Pantone is a universal color chart. Instead of arguing about “light blue vs dark blue,” people can point to an exact color name/number so the color comes out the same.
McLaren is a Formula 1 and motorsport brand known for its racing teams and high-performance cars. In this segment, the speaker mentions McLaren garages and team personnel giving a tour, which ties the brand to real racing operations.
In motorsport garages and paddocks, marked lines (like an orange safety line) are used to control pedestrian access and keep visitors away from active work areas. The “stay behind the orange line” instruction is a safety/operations boundary.
Concept
earthquake proof
They’re talking about making furniture harder to move during an earthquake. The idea is to bolt or strap it down so it won’t tip over or slide around.
Part
drilled and anchored into the walls
They’re saying they physically fastened the furniture to the wall with screws/anchors. That helps keep it from falling over when the ground shakes.
Concept
one degree angle against the wall
They’re describing a tiny tilt so the furniture is more stable. The goal is to make it less likely to tip if something shakes.
It’s a shopping cart made for kids—basically a safer way for a child to sit while an adult shops. The hosts are saying that if the child is in a cart like that, it changes how reasonable the store’s “no minors” rule feels.
They’re talking about TV audience numbers. “Peak” means the highest number of viewers at one moment, while “average” is the typical number across the whole show.
The off season is the time when there aren’t races happening. If IndyCar shortens it, it means there’s less downtime and fans keep hearing about the series.
Topic
GP
“GP” means “Grand Prix,” basically a big race event. They’re saying there’s a short break before the next major race.
IndyCar refers to the IndyCar Series, the top level of American open-wheel racing. The hosts are discussing IndyCar news and public concerns leading into upcoming events.
Company
HMD
HMD is the organization the hosts credit for Catherine Legg’s Indy 500 effort. They’re essentially saying HMD is involved in getting a car and team ready to compete.
AJ Foy is being mentioned as a key partner helping with Catherine Legg’s Indy 500 effort. In racing, these partnerships usually mean extra technical help and support so the car can run well on race week.
Acura is a performance-focused brand within the Honda family. They’re noting that Catherine Legg has been closely tied to Acura’s racing program for years.
“Chevy” means Chevrolet. In IndyCar, that usually points to the engine/technical package, so switching to a Chevy-powered situation can affect how the car performs.
“Bump Day” is the part of Indy 500 qualifying where drivers fight to get into (or stay in) the starting field. It’s stressful because faster cars can replace slower ones.
This segment frames a tradeoff between race participation (more cars on the grid) and the likelihood of aggressive contact (“bumping”). It’s essentially a debate about what makes a race more valuable—sporting completeness versus entertainment.
“Bumping” is how some cars qualify for the Indy 500 by pushing other cars out of the limited starting spots. If there are only 33 spots, a car that qualifies later (and faster) can replace a car that was already in.
The Indianapolis 500 is a famous race where only a limited number of cars can start. The way qualifying works—including “bumping”—affects which cars make it into the race.
They’re saying there’s a maximum number of cars allowed to enter. The limit exists because running Indy cars is expensive and requires serious technical support.
“Strategy” is how teams plan their race—like when to pit and how aggressively to drive. The hosts mean some cars can still be competitive even if their plan isn’t the same as the top overall cars.
They’re talking about a qualifying approach where you get one decisive attempt, and that’s it. The idea is to reduce the back-and-forth that can lead to bumping.
Concept
fast six and the fast four
This is a qualifying setup where only the fastest few cars get to make a final run. They’re comparing Indy 500 qualifying to that kind of “top group then final” format.
Concept
50 laps
The hosts mention shortening the Indy 500 by 50 laps as an alternative change to the event. They argue that reducing the distance would alter what the race “is,” even if it might make it more convenient or intense.
Here, a “charter” means a team has a guaranteed right to enter races. The hosts are saying that having one makes the team’s investment more worthwhile because it can be sold later.
A “one-off entry” is when someone tries to race at a particular event without having the usual guaranteed spot. IndyCar is now limiting that kind of entry to mostly the Indy 500.
