MP 1689: The Week In IndyCar, Listener Q&A April 8 2026

Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt Podcast, and your week in IndyCar listener Q&A.

Still have over a week to go until we get rolling again at Long Beach, but indeed, oh boy.

So thankful to have had the ability to downshift after five straight weekends of racing dear

friends for those being IndyCar Weekends, one of them being IMSA and the mobile one

in 12 hours of seabring, but nonetheless, really awesome to not have a motor race to

cover last weekend.

Or this one.

Granted, I'd do this for a living, and I've done it for a long, long time.

So for those of you who just simply love racing and it's your number one favorite thing

in life, you're probably saying, moron, I wish there was a sixth week and a seventh

and why would you want to break?

So I totally get it.

Nonetheless, thanks to so many of y'all for the really awesome questions you sent in all

gathered by our super extra pal, Jerry Siddoth and his wife, Aaron, who put them together

for us.

So just big thanks to y'all.

Decided to sit on the questions that came in coming out of Barber and do them here

at the start of this week, recording this on a Monday at about 6.15pm.

Why did I wait?

To be honest, I just wanted to fill the time a little bit.

So going to jump into your questions here in a moment.

Big thanks as always as well to our dearest, dearest pals at the Justice Brothers, makers

of just scrumtrelescent automotive chemicals, lubricants, cleaners, just all the good things

to make your race cars, road cars, trucks, anything motorized, really, really happy.

You might pay them a visit at JusticeBrothers.com and also our friends, longstanding friends,

first ever show partner.

Actually, they are our first.

Justice Brothers came on right after that, but our good, good pals from good old Canada,

Toronto Motorsports.com, purveyors of awesome motor racing memorabilia, t-shirts, hats,

some books, but mostly models, stickers, just cool stuff.

There's the IndyCar F1, you name it, TorontoMotorsports.com, then we have our own, the PruittStore.com, where

it's mostly older racing memorabilia.

Some t-shirts, some hats, a lot of books, magazines, just older things, things I've

collected along the way over the last 40 plus years in the sport, whatever it

might be.

Trying to get rid of a lot of that.

There's a ton more to add, all to put towards buying a house and now with an unwelcome friend

having made a return into our lives to cover medical costs.

So anyways, between JusticeBrothers.com, TorontoMotorsports.com, and my own, thePruittStore.com, hoping you might

find some URLs of interest.

So before I roll into your questions, I wanted to stop for just a second up front

on the topic of cancer making a return at home.

My wife, Chabelle, doing well.

She's the best, biggest fighter that I know.

That'll never change.

So, but more than just mentioning that, I want to just say thanks to the, can't even

count how many of y'all reached out, just been great supporters with kind words.

And those of you, the select few who have actually sent things in the mail and so need

to give a lot of love to Jerry Bundle, Miss Della as well, sent through some really sweet,

sweet and encouraging things.

And they have also encouraged some friends of theirs to do the same.

Some listeners of the show, Mr. Terrell Adams sent through via the Bundle family, just truly

beautiful.

Like I know this might sound strange, but in a world of DMs and emails and similar digital

communication devices and means, it's pretty amazing to get actual handwritten things

from really, really, really sweet people.

So anyways, between them, Jason Leverman just sent through the most beautiful thing, most

beautifully written item.

And we'll keep that to between us, but just, yeah, so many of y'all who take the time.

Joe Crowley, dear friend who happens to work in the sport, but just sitting here looking

at a bunch of amazing cards, handwritten cards, mailed.

It's maybe an older communication method, if not one of the original, I guess, after the

spoken word, but just so cool, so beautiful.

So I just wanted to stop up front and thank everyone and mention that between myself

and certainly my wife.

We are so, so appreciative of y'all.

So with all of that appreciation registered noted, and I believe firmly lodged, why don't

we go ahead and fire into the show here, going to kick off with Robert Chambers and

seeing the lizards also ask this according to Jerry.

Any idea what went wrong with Pato Award at Barber, both in qualifying and the race,

any underlying causes to his slower start this year.

So say the first item here, Robert, not specific to Pato, but the team, they just missed it entirely

at Barber for what we would expect from Aaron McLaren.

Christian Lundgaard qualified 10th, Pato 12th, and I think Nolan 15th, something like that,

which was actually really impressive for Nolan, but in the race, starting towards the back,

Pato simply got shuffled backwards and easiest way to portray this is the reason you don't

want to qualify at the back, near the back, midfield, anywhere other than up towards the

sharpest end is that is where calamity tends to happen.

You get hit, taken out, or you just don't have a lot of options on where to go to place

your car at the start of the race.

I realize that wherever you are, you have some choices true.

But if you're in that first row, maybe second row, you have more options.

When you're sitting on what the sixth row, definitely not as many.

So Pato rough start, got shuffled back a bit, and then just really struggled to make progress.

Compare that to Christian Lundgaard started just one row ahead of him, but he had a car

that was far more capable of going forward and he did.

So in Pato's case, for what we expect from him and the team, definitely missed qualifying

across all three cars, Christian certainly had a race car, something for the 90 lap itself

that was light years better than his teammates, able to do big things.

Pato though, for the reasons I just mentioned, things just went sideways for sure.

Would say a thing to keep in mind, this is just a little bit of a compare and contrast

to close on this, is you look to last year through the first four races and Pato finished

11th at St. Pete, second at Thermal was on pole there, right?

Did really well.

