Jordan Missig, an Able Motorsports driver currently eighth in Indy NXT, talks about his unusual path to pro racing—starting go-karts at 18 after limited early access, then climbing through Radical, F4/FR Americas, and Pro 2000 before landing in Indy NXT. He breaks down why sim racing helps with track learning but can’t replace real-seat feel, and offers practical advice on when to move from karts to cars. He also discusses engineering, setup feedback, oval love, Detroit’s difficulty, fitness/diet, and the possibility of Able Motorsports entering Indy 500 talks.
The podcast episode features an interview with Jordan Missig, driver of the #48 care in INDY NXT, discussing his journey in the racing world. The conversation covers his early racing years, the role of sim racing, the transition to Radical cars and beyond, and the differences in driving styles between open-wheel and sports cars. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the transition between different car types, performance and results, season progress and momentum, championship standings and potential, oval racing and preferences, favorite tracks and racing experience, racing in Abu Dhabi and Radical World Finals, racing decisions and opportunities, Graham Rahal and racing experience, smart decision-making and mentorship, diet and fitness regimen, the hardest track and racing challenges, mindset and goal setting, diet and fitness routine, Able Motorsports and Indy 500, and acknowledgments and partnerships.
Takeaways
Early exposure to racing influences a driver's career path
Sim racing provides valuable experience and track familiarity
Transitioning between different racing categories requires adaptation and understanding of driving styles Transitioning between different car types requires adjustments in driving style and technique.
Performance and results are crucial for building momentum and achieving success in the racing season.
"Indycar Dad Podcast: ...Jordan Missig... He's from Able Motorsports and he's currently eighth in the standings... Jordan Missig: ...second full season running in the Indian X car with Able Motorsports."
Able Motorsports is the racing team Jordan is with. In racing, the team helps with things like car preparation and strategy, which affects how well the driver performs.
Able Motorsports is the team Jordan drives for in IndyNext. In ladder-series racing, the team’s coaching, car setup support, and race operations can strongly influence a driver’s development and results.
"Jordan Missig: ...My first experience in a go-kart was five... Doing some basically some test laps... at the age of 18 is when I got in my actual go-kart start..."
Go-karts are the typical entry point for many racing drivers because they’re affordable, easy to run, and teach core driving skills like throttle control, braking, and racing lines. Jordan describes starting with test laps and later moving into competitive karting.
"...it's now costing you twice as much in crash repairs and bills. in a car, then it's going to cost you in a go-kart."
Crash repairs are the costs and work required to fix damage after an accident. The guest emphasizes that car crashes are more expensive than kart crashes, so learning in karts can reduce financial risk.
"...where does sim racing fall into this? You're sim racing before then or after that?"
Sim racing is competitive driving in a video game simulator, often with realistic physics and steering/brake/throttle hardware. The guest discusses how it fits into driver development before and alongside real-world racing.
"...before they kind of transitioned into iRacing. And then once we started doing that, we started racing on iRacing..."
iRacing is a sim racing website/game where people race online in realistic cars. It’s more serious than casual racing games and has leagues.
iRacing is an online sim racing platform known for realistic car/track physics and structured leagues. The guest describes transitioning to iRacing after earlier NASCAR games, then racing there before moving to real go-karts.
"...the sim racing felt like you're on ice. It felt like you had no sense of feel, no sense of grip and all, and you would always just spin out and crash."
Grip is how well a tire can hold the road surface, determining how much speed and steering input a driver can use before sliding. The guest says sim racing felt like “no sense of grip,” leading to frequent spins and crashes.
"...understanding the new track layouts that they're going to get muscle memory, look for referencing points..."
Muscle memory means your body learns the movements from repetition. After enough practice, driving tasks feel more natural.
Muscle memory is the repeated physical learning that makes driving actions feel automatic over time. The guest credits sim racing with helping drivers build muscle memory for new track layouts and reference points.
"⁓ but the SIM just does a good job of getting people out to speed, understanding what the track they're going to as a layout. It's not going to make you ⁓ tremendously a better racer, but it's going to get you at the speed."
SIM time means practicing in a racing video game or simulator. It helps you learn the track so you’re not starting from zero when you finally drive for real.
“SIM time” refers to practicing in a racing simulator (computer-based or motion simulator) before going to the real track. The goal is to learn the circuit layout and build familiarity so you can drive faster once you’re in the car.
"…it's very similar to what the radical sports car was going to be like in terms of lifetime wise. [1770.4s] And it was just all about getting used to the power, the aerodynamics and everything else is going to be the exact same."
Aerodynamics in race cars refers to how airflow creates downforce and stability, especially at speed. The speaker groups aerodynamics with power as key things they needed to get used to when moving to the next car category.
"…I have a radical that's set up strictly for the Audubon Country Club, and that's been like the fastest car around here for, I don't know, let's call it seven years now. ⁓ But it's been the exact same car that's been…"
A track record means the car has set the fastest lap time at that track. It’s a way to brag about speed, but it also shows the setup is working.
A track record is the fastest recorded lap time for a given car class or overall at a specific circuit. The speaker uses it to show the Radical’s performance and how often it’s been used locally.
"...different kinds of downforce. You have side skirts, you have front dive planes now that you're dealing with, you're dealing with rear wings as well too."
Side skirts are panels on the bottom sides of the car. They help the car “grab” the track by improving how air flows under it.
Side skirts are body panels along the lower sides of a race car that help manage airflow under the car. They work with the floor/diffuser to improve downforce by reducing air leakage under the chassis.
"...you're dealing with rear wings as well too. [2095.5s] So you have different elements of downforce..."
A rear wing is the spoiler on the back of a race car. It helps push the car down onto the track for better grip.
Rear wings are adjustable or fixed aerodynamic wings mounted at the back that create downforce. More rear downforce can increase traction and stability, but it can also change rotation and balance through the corner.
"But you want to also, you know, understand now downforce and, you know, different kinds of downforce. You have side skirts, you have front dive planes now that you're dealing with, you're dealing with rear wings as well too."
Downforce is the “suction” from the car’s shape that presses the tires onto the track. More downforce usually means more grip, but you have to drive in a way that keeps the car working in the corner.
Downforce is the aerodynamic force that pushes the car’s tires into the road, increasing grip. The guest connects downforce to specific aero parts (side skirts, dive planes, rear wings) and emphasizes that downforce cars require commitment because grip depends on staying in the right speed/attitude through corners.
"The engineer then kind of goes over with you saying, all right, we can do these kinds of adjustments. ⁓ It'll help you here, but it may harm you here."
An engineer is the person who helps set up the car and interpret what the driver is feeling. They use information from the track to suggest changes and explain trade-offs.
In pro racing, an engineer is responsible for translating driver feedback and telemetry into actionable setup changes. The guest describes engineers helping with corner-by-corner adjustments and warning that changes can help in one place while hurting in another.
"Whereas on the sports car side, you want to be as straight as you can. So that way you're not getting any wheel slippage or wheel spin on the exit."
If the tires lose grip, they can slide or spin. That usually makes you slower and can make the car harder to control.
Wheel slippage (loss of traction) and wheel spin occur when the tires can’t transmit the commanded acceleration or braking force. In the context of sports cars, the driver wants to minimize these on exit to keep the car stable and fast.
"But yeah, I'd say, know, obviously with Arlington and then Barber, you know, we've now had three race streak of top 10 finishes. So that's been really good on us."
A top 10 finish means you finished in the first ten spots. Doing that often helps you score more points over the season.
Top 10 finishes are results where a driver places within the first ten positions. In many racing series, consistent top 10s are crucial for accumulating points and maintaining momentum toward the championship.
"Jordan Missig: ...just being flat out on an oval and just having to keep it pinned and just be more of, you know, kind of placing where your car needs to be, whether it needs to be a half a lane higher to get the clean air or you're chopping somebody's nose off if you need to."
Clean air means the car isn’t being “buffeted” by other cars’ wake. When you get clean air, the car usually feels easier to drive and more predictable.
Clean air is relatively undisturbed airflow around the car, which improves aerodynamic efficiency and downforce. On ovals, being in clean air can help the car feel more stable and make it easier to hold speed, especially in traffic.
"Jordan Missig: So ⁓ that wasn't part of me winning the championship in 2024 with Graham Rahal when I raced for his team."
Graham Rahal is an IndyCar driver and team owner, and his involvement is central to Jordan’s career decisions in the transcript. Team budgets, seat availability, and sponsorship influence which series a driver can afford to race in.
"...e car as I can tell you right now is a GT Porsche GT Carrera So he absolutely loves those cars ⁓ But from our ..."
