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Person
Scott Dixon
One of the most successful race car drivers in history, famous for winning six IndyCar championships and the Indy 500. He spent 25 years racing for the same team before making a shocking move.
Company
Chip Ganassi Racing
A top-tier professional racing team in America that competes in major series like IndyCar. They are famous for winning lots of championships and races.
Place
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
A famous, twisty race track in Ohio where IndyCar and other sports cars race every year.
Term
G-Force chassis
A specific brand of race car frame used in IndyCar racing back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Term
GTP hypercar
The fastest class of sports racing cars that use hybrid engines and high-tech aerodynamics to race in long endurance events.
Car
Honda CR-V
A very common, reliable family SUV made by Honda that is built for everyday driving rather than racing.
Car
Ford Explorer
The Ford Explorer is a large family SUV made by Ford that has three rows of seats to carry up to seven people. It is commonly used for road trips, family hauling, and as a rental vehicle for travelers who need extra space.
Place
Silverstone Circuit
A historic and very fast race track in England where the British Grand Prix is held.
Car
Volkswagen Jetta
The Volkswagen Jetta is a small, four-door sedan made by the German company Volkswagen. It is a traditional passenger car designed to get you from point A to point B comfortably and using very little fuel.
Term
internal combustion engine
The traditional type of car engine that burns gas or diesel inside to create power and make the car move.
Part
ECU
The computer inside a car that controls how the engine runs, making sure it gets the right amount of fuel and spark.
Concept
tire management
How a race car driver manages their driving style to keep their tires from wearing out too quickly during a race.
LIVE
do it without thinking. Okay, so it can be sent to her in like less than a minute from now?
Yeah, like within a minute. Okay, cool. We're good.
Banana. Alrighty, and welcome to another edition of The Pit Straight. I'm Kyle Benjamin,
along with Alex Gintz, Wyatt Watson, Tom Blackburn, and Michael Finley.
Phyllis, since the last time we talked, not much has happened in IndyCar.
It's been a quiet couple of weeks. There's been some controversy here. There's been some news over
there. I think the biggest thing is that Felix Rosenquist is not coming back to Michael Shank
Racing. Oh, yeah. Scott Dixon, leaving Genasi after a quarter century. Oh my gosh.
I don't, I still don't know how to process this, even though it's kind of been in the works for like
two weeks. Yeah, it's pretty much in the work since Road America when I was there. There was
the rumblings of Aero McLaren having something on the table for him. But even when I talked to him
after the race, it just felt so like not, it didn't feel real even then. But now that it's
official today, got to talk to him at the little event in Lexington, Ohio. This is kind of unbelievable
that everything is set in motion for him to make his departure from Chip Genasi Racing
after a quarter century at what? In 2002 is when he joined Chip Genasi and I was four years old.
And now I'm in Mid-Ohio right now. Tom and I are wincing him.
That's right. Yeah, that really hurt Wyatt. Thanks so much for pointing that out.
But to, you know, to that point, there are a lot of IndyCar fans who don't know Scott Dixon
with any other, I mean, granted he was with Pac West for a hot minute, but
he's been, that's Tom Scott Dixon and Chip Genasi Racing are as IndyCar, as Mario Andretti,
and Texaco Haviland. Like they just go together. A.J. Foyt and Copenhagen, you know, the Andretti
family are not winning the Indy 500. It's one of those things that just, you know, you take it for
granted. Now, Wyatt, when you talk to Scott today, and, you know, he was there with a couple
other drivers, we haven't heard from him yet in any sort of official capacity with a statement.
You know, when the news came out yesterday, another outlet reported that this was probably
happening. And then today Chip Genasi Racing Chip himself put out a statement saying, hey,
Scott's not going to be back this year. It's been a great run. We wish him the best. And we're
going to, you know, do our darnedest to get the nine car and victory lane. So what did Scott have
to say? I talked to him about, one, him having such a long tenure with Chip Genasi and breaking
that off. I mean, there was a multi-year offer on the table from to go back and race with him.