Alex Polo snuck at everybody and got by huge tired decision victory there with a

strategy re-employed by the Gnasi team, but Pato on pole finished second was 13th at Long

Beach and then 6th at Barber.

This year, keep in mind that we still have plenty of season to go, he is, except for

that kind of high watermark being on the podium at Thermal, realize that's no longer

there, but looking at what he has achieved across the first four races, he's actually

off to a better start than he was last year.

We look at where he finished fourth at St. Pete, I'm sorry, fifth at St. Pete, fourth

at Phoenix, fifth at Arlington, three straight top fives and that is not something that

he was able to do last year during the three opening rounds, had that great podium

at Thermal, but the other two finishes are actually outside the top 10.

So just noting that Pato is not off compared to say last year, things went super sideways

as we know finished 18th at Barber, but as a kind of first sample size, doing better

than 2025, the overarching item here though is last year really ended up being the beginning,

it was Ganassi and Dreddy and McLaren, and Dreddy fell out after just a little bit past

the halfway point, our guy Kirk Kirkwood just had a terrible second half of the season.

Penske was out to lunch more often than not, so just looking to how we are framing

Pato's year, he's doing better than he was at this stage last year, but we also have to say that

the Dreddy team that stumbled a bit towards the second half of 2025 and the Penske team

that was nowhere for almost the entirety of the season rallied towards the end

left a Ganassi McLaren fight, Palo on the championship, Pato was second. Coming into this

season as we have seen, Dreddy and Penske are not farting around y'all, they are right up front,

they are making life hard for everybody, Dreddy is leading the championship with Kirk,

Palos just a couple points behind in second, Lundgard now P3 on the basis of his strong

start to the season. Right, we've got this pretty interesting dynamic with

Malukas actually being the most consistent, call it best Penske driver across all four races,

if you've averaged his performances there, New Garden P5, Pato's sixth in the standing,

seventh he got McLaughlin, just Sharon, long call with Tony Kanan talking about this,

trying to figure this stuff out and his estimation, which I don't think is wrong, is

if we're judging them how they came out at 2025, McLaren is the second best team.

Naturally, we would expect them to stay there, do the same thing or better for them hopefully,

hasn't necessarily been the case, is that because they have truly taken a step back,

lost a step, I don't know if I see that so much as I see Dreddy just coming out,

so winging and then also Penske being a force that it absolutely was not at this time last year,

but just say and if you agree, great if not, blow off everything I'm about to say, but

I'm recalibrating Aaron McLaren, you might recalibrate them a bit and Lundgaard sitting in P3,

really good start to the season, did the same last year, been on the podium twice,

Pato hasn't been far away, I would just say it's more the rise of the others making McLaren

look a little bit more average than they were last year than truly a boy, they are stumbling

out of the blocks. Craig Yarish, how are you Craig? Says, is Polo dominant because he's the

quickest and easiest on his tires or is it at least to some extent because his pit crew is better

and he usually chooses the right strategy? I ask, as Kirkwood was quicker in the Fast 12

and it looked like Lundgaard was going to come out ahead of Polo if not for that disastrous stop.

Yes, all the things you've mentioned are accurate, Polo is dominant because he is extremely fast,

he's gotten faster 2025 was really the big one year jump in outright

single lap performance, we'd never seen anything like that from him, he decided to push and do that,

so that was really cool. He is easier on his tires than just about everybody,

not necessarily everybody but just about everybody, there are quite a few races we've

seen Craig where he is the best in the field but there are times like at Barber where on the alternates

Alex went, I think it was 18 laps on new alternates and that seemed to be the high water mark

and then I took a look after the race and realized that Lundgaard went the same exact

distance and was as fast if not faster on those slightly more fragile alternate tires so

and there are others that can be as fast and as kind to their tires.

Pit crew for sure has been a huge asset for Alex, I'm not saying he's never had a problem on

Pit Lane while driving for Chip Ganassi in that number 10 Honda, I just can't think of any,

so again I'm I guarantee it's happened some point in time since he joins team went live in 2021 with

them but I can't, nothing comes to mind which tells me that it happens so infrequently that

it's just not a marker to set. The item though that I would say Craig there are two things

that make Polo a unicorn this could change our guy Kirkwood Lundgaard named some of the others

could match and exceed him this season be phenomenal if that was the case but the thing

Alex has been able to do it comes back to tires and that is being able to push whatever tires

he's on and seemingly should say seemingly factually doing a better job at a higher frequency

more consistent level of driving them up to the very edge of performance without tipping over to

abusing them and decreasing their life so written about that spoken about that for a few years now

of making up a percentage but seemingly the guy can go to 99.9 percent of those primary tires

capabilities or alternates on ovals as well on single compound if it's a single compound race

and get the most out of those tires for the duration of whatever they plan to do for that

stint length and extract the most performance from the start of that stint to the very end there are

others who can get higher performance by pushing to a hundred percent or beyond and you get crazy

blazing speeds but then they taper off way faster and your average start to finish speed in that

stint is down cranted nobody really does that anymore but their levels to who's better and best at it

the thing that separates Alex though from what I have observed and the thing that is just

fascinating to track is errors Greg that is the thing that separates Alex from seemingly everybody else

doesn't work perfectly right he still makes mistakes but he seems to make fewer than

everybody and there are races where he'll make a mistake and right we saw that at mid