The Porsche Carrera GT is a very high-end sports car made for performance. It’s the kind of car people talk about when they’re excited about rare, fast cars. It’s not a common daily driver—more of a special enthusiast car.
The Porsche Carrera GT refers to the Carrera GT model, a high-performance supercar built for serious driving and track use. It’s significant because it’s a rare, performance-focused machine that tends to attract enthusiasts who love advanced engineering and driving feel. In a podcast, it would come up as a “dream car” or a benchmark for what someone admires in Porsche’s lineup.
"Jordan Missig: All right. The funds are coming our way. Now we can, and with seats opening up, now we can kind of pinpoint how, when we can jump into any next car, get some testing done, then go do some races."
Seat time means how long a driver gets to actually drive the car during practice or testing. More seat time usually helps the driver get faster and more confident.
Seat time is the amount of time a driver spends in the car during testing or practice sessions. More seat time helps drivers learn track nuances, improve consistency, and develop confidence with the car’s setup.
"Jordan Missig: kind have to go back and forth from paddock to paddock. So at one point I'm going to the Radical paddock to go do a race. ⁓ Then I'm having to go to the Indy Next paddock."
The paddock is where the teams set up and work on the race cars between sessions. If you have to go back and forth, it can be stressful because you’re managing schedules and car prep.
The paddock is the area where teams park, service cars, and prepare for sessions. Moving between paddocks (as Jordan describes) affects logistics and timing, especially when drivers are competing in multiple series on the same weekend.
"Jordan Missig: Then once that drivers meet or Indy Next drivers meeting, then once that drivers meeting is done, go straight to Pitt Road because my car is there for Radical practice and all that."
A drivers meeting is where race officials tell everyone the rules and safety details for the session. It’s like a quick briefing you have to attend before you go out.
A drivers meeting is a mandatory briefing where officials cover rules, safety procedures, session timing, and any track-specific notes. It’s especially important on busy weekends when a driver is juggling multiple series.
"...until the checker flight flies and you cross the line, you just don't stop pushing."
The checkered flag means the race is finished. When it waves, you know you’ve reached the end of the event.
“Checker flag” refers to the finish signal in racing, shown as a checkered pattern. “Checker flight flies” is a colloquial way to say the race is over once the flag is waved.
"...And I get to drive my car on the track. They have a, if you're a Corvette owner, they let you drive on it."
Corvette is a popular high-performance sports car from Chevrolet. The host is saying Corvette owners get special access to drive on the track.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a performance sports car brand that’s often used as a reference point for track-day experiences and enthusiast events. Mentioning Corvette owners being allowed to drive suggests a track-day or special access program.
"...And the thing about the one wheel is it lets you know where the camber is, you know?"
Camber is how the tire sits relative to the road—tilted in or out. If it changes at a corner, the car can feel grippier or looser than you expect.
Camber is the angle of the tire relative to the road surface (how much the tire tilts in or out). Track camber changes can strongly affect grip and how a car rotates through corners, especially on uneven street surfaces.
"Indycar Dad Podcast: I do these, I do these segments on my Instagram where I try to eat like a driver and I try to work out like a driver and then"
It’s basically a diet routine meant for race drivers. The idea is to eat in a way that helps you train and recover better.
The host mentions an Instagram concept of “eating like a driver,” meaning a diet approach tailored to how race drivers train and recover. It’s about fueling performance and managing energy intake rather than just eating casually.
"Indycar Dad Podcast: I do these, I do these segments on my Instagram where I try to eat like a driver and I try to work out like a driver and then"
It means training the way race drivers do. The goal is to build the strength and stamina needed to handle racing.
“Work out like a driver” refers to training methods race drivers use to handle the physical demands of racing. In this segment, it’s tied to endurance, intervals, and strength work that supports driving under high forces.
"Jordan Missig: Mm-hmm. So tip number one, don't eat fast. People tend to, when they're hungry, you know, eat very fast. And next thing you know, by the time you, like, let's say 20 minutes goes by, your brain then tells you you're full."
They’re saying slow down while you eat. If you eat too fast, you can end up eating more than you actually need.
The guest’s “don’t eat fast” advice is about pacing meals so satiety signals catch up. Eating quickly can lead to overeating before your brain recognizes you’re full.
"Jordan Missig: So just kind of try to stay away from any of the trans fat stuff as much as I can. If I do have a cheat day or let's say I'm on the road or whatnot, yeah, there's going to be a couple of days where I stop for fast food stuff just because it's quick and easy."
Trans fat is an unhealthy type of fat. The guest is saying they try to avoid it for better heart health.
Trans fat is a type of dietary fat associated with worse cardiovascular health outcomes. The guest mentions trying to avoid it as part of a fitness and cholesterol-focused routine.
"Jordan Missig: Even some neck training as well too. So I have myself an iron neck that I do a lot of neck training with can do about 85 pounds worth of weight that I can pull with my neck as well too."
It’s a tool for strengthening your neck. The guest uses it so their neck can handle the forces from racing.
An “iron neck” is a neck-training device used to add resistance for strengthening the neck muscles. The guest uses it to prepare for the high neck loads from sustained cornering forces in open-wheel racing.
"Jordan Missig: ...For us especially because we have no power steering in our in our cars So when you're dealing with the wheel you're feeling all the little bumps the nooks the crannies of the track as well..."
It means the steering isn’t assisted by a power system. So you have to use more muscle to turn the wheel, especially for long stints.
“No power steering” means the steering system doesn’t use a hydraulic/electric assist to reduce effort. That makes steering physically demanding, especially over many laps and with heavy steering inputs.
"...I'm starting out. This is my first year creating content for IndyCar. I only create content for the IndyCar series in its latter. And so you're my first driver interview..."
The IndyCar series is the top level of American open-wheel racing. The host emphasizes that the content is focused on IndyCar, and the guest’s career discussion is framed around IndyCar participation and progression.
Introduction to IndyCarDad Podcast
The Role of Sim Racing
Transition to Formula 2000 and Beyond
Differences in Driving Styles
Championship Standings and Potential
Smart Decision-Making and Mentorship
Hardest Track and Racing Challenges
Able Motorsports and Indy 500
Select text to request an explanation
Indycar Dad Podcast: Hey everybody, welcome to the IndyCarDad podcast. I have a special guest, I'm very excited. I'm a big fan of the IndyNext series and we have Jordan Missig with us today. He's from Able Motorsports and he's currently eighth in the standings. So Jordan's having a good start to the year. Welcome to the podcast, Jordan.
Jordan Missig: Absolutely, Tom. Thank you very much for having me on. I'm looking forward to this show. It's going to be a lot of fun. yeah, I'm excited to see what we're going be talking about.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Great, yeah. So first of all, do you call it Indy Next or Indy NXT?
Jordan Missig: So we've been told or everyone's been told to call it in the next. Now everyone call it in the NXT to kind of abbreviate it but the official term is in the next.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ OK. ⁓ good, that's good to know, because I like the shorter version. ⁓ and watchers, Jordan is a radical champion. You're a go-kart champion and you're in your second full season of Indie Next. Kind of, you had some more time in there. is that a good way to describe it? Second full season?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, I mean, my first year I just kind of was a way to get my feet wet and kind of get used to the car and everything. So I did like a handful of races, maybe like four or five at most ⁓ in 2024.
That was kind of in coincide with my radical season that I was doing. But yeah, second full season running in the Indian X car with Able Motorsports. So very, very pleased and happy with the way it's kind of started out and how we've kind of approached our season and how the first leg of it's going.
So we kind of go into the month off break now before we go into Indianapolis and in month of May.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. Yeah, great. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the month of May. So Jordan, ⁓ it's the IndyCar Dad podcast. So I hope to reach out to some dads. And I know like myself, I was a big racing fan and I kind of hoped my kid would get to be a racer.
And it didn't happen to work out the way it worked out for you. But I'd like to kind of get into the how's a racer made? Are they born? Are they bred? know, and so can we start from the start? Like what's your first racing memory?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, so most kids, you know, when they first start racing or anywhere between the ages of five and 11, when they get their first start, especially kids at the professional level where I'm at right now, we're in Indy car, you know, they're starting at around ages.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, Mick Schumacher said he got his first go-kart at two and a
Jordan Missig: Yeah, so mean kids are getting into seed as early as two to three summer later to five most kind of around five to eleven is that age range? ⁓ Me my first experience in a go-kart was five ⁓ Doing some basically some test laps, but I was it ⁓ My dad was married to the business at the time He had a automotive is a repair shop business for about a good 29 years just shy of 30 but he was married to the business at the time so he could not take the time off or
Jordan Missig: Allow us to be able to go travel and go racing in the time So I was never really got the shot to go into a go-kart seat at the younger age But I got one test day and the guy thought I was really good and wanted to go ahead and sponsor me and you know Put me in a go-kart, but my parents said no we can do it at the time So I basically from the age of five had to wait around 13 years to now get my shot when fast forward now at the age of 18 is when I got in my actual go-kart start And actually started racing competitively.
