The Pits Are Open Podcast May 22, 2026

Indy 500 Practice Wreck & Capital vs Merit in Racing with Ava Gregory and John Oreovicz

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50:51

Topic

IMSA's Motul Petit Le Mans

This is a big long-distance sports car race in North America run by IMSA. It’s called “Petit Le Mans” and it’s the kind of event where teams have to manage the car for a long time, not just go fast for a few laps.

Car

69 Beetle

That’s a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. It’s a famous old VW that’s popular to work on yourself, and it’s often chosen as a learning project car.

Term

project car

A “project car” is a car you work on yourself. Instead of just driving it, you fix it up or improve it over time.

Place

Atlanta Motorsports Park

This is a race track in the Atlanta area. The speaker is saying it was a convenient place for them to get involved with cars and learn while they were working there.

Term

replacing the engine

This means they swapped out the car’s engine for a different one. People do this when the original engine is broken or too worn out to be worth fixing.

Concept

welding

Welding is how you permanently join metal pieces together. Car people use it when they’re fixing rust or replacing damaged metal parts of the body.

Part

floor pan

The floor pan is the metal “base” under the seats and carpet. Replacing it usually means the car had rust or damage in the floor area, and it’s a bigger repair than just fixing a dent.

Term

differential

A differential is a part that helps the wheels spin at different speeds, especially when you’re turning. That’s because the outside wheel has to go farther than the inside wheel. It’s usually in the rear, but some cars have it in the front too.

Topic

Canadian GP

The Canadian GP is a big Formula 1 race in Canada. It’s one of the main races on the F1 schedule, and teams plan their strategy around it.

Topic

Indy 500

The Indy 500 is a huge IndyCar race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s known for going very fast on an oval track and for qualifying that determines who starts where.

Topic

qualifying

Qualifying is when drivers race against the clock before the main race. Your qualifying position often affects where you start, which can matter a lot during the race.

Brand

McLaren

McLaren is a famous racing team/brand in motorsports. Here, it’s mentioned because the host is working with McLaren during the Indy 500 weekend.

Concept

electrification

Electrification means using electric power instead of (or alongside) gasoline engines. In racing, it can change how the car accelerates and how the race is run.

Concept

Formula One

Formula One is a major racing series with very advanced race cars. The discussion here is about what kind of engine sound and power fans want.

Term

V8

A V8 is a type of engine with eight cylinders. People often talk about V8s because they can sound and feel a certain way.

Concept

balloon release

A balloon release is a track ceremony where balloons are released for show. The speaker is using it to point out that some old race traditions don’t happen much anymore.

Term

road courses

Road courses are race tracks that use a mix of turns and elevation changes, often resembling public-road layouts rather than oval-only circuits. In racing series planning, road courses can support larger grids than some oval events, which affects how many cars can compete at once.

Term

pit box

A pit box is the specific spot in the pit lane where a team’s car pulls in. If you have more cars than pit boxes, you can’t work on them all at the same time, which changes strategy.

Term

pit crew

A pit crew is the group of mechanics that works on the car during a pit stop. The faster and more coordinated they are, the less time the car loses on pit lane.

Topic

car IRL split

They’re talking about a past situation where American open-wheel racing split into competing sides. Their point is that splitting again would likely hurt the sport because there aren’t enough people to support two versions.

LIVE

54321

The pit stop is vital to every race team's success.

Pull out the track, let your team go to work.

Outside, outside, clear.

Change all four tires, fill the fuel cell,

and make needed adjustments all in eight seconds or less.

Well, it's the biggest week in racing, at least in the United

States, I think, at least in my mind, in my life.

Indy 500 coming up.

Cannot wait.

Carb day tomorrow, which is wonderful.

Hey, welcome to The Pits are Open.

Willem Roddy, your host, Alex Smith, our engineer producer,

and all the folks on SpeedSport.

If you're watching later as recorded,

please maybe on YouTube or something,

please like, subscribe, comment.

If you're watching on Spotify or listening on Spotify,

please like and follow us as well.

And then we always want you to go to our website,

thepitsareopen.com.

I have so much to talk about.

We have two incredibly good guests today.

You're going to love the program.

You know, it was an amazing thing.

We were thinking that all month,

through all the practices and qualifying,

we barely had a car touch the wall.

And I was thinking about this morning.

I can't hardly remember a time in all my years

of being an 8,500 fan.

We had such a clean month.

And then the last practice of Monday took place.

Alex, do you have that footage?

This was brutal, absolutely brutal.

I think started with Alexander Rossi, lost it,

coming out of the turn, got hit by Pato.

I think Roman Grosjean was involved in it as well.

Oh gosh, just a really, really heavy, heavy contact.

Good thing it happened on Monday,

so they have time to, ooh, that just massive into turn two.

Wow, that was just heavy, heavy contact.

I don't know, it's just, wow.

Mm, man.

You got a good sense of it from the onboards too.

Yeah, yeah, it was heavy contact and yeah,

we'll see if Rossi's ready to go for carb day

if they'll clear them, we'll see.

Anyway, yeah, big, big impact, crazy, crazy.

And unfortunate too, because it was such a clean month.

And exciting qualifying, of course, Saturday,

qualifying got rained out, everything got done on Sunday

and you know, Alex Polo, hello, Polo, what can you say?

First time since what, 2010, a 500 winner

won the poll the next year, he's won two back-to-back

polls now, and here's a guy we were talking about

a year and a half ago, two years ago.

Could he win on an oval or he never won an oval before?

And I'd say he's gotta be the odds-on favorite

for Sunday's race, and I love Alex,

so I would not be at all discouraged if I did,

but tell me, tell me what's going on for the race.

Those of you who are interested in what Will Moratti's doing.

So a friend of mine who's a driver has been

for several years, hosting for a team up

in the Tower Terrace Suites, right across, literally,

from where we are in Holman Terrace Club,

and I told him, I said, man, I'd love to be a fly

in a wall and just mirror his shadow you

and see what you do.

So he says, yeah, I'll ask him if you can come up,

I'm there anyway, right?

