The More Things Change

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To another episode of Track with hii. Wait,

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Off track.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Op Track with Hitch Rock. Wait, can you hear

me? ?

What is happening? .

Oh man. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should be.

And if you are watching on YouTube, you might notice, wait, Tim, when people watch on YouTube, can they see the names that are on the screen?

No, No, That's, that's unfortunate.

Well, Alex, because I've had some bangers, You would some pretty good If they could see the names you've chosen, you would not have a ride . That's

Fair. That's actually a pretty valid

Point.

Yeah. So, Alex, are you ready to be pretty annoyed?

Do you know what James and I are gonna go do right after this? What

Are you gonna go do?

Right? Oh, have Shabu

Dante. Fun

Better.

Oh, that's okay. Mm-hmm . . I mean, I'm excited.

James, have you actually, have you had it yet?

Not at the store. No, not at the restaurant.

I've only had it with you, I think. At your house? Yeah.

Oh, so not the RealReal. Oh, I'm excited for you. Yeah.

Yeah. That's, that's pretty awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. I am jealous of

That.

I'm excited too. Cool.

Um, yeah, it's just, just down the street, uh, from where I am in LA 'cause I'm in la You were just in la Tim lives In la I was just in la We were, we were ships in the night.

All three of us. We were, um, we

Were, I was in now Tim and eye side, but Right. How was,

How was your, how was your LA experience? What did you, what were you, so

What did you So my LA experience was, was great.

Um, I, the only, so here's the thing.

I unfortunately flew out Sunday afternoon, uh, right when the Super Bowl started, which was sad because I didn't get to hang out with my friends mm-hmm .

Um, and watch the Super Bowl. Mm-hmm .

But it was equally pretty. Thanks.

It was equally pretty like nice because I was on, on the plane.

I had like, my full attention was solely on watching the game.

I got a little meal.

I had a little drink, and I was just in my little corner and just sat there.

And the four and a half hour flight to LA evaporated, because that was the length of the time of the Super Bowl.

And it was really nice.

So, I mean, it wasn't the worst scenario.

I mean, the buffering at times was a little bit annoying, .

But the game, the game was such a blowout.

I don't think I missed anything important. No, you did not.

I saw all of the indie car commercials, which was amazing.

Incredible. Because I remember two weeks ago on this show we

were talking about, oh, we hope PATOS is gonna be on there.

No, no. They were, they were all there.

Um, and yeah, it was, it was good.

So then I arrived Sunday night.

Um, I met, um, someone who's gonna be working with me a little bit off track with, with all of ECR actually, um, from a sports psychology standpoint, um, all day Monday.

Very cool. And then flew out first thing

Tuesday morning back to Indy.

So it was, it was a very short in and out track trip, but very efficient.

Um, I love, I love that you guys are working with like a, a, a sports psychologist.

I, I've always been a big proponent of that.

I worked with one early in my career and then a little bit again later in my career.

Have you worked with one before? Like did you have

One when you were coming up?

So I worked with one in Europe for a, a good two years.

Um, and it's interesting, it's very similar.

I mean, I'm taking the words out of, um, uh, this guy's mouth, but he was like, it's, it's very similar to muscle atrophy in the gym.

You know, you, you know how to do a bench press, a squat, a movement, right.

A lunge. But if you're not in practice,

like your performance is gonna be significantly worse than if you've been doing it a couple times a week for months.

Right. And it's the same thing with your mind. Yes.

You know, the, the skills that are required to make a step forward from the mental side of things, but if you're not actually practicing, um, it's a degrading skill and you're losing, you know, the accuracy and the benefit of it.

So it was, it was really cool.

This guy has worked with, um, you know, a variety of athletes.

He was an athlete himself in the extreme sports world.

He actually, you know, was super competitive.

And then, um, you know, reached a plateau in his career and realized that, you know, some of the plateau is coming from the mind, the mental, the mind side of things.

And so he went and got his PhD in psychology and learned the ins and outs of it, and now works exclusively with athletes and C-suite executives, and is very hard to come by.

Um, and he worked with the, the Seahawks for almost a decade during their, you know, success with Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch.

Um, he's, he worked with the Bills this past year.

Um, he's worked with a bunch of Olympians on the US and Canadian side.

Um, so it's cool.

