They’re talking through the Long Beach IndyCar race weekend—what went well, what was boring, and the big moments. Think of it like a race recap episode.
The Indy 500 is mentioned as the host’s busiest or most intense event, based on his experience covering it. It helps listeners understand why Long Beach is a major calendar stop for him.
A “stillborn” race car is basically a project that never really made it to the track. It might have been built or nearly finished, but something stopped it from debuting or competing.
This is a club event connected to racing. The RDC dinner is where they get together during the Long Beach weekend and recognize drivers and people who helped make the series happen.
This is the group that helps run the Long Beach race. When the president/leader changes, it can affect how the event is organized and what happens at the track.
They’re talking about a special day during the weekend where fans can come for free. That kind of access often brings in more people and makes the whole event busier.
Topic
IndyCar series era (cart Indy car series era)
They’re referencing an earlier time in American open-wheel racing when the series was known as CART. The host is using that era to compare crowd levels and event energy.
The discussion links broadcast timing to improved average viewership, implying that scheduling affects audience size and competition with other major events. In motorsports, moving a race to avoid direct conflicts can significantly change TV ratings.
A hairpin is a very tight turn that makes cars slow down a lot. If the race start is happening around that corner, some cars may not be where they need to be when the green flag comes out.
The green flag is the signal that racing is officially underway. If it’s waved too early or too late, cars can end up bunched up or out of position after a tricky corner, which can make the start chaotic.
“Orphaned” means a driver gets left behind when the start signal happens. If they’re not through the corner yet, they end up starting in the wrong spot compared to everyone else.
Topic
Portland
Portland is referenced as a prior IndyCar venue where a start-procedure adjustment was observed. The hosts are using that example to argue that IndyCar’s green-flag timing changes can improve race starts.
It means keeping the race cars bunched up rather than spread out. The reason is to manage order, but too much bunching can cause crashes at the first big braking area.
It’s a colorful way of saying that if the cars are too close together, they can all get pushed into the same corner at once. That makes it much easier for one mistake to trigger a pileup.
They’re talking about how officials noticed a bad situation and reported it internally right away. The takeaway is that it wasn’t a surprise—people already knew it was happening and needed to stop.
They shift from Long Beach specifically to a bigger pattern: how street-course races have been going lately. They’re asking whether these events are actually delivering exciting passing and battles.
IndyCar is trying a tire rule where teams must use a special “alternate” tire compound two separate times. The goal is to make strategy more interesting so races don’t just play out the same way.
They’re talking about the tire that wears out the quickest. If teams have to use it twice, it should change how often they pit and how aggressively they can drive.
Firestone makes the tires used in IndyCar. The host is saying Firestone changed something during the offseason that may have reduced the tire rule’s intended effect.
Some racing series require you to use certain tire types during the race. A “double alternate” means you have to run the alternate tires twice, not just once. If the alternate tires last longer, it makes the race less chaotic and less dependent on tire breakdown.
Racing tires can be made with different rubber “recipes.” A harder, more durable alternate compound lasts longer, so teams don’t have to worry as much about the tire falling apart mid-race. That makes strategy more about timing and less about tire survival.
A “caution” is when the race slows down because something happened on track. On street courses, there’s more chance of contact, so cautions can come often. When that happens, teams can adjust their strategy—especially around restarts.
A restart is when the race resumes after a caution. Everyone has to line up and then accelerate again, which can change who gets the best position. That’s why restarts can strongly affect the outcome.
Sometimes there’s a yellow flag because something is on the track. That slows everyone down and bunches cars up, which can completely change when teams decide to pit.
IndyCar street races are held on temporary street circuits with tight corners and limited runoff, so incidents and cautions are more likely than on purpose-built road courses. That makes strategy, restart execution, and tire management especially important.
Ed Carpenter Racing is a racing team in IndyCar. When they make an engineering change for a race like Long Beach, it can help the car work better with the track and tires.
This is the team’s behind-the-scenes engineering group that helps the race team. They’re there to analyze data and support the people making setup and strategy decisions.
