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Car
Nissan Juke
The Nissan Juke is a small car that sits a bit higher than a regular hatchback, like a crossover. It’s made for everyday driving, but it has a bold, unusual look. People mention it because it’s easy to recognize.
Term
street course
A street course is a race run on regular city streets that are temporarily turned into a track. It usually has tighter corners and more interruptions than a dedicated race circuit.
Term
alternate
An alternate is a different type of race tire than the main one. Drivers may use it for strategy, but it can feel different—like wearing faster or vibrating more—depending on the track.
Term
oval
An oval is a track that’s mostly long, sweeping turns. Instead of lots of different corner types, you mainly focus on staying fast and stable around the bends.
Term
softer compound
A softer tire compound usually grips the road better. The downside is it tends to wear out faster, so the car can start feeling worse as the tire ages.
Term
stints
A stint is how long a car stays on one set of tires before changing. If the tire wears quickly, the car can start feeling rough near the end of that stint.
Term
super speedways
Super speedways are the largest, fastest oval circuits in IndyCar, designed for sustained high-speed running. Aerodynamics and drafting effects become especially important, and teams often optimize for stability at speed rather than heavy braking zones.
Term
road courses
Road courses are tracks with a mix of left and right turns, braking zones, and varying corner types. In IndyCar, that means car setup emphasizes mechanical grip and braking/turn-in behavior more than pure high-speed oval stability.
Car
DW12
The DW12 is a race car used in IndyCar competition. It’s not a road car you’d buy—it’s built for racing and used for a set of seasons. The podcast is likely talking about the timeline of that particular racing car generation.
LIVE
This is off track.
Hello, everyone.
I don't know really what what what the point of this episode is
because Tim didn't get an interview this week.
So we kind of recap Milwaukee and previewed Nashville and talked about Firestone.
I mean, we very barely previewed.
Now you've reviewed Nashville already.
No, I said, let's, you know, just how are you feeling about it?
We're going to talk about it at length on Thursday and that was about it.
He didn't like to go into an in-depth thing.
He did say that.
OK, so at least there's something.
Well, let's OK.
So I mean, OK, you tested already, which we talked about.
Did you talk about like just your weekend, your weekend off and what you did?
Why don't you talk about your weekend off?
Because you were too.
Yeah, pretty good weekend.
I was too busy.
I was too busy to do that.
I didn't say too busy.
I said too good.
Same thing.
I my weekend was wonderful.
I was in France for a family wedding on Becky's side of the family.
Her cousin or second cousin, I believe was Tim and I established while while
waiting for you, Alex.
But it was great.
It was it was in a place that I had never heard of or been.
Have you ever heard of Lake Anisee?
Is it cleared like licorice?
It's fair, fair.
It doesn't have any relation.
Anisee, it just tastes like a lake.
But it's great.
I mean, look, you know me come from Canada, love it up in the in the lake world of
Muskoka and this was like the French.
So I love the lake stuff and there's mountains there and there were some very
there were some very nice French people there were some very nice French people
there.
Were there some other French people there?
There were some others.
There was definitely a couple others that were there and made it made it known
that they were there and that they were the other kind.
But look, all in all, it was great.
We we air bead bead with Evan and some of Becky's cousins.
We, you know, Gresh, right?
Yes, of course.
So it was so it was that kind of weekend.
It was Gresh.
Yeah, right.
Particularly the bars.
Now you know why I didn't make the other episodes.
Yeah, I'm surprised he made this one.
I'm surprised you're doing that.
Quite honestly, he's getting national all together.
The best was we were yes.
Our cousin Gresh has a he's great guy and he's a great time.
He's an energetic young man and he knows how to have a blast.
He makes Tim look, you know, sober.
Like, like he makes good decisions, right?
Yes.
Yes.
And like, I wasn't going to have a wine while we were recording.
I said to him just to clarify.
There it is.
So yeah, dude, you should see Gresh's tattoos.
They're way worse.
They're way worse.
I'm saying this to Tim like this.
Tim, this really just.
Oh, I'm back, Gresh.
No, I know.
No, I know.
When you're ready, he literally told me a story this trip.
He had a new one and I was like, uh, interesting.
Well, that's a interesting tattoo.
He goes, yeah, well, I was going with a buddy who wanted to get a tattoo
and he got a tattoo or he went to the tattoo parlor with him
and he bought, he just paid for two hours of tattooing.
I don't know how it works.
I guess you pay for time.
That's I'll tell you, that's not how it works.
Okay.