I was expecting, you know, going out there to kind of be with a older gentleman in like a crusty living room, sort of like a dusty living room .

And let's smell that mo Your experience with your original, like coach a Little bit in Europe.

Yeah, yeah. Who great.

He was very good. But like, that was wondering

Like why that was what you defaulted to .

Right. That was kind of what I was thinking. Right.

And it was like a younger dude in a, like a studio space in Los Angeles that like, had a bar and a shuffleboard.

Like it was, it was a very cool, um, oh.

Experience that, you know, the, the 10 hours that we were together, the four of us, me, ed, Christian, and, and, um, this guy, it was, uh, it flew by.

So it was a really cool experience, learned a lot.

Very happy that we all went.

And I'm looking forward to applying some of the stuff that we learned.

I love the fact that it's like common practice now for executives to like, have psychologists work.

Like, I dunno if you'd call 'em like performance coaches or sports.

Yeah. I, sports that's not sports,

but like, it's the fact that when you're running a big company and you have all that pressure and you have to make critical decisions and like, who, whoever the first one to think of, like, you know what, I'm gonna have this guy sit with a sports psychologist and like, uh, and figure out how to be a better CEO.

That's awesome to me. I love that.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it, life

and society now is all performance based.

It doesn't matter if you're a quarterback or executive or a sales person.

Right. It's all, it's all numbers driven.

And, and, and your future is dependent on your performance, which is a problem.

But that's, that's the world that we live in.

That's really hard. So you ha Yeah. You have to learn how

to exist and maximize yourself in that environment.

So it, it's all very interesting.

Um, did you watch, did you get commercials when you were watching Up at 30,000 feet?

I did. You sure did. Sure did.

See, that's one of the benefits I think of your, uh, setup.

There was, you were just like, you had to just watch everything.

Like you were, you had nothing else to distract you.

I watched almost no commercials. And I, I really

That's disappointing.

I'm that disappointing. Read it. What was good? There

Was three bangers in my mind.

Okay. Um, and you can find them. I mean, yeah.

What's weird is I'm up, they debuted a lot of 'em on YouTube, uh, before the game, but they Were the Budweiser Garden commercial a, uh, paddle award, commercial announce commercial Budweiser commercial, um, slaps.

They always slap. 'cause the Dale

Was that with, um, The baby horse? Oh,

Oh, okay.

Sorry. I was thinking there was the Bud

Light one with Shameless Bud Light one. Yeah. Shane.

I didn't see that one. That was, I just love Shane.

Yeah, that was hilarious. And then I loved the Jeep

one with Harrison Ford.

Okay. I Didn't see that. I thought,

I thought the Jeep one was, that was my favorite.

I thought it. Yeah, that was really good.

Um, yeah, tho those were my top three.

Tim, are you, Are you allowed?

I thought the, are you allowed to like a Jeep one?

Yeah, that's fine. . I thought the Stella, the Stella one

with David Beckham was also very good.

It was funny. But for me, you know, super Bowl commercials,

you want to like tug on some emotional strings.

That's why I think Budweiser always does such a good job because everyone loves Clydesdales and horses and, and that sort of thing.

And they always have some tribute to something.

Um, the Jeep one really tugged on your happy side, your sad side.

Your, was it Yes.

Was the Jeep one, because I just looked it up.

I haven't, I haven't watched it, but it's a two minute clip.

Is that like an extended cut or did they show a two minute clip?

No, I think it was like a minute 40.

Dude. Do you know what a 32nd spot on the Super

Bowl? $8 million.

$8 million? Mm-hmm . $8 million.

And IndyCar had 3 45 second spots.

Oh, I'm aware. I'm aware. Like

I'm not just trying to pump up my employer here, but like Fox dropped a $30 million investment essentially in the Super Bowl commercials for Indy car.

That's insane. That's incredible.

It's unheard of.

Like I didn't even, I didn't even think that it could be possible that we would get one.

So, dude, I think, I mean, I don't know if there's been any IndyCar adjacent commercials since Danica stopped racing IndyCar.

Right. Like when she was in the GoDaddy commercials,

like she's, I mean, she's been in like 10 or 12 Super Bowl commercials.

Like she's been, she's one of the highest, or like most frequent athletes in Super Bowl commercials.

Um, and they, I don't think ever actually had an IndyCar in them, but at least it was an IndyCar driver and whatever.

