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MP 1687: The Set Down | Barber IndyCar Review from YouTube
MP 1687: The Set Down | Barber IndyCar Review from YouTube
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About this episode
Barber Motorsports Park sets the tone: IndyCar’s hybrid-era road-course racing delivered a dominant Alex Palou (Ganassi) with limited on-track lead battles, but plenty of strategy intrigue. Marshall Pruett breaks down how Palou’s pace, plus Will Power’s big alternate-tire charge from P23 to P12, shaped the weekend. He spotlights team-by-team road-course questions (Ganassi strong, Arrow McLaren mixed, Penske led by Pato O’Ward’s struggles and De Vries’/Malukas’ qualifying promise) and dives into RLL’s Graham Rahal overperformance, pit-stop execution, and engineering changes involving Mick Schumacher and Eddie Jones. He also teases Indy 500 fourth-car speculation and a new “search party” award for Felix Rosenqvist’s season slump.
Topics:
barber road course race review
alex palou dominance and ganassi road-course strength
will power alternate tire rebound from p23 to p12
arrow mclaren qualifying vs race pace gap
pato o'ward struggles and team disparity
graham rahal overperformance and pit stop execution
mick schumacher engineering change with eddie jones
indy 500 fourth car speculation and driver shortlist
pit stop optimization and wheel-nut o-ring theory
safety discussion after scott mclaughlin and will power crashes
It's The Set Down, a new IndyCar race review show from YouTube I'm trialing where we dive into the main topics and awards to hand out, starting with the Barber Motorsports Park race won by Alex Palou
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Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt podcast coming out of good old Barber Motorsports Park.
This is the first episode of the set down also known as a little insight and analysis
and prize giving awards giving that we do after each IndyCar race started that here
just the beginning of this season huge thanks to y'all for supporting the show to our great
friends at thejusticebrothers.com and torunmotorsports.com for all they do to support us.
Big thanks to our friend as well Steve Seacore helping me to put together this content here so
hopefully more to come more fun to come. I'm going to try something a little bit new it's old with
my audio podcast but boy just been thinking about a lot of the really fun whether it's in-car audio
that I have trackside ambient audio try and put some of those up here on YouTube specifically just
kind of stare at a picture and hopefully zone out and listen to amazing race car sounds so
going to get that coming here shortly knowing that we have a little bit of a pause between Barber
good old children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix and the Long Beach Grand Prix here middleish to late
middle portion of April all right let's get rolling with things and stuff
going to get into the awards here in a moment got one new one to add by the way but
let's open with the obvious this race was not particularly entertaining in terms of folks
challenging for the lead on track wheel to wheel same way last year though Scotty McLaughlin beat
up on folks the year before that in the year before that and pillow kind of so Barber is proving
to be in this arrow screen era especially as we've added the hybrid to the vehicles here
been a pretty decent one person stands out one big haymaker to the rest of the field and off they
go don't know what IndyCar would do for next year but if we're just talking about spicing
things up true wheel-to-wheel competition as the Barber race takes place
if that's something IndyCar wants to make sure is a thing it's got some work to do
I'm not bothered by what we saw maybe I'm a little bit different than some who are very
loud and complaining about this being a bit of a nothing burger in terms of real entertainment
and excitement can't argue that fact strictly from what we saw take place on track I do love
the strategic side though thanks to Christian Lindgard and the Aaron McLaren team and good
old Kyle Moyer his new race strategist of this season but truly one of the great race strategists
of this century they were able to do some cool things so we'll get into that in a moment but
just the big picture we had a st. Petersburg race that was pretty fun parts of it were fun but
alex mollywopped everybody other parts of it though were entertaining get to phoenix that was
pretty much just a huge ball of fun the whole time Christian Rasmussen doing huge razz like things
Joseph Newgarden was the best driver terms of getting to the finish line and beat up on folks
ran away with things there to close but we then get to Arlington that seemed like pretty decent fun
yet again another kind of sort of runaway winner that being our man Kirk Kirkwood by the way I saw
Kirk on pit lane before the race and said do you know that there's some folks like in the comments
who just freak out all caps to stop calling you Kirk or Kirk Kirkwood and he had a bit of a laugh
we also agreed next time I have him on the show for those who aren't familiar
or maybe missed out on some of the comments he's just going to lay into me and basically
threaten me big time that if I ever call him Kirk again like he's going to do terrible stuff but
for those who don't know we actually get along pretty decently outside the track so when I call
him Kirk by the way it's me calling a friend a nickname it's not anything that's actually mean
or bad or otherwise so just sharing up front but saw Kirk definitely had some thoughts about the
fact that you know you beat up on folks really badly at Arlington you think you can do anything
like that here go get Polo starting a little bit farther back from him than you wanted told me on
pit lane obviously I'm going to try felt like we could have done a little bit better and qualifying
than we wanted but spoke to him again today all totaled was pretty happy with how things played
out the year-to-year improvement for Andretti was definitely noticeable for himself will power who
will talk about more and Marcus Erickson but this was truly yet another virtuoso performance by
Alex Polo and that number 10 car so I mentioned in the setup pre-race preview this was going to be
the huge question of the four big teams Ganassi, Penske, Andretti, Aero McLaren, First Natural