So this is how he did it.
He was like, I'm buying two hours worth of ink time and then proceeded to get
like the smallest tattoo known to man because he's kind of like he kind of
looks scared out of it.
And so Gresh was like, so he says to Gresh, he goes, do you want to get one?
Cause we've got some free time and Gresh, Gresh's opinion of this was
normally I'm going to get one.
What's going to take an hour and 45 minutes.
He wanted to not waste a minute.
So like smart, smart.
He got, he got the same thing he would have got if it was 15 minutes.
It would have just been very small, but he had an hour 45.
So he got it kind of big and I'm like, this is the most insane story I've ever
and so we get through the weekend and you know, it was one of those weekends
and we're all just like kind of hurting on the last day and we're all going
to the airport and and he texts me and I've just sat down to lunch with Becky
and I'm drinking like water and I was had the, I could order a diet coke.
I was like, all right, water and a diet coke.
And he texts me, he goes, I just had three shots.
I hate everything.
I'm like, what are you doing?
Like, where are you?
You're already doing shots again.
You had to go like straight to some other event or something.
Dude, it is.
Yeah, he's that's you're not wrong.
That is kind of him, but like gainfully employed.
Oh, yeah.
So like he can afford the drinks that he drinks.
Yeah, no, no, no.
Yeah, very.
That sounds cool.
I should look into that.
So it was great.
So it was a good time.
Him and his wife, Mayor, wonderful people.
Andrea and Marcus, the bride and groom put on a beautiful ceremony
right on the side of the water by a castle.
It was all very, very fairy tale-esque and it was hot.
Europe is still very hot as it is here, but yeah.
Okay.
So generally speaking, you know, we talk about European heatwaves
and you hear it's like, it's like 80 degrees and they're all
complaining about the heat so much.
Yeah.
Did you at least have air conditioning in your Airbnb or were
you just suffering it like a real European?
No, no, no.
We yeah, we Airbnb'd and we made sure it was one that had a.
Yeah.
And now it wasn't like central air.
It was like AC in the bedrooms, which is all it really matters.
And there's a lake.
So like every day we'd walk down to the lake and jump in and spend a
bit of time down there.
So it was like, it was heaven.
It was great.
It's like being at the cottage.
You don't have AC at the cottage, right?
You just sort of figured out the lake is what cools you down.
So that was wonderful.
Met a lot of interesting people as you do at a wedding.
There was one funny story though, because the way it all worked out.
There's like the venue, which was on the other side of the lake,
kind of from where everyone was staying.
So you had to take a short ferry over and so we kind of did in stages.
So they were like, you had your ferry time in the, in the wedding
planners notes kind of thing.
You had to be on to get over or whatever.
So we got over there and the event staff, I guess had been told that
the bar was not to open until after a certain time, not realizing that
majority of the people were trickling in before that time.
So needless to say that upset some people and mainly Gresh, who was
actually emceeing the wedding.
So he needed his creative juice, as he called it.
And so the bar was all set up and the people were there, but everybody
would show up, get off the ferry, walk down to the bar.
They'd be like, oh, I'm sorry, we can't serve until next time.
And they're like, but that's not now.
And it's an uncomfortable amount of minutes from now.
And so it was just kind of this back and forth.
Everyone was just kind of turned down.
Eventually the staff all sort of left.
So we did what any reasonable adult would do.
And we stole ample bottles of liquor, took them around the corner to
where the bartenders can see us and started distributing it to all
the guests that were there.
You guys were like the alcoholic Robin Hoods.
That's exactly what we were Tim.
That's exactly what we were.
We're like, we're going to drink.
It's not like we're costing them any more money.
We were going to drink this anyway.
Right.
We're just going to drink it in an even shorter period of time,
which would have made us even drunker and more belligerent.
And that's anything you're being responsible.
I thought we were doing the responsible thing.
It would be, it would be a cool story if we didn't do it at every
wedding we've ever been to.
Yeah, we have.
No, we haven't had to steal from the bar because the bar wasn't open.
We stole from the bar because we just wanted nurses wedding.
We had to.
Did we?
Yeah.
And then there was another one that I'm forgetting that we definitely
had to because we also bring our own sometimes.
Yeah.
Guys, we might have a problem.
No, we're just great time.
Yeah.
I've got a problem with closed open bars.
This is my problem.
This is don't tell me it's an open bar and then get me to the
venue and have that thing shut down.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
There was another.
I think it was.
Who's wedding was it?
It was Greg and Marissa's and then it was a wedding in Canada.