But like to have those three play on, what was the lar single largest sporting event viewership in history, 127.7 million people watch the Super Bowl.

It's a shame. It was such a <inaudible> game.

I know. Imagine if it was a good

Game.

Yeah. Uh, alright.

Before we, I mean, we don't really need to talk about the game.

I want everyone's opinion on the halftime show.

'cause that's equally as important as the commercial.

It is. I again, was sort of distracted.

We were, we were just hanging out in Brian's basement and like, I wasn't just Bros being bros.

Just dudes being guys, you know? Yeah.

Just, just buds being bros. Yeah. And,

Uh, everyone was there except me and Bob.

Except you. Yeah. And Bob said he was gonna come up like,

normally Bob leaves early this time.

He just didn't even show up. . Um, so tell me, has

Two kids and all of a sudden Yeah. ,

he's kind of priorities or whatever. Wow. Weird.

Um, how, how was the halftime show? Uh,

Listen, I'm not a huge, I'm not a huge rap listener.

Um, okay. I am also not super in tune with all

of the rap like battles with like enemies and the fighting Yeah. This a Drake

Kendrick thing or something. So

Yeah, there was a lot of, there was a lot of subliminal messaging based on what I saw on social media that I didn't catch during the performance.

Right. Um, I didn't,

I didn't understand like Serena Williams was there and I was like, why is she there?

And then it came like, I found out that's Drake's ex.

And I was like, oh, that's a, that's a big, Oh, that's a Weird flex.

That, that makes sense why he did that. Okay.

And it's amazing that she was also on board with that.

Um, I thought it was marginally entertaining.

I didn't think it was amazing. Like, I thought it was fine.

Yeah. Um, I, I,

but again, I'm not, that's not, that's not my music.

It's so I don't really know what I was listening to.

And, and the little bits that I kind of caught, it seemed to not have like, the massive sort, there's a wow, Wow. Factor

Over the top production that you were like, kind of come to, come to be used to with Super Bowl halftime shows For Sure.

Like, I, I, it was cool that he was like, you knew he was singing, rapping, talking, whatever you wanna call it.

Um, yeah. Yeah. So he, he put the effort into the

performance, which was great.

Um, I know the song that he does with SZA, I'm gonna really age myself.

I don't know if you're supposed to call her SZA or whatever.

Yeah. But I think it's a, like I knew

that song that she was cool.

Um, but like yeah, having, knowing that they were having a spat with Drake and then the fact that he pulled up his ex to dance on stage during the Super Bowl with him was a wild move. . .

Alright. Um, yeah, I also would not have caught any of that.

So Yeah, I, uh, yeah.

Hey, that's a, that's again, that's a lot of, a lot of people watching you, uh, play that card, so I guess good on you.

Um, all right. So that's, that was Super Bowl.

That's why you were out in la I was out here doing that, like a bunch of Fox Oh.

Meetings and doing So how did your test go?

So it was, it was cool, man. So And

What race did you choose?

Well, so we didn't get to choose.

It was all decided for us.

We got different races, so it was actually really well done.

It was really well kind of put together and, and Seems to be a theme with Fox So far, it seems to be the running theme.

Mm-hmm . Um, so the, you know, we get there, uh,

yesterday morning, hellos and intros.

You know, we're meeting a lot of the team for the first time.

Like a lot of the people that are gonna be traveling and, and everything to all the IndyCar races.

The excitement level in the building is through the roof, man.

Like everybody is, is jazz.

And, um, we, we started the day off with our rehearsal, so they put us in like a little mock booth, which we learned as the exact same room that Tom Brady spent a lot of time in doing his reps before he did his first broadcast.

So they did the same kind of thing with, with Brady.

Probably should have done more . He's, he's, he's,

he's so much better now.

But when he started it was tough. Yeah. And I'm like, fan, I heard

The, I heard the first couple one.

Great. Yeah. Yeah. You, yeah. Fair.

Um, and so they didn't tell us which races we were doing, and it started off with, um, St.

Pete last year, and it was like five minutes before the green flag, like, let's say like, cars rolling five minutes before.

So it was a little bit of setup, and then it was the start of the race, the first stint, whatever.

And, you know, it's just, it's just tape.

So we can't, we don't have any control over cuts or edits or replays or whatever.

Right. You're just going with whatever was happening.

And we don't have like, pit reporters and anything like that.

