MP 1714: The Week In IndyCar Listener Q&A July 22 2026

Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt Podcast, and your week-and-a-day car listener Q&A, coming

out of good old Nashville, super speedway.

What a wild couple of days, y'all.

For those of you who are there, I bet you got a lot of opinions about how things went

down on Sunday, the postponement to Monday, the restrictions in place on Monday for those

of you who bought pit lane slash paddock access.

Sorry about that, y'all.

Obviously, not my exact domain of oversight, but I can just tell you that those who came

out last weekend, if there was some sort of determination, if there was a ranking, who

are the realest ones, IndyCar fans?

Who is the realest?

I'd have to say those who chose to come out in 90 or more degree weather with super humidity

and just bake out in the middle of nowhere in Lebanon, Texas.

I was told Texas, I'll just leave it in, Tennessee was told I was mispronouncing it by saying

Lebanon is how I was told I should be saying it.

For those of you who came out knowing it was going to be insanely hot, knowing all the

things that might have made this less convenient, and yet you still showed up, and then we get

to Sunday and it was a big nothing burger.

We had the World Cup going on.

I was able to see most of that match.

It was fairly boring.

It was very terrible for the most part, but that was a bit of a nothing burger.

The Indy NXT race, now that was indeed something that was pretty darn good, if not great, but

if you got to see that, awesome.

But other than that, the whole World Cup viewing thing, bit of a nothing burger at most in

very hot temperature.

And then of course, we have the extended match and then rain and then lightning and then

nothing and hey, it could possibly dry and then just the heavens opened.

And we get a postponement and the race is shortened.

And those who paid a lot, not just to be there for tickets and access and such, but hotels,

flights, rental cars, long trips, whatever, taking a lot of time to do this, knowing that

for however many of y'all who stayed over on Monday had to use a day of paid time off,

probably extra hotel night, extra this, extra that, just know that I've heard from listeners,

from just fans in general that I've seen their comments of like, come on.

I think there was some rubbing of salt in the wound with the announcement that for those

who did want to come out on Monday, there were $10 tickets.

And I understand that from the track side, right?

They're going to come out the big loser in all this financially.

There's no way this is a net positive for them.

Having to turn the facility on on Monday, that's the part that's expensive, hiring people,

paying folks to come out, do the same job, whether it's security or concessions, right?

It just, it costs a lot of money to turn a big facility like that on for a major sporting event.

All that said, for those who invested heavily to be there Saturday and Sunday to find out that,

hey, we could have just bought a $10 ticket for Monday.

And by the way, the expensive things some of y'all paid for to gain the special access,

none of that's being honored on Monday.

Just overstating the obvious that I feel for y'all and know that too many folks who are heavily

committed to the IndyCar series show up to multiple races per year, invest a lot of money,

and are the series biggest evangelists among fans.

There are too many of y'all who left that track on Monday feeling like you were not treated with

the respect that you're due. So can't argue, can't do anything other than say I feel for you.

And I hate the fact that a number of y'all came away feeling that way.

So with all that said, let's say a big thank you to y'all for the questions you sent in,

our pal Jerry Settuth, who grabs all the questions, puts them in an order that he feels would be

amusing, tells us that we do indeed have 1700 words worth of questions. Over 30 of those

questions have been put into three different groups here. Let me read to you how he's broken them down.

Group one, talking about a IndyCar could have its World Cup lead-in ruined, Palos Day,

Davy Malukas, Graham Rahall, Reena's VK question and ECR, and are the Cursed question

rule about qualifying reporters and interacting with Joseph Newgarden? How much does a front wing

turn impact? Will Nashville be run again on the oval? Group two, acquiring about good old

mix Schumacher where he might land next year. A few more items as well.

Gonna try something new for this episode. I knew probably in the sense that I haven't tried it

in many years, but gonna try and do a turbo episode, y'all. It is 8 27 p.m. on a Tuesday night.

I got home about 24 hours ago, got a little bit of sleep, got up early, and then cranked for most

of the day. So, did want to get this done so nothing else I can post this Wednesday morning

when I get up. But gonna try and fire through these questions faster than usual and also want to

say a huge thank you to our show partners, the Justice Brothers, makers of just truly amazing

automotive chemicals, lubricants, and cleaners. Pay them a visit please, justicebrothers.com,

huge supporters of motor racing, and then also our dearest of dear friends, TorontoMotorsports.com.

Sellers, makers, purveyors of modern motor racing memorabilia, IndyCar, IMSA, F1, hats, t-shirts,

stickers, just models, just you name it. If you love IndyCar, IMSA, F1, great place,

TorontoMotorsports.com to buy and receive or give. Also mentioned that I did spend half of Friday in

Road America, the Dan Gurney Eagle reunion. Hope to get a couple little videos that I captured there

posted soon on my YouTube channel. So, all right, let's dive in. Let's indeed give this

a whirl. Will the turbo format indeed pay off the way that I hope? Well, we are indeed about to find

out. Who's gonna open the show? Jeff Loveland. Jeff says, only IndyCar could have the luck of bad

weather to ruin the big TV number. Can't control the weather. Great race. Please, people, show up to

the ovals. Totally agree with you, Jeff. It just felt brutal. It was kicks to the crotchetorial

region. One after the other, just to the point of where myself and some others were just laughing,

not because it was something to laugh at, but just from the, come on, seriously,

six plus months of efforts going into this huge opportunity and

gonna have the biggest pre-show, pre-race show ratings, maybe in the history of ever.