Train road course who's going to step up who's going to stand out will we going to see any big
year-to-year gains we're going to see anybody fall short but normally does super well on road
courses what did we learn it was silly to question whether Polo and the Ganassi team was going to do
anything other than stomp a mud hole into folks so Ganassi yeah road courses this is something
we need to watch for sure Aero McLaren we saw Christian Lungard do big things but he was singular
in that capacity same with Polo at Ganassi although Scott Dixon did as usual to recover
from a poor qualifying performance this season to have a pretty decent finish but at Ganassi it was
just Alex at McLaren it was just Lungard and Andretti we don't know how well power could have
done obviously big crash in qualifying not his fault ended up starting 23rd almost last
rallied up to 12th Marcus Erickson did well wasn't really super crazy competitive in terms of fighting
for a podium but he was in a good place but pretty much down to Kirk he ended up starting finishing
fifth for rent around third fourth fifth but mostly fourth fifth area but better than ever
just a little bit farther from Polo than he had hoped and then you look at team Penske
and Scotty McLaughlin's crash certainly just an error that he made but set him back a bit he's
normally been their front runner New Garden I would say did well definitely running strong again
which is just great to see for him Davey Maluchus though the best qualifier at team Penske this
season tied with Alex Polo 4.3 average starting position as the best in IndyCar who would have
predicted that I wouldn't have but indeed Davey Maluchus showing us that this kid he's got something
and got it early I expected this to be a mid to late season thing for him way the hell off raising
my hand saying no Pruitt you're an idiot again for those of you who know me it's not a surprise but
Davey Maluchus has been the best Penske driver across all four races combined this is something to
really truly appreciate for him so I'd say of the four big teams we were watching on the who's
going to show up at the first big road course knowing that we've got six of them this year
this is going to be a huge indicator as to who's going to be a problem at the others
indeed same old story with Polo will power without that crash and qualifying certainly
feel like it would have been much farther up so really could have been two of the three
Andretti's it feels like fast six looking at the Aaron McLaren none of them were particularly fast
in qualifying yet another thing to consider about the season they've had that's been just a little
bit off but then a hell of a rally in the race with Lundgaard matching Polo if not exceeding
Polo's pace at times so that was huge really I'd say of the four Penske's the only one that stood
out as truly a team wide force true speeding capabilities all weekend obviously Davey was
the one to do the best in the race so interesting look I don't know about you again please tell me
in the comments and more all caps about calling Kirk Kirkwood Kirk Kirkwood tell me were there
others within there that I'm maybe not seeing in terms of the big four doing a little better a
little worse feels like Polo and Ganassi is kind of an obvious thing but Lundgaard and
Aaron McLaren gave us a real reason to wonder when we get to the Indianapolis Grand Prix
that guy's been pretty damn good there before could we be looking at I don't know if I'd call it
an upset but could we get a pole could we get a win at a Lundgaard there based on Barber I wouldn't
be surprised but who else stood out to you as the who we saw something here that could foretell
what's going to happen at the five remaining road courses forgot to mention by the way hope
you like the new backdrop here ordered this a good while ago legitimately wasn't sure if it was
going to show up and there was a heck of a wonderful little ring at the good old doorbell
here on Monday so I loved everything about the factory Porsche cart Indy car series program
was super fortunate to see it from its debut Laguna Seca to its farewell had a opportunity to
go to work for the team and this tells you how questionable my skills were had the opportunity
a friend of mine my crew chief the team I was working on SCCA pro racing team in 1990 told me
hey just spoke to my friend who works on the factory Porsche team this would have been the
fosters sponsored car so final season and said they need a mechanic for the second I think it was
wasn't just the spare car but like the second spare car I think I think I'm remembering that
correctly but it wasn't even like hey man you're going to be in charge of the spare car and it's
a big like responsibility and boy that's going to show people it was like man you're one step
above being in charge of maintaining the golf cart but anyways I think it paid $30,000 would
involve moving all the way across the country from California to Pennsylvania the Holbert team
that was running it Walker team I should say an evolution of the Holbert team but I decided to
not take that opportunity which would have been my first opportunity to work in the car Indy car
series that would come later in the decade I kicked myself for not taking that but at the same time
I also have to acknowledge that even though I wasn't smart enough to take it it's actually a good
thing I didn't because the team was shuttered at the end of the year so truly I could have been
accepting a job moving all the way across the country for like three months of work and then
finding myself on all my possessions way far away from yeah so but anyways this is just prior to that
this is the March 89p designed by the great Tino Belly who is Indy cars current and somewhat
long-standing I think his title is head of aerodynamic development but yeah Tino just a
Welshman who's really smart and has designed some great Indy cars this being one of them
love everything this is a photo taken by my dear friend supplied to me by the great Dan Arboyd so
anyways I've been waiting for this for a long while and it finally showed up so
anyways this is it I'm going to stick with this unless something else jumps up that I feel like
I need to have made this is probably going to be it for a while so if you love it then this is amazing
and if for whatever reason you'd hate it I just have to ask like when did you join Al Qaeda how