Was it yours?
There's absolutely no way it was mine.
It definitely wasn't yours.
Also, you and I were not on the same project.
We were on our own program, but we were.
Hmm, I was pretty fine.
Anyway, we were not wedding weekend.
What's up?
That was hammered for the entirety of your wedding weekend.
Hmm, there as you should have been.
Tim, is that the same space camp sharp?
Or did you have a night?
I just did laundry today.
Okay.
No, yeah, I wasn't.
I wasn't like judging your your clothes.
I was just okay.
Okay.
Well, so I have, I have a question somewhat related to race.
This should be.
Cause I saw, I just don't believe this for a second online about the
Andretti's at Goodwood being in the, in the four GTs, reacting to that photo.
Is that the same Goodwood that you always talk about?
Yes.
Is that the same Goodwood thing you guys always talk about?
So I thought you were going to do your dreams.
There's two, there's two, there's two.
Yeah, there's the Goodwood revival, which everyone dresses up in historic
clothes and then there's the festival of speed, which is what that was.
So that was the festival of speed.
The one I was talking about was the revival, which unfortunately I don't
think I'm actually going to be able to make this year despite having
the opportunity, which is upsetting.
But yes, same, same location, same atmosphere, different by the same juke.
But they're talking about opening a Goodwood in America soon or doing
some sort of a Goodwood festival in America.
I'll look it up.
No, because we already have like the Concourse to Elegance and stuff like that.
So yeah, there might be something in that range, but, but nice try, Tim.
That was close.
Anyways, Nashville this weekend, guys, a big change.
Goodwood coming to America.
Great.
It won't be the same at all because it's not a castle and there's not a Duke.
So that's like, that's like trying to do American top gear.
Right.
It's just not.
Oh, that was, that was awful.
Yeah.
Even Joey could save that.
So the Nashville, so 1.33 miles, concrete, bumpy.
It's funny, like it feels bigger than 1.33 miles.
It feels like a mile and a half.
Well, it's not that far off a mile and a half.
I know, but it doesn't.
Sorry.
Let me put it to you this way.
It feels the same, if not bigger than Texas.
Okay.
Cause how long is gateways and gateway like 1.25?
Yes.
So it's like, it doesn't, it feels much bigger.
It feels like Texas and gateway, gateway feels not.
It's slightly bigger Iowa.
Correct.
Or slightly bigger Phoenix, but it doesn't feel anything like Texas.
Or Nashville.
Or Nashville, which Nashville does.
Yeah.
Right.
And it kind of races like a mile and a half, to be honest.
Like for this generation of car, right?
It is kind of that.
It's a cool track.
It's, it's one that I'm kind of indifferent on.
I don't have anything bad to say about it.
The surface, the geometries, the lanes.
It's just not that, it's just not that.
There's not much to it.
It's just kind of soulless.
And it's, I don't know.
I don't know really how to, you drove there, right?
I never raced there, no.
Cause that went off the calendar the year before I started lights was
their last year and then obviously came on after I stopped.
I went around it in an SRX car back in the day, but you send up.
No, it's, it's, it's not that hard.
I'm not saying that it's easy to win there.
Excuse me.
What was that?
I said, it's not saying it's easy to win, but I'm not saying it's easy to win
there.
Sorry.
I like, but it's just, there's not, there's not a lot of technicality
to it. That's probably a better way of putting it.
Yeah, yeah.
Both corners are kind of similar.
The hardest part of the track is there's a massive bump in the middle of
three and four that like, if your car is good, it doesn't really matter.
Um, if your car is not that good, you have to make sure you kind of like,
you're, you're in the middle of the corner.
So you have to like straighten your hands a little bit to cross the bump
with a little bit less angle and then kind of finish the corner a little bit
later, but other than that, like, you know, both lanes are, are, are, are rolling.
Um, and that's pretty straightforward.
I think, you know, what makes an interesting race.
Um, and the reason that they did it is, you know, it's, it's an oval that
we have to use alternate tires.
We have to use two sets in the race.
Um, and the big thing this year, excuse me, is they extended it 75 laps.
Um, because everyone wants a 399 mile race.
Uh, it just rolls right off.
I was just thinking, thinking about that.
Yeah.
Um, but I do think I mean, 398 when you can have 399.
Oh, exactly.
I do think it'll, I mean, it makes the second longest race of the year.
Um, and with the alternates, it could be, you know, five pit stops.
So that's, that's kind of, kind of crazy to think about.