So I got a call from him a couple weeks ago,

and he said, hey, you know, anyone wanted to shadow me?

And I said, yeah, he said, I got something bigger for you,

so what's that?

Well, you know, this team is so large,

they have so many sponsors, yes,

they have their Tower Terrace Suites,

which is a double, like a double wide,

and then they do the pop-up, you know,

the giant pop-up that they plant, usually in turn two,

and he said, they want me to be in the pop-up this year,

so they need somebody to host in the Tower Terrace Suites,

and I'm like, you're kidding me, right?

And he goes, yeah, I said, you could do it.

I said, I don't know if I could do it,

I've never done it before.

So anyway, they called, we spoke, and so race day,

I'll be up in Tower Terrace Suites,

hosting about 160 guest sponsors, executives,

with Aero McLaren, oddly enough,

and so I'm excited about it, different,

different, I haven't had to work for a while,

because we haven't had sponsors in the race for a while,

but I'm excited about it, it's gonna be a lot of fun,

I can't wait to do it, so look for me

at the end of Tower Terrace, I'll be waving to you guys

when you're watching the race, it'll be a lot of fun.

Also, we launched this week to only our newsletter people,

our SVS Insider Private Membership Group,

which is gonna be the porthole

into Speedway Venture Studio,

and there's so much to talk about that,

but if you're on the newsletter list,

we initially sent it to only what we're told

by constant contact is our most engaged subscribers.

So you'll be getting a link to the landing page,

and you can read everything about it,

and if you feel like you wanna be involved,

we would be so honored to have you

be one of the founding members.

We're looking for 150 founding members,

and we would be thrilled if you would participate.

That's why I say we want you to be in the newsletter,

so go to our website, pitstropin.com,

We've got two great guests for you

at the bottom of the hour,

we're so pleased we're gonna have back John Oryovic.

Orio, John is just a brilliant journalist,

commentator, he's an author, several great books.

I think his, maybe his best work, Indie Split,

talks about the split of Indie Cart,

Cart, and IRL from 96 to 2008,

masterfully written, I think he completely captures

all of the facts and emotions of it.

He's got a couple of other books out,

Class of 99, another great book,

really talks about some of the tragedy

that took place in Cart in 1999,

and some of the things that have happened there.

So John's gonna be with us at the bottom of the hour,

and our first guest is a first-time guest,

and I found, they have a wonderful podcast

called Be Differential, which I thought was a cool name,

and I reached out and they accepted,

so I'm so thrilled and happy to welcome

Ava Gregory with us for the first time.

Hey, how you doing?

Hey, well, how's it going?

Thank you so much for coming on.

I know it's sometimes probably challenging

when you get an email for a message from somebody

that you don't know and invite you to come on the show

you don't know about, so thank you.

I really appreciate you being here.

Hey, so tell us about your background.

Sure.

And tell us what lit the passion and fire

in your heart for motorsports.

Yeah, absolutely.

So as Ava mentioned, I do have a podcast,

but my origin story actually goes back

about 10 years in motorsport now,

so I started working in university when I was a student.

I was putting myself through school

and I attended the University of North Georgia.

In that area is Atlanta Motorsports Park,

and so I needed a third job at the time,

and so I started working at AMP,

and my only prior work experience was retail,

so I started as a cashier, and then at the time,

there was really some clear division

between men work outside, women work inside,

and spoiler alert for this audience.

I don't like being put in a box,

so I had them kind of cross train me in every position,

so I became pit steward, corner marshal,

worked on the carts as mechanic,

and then ended up getting involved

on their membership side as well,

so that really kind of lit the fire.

I was seeing the industry

at a really acute foundational level,

and I kind of started getting exposed

to some of the hobby enthusiast side.

After AMP, I transitioned to Rhode Atlanta,

now Michelin Graceway, Rhode Atlanta,

started in hospitality and worked my way up

and finished there as director of operations,

and about four years ago this month,

I joined the Hagerty team,

so I now oversee all of our marketing partnerships

that kind of spans Motorsport,

car clubs, automotive museums,

some ad hoc events as well,

so yeah, it's been a journey,

but I think kind of getting into the space,

and for me, my podcast,

Beatyferential kind of started when I just noticed

that when I was experiencing a lot of firsts

in my career in tenure in Motorsports,

at the time I was one of the few women,

and so I just kind of wanted to show people

that no matter your interest or skill level,

there's a place for you in Motorsport

that might not be so obvious, like drivers and so on.

Sure, sure.

Hey, listen, we're gonna take a break,

show some love to one of our sponsors,

and then we'll be right back.

Ava Gregory's our guest.

When I get back, you've had so many incredible experiences

and such a compressed amount of time.

I wanna know what was your favorite,

if you can name one.

Okay, sure.

We'll be right back.

So don't go away, love you guys on SpeedSport,

keep watching, we'll be right back.

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Hey, thanks for watching.

Pitz Ruppinger, Willem Rottier, your host,

and joining us for the first time,

first time guest, we won't be last time,

is Eva Gregory, and she has an emerging voice

in automotive and motor sports industry.

I'm so impressed.

You mentioned Haggerty.

Is Chandler McCallum, is he still with you?

You know Chandler?

I do know Chandler.

Chandler was one of the first colleagues

that I kind of interacted with, yeah.

Okay, good, yeah, we've done some work together.

I like Chandler a lot.

In fact, I got him into our Home and Terrace Club

suite one year.

Remember, we watched 500 together.

He's a great guy, I love.

I love what Haggerty does, and I love Chandler.

So you've had this broad experience

in a relatively compressed amount of time.

What has, if you could pick one,

what has been your favorite assignment to this point?

You know, it is a hard decision

because there are elements of every role that I enjoy,

but I think overarching, I learned the most

in my director of operations role with Road Atlanta.

I think it was probably the position

that I felt the most imposter syndrome entering,

and so I was really looking forward

to tackling it head-on.

So yeah, I would say at a snapshot,

director of ops is a really rewarding role.