So I was much, much later than most, you know, kids nowadays. you know, and I'm coming in with just say, you know, this is my 10th year now racing. So about 10 years ago was when I first got into a go-kart.
⁓ I'm racing now kids that have, you know, are at the ages of 20 and they've been racing for 10 years or, you know, are 24 and they've been racing for 14. So I have guys like who have.
Jordan Missig: Sometimes a lot more experience. I've kind of caught up a little bit in terms of experience level, but you get a lot of guys who are still upwards to around the exact same range of experience, but they're like 10 years or eight years younger than me.
So it's like, you know, I'm looking at the scale and I'm like, I'm just as fast as these guys are just as good, but I've been able to come up through the ranks at a much shorter period of time. And I think for me with me being 18 years old, starting, it's just allowed me to mature a lot more and allowed me to, you know, make that Stepping stone up the scale of the IndyCar ladder system a lot faster than what most other kids you know tend to take now You see guys like Kyle Kirkwood Oliver ask or even Chris Rasmussen They can go up the IndyCar ladder system and got to IndyCar within three to four years For me, it's taking me a little bit longer on that front end but to get up to any next You know, it took me probably about six years of racing professionally before I was an in the next driver But yeah, that's kind of where the start came from
Indycar Dad Podcast: Right, right. Uh-huh. And then, you don't start racing go-carts till you're 18. That's incredibly late. So I give you a lot of credit. I hear a lot of people, like I see people, I used to race cars. didn't start till I was like 25. Like yourself, I had to kind of do it myself a lot. I raced motorcycles when I got out of college and that was my jam. But I've seen people online, like kids, teenage kids, 14, 15 years old saying,
Indycar Dad Podcast: you know, is it too late for me to get into carding? And people are saying, yes, it's too late. You'll never make it. But that's not true. I mean, you're an Indie Next. Like you're, you're making it. So.
Jordan Missig: Yeah, it just, depends on like, there's two things that really come into it. And I like to be kind of a little bit of an advocate for guys who are getting a star lake because, you know, people come up to me and I always ask, how do you get into any next or how do you get started in racing?
How do you do all this and that? Um, you get maybe a handful of guys who say, you know, I'm, you know, let's say 18 or 17 years old. How do I get started in racing? And you know, It's the exact same way that we start off with kids, whether you're 18 years old or five years old, you're always going to start in go-karts.
And I always just say, you know, get started in go-karts, race at like a local track, race at a regional level, and then kind of find out what your experience is from there. I mean, you could be an 18 year old kid and be quick as can be, win a lot of races.
And it's just, how does your progression level move up? Obviously when you're 18, you know, you have to be on your game.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Mine didn't move up fast enough, so that's why I'm in.
Jordan Missig: from the very get go and you got to be going, you know, it's not really much time to be able to dilly dally and mess around and, know, be able to go trial and error. Now there's some time, but you got to be winning races and you got to be winning championships along the way while you're doing your trial and error experience.
⁓ but it all comes down to like, how do you perform in your regional levels? And if you're winning races there, then we'll go to the national levels. If you're winning races there or competing for podiums and all, then that would be the time to kind of say, all right, I've competed, I'm getting my experience.
I'm learning what I need to do here. Once I feel like I've learned enough, let's jump into cars and let's go from there. You know, the quickest way to go to pro racing is to get out of the car as fast as you can.
⁓ now I'm not saying to any kid out there that needs to feel like I need to get out of the car as quick as possible. You know, I want to race and move on. No, it's just, you need to be able to be consistently running up to the front, consistently battling for race wins, battling for top fives.
And once you feel like you'll learn all you could there, that's when you make the transition and then move up. But you don't just do it because you've won one race. and you're running, let's say 15th or 10th every single race, you know, you got to show the consistency value that you're running up front and competing for race wins before you can move out.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Mm-hmm. Right, right, makes sense to me. Yeah, you know, as a super fan of the series, you know, you see a lot of drivers that just, they just do it by time, you know? And it's, that's not really how it works. It's like, should be like shifting a manual car. You get to the peak RPM, you go to the next gear, not based on how many days you've been driving.
Jordan Missig: The biggest mistake I've seen and it has ruined your kids careers or as tarnish or set them back is You get kids that are on the ages of 12 to 4 11 to 14 in that range and you decide well It's gonna cost me.
Let's just say Six hundred thousand dollars to go race a go-kart for a season. Okay? Well, it could cost me the exact same amount of money to go race an f4 car or usf-2000 or have 1600 car, you know and I'm going to do it for the exact same amount of price, but I'm just going to go up a series higher.
Unless you've been able to do a test days and you've, you know, I've competed in carts and you feel like you've done well and you're ready for the next step or, you know, you have your own personal track and personal card or you can go on track as many times as you want.
And, you know, be able to get those reps in. I'd stay in carts until you feel like you're ready to move out because most kids think they need to take that jump and move them into cars. And then next thing you know, what happens is they find themselves getting in the wrecks.
They find themselves getting into trouble. They're making dumb mistakes or they're making the exact same mistakes that they made at the go-kart track on an in a car on a big track. Now you're putting your, you know, now when you're dealing with cars, you're putting yourself, your body and everybody else in harm's way.
But now with that, but if you crash the car and everything, you cause damage. It's now costing you twice as much in crash repairs and bills. in a car, then it's going to cost you in a go-kart. So if you're going to be making the dumb mistakes, make them in a go-kart, don't make them in a car.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, right. That's great advice Jordan. Thanks for that. You just paid your dues on this podcast. You've earned your keep right there. So I appreciate that. ⁓
Jordan Missig: No Hopefully everyone can save the thousands of dollars that I had to spend.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Right. And then where does sim racing fall into this? You're sim racing before then or after that?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, I mean, so I've was sim racing long before it. Quite honestly, my first sim race that I kind of did was in 2011 when I got an Xbox 360 and I started doing, you know, the old NASCAR games. I would always race, you know, the NASCAR racing 2002, 2003 and two and a racing four on my PC. But those were all single player games. I never really did the multiplayer version of that early level of sim racing. So I always raced by myself doing that.
Jordan Missig: ⁓ but it was in 2011 when I got my first Xbox 360 NASCAR game and I started racing online and then I found a group of guys and we started doing, ⁓ leagues at that time. So race basically from 2011 till 2015, four years of doing that before they kind of transitioned into iRacing.
And then once we started doing that, we started racing on iRacing there and that was about two years of racing on iRacing before I transitioned into doing go-karts and. You know, I raced in iRacing doing all the league stuff until about 2017.
⁓ and that's kind of when I found out that, you know, the sim racing platform is vastly different than what it was like in the real life platform. You know, I can drive a go-kart and I would drive a car in real life and I'd be perfectly fine.
But the sim racing felt like you're on ice. It felt like you had no sense of feel, no sense of grip and all, and you would always just spin out and crash. So I'm like, well, this is ruining my ego. I'm just crashing all the time.
Jordan Missig: I'm not getting the proper feel or anything that I would in a car. So it's not really benefiting or helping me in this case. I'm gonna just go drive the real thing in real life. Cause that's what I'm used to and what I'm feeling.
The SIM does a good job in terms of getting drivers up to speed, understanding the new track layouts that they're going to get muscle memory, look for referencing points, understanding what you need to do.
So when you go to the track for the first time, if you're going to a new track, You can be fast right out of the gate up to speed for that first session you're on track and you're not having to learn the track like you normally would do if you didn't have a sim.
That's what the purpose of the sim is. You're not going to find a guy who's going to, you know, work all of his tech, his techniques, work everything he can on his race craft. You can still do that by doing the sim racing stuff, but you're not going to get the sense of field of what it feels like to have the car, the tires carving into the track, leaning all the forces, getting all the side load and all the different force.
forces that are being thrown at your body, whether it's lateral G force or, you know, the get throttle on brake and feel all the threshold breaking. You don't feel that in the sim. You're not going to feel that until you actually get on the racetrack and you actually experiment in a real car and you get the actual track time.
So that's where being on track actually like helps out tremendously. And that's what we always say, see time, see time, see time. It's the biggest thing that you can ask for.
Jordan Missig: And it truly has a value to it. As much as people say, no, I've been driving the exact same track for many, many years. It has a value to it to be on track in different cars and in different tracks as well too.
