Before the Indy 500, teams get a chance to test the cars on track. Even if someone is fast or slow in practice, it doesn’t always mean they’ll be fast in the race because teams test different things.
In IndyCar, teams may replace engines during the season or between sessions to manage reliability and performance. Swapping engines can affect how much a team learns from testing, since the car’s setup and strategy may change.
Concept
park failures
This means the car had problems that forced it to stop during testing. If it happens more than once, it can be a sign something isn’t working right.
Honda is an engine brand used in IndyCar. The host is saying both Honda and Chevy teams were changing engines, so you can’t judge everything from practice results alone.
“Chevy” here means Chevrolet’s engine in IndyCar. The point is that engine swaps happened on multiple cars, so it’s not automatically a sign of who’s winning.
Term
toe times
In practice, not every lap may count the same way. Some laps are recorded as official timed runs, and others might not be counted for the standings.
Rookie orientation is the structured onboarding process for first-time drivers in IndyCar. It typically includes rules education, procedures, and guidance on how testing and race operations work.
Car
the 10 car
In IndyCar, each car has a number. “The 10 car” just means the car numbered 10.
Prema is a racing team. In this episode, the host is saying they’re having problems that could affect their ability to compete.
Concept
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process a company can enter when it can’t pay its debts. The host discusses how bankruptcy can affect who gets paid first, specifically employee wages.
It means the car had a problem—mechanical or electronic—that stopped it from running normally. That can keep drivers off track or reduce how much they can test.
LIVE
Indycar Dad Podcast: Hey IndyCar family, I'm IndyCarDad, your host for IndyCar News in 5 minutes. I read and watch everything IndyCar, attend what I can, and then I try to summarize it all in 5 minutes.
So, the big news is that the Indy 500 Open Test is done. It was two days, I was there for both of them, and I watched pretty much every lap. I had nothing else to do. I was in and among the teams, there's nobody really in attendance there, and no fans, I guess?
I don't know if I'm still only a fan. But anyway, I spent a bunch of time looking at everything going on, including being able to see Indy cars, live timing and scoring and Firestone's live timing and scoring.
I even spoke to drivers and crew members and I learned something. I learned that unless you're on a team, very small number of people on the team and you know how your test process is going, you have no idea who's fast and who's not.
So you can sometimes tell when a team's in trouble, maybe you can see if there's multiple park failures. but it was relatively quiet on there and there were no crashes and a few engines were swapped out.
But aside from Jack Harvey's Chevy, I think all the engines swapped out were engines that have been running from the start of the season. So they're going to get swapped out soon anyway. They were both Honda and Chevy engines swapped out.
So it's not like one is better or worse than the other. So there's still a of testing remaining. So even if your driver is, it didn't look great on the time sheets. It really doesn't mean a lot. There's and no toe times and someone has to decide whether a lap is a no toe lap or a toe lap and that person can't be totally accurate so you might see someone on a chart they don't belong on anyway ⁓ so that's kind of the situation at the open test it was fun to watch but there's not a lot you can glean from it it's really good for the teams and it pretty much is a workday for them like I attended as a sort of a fan and I realized I was like sort of standing around while everybody was working.
In somber news, Alex Zanardi passed away. He was a great driver. I've been watching the series and before it was what it was. ⁓ He was always very aggressive, very fast and funny. He came over from F1 and he was picked up by Chip Ganassi, kind of like a Marcus Erickson type, but he had a ton of personality.
He was really kind of a firebrand and a scamp, but he was really fun to watch. He won two championships in kart in the early 90s when it's at its biggest and then, and when it was still rocking. Then he got recruited to go to Formula One again.
⁓ It didn't super workout for him over there. He did a few years. Then he came back to kart and when he did, he suffered a horrific crash in Germany. They were racing in Germany back then and it was just absolutely brutal.
But it didn't stop him. He returned racing in sports cars. He became an international hand cycling Paralympic four-time gold medal winner. So that just goes to show you, know, the fight was in that dog and Alex Zanardi was an inspirational guy.
⁓ If you've never seen him race, you've probably seen one pass he made, which was a pass at the corkscrew, ⁓ you know, to win the race. So that was pretty fantastic as well. So RIP Alex Zanardi. So as far as winners and losers this week, I like to do winners and losers.