And why, what about it did you like?

What about it was fulfilling, challenging?

I mean, literally everything.

It's interesting when you're the person

at the age of like 21, 22 being on call

when things are on fire,

or when there are alarms going off

and things like genuine literal fire.

So yeah, I think it was really cool

to be one entrusted with my ability

and what I had already proven at that point.

And I had really amazing team members

that I worked with that were supportive,

both in kind of the team that's reported to me

as well as my peer level.

And so yeah, I think there were just so many elements

of that position in particular that felt really special.

And it's really amazing when you look at

like IMSA's Motul Petit Le Mans

and you know that you and your team put that on.

So yeah, really, really special to look at

kind of overarching whole events like that.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So you have your podcast, which is very cool.

What else are you doing right now?

You know, this is a great question.

I own a couple of cars that are classics.

And so when I have free time, I'm working on those.

So I have a 72-karman gear

that actually for this audience I'm selling.

But I have a 69 Beetle that has really been

a fun project car.

So when I was working at Atlanta Motorsports Park,

it was kind of that accessible entry point.

So bought it when I was in college for a time.

It was my only car.

So I did a lot of walking for a period there.

But it was a great learning opportunity

to really get my hands dirty and really get involved.

So I ended up replacing the engine, watching YouTube videos

and have since kept up over the past few years.

I re-acquired it last summer

and have since been learning some welding,

replaced a floor pan and a number of other things.

So yeah, it's become really a through and through

Motorsport Automotive has consumed my life.

Yeah, that's good.

I mean, it's so funny you mentioned that

because I remember when I was a kid,

there was a movie about a love bug,

Beetle called Herbie, right?

It was a love bug.

And then it re-birthed again.

And I remember my daughter loving,

watching the new love bug movie.

It was kind of cool.

Beetles are fun cars.

And I remember when we were in high school,

we had a teacher, I won't say her name.

We had a teacher, Alex, that drove a Beetle.

And we disliked her so much, we took her car,

picked it up in a parking lot

and turned it sideways in the stall and left.

Yeah, yeah.

Because we were such nice kids.

I was thinking four people to pick it up.

All right, well, we, about six of us did.

So be differential.

Now, I mean, if I'm thinking about differential,

differential is generally, it's a part of a car

where the axles and gears will kind of lock together

and usually the rear, but it could be the front.

Is that kind of, when you thought

on the name of the show, is that kind of what you had in mind?

So I wanted a bit of a double entendre, right?

So one, there is the element

of this is a clear direct tie to the automotive world.

And then also as a woman in this space,

as a younger person coming into this industry

that is very traditional in many ways,

I really wanted to stand out and being different.

And so I appreciated that double entendre of,

this kind of captures a little bit

of everything that I wanted to encapsulate.

It's a cool name, it really is.

How long have you been doing the podcast?

So actually over two years now, over 100 episodes released.

So and in 2026, I started launching

and now twice weekly.

So for the podcast, it's a Tuesday release with guests

that are kind of featuring, you know,

different roles within and then Thursday.

So what I'm calling my little pit stop episodes.

So they're typically 10 minutes or less

and it's either a current event,

a key takeaway I've had and learned from my career,

or just a kind of thought provoking,

maybe a little bit more good,

just provoking provocative kind of commentary

to hear what people might have.

Okay, that's cool.

We've had a lot of female guests

in terms of drivers and people in motorsports.

I mean, it's pretty much all motorsports, what we do.

But I think of, you remind me a little bit of a guess

we had Liz Leggett, who was a world land speed driver.

Oh wow.

But she's in everything.

She's in the photography, she's in the music,

she restores old railroad engine, you know, big railroad.

I mean, she's all kinds of stuff.

So it's pretty cool that you're involved

in a lot of things like that as well.

So you, I discovered you with an episode that you were doing.

Something that is really passionate,

that we feel passionate about.

You were talking about the fact that a lot of times,

I think people, I'm just kind of paraphrasing,

a lot of times people confuse racing and motorsports

with other kinds of things.

For instance, if you're the best golfer in the world,

you're gonna find a place on the tour.

If you're a best running back,

you're gonna find a place on a football team,

or you're very fast, you're gonna be a track star, you know.

Those are all merit based kinds of things,

you know, your ability will allow you to rise to the top.

That's not necessarily true in motorsports,

because motorsports isn't really a meritocracy,

it's really a capital sport.

Would you expand on that a little bit?

Because you really, I think you really articulated that

very well in that segment that I listened to.

I appreciate that, and I wish I recalled exactly

what I said in that one, but it's a very true statement.

You know, when we look at, it's not a talent issue

that this industry has, it's an access issue,

it's a funding issue.

And so this can be from a gender specific view,

it can be from the established teams that have been around,

and you know, versus the kind of starter teams.

And really unfortunate challenges that are present here

is that when we look at teams or individual drivers,

there is so much funding that just goes

into the pre-track time, right?

The development, the seat time, the physical training,

the dietitians.

And so if you are not able to invest in getting to pay

for a practice session at a track,

you don't get to see the track outside of a simulator

before your first time racing on it,

or qualifying or practicing during a session.

And that really, really ostracizes

a lot of extremely talented individuals.

And we see that, I mean, across every discipline

of motor sports, across different ages,

no matter what it is.

And so absolutely it's a funding issue.

And you know, we've started, we just this week,

in fact, launched a new group.

We started something called Speedway Venture Studio,

which is a capital attractor, we hope.

And so we just this week launched exclusively

to the folks that are newsletter subscribers,

something called SVS Insiders.

And it's a portal to that group.

And the whole reason for starting that was the fact that,

I know, and I know you know too,

a lot of drivers that are on the outside looking in,

a lot of teams that, I mean, man,

they're going barely making it season to season.

They're addicted, it's racing,

we all know this, right, if you'll admit it.

We all know racing is a horrible business model.

Racing, it's horrible, horrible.

It's addictive, it's wasteful,

it's for many people ends up being a vanity play.

And it chases what used to be a good system,

but now is a broken system called Sponsorship.

