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Kirkwood, Helio, Abel, Lundgaard, & Scotty Mac
Kirkwood, Helio, Abel, Lundgaard, & Scotty Mac
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About this episode
Kyle Kirkwood’s Indy 500 weekend gets discussed through the lens of delays, qualifying rhythm, and race-day nerves—rain and lightning can stretch the schedule, and the hosts talk about how quickly things change once you’re on track. The conversation then shifts to setup consistency (including Firestone tire-related composite chemicals), pit-stop focus, and strategy shaped by wind, heat, and hybrids. Drivers weigh in on confidence, starting positions, tire warmup, and why even the fastest car can be derailed by a clutch issue.
Hinch spends Media Day 2026 with Kyle Kirkwood, Helio Castroneves, Jacob Abel, Christian Lundgaard, and Scott McLaughlin before the 110th running of the Indy 500
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
tires are cold
"put enough emphasis or I overthought, oh, my tires are cold. So I'm going to have to go really aggressive on this."
Cold tires don’t grip as well. When the tires are still warming up, you usually have to drive a bit more gently until they get up to temperature.
In racing, “cold tires” means the tire hasn’t reached its ideal operating temperature yet. Rubber grips less when it’s cold, so drivers often adjust their driving (and sometimes their first laps) to build heat before pushing hard.
Term
get my tires hot
"But I just want to know, like, in that moment, was that something you were actively thinking, oh, I need to get my tires hot here? I remember coming up out of turn four"
Drivers want their tires to warm up because warm tires usually stick to the track better. They may change how they drive to bring the tires up to the right temperature.
“Getting tires hot” refers to bringing the tire to its working temperature range so it can generate more grip. Drivers watch tire temperature data and change throttle/braking inputs to heat the tires without overheating them.
Term
temperatures
"I remember coming up out of turn four and I looked at my temperatures and they were very cold. And I was like, okay, I'll be a little bit more aggressive."
They’re talking about tire temperature readings. If the tires are too cool, you don’t have as much grip, so drivers use the numbers to decide how hard to push.
Here, “temperatures” refers to tire temperature readings the driver checks to judge grip and heat level. Tire temps are used to decide whether the car is ready to push or if the driver needs to adjust inputs.
Term
throttle
"Like, you know, and I, I don't even, I was very delicate with the throttle and looking at the data. It was just one of those things"
Throttle is how much you press the gas pedal. In a race, the exact way you use it can change how much grip the tires have.
Throttle is the driver’s control of engine power by opening the accelerator. In racing, how delicately (or aggressively) you use throttle affects traction and tire temperatures—especially when tires are still warming up.
Select text to request an explanation
This is Off-Track.
We're here with Kyle Kirkwood,
driver for Entity Global, the number 27.
You've never spoke like this ever in your life,
what's going on?
Sam's Club, no, no, I don't know, it's early.
You just said, it's been a long month.
It's been a long month.
It has been.
Cause you know how like when there's cars on track,
sometimes you're on track, sometimes you're not?
Yeah.
Right?
I'm always on.
Yeah.
It's very fair.
The whole time.
Yeah, you're always,
you're trying to make up something to talk about
when there's rain or lightning delays.
I don't envy you.
We're going to do a geochange,
we'll be back in like 22 and a half hours.
I'm there the whole time.
From when you leave the track to when you come back,
we've just been doing this that whole time.
Just trying to find something to talk about.
On that note, how do you think you do on Survivor?
What is Survivor again?
Isn't it like you drop your,
like somebody in the middle of a night?
Yeah. It's like a team of people get dropped.
I think I'd do pretty good.
I don't know if I'd survive, but I do pretty good.
So you've never seen Survivor?
I don't think I've ever seen it.
Yeah.
That's tough.
This is like Bear Grill stuff, right?
Kind of, but there's like a whole social element in doing.
There's like a lot of strategy on how you operate
with other people and like how backstabbing
and conniving can you be at the same time.
So like I thought you would do well
on the survival stuff.
Cause like.
But I would just like peace out on the other people
if I knew that they potentially try and backstab you.
No. So like you have to all live together
and you have to like eliminate each other.
Not like, like votes and not hunger games.
No, no. It's a more, it's a more strategic.
Man. Okay. What, what game show, what reality show have you ever?
I don't watch any shows.
How would you do on Jeopardy?
Pretty bad.
Yeah. I think so.
I could see that.
Most viewers.
I could definitely see that.
What's the category on Jeopardy you think you do well at?
Uh,
Indy car racing for 500 Alex.
Random one is probably birds.
Birds. Yeah.
Birds.
Noises of birds. Maybe. Yeah.
Whoa. We're going even more specific.
Yeah.
Like just ocean faring birds or.
I used to be, when I was young,
I was in the duck hunting.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
So like I knew every single type of bird just by.
By the sound.
Yeah. By their sounds. Yeah.
Huh. Yeah.
I did not know this about you.
Yeah. Where would you duck hunt?
In Florida.
Really?
It's a lot of marshland down there.
Yeah. I guess that makes sense.
I always kind of assumed duck hunting was like a.
I haven't done it in many, many years.
But yeah.
Why, why did you get out of duck hunting?
Because it's always around the times that you're driving
and it's only like a two month season.
Right. Right.
So it and you had to put a lot of effort into doing it.
So when I was young, I had my dad that my brothers would do
like everything and just show up and now, yeah,
it's not the same.
Whereas fishing, you can just do any time.
Correct.
So now it's fishing.
Yeah.
All right. You just like killing stuff.
Got it.
Um, so super quick in the open test, super quick through practice,
qualifying, not as super quick.
So.
Did we feel better on Monday?
Is there a question?
No, I was getting that.
I wanted to see if you took the bait.
I want to see if you took the bait.
It's an old journalistic trick.
Yeah.
Did the car feel better Monday?
Yes.
Yes.
How did it feel?
Wait, no.
Do you remember Monday?
No.
You're right, pal.
Yes.
Medic.
The car did not feel better Monday.
No, it felt, but it didn't feel better,
but it also felt really good on Saturday or not Saturday Sunday.
It felt right.
It felt really good all through qualifying.
It just wasn't fast.
Right.
Does it feel faster relatively speaking to the field on Monday?
We were really good in traffic.
So, yes?
Yeah, dude, I'm pretty sure that's the question I was asking.
Maybe just not in a direct enough way.
Yes.
How's your race car?
My race car's good.
There we go.
We got there.
Man, that was tough.
Well, we got there.
OK, so the race car's good.
So you're confident going to the race, starting P25, right?
How nice was it not having Cole and her to hear this year?
How nice?
It was just like a real.
It feels relaxing.
I have to say, yeah, just like the stress that he brings everybody.
He's a nervous energy.
Yeah, he's extremely nervous, very adamant, very aggressive with everybody.
Right, uptight.
Very uptight.
Yeah, yeah, you know, like he's always there super early, pushing everybody,
yelling at everybody.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, he's actually quite the opposite of that.
So that was literally everything that we just talked about.
He is the opposite.
No, it kind of sucks not having him here, to be honest.
There's like something about.
He was always the one that like did the pranks and stuff, too, in the motorhome lot.
I've noticed a distinct black pranks this year.
He'd pull like the childish childishness out of everybody.
