RHR The Treasure Hunter

This is, is off track.

Well, look guys, I'd say good morning , but it's not, it's not a good morning for three of the four people on this show. You waited

45 seconds because Teddy, we're not talking about you.

You're so narcissistic. This has nothing to do with you.

I was, yeah. No, it's not about,

you are also having a bad morning.

Sure. I'm talking about our guests on our Tuesday show, uh,

of off Track with Hinch and Rossi.

Uh, Mr. Ryan, hunter Ray, who joins us very kindly from,

I don't know, Beachside Waterside, somewhere in sunny Florida.

Uh, hey, Ryan, screw you.

Hey guys. Hey. Thanks

for finally having me on. I appreciate it.

You've been on plenty of time. You, you

Have been on At least twice.

Definitely been on before. You are as much

of a repeat guest as Connor .

Uh, yeah. So we're just looking at your setup here is,

I'm wearing a to, Alex is in a Beanie.

Tim doesn't count.

And, uh, you're sitting there short sleeve, palm sleeve air, Palm tree t-shirt, enjoying the sun down in Florida. Yeah. Must be nice.

It is. Look at Real nice.

Oh, you gotta show us the view. Oh, cool. That's

Nice.

Good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is, uh, your second Florida home, because your first Florida home wasn't warm enough, so you went f further south.

Yeah, a few hours south. You have to get Nice.

Get away from that cold for sure. .

So serious question. Um, retirement doesn't suck.

No, no it doesn't. For sure.

Not, I mean, I've become a treasure hunter now, so this is what I'm doing down here.

Okay. I bought a treasure hunting boat.

Did you looking for coins? Did you

Actually, You wouldn't doubt that, would you? No,

No, I wouldn't for second I could see Naps in the living room.

I'm just, I'm just picturing, I'm just picturing Hunter Ray hunched over with his, his big headset on his metal detector walking up and down the beach, like, honey, I think I got one, you know? Oh, no,

No.

We're talking treasure hunting boats where you go out and you're, you know, you're finding all these, you know, the coast here's got so many shipwrecks, obviously.

Right. I have no pa no, no passion

in that. So, yeah. So I'm,

I tell You about every shipwreck off the coast here, I'm, I'm getting, there's coins out there.

I'm getting, uh, I'm getting Matthew McConaughey from Fool's Gold Vibes. Is that exactly? It's an

Rated movie actually. It's pretty

Bag man.

I feel like it's the Kevin Hart's like, uh, theatrical debut as well.

Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . A little historic, uh, well, good man.

Yeah. To, to a to Alex's point, I mean, well,

I want to interrupt real quick.

I'm pretty sure Soul Playing came first, which is not an underrated movie.

Oh, was that before Fools School? It was

Appropriately rated, yeah. . Yeah.

Fair. But to Alex's point,

I wouldn't have used the word retirement because we know you still, you know, wheel it from time to time.

But, uh, how, how does Ryan Hunter Ray spend, we know how you spend your maze.

How do you spend your Junes through Aprils these days?

Just snorkeling and looking for coins, man. Right.

That's all I do. . And then I get on a flight,

I get on a spirit flight to, uh, Indy, and then I go do my thing, turn left real fast, and that's it.

Yeah. That's when I go back to snorkeling. Right. Dude,

You're not doing This.

Him, obviously is, is, um, it, you know, I, I'm working a bit with Miami gp, the, the Precision driving club there, their new driving club.

Um, been doing a bit of that.

Mainly it's been, uh, you know, working with, uh, with Beck, um, on all these rental properties that we have, trying to get that, that whole thing tuned up.

And honestly, with the three, with three boys and everything that we have going, it's just a constant, I mean, I don't know how anybody would have three kids, you know, and be a single parent because it's just we're cons.

It's just a constant trade off all the time. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's just with all that stuff going on and everything that we have, you know, um, on, on the property management side, and then I'm trying to get this stuff going with, um, precision Driving Club and Miami GP and try just dipping my toes in the little things here and there.

Um, it, it's the time's all zapped up other than when I'm here, you know, looking for coin Snorkeling for coins. Yeah. Yeah,

Exactly.

Yeah. I feel like your version of retirement

and mine are very different.

You, you're you're get a lot more sun and water time in than I am. I'm doing it wrong.

You're grinding. Well,

you're, you're making a lot of money.

You know, that's, that's a good thing.