That seems appropriate because when we raced in Nashville on the street
circuit, that was often like a two plus hour street course race because of all
the questions and race as well.
Yeah.
It was like four hours that one year because of all the reds.
Um, so that seems appropriate.
How do we feel about the, uh, alternates on ovals in general?
Ah, so I was explaining this to somebody, um, the other day and it's
kind of a, a nothing burger in the sense that, you know, when you think
about the alternate and you think about the performance gain that comes
from it, you on a road and street course, there's performance that comes
from deceleration, cornering speed, acceleration, change of direction,
all this sort of thing that compounds lap time over the lap.
Whereas on an oval.
You only have one of those things on two corners and you only have turning.
And so there's not like this big Delta in performance.
Um, and it's a little annoying because I don't know what's going to happen
this year because it's a different tire than we've had in the past, but usually
a softer compound, what it does is it starts vibrating a lot, um, just
because it wears a little bit quicker and the vibration isn't dangerous.
The vibration is fine.
It's, it's not a big deal.
It's just really annoying.
And so like the alternate and having to run two sets just means you're
going to have at least two stints with like a massive vibration by the end
of the stint, which is just not, not enjoyable.
Which is not fun.
Yeah.
It's just not fun.
So that's where I'm kind of like the alternate on an oval is a little bit
lame, but, um, it's a different tire this year.
So maybe there's going to be this massive, um, you know, the tire is not
only wider as we saw in Gateway and Phoenix.
It's also taller.
So I don't know.
It told like so more stagger like higher, like I'm taller than you and we're
all taller than Bobby.
Yeah, not hard, but right.
But it like I'm trying to like, so not just like stagger in the sense of like more
meat on the tile, like is the sidewall physically is like the construction of
the sidewall different or is it just staggered?
I don't know that.
No, it's, it's more than a stagger change.
It is a taller tire.
Interesting.
Okay.
What was the Phoenix tire also taller and the Gateway tire also taller?
Just wider.
Yes.
So this is like a brand new tire.
Not bright.
It has been tested.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But like first time we've raced it.
Correct.
Who did the tire test?
I don't know.
Well, there you go.
What do you think?
ECRs prospects are coming into this particular weekend.
So it's, it's interesting.
It races, as we've kind of just talked about, even though it's a short oval, it
races kind of like a speedway.
You do speedway stuff for qualifying because it's, you know, flat out.
And so some of the tricks of the trade spillover from Indianapolis a little bit.
So from that standpoint, I think we're in really good shape.
I finished 10th there last year.
It was kind of just a non event race, you know, as we've covered, we covered
Nashville a couple of episodes ago and there just wasn't a whole lot to say
about it.
You know, I think that your normal guys are going to be super strong, your
Joseph's, your Paddow's, I'm sure, you know, Felix will be strong.
So I don't think there's going to be any, any surprises.
I think both ECR cars can be in the top 10 and, you know, potentially have a
little bit better day than that.
If we play our cards, right?
So you talk about the other guys that could be good and that usually are good.
Obviously Joseph's been phenomenal on ovals this year.
He's won two of the three of them.
He won here last year, but aided by the fact that Paddow had an issue, right?
Paddow's actually led more laps here since we came back two years ago with anybody else.
McLaren's obviously on a bit of a run.
They've won the last two totally different tracks, but momentum.
We talk about that all the time.
Who do you think is kind of more of the favorite?
Is it Paddow coming off the back of a win at Mid-Ohio, one of the strongest cars
here, or is it Joseph, the guy that's won?
I was looking it up today.
I think it's 11 of the last 27 oval races, 40% basically of the last 20, like almost
30 oval races have been won by Joseph.
Like, does that just kind of make him the de facto guy?
Yes.
Because I think, I mean, what is it about him on the ovals?
What is it that he's doing so well?
You, we're going to have to ask Connor Daley, the oval guy, what is your opinion?
Big ol' guy.
No, I mean, I think it's a combination of things, right?
I think it is, as you know, oval racing is different, right?
Every discipline in IndyCar is different.
There's street courses, road courses, super speedways and short ovals.
And they all race different.
They all require something different from a driver.
They require something different from a car.
They require something different from a racecraft standpoint, right?
There's being fast on them and there's being racy on them.
And those things are different.
And I think from early in his career, Joseph established himself as a guy that
was able to, one of the big things is what I always say to people is when you go
over racing, you have to recalibrate all your senses to be just way more sensitive
to the inputs and the feedback that the car is giving you, right?
And then likewise, you have to crank down all of your inputs that you're giving
back to the car.
