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This is, is off track. What's up?
Are you outside, Tim? Oh, okay.
Oh, you just got a windy hotel?
Or did you just put a fan in your No. In your condo.
No, it's like, it's like these backgrounds are super realistic these days.
Like the blurry, your background.
Yeah. I just did one of those fake backgrounds.
Yeah. Four D It's pretty
Cool.
It's green screen. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I don't even know where, where it's supposed to be some weird background thing. I don't expect it. Random.
Yeah. Yeah. Looks like. Cool, cool, cool.
Belgium, Alex, you and I have exceptionally boring looking backgrounds.
Dude. I'm in Altoona.
Doesn't get much more exotic than this. What?
Altoona. Uh, so I take it
that means you're like going testing or The entire series is Teia, Iowa, uh, on Wednesday, which is yesterday for those listening, um, tomorrow for those in the present.
And, uh, the entire series is here because the race was so bad last year.
Um, . So there's a, there's a whole new downforce package.
There is a new power level.
Um, and there's a big attempt to try and bring Iowa Speedway back to the, the lovely days that it used to be Former glory.
We'll see the former glory. Okay, so
More down force, the in field of dreams more down force.
Yes. Less power
And less power.
Okay. So we're trying to pack it up a little bit. We're,
We're, we're paying the white line.
It's funny, the simulation for this, this arrow package slash power level.
I'm not <inaudible> James is horizontal.
Oh no. Yeah, that's not good. Okay.
For a layman. I know, obviously I understand what
that means, but you know, for some of our listeners who don't, uh, what does that mean?
Well, why don't you explain, Tim, since you know.
Yeah. I Feel like everybody likes your guys'
expertise. Mm,
That's true.
We do get a lot, lot of complaints when you talk too much.
There's a car going by in my living room right now, so I've gotta mute .
Si literal sirens going by.
I can't believe you're on an actual sidewalk right now. If,
If you guys, you listeners don't give us an enormous amount of credit for making this week's episode happen.
Like, I'm gonna unmute any, any wrongdoing that we have previously done to you.
IE eat, IE have poor audio. IE have Tim talk too much.
Like all of that is forgiven. So in perpetuity.
Yeah, agreed. Agreed.
Lots of uh, lots of hurdles were jumped and concessions made to make this episode happen with all three of us.
Uh, so Tim, take it away.
Please explain what painting the white line means.
Going through a tunnel. We can see
that there's very blue open sky above you.
That is a lie. That is a lie.
All right Alex, let's have you explain what painting the white line means.
Essentially, you, you have so much more grip available to you that you don't really need.
You have excessive grip.
Um, so you kind of just drive around on the bottom on the white line.
Like you don't even have to open up the radius, uh, on entry or exit.
It becomes a distance game, right?
Because you can be flat out, you don't need to kind of like start up high, come down to the apex, exit up high.
You just literally glue the left side tires to the white line.
And it's all about who can create the shorter distance.
'cause that's gonna mean a faster average speed.
And that's like what IRL classic used to be, right?
Like that was the mile and a half races of back in the day and even Iowa, to be fair, when we first started going there with the IRO three, it was still kind of a pack race and a white line race.
Um, but Alex, correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm sorry if I'm, uh, a bit naive on this last year's race was horrific, but it was horrific because nobody could pass.
And so everyone just stayed in a line on the bottom and drove around to a fuel number to eliminated pit stop.
Yes. 'cause there was no tire deck.
But the second lane was so bad that no one could pass a car even if it was going very slowly.
And while you were driving around to a fuel number, you were also driving around to a right front sidewall temperature number.
Right. So, um, my question is
how does adding a bunch of down force and taking away a bunch of power make the second lane work all of a sudden?
Yeah, that is all of our questions too.
Got it. So now you're just gonna be
so comfortably going flat on the bottom.
Uh, there's just zero chance of anybody going by up top. Well,
Maybe you can be so far on the bottom that like lane two is lane one.
Maybe you can be on the apron.
Maybe maybe we can just like way jack the car.
But here's, here's something that, that, you know, I know with my limited knowledge of engineering that's really good for, you know, tire temp and load is just being flat on the bottom forever.
Just more down for us, .
Okay, well we look forward to hearing all about how that went.
Yeah. Next
Week.
But before we get to that road America, Let's go over road America before we even get to that.
Actually. Oh boy. Something happened last week right
after we had recorded, and I don't know if we wanted to touch on it 'cause it's like already over and done with, but the whole like Nolan Siegel McLaren statement thing.