⁓ but the SIM just does a good job of getting people out to speed, understanding what the track they're going to as a layout. It's not going to make you ⁓ tremendously a better racer, but it's going to get you at the speed.
So that way you can be a better racer when you get to the actual track.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Gotcha, yeah, so you can put your skills to work on the track that you've learned. So did you have a good ⁓ representation of the Arlington track?
Jordan Missig: Mm-hmm. ⁓ me not so much. did maybe like five laps on it. There was a SIM at, the PRI show in Indianapolis that we got a couple of laps on and you know, there really wasn't compared to the SIM track and the actual Arlington circuit.
You know, the SIM was way off and people are going to do that for the first time, just kind of guessing at what the render is going to be like, you know, there's going be a lot of things that are going to be different compared to what the real life actual, ⁓ layout's going to be.
Jordan Missig: It's more of just you use the SIM to find out, all right, the next turn is going to be a left-hander, it's going to be a right-hander, then it's going to be a left-hander, or you got this long straightaway that's going to go into a third gear corner.
So that's kind what the SIM does to kind of help that muscle memory and tell you where direction the track layout is going until you get on the actual track. So I was kind of trying to stay away from SIMS as much as I can until I got onto the actual track surface itself, because that was the only way I was going to understand.
Jordan Missig: which direction it kind of goes and how it's going to feel and how the car is going to react. I don't want to over psych myself by thinking, oh, it's going to drive like this on the SIM and then I go to drive it like on the SIM in real life. And next thing I know you're putting it on a wall and you're sitting out the rest of the session.
Indycar Dad Podcast: That's interesting Jordan. would have, you throw me for a loop. I would have pictured at your age where you started in the seat later that there would just be a continuous run through like thousands of sim hours.
But it's very interesting to hear you say that once you got into the real seat, you focused more on the real seat and less on the sim. So that's really, I think a lot of people will be interested to hear that.
I know I'm super interested to hear that. So thanks. Thanks for sharing.
Jordan Missig: Yeah. Yeah, there's just, there's a lot of different nuances that you just don't understand. Like you will never understand until you actually get into the seat and you actually feel it for yourself.
And the biggest thing the advocate is, is that, you know, when people get into his car for the first time, there's intimidation, obviously, because you're in an actual car and you're feeling the sense of speed and that fearness, that fear factor that comes into it.
You don't get that when you're in the simulator. So you have to kind of throw that aside and
Jordan Missig: You when you get into a car be able to feel what the car is actually telling you and what it wants and how it fast it needs to go And you don't get that unless you actually do Sim time Sim time Sim time or see time I should say now It was funny because there was one corner at the Audubon Country Club where I kind of grew up and got my started racing We call it our south turn four.
It's a basically in a radical It's a flat-out 90 degree corner that goes downhill then uphill, but you're taking it around 150 miles an hour and I've knew it was flat based on just watching previous video and other guys doing it.
But then once I got into a car, I was like, there's no way it can be flat. That's just way too fast. It's not going to happen. But because I saw a video of guys doing it that were just flat and it looked easy by like my fourth or fifth lap, I knew, all right, I'm going to have to work myself up to it.
And by like lap 10, I was doing it because I'm like, I know it's flat. People are doing it. You just got to commit to.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a wild feeling so you know So Jordan like how how did your family work in with your racing like you're 18 years old? Were you totally on your own or was it that your dad now had a little more time? Do have siblings? How's the how's the family life around the racing?
Jordan Missig: So only child, luckily enough. I didn't have to share anything that I had with anybody else. So everything was mine. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, when it came to the racing, we really didn't know at the time it was actually gonna take off. Like I had no intentions on being a race car driver growing up or anything like that. I always wanted to. I thought it was pretty cool, but never knew there was an opportunity to make it happen. So.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ huh. ⁓ huh. Uh-huh. ⁓ huh. Who didn't, right?
Jordan Missig: All my life throughout my childhood and growing up even so, until we even became members, we go to NASCAR races all the time. And we would go to like six a year, two in Michigan, two in Chicagoland and two at Talladega.
Those would be like our three ⁓ tracks that we go to. then ⁓ there would be a couple of years where we do a couple of outliers. We went to Charlotte a couple of times, Texas, Phoenix, ⁓ my family went to, and then also, ⁓ I'd say Daytona every now and then, but we realistically went to those three for the most part of my entire life growing up.
Then once we started racing ourselves, we kind of just took the camping trips that we would do and you know, those race fan trips and just kind of transition them to now we're going to do the exact same thing, except now my son, the son's the driver and I'm racing in them.
So same setup treated exactly like an actual race weekend or like a, ⁓
Jordan Missig: you know, vacation NASCAR weekend that we go to, except now we're going to like local go-kart tracks and all that. So for me, it, once my dad sold the business, this is now what 2015, ⁓ end of 2015 when we joined as members.
⁓ that's when he got me the go-kart and that that's when we started just racing around here. We were racing locally mostly and found out that was good. I was winning all the races and I was winning now championships.
then. 2017 extend to go into, you know, race nationally and race, you know, at the Indianapolis Motorspeed Rally and they did the battle at the Brickyard, Daytona for DECO-UKA, Rock Island Grand Prix.
⁓ All these are now travel trace tracks that we're going to to go race. And we start bringing our motorhome with us, start just going to all these tracks just like we would for normal, like rate NASCAR weekend that we go to.
Jordan Missig: And then from there, it's just basically, you know, we're racing go-karts at the time and just trying to get the experience that we need. See, go have fun and just, you know, enjoy our time as a go-kart racer.
But then we found out that I was actually pretty dang good at it. And when we did the Margaignite Challenge, this is now 2018, more of a regional championship. That goes to like five to five to six different racetracks in the Midwest, but racing four, four cycle motors.
⁓ That comes down to now me winning a championship in that year and we figured, all right, well now we kind of won a championship in go-karting here at the regional level and also national level. Let's now transition to car racing.
Let's see where it goes from there. And then that's when I got my step into racing a radical around here at the track and started locally racing, you know, the radical around here. And then we decided to take it nationally, which I was doing pretty dang well.
Jordan Missig: finished second in the championship my first year in 2019 and thought, you know, I could come back and win the championship the next year or let's go to the next step and what would be the next step after that. And that's either go sports car racing or go open-ware racing. And that's kind of when my professional open-ware career started.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. And then you moved into Formula 2000?
Jordan Missig: Yep. So that was like F3 at the time. And the reason why we went into F3, cause it was either we can go Formula Regional Americas racing, um, or we can go USF 2000 racing and both were kind of like on the fence on what was going to be the best.
At the time that was when Honda announced that they were going to be doing a scholarship to the champion of FR Americas. And that would be an Indian light scholarship through Honda. So we thought to ourselves, Oh, we got to go try this.
Jordan Missig: you know, give it a shot, you know, who knows where it's going to end up and what's going to happen. So that was kind of throwing me towards the deep end because one, it's a more higher horsepower car than I was probably used to, but also at the same time, you know, I'm kind of skipping a level, but it's very similar to what the radical sports car was going to be like in terms of lifetime wise.
And it was just all about getting used to the power, the aerodynamics and everything else is going to be the exact same. It's just getting used to the power and a little bit bigger tires.
Jordan Missig: And they were actually the sexiest tires too that we were using on the radical. So was one last thing that actually have to worry about was the tire model. And then from there, it was just kind of, you know, that's when I raced Indie lights had canceled that season at the time.
So a lot of the Indie lights guys came over to actually race in that championship. I had guys like Lena's Lundquist that were racing, David Malukis, ⁓ Santino Ruttia were over there. ⁓ Victor Franzoni was there, Daniel Frost.
So you had guys with a bunch of experience and then you had guys like Jacob Abel and James Rowe.
