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Facials, Coffee, and St Pete
Facials, Coffee, and St Pete
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About this episode
The hosts kick off with lighthearted banter about facials and personal style before diving into a discussion about the evolving fashion and branding culture in Formula One compared to IndyCar. They share travel annoyances and reveal excitement for the upcoming IndyCar season at St. Pete, highlighting new broadcast innovations like drones and enhanced graphics. Predictions for top drivers and teams are debated, followed by an introduction to the new IndyCar fantasy game on Grid Rival, complete with strategy talk and a friendly league invite. The episode blends humor, insider insights, and race week anticipation.
Topics:
facials and personal grooming
f1 driver fashion and branding
travel stories and etiquette
indycar season preview
broadcast technology and graphics
race predictions
indycar fantasy game
team vs driver fan culture
St. Pete race weekend
podcast hosts banter
It's finally the opening week of the 2025 IndyCar season, so naturally we talk about getting facials, gift boxes, hot cold brewed coffee, and anything else we can think of before we finally dive into St Pete. It's going to be a great season.
Join the Hinchtown Hammerdown league on GridRival https://gridrival.app.link/4R4cDxNKhRb or use this code on the Join League screen: TKFTUR
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Jeep Wrangler
"...le coffee pod, but it's like an energy. It's cold wrangler and you pour it into water or sparkling water evi..."
Car
Ford F150
"I'm pretty sure there's a Wrangler edition. Like F-150 or Yeah. Chevy Silverado or something. King Range, but Okay. Um, Whatever"
Select text to request an explanation
This is off track.
Alex's camera is always low.
We're always looking up his nostrils. This
Is lower than usual.
Is it? What
Do you want?
I don't know. Alex, I want you to be
Able to frame your whole head in the frame. Not there. Do
Your beard or microphone.
You, you haven't done that in a while.
I don't have a beard right now.
Oh yeah. You do look kind of babyface.
What did you, what? What's happening? Are you
Switching to race week?
I had to get a facial yesterday.
I was just thinking about how much I want to go get a facial.
And I'm not even gonna say phrasing on that.
No, I'm Just, I've never had one.
It seems, it seems like they'd Be nice.
They're great. They're great. So you
Actually have a facial yesterday.
Yeah. Yeah. But you can't do it with a whole like face
With half a face.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so
I was expecting your money's worth.
I was expecting a few things for how this week's would episode would start.
I gotta wait. This was not it. This was not
A hypothetical.
The opening crescendo.
Why I look so phenomenal.
Yeah. So anyway, you obviously, yeah.
So this is your first time doing it then?
No, no. . Oh.
That's why I continue to look so phenomenal. So they don't work,
Right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're definitely getting
your money's worth on that.
Um, welcome to off track with ancient Rossi, guys. Um, dude,
You can tell me I look good.
It's fine. It's not weird.
I can and I would .
I hate it when mom and dad fight .
You look great sweetie. You look great.
Um, so wait, when did you do it?
'cause you have like a little, like did you didn't shave this morning, did you?
My facial was yesterday. Okay. Yeah.
I didn't like, I didn't like straight razor it.
I took it down to one half. No, you
Just, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
I feel like I could still do like from here up.
Like this is, this is the problem area, right?
Like this is what you're trying to fix all of This. You
Raccoon all of this.
Yeah. Yeah. And then raccoon eyes
and the crow's feet, right?
Yeah, For sure. What are
you trying to get rid of your like Chic?
Well, so, so, so what you wrinkles or Yeah. I mean, what?
You don't need a facial. You need Botox.
Um, which is not what I got.
I I just got like a hydro facial. Jesus.
You, you need surgery .
I need a, I need an eye lift. I need to get rid of.
Do you know what show? It's
Funny though. Facial. Facial isn't gonna fix
It.
Ain't gonna fix that. No. Well, the crow's feet. Yeah.
I'm not worried about those as much.
And I've realized, 'cause I look, 'cause when I smile, I do get these things right.
But I've looked back at old pictures.
I have literally had that since I was 16 years old. I don't,
That's a also like, who gives a Shit if you get wrinkles? Like,
Just, that's why I Not too worried about it.
No. I called this the laugh lines. Right. I've had a fight.
I've had a fun life. Who
Know?
But also like, you smile way more so like, that's, that's also, That's true. That's actually
A great point. Reason why don't
Smile.
That's why you don't need it, is because you just don't smile.
I don't think that's the reason you don't smile.
You're right. But it's now, now I have a reason. It's
A nice benefit.
Have either of you Just, uh, considered being overweight?
Because I'm told that's why I look young.
Oh. 'cause everything just, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
No, that's not really been a, been an option For point.
Is that also a point? Is that also why you cover so much
of your face with your hair?
Okay. You're just jealous
because I have the ability to do that. Both of
you. .
I got a haircut today. I could,
I also got a haircut today. I could.
Yeah. I have very thick hair. I like my hair. Thank you.
Yeah. 'cause it's what all the kids are doing now, right?
It's like they grow their hair and they like push it forward like this and they get perms and stuff.
Like, that's what kids look Like.
I hate that.
I hate everything happening right now. Yeah. Stop
It. You do Look younger.
Undo it. I don't undo it. Just make it
Not, don't.
I would rather look old than like that .
You look like a flashback on a show that didn't wanna hire another actor to play a younger you .