And then I don't know what the race is actually going to deliver from its

Monday afternoon slot, but we would expect it to be very small. So, yeah, this was just like,

are you serious? Huge opportunity for IndyCar, lost by and large for reasons that, well, out of

their control. A pal Lynn underscore IndyCar says, after the last pit stop, Alex Plows 10 car

is on primary tires and the chasers are on the red alternate tires, the preferred tire for that stint.

After the restart, the wizard in the number 10 car drove away and hid. Why is it the car that

Ricky Davis sets up? Julian Robertson is race engineer, tunes for Polo. Is it just the way

Polo drives? Is it both? So, interesting thought process on this, Lynn. So, that last caution

led into what was it, about a 35 lap run to the checkered flag, I think. Apologize if I'm

forgetting the exact distance, but I did not look at the tire choices as something that indeed would

favor those who opted to complete the race on the softer, in theory, faster, firestone reds.

Why is that? At this specific event in 2026, very different from last year, there wasn't much

separation between the two in terms of performance, outright performance. Normally, when we think of

those alternates, we think of big speed gains, shorter duration, but boy, if you got a shorter

duration to go, they're going to be the ones to have. Last year, bigger separation between the

primes and the alternates. This year, not so much, except in the duration area. So, after 35-40 laps,

there was, as teams were telling me after the Saturday night final practice, look, the alternates

last a long time, which is really good, but you get to about lap 40, they start to fall off

if you've got a really well-handling car. And if it's off a little bit, well, dial that number back.

25 laps, 30 laps, maybe 35. So, this just told me, Lynn, with the timing of that,

what ended up being that final caution, and then the run to the checkered flag,

I did not look at Joseph Newgarden, Scotty McLaughlin, Davey Maluchus,

whomever else was on the Reds at the time, as like, oh, they're about to pounce on Palau

on those primaries. My thought was, unless Joseph or similar jumps Alex on that restart and gets

around him, that's the one and only spot where I thought there was a real opportunity for those

on the alternates to take advantage of Palau. The other thing that stood out was, assuming we had

no more cautions, this is something that was going to become a benefit for sure for Palau,

as we got closer to the checkered flag. So, just to close on this super quickly,

definitely stood out to me, Lynn, maybe a little bit opposite of how you were viewing it,

not much gap between these two in performance. And looking at Alex's lap speeds, he appeared to

set some laps that I recall, 192.4 stands out for whatever reason, but he was able to match

the speeds, if not slightly go above the speeds of those who were chasing him. I know that they had

traffic to deal with, know that those after Alex caught whomever might have felt like they were

held up a little bit more unfairly or otherwise, I can't tell you how everybody was thinking, but

this to me was not a case of tired disparity. Alex Palau is prone, they're going to get him.

Didn't see that at all, didn't play out that way at all. What do we go to, Rick Creech says,

how does Palau keep getting lucky with cautions? Malukas gets screwed with a caution, then McLaughlin

makes the right call to undercut while Palau is in traffic and pit, but then another caution comes

out. Sure, he's a fantastic driver, but his luck is unreal. I wouldn't want to tell you to believe

otherwise if that's what you believe, but the guy has won five races this year. I don't know how

much I look to those as being byproducts of luck. Of course, if you're going to win multiple races

per year, it's not uncommon to have luck be involved with one of them, maybe two. The guy won eight

races last year. Again, can't argue that boy, it seems like things happen in his favor

more often than not, but is that luck all the time? Or is that putting yourself in a position to

benefit? For example, his race strategist, Barry Wanzer, arguably the best in IndyCar.

Brian Hurta fits in there, a couple others fit in there, but for the most part, if we're talking

about the two I think recognized as the strategic geniuses, he's got the person most people point to

as being on pole position there. He decided to stay out a little bit longer, reaped that benefit

everybody had pitted other than Polo and Newgarden, I believe. And yes, that absolutely played to their

favor, but this wasn't an accident. They chose to run longer. And this is indeed something that

happened and played to their benefit. So is that luck? I am not saying there are no circumstances,

Rick, at all. I'm not disagreeing with you that luck has never been a part of something that has

helped Alex, absolutely has at times. But I look at something here, for example, at Nashville,

where what did they do? They chose to stay out to put themselves in a position to benefit

from a caution if it were to fall. And it did. Is that luck? Or is that setting yourself up to

benefit from such a thing and then benefiting from it? This is something that I see them doing

somewhat often, where I'm like, oh, boy, okay, you must have confidence knowing that if it doesn't pay

feeling that you can fight back, rally back, etc. But to me, when I think of luck, pure luck,

that's just as random as any old thing. And if random is the thing that we are truly just

trying to attach to Polo's success, that's the part where I have a harder time buying into that.

Mr. DeBecca, Tysap, if I remember how to correctly pronounce your first name, and if not, please

send me your umpteenth note, it's been a long time, but send me your umpteenth note of how to get it

proper says Malochus. Have we seen someone before that is so upbeat after literally bouncing back

from accidents before and says regards your nutty friend from Holland. So I was talking to Davies

race strategist, good old the sheriff Travis Law today, and was just sharing with him

mutual, I guess, appreciation for this kid and his demeanor and how he has brought something

to Penske that they've never had before with a demeanor like his. And he is the most non-threatening

race car driver you could possibly imagine, right? Funny, irreverent, silly, smiles a lot,

all things that just go against some old stereotypes of you know you got to be chewing on

rocks for breakfast and punching grizzly bears and you know this is what makes you a race car

and man Davies is just the total opposite. And yet he gets in the car and does these pretty

amazing things. So just talking about the upbeat side, your countryman, Rienus VK, same thing,

warm, positive, uplifting, sees the glass half full, not half empty or cracked and broken.