I, I've heard some of those figures, so, Well, I mean, it's, you know, I, I'm currently unemployed in every aspect.

Oh, no. I've got a driving job.

I've got my, uh, I've got my, my mc gig, so I've got one, I've got one gig on the go, but still looking for a few more if anybody's interested. Um, also,

I wanna do an, I wanna do some mc gig.

I wanna do, you know, Daytona and I just haven't, you know, ever since the prototype stuff kind of, uh, the, the landscape change there, I just really haven't spent a lot of time looking into it. So, um,

So, so I mean, that's, that's, that's a, that's a follow up question.

Like is it something that you kind of are chasing or is it still kind of, of the aspect that okay, if people are interested, they're gonna pick up the phone and call for GTS for really anything?

Or like, where's your, where's your mindset on?

He said, I'm, I'm R-M-F-H-R, you call me.

No . No, it's always like Alex.

And I was like, you know, James, it's like, it's always kind of been that way in IndyCar and, and all the years that I did prototypes, it was like that, it was just a constant like, okay, here's an option here, here's an option there.

I'm looking. And, you know, I was with Ian

and the Cadillac program that kind of dried up and it, it, the prototype landscape changed when the manufacturers brought in their own, uh, or really brought their, their, their driver lineups from Europe and stuff like that, aside from obviously the Cadillac side of it.

So it, the prototype scene kind of changed a bit other than maybe one or two seats here or there.

Obviously the CANI seats are usually reserved.

The endurance seats are reserved for their full-time IndyCar drivers.

Obviously they're amazing drivers, so why wouldn't they?

Um, there's just not a whole lot available on that side of it, and I had no idea when it comes to the GT Paddock.

So I just haven't really, I find myself, you know, I was just doing a half season in 2023 in IndyCar.

Um, obviously 2024 was Indy 500 hundred only.

And I find myself now here, like, um, okay.

I probably should, you know, look into, uh, look into that a bit more because I absolutely want to do the, um, at least the endurance side of it. Sure.

Well, I know you're, you're getting your, you know, outside of the month of May, you're scratching your competitive itch in a different way by, uh, moving into the coaching realm.

Oh, yes, yes. Of your Yes. Your, you know, I, I, I,

I gather you've already won a championship as a head coach. Yeah,

I have.

I have two championships now.

2 0 2, pardon? Pardon, pardon me. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know,

if you want deal with, with, uh, Your baby born, your AS cup and then Yeah.

Your, what, what's the league?

The, uh, the, the, the Peewee football flag. Fort

Lauderdale Flag Football Dale Flag Football. Yeah,

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Two time champ. Big time.

You're the Bill Belichick of Fort Lauderdale. Flag football

Trophy's about that big, and it goes right in front of the baby.

Borg. . Yeah. Yeah. .

Is that fun? You enjoy coaching the kids?

It's awesome. It's a lot of fun.

I get way too competitive at it.

I get way too serious into it, and I have to constantly bring myself back down.

But man, it's, um, it's, it's a lot of fun when they get into it.

And I, I've always liked the coaches, especially when I was younger, that were a bit harder than the ones that were just like, super, like, all right, everybody did a great job.

Doesn't matter if we win or lose, you know, I'm just like, you know, just happy to be here.

So I I'm the other side of it, for sure. Yeah,

I've seen some clips.

I could guess that. Yeah. Yeah, I seen.

So why seen some clips, so why, why flag football?

I just grew up doing flag football, and then I did, uh, tackle football in high school, so it just got the same thing as I did.

And I just, I don't, some of my friends had their kids in, in tackle football, and I don't know, just kids absolutely crushing heads at, at that age while they're still growing is such a fair, scary thought to me's fair.

I mean, you should see some of my friends had their kids at quarterback.

One of my friends, my best friend growing up, he's got two kids.

Quarterbacks, they're maybe, uh, I don't know, 12, 13, and maybe 14.

And these kids are playing guys that are bigger than us, that, I mean, kids that are, you know, 14 that are bigger than us, not him, and just absolutely taking their heads off.

And it's wild to, to, to witness.

But no, I'm not, I'm not really interested in having the kids do that.

Have you gotten to the point in your coaching career where there's like been parents that are trying to bribe you with bourbon bottles or any sort of politics that exist to get those kids more Complaints on?

No, it's complaints. It's just complaints. Okay. That's it.