Ohio last year gave the win away to Scott Dixon it certainly wasn't intentional he's a very nice person

possibly the nicest race car driver I've ever met but he's also not someone to give victories away

so he does make mistakes but it is by comparison to his rivals something that happens at a far

lower frequency so that's the thing so you take his natural speed in pushing to be even faster

you take his ability to live on that magical edge of performance entire life

and then you take his seemingly lower error rate

throwing his pit crew who are just fast and fast and fast and make so few mistakes

and it's dang near the perfect package this is the thing that

are there other drivers who are quicker over a single lap without a doubt

are there those who can do some things that are maybe more magical than him without a doubt

is there anybody that has proven this decade that they can go as fast without over consuming fuel

over consuming tires and make so few lap by lap mistakes

it's been nobody consistently in his realm that to me is where we're really really starting

to differentiate greatness right now so Scott Dixon living legend greatest of any active any car

driver will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time period end of statement we look at

some others who've achieved great things amazing things in the sport have won a indy 500 or a

championship or maybe two or whatever the number is but then you look at okay so it would appear

that you have the same speed as pillow maybe a little bit more the same like here's all these

things where you go if i am trying to come up with who has what and what's different seemingly

pillow is no different than so many of the top five top 10 indy car drivers

what makes this guy so dang hard to beat race and race out not necessarily just the ones that he

wins but where he's on the podium or second fourth fifth but just always there thereabouts

it comes back to that consistency with a absolutely ridiculous lack of errors so when

you're able to do all these things just to close at such a high high level but not trip yourself

up and set yourself back by a half spin lock in a break too much wheel spin and losing traction

and getting past overshooting your pit box under or shoot like this stuff is so insane

you me everybody else listening chuck us into an indy car and first of all we'd be

10 or 20 seconds a lap slower than any of the the great drivers 30 seconds right we'd be miles off

and we'd be missing apexes we'd be breaking too early breaking too it'd be

non-stop comedy of errors and then you realize well what is it that separates

a kirkwood pillow some of these who proving to be pretty dang consistent up front pato again

right dixon run through those who we expect to be running at the front of the championship

year in year out you go what makes them different than pick some of your other favorite drivers who

tend to be north end of the top 10 just outside the top 10 and they are in that spot

a little more often than they would want you go well there's something lacking could

be team based don't get me wrong right team certainly not going to be as good as one of the

top two or three teams in indy car but there's usually a reason some folks only have a couple of

wins they might get a championship but maybe not too they might get an indy 500 but not multiples

usually comes back to consistency with a lack of errors while achieving at a crazy high rate

in all the other categories so great question wanted to go a little bit deeper on that one craig

just because i have to acknowledge where is this excellence coming from all the factors that i've

mentioned he is not his own worst enemy too many of the other drivers that we love

we're being brutally honest pick the ones who come close often or have and are now struggling

to get close again there's usually some sort of thing that they are unable to repeat on a consistent

manner to execute at that highest level ed juris says in the pillow crossing the finish line shot

it looked like the track was littered with clag as barber become more abrasive and is that why

it turned out to be a primary tire race um not that i'm aware of main thing drivers were talking

about is cooler than expected which meant more downforce which meant cars were just flying

through the corners baked in downforce and usually when you have a of a break i guess abrasive

is a word but abrasive meaning something track wise that sticks up and would dig into a tire

that is usually a really happy thing where you get the clag the dig the marbles

tends to be when you have the tire sliding on top of the track surface and that is where

the grating effect so instead of it being abrasive and really sticking into the tire like velcro and

holding it tend to get something when it polishes a bit more becomes a bit more worn where there's

still obviously some grip but indeed it's not necessarily what you're asking about here it's

actually the opposite the tire is still being ground crazy hard across the track surface

there's just not necessarily the same amount of that velcro like grip and so you get the tires that are

being shaved grated uh each time through and that's where you tend to get the good old clag

uh chris collay what can you do and chris says what has happened to penski this year and last

um so let's separate this because penski of last year nothing like penski of this year

chris says i know new garden wanted phoenix and malukas had a top five at barber

but all their drivers used to have a chance at top tens as the fresh scrutiny on the team

led them to not being able to bend the rules as much um yeah i wouldn't say that at all chris uh

across the first three races they were looking pretty darn magic i mean i would say they've

looked really good across the first four races malukas obviously consistency being the topic killing

his left front tire into turn one with a super long brake lock up the tire bursting at saint

pete fell back to finish what 13th or so so that wasn't amazing new garden decent day for sure

7th is where he finished scott mcglacklin pole position and finished second

this was a alex polo runaway race and so i can't really fault penski or mcglacklin for

being on pole finishing second to open the season go to phoenix and had malukas on pole

so that's back to back penski poles to open the year um certainly did not have the scottie mac

amazing front running-ness as we would often come to expect knowing that he had crash and qualifying

also the first race with a new race engineer on an oval there uh been a little while since

engineers done ovals so things didn't go super extra wonderful there so i get that but still p8

not the end of the world uh malukas pole didn't end up winning but did finish third and new garden

has mentioned won the dang thing so pole position to start the season in scottie mac finishing second

so podium pole and podium uh phoenix pole two drivers on the podium victory uh arlington yet

another issue uh we had one at uh barber obviously with mcglacklin but joseph that really minuscule

looking boy that was a nothing burger of a crash poked a hole in the tub had to go to a backup

car still qualified in the firestone fast 12 which impressed the heck out of me going straight into

