Long Beach Grand Prix is a big race event on city streets in California. The hosts are talking about how it grew over time and became a major racing weekend.
IndyCar is a major open-wheel racing series in the U.S. The hosts are saying Long Beach is mostly known for IndyCar today, but it used to be more than that.
The American Le Mans Series was a sports-car racing series in the U.S. The hosts are saying it was part of the history leading up to modern IMSA weekends.
GT usually means race versions of normal sports cars. The hosts are saying Long Beach has featured different kinds of race cars over the years.
Topic
Robbie Gordon's jumpy trucks
Robbie Gordon is known for off-road and stunt-style racing, and “jumpy trucks” points to a truck-based entertainment element rather than pure road-course racing. The hosts use it to emphasize how the Long Beach weekend added different categories and spectacle over time.
Long Beach is a famous IndyCar street-race weekend. It’s known for lots of things happening beyond just racing, so the whole event feels like a big “vacation” experience.
Formula D is a drifting series. The hosts are pointing out that Long Beach isn’t only about IndyCar—it also features drifting, which adds variety for fans.
Sometimes race officials decide the start wasn’t right—maybe cars are too spread out or something looks unsafe—so they cancel it and restart. That’s what “waved off” means.
Pit lane is the area where teams work on the cars during a race weekend. The hosts are saying officials talked about the start issue there near the end of the race.
Before the green flag, cars line up and wait in a controlled way. The point they’re making is that officials need to time it so the field forms properly—without making it drag on too long.
A hairpin is a super tight corner. Cars have to slow down a lot and turn sharply, so it’s easy for cars to get bunched up and cause crashes.
Term
curblamo
“Curblamo” is basically slang for hitting the curb. When you hit curbs hard in a race, it can throw the car off balance and sometimes leads to damage or a spin.
They’re talking about when the race should go green after a restart. At Long Beach, the timing matters a lot because it changes how close cars are together when they hit the first big corners.
Topic
IndyCar ceremonial vs professional starter
The hosts debate who should physically wave the flag to start a professional race versus a ceremonial starter. While it’s not a technical driving topic, it’s about race presentation and the authority/role of officials in the starting process.
Races rely on rules being applied correctly at restarts. If a system glitch means a boost stays on when it shouldn’t, it can affect who has the advantage, and officials have to address it afterward.
A caution is when the race slows down because something happened on the track. Cars follow the rules for a slower pace until it’s safe to race at full speed again.
Sometimes officials penalize drivers by making them fall behind the rest of the cars. Doing that to a lot of cars at once—especially while everyone is still racing—can be tricky and potentially risky.
A drive-through penalty means the driver must go through the pit lane without stopping, usually at a limited speed. It costs time and drops the car back in the running order.
The push-to-pass button is a race feature that gives a driver a short burst of extra power. It’s meant to be used only at certain times, and if someone hits it when they’re not supposed to, it can cause problems. The debate here is whether that extra power actually helps you gain positions during restarts.
Penalties are what race officials impose when a driver breaks a rule. Here, the rule issue is about using the push-to-pass button at the wrong time. The discussion suggests that when and how penalties are applied can affect how fair or predictable the outcome feels.
“On track advantage” means whether something a driver did actually made them faster compared to other cars. The hosts are questioning whether the officials’ conclusion—no advantage—makes sense. They argue that if you get extra power, you should be able to gain time or position.
St. Pete refers to the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg (Florida), another venue used in the discussion to evaluate whether push-to-pass-related incidents produced an advantage. The hosts ask whether Newgarden and McLaughlin gained anything there, contrasting it with the Long Beach claim. This highlights how officials and fans may debate outcomes differently depending on track context.
Term
700 of something
The hosts use a simplified “700 of something” and “50 more” example to illustrate how a power boost should create performance gains. Even if officials claim no advantage, the argument is that increasing output (horsepower) should improve acceleration and speed potential. It’s a lay explanation of the relationship between boost magnitude and race performance.
The control box is the car’s electronics “brain” that controls how systems behave. If its software is changed, it can make a feature like push to pass work when it shouldn’t.
A software glitch means the computer didn’t behave the way it was supposed to. In this case, the system ended up leaving push to pass active in a way that affected race fairness.
They’re describing what happened at Long Beach in 2024 where most drivers couldn’t use the extra-power feature, but some Penske cars could. The hosts’ main point is that it gave one team an advantage.
Penske is a top IndyCar team. Here, the hosts mention Penske because they believe the team’s cars were able to use push to pass when other drivers couldn’t.
Race control is the group that runs the rules during the race—deciding things like penalties and how incidents are handled. The hosts are saying the people involved can differ depending on the officiating side, which can affect outcomes.
Term
yellow line
The “yellow line” is a marked boundary on the track that rules reference. The hosts are using it like an example: if the rules say you can’t do something, you shouldn’t do it just because it seems possible. It’s about following the intent of the rule.
“IndyCar officiating LLC” is referenced as the organization that chose not to take action on the identified drivers who used push to pass while the system was having a problem. This highlights how IndyCar’s officiating bodies handle technical-system incidents versus intentional misconduct. Their decision affects how teams interpret risk and compliance going forward.
Concept
glitch no glitch don't touch the damn button
They’re talking about what happens when a race system acts up. If the button works because of a mistake, should drivers use it anyway? The point is that officials may want to make it clear that a glitch isn’t permission to break the rules.
Firestone tracks how fast race teams do pit stops. In this episode, they use that award’s timing data to compare which pit crews are consistently quick.
“Chip Ganassi Racing Honda” identifies the IndyCar team (Chip Ganassi Racing) and its engine supplier (Honda). In IndyCar, team engineering and pit execution both matter, and the segment uses this team’s pit stop performance as evidence of consistency.
“Metronomic” means extremely consistent and on-beat—like a musical metronome. The hosts use it to describe a pit crew that rarely makes mistakes and executes the same timing window repeatedly, which can be more valuable than sporadic bursts of speed.
This is describing the basics of a pit tire change: put the wheel on and tighten the nuts. Pit crews focus on doing it quickly and correctly every time.
An “air jack” is the pneumatic lift used by IndyCar pit crews to raise the car during a tire change. The segment contrasts Palou’s crew’s reliability with other crews that experience problems, like an air-jack malfunction or delay.
They’re explaining how they measure pit stop time. It starts when the car hits a marked line on the way into the pits and ends when it crosses another line after leaving, so the comparison is apples-to-apples.
Leapfrogging means one car ends up ahead of another after both have pitted. Even if you’re not much faster on track, a better-timed or quicker stop can let you come out in front.
Consistency means doing your job well again and again, not just having one great moment. In IndyCar, that often comes down to pit stops and avoiding mistakes so you don’t lose positions.
They’re talking about how a pit crew’s habits and teamwork build up over time. When the same people work together for years, they tend to be faster and more reliable when it matters most.
It means you can’t tell which thing caused the other. In racing, it’s like asking whether the best team is winning because they’re better, or because everyone else is having problems.
It means one team is pulling ahead and making it hard for others to catch up. Usually that happens when they keep winning or finishing very high.
Concept
grand slams
A “grand slam” here means a super-perfect race weekend with multiple big accomplishments. The host is wondering if the leader is getting those big weekends or if competitors are slipping.
It means the work the team does off the track. Changes like tuning the car and improving strategy planning can show up as faster lap times and better finishes.
It just means things are going badly right now. In racing, that usually points to the team not getting the car to perform the way it should.
Concept
8500
The number “8500” is mentioned as a target or milestone, but we don’t get enough detail here to know exactly what it refers to. It sounds like something related to season progress or points.
Street courses are temporary road circuits laid out on city streets, with tight corners and limited runoff compared to purpose-built ovals or road courses. Because you can’t fully test there before the season, teams rely heavily on driver feedback and setup tailoring to get the car working quickly.
Short ovals are smaller oval tracks, so the turns come up quickly and the car has to be stable and grippy. Setup and driving style are different than on bigger ovals because you’re constantly managing traction and balance.
Arlington refers to an IndyCar oval venue where teams can evaluate changes in direction and car behavior under race conditions. Here it’s mentioned as a place where the team started running strongly after adjustments.
Detroit is an IndyCar event run on city streets, so it behaves like a street course. The host is basically saying that the driver’s street-course experience will be tested there soon.
A super speedway is a big oval track where cars go fast for long stretches. The car needs to stay stable at speed, so it feels and handles differently than a twisty road course.
A road course is a track with lots of turns and braking, not just left turns at high speed. Because it’s more technical, the car setup and how the driver feels in the corners can change a lot from oval racing.