So, Dry and Reinbold, I say as a winner, they were fast right off the truck. I mean, there's a team that only does the 500. You know, they don't do the other races. You'd think maybe they have some teething pains, but Jack Harvey and Connor Daly were fast right away, and they were fast for both days.
Jack Harvey had an engine failure, but. Big winner, Caio Collette. know, he's a rookie. Rookies these days have never driven on the Speedway. So, guy shows up and he has a hell of a day. He was fastest lap on day two.
So faster than everybody else. That's nothing wrong with that. So I actually talked to Kyle with the open test. I was just there. Nobody's there. And I was there and he was walking by and it was after sort of his rookie orientation.
So I know he had done a bunch of laps and I know he had never run an Indy car at the Speedway. So I said, Hey Kyle. And he looked at me and I said, what do you think? You know, first time driving the big car on the big track.
And he goes, I said, was it fun? And he went, he looked at me and he was like, Yeah, it was fun. And that look was the look of a guy who dreamed of this all his life. So big ups to Kyle Collette. You know, I'm a big fan these days and every time I talk to the guy a little bit more.
So I hope he does well. Winners this week, Alex Palo signed a multi-year contract extension with Chip Ganassi. So I'll put Chip in the winner category as well, along with his crew chief and his strategist and everybody over at Ganassi on the 10 car.
That was a smart move for everybody involved. I'm sure the rest of the field isn't thrilled. ⁓ One of the winners this week is me, me. I was able to go to the open test and I created some content for my social media that I think you'll really like.
I try to be entertaining, you know, and I don't just make content for content sake. I also got to talk to the people who do publicity for IndyCar, which got me sort of in a little more anyway. I'm kind of an outsider, so it was nice.
So I'm hoping eventually that I can do long form interviews with the drivers, sit down and ask them questions that they just don't have time to be asked an answer on TV. So ⁓ I did do a short, I had a short chat and interview with Felix Rosenquist at the track.
We did a little video on how you peel an Indy car out of the pits, pits, like how to get it out of the pit stall. So it's on my social media Indy car dad. I think you'll like it. People seem to really like the video.
So I'm in the loser's category. Prema's in the loser category again. So this was it. They really are not gonna be at the Indy 500, but that wouldn't put them in loser category. That was last week. The news this week is that they haven't been paying Callum I-Lot and they owe him a bunch of money.
bad news. Hopefully Callum seeks some, and other employees that are owed money seek something because I know for a fact as a past employer that when you go bankrupt, employee wages come first. So those employees could be like getting the proceeds from Equipment that's being sold or something.
They really should try to force the company into bankruptcy so they get their money Anyway, there's some open test cars that didn't get many laps in they might have blown an engine or something like that Stinger a Rob no one Siegel Louis Foster Catherine leg and Jack Harvey all had some technical difficulties that kept him off the track They got laps in but just not as many as maybe they had wanted to so what's next the Indy GPS this week?
The schedule isn't typical. So the races on Saturday evening afternoon And that's because they want to avoid interfering with mother's day. So that means practice and qualifying will be on Friday, a warmup and the race on Saturday.
Very different than your normal road weekend, road race weekend. I'll be there. If you see me at the track, please say hi, I'm friendly. ⁓ and I'd like to hear from you. So, ⁓ also, and thanks for listening.
I'm Indycardad. You'll find me on socials like TikTok and Instagram as at Indycardad. Thanks. ⁓ you guys have a great day and I hope to see you at the track.
About this episode
The host recaps the Indy 500 open test, noting a quiet two days with no crashes, a few engine swaps, and some standout pace from rookie Caio Collette. He also covers a major contract move as Alex Palou signs a multi-year extension with Chip Ganassi, plus troubling financial news around Prema and Callum Ilott. The episode closes with a schedule update for the Indy GP, which shifts to Saturday to avoid Mother’s Day.
The episode begins with a recap of the Indy 500 Open Test, followed by a tribute to Alex Zanardi. It then covers the winners and losers of the week, Prema's financial troubles, and a brief discussion on the upcoming Indy GP. The host also shares his personal experiences and aspirations for the future.
Takeaways
Indy 500 Open Test provides limited insights for fans
Remembering the legacy of Alex Zanardi
Chapters
00:00 Indy 500 Open Test Recap
05:46 Prema's Financial Troubles and Open Test Recap