Got it. I, no, I, I wish

I'd like to get some of those, Jane.

You guys would do that. 'cause your, your,

your cabinets are loaded with the, uh, the expensive stuff.

I'm, I'm, I'm staring at an entire wall of it right now.

It's very hard to not, you know, dive in at nine o'clock in the morning.

Uh, so whatever. Did you have

Any, what happened with your line?

Didn't you guys have come up with your own kind of, uh, didn't you have your own line?

We, we whiskey We bought some barrels.

Yeah, we bought some barrels through our, uh, we Weren't distilling itselves group.

We weren't making it. No, I, we were

Sure Not choosing it, drinking it, and selling it.

Um, but so have you, do you have any good stories from like, complete raging parents that you had to like, put in their place? Not

Really complete raging parents.

It's more dealing with the complaints afterwards and the dynamic of that.

'cause at that age, you do want to give kids like their fair shot, right?

I mean, you want to give, they're learning, so you want to give them, but at the same time, if Timmy doesn't wanna play football or he doesn't wanna, do, you know, that position? Look

At you, Tim.

I'm not going to play him at that position.

And these kids are fast. I don, like,

once you get into the nine, 10, Timmy, Timmy, you can play on my teammate. I don't

Wanna, don't wanna play.

Yeah. , I, I'll must have some kids. Let's go.

I'm in for the tackle one though.

If I'm playing with the kids, you know, I wanna bring the pain, Take the aggression out.

Oh, man, that's good. Yeah, no, there's not really any,

any, any great stories on that side of it.

It's more the dealing with the other coaches and, and the eyeing them and like, on a warmup, like when they're looking at you run your plays, I'm looking over there, I'm like, are you, are you serious?

These kids are nine, 10 years old.

You're trying to understand our, you know, plays before we go out.

That's when I, I lose, I lose all, all the competitors come out and I'm going through for the throat at that point.

Yeah. . Yeah. I, I wish you guys could see some of that,

the dynamic with the other coach sometimes. See, that's

Awesome.

Yeah. I can't wait to read article in the newspaper.

Headline, indie 500, champ Ryan, hunter Ray caught in brawl at children's football game with other coach.

I could see how it happens sometimes.

Not necessarily parent to parent, right.

Coach to coach. Yeah. Yeah.

I changed my mind. I do wanna play now. Yeah. , it sounds,

Um, all right.

So you talk about being, um, kind of one race a year at the moment.

You got the benefit that most one-off guys don't get of at least doing a test, uh, this past October, I think it was.

Yeah. Um, at IMS with dryer, with the hybrid.

Like, walk us through how that was, did it meet expectations?

Was it difficult to get used to?

Like, where, where, where do you stand on that? It

Was, I, I, I mean, it was just awkward, um, is the best way I can put it. That's

A good word.

I'm gonna start using that more. Yeah.

It was, it was awkward.

It was just, uh, you know, I, I really like dryers, uh, dryer BOLs, um, our, our kind of baseline set up our, our, our race car especially.

I really like, um, the feel that it gives me early in the corner, meaning the rear takes a good set.

And from there, I don't necessarily have a super weak front end, which is rare.

I mean, you, you remember Alex, you ran the thing as loose as possible at Indy, um, with end Ready.

I didn't necessarily like how you had the rear kind of moving a lot until it took a set mid corner.

Whereas this, this gave me more of a feel of, of like how, how, how I want it taking that set.

And it still had a, a, a good amount of turning a positive car.

Now with the weight where it is with the hybrid unit, it is, uh, I for, for it.

Sometimes when you're not in the car a lot, you get in the car and you start driving into the corner and you're thinking, did that just happen?

Or am I, have I just not been in the car for a few months?

Hmm. And yeah. And, and you start thinking of that stuff,

and then I'm like, yeah, I've been doing this for way too long.

It's it, your first instinct is your gut instinct and you know it, it's right.

And that's it. And then I started feeling it more and more,

and I'm like, I'm sliding halfway through the corner at the rear.

Like I'm, I'm actually loose.

It's just this really awkward, rear slow kind of slide to the corner once it takes a set.

And then even then, the rear was never super connected.

And we worked through some of that. Yeah.

We made a, you know, I, I guess less bad I is what you could call it, but I, I don't know, is did you, you and I spoke Alex briefly about it at the time, and you kind of, I think you had a, you basically said, yeah, it's hard to get close in traffic or harder than it was and stuff like that.

