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This is off track.
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy.
Uh, hey guys, welcome to Off Track with er and or Rossi.
Did you just call yourself Hinter?
Hinch? I, he
Was saying, or Rossi?
We did the Tuesdays. We just, yeah,
we just interviewed Santino like five hours ago, so I think he was still doing that one.
Mm, mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Yep. And if you watched, uh, I'm
Curious or listened, I'm curious, did, did Tim at all talk about, you know, since he was face to face with Santino, any of the negative things he said about him over the past years?
Or did he just clam up?
So, no, he didn't clam up. We had a good chat.
We just talked about racing and we ran outta time.
So I think we should have him back on to, Okay, hang on.
Because I wasn't gonna address it until Alex just did.
I wanted to, and James, you stopped me from doing So.
We ran outta time. We ran outta time
like I specifically did.
Here's what I wanna ask him. Mm,
He did.
That's true. That's an accurate statement. But, uh, okay.
But no, he, he bitched out, um, What Keyboard Warrior podcast, whatever I propaganda Posted.
Save the screen shots. I
Did this.
I I'm, I'm gonna go delete that chat real quick.
I, um, I opened the last podcast with this and I think I'm gonna start doing the Chanel because I like beer.
It is super unprofessional to drink When podcasting.
Are you drinking coffee? That's red wine. Pow.
Got it. Uh, why, where are you now?
Are you still in your, your backyard?
Back in LA It's just another Zoom background, Right?
No, I mean, honestly that I could, that could pass as your apartment. That
Could be, yeah, that could be anywhere. ,
that's actually not as, can you go out into the street again? That was better.
Way better. It's So hot here. No, . I cannot .
At least there's no air conditioning. , you're, you're in.
Okay. Let's just say you're in France. You're
Doing I'm in France, yeah.
Yeah. French stuff. How was your weekend? It
Makes, it makes sense. You're drinking red wine.
It was hot. It was fun, but it was hot
and you know, like, usually you hear about like a European heatwave and it's like, oh my God, we're all suffering.
It's 76 degrees. Yeah. It's been in the nineties. Yeah.
Like it was, we did Monet's Garden yesterday. It was 96.
We're in Paris. Today's 98 degrees.
It's, it's, uh, and that was all humble brags without any of the humility. It's been,
I mean, to be fair, to be fair, they do complain about heat waves when it's 76 as well.
They do. They do. Yes.
And normally when you hear about these European heat waves, you also hear about like 80 to a hundred old people just dying 'cause there's no AC and they just overheat.
Well, and that's the thing, right?
It's, it's not the fact that they're, it's not the fact that Europeans have like less of a tolerance to heat, although that might be part of it.
It's because they don't have the infrastructure for comfort.
And we have really prioritized comfort in the United States. .
Yeah. Like I, I have my air conditioner if it's above
72, it's just so they just, they have the infrastructure.
It's just electricity is so expensive there, it's not feasible for most people.
Well, and for the most part, you never had summers like this.
Like this was the hottest June on France.
Uh, and, and, and in record for France.
And also like, so I'm in England, which has the same issue right.
Where even in a new build house Right.
They're not putting air conditioning in a lot of these places.
'cause this is not a typical summer. Yeah.
Then you also have to feel for like all the old infrastructure.
Right. Because you have these buildings
that are from like the 16 like that are older than America and Canada combined.
Right. And you just can't throw in an HVAC system there.
That's not, it's not really. That's true.
That's true. It's Only easy to retrofit like a proper
central air system.
You could do like the in-room air conditioning units or whatever, but it's, you can't get like a proper system.
It's just wild to me that a country that used to run like two thirds of the planet still hasn't grass basey.
Well, but the other thing is like, they don't, like most of their buildings are made to keep heat in because most of their weather related problems are in the winter when it's too cold.
Right. Like this is, this is a rare problem
and it's becoming more common and it's going to be a problem they're going to have to grapple with.
But it's not, here's the Thing about the central air system is you can plug a heater into it too and then it also just heats the house. So
Yeah.
But they like the, the buildings are made to retain heat.
Right, right. Like, like I live in southern
California.
This is guys all of our buildings. This, so I'm
so glad we're going into the history of, you know, heating and air conditioning.
Alright. Tell us about the history
of buildings in Indianapolis, Alex, where you are.
I don't want to, that's dumb.
That's a dumb conversation to have.
Alright. I got another dumb conversation to have then.
Seeing how you're in a great mood about this stuff.
How do you feel about, how do you feel about waterfall showers?
Like rain showers? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Against, um, I'm against.
Okay. All right. Good. We're all on the same page.
I kind of thought they were supposed to be a cool thing.