Because Sponsorship is so fragmented now,

because there's so many other ways you can spend your money.

So we're trying to come up, we are building a system

that will help drivers and teams build enterprise value

around their career, around their teams,

do other things to earn money so that you've got a base,

at least to keep the lights on, and you're not counting.

We want to help teams and drivers reduce their dependency

on sponsorship by 45%.

And it's not that Sponsorship is bad,

we're always going to need it.

It's just not as accessible as it used to be for people.

Well, and if I can comment on two aspects of that,

I think one, when we're looking at sponsorship to your point,

finding sponsorship is not the same way

that it was 10, 15 years ago, right?

You can't sell a sticker on a car nowadays,

and you have to prove this ROI.

And I think the other aspect you may kind of alluded to,

a lot of professional drivers, their sole job is not driving.

Many of them are needing to have a second career

just to find it being able to show up.

And so I think filling a gap like that

would be absolutely a game changer.

Well, we're excited about it.

I'll send you the link at some point.

You can take a look.

We've already had a number of drivers sign up.

I haven't even launched it yet.

We've already had a number of drivers sign up,

and people that I know that are really talented

and it's heartbreaking knowing that.

You know, and this isn't like it's a disrespectful concept,

but a lot of times drivers, well, they can't drive

because they don't have the funding, so they coach,

which is fine, or they'll work at a series

that work for a team, you know, in engineering,

which is fine, but they want to drive.

That's their passion.

They want to drive.

And I feel so, you know, so heartbroken

that so many of these people can't,

and so many teams struggle year after year

because I think they're addicted

to this broken mile of sponsorships.

There's gotta be a better way.

All right, hang on.

We're gonna take another break.

We come right back.

More to talk about.

Ava Gregory and the podcast being B Differential.

Love it.

We'll be right back.

Speed Sport One has a wide variety of racing

waiting for you this Memorial Day weekend.

Wednesday, we'll take you to the Northeast

with the Super Dirt Car 358 Modified Series

from Lebanon Valley Speedway.

Thursday is highlights from the IHRA Offshore Power Boat Series

with the New Orleans Grand Prix.

Saturday is the Ferrari Challenge North America from Kota.

And on Sunday, the Trans Am Series

from Sonoma Raceway.

It's free to watch.

Go to speedsportone.com for details and viewing options.

Man, this has gotta be one of the best racing weekends

of the year.

I mean, okay, it's the Indy 500.

What else do you have to say, right?

But in other kinds of racing in Indiana,

on Friday night is the fabled Hoosier 100,

which is a Silver Crown race.

And then on Saturday night is the Little 500,

where they're gonna be running 500 series Sprint cars

for 500 laps up at Anderson.

Then you've got Formula One.

You know I'm not a Formula One guy.

I used to be, but I'm not anymore.

And you've got NASCAR, you've got Catherine Legg

trying to do the double this year with Indy

and the 600 race, so amazing.

Ava Gregory is our guest.

Are you like a multiple discipline fan

or do you have something

that you really focus on in motorsports?

So I'll admit, I would consider myself a poor fan in general.

I think when you work in it,

it's a little hard to be a fan.

But I will say, despite your comment a moment ago,

I do enjoy F1.

I'm looking forward to the Canadian GP.

And you know, outside of that, I'm typically sports car.

But I'm starting to learn a little bit more

about Indy car and getting more into that space.

I know somehow this is the discipline

I haven't learned as much in.

So I'm really, really excited for the Indy 500

this weekend though.

There's already a lot of coverage going on

with qualifying and that compressed timeline

over these past couple of days.

So yeah, really, really eager to see what happens.

It's been crazy.

You know, and I've been going for a long, long time.

And we've been in the race several times as co-entrants.

So we're always there working, you know,

entertaining sponsors or doing something else.

And then I haven't since 2020 was the last time

we were in with Santino Friggin.

Except now this weekend,

I'm actually hosting for McLaren up in your tower.

And I'm like, I'm nervous about it.

I've never done it before,

but I think it's going to be a great opportunity.

I hope there's no rain delays.

We don't want to get stuck up there for hours and hours.

When you, how do you come up getting your guests?

That's always the challenge for us is finding guests,

getting the book and time and scheduled.

You were very responsive.

Thank you so much.

How do you do guests for your show?

Well, it's so funny when you started the show

and saying, you know, I'm a victim of,

you just reached out blindly on a website.

That is exactly what I do.

It could be an Instagram DM, a LinkedIn message,

a blind email through a contact page.

And then fortunately, you know,

it's been established long enough now.

I think that some folks are starting.

I'm getting some inbound requests and haves.

But yeah, it's really, it is a little challenging.

Sometimes you have an influx and other times you're like,

oh, I need to kind of stack some things.

But yeah, no, it's been interesting.

And I think now after two years,

I've got a good cadence down of scheduling

and, you know, preparation.

I'm trying to teach Claude how to do that for me.

It's not working.

Build out an entire like content hub.

It will do it.

You know, we had a couple of weeks ago, Alex.

I don't remember if you, I know you remember.

I don't remember how long ago it was

cause they all kind of weeks just run together.

The show's running.

But I had two guests cancel the same week.

Oh well.

And now I'm scrambling like Monday morning.

And you know what?

It just worked out.

How long ago?

Two weeks ago, yeah.

It just worked out.

We got great guests.

The shows are fine.

But generally that doesn't have, first time ever.

I've had one guest cancel.

I've never had two canceled same show.

So, and you have to be flexible, right?

I'm sure you've had it happen.

You've got to be flexible.

But you've been doing your show.

We've only been, what?

A little over a year, I think.

About 14, 15 months we've been doing our show.

So it's hard to get started.

How can people get a hold of, be differential?

What's the best way for them to listen or watch?

Easiest way, bedifferentialpodcast.com.

That will link you to all of the socials, email.

There's a newsletter I just launched.

So very excited about that.

But yeah, looking forward to bedifferentialpodcast.com.

Super simple.

Good, and I linked your podcast on our newsletter

that went out this week.