Switching from F1 to IndyCar isn’t just a new team—it’s a different kind of race car and different driving style. Even great drivers need time to learn how the car behaves and how to race it effectively.
Alpine is a Formula 1 manufacturer/team brand, and the transcript references Alpine “going away” at the end of the year. That kind of organizational change can affect driver opportunities and contract decisions, which is why it comes up in the discussion of whether a driver might return to F1.
Company
rll
“RLL” is a racing team name in IndyCar. The idea here is that if the driver performs well enough, that team (or another) might want to keep working with them.
An engineering change is when the person helping you set up the car and plan race strategy changes. That can take a couple races to get comfortable, because you have to learn each other’s communication style and what the car needs.
They’re describing a serious engine/motor problem that caused trouble right away. Because of it, the driver lost track time and had less opportunity to get ready for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest time to determine their starting spot. They’re highlighting that the driver earned a surprisingly good starting position.
“Long runs on tires” refers to extended stints used to evaluate tire wear, balance, and pace over time. The hosts credit the driver’s maturity because he managed those longer tire runs better than expected.
They’re talking about Phoenix Raceway, an oval track. The point is that the driver’s performance there stood out even though the weekend had a lot of problems.
Barber is a road course track. They’re saying the weekend felt better because the driver and engineer worked together more smoothly, even though the results weren’t huge.
This is about having the same engineering support around the driver consistently. It helps the team learn what works and improve faster over the season.
This is a support engineering job on a racing team. They help with analysis and setup work, and it can be a stepping stone to running engineering for races.
The hosts use “veteran approach” to describe a proactive team-management style: making changes early when results aren’t matching expectations rather than waiting. In motorsport terms, it’s about optimizing the feedback loop between driver, race engineer, and car development before the schedule becomes too tight.
The Long Beach open test is a time before the main races where teams practice and try different setups. The hosts say it’s a good moment to adjust who works with the driver so they can work better together.
The “500” refers to the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar’s marquee race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The hosts discuss the scheduling pattern of having no week off after the 500 and then rolling into the Detroit Grand Prix, which affects team preparation and momentum.
In racing, the “paddock” is basically the busy area where teams and people hang out between races. If the paddock is upset, it usually means teams and insiders aren’t happy with something.
A “tear down” means taking an engine apart to look inside. IndyCar officials sometimes do this to make sure teams followed the rules, especially if there’s a reason to suspect something.
“Sealed” means the engine is locked down so it can’t be opened freely. If officials need to check it, they can be confident it wasn’t changed in secret.
Concept
controlled environment clean lavish type scenario
They inspect the engine in a controlled, clean setup so nothing gets contaminated and the parts are handled consistently. That helps make the inspection results more trustworthy.
Concept
charter for shivy and honda
They’re talking about the rules/structure (the “charter”) that determines how teams and engine partners are set up in IndyCar. The host’s view is that it won’t suddenly make competition bigger or more expensive—it’s meant to keep things within what they can handle.
They’re talking about a “bridge” plan: keep using the older 2.2-liter IndyCar engines for a while in 2028, even though the series is supposed to switch to new 2.4-liter engines. The key issue is whether there would be enough engines and money to support running both programs at once.
Topic
running dw 12s post-2028 with the new car at indy
They’re discussing a plan for future IndyCar race formats (“DW 12s”) after 2028, using the new car. It’s basically about how the series would schedule and run events once the new rules arrive.
He’s saying this plan would cost a lot more because it would mean supporting two engine setups at the same time. Instead of phasing the old engines out, you’d have to keep them supplied and maintained, which takes extra money.
DW-12 is the current IndyCar engine setup. The point here is that once IndyCar moves to a new car/engine generation, it’s hard to keep using the old DW-12 stuff because it costs money and doesn’t match what teams and manufacturers want to build for the future.
They’re talking about adjusting the car so it sounds a certain way. But on turbo engines, the turbocharger and exhaust design control most of the sound, so you can’t easily make it sound exactly like a different era.
Term
turbo charge motor
A turbocharged engine uses a turbo to force more air into the engine. That affects how it runs and also how it sounds, so you can’t just tweak a couple things to make it sound like a naturally aspirated engine.
The turbocharger is the part that uses exhaust gases to spin a turbine and push more air into the engine. Because it sits in the exhaust/intake path, it strongly affects the engine’s noise.
The rev limit is the top RPM the engine is allowed to reach. If the new IndyCar engine is limited to the same RPM as the old one, it won’t automatically sound much different because a lot of the pitch comes from engine speed.
They’re comparing two similar turbo V6 engines with slightly different displacement. The claim is that bigger displacement alone doesn’t guarantee a totally different sound—especially if the engine still spins to the same RPM and uses similar turbo/exhaust design.
They’re talking about older IndyCar/CART turbo V8 engines and how they sounded. The idea is that those V8s had a distinctive, richer noise that people associate with the “classic” IndyCar sound.
Mercedes is mentioned as another engine maker in the IndyCar mix. The host is basically saying that different brands reached higher revs, and that changed the way the cars sounded.
Toyota is mentioned as one of the engine brands in the IndyCar conversation. They’re using it to compare how different manufacturers’ engines behaved at higher revs and how that affected sound.
When a turbo is working hard, it can make a very distinctive high-pitched noise. That sound depends on how the turbo and exhaust are set up, so tuning and exhaust changes can make it louder or different.
They’re basically saying the exhaust system shape and the way the turbo is feeding it can change the sound. Headers and the pipes after the turbo are big contributors to the pitch you hear.
This means changing the engine’s computer settings so it behaves slightly differently, which can change the sound you hear. You can sometimes make it more aggressive or more “musical” without swapping parts.
The speaker mentions Chevrolet in the context of internal engine changes for sound. In IndyCar, engine manufacturers’ design choices and calibration strategies can affect exhaust note, but the speaker is arguing there won’t be major internal changes just to alter pitch.
They’re talking about McLaren changing who they hire for a specific car number next year. In racing, who’s in the car can change what the team focuses on during testing and development.
LIVE
Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt podcast and your week in IndyCar listener Q&A show coming
out of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Got to see a couple of y'all, unfortunately wasn't able to make it to the meetup Sunday
morning organized by our dear friend, Christy Pradena, one of the leaders of the Prude
listener group, indeed had a meeting with a potential podcast sponsor and hoping that
all that's going to head in a wonderful direction, already have great sponsors of course, and
the Justice Brothers and Toronto Motorsports.com trying to add a new partner, one that would
allow us to do more and bigger and better, and once I hopefully get that in place, could
have one or two more to join in, but great, great event, so thankful for y'all, the support
that you constantly, constantly send in for myself and my wife and the cats and just all
kinds of love, so just sharing a little bit of love right back with y'all.
Why don't we do this?
