Off Track Going On Track

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This is Off-Track.

Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And, well, it's no longer the Tuesday episode

where makes you mock yourself gracefully joined us.

And I tried and was there for brief moments

before the internet situation took me out of contention

and Alex had to take over.

Now on the Thursday show, we're having a similar thing

where I am here and Alex is trying to combat.

There he is.

We got him.

Ish.

Look guys, this is what you guys love about this show

is that it's unpredictable.

And Alex is, I could see his face.

He's somewhat frozen.

Oh, now he's moving now.

We're good.

Alex.

Yeah.

Is it just me or does James's new place

look exactly like his old place?

Yeah, no.

Like he went through a lot of heartache for the same time.

Those even look like the same banisters.

They're very different colored banisters.

And the old house had white wood banisters.

These are wrought iron.

You mean so they were just painted?

Well, they were wood.

And yes, they were also a different color.

I'm just trying to look.

The rest of the house is quite different.

This particular room looks somewhat similar.

Yes, Tim.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Well, so it's a sensitive subject at the moment, guys.

Because moving really sucks.

It's like.

We talked about it on the intro to the Tuesday show.

Like you are the first person to ever do it.

To ever do it.

No, I know.

I know I am complaining as if it's never been done before.

No, it's amazing that you're such a trendsetter.

Pioneer.

Yeah.

Pioneer, damn it.

Give me the credit I deserve.

I mean, I would put this on the same level

as like the starship.

Like in terms of, you know, multi-planetary living.

Like you are just, you are, if you look at life.

No, arguably this is harder because they've got a much bigger

support system.

This is just Becky and I doing it.

More capital to spend.

Lot more, lot more disposable income to mess with.

And yeah, but here's the thing.

Everybody that's moved says that it's, it just sucks.

Nobody like, no, it's like, you know, it's not that bad.

Yeah, but it's not that bad.

So here's the caveat I'll give you is the last time you moved,

you had been in your house downtown for like two years,

three years, maybe?

Three years, yeah.

Three years.

You've been in this house for, when did you move in?

Seven years.

Yeah, six and a year.

So when you leave that one, which will probably not be

still for quite some number of years, you'll have just,

you just accumulate so much stuff.

And if you do it right before the season starts,

when everybody's like getting super busy and gearing up

and look, I'm not trying to, I'm not complaining.

I'm just venting.

I don't know.

I kind of sounded like you were complaining.

Yeah, I know.

Do you want to know, do you want to know

what's incredible about that is, I agree.

Like you've, you lived in that house for a while.

12 years.

It was the longest I've ever lived in the house.

A lot of rooms were filled with stuff

and random closets were filled with stuff.

I still think Tim would have more stuff coming out

of his 400 square foot apartment.

It's bigger than that, but yeah.

Whatever, 800 square foot apartment

than you do in your house.

Yeah, I know.

I just have to burn mine down when I leave.

I just need to, like, no.

Your SPI is quite high for that house, that apartment.

Your stuff per inch is, you've crammed a lot of stuff in there.

No, it's pretty incredible.

I got a pretty spartan background here.

Yeah, yeah, that's the tidy parts for the camera.

I mean, wait.

Sorry, I just have, just the bare essentials.

Did you need a big flash for a camera?

Cause I got one within reach.

Do you have my camera?

Yeah, did you need the Ark of the Covenant?

I have it if you need it.

Did you 3D print that?

I think you're getting a 3D printer with a terrible idea

because you have a tendency to collect stuff

and now you have so much access to create more stuff.

Why don't you just call me about it?

To be fair, the 3D printer has actually

provided some form of organization for all of this.

That is true.

I just have the bare necessities.

Did you need a typewriter?

Did you need a typewriter made out of Lego?

I have one's over there.

Thank you for that, by the way.

Did you need a real typewriter or would you like one

that is made out of Lego instead?

Yeah, so for all, for the long-time listeners,

you will have heard for years now.

It is really cool.