Oh, we should definitely touch on it, Right?
Like let's, let's touch on that.
So after the race, not even on the broadcast, a video circulates the interwebs of Nolan being upset on the radio about a blocking penalty that he got in the race.
Pretty standard drivers rarely get penalties and are thrilled about it.
Um, but I mean frankly he did deserve it.
The penalty was pretty warranted.
Uh, but the reaction was expected. It was pretty normal.
Um, some curse words were used, they were directed at certain people and places and things and organizations.
Look, here's the thing. Uh,
and it's just, it's just normal guys.
It's just part of, it's part of the deal as part of the deal of going racing and it's part of the deal of the public having access to driver's radios is you're gonna hear stuff that maybe you don't like, but it's also kind of none of your business 'cause you're either dropping on a conversation that you weren't invited into.
Um, so that was, that is, that was what it was.
The part that kind of surprised me was the subsequent statement from the team, like admonishing his behavior and kind of forcing an apology.
And I dunno about you Alex, I thought that was over the top and not super awesome for a team to like not have their drivers' back in a situation like that.
So in most all scenarios, I think I would agree with you, um, where it didn't surprise me and I don't know that I hold it against them in this particular instance, and you wouldn't know this because you didn't drive there.
Um, each year there's an entire kind of several hours set aside for communications and media training, if you will, with reminders and things.
And like, one of the very first things is we are very concerned about how you express yourself on the radio, on the radio.
So I think, yeah, so that is a McLaren brand image thing.
Um, I don't know that I, I'm not saying that I agree with it, but what I am saying is all drivers, even teddy pork chops when he came for a little bit was made aware of how they feel about these certain things. So,
But that guy doesn't even know how to swear.
He's too sweet. Like that's just,
he's never set us forward in his life, so it's not a concern. Yeah, sure.
Um, so that, that, that is like, okay, I mean maybe still like do it behind closed doors.
Like, hey, we've talked about this. Like, don't do that.
Um, 'cause the public thing, the public statement thing with the apology, like I do think that that honestly drew more attention to it than so much More Attention than, than than what it was.
Um, and especially considering there was some social media stuff that happened with that team a couple weeks prior and there was no like apology or anything.
Um, I don't know.
But, but I will give the team a little bit of grace because the drivers are all made very aware that they care a lot about radio communications in case they were picked up.
Just so tough, man. Like,
because it wasn't picked up on the broadcast.
I'm sure I'm, I'm making assumptions here.
I'm sure you had some outbursts in your, or sorry, not outbursts, let's say some transmissions in your days at the team that might not have fallen within the recommended guidelines.
Yeah, I've never keyed up a radio for two and a half minutes, so I may have said this is stupid or off, or I don't agree with this or whatever.
But I, yeah. I also haven't like mother, the owner
of the series and you Know, see I took it, I mean I took it as, I took it as the team. And I guess
Well no, because there was not to, not to <inaudible> on Nolan because Nolan's a great kid.
Yeah. So the radio, the radio transmission that an immediate
that initially came out was the one about how he disagreed with the penalty and all this sort of thing, right?
There was another one that came out like 50 laps after that where the team was like, Hey, you're lap down.
Pat's racing for the lead here. Like, stay out of his way.
And he was like, no f you guys, you put me on lap down the first place , I'm gonna do what I want to get my lap back.
So I think like, like anything there, there's a, there's more to the story than there's Always more To the story than we, than we see.
So I talked to Nolan in Road America, he felt very bad.
Ev vowed to be better. He's still a young kid.
He means he's his, he's a nice boy. I don't think he's a
A nice kid.
And look, we've all, we've all done it Caused by it. Any of it.
No, no. We've, we've done,
we've all done it and like I'm with you.
I think maybe a behind the closed door, like for a first offense, first public offense behind the closed doors, wrist slap would probably have worked better because again, it probably just drew more attention to it the way it was handled, but mm-hmm .
Whatever, they've got their ways of doing things.
Not my team, not my problem.
But I'm just need to say I'm, I stand with Nolan, say whatever you want on the radio if you don't like, and like the fans that were like, oh well you guys are role models, you shouldn't talk like that on the radio.
That's not how it works, man.
Like they don't mic up football players and play 'em live.
Right. Like they sometimes will play those clips of guys
that are micd up and it's all very curated and it's very specific. And
Take a seat, Tim, stay for a while Or don't I'm standing.
Yeah, I am standing. Or don't It's
Totally fine either way.