But that was a change for me, for, from where we were baseline in 2024 to where we are with that, uh, that big old suitcase stuck in the rear now, basically.

Yeah. I mean, but at least the suitcase

delivers a lot of performance, Which I could basically not feel.

Yes. Um, yeah, you,

That was gonna be my follow up question was how do you like the button?

Yeah. I was like, here we go. I'm coming up

on, this guy's gonna pass him.

And yeah. And you're like, is that a little bit more draft

or is that, is that the, uh, is the button being caught and then when you got, you gotta thing, is that to wind or Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, yeah.

So it's, uh, certainly a work in progress for me.

Um, I'm, we've, we've seen this in the past, right?

Drivers get super concerned about new things that come in and you're like, oh, the race is gonna be terrible.

It's gonna suck. Show's gonna suck. We're we're screwed.

Um, and, and somehow we find a way to make it all work and, and make it a, a good race.

But I haven't quite felt something like this big of a change in a while where, uh, it, it, it really made getting close in traffic.

Like it just feels like there's just too much weight on the attire that we have.

And that's it. The tires just had enough.

It's like, okay, I'm done. I'm out.

Is it, that's how it feels. It is

It, is it sort of comparable to what the front felt like once they added the arrow screen, right.

Because that was a sim it's a similar sort of conversation, but you know, you would, I remember when the arrow screen came on, everyone was just talking about that death plow under steer.

You couldn't get the right front to dig in and everyone was just, you know, as soon as you were five car lengths behind a car, you were stuck there.

Now you're talking about the rear, having that weird feeling now with a bunch of extra weight back there. Is it kind of similar,

Same kind of deal, just, you know, being the opposite? No. Just made it

Heavy on both ends of the car. .

Yeah. And well, the front was just a

little bit easier to manage.

At least it was in front of you, right?

You knew when it was taking off.

You, you know, you kind of, you, you had some workarounds to it, but yeah, it just feels that same kind of oversaturated feeling.

Um, and, and once it gets to that point, it's not coming back.

Um, but yeah, the car just feels so heavy.

I mean, it just, it really does feel like compared to what we did, you know, back in, you know, how the cars were when Alex was just a child, you know, in 20 14, 20 15, 16 .

Yeah. He was there at 16, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I know 2014 was, you know,

the car just felt really light.

It just felt, you know, really a dependent Nimble, agile.

Yeah. Just it, it felt super,

and it feels completely opposite now, which is a shame.

So it feels like sports car. Yeah.

I was gonna say, does your stock car experience come into play now?

Because you've got this big heavy thing, you're sort of rolling around the track.

Absolutely. SRX are coming to play, um, . Yeah.

It, it, it, it does, it feels more like the sports car kind of.

It's, it's definitely, yeah. It just, just too heavy.

So you've had the test, you're back with the team, you know, the team now, at least you have a little bit of a sense of the car and its current configuration heading into May, and I assume there's still like the April test that's gonna happen.

Yep. Is that so thing, right? Yeah.

So you have another test even before Practice Week kicks off.

Uh, the kind of big change in your program in totality is a new teammate for 2025 in Jack Harvey.

Uh, have you had a chance to talk to Jack much about it?

Um, I know he wasn't at the test.

Um, and then also just kind of what is your take and your opinion and your experience on who the driver is in that other car?

Is that very important to you?

Is that someone that you lean a lot on?

Or because you have so much practice time in Indie, it's less important.

What's kind of your, your teammate dynamic at the Speedway?

Yeah. Uh, super pumped to have Jack on.

Um, obviously, uh, he's, he's, you know, he's a really good dude, which is, uh, you know, you kind of wanna work with guys that can set the egos aside, right?

Work together for the betterment of what you're gonna put on race, put what, what product you're gonna put on the track on race day.

And, uh, he's, he's that type of guy works with him, obviously in the past at Andretti.

Um, and, uh, yeah, we're, uh, we're really looking forward to working with each other and, um, hopefully we have and want similar things in the car based on our conversations.

Seems to be that would be the case.

Um, but everybody has their own quirks and what they want from, from a race car and traffic and in qualifying and things like that.

So hopefully those are aligned, but really it comes down to, you know, just, just hit the ground running with a guy that's, um, you know, fully open and willing to work together.

And, uh, yeah, I'm looking forward to it for sure.