The present that I said I was going to get Tim

that I hadn't got him, I finally got him.

It finally showed up.

It's a functional typewriter.

If you didn't finally show up or did you actually

just go through the process of ordering it?

Yeah, no, that was definitely the second one.

Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right.

Yeah, because I saw it, but I saw it at an airport,

at a Lego store on an airport.

I was like, well, I can't buy it now

because I can't take it with me.

I don't have the space.

So I was like, I'll just, next time I walk

by a Lego store, I'll go find it.

And so I think in the subsequent three years,

I actually physically walked by a Lego store twice

and neither one of them had it.

So I thought I was just like, I could,

I could just order it online, couldn't I?

And so I did that.

Sorry, did you say you needed a not copyrighted

dock off of John Wayne?

Why? What is the significance of that?

It's funny to you.

Because John Wayne used to drink at Barney's.

And I do a good John Wayne.

You said you do a good John Wayne.

The gas gym department set me up with these off navy whites.

You're in a surprisingly chipper mood

for five o'clock in the morning, Tim.

If we could have early.

If we could look at the metrics of at what point

in the show people tune out, I'm good to imagine

for this episode, that is that moment right there

was when it all went a little bit sideways.

People don't listen to this show.

Yeah, yeah, that's largely showing.

I'm showing stuff off visually on an audio podcast.

Yeah, it's great. True. Alex, where are you?

I'm in St. Pete, James.

When did you get to St. Pete?

Last night, James.

Oh, do you have a big day today?

No. Why did you get in the night before?

Because I was in Charlotte yesterday,

so I wasn't going to go home.

Stimulating. I was.

Have you done a count of, like, actually,

how many some days you've done this year,

like this season, this off season?

Since national.

Do you want me to really quick?

Yeah, kind of.

Well, you do that. What do you think it is?

I bet you've done 14.

That's very impressive. 12.

We also went over overlooked, not overlooked.

We did not get to some news

that happened last week in the show

that I think is important,

which is just shouting at our condolences

to the family of Mr. George Barber,

who passed away.

You know, incredible man.

Alex, I don't know how much time

you got to actually, like, spend with him

or chat to him in your various meetings.

I know when you're racing,

you don't get a lot of time,

but in my new role,

I got a little bit more time with him.

Did you meet him a couple times?

No, never.

Never? Oh, no way.

Yeah.

He was just, you know, such a wonderful person,

very, I mean, so generous with his time

and obviously a visionary.

I mean, look what he built there.

That track is unreal.

The museum, is it absolutely incredible?

I think the big thing

that is also should be mentioned

is just his and his team's support of IndyCar, right?

Like, there was periods of time

where finding tracks,

maintaining tracks on the calendar,

that sort of thing was at a premium

and Barber Motor Sports Park was kind of never wavered,

which is a big deal.

So whether or not I like the track,

I love the fact that they support our championship

and the people involved in it.

So I think it'll be interesting to see,

you know, how that place evolves

going forward because from what I know about him,

like he was so obsessive, compulsive about this place

because it was his pride and joy, right?

And so no one can take care of something

as well as you can if they're not you.

So it'll be interesting.

Obviously they know they have a legacy to carry forward,

but man, that place was always

in pretty immaculate condition.

And it's one of those things, man,

we're like the people that work there, right?

The people that worked with Mr. Barber,

they just had such a respect for him

and understood his approach and vision so much

that like you see it when you talk to them,

like they have that same passion

for that same attention to detail,

that same like meticulous eye for everything.

You know, like one of the stories

that I always loved about it was,

I forget if it was the first year,

one of the first years,

or maybe it was every year, I don't even know.

But you know, they've got the access road

that goes the whole way kind of around the track, right?

And that's how you, how fans get from place to place.

And there's a tram system

that takes fans all the way around the track,

it just kind of runs continuously.

And Mr. Barber would sit on the tram, you know,

during race day, or sometimes even during the race

and talk to people, see how they were doing,

what they liked, what they didn't-

He's very dead bulls of him.