And that's a powerful thing. It's not bad having super testosterone, man, man, driver,

if they're performing well, but I do love the fact that indeed the kid starts dead last,

finishes third, our guy Travis Law yet again in his first season as a race strategist,

making some really strong calls, helps the kid to get up to where he is, comes within

a couple tents, whatever it was of catching Joseph Newgarden who started second and finished second.

That's why you have somebody who knowing they were sitting in a hospital, call it 24 hours earlier,

is like, hey, this is something for me to be really happy about, not grumpy because I was

third, but hey, I was third. How human is that? I love that about this kid, just appreciation of him

as an individual. When you can go through the wars of what he went through, come back, perform as he did,

capitalize on every great passing decision or pit stop, how fast his crew happened to be,

race strategy calls, chasing people down, passing them a bunch, and then to be

thankful. What did he do when he got out of the car? Thank the crew, thank the doctors in the hospital,

the AMR safety team, right? Telling you, it was so cool to listen to Travis

share stories of what Davey has been like and the influence he's had inside of Team Penske,

talking about his work ethic. Nobody sees. He might not assign to someone who just seems to be so kind

of fun and loose, but no, he's in the shop. Actually, I forget what he said, I think they call it

David's office. Right next to Jonathan Dugud, right? Team President, the big boss there.

He's basically moved into an office next to Jonathan Dugud's and is there regularly, like

this kid's crazy committed. Travis was talking about there at a big sponsor event preseason.

Mentioned that Joseph, obviously, pros, pro, been the lead driver at Penske for a long time,

most successful driver on the roster right now, done a million of these big sponsor speeches and

presentations, the standard bearer there as well. Travis mentioned, well, hey, we do again kind of

have this fun, goofy, loose kid with us. It's only still what 24? Joseph gave speech in front of this

again. Travis portrayed it as being a fairly good size group, but also important folks CEO of

one of the major sponsors, right? And not knowing what they were going to get because Joseph went

and spoke, dazzled everybody's he normally does and then David went. Travis said they were just

blown away because David on his own had done his homework, learned about the CEO, where the CEO went

to school and some other facts to raise during his portion of the thank you presentation and

whatnot speech and then just leveled everybody with how good and professional and fun and personable

he was, but so studied and prepared. I just want to share that. I know it's a little bit off

the main topic here, but the thing that this kid's doing in his first season is wild.

And I know I'm doing a turbo episode. This is the one I'm going to probably just spend a little bit

more time on and try and power through the rest. But it's a great question. It just warrants a little

bit of a deeper dive here. 12 races. This kid's done for team Penske. You know how many times he's

been on the podium? 55 times in his first 12 races. You know how many times his teammates

have been on the podium combined? The same number five times three for Joseph, two for Scotty

McLaughlin. Now granted, two of those for Joseph are wins. So we can't say anything other than

Joseph has been the winning driver for team Penske this year. There's again, absolutely

top shelf. We can also say David is sitting P2 in the championship right now.

Highest driver for team Penske despite the absence of victories,

most consistent podium performer with those top threes for the team.

This way this kid's going about things is unlike anything this team has seen before

and it is working so well. They got something really special going on here. And for his sake,

for his many fans sake, I hope he gets a win this year. Already got his first IndyCar

pole position. For him to get a win would just be great to kind of put that aside.

So it's no longer a when will it happen? I just think this kid is breathing life into this team

at the exact time that it needs after a brutal 2025. Most of us know all about

never in my wildest imagination did I think Davey was going to be this good, this fast,

and truly their number one championship threat, most consistent threat, race in, race out

already in year one. What an amazing story so far and there's still six more chapters to be written.

Let's go to John Sedlak. He says, when you have a mishandling beast like Graham Rahall had,

why not go to a backup car? He was in trouble the whole weekend. Well, great question, John.

The reason you don't go to a backup car is because the problems you're having with your primary car

probably be no different with a backup car unless there was a belief that there was

something with the tub itself, the driver safety cells, sometimes called the monocoque.

This is something where if there's a problem with the floor and it's delaminating or doing

something weird, creating an instability with the underbody downforce, that could be a thing to look

at. But for the most part, the handling problems are based on settings. If there's a crazy,

persistent problem, meaning the car is always doing this, no matter what we try, it keeps doing that

thing, that's when you'd go to a backup car. Issue that he had with that crash was told that crash

was at Saturday night. I think he crashed pretty soon right into the start of that hour-long practice,

was told that there was some sort of failure within the right rear upright itself. So a

mechanical failure caused that crash compared to something that was ill handling. So yeah,

to your point, there was something that wasn't working for Graham, something was off, it appeared

just rolling right out of the trailer. Mick Schumacher, pretty sporty. Louis Foster was

really nowhere for far too long. This to me read like it was RLL being mostly off,

but then of course it wasn't all three cars. Mick indeed had best Indy car race of his young

career. So it wasn't a situation where all three cars were just out to lunch with wrong starting

baseline setups. But indeed for what they were able to find with Mick, who had a decent qualifying run,

this is something where he and his new race engineer, Todd Malloy, team's technical director,

found a pretty good groove. This being Todd Malloy, Indy 500 winner with Dan Weldon. This is Todd

Malloy badass. So I hear you, but just changing to another car wouldn't necessarily solve the

problems. It would just bring the same problems with those settings to a different car. Ed Joris,

similar thread is someone at Ray Hall at a man land again trying to push Graham into retirement.