'cause you go to like nice hotels, you see a newly renovated bathroom.
They all have these waterfall rain showers.
It's the most impractical way to shower.
Hmm. So I, there,
there are ways to make them very, very good.
And when you see them in commercials and when you see them in showrooms and everything, um, because we have one in our house and the way that they get them so good is they actually have a individualized pump for that specific shower head to increase the pressure.
'cause I imagine your issue with a, with a waterfall rain shower head is it's dispersing not, and it's not enough pressure. Oh, okay. That's not the
Pressure.
Is that your, is that why you don't like 'em?
That's the majority of why I don't like 'em. Yeah.
Okay. It takes too long.
It takes too long to get all the soap off because it's, you're in this rain experience versus it just hammering it off of you.
I prefer the handle, I prefer the directional. I wanna be able to like,
That's weird. No one prefers that.
Oh, that's strange. That's
A, yeah.
Get outta here. You belong in Europe with the no ac, you're
Like, Yeah.
Do you like to Yeah. That's to weird shower
and bathtubs too with no curtain.
Do you wear freak Rocks?
I have a curtain into the shower.
Do shower in a bathtub in my apartment. That is, that is
Do we dinner at 11:00 PM like Occasionally?
Yeah. It depends on how things have gone.
No. Use dinner at 5:00 PM
I like to direct the water where I want it to go.
That doesn't feel like a weird fit.
That feels like, that's so weird.
I only, I'm sorry, You don't seem to chime in on this.
You, you live in my place.
You have the same shower that I do.
But she doesn't like it. . No, that's,
I cannot believe you like that.
That is the most stupid way to shower.
No, because then you put up there and you get showered on and then it's like, you know what?
I'd rather hit down here and then you just grab it and you, you know. No, you, you, you
Spray Water everywhere. Warm up.
Well you do. Yeah. You're insane. The water just goes.
Absolutely. You're insane. Same. You go over the top
of the No, that is wild.
That only ever comes up the curtain.
Doesn't matter. I a curtain that walks, cares sleeping.
You don't get an cares on, on any sort of shower related topics from now on.
So James, why don't you like, why don't you like rainfall showers? Tim,
Go ahead and mute yourself.
No, no. You can mute yourself next.
You can five to seven minutes. Wow. I would
Like to.
I'm so tired. Wow. It's past midnight here. ,
Look, Hazel's holding up better than you are. Calm down.
Okay, here's my issue with it.
When I stand in a shower, I like having water Hitting past midnight. Hazel go to
bed. , .
I like having the water hit me. Right.
But I don't like water just in my face at all times, right?
Mm-hmm. So if it's coming down from the ceiling,
you're either under it or you're like arcing back or you're like in, you're leaning your head forward.
If only can it can burn it awkward and Move it.
No, there's literally 97 other solutions aside from that one.
Yeah. Remember what we told you to mute it?
It was like 30 seconds ago. Yeah. Anyway.
No, just like a normal like 45 degree angle off the thing.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just so much more practical.
You can get everything you need. I don't,
Don't, I don't disagree.
I don't disagree. Yeah. Like I, I, uh,
unless I'm showering with Kelly, I always use her shower head, which is the non rainfall one.
Because why? Because
Oh, so you got like a both set up?
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah.
So I, uh, I just thought that was weird and it's like, 'cause you see it in like, it's supposed to be like a nice, like a luxury thing and I'm like, eh, it's not for me.
I mean it, the good ones are man, like with it for like 30 seconds pump.
Yeah. It feels nice like
30 seconds.
But then I want like the other one, I can turn that off and have the other one kick In.
Well, I mean why, how dare you shower and showers that don't have multiple options.
Insane. Like, what are
you doing? What are we doing here guys?
Come on. What are we even doing?
Like, God, we, it's another, it's another water pipe.
What are you talking about? It's easy. Yes. Come on.
Infrastructure my ass. Anyways.
How's your weekend been, Alex?
Uh, it was great. It was, um, the first weekend off since
or not since, uh, before the stretch from hell.
Uh, both literally and proverbially.
Proverb, proverb, proverb, proverbially. You
Got there.
Almost got there. Almost got
Thereally.
Proverbially. No, don't help him. Don't help
him. ,
proverbially. Anyways, figuratively,
um, happens.
Speaking of heat, uh, we're about to do five races in a row in July in the Midwest.
One in California. So it's gonna be toasty, one in Canada,
But it's also very hot there, but Very hot.
So it was nice to, uh, take three, four days off.
Um, we took Ben to the lake for the first time, not that he saw the lake because he's a newborn.
So I mean, he saw it from a window, but he was inside the whole time.
And, um, it was just good to, to relax and not think about race cars for a minute.