The race engineer is the primary engineering point person for a driver during race weekends, responsible for translating data into setup and strategy decisions. They coordinate closely with the driver and other engineers to react to track conditions, tire behavior, and on-track events.
Term
qualifying was not brilliant
Qualifying sets where you start the race. If qualifying isn’t great, it can be harder to move up later, but a strong race setup and strategy can still help.
Ovals are tracks that are basically loops, usually with lots of speed. Because the cars stay in the same kind of high-speed conditions for a long time, setup and tire management matter a lot.
ECR is an IndyCar racing team. They’re talking about how good the team is expected to be, especially when the track and conditions play to their strengths.
Street courses are races on regular-city-style roads. They’re tighter and less forgiving than ovals, so the car has to be set up carefully and the driver has to be very consistent.
A “rebounder” is someone who did much better in the race than you’d expect from where they started. It’s like a comeback story based on how many spots they gained.
“Seagull” sounds like the name of a particular race car in the event being discussed. The key point is that it moved up a lot in the standings, going from 25th to 12th.
This is basically a “too bad” award for someone who didn’t meet expectations. The hosts say it’s for a driver who had potential but circumstances prevented a good outcome.
“Barber” refers to the Barber Motorsports Park road course, which is a common IndyCar stop. The hosts use it as a reference point for momentum—how strong qualifying or race performance at Barber can set expectations for the next event.
Term
p2
“P2” means second place. It’s a way of saying he had a great result before the race where things went wrong.
A puncture is when the tire gets damaged and starts losing air. If it happens early, the driver usually loses a lot of speed and position, making it tough to finish well.
Topic
Indianapolis road course event
They’re talking about an IndyCar race at Indianapolis that uses a road-course layout. That kind of track is different from the oval, so driving and passing can feel quite different.
This is an award based on how well teams do during pit stops. Faster, cleaner pit work can help a team gain track position without needing to be the absolute fastest on the main straight.
RLL is an IndyCar racing team. The host is saying they’ve been improving over the season, especially in how well they run the race and handle pit stops.
Season-long standings are the overall points table for the whole season. It matters because one good race is nice, but consistent results move you up the rankings.
Hybrid issues mean the car’s hybrid technology isn’t working correctly. That can reduce power or cause the car to behave differently, which is why it’s a big deal during practice or race day.
Championship standings are the points table that determines who leads the season. The hosts connect technical failures and late-race issues to sudden drops in standings, showing how one bad weekend can swing a driver’s season. It’s a reminder that IndyCar is as much about points management as outright speed.
“Tires absolutely fell off” describes a rapid loss of grip and performance as the tires overheat or degrade. “Burned off” suggests the tires were pushed beyond their operating window, causing them to wear quickly and drop the car’s pace. In IndyCar, that can happen late in a stint and turn a top-10 run into a major fall in position within laps.
“Closing laps” refers to the final portion of a race, when tires, fuel strategy, and track position are under maximum stress. Late-race tire degradation can be especially dramatic because there’s little time to recover. The segment uses closing laps to explain how a strong run can unravel quickly.
Concept
award winner yet again an award you absolutely don't want
The hosts are referring to a recurring “award” that’s framed as something drivers don’t want—likely a negative outcome (e.g., a mechanical/incident-related misfortune). In racing broadcasts, these “awards” are often humorous but point to a specific kind of failure or unlucky moment. The key takeaway is that the driver’s late-race issues were severe enough to earn that unwanted label again.
“Search party” is a broadcast-style phrase used when a driver seems to have disappeared from contention due to a major issue. It’s not a technical term, but it communicates the severity of the problem—typically a loss of speed, retirement, or a car that’s hard to locate on track. In this segment, it’s tied to Marcus Armstrong’s disappearance during the Long Beach street-course race.
Pole position is awarded to the fastest qualifier, meaning the car starts first on the grid. On street circuits, starting up front is especially valuable because overtaking can be difficult and track position often matters more than pure speed. The segment treats pole as a sign of strong performance that should help in the race.