Residual value is what a car is worth later if you sell it. The hosts are saying IndyCar cars don’t really hold their value, so the charter system is supposed to make the team’s investment pay off another way.
This means trying to earn a race spot by setting a fast time in qualifying. The hosts are saying that, in practice, this didn’t really happen the way it could have.
They’re talking about a limit on how many teams can be in the series at once. When the limit is higher, adding a new team is easier to fit into the rules.
Prema is a racing team. Here, they’re talking about how Prema planned to spend money and build a program, expecting they could get the right kind of guaranteed entry to race.
Cadillac’s Formula 1 effort is an example of a big racing project that takes time to set up. The hosts are comparing that kind of journey to what happened with the other team’s plans.
An “open test” is a practice/testing event where teams run cars to learn what works. If there are limits like fewer tire sets, teams have to plan their runs carefully.
A “set of tires” is a full batch of tires the team can use for testing. If you only get a few sets, you can’t just run as much as you want—you have to plan your laps.
A rain delay means the race gets paused or pushed back because it’s raining. When that happens, teams often have to change tires and plans because the track grip changes.
F1 is Formula 1, the top level of open-wheel racing. They’re talking about F1 race-weekend stuff like qualifying and delays.
Term
forced spring break
They’re talking about an unexpected pause in the schedule that acts like a “break.” That extra time lets the organizers and teams make changes before racing resumes.
Megajoules are a way to measure energy. In racing, rules can limit how much energy a car can use, which then affects how fast the driver can go at different times.
In racing, “overtake mode” is a special driving setting that helps the car pass other cars. It changes how the car uses its power so it can accelerate more effectively when you need to get around someone.
“Super clipping” is a racing term for a very aggressive way the car manages power when you’re about to slow down. The idea is to reduce speed without wasting the energy the car can recover.
“Lift off the throttle” means you take your foot off the gas. On hybrids and EVs, that usually makes the car slow down and also starts recharging the battery using the car’s motion.
Regenerative braking is how hybrids and EVs slow down while also making electricity. It helps recharge the battery instead of wasting all the energy as heat.
“Harvesting that energy” describes regenerative braking/energy recovery: the drivetrain uses the car’s slowing motion to generate electricity instead of wasting it as heat. This electrical energy is stored in the hybrid battery or EV battery for later use.
“Re-gening” means the car is recharging its battery while slowing down. It uses the car’s movement to make electricity instead of just using the brakes.
The Toyota Prius is a hybrid car. When you slow down or lift off the gas, it can recharge its battery, but you might not feel it happening unless you look at the car’s screen.
F1 is the highest level of race car competition in the world. The first race of the year is the opening event where teams show how well their cars and updates are working.
They’re talking about the next F1 event in Miami. It’s basically the next test of how things will play out on track.
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This is Offtrack.
Hello, and welcome to Offtrack with Hinchin' Rossi.
Oh, yeah? Is that what you're doing now? You're just doing it?
I mean, we were silent for about 10 seconds. I figured somebody had to start us off.
That's fair. That's totally fair. I was just looking something up.
Out of your dressing team kit, what are you doing here?
Well, James, your colleagues seriously bamboozled some scheduling, but that's okay.
They mean well, I think. Hold on. My colleagues meaning people at Fox Sports?
I thought he meant Canadian Tires. Oh, that's fair.
It's a Canadian Tire. Pee-fabs. Sorry. Pee-fabs are right.
Okay, so what were you doing today with my colleagues? Was it bamboozled?
Is that what you said? Bamboozled you? Okay. How did they bamboozle you?
Just a casual hour late, but I don't know that it was all their fault. Okay.
But anyways, that was the situation. So my afternoon got blown up, but that is life.
So hence why I'm here in my carpenter blue and then blue polo.
So which one's the carpenter blue? Is it the light blue or is it the aquamarine part?
Yeah. So the light, the aquamarine part. So that's carpenter blue.
That is carpenter blue. We wanted our own Pantone, like papaya,
but they couldn't settle on one word. So they were just like carpenter blue.