And then everyone would get very pranky.
Right.
Yeah, he's not here.
So there has been nothing going on in the motorhome lot.
So it's a little bit of a different vibe.
Nothing yet.
Nothing, right?
Like Connor's got his hot tub again, and that thing hasn't been touched.
That's kind of yet.
Yes, yeah, I guess there's still two days to go.
That's true.
It's not a lot of times.
And he's used it once.
Did you not feel any like pull to be the guy to, in Colton's absence,
bring that prankness back to the bus lot?
Really take the lead on that?
I'm not that funny.
I don't agree with that.
I'm not that funny.
I feel like that's like McLaughlin, Rossi.
I feel like it should be on them.
Okay.
You know?
Well, we'll talk to them later.
So we'll make sure it's on them.
Yeah.
All right.
Last question.
How would Kyle Kirkwood celebrate an Indie 500 win?
How would I celebrate it?
Yeah.
You guys don't really get to celebrate, do they?
Just think about that.
It's like.
Because you have to be up at 6 AM to go.
I mean.
Okay.
So like let's look at this.
Hey, would you like, would you buy yourself something?
Would you plan a cool trip away in the off season?
Like what would you do to kind of commemorate it in a way?
I already do all that.
Must be nice.
I always do something fun.
You know, you're always down the Bahamas.
You shut up.
You keep your mouth shut.
What would I do?
I mean, I would feel more complete, that's for sure, right?
But I wouldn't say there'd be anything.
I'd be like buying or or needing to do after winning the 500.
I'd feel like I'd need some sleep.
That's fair.
I think I'd sleep better the night after until they wake me up at like 5.
Yes, it would be much sleep.
I wouldn't be able to take the photo, but it would feel good for a little bit.
Have you ever thought about like the, like Joseph talked about how he put a lot of thought
into what he was going to do, like at the tribe and thought about it.
It's, I'll probably like break a leg or something.
I'll get so excited to try and do a backflip off the car, even though I can't do a backflip or.
Because like you're likely would it be.
You're like indirectly teammates with or like affiliated with Carson Hosevar,
who's kind of just blown up for his outrageous celebration of Talladega.
Is that put extra pressure on you guys to like come up with something crazy when he hit the wall?
I'm like, oh, I'm watching a man die on my television fast.
I thought I thought it was game over.
I thought he was going to, well, I thought he's going to hit the inside wall first
and then he drove it into the unbelievable.
I mean, I'm not going to try and hit the wall with my Indy car.
So or sit out of it.
You can't sit out of it.
I don't know what you could do.
There's not a whole lot done.
Not a lot left to do.
So now we got the doughnuts going.
That's kind of the thing.
Yeah, cool.
All right.
Actually last question.
Who's your World Cup pick?
It's a good question.
It's I mean, it's kind of a sin not to root for the U.S.
Right.
You could.
Yeah.
I mean, so I'm going to say U.S. on camera.
Okay.
But I feel like
just like this.
Potentially Argentina again.
Nice.
Cool.
Yeah.
We won't tell anybody.
Calico question.
Elio Castroneves.
Elio, can you do me a favor?
Yeah.
Can you clap into my microphone?
I can't.
You guys ready?
Yeah.
Okay.
Now like, now like do it for real though.
Like, no, okay.
Do a good one now.
Perfect.
I just want to see how many times he'd do it.
It got me.
Third time is like, okay.
All right.
Here we go.
The confusion on his face was like, what do you?
Hey, what was it?
Let me turn it up.
Thanks for joining us, man.
Elio, I got a question for you.
It's not, it's not what you're thinking.
It's going to be an off the wall question here.
If qualifying at Indy was determined by karaoke,
what song would get you pole?
What song would get me pole?
I would say, yeah, reggaeton.
It needs to be a particular song or...
Yeah.
Well, I mean, yeah.
If you had a specific, do you have a specific song or?
Yeah.
I guess Carole G.
Okay.
Q. Lona.
Have you heard that?
I have not.
Well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sing it,
but it's like, yeah, that would be the one.
Okay.
What, like, can you give me a little,
let's say a little sample?
Just a little...
I can't.
I can't.
No, no.
You're singing it.
Not on your phone.
Yeah, yeah.
I was going to say...
No, no, no, no.
We can't clear the music.
You know, it's a...
Oh, that's true.
It's a permission thing.
Sorry.
Well, it says,
Q. Que p*** gonna temo de besarte?
Okay.
Meaning, obviously, it's for a girl, for a guy.
I have a f*** way of kissing you,
but I would be translating winning you.
You know what I mean?
Oh, okay.
All right.
Change it.
Yeah, okay.
So, like...
I like that.
I really want to get you.
Okay.
All right.
That's appropriate.
I like that.
I like that.
When you shower,
right, you come out of the shower and you're clean,
but then if you use that towel,
the towel is considered dirty.
Correct.
Why is that?
Because you're clean.
So why is the towel dirty?
Because, you know, the humidity on the towel,
you have to...
The way you stay in the bathroom,
you still have one of those hangers that dry the towel out.
So they build some sort of particulars that...
Like the moisture.
Yeah, yes.
And that's the reason you got to switch your towel.
Or dry your towel.
Now, I have a question.
When you finish your shower,
would you go straight to the towel?
Or would you like...
Like brush off water?
Dude, I do.
Yeah, I absolutely brush off water.
The amount of...
I can't believe it.
But if you don't do that...
I always...
Is it me or someone else does that?
So you do that.
No one else does that?
Unbelievable.
I actually...
I know who does that too.
Dave the Coother.
Really?
Yes.
I know why we're talking about shower,
but if you can only manage the conversation...
Why are we?
I mean, here we are.
Unbelievable.
I've had that same thought.
Why people don't do that?
On this very show,
we've talked about how I have like a shower,
like a towel drying routine.
So it starts with that.
All of that.
Then you get the towel,
but like I don't have an extra towel.
See, I dry like the same parts in the same order.
I have like a order that I...
Also me too.
Yeah, no, we're gonna...
And it's the same every time.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, just when you get in,
it goes from the head
and then I think it's in the back.
Yeah, doing the arms.
So then, yeah, you work top down.
You're correct.
And it's the same order every time.
I actually don't understand
when people get out of the shower straight wet.
It's insane.
Out of...
It dries me nuts.
Mental.
It's all over the floor.
All over the floor.
Splash.
It's...
I was like, why can't you just dry inside?
In the shower.
It's in the shower.
It's warm.
It's nice.
And then you come out dry.
This is...
My wife does this.
And she...
I go get ready and I come back
and I'm wearing socks
and then my socks are ruined.
My socks are wet.
Because the floor is soaked
because she just drags half of the shower
over the bathroom floor.
What about the hair?
Oh.
The hair is all over the place, right?
Everywhere.
I bet you're...
Everywhere.
I...
I...
It's on the wall.
Like, what are you doing on the wall?
How are you on the wall?
I get white...
I'm like, I can't deal with the hair anymore.
That's it.
Yeah, it's...
That was not a dick.
I was like, this straw that broke the camel's back.
Oh, man.
I'm glad we have this conversation.
I'm glad we have shower buddies.
Yeah, that's great.
I got it.
That's a totally normal thing to say.
Ah, it's fine.
It's good.