Thank you so much.

So we've got a pretty faithful group on our newsletter.

And so guys, make sure you click on,

you'll see it where the guests are listed

and on Ava's name will be blue.

Everything else is black.

Click that and that takes you

to the be differential podcast.

What are your plans for the show?

What are your aspirations?

You know, I'm really excited actually.

I have some things that I can't quite talk about

but that have been in the works for a while.

I think really starting the podcast,

I wanted to ensure it was my passion project.

So I didn't want to monetize.

I didn't want it to be a business.

I really wanted to make sure my mission

was true through and through.

And now we've been able to build this platform

and have a good listener count

and kind of following to build this community.

So I just, I have a lot of dreams and plans for it

but there's some things in the works

that I'm really optimistic.

We'll see it later this year or so.

Good.

You know, when we started the show,

I didn't really start it.

I never thought of monetizing it.

I really started to help our sponsorship seeking

to give us a bigger digital footprint.

And then we got picked up by SpeedSport.

I'm like, oh my gosh, now we're streaming on SpeedSport

and they do the show watching tonight,

Thursday night they're watching

and then they'll replay.

They'll do an encore usually on Sunday.

And so we get a second swing at the ball then as well.

And it's really a lot of fun.

You must enjoy it.

I just love doing it.

I'll tell you, it's so amazing

because being in the industry for 10 years,

there's never someone you meet that isn't cool.

We literally meet like everyone's so individual.

Everyone has their story

and every single path is different

which is such a good reminder

that there's not like some linear route to follow.

So yeah, I have the best time with it.

Good.

Well, we ended up going to PRI back in December

and I've gone many times as a spectator, an attendee

but we actually set up a booth and we did a ton of interviews

and I was amazed at how many people were,

once they found out we were doing this,

how many people were coming to us wanting to get on the show?

How many people were emailing us,

texting us wanting to get on the show?

People really enjoy it.

And I just, I mean, I like to talk anyway.

So it's just-

Yeah.

No, I love that.

Two years ago, I did an interview

with Lynn St. James at PRI and it was just awesome.

It was so much fun, you know?

Especially when you could do it in person too.

That's something special compared to the digital.

We had Lynn on, we had Shirley Muldowney on.

Oh, amazing.

We had Linda Vaughn, the first lady of racing on

and then others too that came on as well.

So it was really a lot of fun.

What do you have coming up?

What's your next episode or next question?

Actually, yeah, so next episode's tomorrow.

I have Madeline Tabor who is a rally racing driver joining.

So really excited about that.

And then I'm seeing a lot of NHRA, IHRA,

kind of some drag racing mention here.

The following week, we actually have a top fuel

drag racing team owner coming on also.

So look forward to that.

But yeah, lots of diverse kind of things

and experiences coming in.

Good.

We were, they set us up almost across

from the NHRA stage at PRI.

So we had NHRA people just walking over.

That's amazing.

And I was interviewing a funny car driver, Chris King.

And in the middle of the interview, he starts laughing.

And we got funny car champion Matt Hagen

photo bombing us while we were on.

So Matt came on the show and it was really cool.

I mean, they're very easy to talk to.

And I think everybody gets it in this business.

We're all trying to do our thing

and everybody works together,

tries to help each other.

And I love the camaraderie about it like that.

Absolutely, likewise.

Hey, thank you again so much for responding

to the email, to the blind websites.

Even though anybody would see it.

And thanks for coming on.

I really appreciate it.

And great, great wishes on the show.

I hope everything happens for you the way you want it to.

Thanks so much.

Well, I appreciate the invitation and the time as well.

And maybe we'll have you come on D-Differential next.

That'd be great.

I would absolutely say yes to that.

So thank you so much.

Ava Gregory, everybody, B-Differential podcast.

Go check it out.

You're gonna like it.

Thanks, Ava.

Thank you.

Bye.

All right, stay with us, guys.

We've got a commercial we're gonna do right now.

And then when we get back, Indy Car Historian,

Motorsports journalist John Orrivic,

I can't wait because there's so much to talk about

with the Indy 500 come up.

Stay with us.

This segment is brought to you

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All right, welcome back, everybody.

I'm so excited.

This is, other than Christmas,

this is my happiest time of the year.

And going to the 500, events this year,

hosting the McLaren suite is gonna be wonderful.

Just really enjoying it a lot.

And thinking about who's gonna win?

Who's gonna win the 500?

Who would, you know, you can go to our website

and when you get to our website,

you'll see in the bottom right-hand corner,

there's a small microphone icon.

If you click on that icon,

you'll be able to leave a voice message.

So I want to encourage you to go, go on your phone now,

pitsoropen.com, go on your phone, click the microphone

and tell us who do you want to see win the 500 on Sunday?

How many Pado fans do we have out there?

How many, I was gonna say Rossi fans,

but I mean, you know, he crashed his car on Monday,

he's not looking too good.

Who would you like to see win?

What team do you want to see do?

Well, I mean, I gotta tell you,

I have one really sentimental favorite.

I have two favorites that I would love to see either one win.

One is Rossi's partner, Christian Rasmussen.

We've had Christian on the show, we love Christian.

Love to see Christian win, that would be so awesome.

But my sentimental favorite is Always,

Connecticut's own Santino Ferrucci.

Santino has the best finishing order

of any driver active.

He's finished every top 10, seven races, top 10.

His finishing order is phenomenal.

His starting, he's started 15th or farther back

in every race and he works his way through the field,

starting in the second row on Sunday.

So proud of Santino, so happy for AJ for it racing.

Larry and AJ's at the track and just,

and of course, Santino Ferrucci has a great agent

and now vice president, JP Murray,

who we've had on the show numerous times.

So we want to wish JP and Larry and AJ and Santino

and unfortunately Kyle got moved,

Kyle Collette got moved to the back of the field

because of some technicality after qualifying.

But hey, we've had, people have won all over

the starting grid for the Indy 500.

So I rule nothing out and no one out for that.

That race picks its winner, right?