It is, it is.

And he would know like,

oh, this lineup for the bathroom's too long,

let's add more toilets here,

or this garbage can's full,

get someone over there to do it.

Like just that kind of attention to detail.

But you can tell it really just sort of like see through

into the whole community there, whole staff there.

So, and like you say, they fought for an IndyCar race,

you know, at a time when it was sort of tough

and putting the money to make the track

what it needed to be.

And now it's a staple event on the calendar.

So I know we're all, all of us,

everybody is so looking forward to going back there

and racing again, especially the racing part

because we all love it so much.

I mean, we'll be there in four weeks

whether we like it or not.

So see you there.

There you go.

I do have a travel story.

I have a travel comment.

Not a story.

Well, okay, you go first

because mine leads into a discussion

that I need everybody's opinion on.

So you go first.

Oh, well then I'm going after him

because I got one too.

Okay.

So I was having a conversation with someone

and the realization kind of hit both of us.

Let's find down to Charlotte yesterday.

And, you know, we travel enough.

We travel a lot.

And so through traveling a lot,

you acquire status on an airline, right?

And that has changed what it looks like

in recent years with the addition of credit cards

and the ability to acquire qualifying status

through monetary spend.

And it's not just the miles you fly anymore.

It's how much you're swiping the card,

which makes sense, right?

I mean, ultimately airlines got to find ways

to generate revenue and being a credit card company

is apparently, you know, a good way to do that.

So I don't have a problem with it.

That's fine.

But it got us on to the topic

of really like Christianity and Catholicism.

And is that where you thought this was going, James?

Bear with me.

No, bear with me.

And how, you know, as a child,

you are born into a family that goes to a Catholic church

or a Christian church or Protestant church or whatever,

right?

And that's the upbringing that you are brought up in.

And that could be a Muslim,

like this isn't a religious conversation.

This is just, as a young person,

you're brought up in a household

that goes in a certain direction.

You have your ritual, whatever it is.

Maybe it's none.

And airlines are the same.

So I was brought up as an American Airlines kid, right?

My dad flew American and I had an advantage account

from like the age of whatever.

And you just, you default as you go into a teenager

and as an adult, like I fly American.

Whether or not that's the best airline out there

or not, whether or not that is, you know,

always the most convenient, like that is the first,

when I'm looking at book of flight,

I don't go to Google flights, I don't go to whatever.

I type in AA.com.

And if there's really no options,

then I'll expand beyond that.

But like my default is American Airlines.

Even though like they're consistently rated like the worst.

That's still what I do.

And so I think it's very similar

to like the religion you're brought up in.

And so like Ben, he pretty much flies American Airlines

exclusively.

And so he's gonna be an American Airlines kid

whether or not he likes it.

And I just thought that's a very interesting

fast of the society.

He is so great point, great point.

I'm gonna start on the Ben side, which is,

I mean, Ben's flying private

as often as he's flying American.

So you're raising a bougie ass kid

who's gonna expect to be flown around

by his private pilots in his private plane.

But yeah, neither here nor there.

I think that's a very valid point.

That's the same for anything, right?

That's the same for like sports teams, right?

If you grow up in, you know,

your family's religiously Pittsburgh Steelers fan,

even if you live in Wyoming,

you know, you're gonna be a Steelers kid, right?

That's fair.

But it's, yeah, the influence of the community

that you grow up in, the people around you,

yeah, it carries with you.

But like sports, like, yes,

that's a very good analogy or comparison,

but there's like, there's a passion involved in that.

There's no passion involved in like, airlines.

Yeah, that's true.

That's right.

You're not having Delta Airlines cups

or sweaters or whatever, right?

Okay, so definitely gonna start getting that.

I need more butter.

Okay, you need more stuff, yeah.

But no, you're an American guy, right, Tim?

No, he switched.

No, I was, and then I switched.

I switched to Delta.

This is what I was gonna say.