Is our heads likely to roll over the 15 cars performance at Lebanon?

I would hope not. If we're firing people because of one bad race, I guess we could. His race engineer,

Eve to raw is fricking awesome. So it certainly wouldn't be my first choice. I mean, keep in mind,

Eve is also the person who helps steer Graham to third at what barber. And I think what Indy GP again

Detroit wasn't on the podium there as well. Also had a couple other top tens, right? So

I'd say the bigger ticket item here is RLL has not been phenomenal on a few too many ovals this year.

And so that might be the bigger question to dive into. I know what Graham finished. What was it?

20th, 15th, 19th, 20th at the Speedway. Decent at Phoenix, if I recall, right? But yeah. So

if heads were to roll, then I can tell you there are rival teams who will put those heads back on

those people and hire them tomorrow because they're really darn good. But I'd also say that

when I look at RLL and I look to 2027, I do think we are going to see some fairly significant

engineering changes, modifications, additions. So as a group, they need to make a big leap forward.

And it's that side, Ed, where I think, OK, a pretty significant restructuring is needed there. But

I've mentioned that what feels like half a dozen times, if not more this season.

Ono, Konaman, and also Moek Motorsport. Apparently, vast similar things. Let me take a sip before my

voice stops. After another great performance from Renus VK, only losing out in the podium by the

timing of that last yellow. Can the big teams afford to ignore him for 2026? Well, I think 2027,

probably where I'm going to point myself. I am convinced and a good friend is convinced.

Renus is going to stay exactly where he is for next year. If that's not the case,

it will certainly come as a surprise to me. I don't believe he should be limited to where he is,

meaning, Kunkos hauling a racing is his ceiling. And that's as far as the kids should go in IndyCar.

Said I think he is a turnkey perfect solution for Chip Ganassi racing right now.

And if it's not there, one of the other big, better teams in AJ Foyt racing, for example,

with the Penske Alliance there, I think again, this kid brings a every circuit threat that some

teams do not have. For a Ganassi, they haven't been a threat for a little while at most races in

that nine car could. Renus bring that back. I don't know. But I do know the kid seems like he has

shown that he needs to be seriously considered. The problem, which could be the problem,

have heard that he has a matching clause in his Kunkos hauling a racing contract,

which means any offer made by another team, team, primary, funder, Brad Hollinger can match that

number and then keep Renus. The issue is this. Well, couple issues. Brad's obviously been very

successful in life, has the ability financially to match any number without it being a significant

concern. They're extremely fond of Renus, do not want to leave him, for him to leave. And if you

look at his performance as a kid sitting 10th in the championship right now, come on man.

He's sitting 10th in the championship with Kunkos Hollinger racing. And I don't say that in a

disrespectful way towards Kunkos Hollinger. I'm saying that in a please everybody respect what

is happening. This little team, it's a two car team, but there's really only one car competing.

There's only one car contributing to setup. There's only one right. It's Renus.

This kid's finished inside the top 13, 14, 15 at every single race except for like two.

Had that weird crash with Polo early at Phoenix, but again, he was charging towards the front

and wrote America, I know, went off the rails a little bit. But for the most part, the kids just

been lights out for this little team. He is sitting right behind Marcus Erickson at Andretti Global.

Scott McLaughlin's in front of Erickson next behind Renus is Scott Dixon,

Raym Ray Hall, Marcus Armstrong will power and so on. Little Kunkos Hollinger racing team.

But despite everything the kids doing, believe that matching clause is there.

And the issue here is this, the team he's with loves him, doesn't want to lose him,

totally get that, have the ability to offer him a number that is very serious. For what I think

a rival team might want to pay him, knowing that he does have one victory from 2021,

but it does not have a bunch of victories to market. I don't know if any rivals that would want him

are willing to pay a significant amount, which makes it easy for his current team,

team owner to match that number. If someone were to offer him 5000000

which would be amazing for him, but way over market value, his current team has the ability to

say, okay, match that number, Renus gets paid like crazy, but Renus goes nowhere. So in that general

realm, I feel like he's going to end up staying where he is, but I do wish for his sake,

whether it is 2027 or 2028. I feel like if he just has to keep doing what he's doing,

I feel like before too long, someone's going to say, yeah, come do this for us. We are proven

champions. We're going to go to Lord Fike says, let's talk ECR for a minute. Are the racing gods

targeting them with cartoon anvils? Or do you think there is a systemic problem in the team?

Can it be fixed? Would you ever see a case where Rossi is fed up enough to leave? And then as many

of you do, kindly closes by saying, wishing the best of health for you and your family. Thank you,

Lord Fike. Yeah, so Raz just kind of found the wall and so felt bad for him because obviously

he's running well. Kid's super talented. And Alexander, I don't fully grasp the mixed signals

between himself and Scott Dixon. Alexander was obviously very annoyed. Getting hit by Dixie.