So it's, it's a little bit, it was almost harder Actually.

It's harder, yeah. I

Believe Yeah.

Than the real thing. Um,

and it, it was, it was, it was great.

I mean, like, it started off, there was obvious things we needed to work on just getting the chemistry right between the three of us, timing on certain things.

Um, but so we kinda get through that, like every commercial break in the show, they'd come on, you know, Eric Shanks and Jacob Baldman would come into the booth, they'd give us some pointers and like some, some, uh, things to work on, whatever.

Then we'd go back, do the next segment.

So we did that for half an hour.

And then, so that was the start of a race.

Then they wanted us to call the end of a race.

So we did the last like, 40 laps of indie, which was awesome.

Like that race last year was, dude, it was so good.

Like it was, and I, I, I, yeah, it was so good.

It was, it was, I, I knew what happened and I was like, I was even, I was screaming for you, you know, I was like, come on buddy. ,

you got it. And, uh, I did not have it. You did not have it.

You did not have it. Mm-hmm. Um,

but it was, you know, I was, I was still, I was, I was waiting for you to get Patto out of four, you know, like that was, and we just, I know it.

That did not happen, . We just tried

to not die outta four mm-hmm .

Uh, but even though, you know, what happens, like, it was, it's just such an exciting thing to call and like, will really hit his stride, I think during that segment.

Like, he did a really, really good job.

You know, he hasn't done play by play in like 10, 12 years, whatever it's been.

Sure. Um, but the rhythm was really good.

Everybody was bouncing off each other really good.

So that was great. And then they chucked us, uh,

into the middle of Laguna, so middle of the race where there was alternate strategies happening.

Mm-hmm . Not a ton of on track stuff so

that we could work on, like, telling more stories and like setting things up and like, how do we kind of navigate that situation.

So it was, it was really well thought out by, by the producer and the director and, and, and the, the high ups at Fox on what they wanted us to, to see and what they wanted us to experience.

Um, and honestly, man, it went really well.

Like, I think everybody feels a lot better.

Not that anybody was worried, but like, just having done that is such a relief and for sure.

Yeah. Um, you know, we will get

to work on it all in the practices, uh, on St.

Pete weekend. And by race day, I think it's gonna be,

it's gonna be really, really cool.

Um, we got to see all the graphics, the whole new graphics package.

I don't, I probably am not allowed to say anything because they've been super tightlipped about everything that they've done so far.

And like the fact we're only just seeing these things.

All I can say is great, man. It's, it's awesome.

There's some really cool stuff. Yeah.

There's some really cool stuff coming.

Um, so I'm, I'm excited for that.

Goodness. Like, this is, this is like the,

the most excited I think I've been, and everyone has been about, you know, the, some finally some positivity about the direction in the future of our series.

Now, this is what I, what I want to caution everybody against and also remind everyone against or remind everyone of, is the fact that this is all phenomenal Fox is, is like doing things that we never thought were possible, but it's still critical that the series has to do their job.

Right. This is not, this is not, Fox is gonna come in

and solve all of our problems, right?

That's not, that's not how this works.

Fox is now a partner that we can finally leverage and use and believes.

And not that NBC didn't, but they, they have the resources and capacity to leverage our series and do things that NBC maybe didn't.

Right? But like, we have to give them something

that's worthwhile to leverage and to use.

And it's for sure it's, it's gonna take all of us still.

And there needs to be a huge like, motivation from every driver, every team, the series that like, okay, they're doing this, right.

They've raised their game, we have to also match it. Right?

And it's, it's, it's not, um, it's not a golden horseshoe.

So, uh, it's great, it's exciting, but still a lot of work ahead, I think, for everyone.

And on that note, some big indie car changes, Some big indie car changes that I'm not sure.

I mean, I certainly didn't see coming with 20 days to go before the first race.

Well, here's, here's the weird thing, and it's been talked about in a couple media sites, um, since the news came out.

If you missed it, which I'm sure you didn't, uh, Jay Fry is gone.

Doug Bulls is now the president of IndyCar as well as IMS and a lot of other promotions within the organization, both at IndyCar and at IMS.

Um, but the big one is obviously Doug taking over from Jay on the IndyCar side of things.

I, there was, there was rumblings and rumors kind of at the end of the year last year, but then nothing ever happened.