It's like if, like if Jimmy Fallon tried to play Jimmy Fallon in high school today. Yes.
Yeah. I hate it. Not great. I hate at all.
It's like, it's like when it's like in something about Mary, when Ben Stiller went back to high school, still looked like a 40-year-old band.
Like, they did not do a good job.
They just put like a long-haired wing on him and some braces and thought that was enough.
He was not enough. But, you know, it didn't matter.
It didn't matter because Franks and Beans was a hilarious scene.
Um, so , while we're talking on this topic, I read an article today about, well there's, I think there was a big, there was an article a long time ago that end of last year, about how Mercedes Formula One team had put out like a job thing for a new stylist for the drivers.
And it was like this really funny thing that like the team needed to hire their own stylist.
Did Joseph hire him? Uh, I, no. I don't know.
I mean, Mercedes put the job out.
I don't know who they ended Up with.
Oh no, I'm, I'm sorry. Did Joseph hire
like whoever left Mercedes?
Oh no, I don't, I don't know.
Does Joseph have weird fashion? It's,
No, not weird.
It just, just seems like he, he's definitely Like curated style.
Like someone's Right. Someone's up his, it's definitely
Artisanal. Yeah,
Right.
He curated artisanal sort of trend pieces. Yeah.
Right. I was actually just thinking
before this, I'm gonna start, every time Joseph posts one of these, I'm gonna to start posting my own version of whatever he posts.
Like just, oh, I like that. Recreate the photos that
Yeah.
Yeah, that's, you should definitely do that.
Um, but I mean, it got me thinking, right?
Like F1 is so different. Trendy. Yeah.
From Indy car that is trendy . But like, I don't know.
Another race series in the world.
And like, to be fair, I don't follow like the Moto GP riders closely enough to know if they do this or not.
But like most drivers in most series rock up in like a team shirt.
Mm-hmm . And to be fair, like it,
like Tappin famously still does that, right?
But like, most F1 drivers rock up to the paddock to that wall of photographers through the turnstile dressed in something's.
Right. But that's a new, well,
NFL does that too. Right?
That's super, that's super new, right?
Because Well, yes, but the NFL, the NBA, they've done that since The beginning.
NHL the drivers always have to, or drivers, the players always have to show up in suits. Like that's a thing,
Right?
But I think F1 became so big mm-hmm .
It became so mainstream that like they were getting such big brand deals that it was fortuitous for them and the teams to be like, all right, we don't really care if you're wearing our logo because we can cash in on you being a whatever Acne Studios ambassador.
But I feel like a lot of them with the exception of like, like I feel like George Russell just lives in Tommy Hilfiger gear.
Right? Sure. Like that's just kind of,
I mean now they switched to Adidas as their partner, but like Right.
You know, he lived, slept, showered, bathed, swam, and then, and he was just always in Hilfiger.
'cause that was their deal. I feel like a lot
of the other drivers don't do, it's not clothing deals tied to the team.
It might be like personal things, But No, no, but that's what I'm saying. It's tied to them.
But then wouldn't, as a team, wouldn't you be pissed that the first picture of you every weekend is not in team gear? I think like if I'm paying,
Yeah.
If I'm paying max $55 million and he rocks up and something that doesn't have Red Bull or Alpha Towery on it, like aren't going like's, Here's, Here's the thing, 5 million.
He's wearing a shirt with my face on it everywhere at all times.
So So here's the thing.
This goes back to the fact that Formula One is inherently different than IndyCar slash All American sports in the sense that the affinity, I know where you're going that the fans have, is with the teams.
It's not the driver. Like yes, in, there's, there's a lot
of max for Tappin fans in, in um, Holland, right?
There's a lot of max for Tappin fans in Austria and Spa or whatever.
But ultimately globally it's bull fans.
It's Ferrari fans, it's Mercedes fans, right?
Like I think Lewis Max, I think it's grown a little bit that those two are probably the outliers.
Fernando, you know, they're bigger than the brand, but ultimately like Yuki Sonota.
So yeah. Alex, Alex Alban like
Weird examples.
But like, I I, No, but the majority of the drivers bar five, I don't care about people pre 2020.
Right. I think a hundred percent That
Was the difference.
People done Nico Holgenburg. Well, no
More than they used to.
But like, IIII get what you're saying more.
It used to definitely be more team.
But like, I do think that drivers survive in social media allowed people to learn more about the drivers as people.
And they've become like, people are diehard Lewis fans.
People are diehard Orlando fans.
People are diehard Charles fans, the Carlos fans.
Like the amount, the amount of people that owned a Ferrari hat last year that are gonna own a Williams hat this year.
It's not insignificant. And it's not
because they read a book on <inaudible>, sir Frank.
Right. I I I agree with, with you
until about five years ago.
I would know, man. I would be very,
I don't know. I don't know if that's true. Yeah.
I don't know. I I believe you're right
with Lando, I, I left him out.
I think, I think Lando Max, Fernando and Louis bucked the trend.
I think they are bigger than the sport in a lot of respects.
They're bigger than the car than the brains that they drive for Sure.
Sure. I don't think, I don't know that Carlos is Shaw
maybe doubt it that beautiful Creature.
I dunno. He could drive for Kick Salur
and people would be just drooling over him.
I mean, a certain demographic would. But dude,
Ricardo's a great example.