But what Scott plain simply said, he just wants to change the scenery this late in his career. And
that's up to Scott Dixon. Chip Genasi obviously wanted him to retire as a member of
Chip Genasi Racing, right, running the number nine. Michael, his team strategist, he's been with
for so long. Now we can start the talk of this being potentially Michael's final season,
unless he jumps ship with Scott, which I highly doubt. But Scott Dixon is just simply ready for
the next step of his career and probably wants to make a new impact in other forms of racing.
I mean, he's big into the sports car scene with 24 hours Le Mans, 24 hours Daytona.
If it is indeed Aero McLaren he goes to, McLaren and Zach Brown has his fingers in a lot of that
world. So you get reintroduced into that and you put yourself in a situation where you can get in
that world. I think that's where Scott Dixon's brain is at currently. Obviously he's not going to
say it until it's obviously official. But a new change of scenery for Scott Dixon is now going
to be in the works. And it's almost kind of warranted. If you look at where Scott has finished
this year, he's on track to have his worst finish in the standings since he was driving a G-Force
chassis. So that shows how far he has been this low. He's currently 10th in the standings. Maybe
he's seeing what Palo is doing, how consistent they are and how his number nine team, which back
when they had two good drivers with Dario, he was actually rising to the challenge. His team was
rising to the challenge being consistent along with Dario. That is not what's happening with
that number nine crew. Perhaps he's looking at something where the grass is greener on the other
side and he wants to move to a new team that might be able to be a little bit more competitive
because they haven't figured out how to do that consistently right now with that car.
Well, those are issues that go back to last season. You think about, you know, Scott's got
one win, I believe, in 38 races. And where was his last one? Middle, Ohio.
Due to an unforced error. That's right. It wasn't like he dominated. I mean,
this is the last time he actually dominated when he was up front consistently. You might have to look
at, yeah, exactly the Indy 500 because he is, and when he was winning the races at the beginning
of the season, he is not absolutely up front. The wins he has is from pit calls and strategy.
It's not from running up front. I mean, also too, long comb. I mean, what was going to happen next?
Palo was just going to keep winning championships and Dixon will be happy in fifth in the same call.
Like he wasn't going, he was with Palo being as entrenched at Gnasi as he was now. Like Dixon was
never going to be the number one dog over there anymore. So exactly. I think at this point in
Dixon's career too. I mean, you know, never, never to say that Scott Dixon is just getting tired
and wants to throw in the towel. But when you're at that age competing in a series this physical
and have been competing at such a high level for this long, what's the quote from Cars 3 where
it's like the young guys will tell you when you're done? And I think Scott Dixon has done more than
enough in the sport to the point where if this is where his mindset is, he's completely earned the
right to go do something different just for the hell of it. And, you know, step back from,
he's got nothing left to prove is my point. Nobody will ever be able to question. He doesn't have,
you know, Tony Stortz, Daytona 500. He doesn't have Mark Martin's missing championship.
He's clearly coming toward the final years of his career. And I almost feel guilty for trying
to analyze in my own head what his rationale for doing this might be. Just because he's done so
much, it almost feels like it's not my business, even though, you know, I know Scott himself wouldn't
say that. And another thing to keep in mind too, Alex, if he is going to Maclone, that means money.
So it's like, if he's already done everything, I mean, and he's going to be number two to Palo
anyway, you know, why not jump over for a lot of money? Now he's still going to be number one to
Palo, but I mean, it's driven all over again. It is interesting. I mean, we could all assume,
I think, that that McLaren has backed up the breakstruck both for Dixon and Felix Rosenquist,
who appears destined to go back to McLaren as well. I don't know, getting back with your X
like that is, you know, a choice to be made for sure. I don't recommend it. I didn't think it
ever worked out when someone made that decision. But you know, but we're, when was the last time
that's even happened in IndyCar. I'm thinking about that. I know Paul Tracy went back to Pinsky.
So he did it. Andretti did it. Michael and Jenny went back to Neumann-Hoss. That's right.
Wasn't there some goofy thing when he got hired at McLaren-Felix? Well, the full stop,
where it was like he was going to be in Formula E and then something happened and he ended up
being in IndyCar. That was during the whole Polo thing, right? Yeah, Polo was going to replace
him. He was going to get managed to Formula E. He was getting messed around with and he's like,
oh, I'll still go back. This X that treated me so poorly before, I'm sure they're okay now.