Good, good. Pick by, um, dry reinbold

and all the best, you know, which Connor all the best at, um, at Ucos.

I know it's never, it's never straightforward in motor sports, but was after, you know, being the one-off effort, getting the team into the fast 12 in qualifying last year, having a, a strong month of May like you did, was it pretty much, for the most part, a foregone conclusion that this was gonna be a, a repeat thing in 2025?

Was it a pretty easy deal to put together?

Yeah, I mean, all the, all the support in the background, um, meaning all the partners on the dry and Reinbold side, they were all, you know, gung ho to come back.

And it was basically like, Hey, let's, you know, as soon as you're ready, let's get this done.

Let's get it on paper. And, um,

Well, that's gotta be a nice experience, right? Like

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Uh, as, as opposed to like when we, uh, you know,

my first year with dryer and rambled, I, you remember when we ran the, uh, you know, the black mystery car right up until, uh, yeah, it's just all black, the whole, the whole way, right?

Up until, was it even carb day? I think, I think,

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

So this is just, yeah, way more straightforward and now we're able to do more development work, obviously not as much as the full-time teams, right?

Um, but we're, we're able to do a lot more on the development side, um, dampers, wind tunnel, things like that.

When we have the budget in place early on, it makes, it, makes it a lot easier.

So that's, that's really good. Yeah.

Are you, are you getting to do like sim days?

Did you have any, any days playing with the team?

Yeah, I've done some.

I've done some, uh, and that was back in maybe October, November, and we're working through that model.

I know Alex is doing some work there. Yeah. , he's good.

He, he loves doing that. He loves, he loves,

He's a big fan. Big zip guy.

Big zip guy. Remember

how much we used to do with the Honda deal?

I'll, I'll tell, I'll tell you something, um, James, that you might not know this, actually, all Chevy teams are getting some of their days cut, um, for using the sim from the IndyCar side because of a certain Cadillac F1 program. So,

um, . ,

Yeah. No, I heard the days are being cut.

Which One? NASCAR or what, right?

Which one? That's interesting. Okay.

Yeah. Um, yeah, well, uh, sorry to hear that.

Thoughts of prayers. Yeah, me, I get it.

I get it. I guess until they have the, are

You bummed you're not gonna be in the sim as much, Alex?

No. Oh, okay.

It was, it was Alex's idea to like, Hey, what don't you think that the Cadillac F1 guy should be using this a Little bit?

There's a, there's a lot of money you're gonna be spending on this.

You should probably, you know, get some use out of it. ,

Right? Well done.

Oh, that is good times. Okay.

So you come in there, you know, it's a, you know, it's a part-time program, uh, you know, one off deal for you.

What do you go into the month of May with the realistic goal of accomplishing?

Oh, right now we just need a work around, right?

We need a, we need a reset on this new, uh, on the new weight distribution with the hybrid there.

You know, there's a lot of work to do.

The hardest thing about coming together, even when you have a group that's super competent, right?

Full of potential is all these teams do this week in and week out.

The communication on the stand, the, the, you know, the, the, the performance engineers or dags or whatever every team wants to call 'em.

Just monitoring all these channels of data and constantly keeping on top of everything and making sure that you're not missing something.

That's one of the hardest things is getting this whole group together and, and somehow working cohesively and seamlessly right from the get go.

No mistakes to get it all nailed down, even by race day is, is, is tough.

And these guys have been, you know, these people that are on the team, have been at Penske, have been at <inaudible>, have been at Reti, but still just getting them all together for this one time a year.

That, I think that's one of the biggest challenges.

So that's, that's one of the goals obviously, is to work through that in a quicker, at a quicker rate, at a more, um, um, you know, effective, um, in a more effective timeline.

And then trying to just get, get some mechanical workaround to where the setup is with this with this awkward feeling I was talking about.

'cause it's, yeah.

Not great. So how, how do you feel about this idea?

You have the team set up the pit stand in the shop and through the magic of the internet, you know, you from your, one of your multiple homes in, uh, Florida, um, right.

You can get on, get on I racing and you guys can all be patched in and you could do a full 500 mile sim just test session. We did that

And that N bbc. Yeah.

That was not, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, but this is for a group that needs to learn to communicate.

I like it. You could have that whole, this is actually,

this is what I think you and the team should be doing this off season, Ryan is at least a couple, uh, full 500 mile test runs on. I think

You can do that from the Keys.