We have plenty of questions here, 1,673 words worth, all compiled by our friend Jerry
Siddoth, and so I figure already did the set down, my YouTube video race review, I'll get
the audio posted here just before this episode goes up, but the actual full video done with
a lot of help from my friend Steve Seacore and also Derek Marcille, that is up on the
good old Marshall Pruitt video jamboree known as YouTube, so if you can, would appreciate
your participating in that, and then also try and break off the audio here, but we're
going to dive right in knowing that we have plenty of analysis sitting there in video
form, going to dive right into your questions submitted, so why don't we kick things off
with our friend Jeremy Davis, I believe Guinness Book of World Records, received as, recognized
as, certified as the world's biggest Scott Dixon fan, he opens the show by saying no
question this week, just positive vibes and prayers from Indy to you, and Mrs. Pruitt
and says hope to see you at IMS in May, without a doubt Jeremy, that's really sweet of you
and so many of y'all add in just beautiful little notes with your questions, so thank
you Jeremy and I actually might hopefully get to see you and the family here in a couple
of days, flying out Monday for the Indy Open Test, be there all day Tuesday, the vast majority
of Wednesday, catch the last flight home Wednesday evening, I think I should get in the door
around midnight and then very likely taking a shower, falling into bed and then getting
up and driving straight down to get old Laguna Seca, weather tech raceway Laguna Seca for
some IMSA action, so fun times ahead y'all, so but thanks for the really warm opening
to the show Jeremy, our pal JJ Gertler, Yerke Yarvaleto Gertler hits us with our first questions
is obviously the passing of Long Beach Grand Prix President Jim McAleon, affected the entire
weekend, but where are spectators most likely to see his imprint, is there something particular
where they can say Jim did that or is it just the whole darn thing, don't know if I would
say there's any specific item JJ, but I would just tell you that the imprint of Jim is on
Long Beach in the same way that it is on Arlington and Detroit and what we expect to see in
Washington DC, Markham for sure, look at what he is colleague from back in the day, the
founder of the event Chris Pooke got to see him last weekend and also Big Eagle Dan Gurney,
this thing started off as a street race in a very seedy Long Beach area, developed into a
world-class Formula One race, really took off as a kart IndyCar series race, evolved into a
champ car event and then moved into what we know today as the IndyCar series and in each stage,
especially with Jim taking over completely around 2000, 2001, the festival-like approach that you
see today at Long Beach JJ, that's the blueprint, that's the imprint, it is music, it is food,
it is drink and it's race cars and not just one type of race cars, this is really a McAleon thing,
most of us think of Long Beach as an IndyCar event, open-wheel event, that's what it is,
but thanks to Jim, it is also a sports car event where IMSA predecessors before that,
grand damn for a brief little bit, then the American Le Mans series prior to that,
big feature race on Saturday and then some sort of touring cars or GT are similar
and then adding in Robbie Gordon's jumpy trucks and historic, right, changing classes each year,
run by HMSA, run by my friend Chris van de Gryff, this is the overabundance approach
and I would directly assign that JJ to Jim McAleon, so if you were there this year,
the year before, been there anytime and called the modern era, you know that Long Beach is something
that wears your behind out, starts off with cars on track at about 8 a.m. and they go to
5 or 6 p.m. at least, concerts at night, drifting as well, Formula D at Long Beach there,
I mean just up and down, you are blanketed, it's kind of the Disneyland approach,
Disneyland being not far away, but like right, it's the greatest place, the funnest place on
earth and you go cool, a million different attractions, you go there on vacation and you
leave your vacation exhausted, it is that model here, JJ to close, but I would say for sure
is a Jim McAleon imprint, expect to see more of that emerge at Arlington next year, right,
great cars, great racing, but more variety of cars, more every thing, amp it up,
just expect to see this Jim influence, really follow everywhere else where IndyCar is holding
street races. Sam and Idiotus, how you doing Sam says, why on earth was the initial start
of the Long Beach race not waved off with the large gap after the first six cars,
because I feel like we've seen starts waved off in the past where the field has been formed up
better than what we saw on Sunday. Yeah, that was BAD bad Sam, spoke with a very senior official
on pit lane towards the end of the race and they brought up how bad the start was and
this wasn't a on the record conversation, so I'll refrain from saying who it was,
but I can't tell you, they definitely have the authority to make sure that that doesn't happen
again or at least imply that if that does happen again, there's going to be heck to pay. So
mention this in the set down, don't mind repeating it here, there is this middle ground
that is really necessary to hit and that is a thing to me that was missed Sam. So it wasn't just
the throwing of the green flag early, the field barely lined up, etc. So you do not want to wait
for all the cars come out of the hairpin, everybody to be lined up and just kind of crawling beneath
the starter's feet before the green flag is thrown. You also do want to throw it after barely any cars
get through the hairpin. There's a middle ground, don't throw it too early, it screws things up for
way too many drivers, don't wait too long, otherwise the percentage likelihood of a big old
curblamo happening in turn one with more or less the whole field showing up at the same speed real
close to each other, that's where you get a lot of turn one accidents. So finding that middle
ground where, hey, sorry, those of you who sucked in qualifying, but you probably aren't going to get
around the hairpin before the green is thrown, but indeed we can't go too early, can't go too late,
it's a little bit of a little red riding hood here and definitely got that totally wrong.
Where I would expect some adjustments to be made knowing that this is seemingly a topic of conversation
way too often at Long Beach, Sam, is, okay, like give us an idea of when you want that green flag
to be thrown, where is that perfect balance, where do we want to do this going forward and make that
happen. Indy Carr's great starter, Aaron Likens, no question about him, his capabilities,
know that sometimes if not often there'll be a, I don't know, what do you call them,
honorary starter, ceremonial starter, something where someone is up there waving a flag, great.
I just know that since this is a professional event, I don't know if the start of a professional
event should involve someone actually doing the thing, waving a flag that starts the event.
I would rather just, this is more of a generalism, but I'd rather see the professional starter
wave the flag and then have the ceremonial person have another green flag and the minute they see
Aaron wave the flag, well, hey, you person can wave yours right after they do, but no matter what,
the professional will be starting the race. Again, sorry, I don't know, I just decided to go off
in that little bit, but hey, there you go. So I'm with you, Sam, no good explanation why, easy to fix.
Definitely, though, can't go back in time and fix the good old poopage of the bed that took
place here on Sunday at Lungen Beach. Jim Barnett says concerning the push to pass users on that
lap 61 restart, this being a case where IndyCar, IndyCar officiating came out after the event and
said, hey, we are meant to shut down push to pass on that restart per the rules. There was a software
problem that did not turn off push to pass and 12 out of the 25 drivers had pushed to pass on the
restart. Jim asking, could IndyCar have moved the 12 offenders to the back of the field?
Um, could is a great word. So the issue here being this, there was a single caution here,
so we got into the race this two thirds of the way through caution that cropped up.
The 30ish laps left to run, meaning about a half an hour left of racing after we got back to green.
I don't know if there would have been time for any kind of real serious investigation into this gym
to parse out who used push to pass, who didn't, how much, etc. Make that determination
and apply a penalty within the last just under 30 laps to go in the race on a relatively short
track where lap times go by very quickly. The answer is yes, had this happened very early in the
race at the start of the race, for example, possibility exists. Just sharing that while
IndyCar's race control room is well staffed, there is not an abundance of three, four, five,
six additional people. Hey, we're going to have you investigate something and here's
those associates who do nothing but dive into that and come back and report the information
to whomever might make a decision. That isn't what they have, which means that something like this
happening in the final third of a race that runs about an hour, 40 minutes, hour, 50 minutes long,
I don't see the time for this to really be possible to come to a formal decision
and act upon that in a reasonable reasonable amount of time unless there had been a very late
caution and they had somehow been able to confirm who the 12 were in that moment and then move them
to the back of the field there. Other than that, if they'd been able to find and determine for sure
those 12 as you got into lap 75 or 80 or whatever it was in the 90, there would have been the option
if they had that information then Jim, I don't know, would have had the opportunity to say,
okay, you 12 do a drive through and that's how we penalize you slash move you to the back of the
field, but with a active green race, I'm not aware of any mechanism, practiced and acknowledged
and familiar system where not just one car, hey, you move to the back, pull over,
but getting 12 drivers too slow and they weren't necessarily nose to tail to do that,
pull over wherever they were on track, that to me actually sounds more dangerous and risky than
anything. So if it's not that which I wouldn't recommend, sending everyone to pit lane could
have been a thing but it feels like really would have been improvising and I don't know if I like
the idea of improvising penalties and the final third of a race or frankly any part of a race. So
totally hear what you're saying, don't disagree with the notion that yeah, I mean hey,
the smash and the push to pass button leading into a restart when it's supposed to be turned off,
that's what Joseph Newgarden said he did right a couple years ago with his penalty and
Scotty McLaughlin said he mistakenly pressed his once and it activated for a second and a half or
so and he hit it again and deactivated it but regardless of that, the habit of drivers hitting
that button even though it's supposed to be turned off on starts and restarts in the odd chance that
oops it got left on don't want to be left behind caught out if others are smashing that button,
that was explained by Newgarden a couple years ago. Some other drivers who weren't involved in that
push to pass thing back then said yeah do that too, don't want to get caught out just in case.