Even though that's mostly all that I did was think about race cars.
So here we are. But it
was a good weekend. Thanks for asking.
What did you think about race cars?
Oh, uh, well, I mean let's just get into it.
Um, I would test guys, I would test Iowa Test happened.
Uh, last time we spoke I was in Altoona, got out of Altoona.
Uh, um, the test was pretty much exactly as we predicted unfortunately.
Um, And so, so by that you mean you were painting the white line?
If you dunno what that means, the last Thursday show Painting the white line adjacent, but yes, you were flat.
Okay. Like on all trim levels? Yeah.
Really. Okay. And second lane.
No, there isn't one. Not a thing.
I mean Not a thing. It's there. You can't use it.
Um, failing right front tires.
Um, not awesome suboptimal.
And so coming out of it, it was like, oh, well this new package idea didn't work, so what are we gonna do?
Well, turns out after the test, we're now getting a new right front tire and it's like, well, well yeah, , I mean, who, who could have seen that coming?
Am I right?
So the package is staying the same and Firestone Make change to the tire.
Pretty much similar with the new right front tire that no one's seen before.
Yeah. Okay. So, alright. All right.
So, uh, how, how was the I Would like our, I would like our test day back.
That would be nice. Um,
because that seems like a massive waste of time for Everyone.
Wait, hang on. So it was a, it was a full field test that
that countered against your guys test.
Sure did, Tim. Sure did.
Sure did, sure did, sure did. So that better.
And We get what retest days is in Season. Just the one.
Just one. Oh, that's the only test day in season you get.
Yeah. And everyone obviously was gonna use that.
Well, unless you have a Iny lights team or a rookie, everyone was obviously gonna use it because it was a completely new package.
So you can't not go to Iowa because, but now you have completely tight 20.
Right. So I'd like that day back.
'cause it'd be nice to go to, I don't know, Portland, Laguna Milwaukee, Nashville.
I don't know any of them.
So yeah, so that, so there's that, uh, the call was very good.
We were kind of, we were quickest the whole day.
Uh, me and Joseph were going back and forth, which was kind of funny.
Every time one of us would put on our set of tires, he'd obviously trim.
So you'd go like a 10th, quicker, 10th quicker.
And it was kind of this thing. And then
Christian failed write front tire.
And so then my day was done early.
'cause we didn't want to keep going.
So, which is understandable. So,
Um, on a test day where you're trying to, like you're, you're trying to test, you're learning things.
You're not, you're not specifically going through like a practice day where you're like, Hey, on this one we're, we're gearing towards qualifying or this we're going gearing towards risk. No,
You are, you are like, How much, how much are you trying to beat Joseph?
Not At all. Or whoever. How much are you trying
to get the first, first place?
Not at all. Um, but we are exactly doing that.
So you, because it's a whole new package.
Um, you're doing Q sims on every set of new tires because that's the only time you can do a Q sim really is on you set tires.
So every time you're doing a qim you're changing the, the trim level, the downforce level, and then you run the tires out by doing kind of race running.
So kind of longer stints, heavier fuel, that sort of thing.
So, um, yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's, it's sad guys because none of this, none of this whatsoever is IndyCar's fault.
Um, none of it's Firestone's fault.
Uh, we just got absolutely bamboozled by another track.
Repave. Yeah.
And it's really sad because we all know what Iowa was.
And quite frankly, I I'm sorry, I'm just gonna say it.
It'll never get back to that. So I
Don't know.
We need to blame somebody.
Can we just say it's Tino's fault now that I've, I knew you were gonna say apparently been a coward about calling him out on anything.
I knew you were gonna say that and No, you can't, you can't say that anymore.
So, I'm sorry. Um, okay.
So unfortunate suboptimal, uh, as we like to say, yeah, there's, I mean I can't, I'm trying to, I was trying to find a silver lining there or something to make it seem less not great. Hey,
At least we're all gonna die.
I mean, Silver lining Eventually.
Yeah. So the dying parts, the silver lining
Eventually.
Yeah, eventually. Yeah.
So that is to say dying. None of it
Matters.
I've really embraced neoism.
No, yes. It's nothing does matter.
That's, you know, that's true.
It was a, a story that came up to dinner that was why worry, because in life is only two things to worry about.
Whether you're healthy or whether you're sick.
If you're healthy, there's nothing to worry about.
If you're sick, there's only two things to worry about whether you get better or whether you die.
If you get better, there's nothing to worry about.
If you die, there's only two things to worry about, whether you go to heaven or whether you go to hell.
If you go to heaven, you got nothing to worry about.
If you go to hell, you're gonna be too damn busy shaking hands with all your friends.