And so anybody can win.

And someone who knows a lot about it,

an American journalist, motorsports journalist,

author, commentator who's chronicled the highs

and lows of IndyCar for decades.

Based in Indianapolis, he's a long time attendee.

He's been on ESPM, racer, auto sport.

He's got probably the best book ever written

about the split, the Indy split.

And we want to welcome back John Orrivic.

Oreo, welcome back.

Hello, Will.

How you doing?

Can you see me?

I'm trying to thank you.

Yeah, I can see it, hear you loud and,

you know, so crazy, we went all month

with a car and Larry touching the wall.

And then Monday practice comes

and we had the massive, massive pile up

with Rossi and Pado.

And I think Grosjean was involved in it as well.

So just reminds you how still dangerous motorsports is

no matter how safe and stable it may look.

Well, that's the truth.

And, you know, I'm sure I'm not the only person

that had the feeling this week

that everything seemed a little flat and non-dramatic.

And we kept waiting for something to happen.

And I think the lack of extra entries

and bumping and everything this year

just kind of created for a subdued atmosphere.

And what we saw this afternoon was maybe kind of the wakeup

call that everybody needed.

That, yeah, this thing can bite you pretty quickly.

From what I've seen, Rossi climbed out of the car

on his own, but he has been transported

to Methodist Hospital.

The four words that no driver or race fan wants to hear

transported to Methodist Hospital.

Yeah, right.

And so, yeah, let's hope for the best.

I mean, obviously cars were built and everything.

Yeah, yeah.

I, you know, I published an article on LinkedIn

a few weeks ago and I said,

talking about the 500 and the fact that in 1982,

they set the high watermark 109 entries.

And I think 64 of those tried to qualify.

And now, man, we were doing our all we could

to get 33 cars in this year.

And I hear people say, well, you know, it's just tradition.

There's nothing, and it's not, there's not a hard fast rule

that there has to be 33 cars.

But I think it speaks to the state of the sport

where now we have charters and now Honda's gonna get charter

Chevy's gonna get charter and now you can't have more

than 27 cars, you know, outside of the 500.

If you don't have a charter, I just, I don't,

I'm not comfortable with the directions heading, John.

And I've always liked Indy because,

and I've always not liked Formula One

because Formula One's always been a closed shop.

Well, not years ago, but I mean, more recently has.

And I'm feeling Indy's heading that way.

What's your thought on it?

I mean, what do you, you've been watching this longer

than I have.

What's your, what's your feeling about how this,

how the sport is heading right now?

I'm surprised that they would try to limit teams

from entering races other than the Indianapolis 500.

If you look at the fact that there is going to be

a major equipment change coming for the 2028 season,

what is the incentive for any team owner

to invest the kind of money that would be necessary

to compete in one race a year?

Especially when you look at the ridiculous lack

of prize money in the Indy 500 for any competitor

who's not a chartered member.

Right, right.

It just, it makes no sense.

And it's, you see a lot of times in this day and age,

you see a lot of times where people are trying

to argue exclusion as inclusion.

And I think this is another one of those strange cases.

I don't, I don't see how they can justify it

because it seems to me that the cost of entry

just to run the Indy 500 in 2028 is going to be upwards

of $3 million just to start the effort.

And that's going to get you eight days of action.

It just, it makes no economic sense

and it makes no common sense to me.

So I share your concern with this particular issue.

I mean, I love the days where, again, I know a lot of,

you know, we're never going to go back to the good old days.

I know we're not going to, people are going to wheel up

to the track with an open trailer and a car

that they built in a garage, you know, Smokey Unique.

I know that's not going to happen anymore, I get it.

But to me, it just seems like for the fans,

controlling, cutting down, limiting the competition.

I mean, it's difficult as it is.

We've got a spec series.

We have one chassis manufacturer, we have two engine.

I think part of the problem is lack of engines.

I mean, would they go more engines

if there was another manufacturer?

I mean, Honda has their limit, Chevy has their limit.

Again, if money isn't the issue

and you want to get a car and race,

well, you've got to beg, borrow,

and practically steal to get an engine.

And that was to get 33 cars.

I mean, I don't see the commercial value in doing it.

I don't see the entertainment value in doing it.

I certainly don't see the fan value, no bumping.

I mean, bumping is such an exciting process, right?

I mean, how would they plan on building,

continuing to build a sport this way?

I think if bumping is such an essential part of the process

that they have to give up on 33 cars.

Because they're gonna, like I said,

they're going to struggle mightily

to come up with 33 entries in 2028, I think.

Unless there's some stroke of rule change

or somehow there's a sleight of hand

that suddenly Chevrolet and Cadillac materialize

using the same engine or Honda and Acura

are suddenly manufacturers using the same engine,

which I could see the cynic in me can see that coming.

The cynic in me sees a spec, Ilmore engine,

with Chevrolet, Cadillac, Honda, and Acura badges on it.

Yeah, wait a minute, doesn't Pinsky own

at least part of Ilmore, or at least he used it?

Yes, yeah, and so you want to open up

the conflict of interest can of worms there.

It's, it's, it would be non, you couldn't empty it.

Somebody should have 10 years ago, John,

in my opinion, for whatever it's worth.

10 years ago should have been on their hands

and needs at Ford begging Ford to come back.

Cosworth had a motor ready seven or eight years ago.

I talked to Cosworth about it.

They just needed some.

It's a pie in the sky argument.

Ford management is vehemently against participation

in IndyCar racing.

I know, I don't get it.

The whole idea of another manufacturer

has been a pie in the sky idea for 15 years now.

It ain't gonna happen, you know.

Oh, no, I respect your judgment.

I just hope you're wrong because I don't see

how you grow the sport without it.

And, and Honda almost stepped away as it was.

So, hey, you know what John,

we gotta take a break for commercial.

Hang on, we'll talk, we'll get a lot more talking about.

We're talking with John Arovich,

who knows as much about racing in particular IndyCar

as anybody in the country.

We'll be right back, don't go away.

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Hey, welcome back, pitch open.