This was full evidence Jim that approximately half the field 12 out of the 25 are button
smashers is that a thing hashtag button smashers I don't know the thing that surprised me the most
was it was 12 not 25 like that is the thing that really struck me I'm sure some of you many of
you watch a lot of the live in car camera feeds and probably have a feeling for who the the button
smashers are and aren't but just by the numbers I was like 12 and I was thinking at least 20
if not just all 25 so slightly surprised if not disappointed it was less than half the field
but Jim goes on to say Indy Kars said that there was no on track advantage gain at Long Beach
asked did Newgarden and McLaughlin gain an advantage at St. Pete if not wears the consistency
in assessing penalties this also did some of the leaders use their button on that restart in
Long Beach so work through these somewhat quickly I don't know if Indy Kars said there was no on
track advantage if they did maybe I didn't read that part or misread that or I don't know but
if you have 700 of something and a button gives you 50 more and you have 750 talking horsepower
you have indeed gained an advantage so yeah if Indy Kars suggested no advantage gain well that
was wrong did Newgarden and McLaughlin gain an advantage back St. Pete 2024 yes difference here
this is not a case in talking about Newgarden and McLaughlin of gain an advantage not gain an
advantage in and of itself the conversation there is their cars were modified the control box right
software modifications to illegally allow circumventing of the push to pass being deactivated
so complete difference here Jim night and day so Indy Kars whether it was a human error I'm told
it wasn't I asked Indy Kars officiating board member Ray Evernham and a phone call on Monday or Tuesday
hey was this like someone forgetting to switch the system off thing human error or was this
truly software the press release said software but you do this long enough and you don't trust
much that's put into press release and he said absolutely all in all honesty it was a software
glitch a software problem don't know why but that is what happened turned it off and it did not
function in an off manner and it was actually on so this was a Indy car related slash instigated
ability for the entire field to use push to pass on that restart only 12 did the situation exposed
at Long Beach in 2024 which traced back to St. Petersburg earlier in that season was indeed
push to pass being turned off for everyone except the Penske drivers all three with the
modifications to their just called software allowed them to bypass that and make use of push
to pass when nobody else could so regardless of the how or why intentional not intentional
all that's been litigated plenty but this was a single team that made modifications
that gave them an advantage no one else had totally different situation here at Long Beach
so in terms of consistency in assessing penalties need to parse that out a little bit
while the majority of the people in charge of two days race control are the same people who were
back then there is a difference with the independent officiating side there are folks now weighing in
sharing their thoughts on how things should be handled in terms of assessing penalties
that being the iob side that being Raj Nair Ronan last name I'm forgetting and Ray Evernham
would say that the thing that stands out to me here Jim to close is I'm in agreement with you
that there is something silly about hey we as a organization in charge of the on and off button
for push to pass had a problem and therefore the fact that 12 drivers who know they should not be
using it even if it is made available to them decided to use it I get that this was not something
those 12 drivers their teams did to illegally modify anything to make that available for them
at the same time just as we have rules that say you cannot go below the yellow line here
you cannot do this you cannot do that if this is something that you know for sure you have
been told you cannot use I get the smashing of the button totally understand the button
smashing approach what if it is available and if it is I bet others are using it so I better do it too
to me a really wonderful wonderful adjustment rule wise coming out of Long Beach
since the IndyCar officiating board and IndyCar officiating LLC has chosen to take no action on
the 12 they've identified who have used this while the system was having a problem seems to me Jim
to make sense to say okay can't use it ever when you're not post to which I think is kind of in
the rules but maybe you reinforce that hey glitch no glitch don't touch the damn button and if you
do whether it's our fault the universe's fault whatever fault hey you know for the opening
lap on start restarts whatever else can't touch the damn button so don't you start to then remove
any questions of do you need to officiate do you need to make a judgment call I don't like the idea
even though nothing illegal was done to their cars to make it possible that 12 did get away with
using it uh good on the other 13 I figured it'd be all 25 but yeah not a big fan here with you but
I do not see any parallels that would make me think that this falls into the same category
as the one with the the Penske cars from a couple years ago our Boyd Lance Snyder
does indeed say hey more push to pass drama why is PTP PTP I'll just leave it here uh paid time
pass why is push to pass suddenly become hard shouldn't be that hard but here we are in 2026
more drama llamas from a mature product make it make sense um I mean again the
one issue that was had was two years ago at Long Beach in the morning warm up and yeah
problem was had with sending a signal to activate push to pass during morning warm up so nobody's
systems were getting the signal saying yes you can use push to pass which is allowed in the
pre-race warm up but indeed uh that's where the Penske drivers two of the three effective or I don't
know how many maybe all of them but uh basically self-incrimination so I don't know if I would say
suddenly become hard brother this is two instances in a span of 24 months so I don't see that as
any kind of big frequency Taylor solmos you say the strategy of alex plows 10 car becomes clearer
with each victory qualify near the front pass the car to stock the leader for a while end up in the
lead after the first or second round of pit stops it's insane to see how his pit crew essentially
put him in a place for a smooth victory what is it going to take for someone to beat him in the pits
and what do you believe his crew has the edge to be so much faster consistently well the wonderful
question Taylor would wind it back just a little bit though let me see if I can pull open the
document here uh so through long beach the firestone pit stop performance award
alex plows team the number 10 car chip ganassi racing honda currently ranked 10th out of the 25
full-time entries uh sister car the number nine of scott dixon the vac crew that number nine car
leads and coast hallinger second ray hauls third with a 15 car and so on um this is not a case
where alex plows pit crew is so much drastically faster than everybody else what they are though
is metronomic they are like a click track if you're a fan of music um this is a number 10 team
that is just always very good rarely if ever do we see them with a problem getting a wheel on
off wheel nut sailing down pit lane struggles to get the buck i plugged in to refuel air jack issue
you look at scott dixon just pulling up the the two pit stops between dixie and alex for example
and this is measured right from the pit in timing stripe to the pit out so this is effectively
from the moment they pull onto pit lane and cross that stripe get down to their pit box
have the pit stop performed pull out and then cross that stripe start accelerating back out onto
the track dixon's first pit stop 40.23 seconds in its entirety uh alex's was 41.14 so effectively
a second slower the second stop for dixie was a 40.15 and for alex it was a 40.7 so
averaging the two alex's average pit stop was 40.94 seconds dixie's was 40.19 seconds
this is where things really stand out and so i realize we're not talking about any kind of
enormous difference but looking at alex's second stop the one where he leap frogged alex uh alex
where he leap frogged fro felix rozenkvist alex's pit stop 40.7 40.7 pro 41.4 49 just call it 41.5
so roughly eight tenths faster wasn't crazily different but was indeed just different enough
to be able to get ahead of him on pit lane so the thing i would just point to and come back to is
indeed on pit lane uh looking at the season to date fro in that number 60 marchank racing honda
meckadol number 60 crew is currently ranked eighth uh 111 points two spots ahead of polo's team
so this was just one little blink right little tiny blink on felix's car that's the thing that
10 car it is not the fastest on average but they just do that same really really good speed that
really good pit stop over and over and over again so you might get someone who fluctuates
up or down but man the consistency part that's the formula it's not new to polo
dixon's used it to win six championships darfur and kitty used it to win four championships
others have used it to win championships but it's really just this overarching approach of
win when you can murder people with podiums otherwise be excellent on pit lane but do
nothing special don't try to beat anybody just do your job and guess what we're gonna be wearing
big rings and big hats and holding big checks at the end of the year all of which say champion
spraying lots of champagne it's just damn hard to beat last little thing on this just to close
it's a culture thing and what is culture well culture is something that is established and
fed and nurtured over time become something solid become something with permanence
think of a 10 car a car's been around for a long time longer than alex polo in that car
there's some great people a part of it ricky davis is crew chief julien robertson is race
entry in indy car look at dixon's number nine his pit crew very cultured been together for a
long time not saying there are never any changes but dixie's changed race engineers a number of
times there's been enough changes in in other roles where you go while the nine car is really
cultured enough changes though where you go yeah there's no one else on pit lane with any single car
that has had the same person the same people doing effectively the same dang things year after year
after year to the point to where it's just to juggernaut to try and overcome so you might get
at this race you might get them at that race but across 17 races 18 races
you're left with an awesome question to ponder taylor taylor is it a case of the 10 car and then
beating everybody else across those 17 18 races that allows them to become champs
or is it the others who are trying to beat them coming up short more often than the 10 car across
those 17 or 18 i realize it's a little bit of a chicken or the egg scenario but last year is
definitely the 10 car beat the heck out of everybody but some of those other years those other
championships i'd say pretty good argument to be made taylor that it wasn't so much the 10 car
just mollywapping everybody it was holding that high level of consistency great points great
everything really not wavering too much and others shooting their shot and got a win or two or three
but then kind of missing totally missing their shots at too many other races
total boomer bust total cyclical approach to how their seasons have gone and so yeah in those cases
they effectively take themselves out of the championship hunt compared to the 10 car just