You won't have time to worry, so why worry. Exactly.
Great show guys. Great
show .
God, we have so much left.
Uh, , Did uh, did you watch the Formula One race on the weekend, Alex?
I did. James, what a, How did you find it?
Er, sorry, Hazel, the first, um, The first like 20 laps were good.
Were they Lando and Oscar kind of going at it and I mean, not really the Race for the lead between teammates and what have you?
Yeah. Okay. I guess it was okay.
Yeah, I thought the two racing for the lead at the beginning was fun. And then after that,
I guess less, I guess I, I was so bored from lap 20 to the end that I forgot about that little, little battle. It's
Funny, we've said this before, if, if a race is terrible, but the last 10 laps are good, everyone thinks it was a good race.
So this is like the converse side of that, which is the race for the first 20 laps was pretty good.
And then after that got kind of boring and so nobody really cares.
Can we talk about the, the elephant in the room?
And for once, I don't mean myself.
Uh, IndyCar, you could make an argument that IndyCar has gotten boring.
We've had two winners.
It's, I'm saying we've had banger races, but we've had two winners this season.
We've had less. But, so what's
more important, what's more important?
Multiple winners or like exciting races, even if it's the same two guys, like what's actually Important?
I agree, but I'm just trying to bring up the devil's advocate point of view.
Like we used to always talk about F1 where, oh, max is the only one who's gonna win in this time.
Yeah, but Max, max Max would win by 27 seconds.
It was never challenged.
So aside from I think thermal this year, no, not even thermal. No.
'cause even thermal, he had to like race through the field at the end. Right.
Was it St. Pete? There was one where he won
by like a fricking was GP Country Mile maybe.
Yes. Probably That makes sense.
Anyways, yeah, aside from one of them, he, he being Alex, he being Kyle like, had to race their way to win and they just did better than everyone else.
It wasn't that they just started on pole and drove away from everyone.
Ola Max, ala Lewis, Vel, all whatever. Right.
So while we've only had two winners, and while there were certainly some snoozers to start the year, I do feel like the racing, especially the past, well Indy five, 500 onwards has been fantastic. So I
Agree.
Okay. And I think that's more important.
Me too. I think it's more Important,
like when Max was winning everything in F1, it was, It was just a foregone conclusion.
It was a foregone conclusion. Like you had
to look for something exciting.
You're like, oh, he managed to do the fastest lap on the last lap going 1.3 seconds
faster than he had all day.
Like, that's kind of cool.
But like you had to go looking for that, right? Yes.
What I, what I liked about that race though was it was good to see Lando show back up.
That pull margin at a very short lap was super impressive.
And, uh, we got a championship, you know, if, if, if, especially after Montreal, if Lando or sorry, if Oscar just kept winning, it was gonna be, I don't know, it was gonna start looking like it was gonna be tough to overhaul him, but Lando had an on weekend, he looked relaxed all weekend, executed in every session, did the job in the race, Which I think, which I think says a lot about him coming off of what happened in Montreal.
Right, for sure. Like that's, that's a,
that's a big testament to his mental fortitude and his resilience and, and everything going, um, going into the rest of the year.
So I I was one that kind of, after a couple races was starting to doubt whether, you know, Oscar was in his head or not.
Montreal was like a big wow kind of moment for I think everyone, and then he came, he, he withstood the pressure from Oscar who was I think definitely quicker in that first stint and then pretty much had it under control for the rest of the day.
So yeah. Um, you're right.
You know that, that is cool to see.
That's great for the championship.
What did you think of, what did you think of Max's reaction?
Do you think he just doesn't care about this year at this point?
So he is just like, sweet, I get to go home early and see my kid see You.
He got, he got to sit and watch the, the Berg ring 20 or the spa 24 .
Like that's what he was watching instead, right?
I think, I think Max only cares about winning.
He knew he had no chance of winning that race.
He knows at this point he is probably got no chance of winning the championship.
So for him, he's going through the motions at this point, right?
Like, he'll go into every weekend hoping that they've got the car better or the conditions suit the car with the track, whatever.
And he will give it a hundred percent as he always does.
But if he has no chance, I think he's not checked out, he's still gonna go and give it a hundred percent.
But if somebody takes him out on lap one, it's kinda like, eh, whatever it is what it is.
I wasn't gonna win. This one was
short, short of some miracle.
Um, I felt bad for Kimmy like innocent mistake, things like that happened.
But, you know, I was glad that that Max wasn't actually like <inaudible> about it and didn't make it worse for the kid.
It's coming off his first podium, you know, best result in his career, whatever.
And then he is like, yeah, all right, I finally figured it out.
Lap one takes out the, the Reign champion. Tough luck.