Well, they don't have a Formula E team. You've got to wonder though, what they have GT3 though.
The other cars and the other opportunities in the McLaren stable that Genasi doesn't have anymore.
Chip has expressed interest in getting back into IMSA. It's been years since he's run a
GTP hypercar. The four GT programs gone away. There's not an opportunity for Scott to do any
endurance racing, really. I mean, if memory serves, he ran the 24 hours of Daytona with
Shank. I think you're right. A couple of years ago as their third and fourth driver,
but his trip to Le Mans, if I'm remembering correctly, that team DNFed.
I believe you're right. I think he was in a Cadillac.
Yeah, he was in a Genasi Cadillac and they didn't finish the race.
So I think given the opportunity, I'm sure that was part of the conversations. Zach Brown saying,
hey, you come over here. We're going to use your expertise to help develop this car a little further.
Oh, and by the way, you can race them off for as long as you want.
And when you're not doing that, when you're done with IndyCar, here's a GTP ride. And you can go
be the second driver in that GTP car. And I think, you know, a guy like Scott's probably looking at
Elio who raced sports cars successfully after an IndyCar career and has been successful in IndyCar
since then. Scott's probably thinking, okay, there's a path to continuing this and not walking
away at the end of this season. It doesn't make, it logically makes sense, but it still doesn't
make sense because you've got to look at the performance of Aero McLaren this year.
Lungards wins the side. And then what Genasi has available, and Polo is otherworldly, you know,
right, respect the ass kicking. And what Polo's doing is a complete outlier to the operation
of those teams. He is so far and away better than anybody else in the paddock right now.
And that team is so far and away better than anybody else on a given Sunday
that you've got to look at it and go, okay, we're in the same engineering meetings. We've got the
same data, the same car, the same setup. I'm not fast enough, but neither are the other two McLaren
cars. I have a hunch that part of the appeal of this deal, if it happens, could be a guaranteed
entry in a fourth McLaren car for Dixon after he hangs it up from full time at the 500.
I was thinking too. Yeah. That's my contribution. Well, Tony Cannons there, you know, he's taking
care of Ryan Hunter Ray, and he's going to take care of his buddy Scott Dixon. I mean,
it's going to be this, you know, good old boys club there. If you're in with TK, I think he's
going to help you out. And it's not a bad call to do that. Like Kyle, you said, Dixon has got this
just this great experience to equal what Elio brings to a team when he would do the Indy 500.
So it's, it's, you know, and there's personalities involved in this too. You got to, there's all
this talk that Chip Canassi and Zach Brown do not get along. And if that is true, then you know
that there's got to be some sort of like, Hey, I got you so good on this. Yeah.
No one ever said there wasn't treachery in big time motorsports.
But it's hard to believe that Scott Dixon will not be with Chip Canassi. And the other thing,
I'm surprised Honda is letting him leave. That HRC did try to figure out a way to make,
to sweeten the pot. I'm sure they, they all got together and said, here's the number. But
you know, you got to think a couple of years ago. I don't think the leadership at HRC lets this
happen. But over the last four or five years, the leadership at HRC has made some interesting
decisions. They've led a lot of good drivers and programs walk away. Guys who were great for the
brand, great ambassadors. You know, you think not just in IndyCar, but in sports car racing,
they cut their ties with real time racing, which had been an after a mainstay and world challenge
for 30 years. They let Ryan Eversley, who's the best brand guy you could possibly have in racing.
And one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, walk away. And now they're letting, they let Rossy go.
Rosenquist has gotten away from him. Here goes Scott Dixon.
What we can say here from a conspiracy theory mindset is that in some dark room
in the Honda headquarters in Tokyo or Kyoto or Nagoya, wherever that company is based in Japan,
somebody, some bureaucrat is whipping up a plan where Kakunoshin Ota goes from
the Myershank sports car program to the Myershank IndyCar team to the Ganassi number nine.
I'll put $20 on that right now. Oh, okay. I'll take that. And then in turn, we'll walk into
his office and be like, so can we build like a Formula One engine now, please? Please?
No, that may be something else too. Dixon may have been promised an opportunity to test one of the
F1 cars. Hey, that'd be fun. Yeah, that's something. I don't think he's ever. I don't think he's ever
done that. I mean, Mollio tested a McLaren call like a few years ago. I think it was like 81.