running away 2025 was a different animal they ran the heck away here we are in 2026
five races down that 10 cars won three of the races so far we would not be totally shocked
if they added one more win maybe two in may this could be a case of them running away yet again
just appears to be a bit tougher than it was for them last year but are they doing all grand slams
to win or some of their competitors proving to come up short more often than they should
making it easier for the 10 car to get those crowns think year by year a little bit of both
brother uh david zitterbart are you doing david says will power seems to be on struggle street
while blending into and ready progress is never instant for sure but what areas do they need to
improve behind the scenes to improve their on track performance says it'll be an outside chance
come the 8500 for sure but what do you feel they need to address to lock in that opportunity well
i am going to answer your question as soon as i come back from going and helping my wife
and if you heard the little ding ding that was because mrs proot needs some help and while i love
y'all um i will just go ahead and confirm i love her so i'm going to go help my girl and then i'll
be right back and we will answer your question david and welcome back by the way to the marshall
pro podcast sorry for the little unexpected break there but that is actually a hundred percent normal
life at least in our little household uh really simple for me david i would say think about will
power having driven for team penske for 17 years arrived there after having some time at kv racing
slash team australia wasn't a super experienced guy jumped over to a new series new type of car
learned it then jumped into another new type of car did a lot of development in it and over those
many years at penske really helped to refine and define the handling of that dw 12 chevy powered
car at team penske he was the one constant he was the person with the greatest feel technical
feedback helping to shape the direction of that team moving over to androide global it's the same
delar dw 12 different motor but just a different philosophy to race engineering every team has
a slightly different approach to how they do what they do so i'd say when i think about will getting
him to improve the on track performance the consistency there etc i'd say five races in
three of them being street courses those street courses really being the one type of track you
can't test on before the season to help make whichever setup suggestions he might have or
tailor the car to his needs i'd look at the fact that phoenix was a place where he really saw him
show out his oval prowess short oval prowess with a team that hadn't been great on short ovals
benefited from his direction they didn't have a real solid direction of their own for him to
learn it was more a case of changing what they were doing saw him run strongly at arlington
brand new track for everybody so a bit of a starting point that was the same for everybody
but i'd just say when i look at most of the other places whether it's the road course at barber
the other street courses which he does know kyle kirkwood's plugged into that car that car has
been shaped and developed in his direction but for will just to close here david i think it's
just a matter of time i think we look at the types of tracks been at so far look at where we're going
would say by the month of may's closure knowing that we're going to detroit as well
i feel like a much more consistent willpower knowing what to expect after his second road
course race second oval super speedway it's very different from phoenix obviously but then yet
another street course fourth of the season at detroit i feel like he's going to have a pretty
decent bank of understanding of what the team's doing how the car is different how it behaves
differently through andretti set up approaches and then have maybe more of an influence of his own
to shape some things in his own needs in his own direction so we see more of the willpower
we've come to know uh chris kyle kato and chris as i watched your after-race interview with mc
schumacher and he seemed measured in his response and maybe a little frustrated with his lack of
progress i know there's a learning curve between f1 and indycar however we have seen other f1 drivers
come into the sport see more success like roshan erikson and rossy still early in the season but
how long do we give schumacher to start figuring it out because if he doesn't this year do we see
him giving indycar a second go round next year well let's work backwards here chris
opportunity is the thing that would make him revisit reconsider what he might want to do in
2027 if he has an f1 team saying please we want you to drive our car he's gone guaranteed other
than that he's done wek didn't seem to particularly revel in that it was for not a great team and
alpine alpine's going away at the end of the year don't know if anything mic did in the wc really
had other manufacturers just tripping over themselves to sign him struggling to think of
any f1 teams that would say please we didn't want you when you were here standing around full time
going to every race but now that you've gone across to america and had whatever season you've
had please come back i'd love that for him knowing that f1 is still his dream i just don't think that's
super realistic as i see the arc for him it's hoping and wanting to stay where he is and doing
enough to earn an invite back from rll and or an invite from another team to come join them
so that's my first thought for mc would say keep in mind he is now two races in to a engineering
change race engineering change so he and eddie jones despite eddie being brilliant they're just
learning to work together would say that his second race with eddie should say second event with eddie
was pretty darn close to a disaster motor issue failure whatever exactly it was immediately on
friday gets effectively one lap at slow speed no more and so misses all of friday then has an
incident just made a mistake trying to learn the track trying to make up for lost time saturday morning
in practice crashes that effectively ruins that session for him then it's straight into qualifying
and the fact that he out qualified for drivers is ridiculous i told him as such like
that's wild man you should have been 25th and last period the fact that you qualified 21st
i thought was remarkable and then in the race he did well with all of the odds against him
all the lack of track familiarity long runs on tires to really know those as well as everybody
else i'd say he had a super super impressive and mature run in the race to what 17th place
or whatever it was so again by the numbers 17th not the least been impressive but man this guy had
everything go wrong that would conspire against having a quality weekend and instead of just laying
down and coming home last which no one would have been surprised by actually put up a bit of a fight
went forward a little bit did his best to learn came out of the event clean so i'd say that oval
performance at phoenix was a real eye opener would say that from an engineering standpoint
there was nothing positive happening in his first race at st pete nothing positive happening at
arlington he made mistakes as well at arlington things just were bad and so a reboot at barber
no chance whatsoever to work together beforehand having to learn each other
decent event but nothing remarkable results wise but there was a really good feeling the vibe was
much more positive and conducive between the driver and engineer and so with everything i just
mentioned about long beach honestly chris i'm for the most part forgetting the season that he's had
so far in my mind his season starts at the indy gp that's the first flat ish natural terrain road
course for him one that doesn't have crazy risks like a barber i think we should see him do very
well there we also know that last year rll his team was very sharp on the road course so everything to
me points towards i'm just gonna effectively forget the first five races even the phoenix event where
he was a rock star i'm just gonna say you know what this is where things truly start it's got an
indy 500 championship winning race engineer who's coming out of retirement i still think this could
be a pretty impressive start to the year for him if that does not happen indy 500 is going to be the
next opportunity to show his capabilities i'm not looking for anything remarkable there chris
i think if he qualifies decently and completes the race that to me is a big big victory for him so
at this point hasn't had the super educational and building from one lesson to the next to the next
and leveling up that was hoped for to start the season uh it's effectively first day at school for
me at least when i think of mc coming up here shortly the indy gp uh beyond that we're gonna have
to measure that curve from all the races for me at least afterwards uh frank url you ask why was
michael canan gone at long beach with dale coin racing just taking a sip here um i will
leave that up to mr canan to explain if and when he chooses to uh been in communication with him
before the event and within the last 24 hours as well and just say that michael's unavailable
don't know if we're going to i hope we have him back soon uh but would say that knowing that
to help develop and denis hauger one thing that the team needs also andretti global connected
to coin through hauger needs is for denis to have a consistent race engineering presence
someone to learn from develop himself so would say i would expect that to be in place here for
the rest of his season so um other question you have you say alexander rossi got a new race
engineer last weekend can you explain who why now and who is this and is it for the rest of the year
yes the plan is for jack ruskell are you skll to be alexander's race engineer for the rest of the
season between himself he was one of the associate slash performance assistant engineer types within
the team himself quintin montego as well and i know that during the preseason looking at race
engineering options kind of a do we go with one or the other went with quintin thought that they
had some promise for sure but nothing really seemed to jump out as like wow here's here's a real strong
result after strong result so didn't surprise me to see them decide to say you know what jack was
also under serious consideration for this race engineer role let's just go ahead and give that
a try at least for long beach seemed like on race day they found something so um alexander
is someone who has not won a race in a while and yet that's not his lot in life to never win
motor races again in indycar he has the talent without a doubt to win races continue to win races
push this team into the top ten for sure his young teammate christian rasmussen race winner
already and continues to impress and can do more would just say with alexander in particular
he's in a place as a veteran definite veteran someone who has run and fought for championships
all the way at the sharpest end of the grid with what we call now andretti global this is a guy
who's done this long enough to know what he wants and whether something is or isn't working
to achieve that highest level of expectation and so
to see a veteran like alexander and the team say hey we are four races in
do we go more races or do we just say done well but not as well as we expected let's make a change
now before we get into the month of may as well i think this to me frank this qualifies as an
absolute veteran approach veteran move make that change now try and get that
direct race engineer and driver chemistry going do that at long beach in the open test next week