But so every color, unless they actually just mix their own numbers on the
Pantone scale has a name. So that's not carpenter blue, unless they actually made the color.
They did make the color. This color has been made, has been made.
I don't want to get, I don't want to get anybody in trouble. So I'm not going to say who it was,
but somebody at McLaren was nice enough to give my friend's daughter a tour of the garages while
we were at Long Beach because she's in college. She's interested in racing. She also checked out
Carpenter and she also checked out the Nassie. She's like a 20 year old.
I didn't know we were just giving tours to other people, to other teams, but whatever.
Dude, I give so many tours at your car that you know that it's incredible.
I know it's amazing. I just, whatever, Tim, it's fine. Next time I won't give you credentials
to take your friends to other teams. That was a different pair of people that you
don't care. Okay. So I'm going to tell you guys who it was just so that you get less mad. It was
gave this girl a tour of the McLaren garages, but said you need to stay behind the orange line
and like three people just snapped their heads and looked at her and she's like, I met Papaya.
I met Papaya. I wonder if it's like a swear jar of like somewhere in the trailer and in the shop.
If you have, there's like a bucket and if you say orange instead of Papaya,
Fiverr has to go in. No, it was very nice. Everybody was very accommodating. My neighbor,
my old neighbor, his 20 year old daughter is studying computer engineering. So I brought them
down to Long Beach and like literally everybody was like, oh, you're, you're a woman that wants to
get in racing. Here, come check everything out, which was, was pretty cool. Well, we do have a
general shortage of engineers anyway. So I think even just being in the engineering field and having
an interest in motorsports, you're doing some right kid. Keep up the great work. Love that. Love
that for them, for us, for everybody. She said the, she said the ECR was the best one though.
She said, particularly she liked the carpenter blue. It was weird. I didn't,
she knew that that's what it was called. I hadn't, I hadn't even heard that until today.
I was there for that part of the tour. I did cheat on you and go to these other places.
You know, I know because you were a true friend and a real friend, James.
Right. Yes.
Tim is apparently just calling you, I got you dinner that night.
You did get me, right? No, I was talking to him. Oh, you also bought me.
Yeah. That's true. I bought both of you dinner this weekend. Tim, couple down a couple hundred
go. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You don't get slow claps yet.
All right. Well, you know, 10, 15 years from now, I will.
Just so we're clear, just so we're clear. This is partly bread from a conversation that we had
with Tim while we were doing our JPL tour or tour from or something where, where I don't even know
how it started, but Alex sort of pointed out the hundreds of meals that, that have been purchased
for you because I was dumb enough to tell you guys how much I spent at the JPL gift shop.
That was it. That was it.
And the response was, well, if you were doing that, then you're getting the next hundred dinners.
Which I want to point out, the amount that I spent at the JPL gift shop is like
one dinner at the places that you guys eat.
We went to pizza, bro.
That you eaten with us. Well, no, but you know, you did, you did buy.
I don't want to let you guys eat alone.
It's fair. No, you stepped up. I don't know if you needed that prompting or if that was just
going to happen anyway. It was good.
It was good. I had all the faith in the world.
And now you're also doing me a solid and 3D printing me a bunch of stuff, which is super handy.
What are you getting 3D printed? I bet it's not your own Lego, man.
It's not my own Lego, man. No, but it is, I couldn't find the right
like brackets to mount helmets on a wall because like obviously, so this is kind of my new office.
It's not totally finished yet. But my last one had shelves in it so I could put my helmets up.
Now I don't have shelves. I just have walls. So I have to hang them on a wall.
And if I'm going to have my Rossi helmet prominently displayed in the background of the show,
I needed a way to mount it to the wall. And all the ones on the internet, I didn't quite like.
If I had a Rossi helmet, I would only go to the carpenter garage.
Well, maybe you don't have a Rossi helmet because you don't exclusively go to the carpenter garage.
I just forgot what team you were on. I went and I checked out Andretti. I was like,
where's Alex? And then I went to McLaren. I was like, where's Alex? So why are we at Genesee?