Primary tires are the main tires teams run for most of their race stints. If one driver gets more speed out of them, it can help them catch or pass others.
They’re saying one driver was noticeably quicker every lap by a fraction of a second. Over many laps, that kind of gap can translate into real position changes.
A “gut check race” is a colloquial way to describe an event that tests a team’s true competitiveness under pressure. Here, the hosts frame it as a reality check for Marshank Racing: pole and strong pace still need clean execution to convert into a win.
An “open test” is a practice session where teams use track time to evaluate setups, tires, and car behavior. It’s especially important in open-wheel racing because setup changes can quickly reveal performance gaps.
Laguna Seca is a famous road course in California used by IndyCar and other series. It’s known for technical sections and elevation changes, which make setup and driving precision critical.
They’re talking about upcoming IndyCar races on the calendar. It’s basically a heads-up about what’s next in the season.
LIVE
Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt podcast in our set down looking at all that happened here.
The Acre Grand Prix of Long Beach a little bit of a snoozer can't argue about that but
indeed there were plenty of things that happened that are worthy of diving into a little bit
of analysis and introspection and we have our awards as well to hand out as we've been
doing all year. It's a big thanks to y'all for tuning in subscribing into our great partners
at thejusticebrothersintronomotorsports.com or we get into the event figure just share this is
usually my second or third busiest event every single season. Rolex 24 with the Roar before
the 24 that rolls in prior that often is the craziest event of the year for me the Indy 500s
usually P2 when I was going and covering the 24 hours of Le Mans every year that definitely
stacked right up there but Long Beach has just become this weeks of planning type thing and I
love it drive down most of the time did that this year covered between Indy car Imsa also some fun
historic content got coming did in-car sessions with Zach Brown's five-cylinder turbo Audi
Trans Am car I think just about every single session so gotta pick through those some technical
issues with the car but anyways great time just run through what a wild event it was
it concluded with driving home Sunday was up at about 530 Sunday I think by the time I got home
and got to bed it was about 230 so yeah about a 21 hour day big long day motor racing and all that
kind of fun and then a six and a half to seven hour drive home to cap it off so I was pretty
wiped out on Monday but anyways kind of back and among the living here so but how did this
whole thing start well drove down on Wednesday I was hired to host a pretty fun thing at the
Peterson Automotive Museum at 3 and 500 winners there Alex Polo you're raining defending Alexander
Rossi looking back on 10 years since his win and then Marcus Erickson was part of that so a lot of
fun there about two hour event there so hosted them interviewed them did a Q&A that was a blast
so that was a new thing for me and Thursday Thursday morning Wynton saw this has been an
annual tradition for me to go see my dear friends the Gurneys the Gurney family went to the new
private museum that isn't totally done but they've been constructing been in place they've hosted
Justin Gurney told me boy well we'll just say they've had a lot of folks come through and
they're doing amazing things there then right after we were done getting our first look at the museum
went over and did our annual visit annual update on the Stillborn Formula One car that Justin's
been completing meant to debut here late later in the year during summer I believe mid to late summer
got a look at the car there it's made great progress been doing annual updates on that
since 2019 so try and get those videos here together and ready and then Thursday night
the Road Racing Drivers Club of which I'm a member of they do a huge annual dinner in Long Beach
it's really one of the big big social gatherings of the event honor a driver every year it's been
Marion Dreddy it's been Emerson Fittipaldi it's been Parnelli Jones this year the great Derek Bell
competed at Long Beach back in the day but moreover huge sports car career that we know of but
he was phenomenal and friends of the RDC asked me to take a moment and just speak and tribute to
the late Jim McHaley and president CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach they did that was
a real honor for me and just a touching night remembering Jim getting to see his family there
as well and also got to spend a little bit of time with Jim Lau who's taken over he was hand picked
to take over leading the Grand Prix Association by Jim so just really rooting for him to keep doing
what he's doing there so that was just through Thursday evening then Saturday morning and Sunday
morning had some speaking engagements with a client doing a bit of a racing 101 for all their
guests just doing a lot more hosting these days y'all so love the writing love the reporting love
the podcasting none of that is changing but definitely would say as I look further down the
road for me more of the event hosting more of these kinds of things speaking in such