could you hate the Quaker State green amazing March Porsche 89p driven by tail phobby like
and if you've never heard of any of those things it's worth doing a little bit of googling I even have
a little docu something that I made however many years ago about Porsche's factory
cart Indy car series team so you might check it out here but anyways I don't know why I just
decided to throw that in but hey that's kind of me let's move on to one or two other things
then we'll dive into our awards and put a relatively Barbary barber that was just Alex doing things
so boy got to barber a day later than anticipated I want to keep bringing this up it's not intentional
it's just explaining what is reality with the cancer fight that we're back into I'm just trying
to shorten my travel as much as possible till it feels like we really get things on track and
solidified so ended up flying out catching a flight that ended up running late I think I got into my
barber hotel feel like I got to bed around 2am maybe Saturday morning covered the session remotely
in the airport here in good old San Jose and yeah but got in hit the ground was at the track by
like 8am and I am telling you that my good old phone here I got my little Justin Wilson sticker
on the back I've had for many years I was typing into the notes app non-stop about talking to this
person who always knows about this thing and that person who knows that and just a lot of news
gathering y'all so let's talk any 500 entries should hopefully have a story up on racer about
maybe by the time you're seeing this recording this early on a Tuesday evening probably won't
be going up until I'm guessing Wednesday who knows what time but any 500 entry stuff the
able motorsports team putting in an entry was told it'd be going in Monday morning but they're
putting in an entry haven't heard that the Chevy engine supply is a done deal but heard enough
suggesting that that's where it's going to believe that it's more of just a formality than anything
great young kid who my friend Chris Wheeler dubbed finger licking fast because he's from Kentucky
good old Jacob Abel should be in that car the kid's good enough to where there's no reason he
shouldn't be in the field this time so hopefully that all goes well all goes according to plan
might have read some stuff about with the couple of formula two races being bounced because of the
war we're currently in right now Middle Eastern conflict in general had a couple of those events
formula one events come off the books along with the F2 components so looking at some
makeup events here read something on racer.com today by my colleague Chris Medland about the
Miami Grand Prix could indeed be a place where one of those F2 races gets made up that's the
beginning of May so no real conflict for Colton Hurta in terms of being able to do the Indy 500
in a fourth and Dreddy entry but also keep hearing there could be a Canada component
added for an F2 makeup which would kind of sort of get really uncomfortably close to the Indy 500
knowing all of that posed that question to Indreddy team principal Ron Razuski on pre-grid on Sunday
oh hey keep hearing about potential conflicts or things that could impede Colton's free return
to be the Indy 500 driver of choice also mentioned never confirmed that's happening so
fair enough uh but of the driver we kind of sort of believe was going to be the one since
Marco and Dreddy is retired Ron just shared hey I'm waiting to receive information just
like many of y'all mentioned that TWG Motorsports or is TWG Motorsports uh Boston Towers in Japan
for the Japanese Grand Prix was basically trying to sort that stuff out so as of Sunday afternoon
no word as to whether Colton would be in that car or not just share this and this is my own
thoughts so this team is effectively self-funded realize that they have some sponsors that you
recognize that aren't within the TWG cascade of businesses but for the most part they compete
on their own terms meaning I'd be very surprised to learn that there's a big external sponsor for
a fourth car that they contractually have to put in the field to represent that sponsor it could be
the case and I could be totally wrong but I'd be surprised I mentioned that for a reason running
Colton at the 500 in the fourth car makes total sense been really good at the 500 done it many
times should be instantly competitive along with the rest of their drivers
but if Colton's not able to and there's no big sponsor that they have to put on a car I do wonder
if they would see the reason to put that fourth car in the field we know that between good old
Kirk between Marcus and between power that's a really fricked strong Indy 500 package there
without Colton who's just a natural fit to do that I don't know why they would want to just
put one in for the sake of it unless Roger Penske asked trying to get to that minimum entry list
number of 33 to maintain the traditional 11 rows of three after that I am aware of every driver
with a budget seemingly having reached out to them saying hey you guys haven't announced what you're
doing with that fourth car but I've got a budget and sure would love to drive I've spoken to some
of those drivers in various ways not so long ago they said we were listened to and very politely
heard but this is not a team that's going to be moved by the money that anyone's offering unless
it's just stupid money average asking price for an Indy 500 seat this year from those that I've asked
somewhere between 1.5 to 1.7 million 1.5 keeps being repeated as kind of the average number
of herd drivers having between 1.5 1.7 almost 2 million as well by one driver so
if anywhere between 1.5 to 2 million dollars is not something that would move the needle for a team
like Andretti Global which it would not going to close here on this that if it ain't Colton
then it should be someone they feel can go out and win in that car not hope could but like we know
well Ryan Hunter Ray's taken he's at Aero McLaren who else is out there we can run through the list
of folks who like we most of us I think love Jair Hildebrand let's call him he nearly won on debut
I got that won his Indy NXT championship with Andretti got that that was 15 plus years ago
the people in charge who are running it now and own it now no connection whatsoever what was done
a long time ago would not move the needle with the folks in charge today your Stefan Wilson's