Any 500 coming out?
Yep, I know.
Be 14?
Mm-hmm.
Good pace?
Yeah.
That's pretty good pace.
Are you happy with that?
I'm very happy.
Very happy with the balance of the car, man.
Oh, nice.
You know, you being here and you understand,
sometimes you put it one day and the next...
Oh, now I found it.
Next day, somehow, I don't know.
Since we came to the open test, we kind of like...
Pretty much the same as last year,
believe it or not, the setup,
because the last year for me was good.
But wow, it feels a little more...
I think...
I think no.
I know Firestone did...
They say they didn't change anything,
just some composite chemicals that they did.
Yeah.
But it is much better.
Right.
It is much better.
It's much more consistent,
which probably helped a lot of the cars,
but mine, in particular, spot on.
Felix was particularly quick.
I only asked, you know, you're a driver,
you're also a team owner,
so you kind of cover all the bases there.
Unbelievably fast.
Where did that pace come from?
Well, I have some particular areas
that I see it, and the team understand that, too.
But all the things that we did
was particular up to Friday,
what we did was super equal.
And one of those scenarios that you pick up,
try this, and boom, you know,
and you're like, wow.
So now we got a replica of that,
but it's not that simple.
But that's what happened.
The good news is, I feel that I know,
but we just got to emphasize a little more.
And we have one car of our cars
right there with a huge chance
to be in the contention to win this race.
There'll be potentially more
than just one of your cars up there, right?
Oh, no question.
No question.
Myself and Marcos, we're working together
a little closer.
But I do believe this,
well, depending on the weather,
obviously, and depending on the wind as well.
But I do feel that we will be closer racing.
I think in the back of the pack
might be a lot of distances.
You're going to see some passing
with the situation, the hybrid,
same as last year.
It will be some cars in the back
going to come to the front.
I know a few of them.
And I practice with them as well.
So I feel that they are strong as well.
So in the end, it stops.
Always will be a very key point
to dictate how it's going to end up this race.
When you're the extra program,
when you're the May only program on a team,
that pit stops is kind of the one area
that can be a concern.
What kind of steps did MSR take
to make sure that the 06 guys and girls
are absolutely where they need to be?
Yeah, we had pretty much the same people
than last year, which is good.
One few addition on the right rear,
which is pretty strong.
Also, sorry, I'll take that back,
the right front as well,
which used to be from Rio.
So I feel, I don't know,
but I feel that guys are really in sync right now.
Tomorrow we're going to have another opportunity.
Hopefully the weather helps to just emphasize that.
I don't know, but I feel that where we are right now,
yeah, we can surprise a lot of people.
Are you one of the people who subscribed
to this belief that Indy picks the winners?
I am.
I am because I'm a witness of it.
I've been here when I was being a lap down
and won the race,
and I was here when I had the dominant car
and finished second, so yes.
Why should Indy pick you this year?
Because it's history.
I feel the people want to see history,
the gods want to see history,
and that would be great.
Rikers are meant to be broken, right?
Exactly.
Well, I love watching history be made, buddy.
We're cheering for you.
Best of luck this weekend.
Thanks, John.
Thanks for coming on.
Can you do me a favor?
Can you clap into my microphone?
Oh, that was the best one yet.
That was sharp.
Jacob Abel knows how to clap,
knows how to drive race cars.
A question for you.
Why is there a D in the word fridge,
but not in refrigerator?
I don't know, man.
Why?
I don't know.
That's a silly question.
It's insane.
Silly question?
No.
Silly use of the dictionary.
Is that in the dictionary?
Are you insulting me?
Are you insulting the English language?
I guess.
Okay, yeah.
It makes no sense.
No, it doesn't.
There's a lot of things that don't make sense.
Right.
What else doesn't make sense to you?
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway sometimes
doesn't make a lot of sense,
and we can agree with that one.
Yeah.
That's a tricky one sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah, but.
The wind, the heat.
The winds.
Other nature is really confusing a lot.
She's been, you know,
she's been a little difficult this month.
Yeah.
A little tricky.
No, not easy.
I mean, practice week was nice.
Practice week was good for you.
It was deceivingly nice, to be honest.
I think, you know, everybody felt good.
I think all of practice week,
you know, we got a bit caught out on Sunday.
Just, it is what it is.
But a little bit disappointed with qualifying for sure.
But at the end of the day, you know,
we're in the race and we get to race this Sunday,
whatever, or Monday or Tuesday,
depending on what mother of nature has for us.
Don't do it.
So, but it's a good point.
You must feel good about being disappointed with P30 after last year.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, definitely a little bittersweet on qualifying day.
You know, I had, you know, how it is as a race car driver,
like I get out and I was, I was disappointed with our run
because we made a couple of mistakes that we shouldn't have.
But at the same time, everyone's saying to me,
oh my gosh, you know, you're in the Indy 500.
How does it feel?
I'm like, man, it feels great.
But right now it kind of stings, to be honest,
because I want to be a lot higher up the grid.
But yeah, you know, after I've had time
to kind of comprehend everything and yeah,
just be here this week.
You know, I didn't get to milk a cow last year.
I didn't get to, you know, do all this media stuff.
So yeah, I've been enjoying it.
It's been a really special experience for sure,
especially after coming so close last year and all that.
You know, I've been a fan of this race my whole life really.
You know, my first one, I think, was the 98th running, I think,
running in 2014.
Okay.
Sounds right, Ryan Henare.
Ryan Henare, 2014.
Yeah, and then I've been to pretty much every single race since.
So yeah, and then to come so close as a driver last year
when I thought I was going to do it.
And even like the week leading up, I wasn't too nervous,
but everything kind of unraveled a little bit
on qualifying weekends.
But yeah, we're here now and I'm really excited for it.
So last year you did all the on track stuff
up to and through qualifying, right?
Which is like a majority of the work of the month of May.
This week is, you know, Monday session, you get carb day.
Carb day is kind of fun in its own right.
You have, like you say, the rookie lunch, your milk and cows,
you got the parade coming up.
But because you did the bulk of the work last year,
did you still feel like a rookie when you got here this May?
Yes and no.
You know, I did feel like I had a lot more experience
and it was definitely helpful at the start of the week.
Being able to kind of slot myself right into traffic,
relatively knowing what it's going to feel like
as much as you can.
And yeah, I think that helped a ton.
Just getting up to speed quicker, kind of closing that gap.
You start the week feeling comfortable running five cars back
and then you just kind of creep it up as much as you can
and then you're starting to pass cars and all of that.
So that process was definitely accelerated this year.
Qualifying, I got way more runs than I would have liked to last year.
So I got a good amount of experience doing that.
So that helped once we started to get into everything there.
But yeah, you know, still a rookie this week.
Still not, you know, taking anything for granted for sure.
I can't imagine how it's going to feel being the 30th car
to go into turn one here on lap one.
I've heard it's not easy.
We'll talk about why.
I got some tips for you.
I've been there.
But yeah, I'm just excited to get everything underway.
You know, hopefully have a clean race and just try and learn as much as I can.
You know, we've got a new team to all of this right now
and we've got a lot of things to iron out and we have.
But yeah, just excited to get going and see what happens.
I want to come back to the team in a sec.
But you know, you've got kind of three big days left,
carb day, Saturday, Sunday.