Yeah. So I think everyone thought whatever issues there was

or potential issues were resolved and things were just status quo.

And, you know, we had worked with Jay all off season and in the driver and team manager meetings and, you know, making adjustments and changes for, for 2025 as we usually do.

So 20 days before the first race is like, it is a bit of a surprise.

Um, and I don't know if that was planned or not, what my opinion of this all is, forget the timing.

I love Doug. Um, I think Doug as an individual,

as a spokesperson, um, especially now with this partnership that we've, we've talked about with Fox as a representative of IndyCar, um, is phenomenal.

As someone who has been involved in running a race team in the past and being able to relate to the struggles that IndyCar team owners slash drivers have, um, his knowledge of what the fans wanna see and what the fans are looking for.

Like, I think Doug is, is a phenomenal guy.

Um, it's, it's, it's an incredible task he has in front of him to kind of do both, because I think what he's done for the 500 and the Speedway is amazing.

Um, and you don't wanna lose any of that, obviously with his new responsibilities.

But I'm thrilled for Doug. I'm, I'm excited for him.

We've obviously had him on the show, so, um, yeah, we'll, we'll see how it goes. But

Yeah, I mean, times two, you know, I think, I think, um, I monumental undertaking for, for one person to be doing all that at the same time.

Like, he's been such a good, you know, steward of the Speedway and he has helped Penske Entertainment with their vision, uh, you know, growing that race and everything, um, that it's a pretty well oiled machine right.

In a lot of ways. So it probably does give him the freedom

to kind of look at the IndyCar series more as a whole.

Um, and look at, at the end of the day, like you just said, Alex Fox is doing their thing.

That's cool. IndyCar needs

to still do their thing and they've been getting better.

But we all talk about how Doug's one of the best promoters in sports.

Yes. We need to promote the series.

Like that's what we've been saying for five years, 10 years, is we need to promote IndyCar better.

So why don't we tap the strongest promoter that we have to do the job?

And you know, Jay, obviously, um, look, Jay did some incredible things in his time and, you know, he was, he helped pioneer a lot of, a lot of the things that we do today.

A lot of the stuff that's on the car, like, you know, there's a lot of good things that came outta his tenure.

Obviously his side was kind of more on the technical side.

I don't mm-hmm . I don't really know, think

that he was super involved on the commercial side as much or the promotion side of, of IndyCar.

So, um, with, with Doug stepping into that role, remember that Doug was a team manager of an IndyCar team before he was in, in the track promotion side of things.

Exactly. Yeah. So he understands the

sport from the team side.

He obviously now understands it from the track side.

And, you know, I think one of the big goals of IndyCar is to have IMS and IndyCar as a series, which are two separate entities and two separate companies, but they really, they, they are intrinsically linked.

Right. You cannot have one without the other.

And I do think that for too long, Someone tried that once Fair did not end well.

Yeah. Um, but I, I think for too long there's maybe been

too big of a barrier and maybe not as much, not to use like, you know, catchy business words, but like not enough synergy between collaboration companies Yeah.

Collaboration. And so now by having one person at the helm

of sort of both, I think that can, I think they, there can be a lot of strengths pulled from each other to help both.

Yeah, for sure. And,

and I mean this is, it makes sense with the fact that, you know, Penske Corp is, is what they are as an organ organization.

Right. You know, Roger is, um, someone

that I've seen who, who has leaders in place that he trusts, and those leaders oversee a lot.

And like, this is a good segue into some other big racing news that came out last week with Tim Cindrich.

Right? Tim Cindrich was, was the president

of, of Team Penske.

And that meant, that was Penske all things Penske Motorsports, which is a lot of, a lot of different things.

I mean, that's V eight supercars in Australia.

That's, IM a NASCAR IndyCar obviously.

So wec, um, a a big undertaking.

And ultimately, you know, Tim decided that, you know, for himself and his family or whatever, he envisioned his personal life, professional life future to be like, he wanted to take a small step back from that and just focus on the IndyCar side of things.

You know, he, he's an Indiana guy, he's an IndyCar guy first and foremost, and, and obviously rose through the ranks of Team Penske and earned Roger's trust to run the whole thing.

But my point by saying that is, you know, Doug has obviously proven himself, um, with, with everything that we've said, he is done for the Speedway.