The other side of that garage though, on the Mercedes side is interesting.
The fact that George doesn't have a contract yet is shocking with how he's finding Well I think they know I'm, they know I'm still available. But
Do you not think, do you not think that's all coming from George?
That's not a Meck thing.
I'm sure Merck would have resigned him immediately.
No, no. Apparently it is, there is some 0.1% chance
that Max leaves Red Bull and Toto is like so bent outta shape about the fact that he let Max go the first time that they're literally putting George who's driving better than he has in his entire career.
He is driving exceptionally well.
He is absolutely probably better than everybody but Max, you know, agreed.
And and they're not giving him a, a deal until they know 1000% that Max is not leaving Red Bull. So
In a situation like that, Could you imagine? Yeah.
In a situation like that, is there any recourse that George has?
Like can he rake him over the coals later to get a higher deal? Can he threaten you with unless
He has Another option or can he just sit there and and just have to take it?
Well, where's he gonna go? Like, I mean, that's the thing.
Unless, unless you have a viable option that can be like, Hey, I'm out the door. See ya.
All right, I'm starting right out.
George Russell, the coin , He can't Dixon's taking the seat. He can't do
It.
Sorry. Dixon's got that seat. Yeah,
Dixon's got that seat unlocked.
That's, that's a done deal.
I that one's an interesting one because fine, George needs to, to go somewhere.
He needs some leverage. I don't know
who has seats available next year.
Let's say for the sake of argument, Alpine has a seat, right?
Not a great team. Fine.
But let's say Flavio is willing to back the Brinks truck up for him.
Okay. And out of, out of, out of, you know,
feeling a little bit hurt by not getting offered a contract while he is in the form of his life.
Who's Mercedes gonna put into George leaves? Right?
Like, it does kind of work both ways.
It's not like there's a ton of free agents on the market.
George is a little bit outta sync.
Lando and, and, uh, Oscar are locked up.
Cheryl and Lewis are locked up.
Science and Alban are locked up.
Like you're, you know, if if Max isn't moving, max is locked up, you wouldn't want most of the other like maybe head jar, but he's not going any like, red Bull's not gonna let him go.
So like, who else would you actually go for?
Mercedes needs a front man.
Jimmy's still a rookie, even for next year have one year experience, brand new car development, all that sort of stuff.
Like you need a, you need a peddler, man.
So I think if, if they mess around too long and they eventually come back to the table, I think George does have a little bit of leverage and being like, you got like this was the, this was the May price, this is the August price.
You know, I think there's a little bit of that because they need somebody.
I don't know. That's gonna be an interesting
negotiation. Um, all
Right, well and good F1 chat, unless there's more to go over.
We do have, we have a race coming up this weekend.
We do. We do. MidOhio, Alex Now
We race.
You've traditionally done very well at Alex.
Yeah. Yep. Good
Chat.
Good chat. See you next week.
Mm-hmm .
Mm-hmm . Uh, . Wish you could get that test day back
and go to mid Ohio tomorrow and, Well, I guess, don't worry, I'm going to the sim tomorrow instead, so it's fine.
Oh, so that's perfect.
That'll be just as good as the testing.
Pretty much the same, same thing.
So we're going back. So that would be like,
we're looking roughly at the one year anniversary of the hybrid, because We are pretty, that's where it was De right? Pretty much.
Um, it was, I know we ran it at Gateway, but that was later the year.
Yes. So we're kind at the one year mark
Now.
We sure are. What is your, what is your approval rating
of said system A year in?
Hmm? Are we giving it a year?
A one year report card? Yeah,
Let's give it a grade.
Okay. That's, this is good. I like this.
This is a nice, this is a fun little exercise. Hmm. Um,
Well I let Tim go first.
Tim, go ahead. I'm against it, but only
because I don't like any more fuel efficiency.
Like, I think No worry Should be, I think we should have, uh, I, you know, what, what has the environment done for us lately is kind of my attitude. It's just ruin
Whatever we can do sleeps right now.
Yeah. Like I've been here without air conditioning
and I'm, I'm gonna get home and turn it on nonstop for at least three or four months just To balance it out. Yeah.
Okay. Weird how you're gonna turn like 10 days
of not having it into three months of just, It's the American way.
Inces all James.
Damn right. It is. Um, I'm gonna give it a b plus.
Interesting. Why? Here's
what I'll give it a b plus. Um,
Wait, before you give you reasons I wanna give mine my rating. You're
Great. Okay.
Yes. C Okay. So
Go for your reasons.
My reasons are I didn't Know we were doing a letter grades.
I would've said, I would've said a d just, but same reasons.
It's just that's what, just 'cause I, I didn't want to outta letter grades. Yeah.