If you're driving at 10 miles an hour in your road car and you swerve the steering
wheel quick, it, you know, jukes the car, but it's not a big deal.
If you did that same amount of steering input at 75 miles an hour on the freeway,
you're barrel rolling in a ditch, right?
Think of oval racing kind of the same way.
If your average lap speed at a road course is 110, 115 miles an hour, your average
lap speed at Nashville is going to be like pushing 200 miles an hour.
So all of these inputs have to just completely shrink down.
And what the car is telling you is so much more subtle.
And so you have to really open up your senses to be able to take in those
subtle inputs.
And I think at a really early stage of his career, he established himself as
somebody that could really understand the feedback that the car was giving him.
And that has to be combined with an understanding of what the car needs to
feel like in order to give him the confidence to push, to be good in traffic,
to, you know, work two lanes and all those sorts of things.
We talked about this in a broadcast all the time, and I'm sure he hates to hear
it, but like facts are facts, right?
Joseph hasn't won on a non oval since Road America in 22.
He crossed the line first at St.
P in 24, but whatever, let's even if you count that, that's one race since 22.
So let's just forget it.
So since 22, he hasn't won on a road street course.
Free 22, he won on a lot of road street courses.
Half his wins have come on road street courses, right?
It's not that he's any worse at those.
It's that I think the collective level of Indy cars gone up, right?
Of the teams, the drivers, whatever.
And even with that increase in competitiveness of all the teams on the
drivers on ovals, no one has managed to match what he was able to do on road
street courses before.
So he still got this something that that people are struggling to replicate
certainly on a regular basis.
You might beat him on one week, but like over the course of a season on ovals,
no one's no one's out doing them right now.
I say that as as of today, Joseph is behind Malukas on oval points, but
that's because he had the DNF in Indy.
I don't think you necessarily answered the question.
You gave a pretty generic answer as to like what makes an oval driver good
and that could be referring to anyone.
Well, sorry, I think I think he's doing that better, right?
I think I think his ability to understand what the car is doing and what he
needs it to do.
Both of those things in tandem, I think are giving him an advantage.
Yeah.
I mean, I know that it took, it took will because he talked about it pretty
openly when, when he was still at Penske, it took him a long time to figure
out how to crack the code of Joseph at Iowa and he would beat him in qualifying
and beat him through 70% of the race, but then he still wouldn't beat him.
And so it's like even seeing firsthand what he's doing and, and studying
it and making inroads and having a very good, clear understanding from
inside the environment still couldn't beat him in his own game.
So I think there's, there's something more that he does that is unquantifiable.
And it's, it's interesting to say that I literally just wrote the reason
why I'm so tuned into these stats.
I just wrote an article about this for Fox Sports.com and I made the comments.
So funny.
He said, I've made the comment.
Fox guy, Fox Sports guy.
And I was like, he doesn't always qualify at the front and you might not
see him at the front for the first 75% of the race.
But what he's so good at is, I mean, I don't know about you, man, but like
the very first time I went to Indy, it was my first Indy car oval race.
And did we do an oval race before Indy back then?
I forget, I think it was.
And the number one thing all the veterans said is, is patience, patience, patience.
It's a long race, whatever, whatever.
All of the races are like that, I think.
And Joseph is so good at being patient.
He can qualify 12th and by the end of the first day, he'll be eighth.
Then the second stand will be fifth.
But then the third stand, he'll be second.
And by the end of the final stand, he'll win.
And he's just, he's so good at building and making the car better and like
knowing where the track's going to go and, and all that sort of stuff.
But I, I completely agree.
There's, there is something there, even with his data.
He's got a lot of good drivers that have had his data and haven't been able
to match him.
Again, the odd day McLaughlin can beat him.
The odd day, maybe Malukas can beat him.
The odd day, power would beat him.
But like in totality across them all, he was, he was tough to beat.
Um, so yeah, we'll see how the weekend, uh, we'll see how the weekend
shapes up in that respect.
I find it funny that we're going to recap Nashville 26 before we recap
Nashville 25, but I can't wait to talk about it.
Um, I've got to go in a couple minutes, um, and catch you guys short.
But I think one thing we should talk about that's super exciting is,
I mean, this, this broadcast of this race is coming off the back of the
second largest watched sport that will happen in 2026 only behind the
Superbowl and just like, how amazing air is it?
The Weenie 500.
That we are, thanks Tim.
How amazing is it that we are like literally minutes behind the finale
of the World Cup, so close behind.