indy gp by the time you get into the proper month of may there should be that necessary
connection shorthand between the two of them to do good things and if not then i'm sure the
team will look at other engineering options i mean they've got a lot of talent among race
engineers if necessary but the timing for this was perfect if they're going to make a change
this was the time to do it uh what do we go to grendel 81 says okay i'll be the one to ask this
year why no week off after the 500 and before detroit um we haven't had a week off after the
500 and before detroit and i don't know how long so the moving straight to motown to celebrate
your indy 500 winner and have that momentum from the 500 roll into the detroit gp that's been the
norm for a good long while now and if there's a year that i'm forgetting where there was a break
a year recently then yeah i'm truly um losing my mind uh mike van metro how are you mike says
we're gurgitating my question from two weeks ago since push to pass is back in the news
how is the officiating body being perceived before and after this weekend any noticeable changes
in tech uh indoor moments between teams regarding tech issues in other words is the paddock happy
with the changes um i haven't heard any significant complaints not saying there have been no complaints
but tend to get a pretty steady drumbeat mike of people being unhappy rarely do folks reach out
and say boy i'm just in a really smiley wonderful place you tend to hear from folks when they're
not happy in my profession and i haven't heard that so would say we're also still in that honeymoon
phase don't get me wrong i listened to one crew chief complain about a decision made by them
last weekend and you know but i counted some of the things i've heard is just normal things not
like oh this new independent group the new folks here doing things in a certain way
boy these are really standing out as something that's pissing off the paddock haven't heard that
yet but i think we're gonna have to get through may before anyone really is feeling like okay
we have a enough data points to really feel like things are trending in whatever direction
if they might be negative uh you say and also close our winning car engines torn down for
inspection after races india especially are they sealed um and are not subject to these
tear downs since the manufacturer uh manufacturers have tax assigned to teams it's entirely up to
the officials to decide what they want to tear down um not super common these days for a
a at the track engine tear down this would definitely be a case of the motor being sealed
going back to the team's shop supervision by an indy car tech official of it being
removed from the car and then crated and confiscated per se or removed retrieved and then
whichever inspection desire to be done to it would then be done usually in some form of
controlled environment clean lavish type scenario so uh yeah no single answer but yeah for sure you
would think indy 500 in particular would be under uh the most scrutiny for sure uh let's see zoko
jinchi asks what is any car planned at a minimum for the next two years uh
uh i think to go motor racing like uh what kind of ideas do they have for the competition
for the next two years so this year and next um
it's really hard to answer general questions like this because other than the obvious there's
nothing else planned or stated that would be vastly different so they're going to hold races
this year and next year and then probably afterwards um what kind of ideas do they have
for the competition again i sorry i to compete to put on motor races i don't know i like i don't
think they're going to change anything they're still going to use cars and tires and engines and
fuel and drivers so yeah yeah uh and then uh close by saying i mean really the charter for
shivy and honda isn't going to change or elevate the competition it's just going to keep them at
the size they can manage okay uh james robert mitchell says last week david land suggests
the indy car rebadge the 2.2 liter engines in 2028 when the new 2.4 liter motors come out
so that indy has enough engines to outfit entries for bumping what do you think of this idea
as well as running dw 12s uh post 2028 with the new car at indy um i think this is never going to
happen at all and here's the reason so i don't know love ideas like this they're fun they're fun
i'm not necessarily in the fun business as i am the reality business so these are kind of fun fan
concepts but then the reason that you don't hear me floating things like this is because
this would involve doubling the budget for shivy and for honda on the engine side so for example
if there was a need for shivy and honda to run these 2.2s for say one more year for whatever reason
the 2.4 liters who knows we're going to be ready for 2028 not saying that's the case nothing to
suggest that i'm just painting a scenario if there was a need to run the 2.2s for one more year
than planned this would come at significant cost to shivy and honda because they would need to order
manufacturer manufacturer tons of things to keep them alive and afloat for one more year
budget wise they are currently budgeted to ramp them down so the most part just have them come off
the books as an expense this is the concept is the same as saying well i've got one car
what if i ran a second car you go okay budget wise you now have two unique things that you
need to feed money into to make them operate that's exactly the scenario of what it would be
if the 2.2 liters were rebadged or just continued to be used in 2028 alongside the 2.4s shivy has a
budget to run 2.4s to make a large pool of those motors and support the running of those motors
same with honda keeping the 2.2s alive requires a complete massive second budget for both
so it's a non-starter because it would require doubling the budgets so this is why again it's a
fun thing to think about but from a practicality standpoint ain't happening whatsoever as for
running the dw-12s i don't know why they would be run when a brand new car is coming realize there's
the expense of going to the new cars etc etc there's a reason things are changing and that's to get rid
of cars that are so painfully old so the idea of trying to carry the old crap into the future to
run it alongside the new crap you're not going to get any interest from the auto manufacturers
involved the teams as well they might have plenty of inventory for dw-12 stuff but inevitably
for talking about running at indy they're going to want things to be as fresh as possible new
as possible so that means spending more money not just using the good old cars that have been
sitting around so a fun concept just not one rooted in reality unfortunately um rensky 420
here we go mp heard dug i assume you mean dug bowls in a recent phone interview say the new
engines will be tuned for sound says by keeping current revs the same is there a way to make the
current slash next gen engine sound better and bring back that high-pitched 90s indy car wine
so the answer is no period now tuned for sound there are limited things you can do with a turbo
charge motor to tune for sound meaning playing with the exhaust outlet basically but the the
headers themselves feed into a sound deadening device that being the turbocharger itself the
sound of the motors staying at the same 12 000 rpm rev limit knowing that we're just going from a
2.2 liter twin turbo v6 to a 2.4 liter twin turbo v6 with no more revs is not going to sound
i don't want to say any different but man you really would have to be an expert to
truly know that there's much of a difference at all so
the ferocity of a turbo motor is what really makes the sound to me that's where things start to
stand out so the cart 2.6 liter 2.65 liter turbo v8's those indeed had a very rich sound
very rich sound dating back to the like the original cause worths but then moving up through the
chevys and the fords and the others revs got higher honda and toyota and mercedes right revs
went up the ferocity went up boost went up power went up and they sounded insane just amazing
even the lower rev turbo v8's from the the 80s i still thought sounded amazing
for what we have today for what we have coming in a year or two there's not going to be
anything that they're going to be able to change to make it sound
different big turbo wine screaming sound it's just not going to happen not without
dialing up the revs that won't happen and then from there the sheer ferocity of the motors yeah
they'll be a little bit angrier but we're not going to be talking about oh my gosh this sounds
insane so there is something that can be done to try and tune what happens after the turbo
leading out through the exhaust there can be some tuning there for sound but everything from the
turbo back down to the exhaust headers and the motor itself there's nothing chevier honda are
going to do internally just to try and alter the the pitch or the whatever else coming out of the
motors just for sound entertainment so uh yes and i spoke with a friend at one of the
manufacturers this week and we both agreed could there be a two percent change or three percent
change and the sound through tuning for sound absolutely the oh my gosh this sounds like the
best thing ever expect to hear something that is incredibly similar to today's motors if it's
anything other than that then i need to speak to the wizards who did stuff that uh just i just
purely don't understand how that would happen uh what else do we have yeah we got a couple of
things let me see what else do we try and answer before we say farewell uh
andi brumbos is any early silly season rumblings any word on marcus erickson
felix roe's fist the new factory entries um yeah nothing crazy right we know mclaren's gonna be
hiring someone to be in that number six car for next year someone different so that's something
to track for sure uh beyond that myershank racing certainly is is waiting to be convinced uh to
hold on to both drivers i don't know if i really have anything new to offer here andi that we
haven't worked through either on the show or that i've written for racer dot com here
somewhat recently am aware of of one driver that one team is going to test who's fascinating to me
it's meant to be a postseason test but as i understand it there is zero intent for that
driver to actually join the team and race for them and indy car but um yeah a little bit quiet
right now most of the the dominoes as they might fall i don't know if i would consider any of them
like truly like peak peak level type stuff um but i'll certainly keep you posted uh if anything
stands out who else should we speak about uh what do we go with our pal ed juris ed says
would you be surprised if none of the existing indy car teams switched manufacturers before 2028
it's been a while hasn't it says hrc and ilmore of 22 months come up with engine rules design
test mass produce new motors for 28 uh would you be surprised if we are still running today's engines
at the start of 2028 yeah no uh no expectations for that to happen at all um was told here
convincingly by many that while the hope to get out and start testing the new chassis at least
in june sounds like that's going to be more july um i don't think we're going to be too far behind
in 2028 motors those 2.4 liters following along and going into the car so wrote the story saying
i'm not expecting to test the brand new car with the brand new motor and hybrid but i don't think
we're talking about any jeopardy of those motors not being ready to go into competition uh we're
talking 2028 we still aren't even at the halfway point of 2026 and have all of 2027 and these really