all of all of in our lives hopefully and this is definitely a place where it feels like I'd
done be evolving more and more in that direction yet another huge fan turnout at Long Beach they've
been doing the free Fridays for a little while Friday was the busiest again I can just about
recall ever at least dating back to everything after the peak in the cart Indy car series era
definitely looking at Sunday Saturday was really strong Sunday was really wild how strong it was
so if we get numbers from the event be interesting to know what they were but it just felt like yet
again another noticeable step more people than ever at this real true festival style event with
music and food and racing all kinds of racing Robbie Gordon's jumpy trucks and drifting just
hard to go wrong at Long Beach so just really cool to see it last year in the 50th anniversary it was
big wild amazing and yet again here year 51 felt like it was just taken yet another big step forward
just got the numbers in from Fox back to over a million average viewers for the race that's a big
deal little dip at barber just under a million nine hundred and something thousand but one point
two million here huge improvement from last year wouldn't head to head with the masters golf tournament
the final there last year Long Beach just got crushed so the later timing of it certainly
seemed to help and it's just a smart thing being done it's what you'd hope they would do hey are
there other big things taking place to compete with this event on TV can we move it to a time
somewhere before somewhere after where we might not get run over didn't have the masters to go
head to head with this year but nonetheless a smart decision for when and where to place this and
seems like the benefit has come through yet again let's talk about the start of the race 90 lap race
so let's overstate things that are really obvious that was really bad it felt like the leaders
barely got out of the hairpin and the stupid green flag was waving there's a balance though
and this is the part that might get lost a little bit one side you might say well just wait for
everybody to come out of the hairpin get everybody lined up to perfect rows with all cars
wait wait wait wait wait till they get super close to the start finish line then throw that green
flag that would be the obvious thing to have the most orderly start no question but there's a reason
why there's a balance here and they're going to be some drivers who get orphaned who don't come
around the hairpin before the green flag needs to wave so chucking it super early before barely
anybody gets through absolutely wrong waiting until everyone is lined up and almost right below
the starter stand to throw that flag also wrong so we'd seen this is an adjustment made by indy
carts been a smart one saw this at portland in particular where this jumped out hey instead of
waiting until everyone's truly lined up throwing that flag to start the race i don't want to say
late but really until they're pretty far along on that straight well then you get everybody packed up
going into the festival corner there big kerblamos everybody running into each other calamity
guaranteed caution to start the race the decision was made we're going to get most of y'all through
the final corner and then we're going to throw that green flag and hey sorry those who had bad
qualifying's but there's a price to pay but for the most part we're going to get half three quarters
of the field through and then go that way by the time they get to turn one where there's a big hard
stop and a very sharp turn going to compact the field we're going to make sure folks get a chance
to stretch out a bit so they're not on top of each other we reduce the likelihood of the huge
kerblamos same concept here for long beach so there is that middle ground most through throw the
green sorry you're going to orphan some of you at the back but you're going to try and avoid the
the good old golden bowling ball effect into turn one that is what was missed so yes the answer
might seem to wait for everybody that's actually not the answer that's what causes the cautions
when they all come in to turn one and a huge herd and then just knock the hell out of each other
so finding that balance that was the thing that was lost that's the thing to correct
had a very senior official with an indy car saw him right at the end of the race on pit lane
and brought it up on their own of like that was terrible we cannot keep doing that so
this wasn't a case of did they see it did they know it yes within the organization they knew
in an instant yeah we kind of pooped the bed on that one so long beach was not amazing in terms of
raw entertainment and fun anybody who says it was i don't know what you were watching
it was a snoozer not meant to just say that to complain it's not a complaint it's just an acknowledgement
of what was but the the overarching thing i wanted to touch on here a couple items thinking about
street racing so far that five races this year three of them have been street st. petersburg
arlington and now long beach arlington was pretty amusing don't get me wrong i mean there there was
some good racing there but if we're just talking about passing for the lead and real thrilling
stuff street races have taken a step back this year at least through my lens we look at st.
