“Indy” usually means Indianapolis, Indiana—the home of a big racing event. They’re saying May is when the city gets especially excited about racing.
Brand
Marco and Dretty
Marco and Dretty are references to the Andretti and Deletty/“Dretty” racing family names that are closely associated with American open-wheel racing. The hosts are mentioning meeting and befriending them as a standout childhood memory tied to IndyCar culture.
HOA means a homeowners association—basically a group that makes rules for a neighborhood. They’re joking that an HOA person would check the flag size with a tape measure.
Open-wheel racing in the U.S. went through a time when it split into competing series. That meant different drivers and events, so it could feel like there were “two worlds” of the same kind of racing.
CART was one of the big open-wheel racing organizations in the U.S. at the time, and the split happened because different people stayed with different series.
Penske is a prominent American motorsport team/organization that competes in top-level open-wheel racing. The transcript notes that “Penske moves over” in the early 2000s, which signals a shift in team participation during the split era.
Brand
Ray Hall
Ray Hall refers to Ray Hall Racing, an open-wheel racing team name that appears alongside other major teams during the early-2000s influx described in the transcript. The mention is about who started showing up in the series after the split.
Andretti refers to the Andretti racing organization/team, a well-known name in American open-wheel racing. In the transcript, it’s part of a list of teams that began showing up in the early 2000s.
A “poll sitter” is the driver who starts first at the front of the starting grid. It’s earned through qualifying and is considered a big advantage and honor.
The Buick Century is a car model made by Buick that’s meant for everyday driving, usually as a comfortable family sedan. It’s called “Century” because the name has been used for a long time. In a conversation, it might be mentioned to highlight how long the model line has existed.
Pre-race ceremonies are the events that happen right before the race starts. They’re meant to set the mood and honor the tradition of the event.
Topic
On the grid with taps
“Taps” is a bugle song used for ceremonies. Here, it’s played while everyone is on the grid, and the speaker describes it as an emotional, memorable moment.
They’re talking about Black Hawk helicopters flying overhead as part of the pre-race show. It’s a dramatic moment that adds to the excitement before the cars start.
The Miami Grand Prix is a big Formula 1 race in Miami. They often do special pre-race events like flyovers for the crowd.
Term
B2
“B2” is the name of a specific kind of military airplane—the B-2 Spirit. They’re just saying it flew over during the event.
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This is Off-Track.
Tango, you're running.
Hello and welcome to Off-Track.
Every time, you cheeky guy.
That's so rude. Just because Alex isn't here is like,
cool, just jump in all open to show on my own.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to leave the part where you said go.
I'm going to leave that in.
Yeah, that's fair. That's a good play.
That's a good play.
Sorry, Tim, carry on. You were doing a great job.
It's May. It's Super May.
The calendar has finally switched.
We are officially, I know we had cars on track, but we officially switched the calendar to May
and the air in Indy changes, the energy in Indy changes, and it's phenomenal.
Everybody's really excited about my birthday month.
Everyone's really excited about your birthday month.
How are you celebrating this year, pal? Are we doing anything for that?
I'm not. I don't have any plans.
You don't want to celebrate 35?
36.
36.
Yeah, shoot.
I feel like after 21, you don't get to celebrate unless the five are a zero.
Yeah, that's fair.
Yeah, that's fair.
My zero is coming up this year, December. We got a zero.
Okay. Well, then we could celebrate that because that's an adult one that you get to do.
I mean, I'd be down for dinner though. I get in on the 17th.
There you go.
We'll figure it out. We'll figure something out.
So you grew up in Indianapolis. I did not.
Although I've been here for a long time.
Dude, you know what?
I just realized the other day that, because, you know, we'll see.
I don't know if you know this. We moved.
And same.
All of the boxes are right there.
Smart.
Mine is like opened like shrapnel of boxes because I'm building furniture over in this corner.
Lots of styrofoam.
But no, we don't even know how long we've been in that house.
And like, I was like, adding out my time in Indy.
And I'm like, Ben, there's going to be a time in the not too distant future where I will have lived in Indy for as long as I lived in Canada.
I was going to ask, where are you?
Because there's also going to be a time where you've lived in Indy longer than I lived in Indy.
Oh my God. That's a great. Wait. Yeah. Great point.
So where are you now?
I moved here in April of 2009.
So this.
That's where I left.
So we perfectly timed.
I left in May of 2009. Yeah.
So yeah. So 17 years.
What? What do we have?
You're catching. Yeah.
Because I spent 19 years in Indianapolis.
Almost to the day.
I left like three days after my birthday, after my 19th birthday.
There you go.
So yeah, it's coming.
I will get there because I don't think you're moving back in the next 18 months.