So it makes sense that someone like Roger would want to have him be involved in the series, which we know needs help, we know needs that extra little bit of oomph to take the next step forward.

It's a critical time with Fox, critical time with a new car coming in 2027.

So this is a very Penske Corp thing to do to put someone in charge of the two most important elements of what he owns. Yeah,

A hundred percent. No,

I think what happened, I think what maybe happened was somebody read those articles that come out like every May about how busy Doug is.

It was like, should we make it harder for him?

like, this guy doesn't work enough. You

know, .

Well, the good news is, is in May everyone's together, ER and IMS is all one.

So it's kind of fine.

Um, yeah, no, I think it's, it's exciting.

It's, uh, a lot of people, you know, and with that move, a lot of other people internally we're promoted to new roles and, and given more power and, and that's or more responsibility. And

We have a CMO now after four years, who would've thought ?

We do congratulations to Alex Damron on that position. Yeah.

Um, but yeah, a lot of people internally again, got, uh, got promotions, mark sla, Alexis Hurley, Kate Davis, I'm sure there's others.

Um, so yeah, it's, it's exciting. It's, it's a big change.

It's a big change in the company. It's exciting.

Um, but again, I, I do wanna, I do wanna throw out a, a big thanks to, uh, to Jay for his time.

I mean, he was very instrumental in really opening that line of communication with the drivers.

And, you know, even, even, you know, back when I was still still doing it, I mean, those, those meetings, he would sit down, he would listen to all of us, you know, we would give him feedback every week and we would talk about it at the end of the season.

And, um, a lot of the changes that have come out of those are very positive and a lot of that might not have happened without him.

So, on top of all the other stuff, just from the driver's perspective, he was a, he was a huge asset.

Yeah. Whether you agree

or disagree with some of the decisions that were made, you, you can't help but have a hundred percent appreciation and respect for him taking everyone's opinion into consideration.

He listen without everybody, without question. Yeah.

So, yeah. Um, yeah, a huge influence in the sport.

Um, but now guys, we are like four days away from Indy cars being on a racetrack.

Mm-hmm . It's pretty exciting.

I'm sad I'm not gonna be there.

I have no reason to be there, but I just like, I just miss, I miss racing so much. Like

You were literally just in Daytona.

I know. And I still, but I was, you know, I, I don't know.

I was doing it. I wasn't watching it, but like,

I watched, I feel like more, more fun.

Well, you you watched most of it. Yeah. .

I did watch more than half. That is

True.

That is true. I think you watched more than you

did. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a great point. Sorry. That's a great point. Sorry.

Yeah. Um, but no, it's like I need, I need more, like I, uh,

I mean, Indy cars are on track in a few days.

We have the Daytona 500 coming up this weekend.

Um, so yeah, actually, you know what we'll talk about, we'll talk about Sebring next week because you'll have done it.

Obviously you're excited to get in it. We know that.

I'm so excited. Thank

God.

We wanna know like what's happened.

So let's, let's, let's shell that for now.

I do wanna talk about the Daytona 500 quickly because, Well, you know, that's sport that only got like two, four second Super Bowl commercials.

kidding. Still way bigger than us.

Yeah, I was gonna say, don't start, don't start trying to take on that fight, man. That's a losing battle

Right now. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah.

Um, hopefully not forever, but for now. Mm.

Um, no, so Elliot Cave is doing the Daytona 500, which is very cool.

Well, um, He's trying, No, he's got a guaranteed spot.

Oh, he does? I didn't know that. Okay. That's news

To me, which is, which is what I wanted to talk about.

So, oh, NASCAR had this provisional for the 41st entry.

If it, if it is somebody that brings some sort of significance to the event, they will give them a guaranteed 41st spot.

So I'm pretty sure I've got that right.

I don't think it takes away a spot.

I think they just kind of add one.

It's like if we had a 34th car at Indy, but I saw this, I saw this clip, somebody sent it to me online and it was somebody on, I dunno if it was on Dale Junior's podcast or some, it was a dirty MO production of something, and they were talking about, they're like, no, this is kind of bull.

Like this is our Super Bowl.

We spent a lot of time and money and effort and put our hearts and souls into this race and this car and team and driver get to show up having put in nothing and get a guaranteed spot.

Like, because there, if there are more than 40 cars showing up, right?

Let's say more than 41.