So that might be, you know, hey, Scott, come be our F1 guy for a weekend like they do with Pato.
I think it's clear that the McLaren just offers so much and outside stuff besides the car on the
racetrack that Chip Ganassi won't offer. And Dixon's probably looking at, hey, my swan song is coming,
man. I would like to cruise into retirement here sooner than later. And I'd like to pad my bank
account and also do some cool things. And McLaren's probably what's going to be able to do that. And
it's all over the place. They have all these different assets that they can throw their way.
It's actually a really smart, savvy business move, actually, if you're Zach Brown.
Yeah, no one's ever accused him of being an idiot.
Yeah. And we know, you know, speaking of the ancillary, the perks of the job when we were all at
Nashville at the end of last season, what was Pato award driving to and from the race?
Very nice. Your microphone isn't, your, your microphone's not picking up any audio. I would,
I would switch to your, to your devices microphone. Yeah. A very nice McLaren. That's the benefit
that you're going to get out of that. Again, just the perks. What are you getting out of driving
with Chip Ganassi, a Honda CRV? Like, I don't know. Now, the big question is, well, why it's getting
ready? I mean, who's next for Ganassi? I just want to know why then I tried to chase Pato's
McLaren on the highway in Nashville in our rental SUV, and we didn't work. Hey, that Explorer
had some gear to go. That's so low. It didn't have enough to catch Pato on the highway.
Oh, Pato. Yeah, we saw him come in the rear view of like a quarter mile back and I gunned,
I had the pedal to the floor, but we just couldn't, we couldn't get up to speed. It doesn't beat
a McLaren D12. He didn't, he didn't wave to us either.
So all that to say, we really don't, we really don't know exactly what it's, it's not confirmed,
confirmed that Dixon's going to McLaren, but there's been enough reporting from people who have
access to, you know, we, I think we'd be more shocked if he ended up at Andretti or he ended
up at Meyer Schenck for, for some reason. But here's an interesting, maybe? I don't know if Scott's
ever expressed. No, he's, he's, he's, he's expressed interest in doing NASCAR. That was a while ago,
I think in 25, when he went to the Daytona 500, that was a comment he made. Now he's going to
end with a Chevy team. So him and Jamie McMurray swapped rides. I don't remember what track Dixon
test drove. Larkin's Glen 2011, I think. There, okay. That was Tony Stewart and then Lewis.
Yeah, Dixon and Jamie might have been 2010. I know Jamie did it at Barber.
Jamie did it at Barber? He did it at Barber, I think, because they were at Talladega soon or
maybe, I don't remember. I don't think they were at the same track, but he's, I bet he would do it.
He would be a great option, just like Elio. Elio never really expressed a lot of interest in the
Daytona 500. A lot of these guys, I think they would love to do it and they should. It would be
great for both NASCAR and the IndyCar fan base to tune in to see that. Kevin Madison did a great
job at San Diego too and made for a good headlines too. I do think that you're not going to be able
to see him at the Daytona 500 like Elio, because I think people kind of probably looked at that and
were like, maybe not again, because Elio was kind of a mess that weekend. But I mean,
Wode Colts is all about how you get the sponsorship package together. All of McLaren just buys the seat.
I don't know. I don't know if I see any serious race car driver from outside of NASCAR wanting
to do any of the restrictor play races with how bad the, I need to be careful saying this,
how bad the standard of responsible driving is. I mean, all of those races are just caution
fests for the last 40 laps. Yes, they're chaos dudes. You can't control what happens in those
races. You really can't. But if you get like a top through into the Daytona 500, that's like
half a million. That's fair. That's fair. But when you're not not chartered. Yeah. And I don't
think that NASCAR is going to just let somebody do that again, because again, Elio is kind of
all over the place that weekend. I don't think they want to be beat about. Kyle, if I can,
if I can raise one more thing before we move on, we haven't addressed the fact that if these
rumors, if we take the rumor mill in its totality at face value, Meyer Schenck now has two seats to
fill next year. If we assume some of the rumblings we've heard about, about Armstrong to Gnassie,
you know, that's something I talked to Armstrong about to Gnassie. And he said it's
interesting. He didn't, he didn't completely shoot it down. I mean, you know, and that's
Gnassie's farm team. Exactly. So that would make sense with Kyle Collette. Does Ulta finally come
over from Japan or is there somebody that they look to, they look to pluck, you know, is Miles Rowe
associated with Honda at all? Miles Rowe is associated with Penske. With Penske for forcing me,
that's right. Yeah. Which if Kyle went to MSR, that would open the four out four.
