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Term
Bridgestone
Bridgestone is a big tire company. Here they’re being talked about as the maker of the IndyCar race tires.
Concept
Skunk Works division
“Skunk Works” is a nickname for a company’s special team that works on secret, advanced projects. It usually means a small group moving quickly to build something new.
Term
IndyCar tires
These are the special tires used in IndyCar racing. They’re made to survive hard driving—lots of grip and heat—while still lasting for the race.
Term
made by hand
They’re saying the tires are put together manually by workers, not just by machines. That can help the company control the details that matter for race performance.
Term
minuscule change
They’re saying that even very tiny tweaks to a tire can make a big difference. Small changes can affect how long the tire lasts and how well it grips the road.
Term
tire durability
Tire durability is basically how long the tire can last. A more durable tire tends to wear more slowly and hold up better to heat and stress.
Term
tire performance
Tire performance is how well the tire helps the car grip and handle. It’s about how confidently the car turns, stops, and stays stable, especially as the tire gets hot.
LIVE
This is Off-Track.
We're joined by a very talkative Alex Rossi today.
Feels like you're a guest on the show at this point.
I think James has been doing all the Tuesday episodes.
All the Tuesday episodes. He did one Tuesday episode last week.
No, he didn't. I did the one before that.
Oh, did he not do it two weeks ago?
No, I did.
Well, f*** me, I guess.
That was Marcus Armstrong.
What a guy.
I forgot about that.
I forgot about that.
Yeah, so you can go f*** yourself.
What's going on?
You know, part of the problem is you don't, you know, actually get good guests.
So...
Yeah, yeah, there's something to be said for that.
It's because I try to name drop you guys, but them names aren't dropping like they used to, you know?
Who did you ever successfully name drop us to, Tim?
I don't know. I'm just, I'm just talking.
What's, what's been going on?
We had a weekend without a race. It felt weird.
Why did it feel weird? It felt awesome.
Yeah.
What did you get up to?
Well, I finally finished my pergola that I started in May that got delayed for several weeks because of someone decided to go get injured.
And my favorite quote out of the whole...
What a f*** Joseph, your gardeners.
The whole situation was, you know, I'm, I wouldn't say I'm 100% at this point, but you know, I'm, I'm functional.
And Kelly came out and was like, man, I feel really bad that you have to do all this by yourself.
And I'm like, well, you know, I could, you could help me.
And she was like, yeah, I could.
And then proceeded to walk away.
So you married you?
Behind closed doors, yes.
I think that would surprise some people, but yes.
And I thought that A, that was really rude.
And B, it was really funny.
So yeah, I guess I could relate to it.
I'm definitely leaning more towards the funny.
Did we talk about how massive the numbers were?
Cause I think we recorded before that was released.
The numbers for the last race.
Turns out that World Cup lead-ins are pretty sick.
Looking forward to this weekend.
This weekend should be very interesting.
Like there's, there's a very real possibility that it has a higher TV number than the 500,
which I don't know how I feel about that, but it's like, there's a potential it could be 10 million people
because I'm expecting like 27 million to turn, tune into the, the old final of the soccer game.
First soccer.
Let me tell you, I'm excited and not that mad that the United States lost
because I haven't felt the need to pay attention to one of those boring games ever since.
Immediately went back.
I just keep trying to rage bait my European friends.
I'll be like, sorry, we're going to win the World Cup next year.
You have friends?
Nice European friends.
Oh, you just being friends in general.
You were just, got it.
You were just going insulting.
That's my bad.
What side of whose bed did you wake up on this morning?
I mean, speaking of insulting some people, let's, let's get right into it.
Felix, Alex and David went to the White House to promote the Freedom 250,
which I thought it's pretty cool to see like an Indy car in front of the White House to a pit stop.
Okay. This actually brings up a point that I wanted to ask you about and I forgot because I didn't write it down.
Somebody pointed out that when any other athlete visits the White House, they do it in a suit.
They're not in their suit.
Yeah.
So, but if it's NASCAR or Indy car, you guys are in fire suits.
So how do you, as a driver, how do you feel?
I feel like, I feel like when, because there was that moment where Trump was like doing something about the tariffs
and all the Penske guys were there.
It was like New Garden and I forget who else, some of the NASCAR guys.
And I thought they were in fire suits too.
Were they not?
They were not.
Then just you guys.
So how do you feel about that?
I mean, not good.
You know, one of the biggest grievances I have about my 500, like victory media tour in Manhattan,
was that like I was in a billboarded up button down,
whereas like the past four-ish years, I think five years maybe,
like the drivers have gone in just like business casual clothes and it just looks so much better
than being there just sitting in like a half wrinkled Amazon basics button down that's got some patches on it.
Like it's just, I don't know, it's lame.
And it's equally as lame to wear your fire suit.
Like obviously the drivers didn't have a choice.
So I don't know where the mandate came from,
whether it was from the series, the team, the promoter or whatever.
But it's interesting because clearly, clearly there's like,
there were not clearly, I'm making an assumption.
So both Alex and Felix were in their like normal fire suits, right?