Either way is fine. Um, okay, so
that was that. And then, well
Actually just real quick, would you guys mind if I started a Twitter beef with TK from the off track account just to get some more followers?
How about it? It feels, and I, and I love tk.
It feels like it would be very easy to do. I
Don't know.
I dunno. Gotta find out.
He's got a lot of Twitter experience. .
Yeah. Lately he's a fiery young man. That's the problem.
Yeah. He's a fiery young man.
Tim, let's see, let's see who you come out on the right side of that one. I didn't
Say I'd win it.
I just said it feels easy to start it.
Fair, fair. Um, sorry, I'm holding a towel.
I just got back from the gym and I'm very ty Uh, all right.
Road America. That happened.
That was a thing. It was a whole
Thing sweaty dude.
How Ah was That?
It was, I think it was the hottest face I've ever done in my life.
Really? I think so. I think so.
It's, I mean that Indie GP August race Yeah.
I think is still maybe higher.
Um, but this, this one was so bad that like the yellows hurt.
The yellows were painful, worse. Like, because you
Just don't get the air Flow right.
Usually when the yellows come out it's kind of nice 'cause you get a little bit of a breather and your heart rate can come down and you can, you know, get some water and you can, you know, just reset yourself.
These yellows were like, oh my God, please know.
Not another one. I'm going to die. Like, at least
We had five in the first half of the race Driving.
I, I, I've never been a, I'm not a huge fan of the heat.
Like I sweat a lot, like whatever, but I, I can handle it.
Like I'm not Yeah. Oh, I'm fine.
Driving back from crossing the start finish line, the whole four miles back to pit lane was hard.
Like, it was actually like physically challenging because all of the heat is there, your body knows that like the competition's done, so the adrenaline's starting to come down, you're starting to feel things.
It was, it was, it was tough.
And my helmet hose came off on lap 10 and my cool suit failed on lap 10.
So I had those things going for me as well, which was super nice.
Um, so yeah, anyways, it was sweaty.
IIII was pissing like dark yellow for 24 hours, um, which is maybe TMI, but I mean, you're, you're pretty good and pretty diligent about your hydration plan. Oh yeah. So like
Super, super hydrated. Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. You, you know the program mm-hmm.
That's, uh, yeah.
Suboptimal because I mean it's, I know there's that saying, I hate it.
I hate it so much, but it's like, it's not the heat, it's the humidity.
Right. That's, that's what makes it so tough
because like even that indie Yeah, I, I, I didn't feel it was that humid.
I just felt like the heat, the heat and the sun, the intensity of the sun was what was getting me.
Like, it was just like that tingly feeling.
Interesting. Dude. I found it pretty muggy
Really? But
Because Usually when I'm super muggy, like I can't even be outside without sweating.
And like, I was fine at the autograph session.
I was fine doing a Java house appearance.
I was fine standing on the grid, like, yeah.
Interesting. I don't know because like, do you remember
like that indie G one you're talking about?
Mm-hmm. It wasn't like a sunny day.
It was actually kind of an overcast day, but it was just like 80% humidity in August and indie and it was just like you were swimming through the air and it was so bad.
I think it was still like 94 degrees.
Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Yeah.
Just 'cause that, that, that was, and like NEG P's a more physical track than Road America.
Mm-hmm . So that probably contributed to it. So that was
Probably odd.
That was pretty, that was pre, that was pre like vents on the helmet.
Yeah. And that was true pre a lot of things. So Yeah,
It is.
Well, okay, so everyone survived the key.
Uh, not everyone survived the race.
It was um, a decidedly more action packed expel grand Prix than we see. Do you
Find, do you find that I, it, it would be interesting to go back and like no one's could do this, but like I had a theory.
Do you think the third of triple headers people just like kind of lose their minds a little bit or they're tired or whatever because like there's no reason why that race should have been a cluster <inaudible> and it was, I wonder if it's like literally everyone's given up on racing for points and so it's just like elbows out and like zero given and everyone's just sort of firing it at all.
Joseph Ly has, Dude, it's funny 'cause we were talking about the heat we saw on the back straight, the lap.
He crashed. He had his hand out the top of the arrow screen.
Well his cool suit failed too, Right?
So like I, he was obviously also struggling.
I don't think that's why he crashed.
But it was just interesting that like he did that and then, you know, had an incident left, you know, corners later.
Um, but yeah, I mean let's, I mean start from the top.