Jordan Missig: ⁓ Guys who are experienced at that level too, coming over to race. So there was a lot of different experience that was there that I basically was thrown into the deep end on, but felt like I was competitive enough to go racing against these guys. And it did show early on in the season.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Great. That sounds really interesting. And then, ⁓ so do you still own a radical? you drive radicals?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, I mean, I have my own radical that's still here. I have a radical that's set up strictly for the Audubon Country Club, and that's been like the fastest car around here for, I don't know, let's call it seven years now. ⁓ But it's been the exact same car that's been, you know, raced since I technically won my championship around here back in like 2019. So, I mean, it's been used only a handful of times over now and then, ⁓ but
Jordan Missig: You know because most of my racing now is now on the pro circuit So I don't race as much around here But maybe I get like one or two races a year that I'll pull the radical out and you know be able to drive it and give rides around here But yeah still have it still Drive it around track hold it still a track record around here So it's still it does get its use just a little bit less than what it used to get
Indycar Dad Podcast: Sure. Yeah, but you keep it around. Sounds fun. So, um, and then so then after three seasons in F2000 you move on to next? Is that right?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, so we went ahead and actually it was kind of like, I guess you could say four seasons in a sense, because I did two seasons in FR Americas in 2020 and 2021. And then 2022 is when they made the transition over to the road to Indy or USF Pro Championships and raced Pro 2000 at the time. And that was through 2022 and 2023.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ okay. Uh huh. So when you join one of these new series, do you like bring in, I mean, the adjustment, especially when you went from carting to radical, the adjustment must have been pretty intense. You're shifting, you got suspensions set up. Do you bring in coaching? Do you take lessons? Like what's the process? how do you get up to speed fast?
Jordan Missig: Yeah, and a lot of that comes down to, you know, what's who do you have around you to help you out? You know, and for me, luckily enough, being at a country club and a member there, I had a lot of guys who were very influential and had been in the radical series for quite some time and driving these cars for quite a while. And I had some guys at the time that were coming out of go-karts as well as going into cars. And they said, you know,
Jordan Missig: driving a radical is basically just big go-karts. You're gonna exactly, exact same as you do in a go-kart, you'll excel in a radical. And there's a little bit of a difference, obviously.
Now you're dealing with not only just rear brakes, but now you're dealing with front braking. So everything's a lot more of a platform and neutral when it comes into the brake zones. But in terms of driving style-wise, it is very similar and exact same.
You wanna have the rear end hanging out a little bit, loose as fast is the general term.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ huh. Yeah, a little rotation.
Jordan Missig: But you want to also, you know, understand now downforce and, you know, different kinds of downforce. You have side skirts, you have front dive planes now that you're dealing with, you're dealing with rear wings as well too.
So you have different elements of downforce that are now helping you out, but when you start going from a go-kart, it's all about commitment. Downforce cars are all about commitment as well too. That helped out tremendously of knowing that, the grip level is gonna be there.
It feels very comfortable going into a corner very fast. And obviously age has a lot to do with it too. Being young and fearless at the time has a lot of big commitment. You don't have as much responsibility or worry on your life or in your head going on in your life.
So it's a little bit easier to kind of take a corner a lot faster than ⁓ most people would say that are older. But.
Jordan Missig: Generally speaking, I had a lot of influential people that are around me that understood these cars, understood what it was like to go into data, what it was like to going into looking at video, what to look for.
And they just kind of, you know, mentored me a little bit throughout my life and my early career and just kind of helped build me up on speed and eventually when I was starting to get fast, they would start looking over my data and everything and help.
and it would be helping them out, but they would also be noticing some similar things as well too, that I was doing better. And they would point it out to me as well too. So that way I was actually learning, understanding what actually needed to be done for the car.
And then it came down to doing setups and I worked on some of the cars at the time. So working on these cars also helped me understand what needed to be done to them, how the steps were done, how they were, you know, worked on, how they were wrenched and then what they do for each part of the car.
So then now when I went into the car and I said, Alright, well the car needs a little bit more front end bite or a little bit more yaw and load into the corner. Alright, that's a rear rebound adjustment that I need to have done or that's a front camber or toe adjustment that needs to be done to this car.
So just kind of understanding the little different nuances helped me understand setup, helped me make the right changes that I needed to do and it helped me develop my driving style so that when I wanted to do, had the car do what I wanted to do, it was naturally became faster.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Neat. Then was it the same when you went to F2000 or Formula Regional America or even in the NXT or where do you get an engineer to come in and help you?
Jordan Missig: So yeah, once you kind of got up to the pro ranks, ⁓ that's when the engineer starts to come in a little bit more crucially. And that's when you start doing these little track maps, you'd start giving a little bit more fine details of what the car needs for each specific corner.
The engineer then kind of goes over with you saying, all right, we can do these kinds of adjustments. ⁓ It'll help you here, but it may harm you here. It may make the car feel better here and all that.
Jordan Missig: What would you like? And it just comes down to a personal preference for me as a driver of what I need to be able to make the car do what I want it to do. Now that works out through F3, FR Americas, into USF Pro 2000.
You know, the engineer is a vital part on how to set up a car and how you want it to go fast. And that's something that, you know, you as a driver have to understand what you want the car to do or what you need the car to do to make it do what you want it to do as a driver.
Indycar Dad Podcast: so you can ask the right question.
Jordan Missig: and just kind of having that relationship with the engineers is a crucial, vital part.
Indycar Dad Podcast: That's good. Have you had the same engineer now for a little while or do you have a new one this year? How's that going?
Jordan Missig: So when I was working with ⁓ NewmanWalks Racing in FR Americas, I went through two different engineers. I think we were kind of engineering the car on our own the first season. Second year, we kind of have an engineer ⁓ who actually is my engineer right now on the Indian X side, oddly enough. So kind of had that relationship with him and kind of rekindled that. That was kind of cool. I had a different engineer when I was going through Pabst Racing and USF Pro 2000.
Jordan Missig: ⁓ so that was a little bit different. then once I got to the, next side, kind of dealt with three or four different engineers until I linked up with the one that I have now. So it's kind of been back and forth a little bit here and there, but it's all about kind of how you rekindle or how you kindle that relationship with your engineer and just, you know, if he is understanding, when he's knowledgeable about the car, knowledgeable about what setup changes need to be made.
And also is he knowledgeable about what you're going need as a driver for a driving style and what you want to have happen. You know, it's all gonna, the engineer is gonna make the decisions on what the car needs based off what your feedback is.
And if you tell him, say, you know, I need the car to be a little bit more freer entering the corner, or I need it to be more on the nose, I need a little bit more front end stability while I'm going in so I can hold the car under the braking load going into a corner, he'll know the changes that need to be made, but.
You also don't want to tune yourself out of a window. You want to stay within that small niche window so that way you know the car is going be fast and the little subtle changes here and there just kind of helps the car, not hurts the car.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, give the guy a shout out. You've said a lot of good things of him. What's his name?
Jordan Missig: So it was Doug Forker is my engineer right now. You know, he's a good guy. Obviously he's worked with the Chip Canassi back in the old days when there was, you know, when Zanardi was racing for Chip at the time.
So he was, you know, way back in the day. And then obviously, you know, he's been working with Abel for quite some time, worked with him back in 2021 when I was doing F4 Americas and then now was linked up with him when I'm on the Indian next side.
Indycar Dad Podcast: There you go, all right. ⁓ wow. ⁓ huh. Oh great, well that's good to hear. It's nice that people can be friendly and productive at the same time. Often my experience as an old person is that if you're friendly, you are more productive.
So it's nice that you have a good relationship with Doug, right? So good. Props to Doug. I'm an engineer by training, not a race engineer, just an engineer. So yeah, nice. So okay, I have a nerd out question for you.
I'm ask you real nerdy question. I've never heard anyone ask this question.
Indycar Dad Podcast: So as a big racing fan, you see drivers and some of them go from open wheel cars and then they go to sports cars and they do horribly. And other drivers are fast in sports cars and they go to open wheel cars and they do really poorly.
And then some drivers like yourself go from one to the next to the next and do well. What's going on here? Like why? What's so different? Like I've never driven an open wheel car before. I've drove an open cockpit car, but I've never seen the, I mean, I had a school in a Formula Ford, you know, so I, but I spawned the car and didn't really do very well.
So what's going on? Why are some, why does that happen? What? Yeah. That's my question.
Jordan Missig: OK. Right. I guess it comes down to you know driver preference on how they handle themselves It also comes down obviously with different types of cars have different types of driving styles so It kind of like if you were an open-wheel car I'll take this for example when I was doing the USF Pro series I Would be within say 6 tenths of you know pull or the fastest guy I could be within 6 tenths or even four tenths, three tenths, two tenths, be right there, you know, we're competitive in the fight.
I can then jump into like a Lamborghini Super Trofeo in a sports car and I'll be a second and a half or a second off pace. And I'm like, well, why? What's going on? And a lot of it just comes down to driving style.
Open wheeled cars are generally more momentum cars that want to be able to carry speed through the corners because
Jordan Missig: You know, you have a lot of downforce and you want to utilize that downforce to its maximum capacity. So some corners you need to take flat out and you need to not lift and carry as much speed as you can into the corner.
Other corners you need to be hard on the brakes, but you need to be ready to go to get back to throttle for the corner exit. Sports cars, they are more point and shoot type cars. So that's get the car to slow down as fast as you can, get all your turning done on the entry part of the corner and get back to throttle.