He's a convert.

Because I was gonna say that happened,

but I have a couple of friends

that have actually switched from American to Delta

because of the point that you made earlier, Alex,

of the constant bottom ratings.

But what about something like, okay, let me ask you this.

If you're going to the store to buy batteries.

Don't care.

It's not like Energizer or Duracell, you're not.

Okay.

I'm trying to think of a place.

Even though you went as a Duracell for Halloween one year.

Right, even though that was the best.

You didn't go as an Energizer.

Even though that was the best Halloween costume of all time.

No, I don't have an affinity to Duracell.

But brands, yes, there's brand loyalty, I guess.

There's things like just we're in your house

and so it's a good point,

but that's why they try to get you young, right?

That's why it's like such a huge thing.

All right, Tim, what's your travel story?

Okay.

This is kind of a throwback to what we talked about before,

but James, you're up.

So it's rude.

When I was leaving Florida a couple of weeks ago,

why we were delayed,

somebody threw up on the plane right before we took off.

Was it you?

It was not me.

It was somebody up in one of the seats

and they like turned back to the gate

and they de-boarded that guy

and then cleaned the seat and then we took off

and that was part of the huge delay.

So my question is,

if throwing up on a plane is enough of a reason

to kick somebody off the plane,

why do we still have the vomit bags

if apparently you're not even allowed

to throw up on a plane?

No, I think you're allowed to throw up on a plane.

He probably threw up.

He missed the bag.

Yeah.

They were like, apparently this is the person next to him

told the flight attendants right before takeoff

and they're like, good thing

is if he had thrown up lower in the air,

we would have had to divert and land somewhere.

I was just like, well, then why do we have the bags?

That, I feel like people throw up on planes all the time

and it doesn't cause an emergency landing.

No, that probably, that guy was a,

he had other things happening.

He was a menace.

Yeah, it may have been.

The reason he was throwing up that was really the issue

and not the throwing up itself.

The other funny part was he was in comfort plus

and we weren't,

because we had switched our flights like last minute,

but like Hazel and I were next on the list

for upgrade to comfort plus.

I was just like, nah, I'm good.

You know what that's the, you know what that's the.

Well, we'll stay back in 34.

Yeah, 34 is good.

34 is fine.

Yeah, I was in, I forget where I was.

I was somewhere recently and I got an Uber

and the guy, we used to be like,

he, I sit in the back, close the door

and right before he starts coming he goes,

he goes, hey, I'm just on a call.

Like, do you mind?

And I was kind of like, nah, it's all right.

Like, I've been in a lot of cars

where they're on a phone call,

but like normally that they have earbuds in.

This guy is just using the hands free over the car.

And I was like, no, that's fine.

And he was like, would you like some earplugs?

And I was like, no, I'm just gonna put in my earplugs

and I'm gonna do some work, but thank you.

The guy would say, let me start driving.

And then I kind of put it all together.

I see the phone, I start hearing what's happening.

The guy is working.

The guy has a job and he is on a team's call

that he is participating in,

not just a passive listener in.

There's like the phone with all the little faces

and he is just, so basically he is double dipping.

He's Ubering while he's working from home.

So is that a hustler move

or is that like kind of a move

when the other job you have is a service job

and someone else has to sit through your meeting

about TPS reports?

Nope, that's awesome.

Good for him.

Because let's be honest,

the other people on that team's call

are in their pajamas, TV on in the background,

scrolling Instagram, taking a, you know, whatever, right?

Those people are not also like dedicated to their job.

So this guy is, you know, also not that dedicated

but at least is trying to support his family

and doing a good job at it.

So I mean, it was borderline

if I was going to be wearing pants right now.

I assume that you went without them.

I went with pants.

It's a little chilly.

It's a little damn fair.

Yeah, so I agree.

I kind of liked the hustle.

Once I put together what was actually happening,

the only thing that I'll say is just put your phone,

like put an earbud in.

Sure.