qualifying basically um and then yeah i mean this wasn't like the most amazing result for them but

looking at malukas finishing sixth joseph again uh didn't have a great race so understand that

he got knocked around um fair share so if not for getting hit by others i feel like he would

have had a much better finish and mcglacklin just uh yeah a bit of a not super amazing race for him

and then at barber uh second race in a row with having to go to a backup chassis between the second

practice session and qualifying uh so mcglacklin indeed who's kind of kicked a lot of butt there

just way behind ended up finishing what 15 16th in the race so that took him out wasn't able

to make the fast 12 uh and from their new garden yeah admittedly not an amazing event for him

and then malukas was p4 so i mean i hear you but this sure as heck is not what was happening

last year for them so yeah they have come out in 2026 i would say in a pretty darn strong

position uh barber being the first road course waiting to see how they and the other top teams

showed out and mcglacklin who was a rocket on friday uh obviously that big crash and then not

being able to qualify well really kind of sunk his fortune so i think they would have been far

better than they ended up proving to be had scott been able to not crash and to go qualify normally so

it seems to me like penske's doing really darn well and here we are heading to the

fifth race of the year next week at long beach a place where they have done very well joseph

winner there um and we have malukas sitting fourth in the standings uh what five ish points

behind lund guard new garden just a couple points behind davie malukas and mcglacklin

a little bit more of a challenging year so far than he would want but i think he's seventh in the

standing so i'll take fourth fifth and seventh in the championship uh at this stage for them

let me just pull this up just out of sheer curiosity to see where they were after four

races last year and my computer is giving me the middle finger which isn't totally abnormal

but let me turn that off i'm going to pause that i'm just going to leave this in by the way if

you're really bored this is time to hit the 2x or 10x button but let's pull open last year 2025

after four races how did things look with their drivers were they fourth fifth and seventh in

the standings all right the answer to the question is scott mcglacklin was fifth will

power was ninth and joseph new garden was 11th so fifth ninth and 11th versus fourth fifth

and seventh i feel pretty good about where they're at and it does feel like malukas who's really been

the instant performer i would say of the year chris new team new seemingly everything

and someone i didn't expect to really kind of get locked in until indy at the earliest totally

wrong uh he's been stupefyingly impressive um would this kid being on pole and or winning

long beach surprised me not at any way so you'll like scrutiny and whatever else i don't know if

it's a thing my friend i think they're in pretty good shape uh at mok motor sport says as a renus

v k fans or any hope you can get a top seat he says there's two races already where he is

unbelievably fast on the primary but can't with the team can't find pace on the alternates

and this is an important year it is i would say yeah uh spoke with one team owner after the checkered

flag i spoke with a couple team owners after the checkered flag very briefly at bar bird

renus's name was mentioned by one team that could have a prime seat open for next year

and i was sorry i'm losing my voice for no reason again and i was told uh that yes renus is

someone they are definitely looking at so

only other thing i'd mention here not meant in a meant to be critical it's just being honest

anything that renus does that's positive at the hunkos hauling a racing team

reflects very wonderfully on him anytime he does not do things that are amazing

he's in a pretty a pretty fortunate situation where it's been a little while since any team in

indycar has looked to hunkos hauling a racing in expected significant results connor daily obviously

impressed the snot out of folks last year on the ovals so i get that renus we know monster on ovals

we expect him to be that guy on ovals the team does not carry any expectations to impress

on road courses or street courses so just say that it is an important year for renus just like last

year was year before anything that he does where you go hey stand up and take a look at that i think

folks are going to put that down to him anytime they miss the mark which i think if you look to

barber you know did well same with arlington right finished what 14th or so 15th something like that

would say that folks are going to put that on the team for those who are looking at him and

quote shopping i think he's in a pretty enviable position where almost no blame is going to

be put on him if a result outside of the ovals doesn't really make anyone pay attention

jeremiah moral how you doing jeremiah congrats again to you and your wife sara and your first

baby on the way jeremiah says if there was an indy car draft like the nfl has and a team could

take three drivers who would the top three picks be says would it be pillow award and kirkwood

would it be dixon power and lund guard he says another way looking at this if a team could

pick three drivers who would they take if everyone was a free agent oh this is awesome i love this

would also say and i don't do this too often on the show but if you're accessing this via a social

media platform compared to pod bean the native host leave a comment like truly would love to hear

who your top three drivers assuming all 25 are free agents give us your top three in that draft

would say that you have my three in your six suggestions here jeremiah uh pillow i think

that's an obvious that if he's not p1 for everybody then we need to talk just because the

guys want three championships in a row four in the last five like there's nobody better at the moment

our guy kirk kirkwood p2 for sure uh he has been proving increasingly by each year

last year fourth in the standings year before that seventh uh he's leading the championship

this is not only the first time that he's done that but he's now done this for multiple races

nobody's done that to pillow in a super long time going to long beach a place that he torched last year

the guy has just torched a lot of things on street courses so he's going to his bread

and butter no one should be surprised if kirk wins at long beach again but i'd say kirk for

sure because he is looking like the best rival consistent challenger to unseat polo

alex has proven he can be a champion been in the series slightly longer than kirk

kirk to me is showing he had he was shown at last year showing glimpses of the year before

and even the year before that but i see the same thing between the two of them uh it's taken in

dready a little while to catch up to ganassi but it's looking like we have a reason to believe

we can go to road streets and ovals at least short of an expect parity uh equal opportunity