Ricardo drove for Red Bull, drove for McLaren, then Alpha Tower, whatever.
But like, they followed, they followed him.
'cause he was Dan, right. They followed him 'cause of him.
I dunno, it's an interesting one 'cause I'm definitely with you.
Like there are a ton of Ferrari fans that'll just always support whoever's driving for Ferrari and drivers come and go, but the brand stays and whatever.
Um, but yes, in North America it has definitely always been and still is kind of a hundred percent, not a hundred percent, 90% driver based.
And, and 10% team.
You got your diehard Penske fans, your diehard Andretti fans, Ray Hall, whatever.
Um, but like would you want, would you want I wouldn't want the pressure.
I, one of my favorite parts, I just gonna say the pressure, that's the One of my favorite parts about packing for race weekends.
Is it like, I know exactly what my suitcase is and then I add in like one or two sweaters or t-shirts depending on the weather for like when I go to dinner for dinner.
Yeah. End of discussion. It's like the easiest pressure's
Exactly the word.
Yeah. I was gonna use of like, it's the easiest
Suitcase I have all year.
And like, you'd have to hire a stylist.
'cause like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing in that world.
So like, if you're gonna do it, you've gotta have some And that's just too much.
I don't, that's not, I don't love that side of things. No.
Mm-hmm. I, uh, I just thought it was hilarious
that this kid's like 18 and joining F1 and now like, has to have a stylist.
'cause if he doesn't do this, he's getting left behind.
It's like, that sucks. He just wants
to drive race cars, man.
That's, that's why I love Ax just throws on his polo.
He throws on his team polo and Rocks, rocks jeans, and goes to the track and wins championships and goes home.
Like, it's just great. I love his
Program.
Goes home to his sim To his sim and keeps driving stuff.
Yeah. And wins in that too because, you know, um,
I got a travel story that I forgot to tell from what?
Oh no, I guess no. I guess we haven't spoken since. Oh no.
When I was in what doesn't matter. Um,
Um, I have a bit of a travel story just real quick, not just Interrupts story. Two seconds. Just,
It'll take two seconds just before We I off track with Tim.
I thought, I thought you just, I it seemed like you were saying nevermind on telling it, saying It doesn't matter where he was.
I was my bad miss. No, no, Please carry on. Yeah, no
Captain, my captain Situation. Please. I misread
Situation.
Yeah. Well now we're gonna shame you.
So just tell the story. I
Just can't, I just, I I sat next to two people on two different flights in the same day.
Both of which were listening to videos on their phone without headphones on The whole time.
It's really a travel story. That's a grind in my gears.
It's a, I think we should be allowed to kill those people.
I think like I'm generally against the death penalty.
I'm for it for those people.
There was a small part of me that I was hoping you were gonna say.
Both people were watching videos of off track with in Rossi on YouTube, .
And honestly, if you watch off track without headphones on, on a plane, stop listening to our show. .
I don't want you, I don't want you as a listener.
Unsubscribe and throw your phone out. Yeah.
Um, no, I have to, I have an admission.
I have an admission because we have all these travel gripes and they're plentiful and they are all valid.
And the other day I was on a flight and I was inadvertently guilty of one of my most hated travel sins.
Uh, we talk all the time about the early morning flights and the window shades being down.
Yeah. And I swear to God, you know,
so I was on a very early flight, like a 6:00 AM flight and you know, they ask you to have the windows up for takeoff and landing.
Right? So I had the window up
and I actually don't, I'm more of an ILC guy.
So this is rarely my responsibility anyway. Mm-hmm .
So it's part of the reason why I forgot still on me, but I, at, at takeoff, like before takeoff I fell asleep.
It was 6:00 AM I had been up for a couple hours.
I was tired. And by the time I woke up, the sun was up
and it was coming into the plane.
So I had immediately shut the, the thing I will say, I was not the only one that had clearly had the same thing happen to them because there was like a lot, you know, it's the worst when there's one window open.
Yeah, yeah. There was like half a dozen of us
that had had broken the rule.
But I woke up with like an intense shame that I held for the rest of that flight.
And I just, I needed to dip that off my chest.
I feel like mistakes happen like that wasn't you, you were awake and actively chose not to do it. Uh, you know,
That's, yeah.
It's the guy on his laptop or the, you know, reading his book and just letting it happen.
Just letting the light flood in.
I don't know it, it was upsetting.
I was, I was upset at myself. But also,
Um, I'd be cool with the death penalty being used on you.
Yeah. No, it's just for that I wouldn't even fight it.
I wouldn't even fight it again. . Totally, totally fair. Uh,
Hey guys, it's race week.
It's super race week. That's what the internet says.
Are you excited Alex? Thrilled. Yeah.
Um, yeah man. , I'll be fine.
We have spent Months talking about how much you guys are excited for this.
No, I was just, I was keeping, I had been talking the whole show so far.
I was giving him a chance to, to give his 2 cents before I go Into it.
No, I, um, I, um, I am excited.
I I really don't know what to expect. Yeah.
Which is, I think everyone has that sensation, that feeling, that little bit of like where do we actually stack up and, um, what's gonna be presented to us in terms of a new tire from Firestone and like the hybrid at St.
Pete and all of these things that, you know, should be things we have answers to that we don't.
So I don't know. Like I just,
I I'm excited to get down there.