are with very few differences the 2.4 liter motors that almost went live back in 2023 so
some differences of which i'm waiting to find out exactly what differences but
they are not starting truly from scratch uh i was just told this week so i think we're going to be
just fine at um let's see lin underscore indy car how you doing lin um thinking about the little
dave malucas and power issue at penske in 2025 and wonder with penske hiring little dave uh over
retaining power for 26 is this a counter move to uh ganassi hiring polo trying to find the next
superstar in indy car and saw a report from uh whatever that fan officials were in brazil to
look at a possible venue how soon could we see a race in brazil what's the status of the race in
Mexico uh apologies i think this is a carryover from a week or two ago so my bad but uh nothing
happened in mexico looking at the goyana i don't know if that's pronounced correctly uh track in
brazil that is a definite possibility but have not heard anything to suggest that would happen
before 2028 at the earliest little dave without a doubt um this was a bit of a roll the dice not
knowing what they were going to get how ready he would be and guess who has been the most consistent
performer for team penske guess who is sitting what third in the standings after five races um
i mean this is just this is really really smart of roger penske and company here
also because we just say things that are factual while sitting third is definitely impressive
and not something i had uh as an expectation for little dave at this point will also mentioned
he is more than a full race behind alex polo in points and almost a full race behind kyle kirkwood
in second so what we are seeing is yes among the not really super upfront challenging group
davie malukas has been the best so far polo sitting on 205 points after five races
good old kirk kirkwood sitting p2 at 188 it's not a huge separation it's just 17 points right
but then you look at the gap from little dave to alex and it's what 50 it's a lot uh more than
60 points 63 points 54 points is maximum score so after five races davie's already a full race
behind the champ so um but i look at him and say if he's doing this after five races new team new
engineering philosophy just like will's dealing with i know that he had last year with the aj
foight team with his race engineer the excellent james schnavel but even so just right different
how to do things how they communicate how everything happens having to learn a lot the fact that he has
been this effective for the team um this says something uh you look at his teammate joseph
newgarden a race winner this year more ups and downs that are than are really i would say all on
joseph but you know joseph is sitting p6 but not that far behind he's only 12 points behind malukas
magloklin 127 points so again 15 ish points behind davie so
while he is leading team penske in the standings it's not by a lot it could certainly change here
soon but i don't know if i look at malukas as a pillow counter i think this is a situation where
magloklin was expected to step forward for sure he's been their best driver before so i know he
can get back to that point but i do think of the available drivers continuing with power for a year
to was an option but i also believe you're on to something here lin that don't believe that
they knew david malukas was going to be p3 after five races i do feel like there was enough upside
potential upside for them to want to explore it with him and if it paid off which it certainly
appears to be doing they would have someone special compared to beloved dj willy p very much
a known quantity and i think they just felt like if we don't try something different
we are going to be stuck not really coming as close to polo and ganassi as we want to
let's try something a little different that adventuresome approach which we do not associate
historically with team penske this to me appears to be something where you go yep you're being
rewarded for doing that what else might they do that would fall into that category of yeah
wasn't expecting that one um let's close on this and i probably should have jumped on this up front
and it's a little bit behind i get that uh it was a big topic here a week and a half two weeks ago
thio cousins says in your assessment how impactful would the permanent loss of bump day be for the
indy 500 and indy car as a whole says if that happened would there be a way for indy car to
positively reframe the entry process for the 500 it's a really fascinating thing to dive into
thio and i try not to go deep into stuff at the very end of the show but i'm going to because
it's my fault for not getting to this sooner so if you are a older fan doesn't have to be
age wise but if you've been a long-standing fan no matter what your age is you're probably
familiar with bumping being a thing it's a thing to expect it's a normal part of the indy 500
with the last 10 years since 2016 i went back and looked half of the 8500s half of the 10
8500s run between 2016 and 2025 had no bumping so five of the 10 had 33 entries so that's not a
trend that's that's not like a random thing that is a trend it's not an aberration when
something happens 50 of the time that tells you that that's a real thing to acknowledge
another thing that jumped out here thio is so 2016 indy 500 using that as a thing to kind of
forward from that was the 100th running of the indianapolis 500 centennial event
i would think of all the races of all the indy 500s to try and pack with entries every dreamer
every business person who's ever loved the indy 500 any and everybody would be fighting their
balls off to try and get an entry in to hopefully take part in the race but if nothing else say hey
i was on the entry list and practiced at least and tried to qualify for the indy 500 on its 100th
running there were 33 cars for the centennial just repeat this because i feel it's really
important to say if ever there was an indy 500 in the modern era to be flooded with entries 2016
was it and it didn't happen now there is a little story here some of it's been told some of it's not
i'll just share it super quickly there was meant to be 34 beth paredah her grace auto sport team
trying to put together a program meaning to run catherine leg
didn't have the budget to go out and buy everything that's often the case for indy only entrance
they'll lease equipment partner with the team something where you go hey i got a dream i got a
budget got a driver i'm not able to go out and buy a brand new delara and do all these things
trucks and like gonna need to lease some equipment well in 2016 yeah a couple years into this dw12
formula but teams for the most part were being rather protective about their assets not really
wanting to let any out in case they had a crash had a need get it i understand that
beth tried and tried and tried and tried was behind the scenes talking to her every day
about this sharing any ideas that i had or folks that i could think of her to talk to others
were doing the same many were trying to help beth just to get in got so late there was one
chassis that was identified as possible for use and so beth had been through the wars
truly just to try and get a car to get into practice to take part in the
bones of the event much less even get into qualifying and times running out times run
it's gonna be the craziest we're never gonna sleep just to try and get this car ready and the one
that was found that could be made available was the chassis that justin wilson used at pokono
in 2015 and so having gone through the wars and been put through the proverbial ringer and
denied by everybody finally at the last second the one chassis that was could be had
it's one where a beloved driver lost his life
understand the reason why you know what for our very to try and do our very first into 500
this just isn't it this isn't the way so that didn't happen so there weren't 34
that didn't happen beth finally what 2021 under the pared autosport banner took part in the race
etc but just coming back to this main point here theo of even at the event where it should have
been overwhelmed with entries it wasn't so eight out of the last 10 and 500s have had 33 entries
or 34 five have had zero uh bumping three have had 34 cars one driver going home the other two
there's one event with 35 the peak was 2019 with 36 kind of the the high watermark right of
bumping crazy story with mclaren bed pooping galore with them
cal kaiser with hunkos knocking fernando alonzo out which was crazy max chilton not making the
race with carlin pato award one of the the biggest threats to win the indy 500 every year now fan
favorite a lot of folks just either weren't around or didn't know but like pato didn't make his first
indy 500 2019 was crazy those 36 entries three cars real bumping real drama real human tails
so just come back to your your central question here because i feel the need to explain what the
last 10 have been like and how eight of those 10 have had no more than 34 bumping is important from a
human vehicular drama standpoint thinking of this as a writer reporter storyteller
absolutely want bumping in the five indy 500s i took part in as a crew member team
manager monkey engineering guy whatever uh
there were plenty of entries and we were the team some of the teams i worked for were
definitely at risk of being bumped it's brutal it's just it's anxiety and agit and everything
when you're working for a smaller team medium-sized team and you know you could absolutely be going
home also helps reinforce the importance of the event please for those of us in it how much it means
alonzo juniors famous line right but we also have a reality here theo and this is just the
part to close and i've written us written this and i'll keep changing it i don't know hopefully i'll
get it done here soon for a story on racer dot com but so the the thing to complain about
and it's a justified complaint is bumping absence of bumping not enough entries got to get more cars
in the field what's going on what the heck etc losing bumping its tradition going away
i don't want 34 cars to me it's just sad when you know one person's going to get bumped
who was it last year jacob abel effectively weakest entry in the herd you watch your
national geographic or your whatever else and you go yep of course the week one of the hers
going to get picked off year before same team same entry basically no one seagull week and
week a century in the herd got picked off year before that rll is graham ray hall it's actually
big shock right big name etc ended up being able to take part in the race but still
one driver going home it just feels cruel to me like it just it makes me sad and i know
the others that i've spoken to about this it's the same general thing of like yeah it is bumping
technically because an entry in a person goes home but i don't know nothing makes me excited
about yes one poor team is not going to get to play now you get to two you get to three okay
that's real one it isn't but instead of getting wound up for for myself the reason you haven't
seen me writing about this and saying the same things about bumping it's got to come back
more i asked more i understand the more i think the more this just jumps out to me as
the absence of bumping the absence of the anything other than the bare minimum of 33 entries or
maybe even 34 that's the symptom okay that that's the manifestation of a problem what's the real
problem why is this a thing that has happened 50 percent of the time with zero bumping and
just one car going home the other three well the answer to that in the most current version
of indycar the one that has had charters come through charter memberships