Will Morati with you, our good guest, John Orovich is here.

John, do you think the deal with Honda and Chevrolet,

was that kind of almost like bribery,

giving them charters so that they would be,

at least for several years,

you know, guaranteed to stay in the series?

How did you see that?

I was very surprised by that.

I think it shows the lengths that IndyCar's willing

to go to to keep at least two manufacturers involved.

And again, you know, I'm not a businessman,

but I don't see a tremendous amount of value in that.

And I thought it was ridiculous the way Honda

and Acura spun their press release recently

where they have paused their IMSA GTP program,

where they are designing and building engines

and things like that,

in favor of what is essentially a marketing campaign,

slapping Acura branding on Honda powered IndyCar's.

To me, it was obscene the way they portrayed it

as a growth of their program, where it's a clear retraction.

But it's difficult times because you can tell

that Honda has struggled to find value in IndyCar racing,

which was why their continued participation was questioned.

But now they also found difficulty extracting the value

out of the IMSA program.

And now we see that really the root cause of it all

is that the Honda Motor Corporation

has suffered its first corporate loss in its 70 year history,

including a $16 billion right off on electric cars

that will not to come to fruition.

And it's unfortunate that a quality racing program

like the Acura IMSA program is the victim

of electric cars being forced upon a world

that isn't quite ready for them.

You know, and again, I know a lot of this

is politically motivated,

but when you look at the manufacturers, not Honda,

but look at Ford, look at GM,

they have pulled back billions away from their EV program

and started going more towards a hybrid than a pure EV.

Stilantis, the same thing.

I mean, when does public demand and manufacturer hunger

for EV, when does that match?

When does the manufacturers start listening

to the public, do you think?

Well, I think Formula One is the biggest example

of that right now, where the manufacturers attempted

to force a higher level of electrification into Formula One

and the racing has suffered clearly.

The application of electrification

into Formula One style racing is not working

as it stands at the moment.

And I think all forms of racing,

they have to ask that fundamental question.

Do we wanna be racing for the entertainment,

the traditional entertainment value of car racing,

or do we want it to be a vehicle, so to speak,

for modern trends?

And in that regard, it's becoming clear

that electrification and traditional racing

don't share the same values or other things.

And I think every series is being forced

to confront this right now.

Do you wanna stay true to car racing

and traditional competition, or do you wanna try

to incorporate modern technology

that is almost a definition incongruous with it?

Yeah, I mean, look at Formula One now,

they're saying what, V8's back in 31 or something like that.

I mean, I think people love loud, ground shaking engines.

I think people like that, that's what racing is about.

I don't know how they think, I don't know,

maybe it's a generational thing.

Maybe it's a generational thing in terms of saving the planet,

but as if we could destroy it.

But it's frustrating to me that we'll never get back.

I mean, we don't even do the balloon launch anymore.

Balloon release, that's what I'm talking about.

Some people get all up in arms about that.

I mean, how many birds were hurt?

No, I don't understand.

Hey, do you have another book out?

I thought I saw something about another book.

I mean, I don't know.

Since class of 99.

No, that's the most confusing one.

Okay, well, what was another?

Definitely at work on a couple of projects

that aren't really close enough to talk about it

in detail yet, but there's definitely

several irons in the fire.

All right, let me throw this out at you.

We know how damaging the split was.

We know that Indy, very much like COVID in a sense,

some industries have never recovered fully from COVID.

We know IndyCar has never fully recovered from the split

and probably never will because we know

that was NASCAR's probably greatest

growth period was during the split.

Do you think with IndyCar in particularly blocking growth,

the charters, artificial stuff that they've done

to try to promote excitement

that may or may not be there in the first place,

no bumping, 33 car, do you think there's any room

for not necessarily competitive but another series

that maybe would take a more traditional approach

in terms of power plants, in terms of entries?

You know, we always say, oh, we can't have more

than 27 cars on the road courses.

Well, I don't know about that

because some of those road courses are IMSA courses

and they have 42 cars on them, so I don't know how that works.

But why can't we go to a Formula One model?

Why do we have to have each car have its own pit box?

Why can't one team have a pit box and one pit crew

and two cars, and it definitely would change the strategy.

I mean, there's things we could do if we wanted to.

Do you think there could be room for,

again, I'm so careful about this

because the split was so damaging,

but do you think there might be room

for another kind of competitive,

if it was a top level series to bring more excitement

to open-wheel racing in America?

Absolutely not.

All it would do is it would be divisive

in the same way that the car IRL split was.

There's no room to split the pool right now.

It's hard enough to find 25 people that wanna,

you know, 25, 15 people or whatever the number is

to make the investment and the commitment.

There's not a big enough pool, there's not enough motivation

and I mean, just no, it's just a non-starter.

Yeah, you don't see it happening.

And the other thing I have to say is that,

look at what happened in golf with live golf

trying to split off from the PGA tour

and that's done nothing but create uncertainty

and strife in the golf world.

So it's a terrible, terrible, terrible idea.

Yeah, yeah.

I think about it though, because of the drivers.

I mean, you know, drivers are at a point where-

Where are you gonna find 60 drivers?

Look at the 1996-2500 in the field.

Look at the, you know-

And the fabled Michigan 500, yeah.

Don't kid yourself that there's drivers, mechanics,

anything to support more than what is-

Well, that's what we did, we did a little bit of a study

and another article I wrote a few weeks ago

about unemployment rate of American drivers.

And what we came up with and others argued

that it was higher than this, that I was too low,

I heard about it.

But we said we had 70% unemployment rate

in America with drivers.

SCCA alone has 20,000 registered entrants

and competitors, right?

And you get into the ladder series

and you go to USF and USF Pro and maybe you get to Indiana

and then you're topped, you can't go anywhere

because there's no seats, there's no worry for the drivers.

So families have spent-

In some cases, millions of dollars

getting you to this point has been.

Isn't there a place for these drivers to go

other than to become coaches or maybe if they're looking up

to get an impsacy, you know, we've got drivers now

in IndyCar that are on the outside looking in.