I'm excited to start getting into like, the rhythm of, of a race season and everything.
But in terms of like, oh, I'm excited 'cause I think we're gonna be really good or I'm excited.
'cause I think this is like gonna be an awesome opportunity to like surprise some people.
It's like, I, I don't know man.
I'm just, I'm ex I'm, I'm excited to go excited.
Get back work. I'll kind lead that work. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. And I'm, I'm very excited to like, introduce, um,
you know, all of the, the Splenda and Heartland and Java House people to racing.
'cause like, their taste of it currently is like a, a semi-private test to Indianapolis and then like a half day at Sebring.
So I don't think telling me that didn't really get them going. Yeah. I
Don't really know that they are fully aware of what they signed up for at this point.
They're, they might be like, huh.
But, uh, no, I, I'm just excited for, for them to get to experience a, a race weekend for the first time.
And yeah. I mean that's, that's the, the most exciting part.
Speaking about Splenda and Java House and being excited to experience things.
I'm excited to experience all of the little goodies that came in the gift box that I got from ECR with supplies from their new partners, including, wait, Splenda products, why didn't I get a gift box?
So there's a lot of reasons.
Tim, where would you like me to start? Nice.
Kind of, I had heard rumors that those were happening, but I didn't know if those were actually happening.
So they were happening. That's kind, that's kind of
Cool.
I text, I text ed to say thank you and even he was like, oh, wow, those have already shown up .
Right. So a plethora of different Splenda products. Mm.
The one I'm really looking forward to trying.
'cause I don't drink, I don't put Splenda in any, I don't drink coffee.
I don't drink tea that I sweeten, you know, but they've got like the water things.
Mm-hmm . Right? Like that you que like
Water enhancers.
There you go. There you go. Yeah.
I wasn't gonna name the other brand that I know of that does these like, but there's another brand like, correct.
Yeah. Um, so yes.
Uh, I'm excited to try those. I'll, I'll name
It. I'll name all the
competitors. .
No, Neil's the only one that is a competitor.
Like, cool, I'm gonna go buy a box, other one.
And they're, you know, I think at some point it's just a matter of time before they just own me up. So
Just also own that.
Yeah. Uh, and then, yeah.
And then I got all the, now as you know, I don't drink the coffee, but the, those little pods that you just pour into a cup mm-hmm .
Which is like, that's actually really smart.
I think you already talked about Greg.
Explain it. Did, did you not know that that was a thing?
I didn't. I you had explained it, but I didn't entirely.
It just until you, you're holding it.
So like you get these little pods, but rather than putting them into a machine, you just pour them into either hot water or cold water and you either have a hot coffee or a cold brew and off you go.
And I'm like, that's actually really smart.
So you're wrong. I'm, I never have been. Right. So,
And I learned, I learned this, um, also very recently.
I thought that if you poured it, excuse me, into cold water, it was a cold brew.
No, no. Yeah. But I said all of it is,
all of it is a cold brew.
That is the way that you brew the coffee to get to the concentrate.
So it's cold brew coffee, whether it's hot coffee or not.
Cold brew has nothing to do with the temperature. Nothing
To do with the temperature.
What? I also had no idea. Isn't that wild?
It's, it's like that second word in cold brew matters.
Yes. . Yeah,
You're right.
Yeah.
I but No one, But it's, it's marketed as a cold iced beverage.
Like everyone believes that cold brew is just an iced coffee.
A different, like a higher quality version.
I don't, no, I don't think anybody, I don't, I I'm gonna, I think some people do, but I don't think everybody believes that cold brew and iced coffee are the same. Tim,
I have talked to no less than 25 people.
25 of which are like no <inaudible> way. Are you serious?
So, well you're get off Your pedestal.
I'm a bad example 'cause I don't order coffee.
So I don't know what is normal. No.
But like that is, no one knows this.
I would love, I wanna go order, order a cold brew cold longer For that reason.
But I wanna go order a cold brew from Starbucks and have them ask me cold or hot or if it shows up cold being like I didn't order it cold.
Yeahs cold brew. I generally
Have it cold, cold brew.
You can order an iced coffee at Starbucks, which is Regular.
Do you generally have cold? It's just the way it's brewed.
If you order a cold brew coffee, it should come Hot.
It's less bitter. It tastes better cold.
I'm just saying if you get an iced coffee, that's a hot brewed coffee that is then iced.
A cold brew is specifically the process of how you brew it.
And you usually have it cold.
No you shouldn't because coffee defaults to hot.
Tim, you have to specify that you want an iced coffee.
Yeah. Regular coffee defaults
To hot. So when you hold a cold brew,
Cold Brew to be hot brew Defaults to cold.
No, it doesn't brew.
It's an entirely different taste profile.
It doesn't it 'cause of how it's brewed cold. That's where you're wrong.
Cold brew doesn't default to cold.
No, not A cold product.
If you go, if you go to, to Starbucks right now and order a cold brew coffee, they'll give you a hot cold brew coffee.
No, but that's where it's So It defaults to cold.
No, but incorrectly. And
That is where society is wrong. Including you.
God, I hate this . No, this is reality.
When you go to Java House and get a cold brew coffee, it's hot.
Well that's weird. No, it's not cold because
It's, It's like the second word matters.
Are you guys done the second word and cold brew matters?