Some, some people are going home, whether or not they're faster than Elio's car, they're going home and they've put in, you know, this is their, their once in a, in a year chance to go racing.

Like we talk about the people that come and just do the one-off in May and whatever.

And so these guys were sounding off that they didn't think it was fair that a provisional gets done just based on like being able to bring some more eyeballs to the race.

And I was wondering what your take on that is.

I don't, I don't know that I have a take, um, because We're, I don't have an opinion.

Don't, I don't have an opinion.

Let's say let's, 'cause I understand, I understand both sides Well, exactly. And I,

I don't think, I don't think I would have a problem with the 34th car if you're not, if you're not preventing someone from getting in. Right?

If we talk, well, let's, let's say 38 cars show up and the guy or girl that was the 34th fastest doesn't get to start.

But the car that was the 37th fastest does because it's this provisional. Is is that fair?

No, I don't Think that's fair.

So that's, that's essentially what's happening.

And so you can see why the teams are upset, but the guy even said, he was like, he was like, I get it for the fans, it's great for the fans, but he, uh, he was not, not pleased with it in a general sense.

Yeah. I I, I get it.

But I also get, no, I don't think the series should give a advantage to someone from a pro for a promotional aspect.

I don't think that that is fair.

I understand why they're doing it, but is it fair from a sporting standpoint? No.

Are you eating canned peaches?

Nothing I was about to pass out, but is It canned peaches?

Yeah, I need sugar quickly.

All right. Is that 'cause

of your hot Pilates this morning?

First of all, Sean Hot.

Oh, second of all, I also, I can't talk about the fact that I rode a bike, but I also did that and I haven't eaten yet today.

So and it's, it's one 30. So anyways, I'm fine.

James, what did you think about my opinion of your question?

I agree. And,

and here's, here's the, here's the kind of the one that I played out in my head was, I think I thought back to, uh, I guess it was 2019 when McLaren showed up in that thing with Carlin and Alonzo and look like, look, you cannot argue that Alonzo moved the needle for us with that race, right?

It brought eyeballs, it brought people, all this stuff, whatever.

But like the story of them not making the race and getting bumped by Kyle Kaiser in a part-time JHR program trying to make their first any 500.

That is the, that's the kind of unbelievably cool stuff that happens at the 500.

And you would just kill that.

You would've killed that story by giving him a provisional for whatever.

So I'm with you like the, the sporting stories that come out of these situations and outta these big historic races are enough.

Like, that's, that's the, that's why people tune in.

And so I am kind of with you, I do understand the frustration of, of those other teams that aren't locked into the 500, that this guy that's never done a stock car race, he's never done one, he's done SRX, that's his qualifications.

You know, and obviously I'm not, that's not <inaudible> on Elio.

Elio is obviously a very capable racing driver and you know, deserves to have a shot there, but I get why they're Frustrated.

Yeah. But it's not, it's not, it's not

an automatic thing either.

Like, it doesn't matter.

Previous success in other forms of racing, we've seen how hard both directions, right.

The transition can be.

Um, so yes, he's a four-time Indy 500 winner.

He brings a massive amount of experience and success and following to the race, but like that's no guarantee he's gonna be any good.

So anyways, and dude, like plate racing is so difficult.

Like, it's so different.

Like there's nothing, I mean, even, even though he was around in like the IRL classic days when the pack racing was just insane.

You didn't have bumpers, you weren't running into guys.

You had a kind of downforce mm-hmm .

And you know, these things have zero. I mean,

It's, I am jealous.

It looks awesome. Like it looks, I don't know,

man's a hell of a lot of fun.

I I, I feel like most of the Cup guys I talk to are like, no plate races suck. Like it's just

No, because, because You're waiting for the crash for the first two hours.

For sure. For sure.

But that's because they, they've been burned so many times and like, they've probably had really good results taken away from them through no fault of their own.

If you're doing it as a one off, like that's the one you want to do, Like, yeah.

Yeah. Anyways, I guess,

I guess there's something to that. Yeah.

But yeah, Vie, Um, um, Tim had asked a question, and we'll close on this, uh, just about, you know, what we're gonna try and accomplish at seeding.

Um, why I'm excited, uh, I'm excited for the obvious get to drive a race car, what you're trying to accomplish.

Like it's the same for everyone.

It doesn't mean, it's not stupid though.

Like, we only get two half days, um, in the car before practice one at St.