Dixie felt that there was something Alexander was doing that should not have led to him slowing

in front of him. Alexander's we had him tell us was slowing down with the intent to pit. So

I hate it for the two of them. It's another dumb thing. Just one of those dumb luck things. You

look and go, oh, come on, man. I don't know why that would happen between two of the best oval

drivers in the planet. Indy 500 winners, multiple, multiple race winners so experienced. How do these

two get tangled up? If Alexander got drilled from behind by a rookie, you go, yeah, okay, that makes

sense. This is just one that doesn't as for luck. Racing gods, cartoon anvils and otherwise. Yeah,

it does feel like they are stuck in the yep. If something bad's going to happen, it's going to

happen to them. So that randomness indeed, it's a little hard to assign to the same team over and

over again. Christian finding the wall is not something we've never seen before. So I don't

know if I can put that on the random side, but Alexander one. Yeah, I don't even know where to

put it, but Alexander has his forever home here. I said this to their great PR rep re-rents. It feels

like and I'm sorry if I'm using like local pet shelter and adoption terms, but it feels like

Alexander has landed at his forever home. For as many years as he wants to continue an Indy car,

this just seems like the place for him. They love him. Chevrolet loves him.

I know he just wants to have fewer stories of things like this and more just simple. Yep.

I qualified seventh and I finished fifth and everything worked the way that it should.

And we're going to go to the next one and try it again. Looking here, Alexander being ranked

sixteenth in the championship just based on his common expression of speed and performance

from event to event. There have been a couple outliers, right? Where it was like, oh,

they really weren't there today, but the teams made a definite improvement this season. Street

courses in particular, some good gains on road courses too. It does just seem like boy,

this is a little bit off with Alexander more often than it should. We know Christian, right?

Got off to a brutal start. Things only turned around slightly over the last month-ish,

month and a half. But, and again, no disrespect to Kiffin Simpson, but Alexander is not only behind

Kiffin in the standing, sitting sixteenth, but like he's going to need to have a really good

race or two to get in front of Kiffin. And Kiffin's been having a very decent year, but not super

remarkable. Yeah, weird. Colin Young, you asked, team Penske explained that they couldn't have

Connor Daly qualify the 12 car because then they would be forced to run him in the race.

I don't ever remember hearing that rule before. Is it new? I don't know because I don't really

remember hearing that one either. Colin, that makes two of us. And I do my best to remember

the rules, but there are many of them and they do change. And yeah, so I don't know.

Trying to think of the rationale behind this and just tell you that, uh, yeah, had heard the team

told some folks that they were going to put Connor in the car of qualifying and then heard from

another impeccable source that, no, they weren't. And there's nothing to it. And I'm like, okay, well,

no need to waste my time chasing this down confirming it independently and otherwise,

because it ain't happening and it didn't happen. So, um, maybe it is. I don't know.

The main thing that I'd heard was Davey, the car, whatever, they're not going to be ready for

qualifying, but don't be totally surprised if Davey's back for night practice. And so

that's what I set in the back of my mind is the thing to expect. And that is indeed what played

out as true. So doesn't answer your immediate question. I don't know, brother. I mean, the

IndyCar rule book is available online. If you type in 2026 IndyCar rule book into your favorite

browser or otherwise, it'll pull it up and you can find the answer there. So you don't need me to do

that. But yeah, um, that answer is maybe that's the core of why it didn't happen. But I was given

a reason to believe there was no need to put Connor in the car, even if it meant starting from the

back with Davey because they expected Davey to be back. Scott Boyce, how you doing? Scott says,

is the journalist or TV reporter who has to interview Joseph Newgarden dreading it like

when I have to call a parent about their kid from school and I know it won't make a difference and I

won't get any answers or results. Um, I can't speak for others. I can only speak for myself.

Joseph has taken the exact tact that he wants. And this is indeed what he gives. So knowing that

is super helpful. At least for me, it helps me to know that if I have a Joseph related question,

I do not go to Joseph. I go to say his race strategist or pick someone else within the

organization because I know that Joseph is in a space where he's not wanting to answer many

questions or provide any in depth answers. I think the last question that I asked was or might have

been two questions, but was when he was in the media center at Phoenix after winning the race.

And I think they were very specific answers and certain questions instead of kind of general,

but like I wanted to know about a couple of specific things. I knew that those questions

fell within the boundaries of something he would talk about. So I asked them and he provided the

answers. Exactly what I needed. Could not ask for more. Totally satisfied. Anything that comes

towards the personal side, how are you feeling? How is the injury? What did you think of that?

That's the area where Joseph is very intentional in how he answers. And so unless I did have something

that was I felt really needing Joseph's take on something that fell into that zone,

I'm not inclined to ask it because I know I'm probably wasting his time and my own.

Just as a little close here, one of the things that I've witnessed this year,

I would imagine many of you have witnessed as well after his crash at Indianapolis.

That guy has shown a kind of determination, kind of grit that my opinion deserves the

delivering of many, many flowers. Guy could have packed it in, said, hey, I am hurt.

Look, sorry, y'all. I'll see you in a month or two or I'll see you next season, whatever it is, but

stepping out of the car or if I'm going to be in the car, look,

I'm just going to be running around, making up the numbers right now.

Now, these are all options that he could have taken. They're not really within his character to do that.