Like, you know, I don't, you don't need,

the fact that he offered me like earplugs.

Well, it's not his first rodeo, bro.

I know, but it's like, why don't,

there's an easier solution.

Like, do you have a bucket of earplugs?

He probably thought about it and it was like,

it would look unsafe if I had an ear pod in.

No, he's a hustler.

He's a hustler.

He's not smart, but he's a hustler.

It's fair.

I thought it was kind of interesting.

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All right, you said it, pal.

You're down at St. Pete, you're finally here.

Finally happened.

Yeah, I was just cold.

I just didn't want to go back to Indy for a day.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, man, I mean, it's, yeah.

What do you want to know?

Is it gonna rain on Saturday?

Looking less likely now.

Less likely?

How about Saturday?

Because I'd be honest, I'm so good.

I'm more worried about the truck race at this point

because if your first ever truck race

is on a street circuit and in the rain,

that's not great.

That's not great for me.

It's not awesome.

So you're the pilot.

You have all the cool weather apps.

I don't think it'll rain for any amount of time

that it will affect on track.

Well, when do you practice?

Like, I think our practice Friday is gonna be wet.

At like one or whatever on Friday?

No, sorry, on Saturday.

Our Saturday morning practice will be wet,

but I think the rest of the weekend is dry.

Okay, yeah, we've raced at like 1230 or something.

It could be drying.

Start wet?

You wanna dry it?

Like, let's see, yeah, let's see how.

Put on slicks first and you'll win.

First status licks usually comes out on top.

Usually comes out on top.

That shouldn't be challenging at all.

Oh, God, what did I sign up for here?

No, it's gonna be fun.

It's gonna be fun.

Just make sure you wreck Elio.

Or no, sorry, Dario.

It's early.

Elio?

You wanna come into the pits

and crash into the Meyer-Shank stand?

That's weird.

Both.

I want you to take Dario and Elio out.

Yeah, see if I can do it at the same time.

Yeah, man.

What sort of prep have you done?

Have you sat in this thing yet?

Have you?

Yes, so a couple things.

Do you know how to turn it on?

I do.

I do know how to turn it on.

There's kind of like three switches,

pretty standard race car stuff.

I'll be honest, the seating position in it

is very strange.

It is very weird.

It's super upright as you're just in a chair.

You're just in a chair,

but it's like, it's a cab on a truck.

It's a roomy place and you feel so cramped

because the firewall is so close.

Your feet are shockingly close.

Look, in an Indy car, you're sat, you're laid back.

Your feet are about as far away

from your head as they can be.

Your legs are fairly straight.

I'm not straight, but they're stretched out.

This thing, you're sitting upright.

The firewall is so close.

Your legs feel cramped

and you're not pushing pedals this way.

You're pushing pedals this way.

The pedals are mounted from the ceiling,

not from the floor, which just feels,

it's a weird angle and stuff,

and the leverage is different.

And then the steering wheel is in your torso.

Like the steering wheel is inside you

and it sort of drives Donkey Kong style like this.

And so you feel so cramped for such a large space.

Tim would be perfect for this.

How did we come to that conclusion?

Donkey Kong.

Because you like living in cramped spaces?

No, just like, I feel like he would be good at this.

No, dude, so you know, it's so funny.

It's like, when you're going through-

Because that's how he drives his Bronco.

Okay.

Sorry, I'm busy looking at my 3D printer app

to find Delta Airlines stuff to print.

Ha!

So many problems with that statement.

So many problems.

I guess you thought I was kidding.

Here's our options.

Okay, never.

Okay, so how many practice sessions do you get?

Those?

About one.

Oh, Uno.

Uno, and then straight into qualifying.

Sure.

And is qualifying like just a set amount of time

and you have one set of tires

and you just pound many rock or-

Nope, it's two laps.

It's-

That's it.

Basically, you have time, but like it's two laps.

So tires go out.

Two laps.