We had Lucas who ended up in the gravel on lap one, still ended up coming back and finishing like in the top six, seven, something like that. I think it was
Fifth, The fifth top five, like crazy, crazy.
Um, then who else?
We had stingray with his deal, which was wild.
I dunno if you saw the replay. That one
I did, I did.
Um, not awesome. Um, Connor, I don't,
Connor, Connor had a tough day out there. Uh, yeah,
Connor had a tough day.
Connor had a tough day. I don't think I've ever seen an
any car, uh, drive around with a tail before.
No. Um, but uh, but it did. So so
How did that happen?
He just didn't know he had it on. He
Hy hybrid starts, man, there's good, there's good things and there's bad things.
There's good things in the sense that obviously you can start yourself.
There's bad things in the sense that you have no idea what's still around you when you're firing the thing up.
I feel like on the replay there was an a MR safety team member saying like, don't go, but he just fired up and took off and like, thank God it wasn't attached to the truck on the other side.
Or maybe he broke it off the truck. No,
He broke it off the truck.
Yeah. . Oh man. Yeah.
Yeah. Not good. But like you saw the person was like holding
their hand like this and he just took off.
So look, heat of the moment and you're trying to like knock, go lap down and whatever, but you gotta listen to the safety team.
'cause that could've been, if that thing went like had Slack and was somebody was standing on the wrong side of it when it went hot.
Could have like cleaned out a person, like could have been seen No To two Connors.
Just, just to give his perspective, he did say he didn't see the person signaling on Twitter, so I Can Yeah, for sure.
Like I don't think the person was standing at his right front and like he, the tracks left front, so he was probably already looking this way and just, you know, paying it to get going, starts up whatever.
Um, so yeah, so there was that.
I mean, willpower was making, trying to make passes work from 47 yards back, which was interesting.
Put Kyle in a bad spot and then Kyle promptly returned the favor.
Uh, lard spun, not all by himself, but kind, you know, no contacts, but was force wide carbo spun kind of similar to what happened to Joseph Carbo on the curb there spun.
Who else? There was more. I feel like I'm missing some,
Uh, Schwarzman. Schwarzman,
Yep.
Yep. Just locked rears I think it was.
And yeah, went off.
It was a high attrition race for Road America.
I mean normally that one's pretty boring on the strategy side because the windows are so small and, you know, adding a stop is not really an option.
'cause the time lost to pit is pretty big and you have everybody pit within two laps and everybody stays within two or three spots.
Where they started here, we had so many yellows at weird times that the field split like three different times.
And we had like at least three different strategies running up front.
So let's, let's run through your, let's run through your weekend because it, it wasn't a smooth one for you.
Um, but in the race it looked like it got better.
No. Yeah. Uh, well the weekend was, was really bad.
Um, kind of from the beginning.
Um, we, we just were completely missing balance and grip and pace and there was really no, um, there was no solution to it until, well, so we, we came, we came with a package, um, that we were pretty confident in.
And Christian came with a package that had worked previously on a road course earlier in the year that we were pretty confident in.
And man, when I tell you that like the only similarities between them were the fact that they were both IndyCar is true.
Like there wasn't a a a spring rate that was the same.
There wasn't a valley height that was the same, nothing, there wasn't even a rear wing angle that was the same. And
So did you develop yours in the sim?
I'm, I'm not gonna tell you about mine, I'm just gonna tell you it was, it was a set up that we had a lot of confidence in and, um, we got back after practice one being 20th and 23rd and had the exact same feedback and feeling of the car in all phases of the corner and the lap.
And that was kind of a oh moment in the sense that there's a fundamental problem here with our approach to, to what we're doing at Road America.
So there's a big kinda study overnight and we come with a, with a whole different package.
Both cars are, are the same, um, and it's still terrible.
And then it's like, well, practice is done, let's go qualify.
And I qualified 24th on pace, Christian qualified 20th on pace.
He had a bit of a better handle on it than I did, quite frankly.
He had kinda like two, two and a half tenths on me all weekend.
And I was like, man, it's, it's, it's undrivable.
I don't know what to tell you. It was one
of those cars change where like you had this mid corner undersea that existed.
So you were like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna challenge the entry and trail break in and you'd just be backwards, like completely backwards and be like, okay, okay fine, I'm not gonna break late.
I'm not gonna break hard. I'm gonna have like a humpy break
and roll, get off the brake pedal and kind of carry mid corner speed like the on on ice.
Like the fronts were wet, you just go straight.
I was like, I can't, I don't even know.