Yeah. So now we have a team that has really, really made strides in the past 24 months that may
have a completely, you know, we could be looking at two rookies and overpowered teams next year.
And Meyer Schenck is possibly the fourth best team on the grid overtaking Andretti across
both their cars while Andretti has Kyle Kirkwood doing very good. They can't get all three cars
on the same page year in, year out. Right now, Meyer Schenck is in the top 11 of points. They
finished in the top 10 last year with both cars. And so those are premium, premium seats right
now because of that relationship with Gnassie. So whoever is, and I, from my understanding,
I don't think drivers have to bring money to those rides. I don't know the relationship
there with Marcus Armstrong and Gnassie and how that all worked out. But if that's true,
these are two funded rides that drivers will get hired possibly. When does the charter come
for Meyer Schenck? When does that third turn? 28 28. Yeah, we could be looking at an insane
development, you know, arc picking up because Felix Rosenquist won the Indy 500 and then left.
Who could imagine that David Maluchus not winning the Indy 500 was going to kick over
dominoes that are going to keep falling until safety. Yeah, because if I if Rosenquist does it,
I think this was the end of his, you know, his contract was up this year. Yeah. If he doesn't
win that race, you know, they always say when the Indy 500 changes the trajectory of your career,
and clearly it has altered Felix's. The interesting thing, Alex, to your point, the lineup next
season when we start 2027 is not going to look at all like this. And there were very few changes
25 to 26. Two drivers moved. We lost Prima, but that's, you know, but Maluchus and Will Power
are the only two drivers that really changed seats. Renus, Renus Wences, whom goes as well.
So three, Howard, coming in. Yeah, three drivers moved around.
And Kyle Collette filled, filled David at AJ and makes you
moved within Indy car, I think is what yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this this coming season,
I think we're going to see more drivers in new cars and new drivers in the series than we
than we have in the past, which is good. I think that's good for the health of the
season. Yes. Yeah. I think it's Alex Palo effect. People are trying to find new drivers to compete
and raise the bar because whatever people have had over the last couple of seasons isn't working.
And so people are moving around. It's almost like in the NBA, free agency is going on right now.
So people are moving pieces around because they had to compete with the championship
contenders, right? And maybe teams are doing that too. They're trying to find that right talent
that's going to be able to raise them to Alex Palo's level. One you haven't even mentioned
was Christian Lungard, who's kind of the the man out of the dance at McLaren. And he's actively
winning races. He's the latest winner in the Indy car series after coming out on top of North
America. And yeah, that's insane that a guy who's actively getting wins on that on the natural road
courses is going to be out of a ride now. Well, it's it's not a surprise that McLaren would do that.
You know, get rid of the guy who's performing well.
You know, Porsche comes to mind a lot. You know, number of guys who've, you know,
David, David Maluga's never got a fair shake. Yeah.
He also wouldn't surprise me if we have more midway and F2 defections because, you know,
Halgo, Armstrong, those guys came out for F2. So guys like Kusmini and Sebastian Montoya,
who are probably not going to make it to Formula One, but they do have some money behind them.
I think that those guys will probably make the jump here eventually. Or someone will.
What I want to know is, what does Pato Award have on McLaren that has just allowed him to stay
in this seat consistently as the number one driver? He is the number one driver.
Like super fun to be around. Yeah, they have to be making so much money and merchandising from him.
Yes. I mean, that right because and he finishes well at the Indy 500 and he's got what second
place, I think in the points a couple of seasons ago, but at least a good top three. But he's not,
he's being beat out this year and it's possible his teammates, the one being kicked to the curb.
And that just doesn't make sense. I think it's brand ambassadorship. I think he's such a good
representative, not only for the series, but for the team. He's got international appeal.
You know, again, Zach Brown's a savvy business businessman. That's the reason he owns the team.