And instead he has fought like heck. And so whether you love Joseph, hate Joseph, whatever it is,

whatever feels he might conjure within you. Just tell you that simple appreciation for a race car

driver who is injured, has been injured for what is now effectively half of the season, right?

About half of the season to date, this guy has been injured and significantly injured.

Except for Road America, where things obviously went very sideways for him.

Never finished outside the top 10. Wannah race finished second on Monday.

Some really hard places that involve the requirement of using all of your limbs,

not most of your limbs, but all of your limbs to succeed.

Tracks, Detroit beat the crap out of you inside the car, mid Ohio, the most grueling on the calendar.

The guy could have absolutely said, hey, y'all, I'm tapping out. I'm going to try it, but like, look,

we're going to be 20th today at best. And that's not what the guy's done. He is delivered and delivered and delivered.

He's six in the championship right now, 100 and almost 150 points behind Alex Polo.

Championships not going to happen. That's it's gone. Not even an opportunity for that.

But he's fighting like mad. He's not impossible amount of points behind Pato award.

He catch Pato. Lungard, if Joseph has really good Milwaukee and does well at the other races,

he could catch Lungard for sure, could be P4 in the championship, possibly higher as well.

Just this guy's fighting spirit. His choice and how he interacts with media, whatever.

It's not a new story in the direction he's headed for a while. That's what he wants.

That makes him happy. Not a problem. I'm here for the racing. I look at what he's been doing.

I just absolutely marvel at what this guy has been doing since his big crash.

And yeah, anybody else has a driver who's hurting and feeling like they can't give their all.

No disrespect. I just say that Joseph is resetting the standard for not just getting in the car.

But getting after it. And this guy was not too far away from pulling off his second win

since the big crash. So yeah, that's the stuff that I prefer to lean towards there. Scott,

Bill Romine, how you doing, Bill? Question about front wing changes. Half turn of a wing moves it

millimeters up and down. Any idea what the percentage of downforce added or taken away might be?

I can't answer that because there's so many different front wing change options, right?

You have Speedway, full road course slash street course, you have short oval, which there's

different arrays of wings that are getting dialed up and down. So the actual downforce package

is very different across the many different types of tracks we go to, Bill. So no single answer I

can provide there, unfortunately. Hey, Seuss Barbera says, first time asking a question. Thank you.

Hey, Seuss, he says he's from Spain. Has there been any word on whether Nashville will be the

oval or on the streets in 2027? Says if the oval drops off, are there any ovals with a realistic

chance of being added? Homestead maybe or more weekends with NASCAR? Heard nothing about Nashville

returning to street course at all. Before things got ugly on Sunday, can say that there was a strong

belief within the paddock that the look out in the grandstands during the race and how full the

grandstands were or were not would be a pretty good indicator as to whether this event continues

at all. We didn't get a chance to see that, right? The delay, the Monday, we know a lot of folks

meant to be there, were there, sorry, who showed up Sunday to watch the race, couldn't stay, had to

go back home, go to work, whatever it might be. So we can't look at the admittedly sparse crowd on

Monday as a real indicator. The amount of tickets sold, that's regardless of how many people watched

the race, that's a proper indicator. I don't know if it felt like the track, at least on Saturday and

Sunday before everything got bad, looked or felt like it was more full than it was last year.

I would have to say as well, the amount of effort and promotions put into this

felt like unrivaled for the Speedway now in its third run, right? The big World Cup viewing party,

and I mean, they've been promoting the heck out of this. They being Scott Borchetta's big machine

group there, IndyCar as well, Fox as well, and the effort invested in this, hey, Seuss,

should have delivered my simple minded opinion far more people than I saw there. So I don't know if

that paid off. Would say the one oval that I've heard of that could be coming into the calendar

next year possibly shouldn't come as a surprise. We've spoken about it many times before. That is

Richmond. So hope to find out more about thoughts about Nashville and its future here. Wanted to

give everybody today, Tuesday, a chance to breathe and charge their battery. And I'll start making

some calls on that Wednesday morning. Sean Olmsted, you're going to help us as we rifle through the

last couple of items in these kind of sort of turbo version of the episode. Question is Mikshu

Mokker. He has stated he will be back next season, but where? He has the intent. That's a great question

on where can tell you that I know even though his car is going away at RLL, just plant a little

seed saying there's a definite willingness for him to return there next year. I'll just leave

that at that. But he, he, his manager have certainly been taking meetings with folks,

and they do have a sponsor of their own to be able to bring to other teams.

Eric Franklin, as will power got the late start at Andretti, and it seems to have back footed them

for the season is the release date. Something that other drivers will look at when negotiating deals

going forward is January 1st standard or will Dixon and Fro be able to get an earlier start

at Aaron McLaren. I don't know because the details of their contract. So

good things for me to fish around and find out Eric was cool to learn over the weekend from

folks that would absolutely know that while this was very much of a bombshell with Dixie leaving

Gnasi that for Chip, this is something that he's with time coming to terms with more and more

and becoming more okay with it. I realized the bigger sense that doesn't really matter.