That's where you're going next, bro. Wrong Alex. Wrong Alex. I mixed up Alex's.
Yeah, he just asked a fan, do you know where Alex's car is? And he pointed out it was a CGR.
Defaulted him. That makes sense. It's hard to see the height difference. You're all the same height
on the banners. True. But yeah, so I found this one on or Tim actually found online,
because I saw some on like Etsy that were 3D printed that were better than the ones you
could get at like Home Depot or whatever. So Tim scoured the interwebs and found a cool,
not cool, just a functional helmet bracket that he printed one up of that he put his
one of the two helmets that he does have to show me how it looks. It looks good.
We were going to make a modification though. Have you been working on the modification?
Have you been busy like doing your life? I've been finishing moving today. It's the last day
in my old apartment. So I'm over there like patching up walls and things like that.
Did you put a lot of holes involved here? I ran here. Oh yeah. I am not getting my security
deposit back. Where were their holes and by what were they caused? Well, I don't know if you
know this about Southern California. We're known for our earthquakes and I have a lot of anxiety
about everything. So I made sure all of my furniture was like earthquake proof. So like
everything was drilled and anchored into the walls. Got it. Question. Is it about who the guy was
that just walked by? Yeah. Oh yeah. You didn't see him eating there for most of this time.
That's Casey. You're all sober. Now that's my buddy Casey. He was helping me out at my old place
and so I had to get him lunch because like if you get somebody to help you with moving stuff,
you have to buy them food. It's usually yeah, pizza and beer or in this case, euros and beer
minus the beard because you're not drinking right now still, right? Yeah. Yeah. Still off the gas.
You say it like it's such a bad thing to be on it or like that you're
sad that you're off it. You can just say like, I am. It's not drinking for a couple months.
I think you're projecting there, pal. I don't know. I have no issues about my drinking whatsoever.
I think I'm on the perfect trajectory. Take a little break. Are you going to put a bunch of holes
that are unnecessary in your new place? No. No. I really didn't care about the old place.
So you only care to protect you and your daughter from earthquakes if the place is
Yeah. Yeah. That's a way. I figured out there are other ways to do earthquake protection
than just drilling into the wall. I'm still going to leave it. It's fine. No. On the book cases,
you can have it like at a one degree angle against the wall. So then it's better that way.
Did you buy it? Did you buy it at her level? I did. I mean, I had a level. I bought wedges.
I bought wedges for the book case. I haven't taught it yet. For her bed, I am going to anchor it to the
wall. Okay. Tim, have you ever felt an earthquake like a proper earthquake? Yeah. I guess it didn't
move your furniture because it's all bolted to the wall. It didn't move like I don't know any of the
empty classes. Did it break anything? No. I haven't felt a big one. You felt a big one,
right? Up in Northern California. Yeah. Sure did. Yeah. Yeah. We were both in the same place.
So we both felt it. Well, same area. Yeah. Which is why you don't sleep naked anymore, right?
That's 100% correct. Just in case of those Indian earthquakes. There's been Indian earthquakes.
There was a legit tornado through Indianapolis the other day. I don't know if you saw the
videos Alex, but from downtown, it was pretty fierce. And Becky was in a target up north and
they all got herded into the middle of the target because they came on the PA to like
a tornado warning. Everybody get to the center. We have ceased to check out. Everybody get to
the center of the store. And so like everybody heard it into the middle of a target. I just had
to like wait it out. But I said, so she called me and I was like, I'm assuming some people just
kind of said screw this and they left, right? And she goes, not one person left. Everybody
just ran to the middle of the building. That's ridiculous. Wow. People were, but the thing is
somebody, I'm just shocked that there was nobody there like you believe in tornadoes.
Like it just feels like we have dumb conspiracies for everything. I feel like enough people have
witnessed the actual carnage. Like what? I still love, I, okay, moon projection.
Have you seen it?
Yeah, most nights. I've touched it. More and more people, we are going back. More and more people
are going to have to be in on it. If you don't think this is really happening. We are going back.
We haven't yet gone back.