Yes. We get it. It It revert. Okay.
Flight about this later. That's not the point.
The point is I got a box of cold <inaudible> and you didn't, that's the Point.
Yeah. I'm obviously very upset about that. Okay.
Taking my anger out elsewhere.
And cold brew coffee is better cold. Okay. And I'm just mad
Now.
Sure. I'm, I'll agree with you on that.
'cause I don't, I don't know. So I'll just,
I'm just gonna let you have it. Okay. An
Entirely different taste profile.
They also have tea so that you can pour the tea into hot stuff and that into hot water cold stuff.
And then it's grad. Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, I guess I guess there's iced tea Because they have like a hibiscus peach tea.
They've got energy drinks you can pour into.
I was gonna say, that's exactly what Ed told me to do.
I will say though, the logo the logo, so it's a little energy.
So same thing, a little coffee pod, but it's like an energy.
It's cold wrangler and you pour it into water or sparkling water evidently to kind of like make a Red Bull knockoff or whatever.
But the, the logo on the front of the, um, energy pod right on the top of the energy pod, it looks to me like, do you remember the movie role models?
Yes. And they worked for that Mino Tar Energy drink. Yes.
The logo for that. It looks like it was ripped off.
It look, it almost looks like it was a suit. Maybe
You need to build the truck.
Maybe you need to build the truck.
The, with the Wrangler truck.
I'm pretty sure there's a Wrangler edition.
Like F-150 or Yeah. Chevy Silverado or something.
King Range, but Okay. Um, Whatever
They, uh, it doesn't make your piss turn Shrek green though.
I'll, I will confirm that You can, you can speak from experience.
Yeah. Uh, far. Yeah. But
You're getting paid from by them.
So how do we I That's true.
Dunno if I'm taking your word for it.
I think you got some Shrek green pea you're trying to hide.
I can go pee right now. If you know what you, you
Know what, you know how we could solve this.
Somebody could send me a box of these products.
I could test them just, just to test them.
Somebody could send me a box.
Well, uh, ed, if you're listening , we know his address is and we know he is not .
Total sidebar. Completely unrelated.
Did you guys realize that tater tots is a short form and that the full thing the Sure Tim does the proper name would be potato toddlers? No.
Sure Tim know, but I, that , that's tater tots are if you work it out, that's potato toddlers. That's how
I'm gonna order from now on.
I cannot wait to go go to a restaurant with you and watch the server's face when you order a side of potato. Thomas.
Yeah. Can I get some of those, uh, potato adolescents?
Ooh. See that's when you get arrested though.
That's when they step in. They're like,
That's right.
And I wouldn't fight it. I'd be like, good, good call. Yeah.
You're like, I, I I should, I deserve this, this thing.
You know, if you're not gonna call, I'll call him .
Um, okay. So Alex is coly optimistic
and just happy to go back to work. Yeah.
He Seems thrilled. Which is, which is great.
Tim, are you coming to St. Pete? No.
God, I hope not. Um, I'm very excited.
I am very also kind of nervous because yeah, it's like a brand new first day of school for so many people in the TV side as well.
Um, but really excited because again, like the first race of the season, you go in with this, this like optimism.
The world is your oyster, right?
Like everything is is fresh. Everything's a clean slate.
You can do so much more.
And you know, we've really gotten into the swing of things the last 48, 72 hours have just been like, nonstop meetings and phone calls and just seeing all the stuff start to come together now.
Like it was all sort of piecemealed and patchwork and you know, like now it's all really sort, sort of coming together, the team's coming together.
Um, I'm hoping that by the time this airs we'll have an idea of pit lane reporters.
I can't say who they are in case that hasn't happened yet, but I mean, it's Thursday, so we're on track tomorrow.
By the time you're listening to this, I'm pretty sure you'll know.
Um, but, but very, very pleased with how that turned out.
And I just can't wait, man.
Like there's, it's been such a buildup, right?
Like we've talked about the Fox Association so much now.
We've seen a lot of what they've done.
There's still a lot of things that you haven't seen yet that I'm excited for everyone to see.
I'm excited to get Will onto a session for the first time.
I'm excited for the first qualifying session for the first race. Just all those things.
Um, have you guys talked at all about, because obviously in on the race team side of things and the series side of things, our sport, I mean, it's performance driven.
Like it's, it's numbers driven.
It's, it's, it's results driven.
So has there been a conversation at all about like what would deem st Team a success?
Success? Yeah. There's not, we have not had that chat yet.
Okay. Um, I know that was something, you know,
in years prior that they sort of shied away from.
So I don't know if that's an industry thing For fear of overshooting.
I, yeah. I don't know if it's a
superstition thing or a Okay.
Fear of overshooting thing.
Um, so I don't know the answer to that.
But obviously when it's your first crack at the first race of a new, you know, multi-year relationship, no one's looking for it to be a light switch, right?
Like, we're not expecting to have double the ratings that we had last year.
I think my, my belief is that we wanna see steady growth.
You know, we're gonna, there's gonna be things that roll out throughout the course of the season that we won't have in St.
Pete. There's gonna be things that evolve
and change as we do some of these shows and we learn what the fans respond to or we learn some new capabilities that we have or how to utilize certain people or things or whatever.
So I think what's cool about this year from the TV side is it is gonna be an evolution.
What you see in St.
Pete is not gonna be the end product that you see for the next X number of years.