I don't have the answers to your questions.

All right.

It's a big industry and it is a meritocracy.

Only the best survive, no matter what field

of the industry you're in.

And they're simply not the economic base

to grow things any more than they're at.

A lot of people would argue that the sport overall

is in a very successful period right now.

And there's a lot of evidence to support that.

And, you know, just because there's a squeaky wheel

that says there needs to be 42 cars at the Indianapolis 500,

it's not gonna magically happen.

Well, I think, I don't know if you agree,

but I think the investment of Fox into the series

was probably one of the biggest things to help.

It's a double edged sword as well because why, you know,

what does it say about your sport or your competition

when a, you know, when a media company

is directly controlling it?

It's different than, Fox is a different kind

of media corporation than Liberty Media.

Fox is a direct conduit.

Right, right.

Whereas Liberty Media is just some, you know,

company off in Denver that has its fingers in a lot of pies.

Yeah, yeah, it's true.

John, we are out of time.

Thank you so much.

Always a pleasure.

Good to see you.

Hope to see you over the weekend at the 500 somewhere.

And always appreciate your viewpoint

and what you think.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for the time.

Okay.

John Orvich, everybody.

Hey guys, that's it.

That's it for us.

That's a wrap.

We're done.

Alex, thank you so much.

Everybody on SpeedSport.

Thank you so much for watching us.

And hey, watch for me on Sunday at the 500.

I'll be at the end of the Tower Carous Sweets.

The last two are the McLaren Sweets

and I'll be waving to you with my McLaren shirt on.

So look for me.

Anyway, hey, thanks so much.

We love you guys.

God bless you.

About this episode

Indy 500 week kicks off with a quick pit-stop primer—“Change all four tires, fill the fuel cell,”—then the conversation turns to how quickly things can go wrong. Monday practice was unusually clean until a wreck that began with Alexander Rossi and involved Pato O’Ward and Roman Grosjean, raising questions about Carb Day readiness. Qualifying was rained out and completed on Sunday, while Ava Gregory shares her motorsports path, Road Atlanta on-call intensity, and classic-car welding projects. The hosts also debate “capital sport” racing and IndyCar’s charter-and-engine constraints.

Atlanta Motorsports Park balloon release Canadian GP differential electrification floor pan Formula One IMSA's Motul Petit Le Mans Indy 500 McLaren

Volkswagen Beetle

Original notes

The biggest week in American racing is finally here, and the drama has already begun at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Just as the month seemed to be concluding with historic cleanliness, a massive, multi-car Monday practice wreck involving Alexander Rossi, Pato O'Ward, and Romain Grosjean sent shockwaves through Turn 2. Meanwhile, Alex Palou captured back-to-back poles, making him the clear odds-on favorite heading into Sunday's legendary race. Host Will Marotti also drops major show news, revealing his role hosting Arrow McLaren sponsors in the Tower Terrace Suites on race day, alongside the public launch of the SVS Insider membership group.

Our deep-dive business discussion tackles why motorsports struggles to maintain a true meritocracy. Guest Ava Gregory articulates how the industry is governed by capital access rather than raw talent, detailing how steep costs for track time, simulators, and physical training isolate top-tier talent. Later in the episode, veteran motorsport journalist and author John Oreovicz joins the show to share his expert commentary on IndyCar team dynamics, the historical fallout of the CART/IRL split, and how Liberty Media's massive commercial approach contrasts with traditional, racing-first operations.

Our Guests Today

- Ava Gregory: Host of the Be Differential podcast and Director of Marketing Partnerships at Hagerty. With a decade of diverse motorsport experience, Ava rose from a cashier at Atlanta Motorsports Park to the Director of Operations at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where she successfully managed full-scale events like IMSA's Motul Petit Le Mans.

- John Oreovicz: An acclaimed motorsport journalist, author, and commentator. John is best known for his definitive books tracking racing history, including Indie Split, which masterfully chronicles the CART and IRL split from 1996 to 2008, and Class of '99, which details the tragic events and cultural shifts within CART during the 1999 season.

Inside This Episode

- 00:00:23 - Intro: Indy 500 Week & Massive Turn 2 Monday Practice Crash

- 00:02:49 - Alex Palou’s Historic Back-to-Back Pole Positions

- 00:03:18 - Will Marotti's Race Day Announcement with Arrow McLaren

- 00:04:53 - Launching the SVS Insider Private Membership Group

- 00:06:43 - Interview: Ava Gregory on Her Motorsports Journey & Breaking Boxes

- 00:09:36 - Sponsor Spotlight: Schaeffer Manufacturing

- 00:10:23 - Interview: Ava Gregory on Road Atlanta Operations & Restoring Classics

- 00:14:13 - The Meaning Behind the Be Differential Podcast

- 00:16:05 - Why Motorsports is a Capital Sport, Not a Meritocracy

- 00:20:56 - Sponsor Spotlight: America’s Christian Credit Union

- 00:21:40 - Interview: John Oreovicz on Indy 500 Standouts & Palou's Greatness

- 00:30:15 - Team Dynamism: Managing Big Personalities and Multi-Car Stable Balance

- 00:40:12 - The History of the Indy Split & Lessons for Modern Racing

- 00:48:22 - The Business of Racing: Commercial Ownership vs. Traditional Leadership

Sponsor & Social Blocks

- Schaeffer Manufacturing: Learn more about advanced lubrication technology and performance products at http://www.schaefferoil.com

- America’s Christian Credit Union: Banking with a mission. Discover their financial services at http://www.americaschristiancu.com

- SpeedSport: Catch all the latest racing news and updates at http://www.speedsport.com

- Official Show Website: Sign up for our weekly newsletter and join the SVS Insider group at http://www.thepitsareopen.com

Hashtags

#Indy500 #IndyCar #IndianapolisMotorSpeedway #AlexPalou #AlexanderRossi #MotorsportBusiness #Hagerty #ArrowMcLaren #BeDifferential #IndieSplit #SpeedSport #ThePitsAreOpen

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