I, I feel bad because I can't tell you what the car is doing.
Like I can't give you feedback on what it's doing because it's literally anything that I do makes it mad.
Like I can't, I can't find any sort of, of of rhythm or balance or, or anything with the car.
We went down a, a very interesting path, um, Sunday.
And when I tell you that, or when people talk about IndyCar as, you know, a spec championship and, and all these sort of things like, like it very much is in the, in terms of everyone has the same car and tire and suspension components and all this sort of thing.
The dampers are are everything.
And I, I didn't experience that.
I haven't experienced that ever in my career as much as I did this weekend.
Um, interesting. And, and it was very interesting
because we went from cars that were completely undrivable to making some damping changes to a car that was all of a sudden, like legitimately in 25 lap and 30 lap average pace, we were fourth.
And so like we completely turned the car around going in a direction that we didn't really have an understanding of.
We just kind of took a Hail Mary at it and it worked.
Um, so that was, that was the only good thing to come outta the weekend is we actually solved the problem.
Um, and I think it will bode very well for the future in terms of our race because we started back there, uh, we said this as a joke, um, in kind of the strategy meeting, do whatever Nixon does.
Um, but then it turned into reality do whatever the nine car does.
And so for a minute that was looking really good.
Like we were on the same strategy running one two and then, then it, then it went away obviously.
Um, but yeah, we were basically copy pasting the nine car and I was like, man, this is how he does it.
Didn't pass a single car all day.
And I'm like, oh, I am second chilling.
Like on the right strategy, got the fuel, like everyone has one stop to go and then he all came.
That kind of derailed all of that, but that's okay.
Um, because it was looking really good for a minute and the pace was there.
So I'm, I I left happy, believe it or not, I left happy I Where did you ultimately end up or forget?
13th. 13th. Okay. 'cause so but
With a car that qualified 24th and and you're saying like, and the car that you said was Undrivable.
I know you guys made a lot of changes Saturday night, but like did you feel like your Sunday was a great day? It was honestly.
So, so you feel like your position was your car should have, okay.
No, I think we legitimately had, we qualified, right?
We were a top five car.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, because when you were running up front, you were on pace with the guys, even the guys that were behind you, but on the other strategy that had started up front, your Kirkwood and your pillows or whatever.
Dude, we were our last, our last stint, we unfortunately were unused.
We almost double stinted a set of used tires and didn't have any, any issues used reds.
Yeah. Yeah. So like that's the kind of step we took,
which is unbelievable.
It's so funny man, because when you guys all pit under that first caution on like lap two or three or whatever it was, and Dixon was in that group, I sat on the broadcast, I was like, everybody remember this moment on lap three because we're gonna be talking about it when Dixon's leading this race would tend to go .
Sure enough. And sure enough, this leading would tend
to go I oh man, almost Like you're good at your job Almost.
But he didn't, he ran out so it didn't work out.
But uh, but I'll tell you who didn't run out, why I said almost Fair, uh, Paolo's ability Six times To dude the pace that this was a red race for everybody except the 10 car.
Like before we came into the weekend, people were like, yeah, I think it's, I think it might be a red race.
And then we get through qualifying or get through practice one.
It was like, yeah, reds were holding on for more than one lap.
So like this could be a red race and then like, ah, it's gonna be hot on Sunday.
But we got through warmup and I was like, man, I think it's gonna be a red race.
And you look at the Firestone chart at the end of the race and it's like everyone's got three stints on reds and one stint on blacks except the 10 car.
They are black red, B, BB, B, B back and they just run primaries and they keep a pace that is very competitive.
Qued going longer on field than anybody else.
I mean the pace that he held in the, in the last stint there when doing like 16 laps or whatever it was, which is a stretch.
It's a save is unreal. And he still did the cool down lap.
Like every, like half the field stopped at pit out 'cause they were outta field and didn't have enough to do the cool down lap.
This guy pit before the mall went faster than the mall.
And like it was like Dixon at Long Beach last year, just like taking the piss, cruising around, doing burnouts on his in lap 'cause there was so much fuel left.
But the fact that he does it on a different tire is so baffling to me.
Man. Dude, imagine that if he decided to do it on Reds.
Yeah. .
He's like giving us like a, like a, like a lifeline.
He and he and Barry are like, uh, let's make this interesting.
Let's only run blacks today. . Yeah,
Yeah.
Let's make this a little bit of a challenge for ourselves.
Like, it's, it's undeserved man. Like,
And, and you can't be Bad.