Is there anything you know that's coming up aside from the race itself
that you're kind of most excited about most looking forward to experiencing?
I think just experiencing race day morning as a driver is going to be insane.
You know, even last year after I'd gotten bumped out of the show,
I was still here and I still loved it.
And it was still just as special to me as it has been, you know,
every single time, you know, the taps, the back home again in Indiana, the anthem,
all of that stuff is just so special and it gives you chills every single time.
I can't imagine it being on a whole different level, you know, when you're in a race car
and walking across the stage through driver intros and all of that.
I think that's something that's going to be super emotional for me.
And I'm really looking forward to taking in and that's definitely what I'm most excited for.
The team, as you mentioned, is quite literally able motorsports.
This is largely the IndieNext program.
I think, you know, I was talking to Max Narron, I think he was saying you had to bring in like
one guy to put over the wall for fuel or something like that.
But otherwise, it's your guys crew.
I mean, just talk to me about the kind of pride you guys must feel for taking that group and
throwing them all together and putting an IndieCar program together.
Yeah, it's cool.
I mean, just to see the passion that a lot of those guys have had for it is so cool.
I mean, you're taking a four car IndieNext team, which isn't a light endeavor at all.
You know, it's IndieNext is super serious these days.
And you've got engineers for every car, you know, mechanics and all of that.
You know, it's basically just many IndieCar teams for each car.
And so to see all those people gather around this one car and put all of their energy into it
has been really, really cool.
And then, you know, we've got a bunch of guys who haven't been over the wall before.
And it's so cool to see how passionate they are about that.
You know, they've been going back to the shop as much as they can to do pit stop practice
and they're competing against each other and all of that.
And that's been the coolest thing.
You know, John Brunner, our team manager, kind of leading into this, didn't really assign
that many roles, which sounds weird.
But he basically just allowed whoever was going to step up to step up.
And that's been really cool to see, you know, who's passionate about it.
Who's, you know, taking charge, taking initiative.
And yeah, it's all obviously surrounding the Indianapolis 500, which is obviously the
greatest race in the world.
And just to see everyone's passion surrounding it and all of that has been amazing.
And I think, you know, it honestly speaks a lot to our IndieNext team and the talent level
that we have there and all of the people.
So yeah, that's been something that's made it a lot more special for sure is just to
see everyone kind of gathering around it and, you know, people that have been there
my whole entire career and that I've known forever to see them kind of make this step
with me has been really cool.
And it's a cool point.
I never really thought about it like this, but you do have this four car team, those crews,
their teammates, and they're working together.
But they're always, you know, at the end of the day, once the green fly drops,
you're rooting for your car.
It must be cool for them to all get to kind of work together in a completely different
capacity all on the same car, cheering for the same driver, you know, affected by the
same results in a way.
Yeah, for sure.
I think we are one of the more, you know, collaborative junior open wheel teams out
there.
You know, we do all work together.
You know, there's not a whole lot of egos sort of in our engineering office or anything
like that, which is cool.
But yeah, to see them all, you know, working together surrounding this one project is
awesome, you know, especially after I spent a year sort of outside of the team, you know,
I didn't see, you know, they made a huge step in growth last year, but I was pretty busy
racing IndyCar myself, so I wasn't able to be there.
So, you know, this year, I've taken more of a role in the IndyNext team and trying to
help them out and helping out where I can and all of that.
So I've already spent so much time with everyone this year on the IndyNext side of things.
And then, yeah, to get back into the car is super special and have them all surround me
is really cool for sure.
All right, we're gonna, well, actually, let me let me ask you this.
You've, you've, you've done, you've done IndyCar.
You've been around second crack at the 500 now, but you know, coming into it, we knew
everyone, you know, we knew you were in, you made it on speed anyway.
So there's nothing like all good there.
Has there been any driver in the paddock?
Because you are a single car team this year, you're doing it solo, which is tough.
It's tough from an engineering standpoint, tough from a driver standpoint.
Has there been anybody in the paddock that has sort of been throwing a little bit of
helpful advice or putting their arm around you a little bit to try to, you know, help out and
as you grow through this experience?
Yeah, I'd say, you know, Renus definitely has.
My teammate from last year, you know, we went through a bunch of lows, highs last
year, not a bunch of highs, to be honest, a bunch of lows, lows last year together,
you know, most notably here at bump day, you know, when we were both fighting for the last
spot and we were like three miles an hour slower than the next car up the road.
So yeah, we've, we became really close last year and he was super helpful throughout,
you know, the whole month of May last year for sure, a guy with his pedigree around here,
especially in qualifying and then, you know, to be able to, to basically be battling against
him for the last spot, it was helpful to know that it was him and someone who is really talented
because a lot of doubts started to creep in for sure when you go out there.
But yeah, I'd say, I'd say Renus has been the most helpful for sure.
Yeah, I'd say, I'd say Renus is man.
There you go. All right, we're going to pivot to a slightly different type of race.
Okay, I'm going to end on a light note here.
No, no, no.
Amazingly, are you going to watch the Weenie 500?
Do you have a fan?
I'm going to watch the Weenie 500.
I'm cheering for Chili Dogg this year.
Yeah, you think Chili Dogg's going to take it out?
You think Chili's got it?
Yeah.
Connor just got sponsored by Skyline Chili, which I am, you know, I have Texas Roadhouse,
which I'm pumped about, but I also do love Skyline Chili.
And it is, those are two great brands.
That's a hell of a meal you combine those two things.
If you, racing is very reliant on the team and the car, right, in a straight 100 meter dash
of the 33 drivers in the 8,500, who do you think wins?
That's a great question.
I think a lot of people have probably said, Joseph.
You're the first I've asked.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
But yes, that would have been my, I think, default answer.
I think if there's, if it was more of an endurance race, I think there's a lot of guys who are into
sort of triathlons, marathons, all of that, you know, I'm one of them.
But I think in a sheer speed and power perspective, you got to say, Joseph.
You got to go, Joseph?
Yeah.
All right.
Well, we'll see.
We'll see.
Because we're going to organize that.
Yeah, we're going to organize that.
Oh, my.
Yeah.
Oh, that's the part you, they don't tell you about that.
It's like a Saturday night out of the bus lot.
You know, it's like a, no one, it's just a driver, no one talks about it.
Sweet.
I'm going to start stretching.
You should.
You should.
He has won the last four.
So it's a good, good shout.
Good shout.
Jacob Babel, everybody.
Good luck.
Thank you.
How's your day been?
Good.
Yeah.
How's your day been?
Yeah, good.
Not too bad.
A lot of very easy morning.
Yeah.
What'd you do?
Woke up, I had a cup of coffee.
What kind of coffee?
Like, what do you?
I had an espresso.
Okay.
I took dad's dog for a walk.
Tony?
Yep.
Cute kid.
Big Tony.
What else did I do?
Worked out.
Okay.
What time did you start?
New.
What time are you done?
Four.
Okay.
I think.
Sounds about right.
34
I was looking for a check, but she's busy.
34
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, you're getting time cut off.
Just incredible.
I thought a bunch of signatures.
Okay.
Yeah.
Just signing.
Yeah, but you know how we have to do the IndyCar posters?
Yeah, the room.
Yeah.