Got it. Okay. Um, d for don't
talk anymore during this discussion.
All right. So, um,
It's interesting that you bring that up because , I'm glad you said that.
Uh, now that you mentioned it, No, 'cause so here's the thing.
For me it's b plus because I'll be, you know, totally honest and I think, I don't think this is gonna be a surprise to anybody.
Um, I was expecting a lot more issues.
I was expecting, look, we've had some issues.
I don't think we've had anywhere near as many in races as I was expecting.
Um, there have been issues in practices, obviously we had weird stuff like what happened in qualifying at Iowa last year, which mm-hmm .
Was more of like a timing and scoring issue than a, like it wasn't the system itself, it was just the whole procedure, whatever.
Mm. I think that having the ability
to restart the cars has been a big plus.
Um, it's easier to reverse cars, which is a big plus.
I think that it has a bigger effect on, I guess lemme rephrase that.
I think it's had, um, there's more disparity in how it's used than I was expecting.
I kind of thought everybody would simulate the best way to do it and everybody would just do that. Every lab.
Were you basing that on? We all use it
identically the same.
No, because sometimes on some laps, guys forget To use it.
Can't take, you can't, you can't take Indie as an example, take indie out of it every race.
But indie use it. You use it exactly the same.
Uh, okay. I don't know why we take indie out of it.
That's kind of a big part of our season. Okay,
Sure.
But okay. You, I mean you can't put
that in the plus column if one out of 17 is validating your point.
Okay. Um, half point there then.
Um, so, but the reason it's not, it's not in the a's is, uh, I don't think it helps the racing anywhere, but Indy was, so to get to that point, um, you know, it makes the cars heavier, which as a driver makes them just less fun to drive harder on tires.
You know, I don't know if we're allowed to say this, but I think in some places worse on fuel just 'cause of the weight and it's just is what it is.
Um, and you know, all the other things that have just kind of inherently gone on with, you know, why it's not been readily loved from the get go.
But I guess what I'm getting at is I came in with much worse expectations and it has, it has exceeded the expectations that I had for it coming into the last 12 months.
So for that reason, I will give it a b plus.
Why are you at a C?
Uh, I'm at a C, which is the definition of average.
I'm at a C and not higher because it does nothing beneficial to our product and we all do use it the same.
Um, I'm not giving it less than a C because aside from, I think Dixon in the debut of it, it hasn't actually hurt anyone's races or impacted a championship.
So, um, that is where I'm at.
Alright. Are you gonna approach MidOhio any differently
this year than you did last year?
Do you know more? Or is it exactly the same?
It's exactly the same. Okay. All right.
Well that's that. Like, what are the odds?
Alex Polo loses this race.
Oh, none.
Okay. Okay. So, okay, cool.
Uh, so get your bets in, uh, make sure you throw 'em on your grid rivals team.
Um, yeah. No, not you Alex.
You, you, that'd be very illegal. You can't do that.
I, I was talking to the people at home.
Something floated around Twitter the other day.
That was, and I quote dumb <inaudible> questions for race car drivers part two.
Oh, I saw this. I was, I meant to follow this. Yeah.
Yeah. So luckily I'm doing your job for you,
even though you make more money on this show than anybody else.
Um, so I, I've, I've screenshotted it.
And so I would like to ask the race car drivers on the podcast these five questions.
Sorry. I also, if we can say that I did it,
I get $5 been mowed from me, to me from Madeline. Okay.
So I've put You on this.
You don't get those. No, you did not. Damn it. Damn.
I had screenshotted. But Madeline, if you'd like
to send me the money, that'd be tremendous.
Um, so thanks Madeline, for sending these through.
Okay, question one, TikTok boys, Did you smile in your driver's license photo?
What?
Did you smile in your driver's license?
Are you, I don't think you're allowed. I don't
Think you're allowed either.
You could smile without teeth. You can do like the,
Without showing, But you can't do the I don't have mine on. Oh, do have my on
Smile?
That's a, that's a smirk. I'll put that as a smirk.
He smirked. Does that count?
I mean, I don't know. Blast Out, but there's definitely
no, there's definitely no teeth.
No, I look like mine looks, mine looks more like a mugshot.
So I know passports.
You certainly have to be like dead faced.
I don't think mine's definitely not a smile.
Yeah, you're, you're a mugshot city. Yeah.
Okay. No smile there. Okay.
Um, number two, there are five, by the way.
What board game do you hate playing?
What board game do I hate playing?
I can't, I'm, this is the easiest question ever asked anybody Else.
And you're so wrong. Basically, again, what?
I know your answer is going to be it's Monopoly.
