Track on Twitter and Instagram,

and if you want to follow us on Twitter,

we're at Hinchtown and at Alexander Rossi.

If you want to follow Thim, though we have no idea why you would,

he's at the Tim Durham on Twitter.

Find us on YouTube and subscribe to our channel

for exclusive video content.

Off Track is produced by Tim Durham,

and by that we mean Thim.

About this episode

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.

0-60 time Fast 6 FIA first year temporary circuits Formula E Formula One green and white checkered flag hazard lights hot brakes hot tires

Original notes

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.

+++

Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a 5-star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.

Want some Off Track swag? Check out our store!

Check out our website, www.askofftrack.com

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

Want some advice? Send your questions in for Ask Alex to [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Off Track with Hinch and Rossi

SiriusXM

View classic page →

0:00

47:53