That did get delayed. Going back did get delayed. Going back got pushed back a whole nother launch
actually. Well, they just added another launch. Yeah. No, I know. But between the one that they
did, that's not a great one that they were going back to. I'm sure it's fine. Everything's fine.
You learned about why it's more complicated. No, I know. They're just having to build it.
Dude, space is hard. It is hard. It is wild. So what did you get up to this weekend, Alejandro?
Dude, my life evaporates and Tim knows this. We're just in a stage where like, yeah, I don't know.
Couldn't tell you, but I can tell you I didn't have a spare second to do anything.
Had a nice lunch. We went out to lunch on Saturday, which was nice.
Didn't have time for racquet sports. I know that. I didn't have time for racquet sports.
I don't even know. Here's a fun one. Here's a fun one. Here's a fun one. Oh, here we go.
Here he is. What would you, Tim, you can't answer this because you can't answer this.
So this is question straight to the James. Okay. James, would you think that it would be an
issue to take an infant to a liquor store? Like Ben? Yeah, my infant. No,
right. Not even remotely. Right. Tim, I guess you can answer now since I got the answer.
No, absolutely not. Right. We got yelled at and escorted out of a total wine, which is a
pretty nice establishment, saying that we could not have a minor in a liquor store.
To Kelly's response was, so do you want me to just leave him in the car?
And to their response, I would hope not to then us being like, what would you like us to do?
And they said, he can't be in here. He's a minor. And so while I understand the rule,
and I agree with the rule that a minor should not be allowed to be in a liquor store,
I have two caveats. Number one, if they are escorted by both of their parents,
I don't see why the problem exists. Because ultimately, it is not the liquor store's
place to assign a parenting policy in terms of like what you are introducing your children to,
because presumably if you're buying liquor at a liquor store, you're going to be drinking the
liquor at home. Number two, let's say that people disagree with that and that they should
take a step because there are parents out there who maybe are not as considerate as they should be
with their children. If the minor cannot walk, I feel like there needs to be different tears.
Like, okay, you can't bring your 12 year old in, right? And they're soccer clothes,
because that may be an impressionable person. But the kid that s***s his pants and doesn't know
how to say it. And he's in a stroller. Ba-ba. He was actually in the kid friendly shopping cart
that they provide. Brilliant. I was perplexed, so I'm interested to hear your guys' opinions on that.
So, I must, I mean, I come from a different country and you can, it's illegal to buy alcohol
under age. Sure. It's not illegal to be in a liquor store or a beer store under age. Right.
If you have a six year old and you're going shopping and you want to stop by and grab a bottle
of wine for dinner, are you supposed to leave them in the car? Insane. They're not serving alcohol.
Like, I get why restaurants, like certain bars, like you can't be 20, you have to be 21. Like,
I get that. They don't want to have to ID everybody at the bar or fine. But like,
And also, they don't want kids in a bar because that ruins the vibe.
Like, also that. I just, it's also a store that serves food or not serves food, sells food.
And other. So, I just checked. I just googled it. It says in Indiana,
in California, you can. You can bring a minor into the liquor store if they're coming by though.
But apparently in Indiana, there's, some say you can, some say you can't.
He said it was an Indiana state law, which was just fascinating to me. And quite frankly,
quite annoying. We didn't have any sort of plan to go to a liquor store because we were partying
on a Sunday night. We were out and we were driving by it and we don't usually drive that way.
And Ben's birthday party's coming up and the house is completely out of beverages.
And so we were like, let's grab a couple of cases of beer, a couple of balls of white wine,
and we're here. Let's do it. And we got swiftly turned around because our 11-month-old
could not be in there. I'm genuinely shocked.
Well, did you get Ben any, did you get Ben any whiskey, like other wine?
Bunch of scars. Okay. All right. Okay.
I just didn't want to get his own stash of bourbon.
No, he already knows birthday is coming up.
Speaking of which, I didn't get a birthday party invite.
James did. Yours might be at the McLaren shop. I don't know where you frequent.
Oh, it was at the Entretty Shop. I forget which one.