That's the same monopoly. That's dumb. Yeah.
That's not, that's that shouldn't be least favorite. No, it's not.
It's my least favorite. Um,
What says it says, which one do I hate playing?
I hate playing monopoly 'cause it takes so long.
My brother or Tim always win.
Do you wanna know what I low key hate yazi? Yes.
Interesting. Why? Like,
because it's just, there's no, there's no element of strategy or anything to it.
And if I'm gonna play a game like that, I'd rather be playing blackjack or craps or roulette, right?
Like it's just skill. Why I
Wanna play skill. Really.
There's no skill, it's just, yeah, it's point.
You're shaking d in a cup and then choosing whatever. I don't, not for me.
We, we also have a drinking game that's attached to that same concept. .
Well, but that game's great. . Very, very different.
Much fun. Much more fun. Okay.
Um, number three is a two part question.
Can you do your own laundry and do you do your own laundry?
I can answer this for Alex.
He can and he does way too often.
What do you mean too often? How often
Do you change? How often do you change?
Oh, like change clothes? Yeah.
Oh, at least three or four times a day.
Yeah. And you do your laundry, right?
Um, I do much more now that there's a newborn in the house and Kelly's Occupied and before.
Okay, but you were on this changing schedule before Kelly.
So you were doing this laundry before Kelly.
Yeah. See, no, I'm more than capable of doing laundry.
But like, you know, when you live with someone, you have assigned duties and stuff and like things and, and she did More of The laundry.
She did more, more of the laundry.
But when she wasn't there, I could do the laundry.
Right. I'm on the same program. I don't have a kid.
So Becky still does more of the laundry certainly.
But yes, I'm very capable of doing it.
My, my mom famously had this thing where when all of her kids turned 10, one of our birthday presents was the instruction manual to the washer and dryer.
And she said, I complicated. I did it for the first decade.
Complic. Now it's on you.
No, but when you're 10 and your parents, your parents have done it for you Isn't because I know, I know some people in their thirties, dude, you know, they Can't do laundry.
Dude, when I went to university, I had a buddy and he would drive 30 minutes home on the weekends and have his mom do his laundry. And I was
Like, dude, you went to university with Colton .
I can tell you exactly what Abel's getting for not even her next birthday.
What she's getting for Happy Monday, July 3rd. Yeah, .
Okay. All right. Last two. Okay.
I think last two. Uh, number four. Do you like tomatoes?
Love them In every capacity.
Like in salads, on sandwiches, on getta.
Just, I literally, I literally shamed.
I literally cut a tomato up yesterday and ate it as a snack.
Have you ever eaten a tomato like an apple?
No, I don't think I do that.
Some psychopaths have done that and they should all be Imprisoned.
I would eat a onion like that though.
No, I'm actually, or A lime.
I'm actually with him on that. I would do that
with a, with an onion.
I wouldn't do it with a lime, but I would do that with an onion.
I wouldn't do it with a lime would not or an onion.
I'm not the Grinch. I mean
You would not Yeah. .
Yeah. Tim, you would not do.
That's a hefty pour there pal for almost 1:00 AM. 1:00 AM
But Okay.
Big fan of onions, . When,
When?
And Geist. Right? . Um, okay. Number five.
What games do you have on your phone?
Ooh, two dots.
I have that too. That's a great one. Good
Game. It's two
Dots.
You connect dots into squares. Really?
If you get a square, then it gets more, Gets rid of the whole color.
Big cube. It gets the whole thing.
Do you have any idea what level you're on?
'cause I've had this for years. I'm like on level
700 something. All right. Compare,
Gimme a second. I'm pulling it up. What
Do, what do you have?
What? What's your games, James?
So I've got kind of three.
They're all, you know, like kind of puzzle ish.
One is, it's a version of like Mahjong, it's called Moonlight Light.
And it's just tiles and you knock 'em out, whatever in pairs.
It's really good. I'm on level 180 7 of that. What
Level was that?
Two Five. Uh, best timed. 5 37 Best moves.
2 41. Mine's just called Dots.
Not two dots. So we might have a
Different one.
Yeah. Whom on?
But what's hilarious is, um, it would seem that you're on level 5 37 or whatever of your.game.
And I'm on 5 58 a month. Oh
Wow. The races all.
Wow. I do, uh, I do one called word scapes.
'cause I love word games and I'm on level 8,114 'cause I fly too much.
All right. And then, cool. That was, have you ever,
Ever played, have you ever played Cube?
Skip? What's one last one? Have you played Cube Skip? No.
So Joseph and I both have this and he text me the other day.
He was like, what's your best score on Cube Skip?
And I'm like, 700 something. He's like, oh.
I was like, wow, what's yours?