between them to win see what the indianapolis 500 says but i would say polo should be everyone's

p1 kirk wood for me is second in that draft and then i'm going dixon and that's because

and i'm sure that there are some younger drivers who might stand out as ones to pick right like

lundgaard pato and so i've got it i'm choosing dixon so related unrelated all right it's totally

unrelated super happy dance at home today angel reese traded by the chicago sky bit of

a dumpster fire of a wmba team last year in particular angel traded to the atlanta dream

big fan of angels have been for a long time they'll talk about it much just because i don't

know i don't really find anybody else uh within my motor racing space that's a huge wmba fan but

been a massive fan of the wmba since the debut season um stoked to see angel reese headed to the

dream why is that it's not that she didn't it's not that she totally lacked veterans at chicago

sky but for where she's headed young player going to a team with some well-established badass

mvp mvp caliber like angel with all the crazy talent she has never really had a big sis to

help coach her tune her up get the best out of her so we're doing the happy dance at home

wife and i love her um this is the scott dixon play know that dixie's again twilight of his career

mid 40s got all that looking at a pillow he's clearly received all the best that dixon has to

offer he is the example of natural talent paired with great work ethic great curiosity and

one of the all-time greats as a teammate who's willing to download improve coach tune up big

brother type situation kirk wood i didn't really had that um will power coming in power loves him

kirk loves power it's amazing but if we had to look at drafting that top three just to close

i would chuck dixon in there not only for all this amazing skills can go beyond poli dindy win

that race win other races can do all those things still so still an elite performer

but then just strictly the ability to continue be that benchmark for pillow to learn from and

there's always going to learn but specifically for kirk no one better in the series he could learn

from never really had throughout his career a big brother type scenario could you imagine

kirk wood with dixon to learn from in the same way as pillow how's this think of all that alex

has achieved with dixon right next to him all this data readily available everything to learn

from be a sponge from think of kirk more or less never had that uh since he's gotten to and ready

realize that marcus erickson certainly passing on things but marcus has never really had to be

the big bro type kirk's never had that and look how well he has done in his doing

imagine what this guy could be with a dixon also can't wait to see where he'll be at the

end of the year with the influence of a power it's going to be more if he ends up winning the

championship there will be a lot of hugs and everything between himself and power because

i know without a doubt how much he loves working with power and how much of an influence will

has just been in a matter of a couple of months anyways that's my answer and i'd love to hear

your thoughts and i'm going to move on to the next question and off we go mark founds says love the way

that ecr and their cars look the driver's last name and flag of nationality on the center spine

the rear half of the car that would be the good old engine cover says think we get indy car to

mandate that approach for all teams and drivers to help the fans especially the more casual ones

looking at the spotters guide most cars have these spaces empty and very few have minor sponsored

decals what are your thoughts totally with you mark um this is one of those things where i have

to remove myself from any vast insights i do this for a living so knowing the cars knowing the

numbers knowing the liveries it is genuinely part of my job and so for me i don't need those things

but that doesn't mean anything because it's my job to know all these things

we'll admit i still have to check every now and then i get lost a little bit between rossi

being in the 20 and razz being in the 21 sometimes in my head i get those uh switched

and i'm sure there's some other i still get a little confused with hunko's hauling or racing

the primary car was the number 77 for so long the second car was a 78 those two have been stepped

down one number so i'm still having to make little mental checks but for the most part

if i'm a fan and i do not live and breathe this stuff to a silly degree every day

i would be bewildered mark as to who the hell is in what from race to race

and as a great number of folks mentioned on this specific topic

yeah like double headers wtf y'all like saturday it raced as a blue car and then on sunday

it's a red car and huh or pick other colors but like you're changing sponsors mid weekend

what so yeah i'm with you um if nothing else excuse me as i try to get my voice back

if nothing else having something on that center spine on the engine cover

i also wonder with the new car coming could they do an even more pronounced spine

back i think it was i don't know if it was 1997 i feel like it might have been 98

and i don't remember if it was dalara or g-force this was the good old indy racing league

but they introduced what was termed the fan fin and on the engine cover we'd seen this in

the cart indy car series done purely for aerodynamic reasons uh but added basically a little fin

if your person who watches imsa for example the gtp cars lmp2 they have these ginormous

fins that take up all the engine cover go it's a massive plank standing vertically

that's actually done for aerodynamic stability in a spin so it's for safety reasons so this

wasn't anything that big but there was this little kind of duck fin thing that sprouted off towards

the back of the engine cover they called it the fan fin and i seem to recall a lot of teams putting

car numbers there i think one of the i think when it came out i was with the

genoa racing thomas nap team i think that's what we did it's been a long time y'all so i'm not

totally remembering but it was an attempt to standardize hey let's put numbers in the same

ish place don't believe there's anything related to driver names but i'm with you here because yes

i don't know how many different sponsors graham ray hall will have on that number 15 ray hall in

mainland again honda but i'm sure it's going to be five to ten

pillow i don't know how many they have but i'm guessing four to five maybe by the time the season's

over run through some other teams who go through who have multiple sponsors because they aren't

fortunate enough to have a single sponsor who pays for everything that's the norm that's the

confusing part so love the idea and if i remember if i don't forget to remember mark i will ask

indy car about this and whether they think it's possible with the new car related item here following

up patty juday she says that 12 verizon car now with malukas and before with power a steady

verizon rap both scottie mac and joseph's cars rotate with different main sponsors for the