Oh, it was actually Ganassi.
It might be. I think it went to Ganassi.
Yeah. Yeah. Cause Ganassi rhymes with Durham.
You know what happened? You know what happened when we talked to Alex Pillow?
One here is he said he would give me a hug.
Great. Maybe that's why I was there.
Okay. We'll go get a hug.
Do you want a hug, pal? Do you need a hug, Tim?
Yeah, kind of.
Yeah. Okay.
It's weird.
Okay.
Who doesn't want a hug?
I mean, from a-
Depends who from.
Other than Alex.
Other than Alex.
That middle-aged man?
Alex never, yeah. I was going to say, Alex probably doesn't really want anyone to hug him.
At this point, beggars can't be choosers. Okay. I just want to be held.
Yeah. It's, wow. Okay.
Tim, I assume your weekend was just packing and unpacking and putting holes and holes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Hanging with Hazel.
Putting holes out of walls. I was patching them.
Yeah. I just assumed you did it so poorly.
You added more holes than you were taking away.
Taking out some of the anchors definitely left bigger holes than they need to be.
But then you just like leave the anchors in and say to the next person,
hey, if you want to put your bulk shelf here.
Because the landlords are going to check it first before it goes to the next person.
Yeah. That could be their job.
What was your security deposit? Because I do feel like you're probably not doing it.
That's, yeah. You're not getting it back.
It's probably like five months back then.
Yeah. Probably wasn't that much.
You're actually coming out on top of this one.
It was a buffalo nickel.
So like, are you, are you never walking back in that place again?
No, I came here to do this and then I'm going right back to finish up.
Got it.
So we should take as much time as possible doing this.
Yeah. Well, we got to interview Jack next.
Yeah, I know. But then, I mean, that might take a while too.
You can't say people listening to this.
Have already listened to Jack. We're recording this out of order.
Okay. I ruined the magic.
Before we get to open testing coming up over the next couple of days,
which means it's already happened by the time you're listening to this.
So we'll review it next week. We'll preview it this week.
But before we get to that, Long Beach TV number came out.
It did.
Pretty sporty.
Pretty sporty.
1.2-something million people tuned in to watch
Rossi pass a bunch of cars.
And Palo just passed one in the pits.
I mean, he had to technically pass more than that because he started like third, right?
No.
Third, fourth.
No, Pato started second, didn't he?
You're right. You're right.
But yeah, for what was like a snoozer race, great rating.
And I'm super happy about it.
And I do want to say though, like you read through the comments and like,
I don't normally even do that.
And if I do read, I don't normally give a s*** about what they say.
But I just want to like point one thing out, right?
There's a lot of people that chirped in and they were like,
oh, look at the peak was right at the start, just feeding off the NASCAR race,
blah, blah, blah, blah, the peak was 1.5 billion.
And yeah, guys, that's how 1.5 million.
But that's how like, that's how it works.
That's how the system works.
Like you could use that argument for anything, right?
But yes, we know that usually if you're coming off another sporting event into yours,
that's that's good for you, right?
But like the average was still over 1.2,
which means that by the end of one of the most boring races we've seen in a long time,
there was still over a million people watching.
So just pump the brakes, clear jets, did it help a little bit?
It sure did.
But we still had a good audience for what was not a banger of a race,
but a hell of an event.
And I'm not trying to like, not trying to like s*** on the race or play it down at all.
It's still Long Beach.
It's still one of the greatest races to go to, to watch, to be at, to win, whatever.
Oh yeah.
Proud of part of the TV crew on that one.
Part of the Fox fan.
I also incredibly, I also am incredibly proud because I was expecting it to not be a very good number.
So what's amazing is all of the positive momentum that we were talking about and fanning about and
really just were relieved that it existed with the way the schedules kind of reworked for 2026
has shown that it was effective and is working and is kind of here to stay.
So I think Fox deserves a huge slow clap more than Tim's dinner purchases
for kind of pushing that because I don't know that without them necessarily the schedule
would have changed to what it is now.
So that's huge.