Jordan Missig: as soon as you can, but you need to the car to basically come to almost a complete stop at the turn in point. So that way you get all the rotation that you need and then it's basically just unwind the wheel and keep the wheel as straight as possible for the exit.
When it's momentum cars, you need to have a little bit of steering lock into the car so that way you can carry the momentum, but you're also continuing the turning throughout the last quarter of the corner.
Whereas on the sports car side, you want to be as straight as you can. So that way you're not getting any wheel slippage or wheel spin on the exit.
Jordan Missig: And that's where all the time kind of gets come in as a loss. That's why when you see a bunch of like go-karters and especially applies to shifter carters because of how much power is in a shifter carts, they tend to be better at point and shoot cars. So when you get up to the higher levels of racing, like sports car racing, or even any next or Indy car, the higher open wheel stuff, there's a lot more power that's utilized to your arsenal. So point and shoot.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Jordan Missig: tends to become more of a method when it comes to the higher horsepower cars. When you're dealing with USF 2000, FR Americas, or even Pro 2000, they're much smaller cars, lot less horsepower, and it's more momentum driven. So when you get a guy who comes out of four cycle carts, like myself, and jumps into, let's say, USF 2000 or USF Pro 2000, naturally speaking, you're gonna pick it up pretty quick.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Right, because you're used to the momentum driving. Yeah. Great.
Jordan Missig: Yep, yep, so that's like the biggest difference and you see a lot of guys who kind of come back and forth through series and go from You know open-wheel to sports car racing. It's a lot diff.
It's very difficult That's why when you see a lot of the open-wheel guys when they come to sports car racing They're really not driving GT cars They're driving more prototypes and that's because the prototype is a momentum based car dealing with downforce and it's very similar to what the open-wheel driving style is like if you go from the open-wheel style to a GT style
Jordan Missig: you now have ABS braking, anti-lock brake system that you're working on and tr- and traction control that are at your arsenal where it's not really much at your arsenal when you're driving a prototype car. So there's a little bit different, little bit different aspects that kind of go from car to car, but it generally translates to the driving style.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Mm-hmm. ⁓ huh. ⁓ huh, yeah. Gotcha. Great. Great answer. Thank you very much. That's a good one. So, all right, let's ⁓ we'll talk more about the current season. I mean, you got a lot going on, right?
Able Motorsports is doing well. I don't want to dig on your other teammates, but of the three drivers, you are ahead in the points, right? So I just want to do it. Everyone know that Jordan is beating his teammates who are much talked about before the season started.
Jordan Missig: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Indycar Dad Podcast: So, and then, and then you just recently went Arlington, you had the pair of P6s. So that was a really good showing.
Jordan Missig: Yeah, we had a very good weekend out at Barber, I would say. ⁓ you know, the biggest thing was is that, you know, it's still very early days on the season. And I always like to obviously get off to a great start when it comes to the season.
So collecting points is always the biggest deal and trying to keep her nose clean for the very beginning part of the season is fine. ⁓ It's tough for the generate points towards the latter part of the season, but you want to build up that points gap now in the early part.
Jordan Missig: So that way, like in the later part of season, it gives you a little bit of a buffer to make some mistakes if you need to, when you can take a little bit more chances that come with it.
⁓ But yeah, I'd say, know, obviously with Arlington and then Barber, you know, we've now had three race streak of top 10 finishes. So that's been really good on us. It's been good momentum to us in the 48 able motorsports crew.
⁓ But yeah, compared to everybody else, like my teammates wise, ⁓ as a team, I'd say, you know, we want to be doing a little bit better. You know, I think we're struggling just a little bit when it comes to, you know, our peak performance.
Um, you know, guys like miles row, uh, Lockie Hughes and some of the other guys that we saw, you know, be championship favorites that we thought early on coming into the year have had a little bit of a rough start, um, than we would like to see.
So, and my guys like myself, you know, I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as I can. And I'm also trying to, you know, expound on that too, to now be more at the front runners. Cause with.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Right? It's a fascinating thing.
Jordan Missig: them having a little bit of a difficult start allows opportunity for guys like myself to now make a move and move up the championship standings and now, like you said, be ahead and be kind of the top dog at Able Motorsports right now.
Now it's time to lead that charge and kind of see how far we can take it and how far off the grid order we can go. ⁓ I still think there's a lot of race. There's obviously a lot of racing left to go this season.
And I think ⁓ there's a lot more potential in our camp, especially Able Motorsports that we have yet to expound on and explore. ⁓ I'd say everybody else that you kind of seen HMD guys and even the Andretti guys they've come up pretty strong early on I think they've kind of hit their peak pretty early, you know, and I don't not saying I'm not gonna be You know fast every single weekend I think they are gonna be fast every single weekend But I think from our standpoint at Able we still have a lot of ground to kind of catch up on but that just means the ceiling for us is higher than the rest of the paddock and I think that's where we can kind of see as we get towards the latter part of the season Whether it's we go to by Detroit or Road America or even when we hit the ovals in the middle part of the season, that's where our bread and butter and that's where you're going to see a lot more of the Able Motorsports car is challenging up towards the front.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Alright, alright, I'm looking forward to that. So, yeah, that sounds fantastic. What's your thoughts on oval racing? Do you like it? Like, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Jordan Missig: I love it. Yeah, I absolutely love it. Most of my best results have come from ovals. And, you know, especially me being a NASCAR guy kind of growing up and going to all the races. ⁓ I generally love, you know, just being flat out on an oval and just having to keep it pinned and just be more of, you know, kind of placing where your car needs to be, whether it needs to be a half a lane higher to get the clean air or you're chopping somebody's nose off if you need to.
Jordan Missig: or just kind of, you know, how the dynamic and flow of overracing is, I just, I absolutely love the kind of style of it. And I think it suits my style, especially with me growing up, being around and playing NASCAR games and all that.
Plus, especially my favorite races to go to were the IndyCar races at Chicago and Speedway. They always produce some of the best IndyCar racing that was out there, as well as some of the greatest finishes that are there and closest finishes, as a matter of fact.
So being able to see... those kind of races be back in the schedule would be awesome from an IndyCar standpoint. But for me, like the racing in Asheville, I absolutely love because it's more of a wide open, flat out type of race for us.
I just, wish we can use a little bit more of the racetrack as well too and have maybe two or three lanes that we can use. But to me that's, you know, always been a key high arc.
Jordan Missig: part of the schedule that I love to see and I always love going to Nashville to be able to drive there because it's such a fun track to be able to just drive and hold it wide open at 185 miles an hour. It's awesome.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, it was really fun last season with it being the finale as well. our finale. So that was great. Alright, so let's talk about tracks. What's your favorite track? What track do you think is the hardest? Which one is the most fun to race at? How about those three? Favorite, hardest, and most fun.
Jordan Missig: Hmm. Well. I'd probably say favorite was probably racing at Abu Dhabi last two years ago when I raced over there in Europe for the radical world finals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Indycar Dad Podcast: You raised the radical over there, is that right? Yeah, how did that deal come through? they call you up or?
Jordan Missig: So ⁓ that wasn't part of me winning the championship in 2024 with Graham Rahal when I raced for his team. That was actually a year. ⁓ On paper, I was technically supposed to go race in the next that year. That would have been my first year racing in the next. ⁓ But with the way financial budgets were and how things kind of fell through, ⁓ we just unfortunately didn't have the budget to be able to make it happen.
Jordan Missig: So the next best step for me would have been I could do another year of USF Pro 2000 would have been my third year, which would have cost us anywhere around $600,000 to $800,000 to go do. Or I can go race Radical, which costs us roughly around $300,000. So it's half that budget, but I'd be racing at four of the IndyCar tracks that they go to. So I think it was Barber, Road America, Toronto, and Laguna Seca.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Jordan Missig: And those four tracks were going to be key tracks to race on just because it keeps me in front of some IndyCar teams and keeps me, you know, talking to, you know, any next teams, IndyCar teams, and just kind of keep my name there.
Plus Graham Rayholt was just introducing his new Radical team. So I wanted to help him get a championship. I knew I had the skills to win a championship and we had, we knew had the skills to go dominate the series if we wanted to.
And I just wanted to be, you know, linking up with Graham, IndyCar driver and
Jordan Missig: you just a very influential, good mentor and a nice, you know, gentleman who has now built himself an empire business with his Grand Ray Hall performance fleet that he has done over there in Zionsville, Indiana. So if you haven't had a chance yet, go on to Zionsville, Indiana, right across from the Ray Hall of Letterman-Lanigan shop and go check out Grand Ray Hall performance. It is a absolute amazing facility. ⁓
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah. Absolutely. ⁓ I follow them on socials, it's amazing.