No. Like Congrats Felix
on win number two at Road America.
Right.
first in class man. Yeah. Mean first in class.
I, I gotta say, um, the like the other thing that was crazy about it.
So he started third, right? No second he started second.
He's right up there. And
what was crazy about it is if you go back and watch the first half of that race, dude he was in, he was in some, he he was in some battles, he was in some ugly scenarios.
He was in some four wide stuff going down into five.
Like he wasn't just puddling around trying to stay outta trouble, he was getting stuck in.
Now guys were also using him up 'cause they're like, you have a race and a half lead in the championship, screw you.
And they were firing it in on him.
So he was having to drive like pretty heads up, but man, it was, it was so impressive that he was like, he's just like Dixon man.
He's just like classic Dixon where he can find himself in these situations.
But he always comes out without a scratch on the car.
Like he always gets around it. I think the
Difference, he's Dixon but Dixon with a li a little bit more pace because Even D percent more outright pace, even Even Dixon in his prime, he wasn't the qualifying guy.
Like he was the guy that he guar you would always be in the fast six, like without a doubt.
But he wasn't the pole guy. He was Yeah.
Always four, fifth, six. Yeah.
Occasionally throwing a pull on a noble, that sort of thing.
But like that wasn't his thing. Yeah.
It was like just I'll get in the fast six and then the nine car plus me, we will just win races below is like the same but like on the front row.
Right, right. Yeah.
I think Dixie's got like 20 something polls, but 60 wins, you know, like 58 wins or whatever.
It's right. So like, uh, yeah, no,
no, I think you're exactly right. I think
You're exactly right.
Speaking of polls, we gotta give huge props to Louis Foster because not only did he do that, and I don't, again, I'm not saying the <inaudible> to be disrespectful, but like in a Ray Hall car, but we talk about polo and we talk about Nessi and we talk about all this pace that he has, um, and a little bit faster than Dixon and, and all this sort of thing.
He was on, he being Polo was on New Reds, so was Scotty Mack and I think that was it. Um,
No, Scotty Mack wasn't, wasn't, it was, wasn't all Scotty and, and uh, foster that were used.
Okay. So Kirkwood Polo Kirk
Okay. And
Rosie Sure, whatever, whoever it was, there was car, there were strong cars on new tires and Louis Foster on used Reds beat their ass and like that is what's faster.
Yeah, that is, I don't care.
I don't care what tire is like what tire's better or not, if it's a red race or not, it doesn't matter.
Used ain't better than new. Yeah.
And he um, he, he beat 'em all.
So like huge shout out to that guy. And it's,
It's not like a track like Detroit or Toronto that are super short and so there's only five corners to make a difference.
Right. You talking about Road America,
you're talking about four, like a little bit of a late pickup on the throttle outta three and you're losing two tens down the back straight, you know, like you've gotta be absolutely on it.
And uh, and he did, I'm sorry his race didn't go better.
You know, it's, it's such like a, such a roller coaster, like such a high high four him on Saturday and I don't know, I think he ended like 14th or something, had a, had a rough day on Sunday.
Uh, but that's, you know, he's young.
He's got a lot of race in front of him.
He'll get, he'll get to feel the other side of it too.
But, um, I just thought it was, I always thought it was such an exciting race man.
There was so much good action in that first half guys were being super aggressive.
Uh, some great racing, some on the edge racing, like borderline racing.
Well James, James tires that don't dig and you can hammer people are gonna race.
Yeah. Yeah. Like
Yeah, I guess that's part of it.
It's so funny because we talk about how tired DG makes good races, right?
Yeah, no, but like, when you're Just No, no, what makes good races is a big difference between JF Yeah.
Right. One and the other. Yes.
To call deck itself on a noble shirt, but on a road course I don't think it does because people are smart enough.
No one's gonna go out there and blow their load for four laps.
Like everyone knows that they have to like protect the tires and everything.
Right? This isn't 2000
and what was it 10 when Pelli came into F1 and no one had ever saved tires before.
Right. That doesn't, right. That doesn't exist now.
Tire savings a thing in motorsports. So Yeah.
I I think that big big delta between primary and alternate and a tire that holds up creates Indy car racing that we all know and love And Road America. Like that's
Man, there's been some sleepers at Road America before.
Yeah, you're right. You're right.
But there's, there's opportunity there when, when a car's got some pace, there was some opportunity there.
For sure, for sure. Um,
so yeah, it was just, it was exciting.