Jacob Abel we think is going to be with his family team but Devlin De Francesco is out there looking
Catherine Legg is looking etc like a number of drivers who can we love and would root for etc
but from a step in the car and we know you can win the Indy 500 standpoint they have that belief
in Colton I don't know if anybody else that I can think of would fall into that kind of
high high level of qualification to get that nod Linus Lundqvist for sure impressed on multiple
ovals as a rookie I don't know if that's something they would look at for him believe there's a bit
of a Chevy alignment that he has in the background so if it ain't Colton I don't know if it would
be anybody else premmas another one that stands out they've been spoken to by everybody with a
budget about possibly doing something at the 500 keep hearing that Catherine Legg is could be a strong
candidate there she I know has some pretty good support both from GM is what I keep hearing
and also pretty strong financial package behind her some very motivated folks who want her in
the field Stefan Wilson comes to mind a few others again kind of all the same names
but keep hearing that could see them personnel wise some folks show up at Long Beach potential
owners there some more meetings with the series potentially the able angle is an interesting
one with them expecting to get being expected to receive one of the two motors that were
being saved for Prema it would tell you assuming all that goes forward Chevy Indy car you name it has
come to the realization that let's go with the guaranteed thing here because Abel's been real
from the beginning got the car got the people got the budget got the driver then let's see if
hopefully Prema can get in if we were to get the Abel and Andretti cars in that's 33 with Abel
32 question markers we've gone over about Andretti there then seems to be an option of
a leg Chevy Prema type solution which I've heard a lot about at Barber also heard I know that our
friend Larry Foyt has publicly repeatedly said well I don't want to run a third car for the 500
also shared that with that Penske technical alliance you would think that if Roger asked just
from them making sure we get to the field of 33 standpoint Larry would probably be the first
team to receive that request if not him then trying to work with Prema to make that happen
I've heard both scenarios in terms of Catherine being in with that aforementioned Chevy support
in her own sponsorship as well so 32 with Abel if that does indeed get confirmed but we know
that an entry's gone in waiting to learn about Andretti if so Indy has its 33 wouldn't need
anymore to fill the grid but if you want some fun if you want a reason to really follow all
aspects of qualifying weekend you'd hope the 34 emerges could that be Prema with a single car
for Catherine or Foyt with a single car for Catherine those are two options that I definitely
heard a lot about at good old Barber one other big learning and educational point at Barber was
about a couple of potential events not on the immediate horizon for Indy car but ones that
talks are currently taking place so I'll fire that into a story on racer.com here shortly but
I left about truly about 10 of the other items that I was just firing into my little notes app
the whole time but yeah rarely does like a day and a halfish at an event yield that much information
but for whatever reason at least for me while the race might not have been the most memorable
thing ever everything leading up to it talking to folks in the paddock non-stop wandering down in
between transporters and trying not to be seen or sitting at little tables over here whatever
it was a fertile time in good old Alabama and also got to go and see the original home in 1975
for the BMW factory Emsa team so filmed a little bit of that got some old historic photos from
my friend Tom Placinski at BMW so I'll try and fart that into a separate little video here but
let's get into our awards dang it top rebounder I feel like that's got to go to good old will
power from Tewoomba Australia I'm going to mention power more than once here in some awards this one
to me starting p23 finishing p12 boy that was no joke for a guy dj willy p also have to appreciate
the fact that as a result of the rear brakes failing the opening round qualifying on saturday
he didn't even get a chance to get into any of his faster firestone alternate tires as a result
he and his race strategist Ron Razewski they had a heck of a bunch of brand new pretty and ready to
deliver alternates and other than starting on primaries they took those off and spent the rest
of the race rocketing around on alternates so a negative in the sense that obviously had a crash
started 23rd was able to improve all those positions that's the thing that tends to really
stink with a bad qualifying at barber it's not as if you can't pass but making up significant
ground is often a challenge so the timing of that crash pre alternate tire consumption
was really really a favorable thing but they were able to use as an advantage here in the race
to climb from 23rd 12th so 11 spots worth of improvement definitely the top rebounder
for who fell short i feel like that one's almost as obvious as our guy will power
pato ward is a strange weekend in the sense that we had both pato at arrow mclaren really just
on a different planet and not a happy planet as he told me after the race he uses some adult
language so if you were a child there are some earmuffs moments coming up here from our guy pato
we had pato qualifying poorly lungard didn't qualify super super well qualified 10th
but both race strategy and just his in-race performance car is obviously really good but
he had a huge disparity between pato and i think finished 18th or something like that
lungard p2 definite strategically help for lungard but huge separation there
i'm not necessarily going to put the rll team in the who fell short overall capacity because
graham rayhall started third ran second for a long time finished third but his teammates were
same kind of thing just about as far back as back can go was happy to see a little bit unrelated
here but just kind of fell into this this topical moment looking at mick schumacher switch here to
the awesome and amazing white haired eddie jones coming back to help he's really stepped away
from full-time indy car now comes back for the 8500 with rll with takuma sato but we see that