Jordan Missig: Yeah, I mean he's always posting about cars and that he's there his favorite car as I can tell you right now is a GT Porsche GT Carrera So he absolutely loves those cars ⁓ But from our standpoint, we thought it was a better move just because one it's a series I know two it's a way for me to go win a championship three, know I'm racing for Graham Ray Hall. So that's an IndyCar team already. That's gonna get some publicity and some
Jordan Missig: Notoriety behind it and then for you're racing on IndyCar weekends with in front of the IndyCar paddock as well, too So your name is gonna get announced over the loudspeaker people are gonna watch your races And it's just a way for me to keep my name relevant Even though I'm not gonna be racing in the road to IndyLadder system So keeps me my name in the paddock keeps me around and it keeps me, you know Allow me to show a face rather than just being gone and forgotten So once we'd started doing that Go ahead
Indycar Dad Podcast: Mm-hmm. Yeah. These are ⁓ I was going to say you exhibit a series of very smart decisions. this is you make a lot of good decisions, Jordan. This is the guy who like I know you're a little older than the other drivers, but these are the decisions of a smarter, more mature person.
Jordan Missig: But Well, it's all about, you know, you have to treat at the end of the day, each race car driver is a brand. You know, we have our name is a brand and we have to utilize our brand and put it in places that we know where it's going to get exposure and where it's going to perform.
And from a business decision standpoint, you want to, know, yes, it's not any next. It's not up there, but it's also it's keeping yourself relevant. It's keeping yourself in the limelight of everything else and it's producing.
The quality results that you know as a driver it can produce momentum and it's going to give you the views and it's also going to give you the exposure that you need and a brand and that's the only way it's going to grow.
So that's what we thought was the best decision for me. I honestly could have gone back to USF Pro 2000 and especially from our standpoint where it was financially. Do we decide to waste the money on another year of Pro 2000 and if we don't win the championship, where do we go from there the next two or three years after that?
And where does that line me up? Well, being able to come in, win a championship with Graham and do a radical saved one, budget for a little bit, allowed us to save a little bit of money and they allocate that to the next year.
But also too, it gave me opportunity and what that opportunity came with was. All right. The funds are coming our way. Now we can, and with seats opening up, now we can kind of pinpoint how, when we can jump into any next car, get some testing done, then go do some races.
without actually having to do the full calendar season and kind of get some seat time that was kind of built up alongside it. So the fun part was when we went to Road America, I actually had the opportunity to kind of do double duty and do the radical season because that was one of our races, but also go race any next at Road America.
And that allowed me to kind of go to a track that I knew like the back of my hand and also be able to go compete for a race and
Jordan Missig: kind have to go back and forth from paddock to paddock. So at one point I'm going to the Radical paddock to go do a race. ⁓ Then I'm having to go to the Indy Next paddock. I actually then have to go to a drivers meeting for Radical.
Then once that drivers meet or Indy Next drivers meeting, then once that drivers meeting is done, go straight to Pitt Road because my car is there for Radical practice and all that. So that was, that was a fun weekend to be able to kind of exploit that.
But back to the Radical season and how we got in 2024 and how that all came. I ended up winning nine races that whole season. So out of 18 race season, that was half the, half the wins in that season, won the championship and when the championship for Graham Ray Hall, we thought it was a good idea to go do the radical world finals.
So Graham, fortunately enough, gave us the green light, sponsored it for us to go over to Abu Dhabi and try to become the pro 1500 champion over there, bring the American champion and try to go race against the other Europeans and all the radical drivers from around the world.
Jordan Missig: and try to become the best of the best. And to race at a track like the Yas Marina Circuit, Graham's first year to try to basically go win everything was kind of in our cards. And we gave it our best shot, but we had some circumstances come out of our control that forced us from ⁓ kind of winning the whole thing.
⁓ We've set the fastest lap on lap six during our testing there, but then when it came time to qualify, I could tell the engine was kind of starting to run a little bit down on power.
Jordan Missig: And when we did our first pace lap for the first race in the first heat race, I felt a vibration when I was in third gear. And sure enough, when we went into turn one on the first lap, I lost third gear and then we had to swap the motor and everything in the car afterwards.
⁓ So I finished last in that first race, swapped the car, had to go from the left side of the car, now driving on the right side of the car, driving a completely whole different chassis ⁓ and trying to race the rest of the weekend, which Now having to drive a new car, no practice, no nothing, just going to races and having to use the racing sessions as now test sessions for me just eventually came all the way through the rest of the races and finished third in the finals.
So I was able to get a podium and a trophy to bring home with us. So it was just a weekend of adversity that we kind of had to fight through, which coincided with the final weekend of the America's championship when we were in Sonoma where our car caught on fire and we had to go into a whole new chassis to win the championship.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. Wild. Yeah, perseverance will get you there, I suppose. So congratulations on that. Yeah.
Jordan Missig: Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, even if you're out, you spin out in a race and everything, just to tell you not to give up. You just got to keep pushing through it and go as hard as you can all the way until the end, you know, until the checker flight flies and you cross the line, you just don't stop pushing.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, yeah. There you go. So Jordan, what do you think is the hardest track on this year in calendar?
Jordan Missig: The track for us, I'd say on the calendar or even the hardest track I'd say probably the hardest track for us this year is going to be Detroit and Detroit's always difficult just because of how you have the streets of Detroit are very abrasive and they're very bumpy when you go through especially the quick right left sector right before in the pit road but you know that track in itself is just it's very difficult because it's all 90 degree corners
Jordan Missig: very difficult to get a good run out of a corner without getting wheel spin and the way the track kind of crowns with the way the street circuit is sometimes you want to get on power early and the next thing you know the rear end of the car is going to snap out from underneath you so there's just a lot of different variables about the streets of Detroit that can catch a driver out and of course it's very tricky to pass there you have to have a very good run the passing zones are very tricky so just trying to survive is kind of the name of the game when it comes to the streets of Detroit
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. That's a, I don't know if you know, I'm in Detroit, I'm in the Detroit area. That's the home race around here. And I get to drive my car on the track. They have a, if you're a Corvette owner, they let you drive on it.
And also before they ever built the track, I took my one wheel. It's like an electric skateboard. It used to be a go-kart tire. And I took that down there. And the thing about the one wheel is it lets you know where the camber is, you know?
Indycar Dad Podcast: On television you would have no idea that turn two drops off so hard but it's also the entrance to the long straightaway so it really makes that turn the reason there's so much passing going into turn three is because turn two is so difficult. Yeah.
Jordan Missig: Mm-hmm. Yeah, everyone gets a bad run out of two or the rear end's slipping out and everyone's trying to catch on and hold onto the car and everything. I know I had one moment there last year in my race to where the rear end stepped out for me when I was coming back to the field. But yeah, that was the first time it kind of caught me off. And ⁓ it's a tricky turn. You're right, TV doesn't do it justice on how tricky of a corner it actually is.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, yeah, it's a fun track to watch. I'm glad I don't have to race in it because it seems like a knife fight down there. So let's talk about goals and mindset. What's going on up in the head of Jordan? Do you come into the season with a goal? Is it all broken down? Is it very executive or is it the very seat of the pants? How's it go?
Jordan Missig: Haha. More seat of the pants, you know, I try not to ⁓ Set my sights up for expectations or goals. I mean obviously everyone has goals and we want to achieve those goals ⁓ But I try not to you know Pinpoint let's just say a specific number like ⁓ I need to finish top three or I need to fifth or something like that and I don't really try to put those expectations out there because it doesn't really do you justice and it actually
Jordan Missig: not saying demoralizes you as a person, but it also could be more of a negative standpoint if you don't fulfill those goals or you feel like you achieved those. So I try not to set up expectations as much.
I try to kind of go in more with just an open, clean mind and just try to do the best performance I possibly can and just let the results kind of come as they go. And you know, wherever the results may fall, you just take whatever you can take and you can get.
⁓ cause if you're trying to set yourself up for expectations, let's say you're running seventh or like, let's say when you're running fifth or fourth and you're trying to get on the podium, you tend to push a little bit harder because you're not in fourth or fifth.
And next thing you know, you start making mistakes and then that fourth and fifth tends into a seventh, eighth or ninth place finish. And then you just kind of get upset yourself and you get more frustrated and you know, the momentum of yourself as a person starts to fall down and the confidence goes along with it.
So this year I've kind of set myself a little bit more, less of expectations, just more of like.