Um, we already have things planned for later in the year.
We are gonna be very open to feedback and fan response.
Um, it's, it's, it's exciting in that sense, right?
So just as we don't have every single thing going into just this race, I don't think any sort of numerical goal is being set in terms of, in terms of that.
I think a success is to not have any major catastrophes on air. That would be nice.
Do you wanna know something? I am going to watch
probably my first full IndyCar broadcast Monday.
As you should. As you should.
I'm excited with all of this just to see what they do.
Yeah. Like it's, it seems like our sports needed a refresh,
forget, forget partners in terms of like promotion and all that sort of thing.
Like the biggest thing that I see when I watch a Formula one race is it's just beautiful to look at mm-hmm .
Like, okay, the, the tracks are beautiful.
That's, that's not anything really Fox can do right now, but just the, the clarity of the graphics, the, the, the presentation of the entire broadcast is just such at a high level that sometimes it doesn't even matter if it's a good race or not, it's just kind of pretty to look at that sort of thing.
And I think that's been missing for us for, for such a long time that, you know, some of the graphics were clunky.
Some of the, the, the timing screens didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Um, there was a, a lot of shortcomings in terms of the audience really know, knowing what was going on behind the scenes.
Um, like from the driver on boards and that sort of thing.
And some of the stuff's that's been leaked that you probably can't talk about 'cause it's not officially out yet.
It just looks really cool and really elevated and something that this series is needed for a long time.
So I'm pumped to watch from start to finish on Sunday.
Yeah. I'm, I'm excited to see what you think
of your first ever IndyCar race.
Hmm. Um, no,
but like the, the graphics is a big talking point and yeah, some of it was leaked online.
Um, what was, you know, which is not ideal.
What's interesting about it though is that the feedback was largely really good.
Um, so you kind of had this little bit of a like, soft launch litmus test about how people are gonna react to it.
Um, and that's, that's honestly something that I know that the team at Fox, the graphics team at Fox, all the producers, everybody, they've, they've put a lot of work into and they're, they're really proud about what's come out of, of the graphic side.
And everything I've seen has been awesome. I'm excited for everyone to
See it.
So, one question, one question I have is there, I know that obviously IMS productions is still involved, um, very heavily from a hardware standpoint of like cameras and that sort of thing.
Has there been additional, like, cameras that are being purchased or rented or whatever, is there gonna be more angles, um, from like the, the track shots, forget onboards and, and that sort of thing?
Yes. Um, okay, so, so, so yes. Yes and no.
Sort of the, the way it really works is it's less about number of cameras and it's more about camera positioning, right?
And so the team from Fox will have gone around to, I'm not sure if they've been to every track yet.
I'm sure they do it in chronological order and make a plan.
But the director, and mainly the director, but the director and producer, they'll go out, they'll look at all the kind of existing spots.
They'll look at old broadcasts, they'll look at camera angles they like, but then they'll also look for opportunities for new ones.
And I know that at a lot of tracks, We really need like a low one through turn three.
Like with facing the entry of turn three At St. Pete.
At St. Pete, I think that'd be so sick.
Like those cars, like if you I agree. Understood.
If you've ever stood there visually and watched like through two, watched the acceleration and then bouncing and, and stuff over the bumps in three flat out, you see the suspension, the tire flexing, like that'd be really cool.
Yeah. There's one on the exit of two, or I exited three.
Sorry. That kind of sees them coming at you
and then follows 'em down the straightaway.
Um, at least there has been, I don't, I don't know what changes have been made in that sense.
Sure. But there's gonna be like,
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this.
I'm trying really hard to think if it was mentioned in our media call today.
So I'm gonna say it and then I'll double check. Check in.
Need to cut it? Yeah, we're gonna have drones in St. Pete.
Oh, I can say it. 'cause they told me that.
Cool. So we're gonna have drones in St.
Pete, uh, which is, which is really cool.
I mean, that's like, that's something that's been missing.
Like, there's so many fun things, things miss you. Uh,
My god. .
So, and you wonder why you didn't get any coffee products.
Mm-hmm . And some and sweetener products.
Um, so yeah, so there's gonna be cool stuff like that.
There's more tech with like the pointers and there's the cool graphics thing that it got leaked, but I'm gonna wait until people get to see it.
Um, so yeah, I'm just excited man. It's, there's
Some, some ghost car footage, All that stuff.
Like, there's some cool stuff coming and like, I'm also terrified 'cause there's also like, there's so many things that we don't know yet.
There's so many things that like, and Downs and I were talking about this, we're going into the weekend kind of almost with an assumption because certain things are just, have always like in and our experience have been done a certain way.
And I know we're gonna get there.
Like something's not gonna have happened the way that we expect it to because nobody knew that that's how something should have happened.
And we're like, oh man, nobody thought about this. Okay.
How do we how do we put this fire out? Sort this out.
So I'm, it's gonna be interesting to talk after the first weekend and see like how many of those things happened behind the scenes.
So if you were a betting man, who, who do you think, who are your top three, four favorites that you have going into the weekend?
That is a great question.
Um, look man, I mean, I think that if you look at what Penske was last year, there, they were very strong Cheating.
But even, even without the extra push to pass, they did very well.
Um, I think, uh, I think you can look back at that race and think that Patto did a hell of a job to hang on to second, to be honest.