No. Well, I'm, So I that WiFi's a little shaky. Mm.

You guys both convinced me to buy that sim during, um, Don't point at me. Yeah, definitely

Point at him.

Remember, I came into an engineering meeting, I came into an engineer engineering meeting, we were all wearing our masks, and you're like, dude, it's, it, it's basically the way the future, we're, we're gonna be doing this all the time.

We're not, we're, we're not gonna, we're gonna be racing physically on the racetrack. And you fell

For and you fell for it.

I said, they, I don't, don't think I ever used, we Actually, I definitely not. I

I love my sim craft, uh, sim uh, yeah.

And I love, uh, I racing, so, right.

Uh, well, you use That as much as James does. Yeah. After

That Shave list plug, dude, I'm getting on it today.

I gotta start working on Daytona.

I've never driven a Lamborghini before, so I gotta hope that it, it kinda looks the same, feels the same, um, after that shameless sim cube.

Was it Sim Craft Sim Sim Craft, Yeah.

Sim Craft Plug. Uh, let's talk, you talk about the budget

and having that in line for, uh, for Andy.

Let's give your sponsors a little bit of love.

Yeah. So, well, in the past it's been the, the, the basic,

the foundation of his 1 0 1 studios, right.

Which is Yellowstone, which is all these, you know, really top of the line shows.

1 0 1 studios is why, uh, four Six's Ranch was on the side of the car.

Uh, four Six's Ranch is Yellowstone, the show.

Um, they also have their own, um, obvious their, they're on, you know, online ordering for, They have own Everything products.

They have their Own steakhouse in Vegas. Yeah.

That thing has been promoted the heck out of, I mean, if, if I, if I have this story correct, four Six's Ranch was something Taylor Sheridan who created Yellowstone knew about and actually wanted to use in the show.

Originally, the owners of the time didn't want them to use the Four Sixes Ranch.

So he created this fictional Yellowstone Ranch loosely based off it, they squeeze it into the show.

And in the show, Taylor wrote himself as the guy that worked at the Four Sixes Ranch.

And then the story I heard was the, the family wanted to sell it.

They called him up first.

He asked how much it was, it was an insane amount of money.

He said, I'm, I think it was like it's $330 million.

He goes, I'm 300 million short, lemme call you back.

And he called up Paramount and said, if I write you two more shows, can I get an advance on those?

And that's how 1883 and 1923 came to be.

He bought the four Sixes Ranch.

Now he runs it and it's like a marketing machine.

It just does everything from stakes to sponsoring IndyCars.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Absolutely. You're right.

And, uh, everything is spun off that, right?

They're partners are one, one of the companies that work with Venture hr, which is a HR company.

They were our, um, one of the primaries, um, last year.

Things are changing a bit this year.

The car's gonna look quite a bit different.

Same foundation with 1 0 1 studios.

And, um, yeah, it'll be, it'll be a, it'll be a way different looking car.

So looking forward to, uh, to, to dropping that this Might not be something that you can answer, but with all of the, the, the support and the backing and, and having everything pretty much locked in right away, the next logical step is a full-time program.

Is that a conversation that's come up with you at all?

With me? No. Um, okay.

With them in the future, maybe with the, the new car and things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, I had no interest in going full-time.

Um, so it's, it's something that, uh, takes Away from the coin hunting.

Well, yeah. You gotta keep your priorities straight,

Right?

What are we doing here? Well, so yeah, I mean, I,

I get the, you know, the full-time thing has passed, uh, not something that interests you in the future, but are there other things in the sport that interest you going forward?

Do you wanna, do you wanna be be the next TK and run a team or something like that, or, Hmm.

You know, that sounds like a lot, um, Stressful as hell, Man.

Uh, it does, for sure. I'd be interested. Couldn't go

Treasure hunting at all. No,

No.

I mean, you gotta get the priorities right.

I'd definitely be, um, I'd be interested in on the TV side. Uh, you stayed

A hell away for my job.

Yeah, I'm coming for you buddy. , you

Don't have a job.

I don't have One. You're secure. Oh,

That's why, that's why I don't have a job yet.

You're out there fishing for a job.

Yeah, they keep calling me and, and they're waiting on an answer, but I just like, no, you Know?

Yeah. We got a taller, more American, better looking guy

with more successful racing history.

Why don't we hire him instead?