something i've been mentioning a little bit here during the opening month that i don't know if
we're going to get too far into the season before change happens with mix race engineering solution
indeed it moved mike palowski to a engineering r&d role they're really excited about that but
eddie jones has agreed to come back engineer mick for barber long beach and the indy grand
pre and look after takuma at the indy open test indy 500 then they'll see what they do after that
hoping that eddie really loves working with mick and he'll want to continue from detroit onwards
with him but they didn't get everything they wanted obviously out of their first weekend together
mick had a stall during i think his second pit stop fell back and ended up finishing last next
to last way towards the back not really something you can put into a finishing result but the vibe
and i know it might sound stupid to be like hey the vibe was better but the result was terrible
but it does matter things are getting a little bit heavy they're feeling like underperforming
the connection between mike and mick wasn't there wasn't improving it was just actually getting
worse and so the change to eddie asked throughout the weekend asked before i flew asked once i got
there asked after qualifying just through the race there's something there that they can build on so
in that case i look away from the not wonderful qualifying that he had
race result certainly not something he's super happy about but potential so eddie plus mick
it feels like this can go places knowing eddie's just a legend done huge things
dario frankiedi on down for so long so the potential for greatness exists for the first
time with mick here's an indy car rookie we'll see how much they're able to get
the louis foster side talking about the disparity between graham and his teammates this has been
a bizarre sophomore season for louis so looking at who fell short i don't know if i so much look
at louis as an individual certainly look at the disparity between graham so far ahead of his teammates
all weekend long big question mark coming out qualifying warm up both drivers trying to use
really learn see what graham was doing if it was any better than what they were doing with their
setups didn't necessarily lead them anywhere but you have this big gap louis in particular
i know that he had a good qualifying at st pete but rest of the season's just been strange
i know how good the kid is anyone who's seen him drive knows this kid is special
think it's time to move that baton of chemistry are things working are things not working
had one of the softer rookie of the year campaigns that i can remember
obviously great pole position know that but
just as mick has undergone an engineering change i do wonder if before the season gets
too much farther along might be time to think about a change there it's totally commonplace
nor is it a it's not a blame thing it's just when you look at the offensive coordinator
and the quarterback or the head coach in the quarterback and you know that you have a quarterback
that can be an all-star and that kind of performance is not coming forth on a regular basis
you start to look at the other folks who are directly involved with them and ask the natural
question do we need to make some changes here and if those changes don't work you've got some
answers that maybe tell you you don't have a quarterback who is true all-star capable
looking at how louis start to the season has just been a super nothing burger finishing last at
barber just a rough time extra pit stop thrown in as well so some stuff to think about here knowing
how well graham did there's no reason for the others to be that far behind so on the who fell
short pato stands out as the clear clear winner of that award that nobody wants to win only other
one i'd throw in and tell me if you think this is on base or off base really only familiar with
off base so i don't know why through an on base but hey uh ecr so alexander rossi started 11th
finished 11th not bad not bad we saw some encouraging things though definitely arlington
to make us think that i realize that's a street course in this discipline of road racing
was thinking that there might have been a little bit more on display at barber didn't really see that
and then countered rossi's decent fast 12 performance with christian rasmussen
who was very quick at arlington obviously a rocket at phoenix but was nowhere the entire time at
barber qualified 17th 8 whatever it was barely even knew uh he was there but i guess this could
also maybe fall into a vague compliment zone maybe ecr has been noticeably better this year
a little bit odd to see that as a whole they were decent definitely decent with rossi
nowhere with raz i like the fact that this is something at least for me to be surprised about
where a year ago two years ago ecr not being a thing that we really even notice at barber
would not have stood out whatsoever i like the fact that it stood out to me as hmm
i i'm sure they're going to be better the fact that they weren't there at least stuck in my brain
a bit let's talk about who overperformed and i think ray hall definitely fits into that category
shouldn't be a surprise though i know the internet seemingly collectively hates graham
fair enough not one of them granted i'm not the internet thankfully but for him to be third
at phoenix and qualifying realize that fell a little bit short and where he finished there i
think ninth or so but for him to qualify third for the second time out of four races held this year
this just isn't the thing that was supposed to be possible according to everybody who hates graham
and yet he's really fast in his race engineer are doing really good things
i love the potential so did anybody have graham graham didn't even have himself as qualifying
p3 and finishing p3 at barber leading into barber nobody had this and so i love that for him
love if this can continue street course stuff good the two that we've had so far not amazing
long beach is going to be an area where of the many teams looking to improve i guess i'm already
doing the long beach setup but this is going to be one or if they are real they're going to have
to show it there i'll shut up now and save more of that for the setup but at least for the set down
here graham i definitely thought stood out more than anyone else on who overperformed tell me
if there's anybody else you think certainly belongs in that conversation i'll just circle