pete there's two drivers between alex polo and scott mcgloughlin they led 93 percent of the race
100 laps the two of them combined to lead 93 laps polo for the most part kind of led the thing
dominated it was his get to arlington wasn't so much the case there were four drivers who led
between 15 and 16 laps apiece there are a couple others who led but those who finished in the top
four all had roughly an equal amount of laps led this was for the most part an indreddy party
kyle kirk would obviously winning that race look at that and go okay so again those who were up
front just like at st. pete pretty much controlled the whole thing no real wild cards no real drama
there then we get to long beach we got fro who led a bunch of the race alex polo who got into the
lead there the two of them led the vast majority of the race yet again so what is that what's that
all about when you have at long beach two drivers leading 83 of the 90 laps yet again just like
at st. pete just like that cluster of top four at arlington it tells us that there is not a lot of
surprise to be expected and yet indy car has gone to a rule this year calling for the double use
of the alternate tires the alternate compounds at the street courses that was done with the
intent of adding some spice to the street events we've had three now person who qualified first
and second pretty much those two dominated st. pete alex polo didn't qualify second at long beach
but got up there between him and fro they dominated the whole thing and the folks who already mentioned
at arlington effectively the folks who were doing the best they're leading into the race did the best
in the race want so why isn't this double alternate thing working trying to learn more about that
probably do a story about that here soon but we just say in the sample size of the three races so far
this has been a nothing burger the real strategic fun and creating some sort of drama
but telling teams you have to use the highest consumption tire the one that lasts the least
amount of time got to use that twice that will spice up the show unless i've missed something
1000 percent has done nothing to spice up the show so why is that
so firestone did something during the offseason which has truly affected the intent of this
double alternate rule they've gone to making a slightly harder street racing alternate compound
that means it is more durable that means unlike last year's it does not go like hell and fall off
an immediate cliff it actually lasts a pretty decent amount of time the whole goal was we're
making run those twice because they do fall off well that was last year the conception
for this brilliant totally understand it get the reason why it would be perfect if there was
also an agreement between indycar and firestone to use those 2025 street alternates firestone
while trying to do things to make the racing good and appease its partners at indycar they're also
not in the business of making tires that are hated and fall apart and folks just want to take off
as soon as they can i understand why they would go back to the proverbial lab make their street
racing alternates a bit more durable that's indeed what they've done there's now a mismatch between
the quality of those alternates they last longer aren't as big of a liability and a rule meant to
exploit that liability which existed last year but is no longer here so the double alternates at
least for the tires that we have in 2026 it's a nothing burger it's done really nothing to alter
the race there's one other component to throw in here which nothing to do with indycar and
admittedly nothing to do with firestone and that is cautions street racing you tend to have folks
knocking folks around beating each other up plenty of cautions flying haven't had that this year
the restarts is where things get really fun and spicy gives you the opportunity to try some
different some alternate strategies other than joseph new garden and his race strategist
jonathan do good at long beach more or less nobody really swinging for the fences with a
strategically play didn't pan out for them of course they needed a caution late in the race for
that to really go in their favor but you think about st pete you had that kerb lamo right off
the bat for a couple laps and you had just before half distance scott dixon's wheel come off that was
rectified pretty quickly there wasn't much there though timing of cautions just accidents and
silliness to really throw some cool options into place as a result race pretty much ran the way
it ran no big surprises alex polo congratulations you're the winner arlington cleaned just about
the whole entire way you had that late issue there with christian rasmussen right pretty quick
caution there that got rectified then there was that crash on the final lap which baked in the
result but all the running into each other or whatever things that might be bad happening
needed to take place much earlier in the race to create some strategy options we get to long beach
nothing again we got some body work that fell off a little piece we had a debris caution got it
happened right around the final third of the race really do need some earlier cautions to give teams
the option to try and do some things to make the street races more entertaining we haven't had that
we know what happened in the pits obviously with polo jumping rose and fist but other than that