They're like, we don't even really have an official start time because
they want to make sure they're like the celebration kind of kicks off.
There's a couple interviews and then bang, rolling into pace laps,
formation laps, green flags, pretty soon.
Grand Prix, pretty soon.
I'm glad you brought it up, man, because like the, the amount of
effort that's going in behind the scenes at, at Fox to make this be
everything that it can be for the sport.
This is such incredible opportunity for the sport and all the, all the
haters, like I already, whatever the number is, right?
When we, when we wake up on Tuesday morning and see the number,
whatever the number is, right?
We know that's not.
6000000 fans necessarily.
We know that.
That's not the point.
The point is we have the opportunity to show people who've never seen
IndyCar, IndyCar for the first time.
And are they going to tune in next week?
Right?
Are they going to watch Milwaukee or Portland or Markham?
So don't, don't, I don't want to see it.
I don't want anybody.
I don't care.
If you're like, oh, well, man, it's leading from the World Cup, of
course it's back.
Yeah, dude, we know that.
Like we know.
That's the point.
That's the whole point, right?
The way this is being orchestrated is specifically so that we can get
this sport in front of the largest audience possible and hope that we
can retain a couple of them.
And you know what's, what helps?
Spain's in the, in the World Cup.
We've got a Spanish guy leading the championship.
If Spain wins, we can roll.
We can, we can open the broadcast with a Spanish flag and Palos face and
like championship leader, reigning champion, greatest day for Spain's
sports.
Can he back it up?
You know, and if Argentina wins, we're going to bring Canapino back.
We are not going to do that, but you know, we'll mention that he
raced here not that long ago, but it's, there's so much going into it.
There's so much hard work going into everybody behind the scenes on
the broadcast and Fox Sports and IMSP and IndyCar just trying to make
this, you know, the right, the right formula for when that broadcast
transitions from World Cup to IndyCar and, and we're all super excited
about it.
We've got a huge pre-racial plan.
That's going to be on FS one.
So if you don't care about soccer and you're an IndyCar fan, like we got
you covered, it's going to be outside of Indy, probably the biggest
pre-racial that we do.
And then like you said, we're going to switch over to network as close
to green flag as we can.
And hopefully we just get some of those people coming in.
It's, it's exciting me.
I mean, there's a, there's a big buzz around it.
I'm, I'm really excited.
And let's just hope the weather forecasts are wrong.
We want no rain and I don't need a first lap caution.
Like let's maybe get a couple laps of some bang and side by side action
in before we, you know, auger one in, but yeah.
Beggars can't be losers.
Rain forecast.
Okay.
I think that's the biggest argument against like people being able
to engineer the weather.
Cause I feel like Fox would do something to prevent that.
Yeah.
Don't worry.
There's no turning this into a Danica Patrick podcast.
If we can't get it in on Sunday, um, it's wet Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday as well.
So perfect.
We'll see if there's no force.
Yeah.
We'll just see if we can delay the World Cup final too.
We'll see you down there.
Can we bump the world?
See you guys.
They got nothing.
It's raining in Nashville.
So we're going to do this later.
All right.
Bye bye.
All right.
Have a good one.
Good luck, Alex.
See you down there.
Maybe.
Okay.
Maybe not.
So let's keep the chat going a little bit.
I haven't actually even looked at the weather.
I did not know that was a possibility.
I hope that he's lying or just being like exaggerating Alex,
which we sometimes get.
Well, no, because he was in such a good mood this week.
I'm going to bring it up.
I'm going to bring it up.
I'm going to look for myself.
Well, in the meantime, Sue.
Mm-hmm.
Have a.
Mm-hmm.
Did you say that we're not racing in Nashville?
We'll get it in.
Yeah.
No, I didn't.
I forget.
What's the name of the time we're actually racing in Lebanon,
Lebanon, Tennessee.
Oh, so many Lebanon's.
Lebanon, Tennessee.
Somebody did correct us on something today that it's pronounced
Lebanon.
If you're Lebanon, that's funny because I feel like in Indiana,
they say Lebanon.
Yeah, maybe I misread it.
Okay.
Well, since, you know, we haven't chatted since last week.
There has been some other cool news we should talk about on
the video game, getting, getting announced.
Andy Carr, working with iRacing.
Yes.
So I'm going to, I think it's.
I love all the people this gets announced and like immediately
everybody's just like, yeah, but I get it.
Indy Carr, I'm sorry to say this.
I'm not trying to.
Who poo anybody, but like the ball was dropped on this one pretty
substantially last time around.
