The Indycar Dad Podcast Apr 2, 2026

Indycar News in 5 Minutes - April 2, 2026 - Ep. 19

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4:13

Company

Able Motorsports

Able Motorsports is a racing team in IndyCar. They’re planning to race in the Indy 500 again, and the driver mentioned is Jacob Able.

Brand

Chevrolet is one of the engine manufacturers supplying IndyCar teams. The host suggests Chevy may have “excess engines” due to engine allocation plans (e.g., if a team like Prema didn’t take the full allotment).

Company

Prema

Prema is a well-known racing team. Here, the host is talking about how their plans affected how many engines were available from Chevrolet.

Concept

engine allocation / excess engines

In racing, there aren’t always unlimited engines available. If teams don’t use the engines they were expected to take, other teams may be able to get in using those leftover engines.

Concept

bump day

Bump day is when Indy 500 qualifying gets really intense. Faster cars can push slower cars out of the starting lineup, so teams fight to lock in their spot.

Concept

Indy 500 tickets started arriving

The host is saying Indy 500 tickets are starting to show up, which means race-week is getting close. It’s more about fan planning than car tech.

Concept

podium finish

A podium finish means you finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. It usually means the car and driver were performing really well.

Concept

Barber race

The “Barber race” is an IndyCar road-course event at Barber Motorsports Park. It’s a track that rewards skill and consistency, not just raw speed.

Concept

top rookie

A “top rookie” is the best-performing first-year driver. It’s a way to see who’s doing well among newcomers.

Concept

road course not for the inexperienced

The host is saying Barber is a tough road course to learn. Newer drivers can struggle because the track demands precise driving and decision-making.

Concept

beat your teammates

Racing teams often have more than one driver. If one driver beats the other drivers on the same team, it usually suggests they and the car were working better that weekend.

Company

McLaren

McLaren is a well-known racing organization. The host is saying one McLaren entry did poorly, even though another driver did well.

Concept

race pace

Race pace means how quick the car is over the whole race, not just one fast lap. The host is saying the car didn’t feel consistently fast enough.

Concept

pushed it too hard and crashed

The host is saying McLaughlin drove too aggressively and lost control. On road courses, that can happen when you’re trying to go faster than the tires and grip can handle.

Concept

Long Beach

Long Beach is another IndyCar race, run on city streets. The host is saying it’s coming up soon after a short gap in racing.

LIVE

Indycar Dad Podcast: Hey IndyCar family, I'm IndyCarDad, your host for IndyCar News in five minutes. We read and watch everything IndyCar for the past week and then we try to summarize it for you in five minutes.

So let's go with some quick updates in the news. Able Motorsports is gonna be entering the Indy 500. They last entered in 2023, so only a couple years back, three years back, and they're gonna have Jacob Able in it.

Power's gonna be by Chevrolet. I imagine Chevy has some excess engines. because they probably were set up to supply 10 engines to Prema, but when Prema didn't go for it, that left them with some excess.

So I looked for some maybe possible other Chevy entries, maybe Ford will add one or Penske might add one. ⁓ That'd be exciting. I want to see a bump day personally. I like bump day. So in a small news, Indy 500 tickets started arriving.

So I got my tickets. I hope you got your tickets. If you haven't got yours, might be time to start getting worried. ⁓ And in even littler news counting crows was announced as the carb day concert. I know two people that will be excited about that Yep, mr.

Jones and me. I'm all right. Let's talk about the barber race because we had some good results for a lot of guys Palo, of course won the race road course and he did his thing, you know, so that's pretty good and then Lundgaard was second nice podium finish for him and Graham Ray Hall was on the podium as well Good to see Graham back there.

I David Malukas Kyle Kirkwood Marcus Armstrong All had great results then Scott Dixon Santino Ferrucci was in there and Marcus Erickson and Joseph New Garden rounded out the top ten The top rookie was Kyle Collette, but the top rookie was only in 21st place Barbara is definitely not a place for the inexperienced.

So alright I each week I'll do winners and losers. So winners here, think Graham Ray Hall is a winner here. I mean, I've always sort of set felt that there's two types of Indy car fans. There were those that were watching when Graham made his debut in Indy car because one year at St.

Pete, showed up as a rookie. He ⁓ led more laps than anyone and he won the race over some stiff competition too. This is in the days when, you know, you had Scott Dixon and Elio was in his prime as a street fighter and all sorts of stuff like that.

So. He beat some heavy hitters, Dan Weldon and such. So ⁓ Graham had a great weekend finishing third. And ⁓ it's interesting too, they say as a driver, have a good weekend when you beat your teammates.

Well, Graham's teammates finished last and second to last. So Graham was on the podium. Alex Palo, of course, had a great weekend, solid win. He just outraced paced everybody. So let's talk about some losers, cause everybody likes that.

So anyone whose teammate was on the podium and they were in the bottom half of the field, you got to kind of call that a loser. So Louis Foster finished dead flipping last. And his teammate finished third.

Mick Schumacher finished 24th, second to last. So not good. Kiffin Simpson finished 20th. His teammate wasn't on the podium, but it wasn't a great finish for Kiffin. And then Nolan Seagal and Pato Award, Nolan finished 18th and Pato finished 17th.

So again, Really bad showing for the other part of McLaren while Christian Lundgaard was on the podium a Scott McLaughlin might come in as a loser I actually predicted him to win the race and early on the weekend He was fastest, but he pushed it too hard and crashed the car real bad ⁓ Just before qualifying they've got the car ready for qualifying, but it just never got the race pace.

So Let's see What's coming up next? have two and a half more weeks before Long Beach. So we're probably going to see a lot of gossip and news around the Indy 500. And so there'll be no racing action for a couple of weeks, but Long Beach is always, always, always a good time.

So this is five IndyCar news in five minutes. I'm IndyCarDad. You can follow me on all the podcast networks and then you can follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram and I'm on Tickety Tockety. and my handle is at IndyCarDad.

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4:13

Indycar News in 5 Minutes - April 2, 2026 - Ep. 19

Able Motorsports

Chevrolet

Prema

engine allocation / excess engines

bump day

Indy 500 tickets started arriving

podium finish

Barber race

top rookie

road course not for the inexperienced

beat your teammates

McLaren

race pace

pushed it too hard and crashed

Long Beach

About this episode

Original notes