cautions crashes calamity drama things we tend to associate with street racing
really have not taken place this year as a result we don't have bunches of restarts to
spice things up trade positions a bunch put the lead under big threat we also haven't had any real
opportunities for the double alternate to play out in any appreciable way and those alternates are
even better so they're going to be more durable kind of take away that option so other than when
we get to detroit or markham or washington dc and folks just do a big old slam dance and beat the
hell out of each other and create these things i don't exactly have the answer for how indy car
street races get better with tires and the double alternate thing being baked in that's not going
to change for the rest of the year the tires are what they are firestones not going to go back to
manufacturing last year's short life one so that i think we got to just accept the fact
that's going to be an ongoing nothing burger it does come down to all right who's going to hit who
in in the first 10 laps and again 20 30 laps and maybe one more around halfway then you crack open
the opportunity for folks to really try different things give us some surprise results on the remaining
street courses last little observation here that just stood out in terms of appreciation we'll get
into our awards after that ed carpenter racing a k a e c r made a race engineering change coming
into long beach started off the year trying with alexander rossi's number 20 entry young gentleman
talented gentleman by the name of quintin montego and they done well absolutely done well but leading
into the year i'd heard it was really do we go with quintin jack ruskell as well he'd been part of
the support engineering program there often where you look to the performance engineers the assistant
engineers all the folks that are kind of in that offensive coordinator defensive coordinator the
support coaches next to the head coach being the race engineer so decision was to go with quintin
made a call here leading into long beach to give jack a try and that worked really really well
qualifying was not brilliant totally get that but alexander at his home race the thing that he's
won twice inducted into the long beach walk of fame here on thursday qualified 18th charged like hell
got to ninth at the end so realize that a ninth place is not some magical result but just to
think about hey we made a in season race engineering change and indeed it would appear that on race day
when things matter the most pretty significant pace being shown love the potential here we know
they're going to be amazing on ovals it's not that but i'm looking towards i don't want to say
i don't care about it's just it's an expectation so we already know ecr should be phenomenal
had indy all the remaining ovals the rodent streets streets in particular where it's been a
long time mike conway era really when we're looking to ecr being a true force
then joseph newgarden and a little bit in between with some others but for the most
parts been a long time to have expectations for the team on street courses they've been showing
some real pep this year razz at arlington was very competitive but we know how good rossy is
love seeing the team saying we want to be more competitive competitiveness is more important
than just blind loyalty let's make a change now quitting still with the team just reassigned to
a different role rehaledam in lanigan racing's already done that this year on nick schumacher's car
not sure we're done seeing this happen this year across teams but i've been a race engineer i've
been a support engineer who's been traded or changed for others who came in and did a better
job i know what it's like it sucks in the name of the team being the thing that is centrally
important not egos have to applaud ecr for deciding to do this at a very hard weekend
but one that could be very important for alexander and the team in its quest to level up this year
in the championship so far sample size of one race at least what they did on sunday suggests
they made the right call good for them let's crack open our awards with top rebounder
for me there's no question about who this is it's alexander rossy ecr the number 20 car
in terms of those who actually made the biggest amount of improvement on sunday that would be
no one seagull going from 25th to 12th he won the biggest mover award but in terms of
who i really thought showed out as the top rebounder i'm gonna say that is alexander rossy
for me if you think it's no one or someone else again please share your thoughts on the who fell
short award that nobody wants to win i feel like it's a pretty clear cut thing as well here
christian lungard previous race at barber it was the lungard show didn't win but boy sure felt like
he had that potential to do so but his fight his rallying to get all the way far forward come home
p2 really make alex polo sweat a little bit that was the barber's story to have christian qualify
11th at long beach realize that he had an early puncture that set him back but
just a bit of a wow felt like cusp of something really potentially big here coming out of barber
and again qualifying not being much of a thing to make christians life easy and then in the race
thing certainly did not go his way finished farther towards the back was just a non factor so