But David was in like a generic Freedom 250 fire suit.
So it begs the question, does like Verizon not want to be politically associated with an event?
I don't know.
So I saw some speculation on that.
And then the other counter was, well, David was the one who was driving
and he was driving the Freedom 250 car to do the pit stop.
So was it that?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm just trying to get some plausible deniability here.
So, but listen, it always unfortunately this entire event, everything surrounding it becomes political.
It doesn't need to be the fact that IndyCar was promoted at the White House with like an entire press event
and the president of the United States with three IndyCar drivers in an IndyCar changing tires
and doing a faux pit stop is pretty sick.
So hats off to all those who pulled that off.
All I could think of though with the pit stop was how much of an issue it is when the crews go to Canada, right?
Like they go through and there's some people who aren't allowed given some history.
Surely they had to have a similar screening process for a West Wing pit stop.
I don't know.
I mean, I feel like, yeah, I'm sure.
It should be at least as difficult to get into the White House as it is to get to Markham.
What would blows me away, but also isn't like a surprise, but it's still crazy to think about,
is that for all of the street races leading up to DC, so excluding St. Pete,
but Long Beach, Detroit and Markham, there is like representatives and liaisons from the Secret Service that are in attendance
just to like, not for security, but just to watch like how an event goes and the structure of it all and the flow
and the organization and everything.
So like the research that they are doing and like the case studies that they are creating
in terms of how they're going to do this event, I mean, it goes pretty deep, which again,
I feel like the Secret Service is pretty good at that.
Yeah.
That's their thing.
Okay.
Well, I wish.
Now, obviously this is going to feel silly to say because you can't have the President of the United States promote every race,
but I wish there would be this attempt at this level of promotion for every race.
Like how would, okay, fine.
I guess I agree with what you're saying, but like how would you do that for a race in Lexington, Ohio?
I guess I'm more talking about like just having more boots on the ground to do like actual promotion in the town before it is.
Because how often have you heard of people say in a town where there's a race like, oh, I didn't even realize there was a race this weekend.
So I will say that that is, you haven't been to many races this year.
This year has been different.
Yes.
Yeah.
But this year, like we talked about it after we came back from Arlington, like James and I were both staying in a hotel that was 40 minutes away
and when we checked in, they were well aware of an Indy car race happening in Arlington.
So this year has been different.
And the growth of the series back that up.
Anyways, so there wasn't a race this week, but we did have a test in Milwaukee.
What notable things happened there.
Really nothing at all.
The package.
You posted a picture that said, hello, goodbye to a car.
Did you not wreck at Milwaukee or what was that about?
No, that was my Speedway car, Tim.
And that was before the test even happens.
Okay.
I just saw it.
Catch up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice try.
No one crashed in Milwaukee.
Actually, that's not true.
Dixon crashed, but at the end it didn't really matter.
As always going to be a great show, great race, double header this year.
So every single team tested there because it's a double points weekend, essentially.
But nothing new to expect going into that event.
How are you guys looking?
I know you can't read too much into tests, but like, do you feel good?
I mean, we're fine.
I mean, it was probably the, it wasn't, yeah, we were, we were good.
We were good.
Okay.
So you heard it here.
Alex Rossi predicting a clean sweep, pole and win both races.
I said we were fine, Tim.
He said, he said he's going to win it, handedly.
That's really all I have to tell you guys.
Before Mid-Ohio, actually there's one other thing.
I got an invite from Firestone to go to their, I mean, it's, it's a pretty secret.
What is it called?
It's, it's essentially the, I'm going to look up the exact terminology, but it's
essentially the Bridgestone advanced secret facility of magic tires.
That's a little bit of an exaggeration.
It's like there are indeed department.
Correct.
I can't find it.
Anyways, essentially they're, they're Skunk Works division of the, the greater company.
And what blew me away, I can't give all of the details because I was sworn to secrecy
on like 90% of the information that was shared to me.
What blew me away was it is a relatively small building that only, the only thing that comes out of
there is IndyCar tires.
There is less than a hundred people that work there and every single tire, every single
tire is made by hand.
Start to finish.
Really?
And I was like flabbergasted by that.
And they are actual like artists at work building these tires and, and, and some of them are
generational.
Like I met a father son duo that worked there, that the grandfather had worked there and
in the same building producing tires for IndyCars.
And it's just like it, I asked, I was like, well, in this day and age, like obviously the
automation technology exists.
And the answer was we operate these tires on like such a, they're pushed to such an extreme
in terms of like the limit of the materials and the construction and everything they use,
not only from a performance standpoint, but from a durability standpoint, that the only
way to get the tolerances to where they need to be is to do it by hand.
And it's like, that's, that's crazy.
That's pretty amazing, which also gives me a lot more appreciation, you know, for, it's
easy for us to bitch about like testing tire quantities and like how many sets you get
and oh, why are we testing on a tire from last year?
Or why do we get three tires from last year and only one tire for like the upcoming years
back and all this sort of thing?
It's like, well, because they're made by hand and it takes, it takes essentially one working
day, like one man hour day.
Is that the right way of saying it?