He's Dixie's leaving anyways and Chip needs to find a new driver and so on. And no, it's not

Christian Lundgaard as in being a done deal. Absolutely possible. He could end up driving

the car, but anybody telling you it's a done deal is silly. But the fact that it sounds like

they can end up in a place where Scott leaves and it's not Venom and the third sea the script for

the third season of that show Beef on Netflix, which is pretty awesome. But more of a friendly,

hey man, mom and dad are getting divorced after 25 years, but they're still going to remain

really close friends. It sounds like things can indeed end up in that area and that

makes me really happy if that's the case. So I'll see what else I can find Eric. Tim Mays

says regarding PNC Bank sponsorship, does this stay with the nine car potentially move to a

pillow? Because I don't know the details of the DHL sponsorships. I'm not sure if they're already

under contract to continue their partnership next year. Great question. And I don't have an answer.

I would say that knowing that PNC the P and PNC is the word Pittsburgh. That's where Chip is from.

That's where he's based out of this is very much a chip relationship and chip based sponsorship

creation. I hadn't thought about this one Tim and I love this so I'm going to add this to my things

I need to ask about. But if I'm PNC, knowing that they're doing significant national advertising

in general, although it's not really wrapped around the IndyCar program, but I would say boy,

being able to look at moving that livery to the 10 car. If the DHL could move to the nine,

knowing that Alex rotates through not Alex himself, but the team rotates through what?

3, 4, 5 sponsors a year that all come together to fund that car?

This is a great question here Tim and I'm saying this just again honestly, I feel embarrassed. I

didn't think of this myself. So see y'all here in the show make this dumb old guy a little bit smarter.

So let me ask see what I can find out. Dave Love 50 is a question about team chemistry

cited by Tony Kanan says from the McLaren moves. Sometimes I think team chemistry goes public as

a problem on losing teams. And you don't hear a peep about it on winners. Do you think if Pato won

Indy that we'd be hearing about this? Absolutely Dave. Pato could be leading the championship

right now and having won the 5,500 and we'd still be looking at this change taking place.

The chemistry between Christian and Pato is not good. Realize that I've said this on maybe even

the last episode as well, but more than once, but Pato is their guy. He is their forever driver.

They're going to side with him and it's not a Pato said to get rid of him thing. It's a we are fully

invested in you have been and you are our guy for the long term. We're going to do whatever is best

to make the best total team, but also for you to be in a position where you are as happy and

as happy and feeling like you have as cohesive a team environment as possible. So unrelated to

success. There's definitely roots in some of the lack of success that they've had for some of this

change or these changes that are happening. But yeah, it is rare where poor ish team chemistry

also comes with success, but you know, Penske went through some toxic ish years. Will Power was able

to win a championship here as recently as 2022 while things were not super conducive there.

Yeah, so great point. No argument against the overarching point here. Just not certainly super

applicable to the era McLaren scenario. Nuke shot motorsports and then many others had questions

about this. If Drion Reinbold gets one charter from Ray Hall, what are the chances of them also

getting the Chevrolet factory charter in 2028 make them a minimum two car team like the rest of the

field? I can tell you that that has certainly been spoken of as a grand desire. They like every

other team that's within the Chevrolet hemisphere that is not already a three car team, because

the rules say if you're a three car team, you can't add one of the manufactured charters become

a four car. Any of the teams that are two car teams, this case would be a one car team with

Drion Reinbold would certainly love to attract that business from Chevrolet. Little nugget that

I've heard can't tell you if it's accurate or not, but I can just tell you the folks who've

told me this tend to be pretty darn accurate. They understand on the Chevrolet charter side

that there could be a desire for the team that would receive that to have the ability to bring

a pretty decent amount of commercial support, aka sponsors to help underwrite at least the

operating budget side of that. We'll see if that ends up being accurate or not. Ben Kuhn,

any word on the Hongkos hauling or ownership saga? No, other than just hearing that it

continues to inch forward. Let's see. Al Wolstein, I noticed the silly season discussions that

Alexander Rossi has never mentioned. Isn't his deal at ECR ending this year? Well,

so this is the part where you step back and say, so if he's not being mentioned at all,

there must be a reason, which is it's not ending this year. So yeah, there you go. And then we are

into the very last items here. Tim Kemp wondering if Graham Ray Hall will return full time next year.

That's the current plan. He also has the ability, if he wants to say, you know what,

I'm deciding to stop at the end of the year. I haven't heard him say that. I haven't asked him

about that in a little bit, but I haven't heard any rumblings about that. But again, he's been

doing this long enough, has enough other things in life, be it family or business, to where if he

wanted to step away before the contract is completed, he most certainly could.

Horatio Frey says, will the new IndyCar video game have the 2028 car or would it be the current one?

It might already be outdated when it comes out. I don't know. They did say the game that was coming

out this year in 2026, which has been pushed 2027 will be out in 2027. And we are crossing

fingers and believing that Horatio. I would assume it's the current car, but who knows, man.

Sorry, I got nothing for you just because I don't, you know, it might come out in 2028 and still have

the DW12. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. John Berger. What was IndyCar thinking

but not releasing an image in the new car or the 2027 schedule last week? Even Sports

Radio Networks outside of Cleveland were looking for content to discuss. Was IndyCar waiting on LeBron?

Yeah, I had heard on a pretty good authority that IndyCar had said at least to some folks,

they were going to release images, renderings of the car last week, and then they didn't. So

maybe it's this week, you know, I keep waking up waiting to see if there's an email or something

saying here's the new car. So yeah, fingers crossed, man. Life's made of choices, right?

And this is the choice that IndyCar keeps making. Andrew Dry-Belbis. How you doing, Andrew?