Jordan Missig: Keep it open minded wherever the results may vary and they play out. We just take them as they come and if we get a win, we get a win. If we have to settle for second, we have to settle for second.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ Yeah, I like that attitude. There's any number of ways you can do it. As a business person, I always had very specific goals. I remember my kids were doing martial arts. They were doing this Korean martial art.
There was this term they called it Pilsung. Pilsung, two words, two syllables. It means do your best and never give up. That's the whole thing. There are lot of situations where You do your best and you don't give up and that's what you can do.
And I like that attitude too. So, all right. have, yep. Yeah. I I'm not even sure how you spell it. Cause I'm just in the back of the martial arts class with my children in there, you know? ⁓ I, I'm going to selfishly ask you a question.
I do these, I do these segments on my Instagram where I try to eat like a driver and I try to work out like a driver and then
Jordan Missig: Pilsen huh, that's an interesting word.
Indycar Dad Podcast: I'm an old man, you know, so the workout like a driver thing doesn't usually work out that well. And even the eat like a driver thing doesn't usually work out that well because young guys like you that are burning a lot more calories than I do probably eat things that I don't. So can you tell me a little more about your diet and your your fitness?
Jordan Missig: Mm-hmm. So tip number one, don't eat fast. People tend to, when they're hungry, you know, eat very fast. And next thing you know, by the time you, like, let's say 20 minutes goes by, your brain then tells you you're full.
Well, you ate a whole sandwich already. If you eat slow, by the time your 20 minutes is up or whatever, the brain tells, your stomach tells the brain I'm full, you may only have half a sandwich left there, or you already ate.
So the slower you eat can actually keep you from eating
Indycar Dad Podcast: Don't eat fast, okay? Yeah, I'm a slow eater. Yeah.
Jordan Missig: more intake than you actually have. But for me, you know, I sometimes try to eat salads as much as I can. I'm a chicken guy as well too. So some good protein as well. I like to also go for steak, high protein as well too.
So just kind of try to stay away from any of the trans fat stuff as much as I can. If I do have a cheat day or let's say I'm on the road or whatnot, yeah, there's going to be a couple of days where I stop for fast food stuff just because it's quick and easy.
And also, you know, I'm on the road, but I always have this
Jordan Missig: mentality that if you're going to eat fast or junk food at all, the next workout you're doing is going to be twice as hard because you got to burn that fat or that calories intake that you just did and burn it off. So that comes with that.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Right. Now you're kind of one of the bigger drivers, aren't you? Like how tall are you and what do you weigh?
Jordan Missig: So I'd probably say I'm anywhere around 170, lower than 160 I'd say, 170. But yeah, six foot is pretty tall from a driver standpoint, you know. You get a lot of these Europeans that come over, they're like little jockeys. They weigh like 145 to 150 pounds and they're like five foot eight, five foot six, five foot four even as small as that. So they're absolute jockeys that it comes down to it. So guy like myself who's six foot definitely have to watch my weight a lot more too.
Jordan Missig: ⁓ When it comes down to it, but you know, I am right there at the baseline of how much weight I can add to the car or whatnot You know, sometimes I can add weight. Sometimes I don't so it doesn't really hinder my performance or hinder my ⁓ Weight or scale when we go in for tech and all that but any weight you can save is Time on the track as we all like to say, you know wait is time
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh-huh. Right. Yeah, right. And then what type of workouts are you doing? How many days a week and are they strength, cardio, both?
Jordan Missig: Everything, you know from full body workouts to cardio days to try to burn off any calories to work on my cholesterol and also my ⁓ We like to call my ⁓ think it's velocity heart rate as well too. So you're doing a lot of different intervals active intervals, lactate intervals I would even say to aerobic capacity workouts
Jordan Missig: Even some neck training as well too. So I have myself an iron neck that I do a lot of neck training with can do about 85 pounds worth of weight that I can pull with my neck as well too.
Roughly, yeah. So it's a lot. It's a lot because of all the g-forces and everything that we do in the open world cars and how much, you know, force is on our neck, especially during long races. I mean, our races are only like in 55 minutes to an hour long, but you get into an IndyCar race, you're looking at an hour and a half long race too.
And especially when you go to Indianapolis where you're pulling, you know,
Indycar Dad Podcast: Uh huh. 85 pounds on the iron neck? Holy smokes. Yeah, all right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jordan Missig: 240 miles an hour into a corner. It's a lot of G load on your neck. So you gotta have a strong neck for that ⁓ The other thing is just you know, lot of core a lot of core muscle shoulder arm training as well upper body training For us especially because we have no power steering in our in our cars So when you're dealing with the wheel you're feeling all the little bumps the nooks the crannies of the track as well and How much force is being added on the wheel and especially when you go to a track like barber?
Jordan Missig: for example, it's got a lot of different elevation, undulation, and a lot of compression that happens into the corners. So there's a lot of weight and load that happens on the steering wheel that you have to hold together. And when you're doing, let's just say, 35 to even 70 laps of that for an hour and a half straight, it takes a toll on your body. So you have to have the muscular endurance and the muscular strength to be able to turn that wheel, even when there's like,
Jordan Missig: 25 to even 35 pounds of weight on it and you've been doing it for about an hour.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, yeah, that's hard work. It's hard work. I'm not looking for a seat. I'm done with all that. I'm just watching from the couch or from the pits. So great. Those are great answers. I'll try to do something with that and try to pretend to be you for half an hour one day. So Able Motorsports is going to be an Indy 500 from what I understand.
Jordan Missig: There's been talks about it. ⁓ It's been a little bit on the cusp, I'd say. Obviously, I haven't heard anything officially yet. There's been rumors and talks about it as well, They're trying to put, obviously, Jacob Abel into it as well, too.
⁓ There is a chassis there. I think the last piece of the puzzle that they're kind of waiting on, that we're trying to hear back from, is if you have a Chevy contract for a motor and all that. So I think that's the last piece of the puzzle before it kind of moves forward with it.
Jordan Missig: ⁓ so waiting to hear the confirmation on that before it's official and everything, but there is a little bit of talk, I think about it of coming to fruition.
Indycar Dad Podcast: ⁓ huh. That would be exciting. I plan to be at the open test in two weeks. If I see you there, I'll say hi.
Jordan Missig: Okay, nice. I stop by. We'll see. It depends on where we're at. think we might be free for that way. So I might be making the trip down there. We'll see.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Yeah, that's a fun thing to see. Fast cars are fun to look at. anyway, Jacob, Jordan, I want to say thank you. ⁓ I'm starting out. This is my first year creating content for IndyCar. I only create content for the IndyCar series in its latter. And so you're my first driver interview and I'm really thankful for you. You've lent a tremendous air of legitimacy to my efforts and ⁓ you by far been the best podcast we've had. So I really want to say thanks for that.
Indycar Dad Podcast: Is there anyone you want to thank? Do you have sponsors you want to thank or partners?
Jordan Missig: Awesome. well, appreciate it. Absolutely. You know, well, first and foremost, appreciate you having me on, thinking of me and asking me to join the show and everything. It's been a lot of fun, you know, talking about my career and everything and, you know, talking a lot about racing as well, too.
But yeah, I mean, obviously, I want to the Autobahn Driver Academy for what I've done as well, too, throughout my efforts here at the Autobahn Country Club. I think Driven Sunglasses, Tournery Developments, Powerbikes Stripe, Gripco.
been huge partners on our car as well too. Bill PC's is another partner that just signed on with us this year as well too. So lots of different people that have come on board as well as our charity that we run in racing for mental health that I'm a big advocate of as well too that comes into the month of May now that it's going to be mental health aware this month.
⁓ It's been a huge effort to kind of get that charity up and off the ground and we've been having successful events as well too. Able Motorsports with Able Construction also big. Partners and big efforts to kind of make the Indy next season happen for all of us So yeah lots of partners and people to think that have been in our corner and helping us out throughout the whole ⁓ The whole keep a point and I think I mentioned stripe as well to stripes another partner that came on board earlier this year that we announced At the Miami test just before st.
Petersburg So they've had a really good effort a really good run got a lot of camera time as well to this last race at Barbara Motorsports Park So hopefully we can keep the relationships going and yeah keeps us in a seat for the years to come
Indycar Dad Podcast: Great, fantastic, good run through. Anyway, thanks everybody for watching, paying attention. can see IndyCarDad podcast on all the podcast networks. You can follow me on social media, I'm at IndyCarDad and I try to be fun and try to bring on great guests like Jordan. I think I speak for Jordan and I and when I say that I'd love to see you at the races, so thank you. Alright Mr. Jordan, have stopped recording, so...
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