back to lungard for where they started to where they finished lungard gets the nod
pardoned who the heck thought graham was going to be on the podium at any point in time before the
race uh so i'm a little bit torn truly tell me which one you think is the right one and the
reason why i'm gonna go graham because lungard doing that in an air mclaren car not a surprise
rll hasn't really been a team doing this kind of stuff we know that they were super good last
year in the indy road course but for them to do it at a different road course not being louis
foster as well or mic but indeed good old put them out to pasture graham um i thought that's
pretty cool uh would say pit stop champs we got to talk about for sure because really for the
second race in a row big part of graham success the fact that he could roll on to pit lane and roll
out as fast if not faster than anybody so here we are yet again rll that number 15 honda pit
crew of his they are killing it so love seeing that for them mentioned yet again good pal kyle
sagan their pit stop coach there's a reason why such folk here nascar wherever else are such
high value commodities so takes a great driver to do great things on track you get to pit lane
and have folks who are doing great things as well he end up standing on the podium like he did so
huge kudos one more pit stop champs item to throw out and they weren't the fastest but they were the
ones that weren't spoken about and that indeed is a victory that being in dready global after
collective three car bed poopage at arlington wasn't a thing at barba right how could that be
shouldn't a team granted this was also just like the overreaction event of all time or stretch of
all time um they didn't have any problems to me that really stood out slowed anybody down in any
appreciable way how could they go from being so collectively bad and error prone to not even a
thing all cleaned up in the span of one race had a person who would know tell me this could be right
could be wrong but tell me that we know that every team is working towards any little improvement
they can make during pit stops with their equipment for sure one of the things that teams do that are
really serious about pit lane they don't just take the wheel gun the socket that comes with it and
just use it as is they're looking for any little areas of optimization one of the things one of the
known things that gets done inside the socket themselves is a rubber o-ring o-ring is what
grabs the wheel nut when it's coming off the car basically holds it in the socket well the release
if the o-ring is too much grip to it um that is something that could indeed lose you a little
tiny fraction of time the viscosity of the o-ring itself is something that teams play with one that
would release the wheel nut a little bit faster again a millionth of a second i'm exaggerating but
it's a small little thing but potentially an area of improvement some teams try and improve this a
little bit but don't go as far as they possibly could for wheel nut release o-ring viscosity
optimization god don't ask me to say that twice some others say hey we found something that works
good it's not too crazy it doesn't like barely hold on to the wheel nut or just spit the thing out
the belief was the indreddy team been experimenting and might have gone a little bit too far in that
regard so why would all of a sudden wheel nut after wheel nut fall from the sockets was also told
this wasn't something that really just happened for the first time this season at arlington with
them just had happened before some previous races just was caught and rectified before it really
slowed down the stop so wasn't the first time i'm told but wasn't a real problem in the compounding
manner that it was at arlington so i don't know if it was the singular change made my guess based
on the intel from someone who would absolutely know about these things on pit lane was that we
might have seen a change in the o-rings used by the team which would have then led to the hey you
know who we had nothing to talk about pit stop wise at barber indreddy which is kind of the way it
should go um why don't we close on two other quickish awards the kicked in the crotch i gotta
say that's our guy will power think about scottie mack and his huge crash frightening obviously
error made on entry got up onto the curb wheel onto the grass a little bit but went from grippy
road to non grippy surface car spun went in crashed kind of sort of punched through a
little bit too much of the barrier for anyone's liking thank goodness nobody was standing behind
that i remember when i was actively shooting photographs they always said yeah don't go stand
back there so that's just been a bit of a ongoing warning i believe but still some things to think
about i'll come back to this will power kicked in the crotch award in just a moment but had this
conversation with a number of folks after scottie max crash heck even will powers crash
a lot of veterans walk around this track from the series safety officials
race officials standard practice for them to do a bit of a full course inspection look at everything
and let me just walk around the track drive around the track but get up into the corners
shake things move things look around see if you like stuff tell folks to change things move things
if you don't think it's done the right way or safe enough but i do wonder if there needs to be the
absence of race officials veterans i wonder if there needs to be some form of worst case scenario
crew folks who aren't looking at their millionth corner and millionth barrier and fence and tire
bay like folks who actually i'm not saying don't know anything about racing but haven't seen something
enough to be effectively not blind to it but name anything in your life that you're used to doing or
seeing a lot of it stop standing out as like striking and stop you in your tracks it's inevitable
when you got into your car today did you really notice every facet of the seat and or did you
just kind of slide in buckle and go again i think for most of us there are many things that we do
in a routine manner that just become patterned what do we do to add some folks total failure of
imagination group worst case scenario group hey we're racing professionals who see the stuff for
a living and of course we spot things we don't like but it's usually based on experience seen it a