Yeah. Not true. Um,

but I would, yeah, it, I don't know what I don't know on it.

I just, I would like to, um, I I really enjoyed it, like when we did it at, um, Detroit, long Beach, Detroit, yeah.

At Indy. I, I, I enjoyed it for sure.

Um, on the other side, you know, do I wanna be on a Spirit Airlines flight out of Fort Lauderdale four times a week?

No. No. . Um, but maybe I'll

Pick me up.

So full-time, anything is, is not really on your program, part-time racing, part-time, you know, TV work.

I don't want a full schedule of anything I do.

I would love to still be in an IndyCar in that regard.

I love IndyCar and I love, I love everything about it and the racing and the people.

And, um, I'd love to, you know, be involved and, um, I think I can naturally talk.

I, I, I probably have the freshest perspective, even compared to you, my friend on the, uh, on behind the wheel and driving these heavier behemoths.

Um, uh, you know, I, I could speak naturally to it and, and things would come, um, obviously I'd have to do work on, on, as you do, right.

As anybody does in their profession, on, on, um, becoming much better at that, like the kickback, the back and forth and stuff like that.

But a a lot of it I think would come naturally to me, and, uh, I'd definitely be interested in that.

Yeah, man, I loved, I loved having you part of the shows when, uh, we did it a few times with NBC, so, uh, fingers crossed, something can come together.

It'd be fun to Thanks man.

Get to do it again at some point. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd love it. Yeah, I'd love a shout at it.

He really just wants to do it so he can talk about me.

Right? Well, if I could just get those digs in. Yes.

The little digs here and there, right. The subtle digs.

Tiny bus. Yeah. Mm-hmm . Yeah. Yeah.

How is, uh, how is everything at a CR?

How's home now? Good. It's good

Though. Um,

That's right.

You know that, you know the squad there, Ryan. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. It's changing every day. A lot of new people.

Okay. Lot, lot, lot coming in.

Um, but it's also weird because it's all hypotheticals, you know what these year long off seasons are like.

Yeah. . Like, it just, you can only have

so many conversations about like what you think's gonna happen or what happened in the past, and how you're gonna be different this time around and, and all these sort of things.

And until you get into something and which is still six weeks away.

Yeah. It's,

Well, I can only imagine with you it's because you like to hearsay, you like to, you know, you're obviously very involved in your program and your car, and you're, you're, I I don't wanna say micromanaging, you're, but you're, you're managing, you know, it's a hands on lead where it's going HandsOn.

Yeah. Uh, so transitioning to a new program like that with,

with, um, which is, which is quite a bit smaller than what you've been used to, and, uh, things like that.

You'd be surprised. ? No, I, it's, oh,

I'm, it, it's, uh, Man, they got that su they got that sugar free spending spree. Yeah.

No, no. I mean, smaller people wise.

Like, you don't have 300 people running around in Orange, do you?

Right. Well, it's, yeah. And it was only like 170.

It's orange. Okay. Only,

I'm pretty sure we're all allowed to now say it's orange.

Yeah, yeah. .

Yeah. And Andretti wasn't small either, so. No,

No, you're right.

I mean, we, we don't have 70 people on the commercial side, um, and we don't have 25 interns.

But listen, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna do what we can.

Um, and, and honestly man, like it's, the indie test was cool.

It was, it was, uh, it's funny, I was talking to James about this.

There's been so much crossover right in this sport, considering how long this car has been around that I truly believe everyone from Penske to Coin is running the same iteration of the same thing.

There's no magic right rear spring out there.

There's no magic tow setting.

Like everyone has each other's stuff.

And so all these cars are within this box at Indie specifically, I believe, because I got in it and it was like, well, that, that feels the same as, it feels Like a race car.

It feels the same as everything else I've driven here, plus or minus this little thing.

Um, I think the most exciting thing for me was, um, Hunter's test thermal.

You know, we, they, they came with a, with a new concept from a damper package that they've been working on for the past several years.

And, and the pace was there and, and he was happy with the car.

So sweet. Um, time

Will tell.

That's music to your Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, right?

With IndyCar outside of, mostly outside of Indie itself, but the damper, damper side of it's massive as we've seen.

Yeah. Um, and James, you were also there when, when the,

when that was all blowing up with the inert and on the Indy on the, um, at, at Andretti.

Do you, you remember the performance gains we had at Sebring sometimes with those things were just huge, wild, huge.