He's like 2,500 and something. I was like, oh, all right.
I gotta guess. I guess I gotta start playing
Cube Skip again.
So I'm gonna get on that. You should try it. It's
Fun.
Well, I know exactly what I'm doing tonight and I'm gonna show it to him in the driver's meeting on Sunday of level 3000.
I cannot wait. have fun with, have fun with that.
All right, Alex, go, you know, hang out with your wife.
Yes. Goodbye. Awesome baby.
Same trip home, uh, James, when are you coming?
See in Ohio Tomorrow.
So yesterday. Bye boys. Later. See ya. Bye bud.
Okay, so going into this long streak of a bunch of races where you've just come off of traveling and now you have travel much more.
Like how do you guys prepare for that in the booth?
In the booth? I mean,
I mean that, that's a lot of travel.
It is a lot of travel. Like it's, it's more like,
it's more like logistically preparing your life, you know, because that's just being gone an awful lot.
Like Buxton has moved to the US for the month of July.
So like him and his wife and his and his baby girl have, have moved to the state of Florida.
They've rented a house.
They're gonna be there for all of July, which is awesome.
Um, because traveling back and forth for, as Alex said, like five consecutive weeks or whatever we've got going on now, is Is he aware there's like 49 other pretty good states?
I don't think anyone told him that.
Got it. Okay. Yeah. Just straight
to the <inaudible> of the United States.
Correct. So, uh, so he's there.
Um, and yeah, dude, for me it's like, you know, you're preparing to only be home basically two days a week for the next five weeks, which is tough, you know, because you still have life and you still have, you know, things to do.
And it's not like, so like look, it's, it's like having a, a, a, a nine to five job in the sense that you work five days a week and you have two off.
But my weekends are like Tuesdays and Wednesdays, right?
Yeah. But the difference is, is like I don't get to go home
after work each day and do stuff around the house or like take care of stuff.
So you literally have just those two days to like adult and like stay on top of your life.
And it honestly is like sometimes kind of tough.
So, um, I'm not trying to like complain.
It is what it is everyone's got, it's not a heart.
Like other people have way more important <inaudible> than I have.
But, uh, so yeah, so it's, it's, it's just like mentally preparing for that and like that's part of the reason why, you know, it was great to be able to bring Becky out to this thing I had to do in England because we're not gonna see a lot of each other over the next little while.
Um, and then even once that stretch ends, I have to go to an F1 race.
So like my, after that fifth race, I go into a sixth race and then I go straight from an F1 race to LA for a few days straight to Portland.
Like I'm gonna be gone for kind of three straight weeks on that stretch.
So we do have a really busy summer coming up.
It's cool. You didn't, you didn't tell me
that you'd be in la which is where I live, but yeah, it's fine.
Do you live in la? It's fine.
I know it is. I , I I have no qualms about the fact
that I was coming to LA and hadn't told you and was debating ever telling you, but now you know.
No. So, Hey Tim, do you wanna hang out when I'm in la?
Maybe I don't have time, so it doesn't matter.
I have a thing that day. I
literally have a thing that day.
Like that's why I'm coming.
is because I have a thing to come to.
So let's, you can't out thing me that day.
You can't do that.
I have bucks and I we're gonna go to the park, so, Okay.
You guys have fun with the, at the, the park just oh, oh, the park in la Cool.
Uhhuh, you guys are gonna have a great time.
Um, how, how many more days are you in, in, in, in Europe?
Well, like Germany next and then you gonna hit a Cze Republic or whatever it's called these days.
I don't know what you're talking about. Uh,
I've not left anywhere.
This is all Zoom backgrounds.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah, we head back tomorrow. Um, ready?
I also head back tomorrow. I, we're, we're,
I guess we're not on the same flights though, 'cause we're leaving from different countries and going to different cities.
I'll wave to you from the air.
What time do you fly? Three 30
Outta Charlotte de ga.
Yeah. Although, can I, can I, can I wave to you from,
from my class with you and your, I assume Delta one, like lay flat and seats.
Can you, do you, can you see us pour people?
I'm, I dunno what you're talking about. I'm
flying American, so Okay.
But I hope you have a great flight, .
I hope you have a great trip and I'll see you back in the United States at some point.
All right. Terrific. You have yourself
a wonderful evening guys.
Thanks for tuning in. Alex, best of luck, uh, this weekend.
He's already gone, but I'm gonna say it anyway 'cause I try to say it every week and I look forward to hopefully discussing, I don't know, either a new winner in IndyCar or, uh, a record setting win for Polo or like Kirkwood closing the championship gap with a win of his.
Doesn't matter. Either way,
we're gonna have something to talk to.
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