And, um, and that sucks.
It sucks for everybody.
I'm sure lots of money was lost and an enormous amount of time
was lost.
There's all sorts of reasons why it sucks.
Cool.
If you want to think about the past and things we can't change,
you have fun with that.
I have no interest.
I'm looking forward to what we're doing and what's ahead and
what we can still control.
And right now that is this new game and iRacing is the platform
to do it with, right?
I mean, that is the, the number one online sim racing platform.
There's already a massive culture of Indy Carr fans slash
sim racers that are, you know, in that world and part of that
community.
And I'm super excited.
It's, uh, it's going to be sweet having an Indy Carr console
game that you can buy and play on PlayStation, play on Xbox and
and all these things that you haven't been able to do for a
long, long time.
If you didn't have iRacing in a sim rig, you weren't really
part of it.
Now it's kind of open to everybody.
And I think that's incredible.
And, uh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I mean,
I'm gonna, cause the contract side, I might be, I might be
involved, might be a, oh, okay.
Cause I was gonna, like you might be announcing some in-game
races.
Might be.
You might hear me.
You might be.
You might hear me.
Am I, am I also considering me?
They are, they are considering you a threat to national
security and you might have your citizenship vote.
They might send you to Canada.
Oh, anywhere else.
Lucky you.
Oh, wow.
Oh, shush.
Like any, literally any of them just dart at the back.
You, you know, you could, if you could be so lucky.
No.
Yeah.
So again, super, super excited about that.
Are you going to, you're not, you're, you're kind of a
video gamer, but not that kind of video.
Not really.
I will be for this.
I will, I will, is it, so is it on PlayStation Xbox?
What's it going to be?
Yes.
Both.
Okay.
Then I have an Xbox.
I gotta, I gotta find it.
Dusted, you know, dusted off.
I gotta dust my PlayStation off.
Were you always an Xbox guy?
No, that's just what I have.
I was, I was never a huge video game guy.
I just, I like N64 peaked for me and I just kept riding
that one.
N64 is the only, is it coming out on N64?
I wish.
God, could you imagine?
Could you imagine?
I was going to ask, I was going to say, if you were, you
know, in charge of making some decisions for this game,
not before I realized that you might be involved, you
know, what would you, what would you add?
Cause I suggested blue shells.
I think they should just have like an, or somebody
else said rainbow road.
Great idea from somebody else is you should be able
to unlock the weenie 500.
You should be able to race a wiener mobile.
That's a good idea.
I actually don't hate rainbow road like some, some code
that gets you rainbow road as like a, as like a hack.
That would be fun.
You know what?
If anybody racing is listening and you want to come
and talk to us about this, we would love to chat with
you on this about it.
What I would love is two things.
One, somewhat realistic, one completely unrealistic.
The unrealistic one is like throwback cars, right?
Like do a, do like a generational, like what do
they call them?
Some kind of pack, like a, like a, uh, additional see
downloadable content pack.
Right.
It's not what I was thinking of, but I'm, I haven't been
in the video game world for a long time, but some of you
can like download, you could download like the nineties
pack or the eighties pack and have like some old cars
and like old tracks and things that would be super cool.
That's hard.
It's a lot of work.
I get that one thing that's a different version, but
could be kind of cool.
It was like just have some throwback liveries from this
rough generation of car, right?
Like go back to the start of the DW12 and so have everything
from 2012 through 2019, you know, before the, uh, the
arrow screen, not everything, but like pick a couple
liveries that were iconic or whatever and have some
alternate ones you could run.
I wonder if you'll be able to like design your own.
I have to imagine that's a nightmare of a licensing
thing to go back and get the permission from all of the
sponsors on the cars and everything.
That's probably a good point.
That sounds awful.
It'd be cool.
It'd be, I think worth the work, but that would be it.
So anyway, very excited for that.
There is one other thing, uh, going on in the racing
world that I was curious to get your opinion on.
And that is that RLL is reportedly looking at selling
one of their charters.
Yes.
Which is interesting for a couple reasons.
The first just being why are they looking at downsizing?
Um, the second being who's going to buy it, but the third
and I think the most interesting is going to be what
does it sell for?
Yeah.
Since the charter system came in, this is the first
time that one's been for sale.
This is the first time we're going to get a sense of what
the market is for these charters, but the value truly
is for them.
And I think that's really important for the, the, the
ecosystem, the economy of IndyCar to know, uh, you know,
I've heard some numbers thrown around, uh, you know, it is
15 to 20 million was what I saw.