Yeah. No, probably not.
So I feel like I win.
So my point was, yeah, growing up in Indy, month of May, what was that?
At what point did you figure out that May was a thing and you could like enjoy it?
This is silly, but like I was never not a huge racing family, right?
Like we would give the 500, but we weren't like one of those families that like had the same seats every year or all that.
But it was still like, it was still May.
I grew up four miles from the track.
So you would always just kind of hear it sounded like these and you would just associate it.
You could hear it, eh?
I mean, I will still get texts from Larry, my stepdad, still at that house, just being like, hey, who's on track today?
And he could tell the difference between if it's going to be NASCAR or IndyCar.
So it was just kind of this ubiquitous thing that you just, and you know, everybody had the checkered flags out and
and just seeing the city kind of rally together.
I mean, like now my brother, I feel like I've gotten my family way into racing.
Like my mom had never cared about racing.
Now she's watching quals and watching practices and watching the race and everything.
My brother has like the big three by five foot IMS flag that he puts out on his driveway on Meridian on May 1st every year.
It's like, but even not being super into racing, you couldn't not be part of the Indy 500 in Indianapolis.
So did you, did you in fourth grade go to the Speedway?
Cause like that's a thing now, right?
Yeah.
So you did that trip and my high school graduation was also at the, we had like the party at the track because I went to school with Lauren George.
And she was in my graduating class.
So we did a lot at the track tracks.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
What was, what was your favorite like childhood memory of either being at the race or just of month of May in Indy?
I mean, other than meeting and befriending Marco and Dretty.
Did that happen?
That was pretty cool.
Yeah, did.
Okay.
I don't know if it's a single thing or if it's just like that was just the month where the whole city came alive.
Yeah.
That was like, there was, it's, it's a cliche that may is in the air.
Right.
There's just an excitement about it.
I was, by the way, I was going to get a flag for my place here because I realized my like street facing balcony.
There's a flag pole and I looked it up and you're allowed to have flags outside of your domicile and Beverly Hills, but they can't be more than 12 square feet.
And I don't know if you know this about all flags, but they're all three by five bigger than that.
Yeah.
They're all like, they've just effectively said no flag.
So if anybody knows where I can get a three by four IMS flag.
I feel like that's a small enough infraction over the limit that like I would love to see the HOA member that comes by with a tape measure.
I don't know.
They're three square feet over.
Beverly Hills is pretty intense on things.
Just try it back for forgiveness.
Oh, so I'm new here.
I'll never happen again.
All right.
Yeah.
I'll go ahead and send me any fans listening that want to make Tim a three by four Indy 500 flag.
That would be IMS flag.
That would be very much appreciated.
If you want to give them a gift for his 36th birthday, which is coming up.
So, okay, but I grew up in Indianapolis.
That was just the norm.
Right.
That was just what May was.
It was the same as the tornado.
Simon going off at 11 o'clock on Fridays, which I always wondered what would happen if we had a tornado at 11 o'clock on a Friday.
But like Friday very much.
Okay.
Not every Friday.
Yeah.
I thought it was every Friday.
Man, it's just not weird how things stick in your head.
Coming from Canada, coming up in racing, but not coming, not growing up in Indianapolis.
What was the biggest thing you first took away where you're just like, oh, wow.
Or like, oh, holy.
Like that's.
So it's, so yeah.
So like, obviously I watched it.
I knew about it.
I also grew up in a time where, you know, I, you know, I am throwing myself under the bus by kind of admitting this, right?
Because this has gotten me in trouble in the past.
But when open wheel was split and I was on the other side of the wrong side of the split, right?
So, so I watched it because I loved watching it and I love racing.
But, you know, in the early years of the split, there were no names that I knew, right?
Because all the, all the, the Indy car drivers at the time, they stayed with cart.
And what the IRL became was full of a lot of drivers that I didn't know.
And so I would kind of watch it fleetingly at that point.
And then you get to the early 2000s, Penske moves over and then Ray Hall and Andretti and Ganassi and they all start showing up.
And so now in the early 2000s, I kind of start watching it a lot more.
I, I watched the last one pre-split.
That's where Jacques Villeneuve won.
So that was a big deal for Canada.
And then kind of tuned out for a couple of years and won't lie.
Early 2000s got back into it.
And then the first year I got to go and see it in person was 2008.
And I was floored.
I couldn't even stay for the whole race.
I was a guest to somebody who was a whole thing, but I got to go.
I was there for the pre-race ceremonies and, and saw the first half of the race roughly.
And I could not believe the magnitude of the event.
Right.
I was just like everybody so blown away by it.
And I thought I was like, yeah.
It's indescribable the amount of people there.
It really is.
And like the energy there.