You do one flyer, you come back in,

you cool the engine, you cool the tires,

you go back out, you do one lap and then you're done.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's like a,

it's like they're predicting a one and a half

to two second gain from the end of practice one

on all tires to stickers at the beginning of qualifying,

which is again, 10 minutes later.

Oh.

So practice ends, it's 10 minutes in a qualifying.

So there's no time to look at data,

which is good because the trucks don't have

data acquisition systems.

Oh, that's good.

That's, you don't want that in an airplane

or in a race car, right?

So honestly, James, you're prepared for this

because year one at FAF with McLaren was pretty much this.

No, it was even worse because there was like

lap times on the dash, but they were long.

Correct.

So you thought, you thought-

You were really good.

You knew what you were doing

or you were learning or all that.

This is how you get through this corner quicker.

Nope.

Okay.

Do you have a dash?

Is there lap times?

Do you at least?

No.

Oh.

No, no.

There's no doubt.

Can you run like a micron?

I guess stop, watch just on the center of this

during wheel and can you do yourself?

The things you used to like duct tape

on to skip arbor cars, can you like have your own?

No, no.

So literally there's more tech in the average go-kart.

So what, how are they just gonna tell you

on the radio?

Yeah, buddy, feel.

You just go out there and feel it.

Cause like you do one lap and then they,

so like it doesn't matter.

You do your lap and then they're like,

that was your time.

Even practice?

No, no practice you can do multiple

cause like practice, you're gonna try to,

you know, do some longer runs.

But here's the thing, man.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be red flag city

up in that thing.

And so of a 40 minute, 50 minute practice

over under 20 minutes.

I can't wait to watch this.

This is gonna be hilarious.

Okay.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be something.

It's gonna be something.

So you might have to skip a debrief or two

just to make sure that you're there.

At least have it on in the engineering office.

Have the track feet on to watch the madness.

My dog is licking the window.

He's literally a window liquor.

Sully, buddy.

That's your spare parts bud.

So yeah, so lots to learn, Alex.

It's gonna be an entertaining, entertaining experience.

And I'm excited for it.

You, however, are going back to St. Pete

for the 47th time.

And I'm not, all right, calm down.

Are you, do you like this track?

I don't know.

I feel like we know a lot the tracks that you hate,

but I don't know where St. Pete stacks up.

I'm indifferent.

Yeah.

I don't hate it.

I don't love it.

It's fine.

It's okay.

What's your favorite?

It's fun if your thing's hooked up.

Yeah.

It's not fun otherwise.

What's, are there any street courses where it's fun

even if your thing's not hooked up?

Long Beach.

Okay.

Bell Isle.

Okay.

Toronto.

No.

Nashville.

Yes.

Nashville was not fun if your thing was not hooked up.

That track was weird.

Yeah, it was.

It was fun.

Because like it was never hooked up.

It was just always like, you know, that's true.

Yeah, I mean, it was asses and elbows the whole time.

No, I would say yes, I like it

because if I compare it to new Detroit or old Toronto,

then I mean it's, this is miles, miles better.

Okay, but hold on.

Let's talk about that though,

because we've got Toronto moving to Markham.

We're adding Arlington.

You already said Long Beach.

So like, are you saying that basically

it's second worst just ahead of Detroit

and had Bell Isle still been on the calendar?

It would be your least favorite street track?

Well, I was in the sim for Arlington yesterday.

Oh, I want to know all about this.

Well, there's no roughness because it's not a scan.

Yeah. Obviously.

So I don't really know like what the grip level is

or like if it's super bumpy or not.

Right, but pure layout.

Let me just say the first four corners are horrific.

How do you mean?

They are, imagine, do you know the last two corners

at Detroit, new Detroit before you like come to Pit Lane?

Like that left, right?

Yeah. Imagine the gap between the left right

at Detroit was shrunk by 70%

and then there was another left, right attached to it.

So like a left, right, left, right.

Like there is fairly enough space.

Yes, to like, so you're just, ah, ah, ah, ah.