What are drawing RynBold's options after purchasing a charter from RLL? I assume they'll

stay with Chevy and partner with an existing team. Yeah, a thing that I've heard. Can't tell you if

it's factual or not. Will they remain with Chevy? I don't know. It'd be wild if they didn't.

Will RLL stay with Honda? I don't know. It'd be wild if they didn't. But yeah, this is a sub

thread here to follow. And if they ended up being aligned, RLL and DRR, would they have some sort of

technical alliance? Another thing I'm keeping my eye on. Shimey Reichenan. Hey, doing.

Old school. Old school. We haven't had a submission for you in a while, Shimey. So

thank you. With drivers talking more frequently about heat, rising levels in the cockpit, do you

think there will come a time when an air conditioning system will be baked into the design? I love that

air conditioning system baked. Or will we most likely have to see a medical emergency before

IndyCar moves on? Something like this. Let me just say that I am coming from a place of zero

knowledge. Hashtag coming from a place of zero knowledge. One of my great phrases coined,

one of the great phrases coined by my friend and longtime show partner, Graham Goodwin on the sports

car side. Part of me believes that IndyCar with the 2028 car will have a cooling system,

everybody mandatory use of the cool suit, cool shirt system at least that many drivers use,

but not all, no longer optional. How's this? You're going to carry the weight no matter what.

Some decide to go without it for a slight weight savings. I would love for IndyCar to say, well,

we're going to remove that option. We can't necessarily force you, I guess actually they

could force drivers to use the cool suit. They're required to wear fireproof clothing, underwear,

boots, gloves, balaclava and helmet. Those are all requirements. I would imagine the series could

if they chose to say, and you must use a cool shirt and just remove it as an option.

But the weight is the thing where some teams like to try and push the boundaries, save a little bit

of weight, a couple of pounds here and have their drivers go without on really hot days. To me,

this is something that you just need to take away that option because I'd rather have someone

complain about being cooler than desired on a crazy hot day than not. Yeah, so I hope this is

part of the 2028 car built in from the beginning. Lynn underscore any car, I need help in my 2027

IndyCar fandom. Been a Gnasty fan since 95 when Vassar began driving for the team. In 2027,

do I follow Dixon on McLaren, the dark side? Do I go all in with Gnasty and Palo? My fandom

from McLaren is about level as chip confused IndyCar fan for 2027. Well, then I'd say this,

you're going to get the same from Gnasty and Palo in 2027. Whatever it is, you've seen this before,

it's a continuation. There's nothing new there at all. How they finish in the championship,

that's the only question. The Dixon to McLaren, it's a brand new story. That's a fascinating one,

rooting for Scott to do well and achieve the things he's hoping to achieve in the last couple

years of his full time career. So I would say go in that direction, not to necessarily go away

from Gnasty, but look, this is the new adventure to follow. Go follow that new adventure root for Scott.

And since you say you're about equal fandom, then that should make it easy to get behind him at

McLaren. So confusion removed. Got a couple other questions on the DRR Chevy and Charter side. So

I think we kind of covered all that off. Tim Vaughn wondering if I see Colton Her to coming back

to IndyCar next year. I don't. I think whatever he does, it's going to continue in Europe next year.

If I'm wrong, I'd love to have the kid back, but I don't think they abort after one season.

That'd be a heck of a thing to try and process and live down. Let's see. Marty McFly, glad to

hear the IR28, 2028 cars hitting the track soon. Is there an event to debut the cars? Just going

to be a soft launch of the track. Can you get into some of the expected innovations? This new

chassis brings to the sport from an aeromechanical and tech and cost wise. I don't have much to

offer here. I've written a ton about this. I just don't think I have much to offer where I would say

innovations. They're trying to do a bigger, more powerful, more sustaining charge, longer

payout of power, hybrid system. That's maybe the biggest difference, I would say, from the current

car. The motor is the same ones that were being tested four years ago. So, you know, a little bit

more power. But like, I'm not aware of anything worse. Like, wow, we've never seen that on a race

car before or an Indy car before. Like a surprise, for example, would be if they went to a torsion

bar suspension. This is common in sports cars. It's been common in Formula One since the Ferrari

639 slash 640 in 1989. That's not happening from what I understand here. If anything, it's the

opposite. It's going to be going to a spec shock. That's what everyone's been told to expect. So,

I think there's actually going to be more things spec on the 2028 car than there are

at the moment on the DW 12. So, we'll have to see. So, yeah, innovations, there will be things

without a doubt. We're going, oh, hey, that's cool. That's updated and modernized on this car,

which first started being designed in 2010. So, in that regard, yes, pioneering. I'm not preparing

anything that falls into that category, but obviously hoping to be proven wrong.

As for launch, I've, yeah, I'm not aware of anything that is going to be a grand unveiling

or otherwise. But again, maybe they could change their tact and do that.

All right, we're going to wrap up this turbo episode where we've gotten through just about

every single question and hopefully a shortest amount of time with each. Where do we go?

All the other questions we have answered in some capacity before. Michael J Smith,

Jack O says, relax and another one from Moog Motorsports. So, that's it, y'all. We got you

covered here. I do like the, hey, we're just going to try and rattle through as many as we can

in shorter answers. Hopefully this worked for you. If not, I apologize. I suck and I will do better

next time. I think, I hope. I will talk to y'all next week.

Ford F-150 Lightning

Morgan Six Plus

Mini Countryman

DW12

IR28

Original notes