It's all speculation until, until the check gets written.
And I don't even know if that becomes public.
Right.
I don't know if that's something that gets shared or if
that's just something we have to hear through scuttle button
the paddock, which is usually pretty quick, pretty quick
and fairly accurate.
Nine times out of 10.
I feel like we're in here real soon.
Right.
Which is why my opinion is just like, just say it, just
publicize, just tell everybody the number because
we're all going to find out through somebody at some
point.
Um, and that way it takes the guesswork out of it.
But no, I think it's really, really great.
I think it's great that teams are, uh, are going to finally
get kind of what the market is for that.
This, this whole system, you know, we've been applauding
it since it came in.
We, uh, I say we as in like us on this show, me really
admitting Alex and I, cause no one cares about your opinion.
Um, sorry about this, about this.
I'm just kidding.
I do.
I do.
I do.
It's not how I took him.
I feel like we're too hard on you sometimes.
I'm going to cry tonight.
I was going to cry anyway.
You do that most nights.
It's going to be with us.
Yeah.
So it's the general vibe of the world.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know it's, it's at least now you can blot your tears
with hundreds in your Beverly Hills mansion.
So yeah.
So anyway, it'd be interesting me some hundreds.
Yeah.
So reportedly it's going to DRR for a full season single car
entry, which is huge, right?
That's massive to have another team joining the series.
Um, full time.
Obviously they've been a massive part of Indy car for a long
time and they've given, you know, a lot of drivers,
great chances at the speedway and otherwise.
And, um, certainly with, uh, with, you know, Dennis's Dennis
Reinbold's passing recently.
Um, it's almost sort of poetic that, uh, that they would get
their entry full time, which is something I know they've been
working on for a while.
Um, in 2027, but we shall see.
We shall see how the chips fall on that one.
And it's okay if you don't want to answer this, but do you
think it's too early for our, for RLL to be making a decision
that Schumacher hasn't panned out and they are looking to
downsize or, or does this just business?
That decision, um, that decision has so many elements to it.
It's, it's never as simple as one.
It's not that it's not just, they're not sure we're mixed
performances.
Like that's not, that's not why they're getting rid of a charter.
No, exactly.
There are so many different elements that go into that.
Um, and it is interesting though, because again, the, the,
the perception is that these will continue to go up in value
as, as Indy car, you know, as a whole trends upwards.
So the fact that they're willing to release one, be the first
to release one, you know, that's always kind of a risky move.
You look back at the NASCAR charters, I think the first
one that sold was like 6000000 bucks and they're now
selling it for like 50.
So now to run a car, what you have to do if you have a
charter, it cost you 10, 12 million bucks a year.
And so maybe that's not an expect, like I said, there's,
there's a million reasons.
I surely don't want to get into it.
I don't know the ins and outs of, of why, but, but I think
for the, for the sport, like I said, for the, for the, the
community, for the market of, of Indy car, it's, it's fascinating
to, to see where that one shakes out.
So yeah, very cool.
See anybody wants to break any news, you know, we do that
sometimes feel free.
Yes, we do happy to happy to have anybody from RLL, DRR or
any concerned parties on the show, three letters, any three
letters, any of the three letters.
We'll get some DCR, some J HR, some Mickey D's, lemon M's,
NSA.
What CIA?
Why would hell I'll take the EPA, you know, just any three
letters.
That'd be a boring conversation.
You don't want to hear about emissions.
Not particularly.
I mean, I burn fossil fuels for a living.
That's not really fair.
Yeah.
I'm not really their target audience.
All right.
Well, let's get to Nashville.
Let's get to Nashville and we can finally review the Nashville
race, just not the one you're thinking of.
This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi off track is
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About this episode
Hosts kick off by recapping Milwaukee and previewing Nashville, then swap travel stories—European heat, lake cooling, and a Nashville wedding where the bar opening delay led to improvised liquor distribution. The conversation pivots into racing: Nashville’s 1.33-mile, concrete-and-bumpy feel, how alternate tires and a mid-corner bump shape strategy, and why oval driving demands scaled inputs and patience. They also discuss IndyCar’s charter market, iRacing and console access, and broadcast timing around major sports.
Original notes
Hinch and Rossi both gear up to head to Nashville for a race with one hell of a lead-in, assuming the weather holds. Plus, IndyCar is working with iRacing on a new video game, that Hinch may or may not be involved in. Then, Hinch breaks down the story behind RLL reportedly working on selling their charter to DRR. All that and more!
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