It was like three tenths of a second we'd throw some on, and that was in the beginning, obviously the ramp up.

But that's, that's huge. And I, I'm great to hear.

Uh, it's great to hear Alex, that, uh, you know, you guys have a, a lead in that direction and that, you know, that team with, with, with some cash influx.

Uh, that's exactly what it needs.

'cause it was just, you know, especially even when I was there, it was just, it handcuffed in that regard.

I mean, there's just so much you can do with, uh, a limited budget. So look

At this.

He's gone from interviewee to interviewer.

He is already working on that TV video. I think.

Skip on you guys. You did. That

Was good. That was

Smooth.

Didn't even know it lead you, right?

It was subtle. We just stop before I say anything

else. .

Yeah. He's just fishing for information.

Well, hey man, look, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Appreciate you taking time out of your, you know, precious coin searching, uh, treasure hunting, days schedule, treasure hunting schedule.

We are super excited for you, for Indy.

Really happy that you're back and, and got that deal done.

And, uh, yeah.

Hey, man, would love to hear you on broadcasts outside of the month of May, if that, uh, if that all comes to pass.

So best of luck with everything going forward, And maybe when you're in town, you could like, I don't know, call, call us, you go To dinner, something.

Yeah, for sure. Sure. I'm outta town, very much so,

and when, when I do, I'm usually, you know, Not a lot of, not a lot of shipwrecks in indie, huh?

No, no, no. And yeah, just, just quick in

and outs, but yes, absolutely.

And you guys need to come down here, Alex.

There's a, uh, there's a strip.

Uh, well, it's more than a strip.

There's a bunch of Gulf streams down there, but Marathon in the keys, like halfway down.

It's about, yeah. 25 minutes from here. Uh, drive. So

If I fly down, will you pick me up in your yacht? Oh,

Absolutely.

That's interesting.

Barely considered a yacht. Alex. I think we,

I think we've actually got an invite.

I have a plan. You

Fly.

You guys are always invited. Fly

Down, fly down to Daytona.

Fly down to Daytona on Sunday. Don't come for the race.

It's Sunday morning land there.

I'll hop on with you and then we'll go down to Laki.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Dokey. The problem is, the problem is,

and it's just funny how all these conversations tie in together.

I would, but I am in the sim on the Tuesday .

Oh, Well, hey, fly us down, do a commercial flight to Charlotte, do the sim, fly back, have a few more days, and then we'll head back in. Makes

Sense? Yeah, yeah,

Yeah. Easy, easy.

No problem. And you guys gotta be down here in Florida

for some preseason testing.

I'll be down a lot in February.

I've got my horse down there.

I'm gonna pop in for, uh, the Daytona truck race.

Um, I'm gonna play some rounds of golf.

And then we've got Sebring.

So I could, I could tie in a Lauderdale trip. You've

Changed.

So dude, now you have a horse Dude.

Yeah, he's a big golfer. He golfs in the snow,

The horse.

And you golf. I i the horse. I I love that.

I I gotta good caught up with you on that.

But the golf thing, I remember you used to laugh at me when I tell you I was golfing Around a hundred percent. Yeah.

And now you're, yeah, But then I got to your age. I do listen

To the show, by the way, so I know he golfs.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

It's funny. You, you are the,

you rider are the only reason I've golfed in the last 25 years.

Yeah. It's your, every golf round

that I've done the last 25 years has been your fault. .

And we enjoy ourselves.

We're freezing cold and we drink whiskey while we're doing .

Now that I golf, maybe I could be invited to your Racing for Cancer event.

Absolutely. Golf opens up so much.

That's why I tell my kids the future, future business contacts, your networking, everything.

Golf is absolutely friend. That

Side's what Tim should do, being so unemployed.

Tim, you golf here and there, don't he? No,

He does not.

Twice a year, he doesn't Golf, golf Club, Golf, never golfed.

He Pup's lot options in LA at Bars.

I've mini golfed a lot. Golf.

Quite my putting game is strong Even then.

I don't think that it is. Yeah. All right.

This has gone very suitably off track. Yeah.

Uh, enjoy the sun, Alex, enjoy the snow. Tim.

Go back to bed and we will, uh, talk to you guys on Thursday.

Thank you guys. Good to see you.

We'll see you in a couple here, media today. Thanks, bro.

This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.

Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network.

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