Sure.
Sure.
So essentially one 16 man hour day, which is 28 hour shifts to make a tire.
And not a set of tires, each tire.
Yep.
So it takes eight days to make a set.
No, it would take four days.
Sorry, eight shifts, eight shifts to make a set.
So 44 days.
That's insane.
No, but that's, but they have more than one person.
But I mean, that's how much time goes into each making.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So you can never complain about tires again.
Well, that's not true.
You think that was the plan?
Do you think they were like, Hey, let's shut them up?
So here's, here's, here's what I did.
I got a lot of appreciation for some of the challenges that they have because ultimately
the, uh, let's, let's talk about what Firestone has to go through.
So Firestone as a, as a business, right?
Their number one priority is to make a profit.
And the way and Indy car is ultimately a marketing arm of Firestone and Bridgestone Americas
and the greater Bridgestone company.
And so the number one thing that they cannot have or the number one thing that is very
bad for business is tire failures.
Right.
So priority number one for Firestone is make a tire that's robust, safe, doesn't fail.
Okay.
Priority number two for Firestone is make a tire that, you know, meets the driver's demands
of what they want from a performance aspect, a feel aspect and a consistency aspect.
The number three is they have to like tread the line between safety performance, but also
what the series, the tracks and Fox want from the product and the show that they put on.
So whether that means the type of oval racing that we have, whether that's, um, oval racing
with super high deck, whether that's oval racing, that's pseudo pack racing on a road
and street course, the separation and difference between the primary and the alternate.
Um, how big of a delta that is in terms of straight up performance and also how much
of a delta it is from the, the durability of the tire and like how much longer an alternate
or, or a primary lasted an alternate.
So Firestone has to like find this middle ground that is appeasing all three parties
and that's a, that's a very hard thing to do.
So when it's kind of explained to you in that way and you go and understand the level of
engineering that goes into making a change to a tire, like I can't talk about it, but
I was like, my job was on the floor.
Like you would not believe how small of a change, you would not believe the effect of
a, of a minuscule change, like how big of a effect that has on either the durability
or the performance of the tire.
So anyways, um, very eye, very eye opening, very cool to see, appreciate the invite and
yes, I haven't, man, this has been a banner year for tours.
People at Firestone.
Well, JPL.
Lockheed Martin.
JPL.
Honestly, the best, the best two tours I had were Lockheed and Firestone.
Oh, you know why?
Cause I was at JPL.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, okay.
Well, that's, that's, that's mean.
That's hurtful.
That's unnecessarily hurtful.
Okay.
So I know we're going to talk about this more at length on the Thursday episode when Jimmy
Hinchcliffe gets back from Gallivanting in Europe and whatever I'm sure he's doing
on some yacht somewhere, but feeling excited for Nashville.
Am I feeling excited for Nashville?
Um, I'm feeling indifferent about Nashville, Tim.
It's, uh, it's, it's always a weird, it's a weird event.
Uh, they do a great job with the production.
Um, it's just, I just, I miss, I miss being in Nashville.
I, I, I don't know.
I don't know how else to explain it.
Like it's, I was thinking about how cool that road course was or street course.
Sorry.
It was just, it was sick to be in Nashville and while this, while the, the speedway is,
is a nice speedway.
It's, it's unique.
The race is pretty good.
Turn out fan turnout is great.
As I said, the production quality is awesome.
Um, but yeah, you just miss that energy of, of all cities as well.
Right.
Like Nashville is comparable in so many ways to like Las Vegas and Lebanon, Tennessee is
not.
And not, not as many, not as many bachelor at parties in Lebanon, Tennessee.
No, no, much, much less, but not merely as many.
Yeah.
And, and that's what we, we all care about really is the bachelor at parties.
Clearly like that's, that's our gauge of a good city.
Well, all right.
Sounds like you had a more eventful weekend than I did.
I went to an antique store with Kenna and got a microphone because I was like, oh, this
would be cool.
I could use that to record off track.
Not as good.
It does not sound as good as this new digital microphone that I used.
So who would have thought that an antique microphone would not sound as cool.
And like, I was hoping that at least it would sound really old and I'd sound like old timey
announcer.
It's like, nah, it's just not as good.
So that's my whole story from my weekend.
At least, at least you can't return it.
Yeah.
No, all sales were very final.
They made that clear.
So yeah, it's like being new.
All right.
Well, I will see you on the Thursday episode.
About this episode
The hosts kick off with a rare race-free weekend, then slide into sports talk about expected TV numbers and how World Cup lead-ins can boost viewership. The conversation turns to a White House IndyCar moment—suits versus fire suits, a faux pit stop with the president, and Secret Service liaisons at street races around DC. They also recap Milwaukee’s double-points weekend and pivot to Firestone’s hand-built tire process and priorities, from safety to feel and consistency.
Original notes
IndyCar sent drivers to the White House but sent them in firesuits instead of suits and ties, sparking a conversation about IndyCar drivers in public appearances. Plus, Alex got a tour of a super top-secret Firestone facility, Nashville is coming up, and more.
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Off Track with Hinch and Rossi
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