So the first half was all action, second half was all like, who's on the right strategy.
Yeah. Like we were losing our minds in
The, the 10 that the 10 card didn't even know until like 10 to go.
Dude, I, it felt so much better when I read that quote from Barry Weer because like t be and I are up in the booth, we're like, I think that's good for this guy in Bedford.
That guy I think he can't make it, but he can, can he make it?
I, and then when he said to like, yeah, Juan was like, yeah, we didn't know if we were on the right thing or not until 10 to go.
I'm like, okay. Thank God. That's just terrific.
Yeah, that's terrific. Um,
Um, and then we gotta give another shout out.
I mean, it's well deserved and hell yeah. Brother Santino
Santino Ucci absolutely, absolutely.
Drove a great race and then smashed Miller Lights internal one. That's
So good. That
Is so good.
Classic man. It's like every driver's dream end
to a race is have a fan just, just toss you a cold frosty one and knock it back.
I might, I might park it outside.
Turn one even if I'm not outta gas next time. , we
Saw Connor get a depends sponsorship from peeing and his race car.
I mean, how far out are we from a Miller Light sponsorship for Santina?
They're, they're already involved in Speedway. It,
It would be weird if Larry Foyt and Co are not making phone calls first thing Monday morning to the Miller Cords Corporation, be like, Hey guys, do you see our boy on the weekend?
Mm-hmm . And he's on a run
of like three top fives in a row or something. Like
He's two podiums, three top fives. Yeah.
Yeah. He's just, he's . He's on a roll man.
And they say Ma Lucas has come back with great. Who else?
VK had another great drive into the top 10. Um,
Kif dog, P six Kiffin Another great result for Kiffin. Uh,
And, and we talked about Nolan earlier.
Uh, we need to talk about a, a big result for him P eight to McLaren Carr.
Um, which is pretty incredible when you think about it.
But also this is probably a little known fact.
He had to come back from a little team error, which he was quite about on the radio.
So our boy learned his Lesson. bet he was,
Um, somehow three primaries in one alternate ended up on his car.
No. Uh, so I don't know when in the race that happened.
I assume it was under yellow because he still got a good result.
So it didn't like end his day.
But yeah, that, that's, uh, that's not an awesome look to have happen. Isn't that great?
No. Yeah. P eight, no
Armstrong P five, that was the other good one.
Kirkwood hanging on to championship like Kirkwood looked like he was gonna win at one point.
We're like, okay, we got the championship Battle titans more. We do
Not, not ne nay.
No. The solo Cup machine.
It's so ironic that like the guy that doesn't really drink is sponsored by Solo Cup at Road America where like half, I mean more than half the people there cruising around with.
So red solo cups. Yeah.
You know, at least we're going into a permanent road course that he is really struggled at coming up.
Yeah. Mid Ohio. He's been pretty good at in the past.
Uh mm-hmm . And then, uh, then what's I Iowa
At least he sucks at Toronto.
I was gonna say then Toronto, everybody came second or third with half a front wing.
Yeah, yeah. From 18th or whatever. He qualified.
He really, yeah, he really struggles.
He really struggles there. Mm-hmm . Yeah.
Laguna bad form Portland. Oh hey,
Have you guys thought about painting the white line?
Why don't you go, I Actually, I'm sorry.
Why don't you go paint the town red back there, pal Red, like that bus behind you.
What bus What's, where are you Tim? What is happening over here?
It's one of those Zoom backgrounds.
Yeah. It's not though. Where are
You In a hotel room? Where are you
One of those Zoom backgrounds?
No, I see a red double deck or bus.
What does that, uh, usually indicate? And
Is that they got really, really good Zoom backgrounds. Is that
A clock named after my son ?
No, it's, you know, like the banks where they have like the time and the temperature.
It's like an old one of those.
Oh, okay, okay, okay. The other
side's a giant thermometer. ,
What's up? Brushing water.
I can hear, uh, I can hear behind you.
What's The, what it's called the, the, the, Yeah.
I don't know what said it was like a a a river named after me by a guy with a lisp Fame.
You guys sound ridiculous.
I'm, I'm obviously in la I'm not the one who travels.
Right, right. Um, so you that was a
Wheel ride guys, .
This is great. Yeah.
So weirdly guys, this this week's off track, none of us are in our hometowns.
Uh, but two of us are in the same town, which is often the case.
Alex and I are often in Indianapolis, uh, while Alex is in Altoona.