Pete. So, uh,

everyone's gonna be at this test Monday, Tuesday.

Obviously for me it's a new team.

Um, the, the good thing is it's not swishing manufacturers.

You know, I, I explained this to, to you and Will and, and Jamie and Townsend on, on Media Day James, like, I didn't take into consideration in 2023 how much of an adjustment it would be to go from one manufacturer to the other.

So, um, I think that's actually a harder transition than switching teams.

Um, so from that standpoint, it's, it's plug and play from the Chevy side.

Um, and we've done, you know, quite a bit of sim work.

We've, I I've known my engineer Matt for a really long time.

So we have a lot of similar knowledge, uh, and past experiences that we have similar opinions that we can draw on together.

So I think we're gonna be starting from a pretty good spot.

But Tim, you're just trying to, it's kind of like the first day of school you're trying to understand each other's, you know, nuances.

I'm trying to understand, you know, what this car does well, what it does poorly.

Um, and then just getting some sort of reps in with the crew and pit stops coming into the box, communication with the timing stand.

Like, it's just all the things that should be second nature that won't be in the beginning that you're just trying to work through.

So that is, uh, that's the goal of Sebring.

You, you did, I dunno why I'm drawing a blank on this.

You did the indie tests with them, right? I

Did in October.

Yeah. You had one day in the car with them so far.

One day in the car. Yeah. Right.

So one day in the car, a couple sim days, but like it's, and again, they're trying something new, this format, this, this two half day format.

Right. So it used to be like

half the half the field would go on Tuesday and the other half would go on Wednesday.

Yeah. Now they've done it where you half the group does the,

the morning of the first day and the afternoon of the second day, and then the other group does the afternoon of the first day and the morning of the second day.

Do you know why? Because the, like, logistically,

that doesn't really make any sense to me.

I'm, I'm curious as to what the actual reasoning was Because someone who doesn't run a race team made that decision.

Yep.

Got it. Cool. All

Right.

None of, none of us, none of us love it, but it is what it is.

I think it's, this will be a one and done.

Yeah. Same for everyone. Same for everyone. Cool.

All right. Well look man. Exactly. Have fun.

Uh, I'm excited that you're gonna be in, uh, in the seat.

Um, back in action and let's, let's, let's watch the 500.

What are you doing for the 500?

What am I doing for the 500?

Uh, I will be in Sebring James.

Oh yeah. 'cause you're on track Monday, don't mind.

Yeah. But you bail on us for the Super Bowl.

Enjoy your soup dumplings. Eh, don't burn your mouth.

Don't get too excited. Don't eat 'em too quick. Mm-hmm.

Um, order the cucumbers as an appetizer, um, and make sure you follow their ratio of vinegar to soy sauce to spicy chili.

Got it. Done.

Basically, let them, let them make the sauce for you.

Sounds good. Oh, wait, this reminds me, uh,

I was gonna say like, I love just going to a restaurant and sitting down and just following orders, right?

Like taking the, taking the question mark out of it.

Mm-hmm . So last night we did a dinner with a bunch

of the Fox people, and we went to Spago, which I guess is like Wolfgang Puck's first restaurant Yep.

In here and la And so I had this incredible meal.

It was awesome. And, uh, we're sitting there

and then I feel this hand on my shoulder and I see a hand on the shoulder, the guy next to me, and this guy starts talking and, you know, thanking us for coming.

And I turn around and I look up, it's Wolfgang Puck, huge race fan.

He was like, oh, so I, I Fox must go there because he's like, oh, he knew Fox people.

And he was like, oh, it's great that you guys have the Indy car and this is like the booth and whatever.

And he, he was like, oh, when I moved over from Germany, I lived in Indianapolis for a year.

I was like, what? He's like, yeah, I lived there

for 12 months until I got my green card, and then I left. I'm like, that

Makes sense.

That must be why, for a period of time.

For the longest time, up until like last year, there was a Wolfgang Puck adjacent cafe in the airport.

In the airport. Yeah.

Yeah, that's probably right. I always thought that was random.

It was so random. Mm. But yeah,

and like super, super sweet dude.

Big race fan. It was awesome.

So that was kind of a cool la moment. go

Fox Spago meals.

Wow.

Spago with the boss. . I mean,

That's all I got.

I do love Texas Roadhouse. But

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