Yeah, we basically do the exact same for him, Claren.
Got it.
Yeah.
Got it.
So you do that twice.
Double duty.
That's nice to be wanted.
Yeah, right?
You could sign.
I feel so bad for us.
Yeah, I feel bad for Ryan.
Comes in being the dad.
He's like, oh, it's my cat's birthday.
I can't today.
Yeah.
He's got a laundry list of excuses for various things.
But let me just clear one thing up.
Don't ever, ever feel bad for Ryan Hunter Ray.
Okay.
Don't ever do that.
All right.
What did he do to you?
Nothing.
He just has several yachts, a gorgeous family,
three healthy kids, a long career, an Indy 500 win,
an IndyCar championship, 18 victories.
What does he have to be sad about?
Is this actor?
James, can you clarify if we got on the show today?
Chris, I got a question for you.
Okay.
I got an answer.
If your shirt isn't tucked into your pants,
does that mean that your pants are tucked into your shirt?
I wouldn't say so, no.
But like, you see where I'm...
I see where you're going.
I see where you're going.
Yeah.
And that was a little bit of a tongue twister right there.
It was.
But I mean, I would not say so.
Okay.
No.
No.
How would you describe it?
You're just wearing your pants.
You're just wearing your pants.
Yes.
But they're inside your shirt.
Yeah, but they're not tucked in your shirt.
Depends how tight your shirt is.
Sure.
But are you wearing a shirt or are you wearing a polo?
Are you wearing a t-shirt?
Yeah, yeah.
Or wearing a whatever.
Yeah, I guess more often than not, it's loose enough.
Exactly.
If you just...
It's not...
Turn the person upside down, the shirt falls,
and the pants are no longer in the shirt.
We're like, if your shirt's tucked in...
Yeah, well, yeah.
And you turn upside down, it's tucked in.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not going...
But you're most likely wearing a belt too.
Okay.
In that case, right?
Yeah, yes, yeah.
You would think so.
You would hope so.
Yeah.
Although maybe it's fashionable to not do that now.
I'm not sure.
Is it?
Are you a fashion guy?
Not really.
No?
No.
It seems like a lot of work.
It is.
Yeah.
It is.
Could you imagine waking up in the morning
and having to go into your wardrobe and be like,
no, not this today.
Yeah, this doesn't fit the event.
Yeah.
This is not the mood.
It's not the dress code.
I feel like I'm just wearing this so much that I'm like,
okay, I'm just going to wear a t-shirt if I'm not wearing this.
It's the best part about being in drivers.
Your wardrobe is pretty much dictated for you.
Exactly.
Everywhere you go.
Exactly.
Love that.
Have you, how has your month been?
It seemed, let me-
It's been up and down.
Okay.
It's been kind of stationary.
Yeah.
Put a little up and down.
Like it's been a little ticks.
Okay.
Because it's seen-
It hasn't had, from the outside, right?
Zooming out.
Okay.
30,000 foot view as a guy that's watched every lap of practice.
You've had a quiet month.
Yeah.
You haven't stood out.
Nope.
In a good way or a bad way.
Yeah.
You know what I mean, but-
So, I haven't done anything dumb and I haven't been slow.
Correct.
So, explain to me how you're living in this world and your little-
In my own little-
Variations have gone.
My little operating window in there in the middle.
Yeah.
No, just learning.
I mean, Ryan and I have had a lot of good conversations
from what I struggled with last year to-
Good conversation.
Hey, I'm trying to be serious here.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
No, just a lot of good conversations.
Because a lot of the stuff that I struggled with in McLaren car last year
is what he is kind of now going through.
And I thought that was a great verification for me like,
Hey guys, I ain't dumb.
Hey, paddle is nuts.
Yeah, you know, 100% I mean, I said it just upstairs over there a second ago.
I mean, you can probably take the wheel off on paddles car
and he's still going to wheel the thing.
Yeah.
Right.
And I think we're just not going to do that.
Right.
And so, I did find it very verifying,
you know, confirming a lot of the stuff that he was saying
where I was like, Chris, that just sounds like a copy paste of what I said last year.
You know, obviously you're just, you're driving the thing now where it's like,
okay, you're just moving on.
Still trying to work on some of those things and just feeling comfortable.
I think Nolan and I have found some things that work a lot better for us this year
than they did last year.
But now I really don't have any desire to go out there
and be dropped in the back of the pack and go and do a 228 for no reason.
Right.
That isn't going to do me any good.
But I try to learn we have set small little objectives of what we want to do
run by run session by session.
And I think we've probably ticked off 90% of them,
which has been pretty good.
The car is in one piece.
So, that's positive.
A lot of pros.
A lot of pros.
Not a lot of negatives, which is good.
I did my pants when Alice crashed right in front of me.
Yes.
Yeah.
That was because I was losing too.
And I was thinking, I feel a little more neutral right now than I am happy to be.
I wonder if anyone else is feeling this way.
Five laps later.
Bang.
Yeah.
I'm like, okay.
And then obviously came in yellow flag and I'm sat there in the box talking over the intercom.
And I'm like, Chris, I don't really want to go back out.
Throws a bunch of it at it and go out and drive.
I mean, figure it out.
And I came in and I was like, I would rather not give you a single comment on whatever you just did
because I was driving around like a scared chicken.
Hey, I like the honesty.
Yeah.
I mean, I didn't give you an honest read, Dad.
I didn't give you an honest read.
Yeah.
I mean, just disregard anything I've said.
Just, yeah, let's move on to the carb day and move on from there.
You know, obviously carb day is an interesting one because you want to keep the car clean.
Yeah.
But you want to learn most possible.
Obviously the cars have been split.
Everyone has new engines for race day.
God, do your COP check.
I don't think we're really going to do much.
But yeah, just taking off those simple boxes because what we work on a lot in the seven
car simplicity is key.
We don't need to go out and do things if we're happy with it.
You know, obviously you don't ever know if the grass is green on the other side.
Sometimes you're just going to learn more by driving the same thing and getting better
with that.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
No, it's getting more familiar with what you got.
So given that mentality and that approach, obviously qualifying this year was a little
bit different.
It was wild.
And conditions were tough.
Conditions were tough.
Format was completely different because of the rain out on Saturday.
So when you guys on the seven car are locked into, all right, we're going out for our first
and our one and only guaranteed attempt.
As number two.
As number two.
A lot of different conditions to what you guys have run on.
Tracks been rained out, all these things.
We know that we only have one shot to get into the fast 12.
If we think we're in that ballpark, how big a risk do you take trying to do that?
Or is your philosophy no point to do anything crazy?
Let's just kind of get solidly in, do a comfortable run.
You're your P 18.
Is that kind of roughly where you guys thought you'd be based on your approach?
Or were you going for it?
No, we were going for it.
I mean, we were, you know, in a scale, we were probably like 5% conservative, but 95%
aggressive.
You know, we were on the aggressive side.
We weren't thinking, hey, we're going to stack a bunch of downfalls on and then,
you know, just make sure you're flat, which potentially actually would have been a better
idea just from how much everybody struggled.
Right.
But we were also between half a tenth to 0.8 of a tenth of a mile an hour slower than we
expected to be, just on pure car pace, which was a little odd.
We were the same downfalls between me and Paddo.