Yes. Um,
With less cheating.
With less cheating, certainly mm-hmm .
Um, but even sub cheating, I feel like that's, you know, uh, I mean we know, I mean Joseph wasn't cheating.
Like there was no, whether you want to use the word cheating or not, there was no shenanigans and qualifying.
He was on poll. So.
Correct, correct. Do I think
what happened won him of the race?
I don't. Um,
and if you look at the date of what Scott's contribution to that controversy were Correct.
It, it affected his race 0.0%. Correct? Yes.
So, and they still finished 1, 3 4.
So, um, the only thing that kept a podium sweep was just Patto hanging the hell onto a, you know, a super loose race car.
Mm-hmm . Um, so I think and at Sea Bbr they were strong.
Not that that really matters, but it doesn't not matter.
So mm-hmm. I think they're gonna be very, very good.
Um, I love the fact that she Was a Penske car. Can't have three.
No, you can't have three. Okay.
So I think that the top performer from Penske is going to be, I think it's gonna be power.
I'm gonna go on a limb here and say power.
Even though the other two have won there more recently.
He was quick as sea ring. Howard
Has more polls.
Yeah. Howard's got more poles than anybody ever. Mm-hmm.
Uh, so I'm gonna go with power. Okay.
I think I'm looking at, I Dixon's never won this race.
It's one of four races on the calendar.
He is never won at, he's been second I think four times here.
Mm-hmm . And I would love to see him do it.
And he's probably a Bit incentivized after the past couple years, isn't he?
Yep. Yep. It's not, it's not normal in Scott's career
to have a teammate beat him to the championship that many times.
He kind of had it with Dario at a time actually.
So, but you know, then he bounced back from that and went on a <inaudible>.
So I think Dixon's gonna be strong.
Obviously Patto I think will be the Tom McLaren guy and he'll be strong. I
Mean, I think Rossi's gonna win.
Colton's gonna be strong at Andretti. Cool.
Rossi's gonna blow people away.
He's gonna, he's gonna be the, he's gonna be the story of the weekend.
Alex Rossi. Interesting.
The big upgrades at over at ECRI think are gonna turn some heads.
Mm. Um, curious to see my
Head with all of the grip.
You know, I said it first, all of just the, the load going through the thing.
I'm just like, oh my God, I didn't train enough neck for the amount of lateral grips he has. . I
Just, I want to point it out that when Alex does win, I'm, I was the first one to say it.
James said it after I did.
That's true. That's true.
Um, and then if he doesn't, I can be, you can be the first one to have jinxed him and cost him the win. You know,
Maybe he would've won if I got a box . Okay.
So anyway, speaking of predictions, uh, uh, Indy car has a new fantasy game and it's through a third party app called Grid Rival.
Grid rival. Do they do F1 fantasy?
They do nascar, fantasy, whatever.
They're now the official partner of IndyCar fantasy.
And Alex, as you know, I participate in a football fantasy league or two.
No, you don't. And I participate.
I mean, I pay my $60 I auto draft a team, right.
And then I tune back in, uh, 16 weeks later at The end to see if I won, To get, to get told how poorly I did.
Right. So, and I did the same thing with the,
the F1 TV guys made me join an F1 fantasy league last year.
I did the same thing. I didn't
even know you could change lineups.
I picked five cars off the start and never touched it.
I didn't even come last in the league, which is pretty shocking.
Um, so unlike our football Thing, so how does it, how does, how does it work though?
Like, because are you, is there a draft, are you drafting players before or drivers before the season starts?
So here, here's like the really high level version of how it works.
Okay. You get a budget to start,
it's a hundred million dollars.
Every driver is given, uh, a dollar value and you have to pick a team of five drivers.
Now you can sign those drivers up for a, um, a contract of one to five races after fi after you have a driver's contract expire, you have to sit them out for at least one race and then you can have them back on the team.
But drivers' values ebb and flow based on their performance and races.
So essentially what you're trying to do is you're starting with a hundred million dollars, but the goal is as your contracts move around, your budget is actually going up and you can keep getting good guys and better guys and whatever to kind of keep your points tally going up.
Um, I have started a league, it is called Hinch Town Hammer down.
Um, Alex, you're gonna join it. Tim, you are gonna post.
I'm good. I don't need to join it.
No, you're not. I wasn't asking you to join it. Yeah.
You're gonna post a link, um, on the off track socials for everybody to click onto, uh, to join the league.
Yeah. Once I get my box
of hunched down hammer damn beer, I will post that link.
I don't think that exists. I'll send you a box anymore.
I just want a box of anything. And you know what?
I just wanna feel like I'm getting something, you know. Okay. I'm
Gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna Uber eats you a I'm gonna Postmates you a box of milk duds.
I would love that. Okay. . I'll do that for if I,
Okay.
So, so I assume, I assume Alex below is the highest value currently he before the season, season starts.
So what is, what is the highest guy worth? How much does he cost?
Let's, let's bring it up.
This is, that's a good question. That's a very good
Question is are we talking about is he worth 10 million?
Is he worth 50 million?
No, it's like 30, I think.
Is is Alex allowed to play or is there, is there, can you I'm not.
Can you, like, do you win money? Like
Tell I'm not gonna affect my result for my fantasy program, .
I I'm just set, you know, rules.
So I'll, I'll rules. This is actually interesting.