bunch that stands out fix it bring it into line i'm not talking about needing those folks i'm talking
the yeah haven't don't know a bunch about this maybe again i don't know what discipline they'd
come from one thing i'd say for sure veteran photographers was saying this to my friend
mike levitt about the veteraniest indy car photographer as you're going to find these days
stands behind more barriers more fences see more of this stuff from the backside up close
having to think about his own mortality of race cars coming at him at unimaginable rates i've
been in many of those same corners with mike for a super long time someone like a levitt or similar
who can give you the backside account and go you you know have you looked at this if a car were to
come in at this way it could indeed punch through just like we saw scottie at this place at that
place i'm not saying indy car did a bad job the car was stopped it did move whatever it was
five ten feet however long punch back in right through the barrier i get that that would never
be considered a success so don't get me wrong but the car was stopped had it gone all the way through
i think we would have been talking about yeah we need to stop the event the car was arrested
from continuing but still seeing that crash seeing will's crash break failure going into turn five
hit nose first tire barrier in front of the steel armco behind it but went fast enough to
where the nose of the car punched in pushed through and actually bent the barrier back the steel
barrier back so it all worked as intended have to wonder though if you're still transferring
enough energy through a tire bale to bend steel back could there be more done there to slow the
car before it gets to such a place to then have way less speed and energy to bend steel barriers
same with scottie everyone's spoken about hey we do love the grass at barber motorsports park
rest in peace george barber who recently passed whose manicured grass was a huge point of pride
should we maybe think of something a little bit different on approach to the corner on driver's
right and definitely once you get past the corner into turn one anything that could slow the cars
down before getting into the barrier before potentially punching through like scottie did
maybe no grass here would be an okay thing just that failure of imagination worst case scenario
crew feels like that would be a worthy addition to see things that for those of us who do this for
a living we don't always see until there's a problem folks who would maybe have a better chance of
seeing things before it's a problem feel like that might not be a bad thing to consider
thing just to mention about the kicking the crotch and the power side as i am told
haven't seen it i'm having to take some more i'm gonna not include some other stuff i was told
because i would want to be able to verify that before mentioning it but was told the
route of the brake failure was the bursting of a rear brake line as to what caused that brake line
to open and then relieve pressure so that when will stepped on the brake pedal the brake fluid
was allowed to get out and basically spurred out and apply no pressure to the rear brakes
the things i've been told stand out to me is concerning as to what caused it if those accounts
i've heard some shades different shades of what happened concerning not really so much
about the indready team but i'll leave it at that but a opening of a brake line
um unintended undesired opening of a brake line randomly and immediately
unexpected relieving of pressure will stepped on the brakes no rear brakes big crash feel bad for
him if that didn't happen feel pretty confident would have been starting near kirk and finishing
possibly somewhere near him so would have been better he went into the race in 11th position
in the points fell back to 13th i believe so while the rally from 23rd to 12th was good
wasn't not a huge difference to get him into the top 10 but yeah this just felt like a
unfortunate kick to the crotch for him mentioned one final thing on the whole crashy stuff
happened to see McLaughlin's car go by being brought back from the crash site and then also
saw it again uh while being deconstructed and getting the spare car ready phenomenal job yet
again by team penske and doing that shouldn't be a surprise of getting a spare car turned around
strongest point in the car has become the arrow screen mounting to the tub behind the driver
basically the roll hoop mounting right atop the back of the tub behind the driver with the
arrow screen titanium frame that bolts in there it's really become like a superstructure that
didn't exist prior to 2020 that's a really good thing because the arrow screen superstructure
mounting point behind the driver to the tub is what stopped the car one of the cables could have
one cable if not more is what it from the side is what connected with the side of Scotty's car
at that roll hoop arrow screen connection point and that connection point itself that titanium
that steel is what held firm and stopped the car so one person on social media who took a shot
because i was crediting like hey here's another reason to appreciate how freaking safe indy cars
made the dw 12 it wasn't a blind thing of like let's just say something raw raw it was man this
thing keeps taking crazy ass hits that would probably cause some other cars to buckle and this
thing keeps standing up and protecting its drivers track safety improvements we know that needs to
happen for sure but just looking at the fact that this specific thing that was added in 2020
cockpit safety for reasons that i think most of us visualize from a forward standpoint something
coming back at the driver towards the arrow screen that the screen itself stops and repels causes to
bounce away i think that's how most of us look at this or maybe from above whether it's a rollover
car coming over above something to protect the driver that way just thinking of the fact that
this the roll hoop stands above the driver's helmet obviously but so does the arrow screen this is an
intentional design by indy car so anything that might come at the driver from over the arrow screen
and go back or from the side would all be over their helmet and this is indeed how things got
stopped so that the cable that struck the side of scottie's cars he came in hit that roll hoop
arrow screen mounting superstructure the tub right behind him held firm and stopped the car so again