You know, more or less is that he made an absolute fortune in sports marketing and got into racing.
You know, we also can't really, it's difficult to say that Pado isn't an Indy car driver worthy
of a ride of the top team. But oh, no, he absolutely is. He's got the talent there. I just I don't
think the car is there. You know, they're all it's not necessarily driver car. It's always driver car
engineer setup. I would get I would wager that there's something like there's something off in
the rule changes this year that doesn't suit Pado style of driving. And he hasn't quite figured
it out. And when your cars are slow ish, it's it's hard to get good. And the, you know, the
sharp end of the grid is is stacked with talent. The reason they're at the, you know, the top echelon
of open wheel racing in the Americas. Speaking of rule changes, you know, those of you who are
interested in the minutiae of Indy car, it's now no longer going to be a race killing penalty.
To have to have emergency service. Five weeks late to help Scott Dixon, who, you know, again,
it's 334 races in a row had pit issues and had to get emergency service prior
to this rule change. If you pitted under yellow, because you were going to run out of gas, you
were not able to then pit when the pits opened. So you had to come into the pits after the green
flag, which, which sets you such a way back, especially on, on ovals. Now Indy car has decided
to, to kind of level the playing field and not penalize you for being a victim of circumstances.
Couple other Indy car news and notes items, as we mentioned at the start of the show,
Felix Rosenquist going to other pastors, still not announced where that's going to be yet,
but we know there are two open seats at McLaren. There's potentially an open seated and ready.
There's now an open seated at Genasi where Felix lands, you know, we'll, we'll see all,
all signs kind of point to, to arrow McLaren. And Louis Foster is going truck racing at Lime Rock
next weekend. That's good for you. I, you know, there's a racing madly that there ever was one.
I saw that right after talking to Graham too. And I was like, Oh my gosh. Well, that's a,
that's weird. Let's get Micah and on it. He's got the mustache for it.
Does Louis still have his cool mustache that he's grown? Yeah, he'll fit in right there.
Yeah. And you know, other one, other again, 22 more. It's, it's been, it's been an Indy car
news cycle. You know, after road America, uh, mid Ohio, uh, where they're racing this weekend,
the track website is currently suffering a cyber attack and it's services is in and out. Yep.
Confirmed by, confirmed by the website and, uh, Neil McElright, the longtime strategist and team
manager for four sites. He was on Paul Tracy's box, uh, in the chimp car, uh, apparently passed
away recently. So, um, you know, once chimp car went away and four sides stopped racing, Neil
retired, um, but he was, you know, a longtime, uh, member of the open wheel paddock and, and, uh,
you know, sorry to, um, to hear that then he has passed. So on that note, which is a terrible
segue, this was live TV. We would fade to black and go to commercial and then bring it back with
speaking of, speaking of Silverstone and, uh, the other open wheel racing that's happening this
weekend, the formula one fellows are, uh, are headed to, uh, you know, they're staying in Europe.
It's 8 million degrees over there as well. Based on what drivers are saying, uh, apparently you
can almost run that track flat out with the current rules and car configuration.
Yeah. I mean, there's not going to be a whole lot of breaking more than likely.
This, I mean, but we will see plenty of super clipping more than likely. Yeah. It's not going
to be this Monza and spa and Jetta, but we didn't waste a Jetta. Uh, well figured to be probably
the most tracks under this rules package, which, uh, I mean, look, this rules package has been
pretty in the laces themselves. I mean, I can't really complain much. The lacing has actually
been pretty decent this year, but at this track, not going to be good. It's generally not a good
idea for racing series to try to reinvent the internal combustion engine. No. And both, uh,
both marty, uh, North American centric open wheel series have done that in the last year or two,
much to the detriment of the race.
Hot tub time machine fellows. Let's get, let's get back to bigger and better engines.
There is no situation where I'm getting in a hot tub with you.
Well done. Well done. I think that's a good choice. Good job, Alex.
I'm so happy we're all here together.