been a big change here since 2025 and so the root of this problem which i don't foresee going away
and this is why i do think we're if we do get back to bumping on a consistent basis
it needs to be more than just one but if we don't this is a business reason this isn't a passion
reason convoluted things the oh for sure how do you put an entry together like indycar needs to
work on a more formal process for this separate topic long topic leave i'll set that aside
the biggest thing that's changed the reason we're talking about yet again only 33 or hey maybe we
had 34 but that's about it in this new charter era coming into the second charter era indy 500
prize money for example been cut for non charter entries to a hundred thousand dollars
used to be a pretty decent business play by teams to say hey we're gonna make an extra car
available for the 500 come one come all bring your budgets highest bidder etc a j
foite racing used to do that used to run a third car is a good profit center introduce them some
new sponsors right bunch of positive reasons to run a third car when it was known as sam schmitt
motorsports and some of the other names and iterations afterwards now we call it aero mclaren
they would run extra cars it was a definite profit center there now they do run an extra car and it
is a big profit center so okay cool but why would a j foite racing not just automatically want to run
an extra car the money the profit definitely a big concern first of all the drivers the caliber of
drivers who can raise a significant amount of money in this charter era to not just make it
worth the teams while from a profit standpoint feel but from a okay whomever you might be
you're probably not that exciting of an option so the one thing that could make us look past that is
boy we're gonna need some cash counting machines because there is going to be
duffel bag after duffel bag of cash flowing in because of you well again
those who can raise crazy amounts of money are rarely the best most skilled drivers
those are the folks in full-time entries so if you're not you're able to find a ton of money
tells me that if no one wants to put you in their car for the season with that money you can find
boy I don't know if they want to go through the hassle the 500 because they might not see a lot
of value in you as a competitor so unless you can raise crazy money we're now seeing teams say well
we have a good race we're not gonna make much from the prize money since this is a non-charter car
and you might be able to bring a pretty decent budget with you to hire the car but we don't
think we're going to have an amazing competition experience with you and even if you did super
well we're not going to earn much prize money so the number you're bringing to us up front to hire
the car has to be crazy for us to want to do this and so you don't see AJ Foyt Racing trying to do
this I realize they're going to but they were not out actively courting anybody to run in an extra car
Aaron McLaren able to put together a wildly good package there so and they're super competitive so
got that they got Ryan Frick and Hannah Ray so that's pretty amazing totally understand why
they are running an extra car but you do just look down that entry list of full timers and go
and ready global uh they were willing to spend all their own money to do this to run a fourth car
the minute they did not have a driver they felt was going to be truly additive to their ability
to succeed they shut it down and all the people that had the biggest budgets to offer were knocking
on their door trying to get into that fourth car they didn't want them or their money didn't care
because they just didn't consider it to be worth the hassle Chip Ganassi Racing sure would love
a huge payday from somebody if they were a quality and quality driver they felt was quality
they're not running anybody Dale coin traditionally maybe the most open to running a third car
haven't back to the profit back to the prize money back to the those who can bring probably
are going to be the ones that are really sweating trying to get in being on that bubble who knows
having gone home sent one car home the last two years Drone Reinbold obviously has their two full
time entries I'm sorry Indi only entries so they're good there ECR they put out an extra car for
Ed Carpenter team owner we know he's always a threat then you move down who goes hauling a racing
everything I understand is they would absolutely welcome some extra budget but
how much of that would be truly profitable what would the quality of that entry be no thanks
we're not doing it again I realize there's some equipment issue and needing to get more car but
again if they felt this was going to be a big victory financially or from a competition
improvement standpoint they would make it happen Meyer Shank racing of course has the third car for
time winner Elo Castroneves good for business he's also capable of winning so that makes sense
Rahul Edamon Lennigan racing same good for business with Takuma Sato two time winner off you go
and then team Penske right you have to believe if they felt there was someone capable of giving
them a fourth shot at winning they would make something happen they do not
I'm just trying to come back to the point here with the charter with the huge slash
in available prize money for non-charter cars and with the pool of drivers that would entice
teams to say yes let's go do this
it has been sobering Theo to see
subtract that fourth and ready car
prema gone now all of a sudden having to scramble to find a 33rd which will happen
with cat with AJ Foyt good on them for doing that but do not mistake what we're seeing now for
being an aberration or something weird this is a case where the days of of richness and we can do
the indy 500 on 600 grand 700 grand something drivers had to go find
now mid to high million over a million million and a half to high almost two million
heard one driver their budget heard from a couple folks 2.4 million dollars
for a single race understanding what a team would want profit wise
try and recoup all that they can't earn in the race with a non-charter car it's just moved that
it's not the goal it's the bar of reasonability i don't even know if that's a word but we'll just go
with it that's the thing to acknowledge here so bumping the absence of bumping that's the symptom
could change of course right we could certainly get back to where this is not a big issue anymore
with the Chevy charter car coming in and the Honda charter car coming in should be at
33 pretty easily going forward heard team owners don't know if this was floated
pushed by the owners themselves or penske entertainment but heard in the most recent
team owners meeting took place just days before long beach concept of the full-time entrance
having kind of first right first pick on the indy 500 extra entries we know that looking at the
full timers and realize the the foite play here is very much helping at the last minute but
of just the ones who are actually full time i've been planning to run an extra car for the 500
of the 10 full-time teams airma claren which is one actually getting to the starting line with
that fourth car for ryan honoree right it's ecr with ed carpenter so that's two myers shank
racing with elio that's three it's rlo with takuma that's four
25 full-time entries from those 10 teams plus the four indy only so that's 29
chuck in the able motorsports right so you get to 30
chuck in the two indy only from dron ryan bold that's 32 now it's aj foite racing having to step
in and help strictly to get to 33 last minute type program so would love for the ables to
become a fixture if they can that'd be amazing potentially we have no other subtractions elsewhere
with those two manufactured charters coming in those cars full-time
27 full-time strictly to close here but strictly thinking don't know how many more
8500s takuma sato has with rll don't know how many more myershank racing has with
elio castronevus probably say the same thing about ed carpenter i feel like honoree's got a
couple more for sure with aron mclaren but of the four indy onlys from the four full-time teams
these are all drivers in their 40s elio's closer to 50 than 40 these are all drivers in their
twilight it's not as if those four full-timers can't or won't be able to find other drivers to
put in just for the 8500 let's also acknowledge the fact that it could be a scenario where
we're pulling back by one or two of those teams on doing those indy only entries and what do you
do then to get to 33 so realize we've gone longer than intended here but it's the business theo
that's the part that has to be worked out separate things of how do you enter the indy 500
how do dreamers those who have the money own a company driver that has been able to recruit a
bunch of sponsors how do you come up with a more formalized process to register that interest
be able to partner with the team lease something buy in in whatever it might be like
this problem is not going to improve by doing nothing the just letting nature take its course
and hope that 33 minimum show up each year that is the way it has been done for far too long
and there's just annual kind of hand wringing and anxiety and hope there's 33 to me that has to
end it must come to an end not for our super bowl you can't hope there's enough players to put on
the game the way that it's traditionally played there has to be some intent structure put in
place to say you know what never again will we sweat or worry about whether there's 33 at a minimum
this is something that's going to be a fact every year moving forward some things that can be done
to make that happen it's time to make that happen can't be talking about how strong and healthy
indy car is and the tv ratings are up the live attendance is everything's up and great but we
have to go through extraordinary measures to chuck a 33rd car in within a week or two of the
open test just to hit the bare minimum number that is the part coming back to your question
which is brilliant about how would that be seen positively reframing etc if everything's good
and everything's up and everything's fantastic 33 has to be the guaranteed minimum we know will
be there every year no question and if that can be added to great but wondering if we're going to
get to 33 those questions have to come to an end right now all right y'all thanks for listening
extended episode apologies for the questions i didn't get to last week but here we are again off to
indy here on monday for the open test so probably put out the call for questions after i get home
after we have some indy testing stuff to talk about trying to fart out some little videos while
i'm there and beyond that appreciate y'all appreciate jerry appreciate the justice brothers
from tronamotorsports.com and i'll speak to y'all here next week
About this episode
Long Beach IndyCar listener Q&A covers Jim McAleon’s lasting impact on the event’s “festival” blueprint, plus nitty-gritty race-control debates from the Acura Grand Prix. Marshall digs into why the start wasn’t waved off correctly, and a push-to-pass restart software glitch that let 12 drivers use PTP when it should’ve been off—contrasting it with the earlier Penske-related controversy. The show also breaks down Alex Palou’s pit-stop consistency, Will Power’s likely turnaround timeline, and Chris Kyle Schumacher’s early learning curve. It closes with a deep dive on Indy 500 bumping disappearing amid charter-era entry economics.
It's The Week In IndyCar Listener Q&A show, which uses listener-driven comments and questions covering a variety of topics submitted by open-wheel fans via social media.
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.