you wish he had no reasons to shout out the great job in thinking this stuff all the way through
there could be some things we don't know of that haven't been thought through that will be exposed
in a future crash but at least for the ones that we've seen since the arrow screen arrived
despite all the complaints my own about how damn ugly the thing is
scottie mcgloughlin got out of the car uninjured went and qualified and had a pretty decent race
for what was possible close the show here with a new category i'm going to call this one search
party and that's for the driver who or team who just felt like went missing during the event
we know in the results pato probably fits that category but i would say the one that stands
out and it makes me sad because it's just hard not to love him his fro felix rozenkvist saw him
after the race you know saw me wave wave just like the sweetest guy well he's a sweetish guy but he
is the sweetest guy he is so damn fast so competitive makes every team he's ever driven for better
and i wish i could understand why this season specifically coming off a year where he finished
sixth in the championship this has just been a where is he where are you what like for those of
us who've been around for a little while there used to be a thing on milk cartons where you'd put
a picture of missing children thinking that in theory everybody in america wakes up and
has milk and you see the kid and before the internet that was an actual version of an
i guess jeez that was our amber alert holy crap i just put that together milk cartons used to be
the country's amber alert system wow anyways that's just what comes to mind here of like
fro in his face on a milk carton it's not as if he's forgotten how to drive he's gotten amazing
race engineer and ross bennell amazing crew amazing everything there's just been a disconnect
qualifying eh he's normally a rocket on road courses street courses in particular
oval the guy is always facing the potential of doing amazing things this year has just been a
little and then to get to the first road course where it felt like after three races that were
decent but not really anywhere close to what was expected to pick up from p six last year to have
fro don't know where it was not strictly a driver thing right it's never just the driver you're
missing the whole weekend there's always some sort of extenuating circumstance usually others
involved so can't pin this on him but as an individual but indeed um maybe it was the liveries
granted his teammate marcus armstrong was quick the whole time finished p six he continues to
stand out like mad that's been the other thing this year that stands out as so strange not that
marcus is doing so well but the fact there's been more often than not a noticeable gap between these
two really didn't exist before not a surprise to see armstrong leveling up expected that predicted
that it's going exactly as expected but if that was the case i would have expected marcus to be
p six and fro p seven not p 13 p 14 i think there were seven ish positions between where they finished
here it was like nine um not so long ago arlington obviously fro was doing well had that penalty
that set him way back but in the challenge of who gets to the finish line first be it on pure
speed with no interruptions or no errors right whether it's a driving error lock up a break
give up some positions spin pass someone before you should get penalized all of these things
are there for drivers to do or not do it has just been strange to see yet again another search party
moment for fro i'll look to arlington as the thing that encourages me for long beach so i'll
stop from going farther and taking away more from what's coming up in the long beach set up feeling
for our guy fro this is a team i'll just keep mentioning neither driver is signed for 2027
they are in a constant race by race evaluation by their team for do we extend
contract offers and make big financial tenders to them both just one or neither i'd say based
on the foray sample we have so far marcus armstrong staying in that number 66 no brainer guys been
really fricking good and i think he's only going to keep getting better this season someone else
could certainly make him an offer for him to want to leave although i think he loves things there
for sure i don't know if he'd want to fro just as a guy who you if you know him at all you gotta
love fro knowing what he was able to do last year just truly hoping whatever it is i'm hoping the
search party comes to an end talk a little bit more about that in our long beach set up but for
now let's say farewell what's thinking about doing some of these kind of short and i also realized
we got like two weeks a long beach so hopefully if you wanted it you got a really long episode if
not you certainly have time well you're a if not you're no longer watching so why am i wasting
any words but if by chance you're coming back that's the thing that i do sometimes if i don't have
the hour or two for a podcast i'll consume 10 or 15 minutes when i can and come back so hopefully
for those of you who are choosing to do that thank you for being here um say farewell as always with
a big thanks to y'all to our good friends of the justice brothers in toronto motorsports.com
to steve c core for helping me to put the show together uh friend derrick marcil he's going to
be helping as well uh with adding some sound design here so um yeah appreciate you all just
trying to help me um i'm about maxed out on talent and time so yeah truly truly thankful there and
could have a pretty important thing here on wednesday so you're watching if this is a wednesday
when you're watching it today um and have a really important medical appointment we're headed to and
based on the outcome there um yeah hoping that we have uh positive positive things on the horizon
here at home so all that said that's the end of a super extendo first attempt at the week in indy car
set down in reference to the chassis set downs that happened after a session after a race benchmark
all the chassis settings to see if they migrated at all during the race i probably should have
mentioned that at the front of the show for those of no clue what the heck the set down
references but there you go uh other than that i'll just shut up now and talk to y'all here
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