different races does verizon pay more to be the main sponsor how does that work and patty is one of

many many of y'all who sent through super sweet things she says special prayers going up for your

beautiful wife thank you patty um yeah so difference here between i guess coming back to that

fortunate to have a single i wouldn't pretend to know what team penske's financial composition

looks like how things do or don't get paid for meaning are the sponsors that we see on the cars

all entities who send actual dollars to team penske for indy car how many of them

have some sort of business to business deal which is as we know many of them with penske

entertainment slash penske corporation through rogers many many car dealerships right oil brand

sponsoring a car is part of that deal something where they are the exclusive supplier of oil to

all dealerships or some of the dealerships and that's a huge sale and for that company but

is there a discount and run through the realm of possibilities with all the different sponsors

you see on joseph's car scottie's car and guarantee you some of them are straight

sponsor deals are all of them indy car specific or do some of them have strands say it's a

sponsor who also wants to be involved in penske's nascar program at what tier in nascar over the

years got a sports car programs are any possible connections there a lot of the questions here

and again i'm i wish i could just provide a single answer patty but for the joseph and scottie cars in

particular coming back to that livery rotation we see a heck of a bunch taking place and so

we know some if not a decent amount of them some form of business to business deal

and sponsoring the cars is part of that bigger deal

where that money ends up how it gets divvied up again i don't pretend to know on the verizon side

we tend to see and have seen that be a really consistent thing with the 12 car so i assume

their business deal is indeed a business e1 i am also aware that verizon has other connected

aspects within penske entertainment indianapolis motor speedway being one of them i don't know if

and where else verizon is involved in penske's hemisphere but i would say to your point it

gives the impression that verizon is primary singular i guess it's another wireless company

from back of the day with a letter c in front singular with an s sponsor for the car

i can't tell you how money gets exchanged but yeah i think you're on to something there

clear with the other ones though it is a myriad of funding solutions and boy if i were a

motor racing accountant this one would probably make my head spin uh donna la cagnina how are

you donna this is some tire questions if red alternate tires are usually the preferred

compound then why do drivers use black primary tires for their bank or lap during qualify so

awesome question need to think of the alternate tires the red banded alternates

99 of the time they have a shorter lifespan

need to use those in the race

their lifespan and also true peak competitiveness really a function of heat cycles

think about how many times you heat up a tire and then let it cool down

you heat it up you go for x amount of laps practice whatever it might be qualifying simulations

you come in you stop make whatever change to the car refuel it and so on

tires go out ambient temperature whatever that might be driver goes very quickly for x number of

laps bring up a lot of heat into those tires driver comes back to pit lane sits might even

be a short period that they sit but those tires cool down a bit whether it's all the way or halfway

from where they were to start called a heat cycle heat cycling is something you want to keep to a

minimum the more heat cycles into a tire the more worn out they will become the less effective

less competitive they will be and so knowing that you're wanting to minimize the heat cycling

on the alternate tires the red banded tires because they are kind of acknowledged sense

the most sensitive to losing performance lasting a shorter amount of time with the more they get

used heat cycling is something that the primary tires the more robust tires without the colored

band just the black tires as you mentioned those are more capable to withstand those heat cycles

before truly dropping off so it's really a case of two things minimizing heat cycles

since that takes away from duration the longevity of the tires also the more laps you're turning the

more heat cycling you're putting on tires you're also losing their maximum performance so that's

the reason why we're just strictly thinking about rodent street course qualifying where the

absolute peak performance from those alternate tires is what folks are looking for especially

in the second round of qualifying and then possibly going to a new set of alternates they get into the

fast six you are wanting to minimize the amount of laps you put on those alternates you're also

wanting to minimize the number of heat cycles you put into them so that's why you see teams

going out and putting in a quote banker lap really going as fast as they can on these sturdier

alternate up primaries even though they won't be as perfect in turning maximum lap times

and then once the car is warmed and ready and the drivers in rhythm it's something we need to

acknowledge most drivers need you know a lap or two maximum attack getting themselves fully

tuned up ready to be that peak performer it's much wiser to do so on the tires that are say

a little more durable a little more expendable than the ones that are more fragile and definitely

going to react in a much worse manner to multiple heat cycles that's why you often see Donna

shouldn't say often it's not uncommon to see drivers midfield tail end drivers really maybe

they've had a good practice session on Friday maybe they've had a good second practice as well

feeling like they could maybe squeeze into the fast 12 one of those rare times where they might

be able to do that during the season not totally uncommon to see them roll out into open practice

the i'm sorry the first round of qualifying on reds on the alternates and just go

maximum attack and then use possibly another new set if they can get through into the fast 12

right to do something there as well and it's kind of a hope and a prayer where and for the the

drivers who we love who we know usually are not bothering the firestone fast 12 on the weekends

where it's looking really good and feeling like they just might be able to scrape in

you'll see them maybe they'll go out briefly on the primary tires just to make sure get everything

warm just make sure everything's good but then instead of waiting to the last minute or two

like everyone else in their group they'll jump on them right away and really try and get after

it get in quick lap and push and push and push and hopefully make it through and then

burn another set if they do make it through just to try and right give themselves the best chance

possible all while knowing this is maybe the one maybe two times in the year that that would be

possible and they just intentionally burn through the faster alternate tire resource in qualifying

understanding that in the race they're going to get mollywopped so heat cycles for sure