When Paddo was obviously, it was faster.
I did have a misshift, which cost us some pace, but it would never transfer us anyway.
So we, we did scratch our heads a little bit afterwards, you know, also seeing the opportunities
that raised from some of the other cars that were just simply struggling, right?
I mean, you see Renus's big lap and ends up with a 228 or a 229, you know, and it's,
the conditions were extremely tough, but I would also say we were just surprised how slow we were.
But it is such a stressful day.
Like I was sat in the engineering office watching Rossi's run and I was shaking.
And I'm like, why am I nervous for this guy out there?
I mean, I couldn't care less, right?
But it's just that qualifying day mentality, right?
Where it's everything's on the line.
But I would say fast Friday should be more stressful.
Why?
Because it's the first time you feel the car, right?
And it's the first time you really get into quality boost.
Yeah.
And okay, let's say you did some quality runs on 130 boost and you, you're like,
okay, I'm happy with a car.
You have a sort of reference of what the car is going to feel like.
What is never going to feel the same?
No, I mean, you're going 10, 15, 20 miles an hour faster.
But you can build up to it on fast Friday.
You can do multiple runs where like on qualifying, one and done.
No, absolutely.
But a lot can go wrong on fast Friday too.
Yeah.
That's true.
Right.
And that is even more penalizing.
Let's just agree.
They're all very stressful.
Oh, they, they are very stressful.
They age us every time.
I was nervous.
I was after, I'm nervous watching every single one of the 33 you guys go out
and then 12 of you go and do it again and then six go and do it again.
And like, getting too old for this.
Not really.
Um, what's, what's Polo's deal?
What's, what's the deal with that guy?
Well, you know what?
I would love for you to do.
Sure.
Speak to Ryan Honore about this.
Well, he's already come through, but I can text him.
What, what do you want me to ask him?
Did he say that Alex is an alien?
No, I didn't, didn't bring Alex up to him.
Unfortunately.
But there's your mistake.
Yeah.
Thing number one.
So, so he thinks Alex is an alien.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Ryan's all in.
He's, he's deep down that wrap.
Full conspiracy theory.
He's an alien.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
I mean, I don't have a great counterpoint.
I don't have a great argument against it.
I mean, I think there's a lot of things that make,
that makes Alex good, but I think what's even more impressive
is he does it time after time after time.
One thing I will say is I think the Canasi cars are really good,
but I also think the stiffer compound of tires fits his driving style a lot more.
Oh, interesting.
And then with the weight of the hybrid as well.
Yeah.
So I think it's just a lot of pieces of a puzzle that just fit his driving style.
And then obviously that's my conspiracy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I may just be compared to him.
This less of a conspiracy.
It's let's let's let's say it's more impressive is he's kicking Scott's butt.
Yeah.
And like it plays like that.
I remember there was a time where you wouldn't bet against Scott Dixon.
Yeah.
In qualifying at 500.
He went through that era where he was just untouchable.
Yep.
And then even even now.
And like and that was the first pick.
True.
Well, that's that's mixed bag.
When the conditions have changed that much, that's a mixed bag.
No, not because the wind conditions, you've only got worse, right?
Yeah.
I mean, had they're not going to drive slower just because if you're flat.
No, that's true.
Right.
But like I would have like I think for me the dream pick is like four to six.
Okay.
So a couple of guys have gone.
Good luck picking that.
There's been, yeah, it's hard to aim for that.
But that's like that's a sweet spot on a normal day.
Given the track conditions.
So think first little sketch could be a little sketch.
No rubber.
Like everything's totally green.
First car out.
I don't know.
I thought he lots of week mentality.
He did a good job week mentality right there.
Anyway, last question.
Okay.
Of the 33 drivers that are starting the NU 500 this week.
Okay.
I want you to, to just pick one name now.
And then I'm going to finish the question and see if you stick with your answer.
So of the 33 drivers.
Well, power would win in a 100 meter dash.
Was that like a sprint?
Yeah.
Like a 100 meter sprint.
If the entire field lined up, you think Will would win?
No, probably.
Oh, dang.
Hang on a second.
He would not.
Well, I don't think Will would.
No.
Will runs like a gazelle.
But like in a way, he's got the weirdest posture runs.
It's like arms back, elbows back and chest out.
And he runs on the tip of his toe.
It's very strange.
I'm trying to think because I think, I don't know, just the build of Joseph,
he'd probably be a fast runner.
Yeah.
But I'm thinking of maybe not an endurance athlete, but a good, a good like.
Yeah.
Sprinter.
Sprinter, yeah.
But I'm also like, Reno's would probably be like low key.
Yeah.
Long legs.
Just so the craziness, right?
Like just gonna, I'm going to die before I stop.
Right.
Youthful exuberance and some long limbs.
Who else?
I don't know why, but I would say Tacuma.
Just Coose.
Let's drag.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's less wind resistance.
Yeah.
I just, yeah, I'm not going to agree with you on that one.
I don't think I was just throwing out one out there for the funds and giggles.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's good.
Good theory.
Good theory.
Hell yeah, maybe.
No.
No.
Joseph.
How about James Hinge Club?
No.
Okay.
No.
Okay.
No.
I do, I like, I like Joseph and I like Renus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's because Joseph is the obvious choice.
So Renus is kind of the oddball choice.
I like wild card.
Yeah.
Cool.
So before I answered Will Power, was that actually going to be?
Yeah, that was, that was the question.
Yeah, we're asking a lot.
Do you have like two?
So just how you can change if my answer is X?
Well, the other question that they want me to ask is,
who do you think is going to win the World Cup?
But that didn't really apply because I don't think Will Power is in it this year.
This is Australia in it.
Line?
I know Denmark not, so we're not winning.
Yeah, that's why I didn't ask you.
I figured you didn't really have a word.
Do you like soccer?
Are you a soccer guy?
I'm more of a football guy than I am an American football guy.
Okay.
Australia is in it.
Okay.
Why would you choose a foot?
They said, do you think Australia's got a good shot?
No, that's just because we're talking about Will Power.
Oh, oh, sorry.
Come on.
Yeah.
Am I interviewing you now?
Apparently.
See, it's not that easy, is it?
No, it's not that easy.
But I'm also not that great at thinking on my feet.
Like when I'm being put on the spot, I can't think of a question.
But you realize that your job is making quick decisions like instantly?
No, my job is to complain.
Well, yes, out of the car.
That's what you...
Yeah, yeah.
But in the car...
Yeah, but that's muscle memory.
I get a lot of nods when you say that from off camera.
Yeah, no, that's an accurate statement.
Yeah, no, I mean, I just drive.
But it is true.
Like I choose to not have any information.
I'm just going to go drive.
Okay.
So it's all on instinct.
All right.
So you can't...
So now you learn something.
I did.
We finally got something useful out of them.
So you're going to listen to Maura speaking on the radio
and you just know I pulled the plug.
That's an old TK move.
I know.
Is that what you learned that one?
No, I was doing at the open test.
I was doing...
I was out there driving around.
And I stopped hearing anything.
And I'm like, what's going on?
And like I still heard my beep when I press the button.
Never got a response.
I was like, that's weird.
And then I just look in the mirror.
And as I was looking over, I just see the cable.
But you were like, damn, it's kind of peaceful.