would say stood out here as boy you could pivot off of this punctured tire certainly not his fault
so it's not as if he is directly to blame for this but this was just an event where you go boy the
momentum coming out of barber with a really strong qualifying this could be transformative make you
truly thrust into that championship hunt here that could change of course could have an amazing
indianapolis road course event a place where boy he definitely made us stand up and take notice on
debut but then we get into the indy 500 where we don't know what he's going to do there but
yeah just felt like wow big springboard coming out of barber and didn't pan out at all for our guy
christian london for the who overperformed award definitely that's got to go to nullan
seagull you don't go from p 25 to p 12 13 positions gained without doing things that were not expected
especially noting that i think his best result this year and the previous four races had bid 18th
if the others were 20th or worse just not a wonderful start to the season for the kid
and yeah going to sleep on saturday night after qualifying was like a man this is only getting
worse qualified absolute last so for the kid in an important year and just keep saying this because
we speak the truth he's not returning to mclaren but he is indeed showing other teams he has something
they should pay attention to talent they should consider wanting to develop in the future this to
me was a really good kind of statement event to stop the bleeding going on all season long even
through qualifying and say hey when things go well i can be a top 12 guy that is definitely
something for folks to stand up and appreciate so without a doubt overperforming based on
expectations of the year to date thousand percent goes to nullan seagull that number six air mclaren
show pit stop champs boy super simple and also not a total surprise if you were a longer term fan
of indy car that number nine chip ganassi racing what was known as the wolf pack for a long long
time actually don't know if they still call themselves the wolf pack but i do know they
call themselves fastest of all teams at long beach so they were p1 on the pit stop performance award
fastest average time into the pits and out of the pits going to that number nine car scott dixon
p2 is the one that jumped out for me not just at long beach but now season long who goes hauling
a racing y'all we've not had a reason to say boy watch out for them on pit lane second in the event
but second through five races with that number seventy six chevy driven by renas vk did a little
story with team principal davo neal here they have really fought to try and make gains here
they helped themselves and we are certainly seeing the benefit of that so big big props to those two
teams rehull at him in lennigan racing had led through the fourth race coming out of barber
with graham rehull i think he's down maybe third or fourth for the season-long standings but
rll is still standing proud here with their season improvements as well with their pit
two more wards to go we're going to do kicked in the crotch and that felt like our guy marcus
ericsson yeah hybrid issues seems like between themselves teammate kyle kirkwood kirk having
hybrid issues the morning warm-up on sunday don't know why the hybrid cartoon anvil found them
but indeed it did thinking about marcus and how he went from having a potentially strong
street course run again to being the first driver out hybrid issue don't know exactly what it was
and haven't chased that down yet but felt bad for him that's knocked him back in the championship
standings for sure the other one that i felt really really bad for was rll's louis foster
tracking him towards the end of the race the reporter you're always looking for what are the
themes what are the the celebrations to have or something that went awry that you want to dive
into as you get into the latter the the final laps of the race the louis running tenth like hey
this he is on pace for his best result of the year not a brilliant qualifying charge forward in
the race again that story we'd seen a couple drivers do and watching and watching and hey
we got about 10 laps to go louis sitting p 10 roughly and then it's p 11 and 12 and and just
plummeted tires tires absolutely fell off burned off on the car and he went from being really
competitive and within 10 laps of his best finish of the year to honestly i don't even remember
what he fell down to but it was a huge drop post race had said we got to find out what it is
that makes this happen so felt bad for him with a potential being so high so knowing he had a chance
to finally pick himself up off the floor with a quality result and seeing all that go away in
the closing laps i'd had him as maybe the second kicked in the crotch award winner yet again an award
you absolutely don't want and to say farewell man i got to think about the order of these awards
that kind of get more depressing as we get to the end search party oh boy i did not expect
to need to send out a search party party am i talking long beach lb said what is wrong with me
search i'm just gonna keep this in um search party marcus armstrong where'd you go my guy
i never anticipated going to long beach going to a street course and having marcus armstrong
effectively go m i a got a look at the fact that he'd been the best mostly the best for