and then just simply minimizing laps on those fragile don't have much of a peak and they don't

last very long alternates that's why you see primaries used or banker labs don also says

our teams required to use a sticker set of reds and a sticker set of blacks at least per race

they are this year you've had a change to the regulations for street courses the

six street courses where teams are required drivers are required to use

alternate tires the reds twice in each street course race but there's no mandate of new

so they don't say you have to use new that way just a case of use the alternates as you so

choose in the race but you've got to use two different sets and so this is where in particular

your first question really locks into the second one arlington saint peat coming up here at long

beach then detroit then mark them then washington dc and i'm sure i'm forgetting another one but

we have a situation where with the requirement to use two sets of alternates in the race

this is where teams are being very choosy of how many sets of alternates they use in qualifying

how many laps they turn on them no for sure that with this double alternate tire usage for reds

in the race had some strategists say for sure if we can get into the fast six

but we're not super confident that we have a car to be on pole we're probably not going to throw

another new set of alternates at the car we'll just use the used set coming out of the

second round what we used in the fast 12 to get into the fast six we'll just stick with that

if you have teams who are like hey this is looking like it's going to be an alternate race a

red race and can get in to the fast 12 they might say you know what we're going to try and just do

our fast 12 running on primaries not even go to the alternates we know we're going to qualify 12

we're going to be last but we are saving a couple of sets of new alternates for the race which

is going to help us perform even more so no mandate saying they have to be new but definitely

for the street courses pretty cool to see teams making pretty significant decisions while qualifying

is happening trying to dictate the quality of their raciness on Sunday as I have a hiccup here

um let's see and then Donna closes a couple of questions must teams return at least one set to

Firestone after practice at every track that is the case with the alternates that they are allowed

to use on Friday but that's really the only situation I recall same with rookies who are

allowed to get an extra set they have to return those at the end of Friday why is that required

try and limit the alternate running to just Friday that's why IndyCar has done this modified

scheduling for Fridays where they have everyone running 40 minutes then they stop and split

into two 12 minute groups to give teams less busy tracks so it's half the cars for the first 12

the other half the other 12 and that is really meant to be all right we're giving an opportunity

to get tuned up on the alternate tires on Friday do your simulation work overnight get

yourself ready for qualifying on Saturday um and then oh well that's sweet of you Donna

closes by saying thanks for keeping us up to date even while you're keeping up with challenges at

home that's sweet of you um all right gonna fire through the last couple of questions here and then

say good night um Chris Hoffman says he mentioned before that your wife is from Alabama is a

restaurant or meal you like to enjoy while you're in town for the IndyCar race that reminds

you of your wife well no and there's a reason and that's because well Alabama like many southern

states well known for barbecue in particular and lots of um flavorful ways of cooking

animals uh my wife has been for the most part vegetarian vegan ish for just about as long

as I've known her now granted um you know there's some when I was a younger person I heard it described

as a beady eyed vegetarian meaning fish poultry that kind of thing so that's more of of what we

eat at home but yeah for the most part what we would consider to be more traditional southern

cuisine um she definitely has southern infused way of of cooking but not the kind of stuff I would

find at a restaurant there or anywhere else so unfortunately no now doesn't mean I don't enjoy

more southern barbecue when I'm in southern states it just has no real tie to uh what I might find

at home uh Kevin Hardesty says no you couldn't get to Arlington but what have you heard I want

two friends of their first live race and they loved it I was impressed with the facilities and the

track layout also talked some locals who had a blast any word and if Arlington will be back

on the schedule next year yes without a doubt um this was always meant to be a multi-year deal

Kev so yes without a doubt uh I'll be there next year and I'll look forward to hopefully seeing you

Vincent Martinez says I'd love to see a story on how a new track layout is decided on

I would love to see that too Vincent um unfortunately I'm not taking orders on what to write

at the moment um but I appreciate your interest and if such a thing is a thing that a client

wants then gosh darn it I will indeed write that thing uh Tyler Wong says do you see any chance of

any car expanding into the northeast uh even more if the Washington DC race becomes successful

I do might have mentioned I think I mentioned it could be wrong but after the Phoenix race

the series told me conversation there with one of the executives that there's already been

inquiries from DC saying hey I know you haven't held a race here yet but we'd love to talk about

you coming back so don't know if it would be in District of Columbia proper or the DMV area in

general or who knows but yes I would have to say that even without that assuming the Freedom 250

is a good race well received entertaining this should open a lot of eyes to indie car being a

series a thing to want to bring back only little caveat here to mention is we know that with the

very late timing of this being approved and added as the 18th race

so they're gonna have granted there's a lot of call it pre-production work done before this was

announced but from the actual it's gonna happen it's gonna be in what eight months or so of non-stop

intensive work if there's going to be a we're gonna stay in the DC area and do something

at a different street layout because this one is not meant to happen a second time

like that's gotta get going pretty soon so even though the first race there hasn't been held Tyler

if it were to be DC DMV area in general like this has to get cooking right about now or

very very soon for it to be a yes and we can fit it in without everyone just exhausting

themselves and collapsing type scenario if it's at a existing racetrack name the place

somewhere in New York are you know oval road course it's a lot easier to activate but still

these conversations will need to be happening and moving along here pretty darn soon

Lance Snyder you got a question about LED wheel guns the little video feature with