Mm-hmm . Uh, Tim and I are in London,
and happened to run into each other in London.
I was keeping that a secret. Thank you. Hmm. .
Yeah. You were making big efforts, big efforts on that .
I bet you'd both rather be where I am.
No, Tim, I got a couch for you.
I'm good. Got a nice, I got a nice hotel room in there.
There you go. So I'm not using
because my daughter is asleep. Um,
So you're, you're on a family trip.
Yeah. What are you doing out here other than just
following me around the world?
I have, I just, That the Doubledecker bus is right there, .
I am, I'm just taking a page outta your book and you know, you often just show up to places where Alex and I say we're gonna be for, you know, fomo reasons and so I just figured I'd do the same. You
Not now you get it now you see, see, You feel you're not getting, you're not getting like sized in anything. Like
A might do some clothing shopping while I'm here I guess, but Oh, 'cause the turning.
I have some watches today because they Have, I did, I did try some watches.
What is, what is that? Uh, it's the famous row
where all the suits are not Hedgerow Silverstone, Um, No, Um, um, um, I know what you're talking about, but, uh, I can't think of the name.
Famous Street, London Row Suits.
Well there's like, like Kings Row, Seville Row. Seville Row.
Seville Row. There you go. Yes.
I need to go to Seville Row and get a new suit for all my broadcasting.
And that, that let's go is why I'm in the United Kingdom. Oh,
Here they have some nice fireproof ones.
They make 'em out of Nomax now. Mm.
That sounds hot. That sounds very hot.
So wait, wait, James, are you approximately one and a half hours north of London right now?
No, I'm, I'm right in the city.
I'm right in the big city at the moment.
Oh. Do you have to go approximately one
and a half hours north of London tomorrow?
I'm gonna tour around the country at various points.
Gonna, I have various stocks we we're gonna, that I have to make gonna Watch the changing of the Guard tomorrow. Yeah,
We are gonna do that.
We're gonna, we're gonna, we, so we did the London Eye, which I'd never done, which was cool.
Um, and we're gonna go see the guards changing, which I have done, but we'll see again.
Uh, and then yeah, just some, just some odd chores, some odds and ends, some bits and bobs I gotta do around town, uh, before we head to, uh, mid Ohio. So Nice.
James, You No, you, you look pretty tired. Do you need to take a seat?
I do. Oh, I'm in a seat.
I need to, I need to lie down Tim, but thank you for your concern, uh, on that. Um,
Do you know, you know, you know when, um, you know, when, um, This is fun for me. This is is good. Let's keep
There used to be, there used to be like he's just trying to fit in when Fry's, when Fry's Electronics was in existence and maybe Best Buy did this, but like new electronics, you could like demo them, right?
Yeah. Did you ever, did you ever do that
or wanna do that or get the chance to do that?
You know, I, I I hadn't real quick pulled this Usable or has this episode been done for three minutes? ?
I'm hoping that it's at some point in my life I'll get to demo some, some electronical machinery stuff.
Yeah, yeah. With your suit from Seville Row,
Right?
Or Yeah, or yeah, whatever, you know, whatever, whatever the appropriate uh, attire would be.
Right? Um, but I have to say that the weather's great here,
which is not something you can often say in, in England. Um, well, yeah,
Otherwise Tim wouldn't be outside in his Zoom background.
That's a great point. He wouldn't have said it to outside.
So Alex, what are you doing this weekend after your Iowa test? I'm going to
The lake, bro.
I'm gonna have a weekend off. Nice. Um, it's gonna be just a
Nice, did you see Bow Fix?
Oh, I'm, I don't know. I mean yes,
but I'm not testing it out.
That thing is for sale and it is in perfect condition.
I thought you changed your mind on that And then it broke James Before Blue, but now it's all brand new.
Well, for a new owner, .
Alright, well if anybody's interested in a 2023 mastercraft, whatever it is.
No, 2020 mastercraft X 24 is for sale. Hit me up.
It's got a new gearbox.
It's, and it's been towed to Safety by Michael Andre .
Man, he'll even sign it. He'll definitely sign it.
Yeah. Uh, so which link are you going to?
I'm not telling you in case people, uh, wanna find me, so That's fair.
We'll talk later. Yeah.
Uh, we'll have a great weekend off, uh, Tim, have a blast in London and maybe some other town in Europe, like Still don't know what you're talking about Or something.
Um, and Harris, we'll see you guys next tomorrow to next week, Tomorrow week, next week, yeah.
Goodbye.
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