Yeah, I was like, I'm just going to stay out here for a couple of laps.
Yeah.
So every time you do the radio check and you get in the car...
Yeah, radio check.
But it was a good exercise because I actually figured out
I could put it back in.
There you go.
Yeah.
Because you will get black flagged in the race
if you don't have your radio.
Just for a warning.
I'm aware.
I'm aware.
Some drivers don't read the rule book.
Well, some of us apparently don't know it.
I mean, to be fair, a lot of us on every aspect of this series
don't know certain elements of the rule.
That's Christian Lungard, everybody.
Best of luck this weekend, pal.
Thank you.
Today's been all right, though?
Honestly, chill.
Yeah, I hope I golf this morning.
It's been nice.
It's just under the radar.
I love it.
Has it been a quieter month in general?
A little bit, yeah.
I mean, I haven't said no to many things,
but I haven't said yes to a lot either.
And I'm just sort of just chill.
It's kind of cruising a little bit.
I'm very happy.
I haven't gone and tried to search for tow.
I'm just doing my program, you know?
I feel very good about that.
Yeah, yeah.
But I don't know.
We'll see.
It's a smooth way to do it, right?
I don't know.
We'll see.
I mean, I've done it other ways.
Every other way.
Yeah, who knows if it'll work, but I just don't feel good.
Yeah, everyone's going to say they don't feel good.
Well, do you feel good about P9?
I like being on the outside.
I think that gives me a little bit more options on the start.
If I get a good one, I can sort of get to that top lane
pretty easily if I want for the first couple of laps.
But I mean, such a, you know, you just got to take it.
You know how it is.
You think about the start and you think about your first stop
and for a week, you know, it's pretty brutal.
So I'm just trying to limit what I'm thinking about right now
and just take it as it comes.
So as you're saying, think less.
That's your strategy as a driver.
Well, if you look back at last year, you know,
obviously worst day of my life.
But, you know, I think I was so fixated on like the start
and thinking about that stuff that I probably didn't
put enough emphasis or I overthought, oh, my tires are cold.
So I'm going to have to go really aggressive on this.
And I probably was like not thinking that every other driver
is driving with the same thing.
You know, I just thought I was the only one in the moment.
Right, right.
So you can sort of get yourself in a box there.
So, I mean, I wasn't going to bring it up.
You should.
But you did.
But I just want to know, like, in that moment,
was that something you were actively thinking,
oh, I need to get my tires hot here?
I remember coming up out of turn four
and I looked at my temperatures and they were very cold.
And I was like, okay, I'll be a little bit more aggressive.
We've got one to go.
Like, you know, and I, I don't even, I was very delicate
with the throttle and looking at the data.
It was just one of those things and I'll never be as aggressive.
It's something that you learn about.
But it was just, I didn't, looking back on it,
everyone's like, have you looked at it?
Have you started?
Have you figured out what went wrong?
Well, I don't think I know exactly what went wrong.
But I think my mindset was wrong.
You know, I was just thought I was the only man
in the room with the problem.
You know, and it takes a bit to figure that out
and understand it and I guess be a man to accept
that that was just a stuff up.
But, you know, we've done that.
Yeah, a bit of perspective, you know.
Yeah.
And the fact that you're saying, yeah, bring it up,
like this, you're over it.
Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm over it.
I'm like, I'm still like, it still hurts.
You know, not, I imagine like, you know, when you missed the fight,
like it's, I felt like I wasted a spot for someone.
Right.
And like that was a shame that, you know,
that's probably the more thing that cut me out.
Cause I was like, Jack and Abel could have run the race,
you know what I mean?
Like, and, and I screwed that, you know?
So it was one of those ones where I took a bit to digest
and understand, but yeah, we're back,
back stronger for it and we'll be right.
Yeah.
Your month's been, like you say, it's been kind of.
Yeah.
It's been like me.
It's been, it's been less like under the radar,
like you say, just like, I don't know.
It's, it's like you're, it's like you're a.
We've had some flashes.
Yeah.
Like like fast Friday, we nailed the balance.
Yeah.
And the thing was fast.
That's true.
On Saturday or Sunday, we didn't hit the balance once
and I struggled for it.
We stuffed the tire brushes on Sunday morning.
We still did a fast lap.
Yeah.
And then Sunday, we just missed the Euro.
We just missed the CIP.
So, but the piece of the puzzle there and I'm, I'm very excited
for tomorrow.
If we get out and just to have a crack and see what this thing
feels like, cause it's, it's been feeling sporty.
Race car feels good.
Yeah.
Like I think everyone's going to come in here and they're going
to say, I feel good.
I feel great.
I can win this race, but I genuinely have feel like we've
worked on the right things.
I've got what I need.
I know the downforce number I've got.
It's just a matter of, you know, putting the pieces together.
Cause that's just it.
Like as long as your car is kind of in the ballpark is
probably a little bit too broad stroke, but like as long as
your car is comfortable for you.
Yes.
Right.
It takes so many other things to win.
You can have the most perfect dialed best car you've ever
driven.
Guarantees you nothing.
But I mean 2024, I felt like I had the fastest.
Car in the world and it was great, but a little clutch problem
like took me out of it.
Right.
And you know, I worked really hard and I feel like I've worked
on that same book or month that just have been, guess, I haven't
been, you know, that impressive with speed in terms of just
going, boom, but we've been right there.
Yeah.
And I'm really happy with where we're at.
We've got a couple of things going to tick off tomorrow with
long runs and whatnot, but you know, I feel very good.
Scott, how do you think you would do in prison?
For the f**k, yeah.
That was such a good tangent.
Well, you threw me.
I would suffer, dude.
Yeah.
I would be bad.
With what particular part?
I'm just, I'm so scared, dude.
I'm such like a, like, I'm very, like, yeah, I'm just
being scared.
Yeah.
I'd be scared of the people.
You'd be scared to, like, get roughed up or like, yeah.
Yeah, just a little worse.
Like the meals.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The food doesn't bother you.
The...
I think I could get by the food.
I think it's just, I'm very, like, you know, structured.
Like, we're, like, I...
Very structured?
You'd love it.
You'd love jail, man.
You would, you'd love it.
Three square meals a day, bedtime at the same time.
But like, I mean, like, I feel like I've got to know,
I've, I'm in this confined space for a long time.
I'll go insane, I think.
Oh, okay.
You see, you need, you need to, you need to roam.
Yeah.
I need to roam and like, oh, let's go do this or, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
I would, why is, why is that a question?
Is this a thing?
Just get to know where people's mindsets go.
I don't think awesome.
Nah.
I don't think anyone would be awesome though.
You'd have to be a bad mother, a factor like...
But here's the other thing, is I feel like I've,
I've heard enough, you know, podcasts or read enough articles
about people that have, you know, found themselves in that position.
You just figured it out though.
You just sort of figured it out.
I think you would.
And I think we, I think, I think athletes are resilient.
Yeah.
Right.
And we've also got a lot of the gift of the gab.
Yeah.
You know, you could, I feel like you could talk your way out
of a lot of things.
Yeah.
Or get yourself on the right team.
Like the boys.
I'm not walking in day one and like beating anybody up
for a certain amount of time.
No, you see, I'm not a fighter.
That's not going to happen.