And it's just, it's like, oh, okay.

And you're just like that one more time

just to make sure we got it on the audio.

No, no.

So that's turns one, two, three, four.

One, two, three, yeah, pretty much, yeah.

So, and then what does that lead on to a straight?

Like two miles.

Oh, that's to that super long straight down the back.

Like, is it, I know you know, say we don't know a grip level

but is it like, what gear are we talking about?

Oh, it's on the idle and first, yeah.

In first?

Oh yeah.

Okay.

All right.

But then like the back section,

like there's a couple like fairly quick second gear corners

and like the back and it winds up.

This is like the parking lot area.

So like, I don't know, it's just what they could do.

Same for everyone.

I don't really know.

But to answer your question,

so what I say this is, well, there's only,

we're only comparing really right now

Long Beach, St. Pete in Detroit.

So yes, this is second worst, it's second

but also next to last.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's a dumb way to do it.

Well, we'll revisit this at the end of this season

once we've done Arlington and Markham as well.

Actually, you know what?

We never, because last week we talked

after day one of Phoenix testing,

we never talked about day two of Phoenix testing.

Well, you had to go after day one, didn't we?

Yeah.

Yeah, we talked the morning of day two

before you went and threw your whole ball on the track.

I had to go all, yeah.

So tell us about day two.

I mean, let's be honest guys,

like we did the tire test there.

So did Andrzej and Penske,

but we were going into the test and Genasi actually.

We were going into the test

with a pretty good knowledge of what was gonna work

and a good car to have and what you needed.

So this was just a continuation of that.

The conditions were pretty, I mean, not pretty,

the conditions were very good.

So it's likely going to be different

when we go back there next week.

That being said, the forecast is trending downwards

in terms of temperature.

So maybe it won't be that different.

But I've always liked that track

and it's nice to know that going into the weekend

we'll have a good baseline.

So yeah, that was a good day.

But we have next week to talk about Phoenix.

So going into St. Pete this year,

I think the team has done a lot this off season.

I would put it on a similar level to like my first,

my first year, so 2023 at McLaren

in terms of what they've done from a growth standpoint

and a expenditure standpoint

to try and catch up in various areas.

So there's a lot of optimism around the team.

We know that there's still a very big gap

to close in order to be fighting

with the people we're trying to fight against.

But I think we're very confident

that it'll be a big chunk better than last year.

So this is an exciting weekend

just to kind of see all of that on track for the first time

because we didn't do the seabring test

as we've talked about.

James, you probably forgot that, but we didn't.

You know, I actually remember that one this time.

So this is like my first road course experience

since October, and there's a lot

that's come down the pipeline since then.

So I'm just excited to get on track

regardless of where we're at,

just to see what the car's like and see what we're doing.

So is that true that you haven't done a road course

since October?

Everything all the testing you've done has been ovals?

Indian Phoenix, yeah.

Oh, wow.

I never even thought about it

because we talked about how you've been in the car

like more than your average short of off-season

type thing, but yeah, I guess that,

I didn't really put that together, that's interesting.

So I did one day I MS the road course.

I did two days on the oval, two days at Phoenix,

well four days, and four days at Phoenix.

Well, okay.

A lot of days in the car, but just limited scope on tracks.

So, all right.

Interesting, interesting.

I'm excited to see how it goes.

Who do you think's gonna be strong there?

Well, Paloal, obviously.

I think that the big thing that we're all excited to see

is willpower and an adredi car because I think will still

like has the most amount of poles around St. Pete

or at least of active guys.

Like a long shot.

No, no.

Does LA have more?

Oh, okay.

No.

So he's obviously incredibly quick around here

and the adredi car theoretically

is the benchmark on street courses.

So you would imagine that's a pretty potent combination.

So, okay.

I think it's, everyone agrees with that.

There was this funny thing that IndyCar on Fox posted

that I just wanted to bring up in closing for the weekend.

We can chat about these things.