IMSA on that with the Martian racing team asking if that's happening with LED wheel guns

can we get LED panels back on the car yes thank you for keeping that alight

let's see Sterling Wilson says indy car got off to a hot start with three consecutive race weekends

we're now hitting a period of several by weeks will we ever get to a place of consistent races

as many as 24 no on 24 I don't think we'll see that in my lifetime unless you start doing a

bunch of double headers but actual 20 to 24 unique tracks doubtful we're going to get there

NASCAR is the big raging successful monster and they have a bunch of races but that's because

they're a big raging successful monster and they also stay pretty tight geographically

indy car bouncing all over coast to coast road streets ovals three different types of ovals

somewhat limited into where they can race geographically right realize that indy car

starts the season off in st. Petersburg Florida end of february beginning of march

still really cold and snowing and or freezing most places in the country so where does it go next

southwest to phoenix is the next place otherwise it's usually been a big break and a big wait until

weather turns and go somewhere else so a little bit different opportunities here for NASCAR

with their size and popularity being able to do so many races go to a lot of places

in the country where it's warmer on those ovals some that they own but in general just a lot easier

for them to have a lot more races to me that's just something to accept that until indy car gets

to that place still needs tracks to go to that would fit that kind of unbroken ish string

I don't see it as too much of an issue here sterling 18 races they'll have this year

it's a big rush in the beginning right four races from five weekends then to close the year I think

it's five races and five weekends there's a doubleheader in there I apologize and maybe I'm

getting my count wrong but I mean the front end the back end it's a bunch of seemingly almost

non-stop racing it's a little softer in the middle but back in the indy car series days

when it was the popular most popular and or close ish still to NASCAR yeah 18 20 races I think slightly

over maybe but was never 24 26 anything like that so consistent I feel like what they've

happened upon here is pretty darn good the only thing I don't like is this single race in April

that part does seem like it could break the momentum but again we'll have to see what long

beaches ratings look like and then the indy grand prix again to see if those two are down

granted last year's long beach was terrible so this year's seemingly can only be up

from a rating standpoint but I hear you if I had to trade the one race to start the

year and then waiting weeks and weeks and weeks and folks forgetting about indy car and

then coming back towards the end of March or early April I'd rather do things the way they are right now

and have a little bit of a break and then charge through May late April indy open test indy GP

indy 500 Detroit I am not mad at what they have right now um Lynn underscore indy car you're

going to close the show here Lynn is what is your take on alex plow not having an in car

camera it continues to be a controversy my take I have no problem with him not having one

the team doesn't want one to show what line he is taking when he is breaking and etc it is

they're right the car is on television I love that approach here Lynn I don't disagree it's

interesting to talk to some drivers and ask them some things that I know other drivers talk about

or will readily answer and from time to time I'll get drivers who say appreciate you ask but I don't

want to talk about that how they do something how they approach something could be a technical

thing could be a mindset thing whatever it is it's something where the driver feels like hey

hey this is unique to me I don't want to share it could benefit someone else I don't know if

it actually would but I don't even want to open that up so someone to go oh he does this thing in

this way or has this mental approach or viewpoint whatever it is I feel this is unique I'm not

sharing it fair point I have the same mindset here Lynn where first thing I'm told an in car camera for

the year costs three hundred and eighty five thousand dollars that number is slightly off I

apologize but that's what I was told when I asked a team owner about it a team owner who pays for

one a couple of weeks ago so whatever the exact number is it's not too far away from four hundred

thousand American dollars that's a lot of money believe that Fox has a roaming camera it will

offer to put in cars so there's that possibility would have to assume they've offered it

would also assume it's been turned down from Palo's car but I'd just share a couple of quick

things here about this three gonna ask you cars one of them Scott Dixon is PNC bank car PNC's been

on that car for many years full season sponsor as consistent as can be Kiffin Simpson has Sonoko

this year's had other sponsors a year before by their family funded or family related business

funded well funded Palo's car this is not something the team tries to put too big of a spotlight on

but written about it before spoken about it's not a secret even though Alex has won multiple

championships in a row and is the best driver in any car currently based on results with all

that aforementioned success they have not been able to sell all races on that car to sponsors

for years come into the season with whatever the number is sold 12 or 13 of the 17 races maybe

14 but coming in where there's still some races that have not been sold don't know the reason

why again I don't have an answer to the why I can just tell you that it is a fact

so that to me stands out as a potential not something I would say is an excuse but

you're coming into a season knowing that on average an Indy car annual budget per entry

8 to 10 million creeping more towards 10 if not above it's only getting more expensive

and you do not have the car's sponsors sold found for every race

in my head I'm not signing up to spend nearly 400,000 dollars unless I know for sure I've

got a sponsor signed or multiple whatever it is but the full years budget locked in beforehand

if not locked in for multiple years just my own take I wouldn't sign up for one

then you have the competitive part where you go okay clearly the guy is really special

I would not be doing a dang thing to make it easier for anyone to see whatever it is that he does

there's the there's the part that his critics or the team's critics maybe leave out so finish on this

so while you do not have alex palo in car camera footage for rival teams to watch dissect

benchmark through visual means how he turns the car stops the car how he does some of the

things we spoke about in craig's question up front about what makes him special every team

for many years now through the sharing of onboard data which goes to the broadcasters

every team has every other teams I'll just call it primary data right zillions of

data channels on the car so I'm not talking the little wonky abstract ones but throttle brake

steering speed

MP 1689: The Week In IndyCar, Listener Q&A April 8 2026

Dodge Challenger

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