I'm not a fighter.
We all know that.
I feel like I could hold my own, but I'm not a fighter.
Yeah.
And, and I think that's where I'd struggle.
Okay.
Um, good to know.
Like if I had to like, like, like murder someone.
If you're like shank a guy.
Yeah, like I couldn't do that.
Yeah.
And then I'd be screwed.
Yeah, that wouldn't be fun.
Bottom of the tone.
Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, um, how thirsty are the threes?
Oh, well, very thirsty.
Yeah.
One since 24.
Like we're very thirsty.
You know, we are, we are, we're a patch.
You could say some of this.
Some could say, um, but no, we, we're.
That's a tibley.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cotton mouth.
Oh yeah.
Just off.
It's terrible.
Yeah.
I can, I can feel, I can feel.
Yeah.
Like get me a drink.
I am.
I know.
Yeah.
No, but like we are, we're very, we're very determined
right now.
Mm hmm.
Nice, uh, nice tall glass of cold milk would really help that.
Wouldn't it?
Oh, beautiful.
The things I would do, James, the things I would do.
Would you go to prison?
I would go to prison.
I would happily, happily.
Oh, have the turns of tables.
Just take me, yeah, just take me, uh, straight after I,
yeah, I'm going to be a maniac if I win this race.
Dude, I, I can't even imagine.
Can I just come to the after party?
Oh no, that's probably be good.
Okay.
Well, it's, it's going to be, be free.
It'd be incredible, man.
I just, I would love to see your day after photos.
Because you won't have gone to bed.
It'll be.
It's not even about that.
It's just, I think it's, I, I'm fair chance I won't turn out to Detroit.
Uh, incredible.
And I would endorse that.
I highly endorse.
You want to talk about legends?
How about the guy that went so hard at the Indie 500 after party?
He was like, I'm not, I'm not even coming, man.
This Chevy.
I'll see you in St. Louis if you're lucky.
Oh yeah.
Bailey.
Cross-eyed.
Um, you are, uh, you are father.
Yes, I am.
Yeah, let's.
And when it's transition back to your raging part of being a dad.
Yeah.
What's the most dad thing you've done at the racetrack?
Have you find yourself like, like picking up things and be like,
put that away.
You're like wanting to like put off on the corner of the toolbox and all like
hurts themselves.
You know, like, yes, I put, uh, I put like a soft mat.
Down to where I talk with the engineer so I could stand there for a long period
of time and not have sore feet.
Oh, okay.
So you're just like, you're just fully, fully dadded out.
Big comfort.
Just a big comfort guy.
Yeah.
I think I got to look after my feet.
I'm on the feeds a lot more now with Lucy.
Yeah.
Chasing her around.
Just put like a nice little pad down there and make it everything and keeps my
boots clean too.
Okay.
It's random.
It's random.
But I saw one of the boys had them and I was like, oh, can I have one of those?
That looks nice.
Yeah.
I'm, I deserve some comfort in my life.
And I couldn't believe that you got it.
I did.
Incredible.
Yeah, I know.
I thought it was great.
I might get one of those for the booth.
Because you're standing in the race.
Yeah.
You should do that.
That's not a bad idea.
It will change your life.
Because I know what you're talking about.
Like the ones.
The soft pads.
Oh, yeah.
Because I had them when I used to like work at the team, I would, where I would
fabricate and whatever.
I'd have like a soft pad down and it was not in day different to stand on the hard
floor all day.
Yeah.
Telling you.
Telling you.
I might look into that.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's as good.
That's a snap on cell.
Yeah.
Oh, there you go.
Know anybody there?
Little plug.
Yeah.
I got a great plug there.
Beautiful.
Can you replicate the sound of a cuckaburra?
No, I can't.
No?
I literally, I have forgotten.
And I'm a Kiwi.
So I can't really do that.
I suppose.
Yeah.
I guess that's a little bit.
That's not me calling you in America.
Yeah.
It's like, yeah.
Oh, I wasn't calling.
I was right.
Could have been.
I know.
I can't.
Do Kiwi birds make noise?
Yeah.
It's like a scream.
Is it?
It's like they don't fly.
I thought maybe they don't make noise.
No, they don't.
Yeah.
All they make noise.
But they're nocturnal.
You know that?
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you never see them.
You hear them.
But you hear them and they scream.
That's even creepier.
You know what I mean?
Just like.
Okay.
Last question.
If you and your engineer could only communicate during the race
in movie quotes, what movie would that have to be Spanish?
Like heavy Spanish too.
Okay.
Let's assume that he knows all the movies you know.
No.
I think it would.
We would communicate via like racing movies.
Like probably like or the airs and center documentaries or something.
Yeah.
He's a big air and center guy.
Okay.
I'm not sure that.
I don't want to try a documentary count.
Yeah.
Okay.
Like days of thunder.
Are we talking about that?
Maybe not that.
I think he's more serious.
More rush.
More rush.
Okay.
More rush.
I wouldn't say.
Yeah.
I'd say I'm like the Jamestown.
He's the louder.
Okay.
He'd probably calm me down.
But like do you know the quotes from that movie?
No.
That's what I'm saying.
Like I don't.
I'm not a quote.
I can't remember quotes.
You're not one of those guys that I can have an entire conversation with certain people
exclusively in movie quotes.
I know the quote that you're talking about.
I say I love step brothers.
Yeah.
They're moving the world.
Yeah.
Incredible.
But like I know what I want to say, but I can't say it because I don't remember it.
But I know where it is in the movie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You understand it.
The only thing I know is like get your, you know, off my drum set.
You know what I mean?
That's, that's the one thing you remember, right?
Yeah.
That's like, that's, that's literally it.
You're not going to not have Randy Jackson sign your sword.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Obviously.
So obviously I don't, yeah.
Yeah.
So no, I don't know.
I have no idea, dude.
That's random.
It is random.
Last question.
How would Scott McLaughlin celebrate an 8,500 win immediately after getting out of the car?
Me and my wife talked about this the other day.
Like, what am I going to do?
Like, I don't even know what I'm going to, I don't know.
I'm definitely going to park it like smack bang on the bricks.
There's no doubt about that.
You can't go in the crowd because Joseph's done that.
Yeah.
You can't climb the fence because there's LAO's deal.
Yeah.
So the only thing I was thinking of, I'm literally going to run.
Okay.
Well, that kind of ran a little bit.
He did, right?
I don't know what to do.
I think I was like.
Climb the pylon.
Can you imagine?
I'm scared of heights.
I can't do that.
Yeah, okay.
Don't do that.
Don't do that.
Don't do that.
I could just go.
That'd be pretty sick.
That'd be pretty sick.
When is this air?
Before the race.
Okay.
So now everyone's going to know.
Oh, no, wait.
When is this going to air?
I want to keep this to myself.
Before the race.
We can bleep it.
Can we?
No, let's bleep it.
Bleep it just in case.
Because I had thought about that.
Yeah, yeah.
I was like, I said to Kali, wouldn't that be funny?
Like, imagine the photo.
Well, regardless of what, because we
believed what he said he would do,
regardless of what it may or may not have been.
Yeah.
We wish you all the best.
Hope we get to see you.
I appreciate it.
Best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This has been Offtrack with Hinch and Rossi.
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