I don't know if you saw this.

It's called IndyCar Confidential.

I'm sure it is.

25 full-time IndyCar drivers.

Couple questions and got their votes.

So number one was which series driver

do you trust the least racing side-by-side?

Alex, how'd you vote?

He was a guest of our show two weeks ago.

All right.

So, Roshan did clock in second actually

to your teammate, young Razzle Dazzle

led the voting Santino Frucci

rounding out the podium on that one.

Which series driver do you trust the most

to go racing side-by-side?

Alex answered.

It was either McLaughlin or Dixon.

Well, Dixon was P1.

He had 12 votes.

Well, no, it was McLaughlin, it was McLaughlin.

Okay, McLaughlin, he was P4.

So he's on the chart.

He's on the chart.

But it was Dixon, Polo, Rosenquest

were the top three in that category.

How many races will new

Indredi global driver will power win this year?

I think I put one.

10 people voted one and that was tied

for 10 people who also voted two.

So a lot of people think he's gonna

only one person said zero wins.

Which I thought was interesting.

Joseph Newgarden.

Do you know that?

Or are you just guessing that?

No, I'm just guessing.

Yes.

Okay.

Should Indredi car consider any other championship format

other than a full season point system?

No.

22 votes said no, but three votes said yes.

I very wanna know who those people are.

I would love to know who that is

and have that conversation.

Which driver, when you pass him,

gives you a feeling of accomplishment?

That must have been who I put Dixon for.

Scott Dixon was on the way.

He was number three.

He ran out of the podium.

Newgarden was number two

and with 14 votes, Polo was number one.

Which kind of makes sense.

Yeah.

Okay, final one.

Which new venue are you most looking forward to?

DC was not announced at the time of this question.

So you can add DC if you wanna change your...

Oh, DC by a mile.

DC over Arlington and Markham.

Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

Do you agree?

I mean, you drove recently enough with these guys.

Do you agree with all of those answers?

Yeah.

Or would you change anything?

So, I mean, the Polo for the driver,

you get a best feeling of accomplishment.

That one, I feel like the longer you've been in the series,

maybe the less you would just default to that.

And that's not a shot against Polo,

but it's just like,

if you've raced against Dixon for 15 years

and you like in some of those...

I got smoked by him by 15 years.

Or if you're talking about Joseph Newgarden

on an oval at Iowa, like passing Newgarden at Iowa,

that's gonna put a big smile on your face.

So like that went to me, I think it's a little more,

I'm surprised it was that many people voted for Alex.

I get it.

The rest of them, yeah, man,

like it does not surprise me that Dixon was the most,

you know, like guy you fear less,

least go on side-by-side with.

The top three and the trust the least is common.

But yeah, no, I'd say that's a pretty good list.

Although, Kyle Kirkwood commented,

there's 53 votes out of 23 drivers.

We need some clarification here.

Bob Parker is so wonderful.

I've been looking at that.

So yeah, here it is guys.

We're here, St. Pete, it's this weekend,

this Sunday, March 1st on Fox,

noon Eastern is when the Pre-Race show starts.

You're gonna wanna check it out.

And this year, unlike last year,

because of some stuff, but if you're a streamer

and you don't have televisions that can do that,

there is a streaming option now.

Fox One is the app.

If you have any other streaming services,

a good chance you already have a subscription

to Fox One or it's included.

So if you're looking for a way to stream the race,

the Fox One apps, the way to do it,

I don't know what it costs monthly if you don't have it,

but like literally, if you have anything else,

you pretty much have it.

So take a look on there if you wanna watch it.

Alex, best of luck, man.

And we'll come back next week.

You too.

Guys, we did it.

We made it the entire last season.

We'll go right now.

It's pretty incredible.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

It's gonna be fun.

We're racing truck race on Saturday,

e-race and mini car race on Sunday.

It's, we're off tracks going on track this weekend, boys.

Let's do it.

And I'll be there.

Yeah, Tim.

No one cares.

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