myershank racing this year in indy car leading the team fro felix rozenkvist pole position amazing
performance there ended up finishing p2 but it was felix leading the team not by a little bit
it was just a where did marcus go terrible qualifying compared to felix the race was just
unremarkable some issues on track some issues in the pits just finished next to last i believe
a really odd situation of marcus finishing 24th the other marcus finishing 25th has that ever
happened in any car i don't know that'd be an interesting one for the stach folks to dive into
but noting how strong armstrong had been this year seeing how felix and the msr team was capable
to be front running pace to have armstrong just absent from it all totally bizarre hasn't really
had a bad weekend like this this was his first i do love the fact that we now have a reason to be
surprised if armstrong is not in that lead group and doing significant things would also say here
just not a search party but it's just kind of related to close on you think about what the
marshank racing team was able to do pole position again felix did that in 2024 at long beach able
to lead two thirds of the race we know the issue in the pits that slowed them down a bit allowed
alex polo to jump ahead alex also had wild pace on the primary tires that he closed the race on
and felix closed the race on on the alternates they did the first two stints on felix had a little
bit of an advantage not a crazy amount but enough moving on to the primaries the harder tires alex
was upwards of four to five tenths per lap faster even without the issue in the pits for msr and
felix that number 60 honda i feel like the pace advantage that polo had probably would have seen
them swap positions and alex come home first but that wasn't the main thing i wanted to close on
here it was just this to me was a gut check race for marshank racing on pole not a surprise did
that recently felix we know how good he is running super well one opportunity all polo needs it's all
many drivers need to capitalize slight blink slight issue on pit lane marshank racing went from
winning their second ever indy car race felix winning his second ever to second place not happy
but just showed to me it was a real gut check boy it looks like we're okay little issue maybe
we're not all the way there keep in mind that number 10 entry of alex polo is that number
27 entry of kyle kirkwood some of the other select few don't have a lot of changes they've
spent years molding shaping making minor minor adjustments to those cars found what they believe
to be the perfect solution and they're locked in i'm not saying that marshank racing has any
changes to make on that number 60 car but this certainly did just highlight the fact
we got beat by perfection we weren't perfect it's a crazy bar to have to try and hit
sunday to me was just a reminder of aren't many other entries waiting to capitalize who can
achieve perfection and or near perfection but all it takes is that one little blink this was a
gut check for me i don't know if and how msr makes any changes as a result of what took place on sunday
or if it just was the latest bullet point of we think we're working really hard drilling really
hard trying to be perfect on pit lane not quite there yet this could be a really positive thing
in the long run this could be the thing that sends that reminder of thought we were there
this showed us we're not quite there we've got to keep digging we're not in that place to say
everything's rock solid just keep doing everything the way it's being done and we'll be good a little
bit of a reminder tiny bit more to achieve for msr sad on the day for what they didn't achieve
but maybe we'll look back long term and go maybe that long beach race was the one that helped
push them towards something to be a tiny bit stronger to allow them to truly start posing
a bigger fight a bigger threat stronger presence against the polos and everyone else
fighting for championships all right y'all thanks again for tuning in here to the set down
off in a couple of days to indy for the open test then a little bit of a break and then well
not much of a break actually got insa at laguna seca right after that basically get home from
the open test and i'll be driving right down to lagoon after i wake up thursday morning
following week we got some indy grand prix and then we get into the month of may so
little bit of a chance to breathe here but then things ramp right up so
thanks again for following along appreciate y'all i'll speak to y'all here soon
About this episode
Marshall Pruett breaks down Long Beach IndyCar as a “festival” with big crowds and strong TV numbers, but a race that felt slow early and lacked the street-racing chaos fans expect. He critiques the green-flag timing at the start, then questions why the new double-alternate tire rule hasn’t added drama—blaming Firestone’s harder, more durable alternates and the lack of early cautions. Awards highlight ECR’s race-engineering change, Alex Rossi’s rebound, pit-stop speed, and the disappointments for Marcus Armstrong and Louis Foster.
If you'd like to join the PrueDay podcast listener group, send an email to [email protected] and you'll be invited to participate in the Discord chat that takes place every day and meet up with your new family at IndyCar events.