It's why the, it's why the FI dictate, I mean, president, uh, has been talking about
going back to VH recently. Like that's always been talking about Lily when he's not consolidating
his bowels. Well, you know, since he's got a lifetime appointment now, maybe he'll be able
to get it done before he, uh, before he's deposed. No, you see, I study China and I know a thing or
two about lifetime appointments. That is a fair point. So the, you know,
last week, uh, in Barcelona, Ferrari was fast. Their race results didn't really pan out. I think
the way they expected based on their, their practice in qualifying speeds, uh, you know,
kind of one of those formula one races you don't really like to see where the guy who's on the
pole just set sail from lights out and then you never see him again. Um,
I'm curious to see how Kimmy Antonelli continues to develop throughout the season. He's had two
straight weeks where he has been off his game. And as the driver's championship leader, uh,
you have to wonder a little bit, uh, is he going to go through the, the Oscar,
Oscar, Piastri ask slump that we saw last year, you know, is he going to end up throwing the
thing away, uh, under the pressure of being a points leader? Yeah. I mean, that's the
concern right now. If I'm, if I'm him, uh, you kind of just want to hope that last week with
George only happens if it only happens like once a month or once every few races, that's fine
because Kimmy's got a good in a point cushion. But like
if he's, if George is within a race in, you know, after Hungary going into the summer break,
I mean, it's game on. Did we ever get any info on what was, what the issue with Antonelli's breaks
were in the opening stages of Hungary? Cause like that first lap looked a lot more
than Austria, Austria, yes.
Austria, Hungary empire.
It's something that I'm going to be waltzing out for at least until the summer break, because as
he mentioned, Kyle York is an assemble, uh, you know, it's just a heat wave right now. And the
Austria break failures were apparently just because the teams aren't used to running in these
hot of temperatures with this cold and speck of cold. We also saw that with Cadillac, where
both of their cars will, their brakes were done, yeah, after two laps. So yeah, uh, interesting.
I know that Foley has said that, well, Lewis in particular said he's not expecting great things
here at Spa, just because the Mercedes battery and ECU are considered way better than the
four always. So when it comes to these tracks like this, where, uh, they just don't have enough
braking to where they can generate energy that well before always compared to Mercedes.
So he's not expecting here, here or at Spa. That means he's going to win.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, you watch F1 long enough, you get used to hearing Lewis Hamilton say the
tires are completely gone and then set the fastest lap of the race. Well, Lewis always
gains about 20 horsepower at Silverstone. That's pretty awesome. It's from the cheering of the
fans, right? He is, he is urged on by the hometown crowd. Their collective breath gives him a tail
wind. It does. I mean, you know, it'd be, it'd be great from a fan perspective for, for racing in
general for Lewis to get, you know, one more win at Silverstone. I think everybody would,
everybody would appreciate that because, you know, like Scott Dixon, he doesn't have
many more races left. Well, Lewis was doing an event today with the other Buddhist drivers
in the field, by the way, there's like six or five of us in the field now.
And like the crowd was chanting 888 and like, you know, you asked him and he was like, oh,
yeah, I don't think I'm going to give up until I get though.
So how many starts is he on right now? Or the championship?
I don't think I didn't realize that. I'm glad you, I'm glad somebody asked.
I was like, what does that mean? Yeah.
If they had just been saying 888, but you said 888,
888, 888. Yeah, I was like, is that the final example from England? Like, I didn't know what
that meant. No, he's not, he's not that far behind Antonelli.
Yeah. And this is going to be a huge weekend for Formula One. It's going to be,
they are expecting it to break the record for most fans in a race weekend with
565,000 over the three days. So how many, how many on race day?
I would say probably about not half, more like a 40 to 35% of that because it's a little bit
wasteful. Yeah, Formula One does not release the waste day number.
Individually, they just released the full weekend number.
Yeah, it drives everybody crazy.
Hamilton is currently after, after last week, he's in his third.
Antonelli's got a 40 point lead on Russell 171 to 131 and Hamilton has 125.
So it would take Ferrari not having issues the rest of the way and Antonelli having more
to see Hamilton get his eighth, but that's why they line up and go racing.
Oh, Kimmy can just start banging wheels with George.
Stranger things have happened.
It's just things. Lewis comes in like Kimmy and the other Kimmy in 2007.