Like I love how many people that aren't racing people come and have been to Super Bowls and World Series and Masters and Wimbledons and Stanley Cup.
Finals and all this stuff.
And they're like, no, like even though I'm not a racing person, that was the coolest event I've ever been a part of.
Like I've ever seen.
It's, it's, there's nothing like it.
When guys like Mike Torrico, right?
Who have, who have not only been to, but like had full access and have worked and called all the, they're like, that's one of the coolest things you can ever do.
So that was in 08.
And, and that was cool.
But the, the one that really got me was the next year was 2009 because then I was living in Indy as of mid April.
And understanding what 500 was and what it meant to this city, living in it for the whole month was a completely different experience again.
So I, I, I kind of love that I got to experience it just as an outsider that literally came in and saw the race and left.
And I can tell you that as impressive as that was.
And for all the people that have had that experience, if you haven't been able to do, and like, if you don't live here, you shouldn't be able to just do the month of May in Indy.
That's ridiculous.
Or just rare.
Not ridiculous.
Be awesome.
I feel like there, there are a lot of people in the Coke lot who would take issue with that.
Yeah, fair.
You know, or the Carracks that show up on May 1st and post.
Yeah.
I love that.
Anybody that can, that has the freedom to do that.
God bless you.
Keep going.
Cause it's, it's a, it's an experience, but yeah, being in town for it.
And like, and also at that point, I'm sort of part of it, right?
Cause I was racing Indy lights and so we would run on carb day for the freedom 100, which we have to bring back by the way.
Um, we'll get it back.
But so that's, that's, that was for me, like such a, such an amazing experience just living in it.
Reddit's going to lose its mind because you just said, we'll get it back.
We'll get it back.
We'll get it back.
I don't have a lot of sway over a lot of things, including this, but I'm going to keep annoying people and see if we can, we could get a movie going to get it back.
I respect that.
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So yeah, that was that was a very cool moment for me was getting to do that and getting to live that.
And then now, you know, I've been through it.
Now I've been through it as a competitor been through it as someone that has the privilege of getting to call it and be on the broadcast one of the biggest sports broadcast of the year.
It's very cool. It's a very cool experience.
I just I'm so curious how that feels knowing that like you're a part of this massive history, right?
Like you're the poll sitter for the 2016 Indy 500 for the 100th running in the Indy 500.
You're one of however many it is that have run the Indy 500.
I don't know the exact number, but like you're you're part of this elite group that has kept this event going.
For over a century.
And I mean, is there is there like a weight of the responsibility of that?
Or is it just something that you're really lucky for?
Or is that one of those things where you can't even consider that because you have to just be like, no, I'm here to race.
I think I think it's it's certainly not a weight or responsibility.
I think it's a it's a privilege that you appreciate.
And I think it's something that the older you get, you appreciate it more.
And then certainly once you stop doing it and the the, you know, your distance kind of grows and you're a little bit more detached.
Because when you're when you're racing, you're so focused on racing, right?
You're just so focused on winning and the performance and all of that.
You try to take in all the stuff, you know, and certainly as you get older, like, I mean, TK's last race would have been probably the most emotional form.
Which time?
Because well, yeah, his last last race, his fourth last race or whatever it was.
But it's and I think that's that's more it, right?
Is it's the older you get, the further away you get from it, the more you kind of appreciate how how rare it is and how special it is.
And now that I don't do it anymore, you know, my my part of the history is is is is sealed, right?
Like that's my little pocket of the history of the Speedway that I'm a part of.
I mean, you're still you're still in the museum, you know, as a commentator.
That is true. There was a very cool, very cool exhibit in the museum right now is the history of broadcasting over the 500.
If you want to go check that out.
I mean, that gets to another point.
There are so many other parts of the race that aren't the race, right?
Like there are Jim neighbors is a part of the Indy 500 and his legacy is a part of the Indy 500.
Not because he drove.
I mean, Florence Henderson is a part of the Indy 500 and the history associated with the Indy 500 because she wasn't a car.
So do you have like a tradition or a segment of the race that's not the race that really just sticks out for you?
Or what's the most special of those to you?
I think it changed over the years.
You know, I think that's one of the beauty one of the beautiful things about about Indy is it's it's a journey, right?
As a young driver, as an old driver, as a commentator, you know, for me, my favorite day was always carb day outside of the race.
Obviously, carb day I just thought was so much fun.
Had such a cool vibe, cool energy last time in the car, the pit stop competition.
The fans show up in a great way.
That was I still love it.
I still love it to this day.
You know, in the pre race ceremonies at the at the beginning, like the first bunch of years, I'm like, these are too long.
Like really cool.
But you stand out there and you're sweating your stuff and like you're just getting dehydrated before you go start a three and a half hour race.