I'll, I'll run you down the top 10.
I'll run you down the top 11. You're 11th.
So, uh, PLO is, that's is 30 million.
I'm 11 30 million for plo.
Uh, 28.6 for power, 27.2
for Dixie, 25.8 for McLaughlin,
24.4 for new Garden.
23 for Herda, 21.6 for Patto,
20.2 for Kirkwood.
Man, this app has, has drastically overestimated how much IndyCar drivers car paid 18.8 for lard, 17.4 for Erickson, and then Rossi at 16.
So that's your top 11.
So you've gotta build five and then like all the way down to 27 to Schwarzman, obviously never done a race.
And he's 3.5, Jacob Abel, 3.5, Louis Foster, de, Francesco,
Rasmussen, stingray, and Calot are all 3.5.
Um, okay, if, if we do this, I think there needs to be an ongoing section of off track.
Hold on. Where you guys talk about who beat who.
That's fine. I like that.
Where, where do these values come from?
I don't know exactly. Well, I've,
I've already got 125 people in the league and we haven't even like announced it yet.
So this is good because, because I just, I have some questions, but anyways.
Okay. . Yeah, I don't, I don't know exactly.
And look, I'll be honest with you man, there are, there are, there are rules to this that I don't know.
There are like, I don't know exactly how guys make points if it's just based on positions, qualifying, if it's passing, like there could be a sort of whole complicated algorithm as to it all.
Um, but yeah, so like you click on it and you can sign 'em up for where, where are you?
You can sign 'em up for like three, four, or five races max.
And then it says here, all drivers and teams will lock for one race after their contracts are completed.
So you kind of have to pan it out, right?
And you're like, okay, well I know so-and-so's gonna be good at this race, so I can't be, I gotta make sure he is not locked out there.
Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So like, there's some fun strategy
to it and you're gonna have to like actually think about it.
Um, so yeah. Okay. Inch shot hammer down on
Grid Rival.
Listen, listen. Another game for me
to beat you at. Sign me up
Pal.
Alright. We need a little side bet.
We need a little side. Be fine.
Fine. Whoever loses has to send me a box
of some nice stuff.
Deal , That's vague enough that they can come up with.
She's gonna get socks. You gotta get a box of
Socks.
You know what, you know how you've seen my socks?
You know, I need socks.
, I have worn through most of my socks.
I don't know if I walk weird or I'm just like, I dunno what's going on there, but I wear it through socks. I weird,
Weirdly hard on socks. Aren't you, pal? Yeah.
Yeah, Yeah.
Well, do you Use 'em for more than just walking?
I don't think that's a best puppets thing that anybody actually did.
Hand puppets, , he puts on puppet shows.
, he draws on them with Sharpies and puts on little puppet shows.
Yeah. Well I'm going to now.
Well, yeah. I can't wait to see that. Um,
All right.
So that's kind of cool, James.
Uh, I'll, I'll participate just because can you auto draft ? No,
You have to actually do it.
That's why I'm nervous. 'cause like, it's gonna take a lot
of effort, but I feel like I won't forget because I'm at the race every weekend.
Right. Like my, my biggest drawback
with fantasy football was that I never remember to set a line up Or watch the race or watch the games.
Watching the games doesn't affect the outcome.
So neither does watching the race.
No, but I'm at the race to remember to set a light. Sure.
Okay. That's the point. Yeah, that's the point.
Okay. And like, I don't, 'cause I don't watch the games.
I don't know who's good or bad or like who's doing better, like who to trade, like trade.
I've never traded in fantasy of a ball. Right.
I could definitely see you just like, you know, puncturing a tire of whoever Alex drafted, just strap there on the grid. Just,
Yeah.
I don't think I'm that Petty me.
As long as they qualify in front of me.
Guys, we are not gonna fix races for the fantasy.
He's just gonna start drafting whoever's ahead of him in points.
He's sabot for him.
not gonna happen. Not gonna happen
because I have faith that Alex will just beat them on his own. Oh
Man. You,
This is, this is a fun thing that's happening.
It's, uh, it's 4 47 on a Tuesday. Um, I had some
People and the sun's still up.
I had some people, uh, scheduled, um, for 8:00 AM this morning to come replace a gutter.
Uh, they just arrived. So,
So they gave you that whole, uh, eight to 10 window, but it was 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM .
Right. I am curious what they think they're going
to be doing at this point.
They're Gonna be, it's not my problem. Replacing
Your gutters, man. Mm.
I feel like that's more than a hour job, but, okay. Here we are.
We'll find out next week. That'll be the most important
thing we talk about on next week's show.
Mm-hmm . What happened with Alex's gutters.
In the meantime, safe travels to St. Pete.
Very best of luck, Tim.
I'll see you there. Can't wait. Tim, whatever.
Tim. Whatever, man. But thanks
for that. Yeah. I'm gonna, oh
Yeah.
I'm gonna watch it with my buddies. Doug
and Zach, we're gonna have a great time.
Hi Doug And Zach, but you wish you had some cold brewed coffee that you could Put in there?
Yeah. I been very clear about wishing that,
that I had gotten one of those boxes too.
Well, you can order, you can order it on Amazon, bro.
Beat your house probably in four hours.
No, . You missed the point. , you missed the entire point.
I don't think he did, pal. I don't think he did.
This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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