As we wind down tonight and we've covered, you know, all kinds of topics here and there
and Yonder, Alex, Tom, Wyatt, you guys are all going to be in mid Ohio this weekend,
hydrate properly, drink plenty of water. Tom, I know you can, you know, you can hold Alex
accountable, make sure he gets, gets his hydration. It's actual water and not the
water components of the monster energy. Apart from Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenquist,
another silly season happenings. What do you got your eyes on in the paddock for the next couple
of days? Wyatt, did anybody stand out to you when you were talking to some folks today?
I think I'm still watching like Graham Rahall. He should have probably had another
podium at Road America and him versus Will Power or something. I'm definitely going to
keep a pin in for this weekend and see if that happens. And I'm also looking at the forecast
again. This time it looks more likely that there's going to be rain that will affect
the race versus last, last time at Road America when it all cleared out. So I'm excited for that.
I have been at mid Ohio during some absolute downpours and that track is, is not fun. The,
the grounds do not handle rain well.
It's fantastic. Uh, yeah, I can't wait. And
is Menohau doing anything special on Saturday?
It's some special day in Lexington. Oh, like fireworks or something for the, I hadn't heard
anything. Uh, the drivers are going to go to the campgrounds and hang out with some of the
drivers. They do that every year. They do that every year though. So they could get Ben Franklin
to do the command again. One driver I think would be interesting and this fella has been
brought up multiple times on our show. So this is nothing new, but David Malukis has finished
second, second and fourth going back to bar on all the permanent road courses this year. And I
have been talking about Christian Lungard in his performance, but I've totally looked, overlooked
David Malukis. So it's possible he might end up doing very well this weekend as well. So
we'll see what maybe he finally is able to break through.
He's 60 points behind Polo and the championship in second. So he can extend that out to this
weekend if he can continue the good trajectory on the road courses.
And Gnasi has another stumble and Malukis can string a race together, get a win.
We might have an event on our hands. We might actually have a points challenge. You know,
don't think, not discounted what Kirkwood and Brian heard of done over there in Andretti,
but that the organization as a whole, I think it's fair to say is not necessarily championship
caliber to the point they need to be to take the fight to the 10 teams. So
all right, anything else? I want to see how Armstrong goes this week after having,
having wrote America taken away from him the way he did and then finding himself
adjacent to all those silly season stuff. He's confident. I'll tell you that much. He is very
confident. He's had a winning car more weeks than not.
I should mention that there have been some rumors of either Bottas getting the axe after the season
at Cadillac, or Poes potentially getting a ride somewhere better. And if they do, that will
open the door up to Kota who would, who would be the lead candidate at Cadillac. So that's
something to waltz. Just the summer stretch to see how he does in F2 as well, which is also going
on. I hope they fire Bottas because I want him in IndyCar. That would be awesome. His person
would be on the line. Maybe he's going to end up in the nine. Maybe that's what happens. I'd love
you to put it in IndyCar. That's I just want that so badly. The horrors persist. And so do we.
And on that note, you can catch all our content this weekend for Mid-Ohio,
recapping Silverstone, and oh, by the way, NASCAR is back at Chicago Lane. I think that's going
to be a great race. Degrading surface tire management, tire management and motorsports always
makes for better racing. So frontstretch.com, our socials are at Front Stretch across all platforms.
Of course, here on YouTube, we got Front Stretch Open Wheel, the main Front Stretch channel for
all your racing needs. For Alex Wyatt, Michael, and Tom, I'm Kyle Benjamin. This is the Open
Wheel podcast that is not going to try to take your money or promise you tickets. Until next time,
have a good one. I'm exhausted. There it is. Now it's official. Alex is exhausted.
See you all before Nashville. Good night.
About this episode
Scott Dixon is shaking up the IndyCar paddock with his shocking departure from Chip Ganassi Racing after 25 years. The crew breaks down what this monumental "silly season" move means for the grid, exploring Dixon's potential jump to Arrow McLaren. They debate his motivations, from seeking a fresh challenge and lucrative offers to eyeing future sports car opportunities at Le Mans and Daytona. The team also analyzes Felix Rosenquist's shifting future and Honda's surprising decision to let their legendary ambassador walk away, signaling a massive shift in the IndyCar landscape.
Original notes
Open-wheel fans hoping for a slow news week are surely disappointed as we head to Mid-Ohio and Silverstone.
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