Like you just wanted to get in the car and go.
But then by my by my last one, you know, and didn't even didn't even kind of know for sure at the time that it was going to be my last one.
I'm like in tears almost on the grid when taps is playing.
You know, it's it's such a it's such a powerful moment.
You know, having that many people in one space and having the entire space taken up by the sound of a single bugler.
I'm really getting goosebumps hearing you talk about nothing like it, you know, and then last year with the Black Hawk helicopters fly around above the above the grid.
Like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
So let's put this in perspective.
I have such a cool video of Hazel watching that.
Dude, side note, the Miami Grand Prix this year did have a B2 do a flyover.
One of the cooler flyovers.
I've been like nothing.
Nothing like the old death Dorito.
Oh, gotta love the death Dorito.
But sorry, I want to circle back real quick on your point about the like the history and how many, you know, how small it is, the number of people.
So I just did a rough Google.
I have no idea how accurate this is.
It's probably within a couple if it's not 100% bang on 804 different drivers have started the race as of 2025.
So we're adding three rookies this year.
No, that's not right.
We've got three rookies plus Jacob hasn't started.
So I think we're adding four to that.
Somewhere between 690 and 710 people have traveled to space.
And so we add, you know, two to three rookies a year, maybe, and space travels only going up.
Yeah.
So before too long, I will be a in a rarer group than people who have been to space.
So what James is trying to say, and I think I get some of this up and you don't need to correct or anything is eat true foistel.
That's not what you were going with that.
And that is not at all what I am saying or agree with.
You're a jerk, Tim.
But no, it puts in a perspective, right?
Like what are the coolest things that you could do, right?
Like be a fighter pilot.
Definitely more people have done that than have started the 500.
It's amazing.
Like actors in a Hollywood movie, way more people have done that than start the 500.
You got James Bond's.
You got Walk Down the Moon.
These are beating you.
Not a lot of other things are.
Not a ton.
Not a ton.
So as the history.
More the walking on the moon.
That is true.
I don't think we're going to beat 800 in any time soon, but not soon.
Eventually.
Is there a, well, yeah, if we colonize it, what is there?
Is there a anything that we don't do in the 500 or in the month of May or in the pre race ceremonies or anything like that?
That you wish we did or think we should.
You know, I, I can't think of anything in particular.
I know there was some hullabaloo and some people were complaining about no longer doing the balloons.
But I don't, I'm, I was happy to see that tradition go.
I mean, it looked cool, but we're just sending more plastic out into the act.
That just was fine to lose that one.
Also, we waste too much helium as a society, but that's an entirely different conversation.
No, I'm, I just think it's perfect.
Like I'm totally fine with, are you going to talk to me about helium too much helium as a society?
Yes.
Yes.
We absolutely do.
I could spend another 20 minutes on this helium leaves the atmosphere.
We don't store it.
We don't have enough ability to harness it.
It should be priced way higher than it is.
We should not be using it in balloons.
Like we, the helium thing's a problem.
On that note, everybody, thanks for tuning in.
Not sure we can really follow that with anything.
I want to end it with you on some psychopathic rant about our helium consumption.
You know how much every microchip needs helium.
We need, we need helium to make every single microchip and we're just putting it balloons to float for fun.
And we don't have the, we have a very big helium problem coming.
Tim, I was already terrified about the future of this planet.
You've just added another thing to my list of things to worry about.
They just bombed one of the few places on earth that can actually get more helium for us.
Cool.
Well guys, on that super cheery uplifting topic, we're going to say goodbye to this Tuesday episode.
Happy May.
Which actually came out on Tuesday.
But happy May.
No.
We recorded on Tuesday.
We got May.
This is coming out.
We recorded on Tuesday.
This is coming out tomorrow.
Keep forgetting it's Tuesday.
I lose track of all days.
It's like 6 p.m.
I'm not going to, yeah.
I mean, my time is barely afternoon more.
But that's when most of the people that are going to listen to it.
So I'm going to edit this afternoon and put it out.
It's another Hinch or Rossi on a Tuesday slash Wednesday.
It's another Tuesday Hinch or Rossi that was led by Tim on a Wednesday.
No idea why you would.
He's at the Tim Durham on Twitter.
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About this episode
May in Indianapolis comes through as more than a racing month; it’s a citywide shift in energy, especially around the Indy 500. The hosts reflect on first seeing the race in person, what it meant to live through a full May in Indy, and how rare it is to be part of the event’s history. The conversation also wanders into Carb Day traditions and a spirited gripe about wasting helium on balloons.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's finally May. Hinch and Thim talk about what this month means, and their favorite parts of the Indy 500.
+++
Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a 5-star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.