And I'm very interested to see there's a lot of rumors about obviously an expanding schedule.
I think that will be the next big thing to really kind of cement this trajectory
that IndyCar is on of just kind of shortening up the off season just so
we don't disappear from people's minds for the time frame that we do.
So this is a good case study for that.
The other thing that I thought was really good was, you know, we had a two week break.
So we had three races in four weeks, right?
And then we had that two week break and I was like, oh, this is the momentum,
you know, is it going to wind out of the sales, all that stuff?
No, the answer is no, it did not.
And that's because the series and Fox and the tracks promoting and doing what they can to
keep people tuning in and showing up.
So awesome.
Another small break before we get to the GP, but now it's May.
And I feel like everyone's just, there's a buzz, man.
There's a buzz about May this year that like is above and beyond the normal buzz about May here in town.
I've even heard that I've heard rumors that we are getting very close to a sell out already.
So if you were thinking of coming to the 110th running of the Indy 500 and you haven't got your
tickets yet, I'm going to highly encourage you to do so because from what I heard, the amount
they had left and the amount that normally go in the last couple of weeks, like we're way ahead
of schedule and I would love nothing more than a proper sell out.
I would love nothing more than to make sure we can lift the blackout again on television
and just have a packed house, have a great TV show and, you know, let's tear it up for the 110th.
Big anniversary for you too, pal.
It is, but I don't want to spend too much time talking about that because we'll have plenty
of time to talk about that next week.
Well, let's talk about testing it.
Well, let's talk about just IndyCar news in general, right?
So there was a lot of, there was a lot of concern in the public.
I don't think ever behind the scenes or within teams, but the public was concerned about getting
to 33 drivers. We obviously knew that bumping was probably not going to happen this year, but
for a period of time, we were kind of at the 31-32 mark.
Jacob Abel obviously coming with Abel Motorsports, but the big announcement was
today officially, Catherine Legg, today Monday,
so three days ago, was announced for her fifth Indy 500 with
HMD in a partnership with AJ Foy, which is interesting for a lot of reasons.
Interesting number one, because I think this is the first time
Catherine will have driven an Indy car that isn't Honda-powered.
She drove a Lotus, I think, back in the day.
Did she? I thought that was Samona.
I think Samona also drove a Lotus.
Do we count? I feel like Lotus has never really made a pass well out of five.
Regardless.
But yes, great point.
I guess what I will say is Catherine has been a long time Acura, HPD kind of
spokesperson and driver for them across a variety of different disciplines, and her showing up to
the Indian Office on her Speedway and Chevy is a pretty big change.
So excited for her, because the last couple of years have not been the easiest in terms of
she's been a part of the Bump Day program.
She's always found a way to get in, but you would think with a Foy technical alliance
partnership, Chevy-powered sort of situation, this will be one of the best, most competitive
cars she's had in a while. So shout out Catherine, and also shout out to HMD for getting into
Indy car racing and the biggest race of the world.
And shout out to Foy for all the help, and it takes a village to get an Indy car on track for
the 500, and obviously it wouldn't be the same if we didn't have 33, so everybody's thrilled that we
do. It's going to be great to see her back on the grid, great to see HMD participating as well.
I was part of a conversation recently, a philosophical exercise, that I would love your
take on. So we have 33 cars, we will not have 34, we know that. We will not have bumping,
we know that. As someone that's been on the losing end of that battle, I know what that
is like. I know how painful it is for team and driver, and I don't wish it on anyone.
That said, it is part of this race, and now putting on the other side, the TV hat,
it is very compelling television. It's very entertaining sport. So a question was posed to
me, which was, what is more important slash valuable? Having 33 cars start the race, or having
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If only 33 cars show up, do we start 30 and bump three cars for the sake of bumping?
What is actually more important? Because everyone likes to do, they're like, oh,
that's how we've always done it. And it's like my least favorite phrase in the world, right?
I don't think that's ever a good reason. I do think there are reasons that are good,
but I was just, I'm curious to know if you think it's more important to have 33,
or it's more important to have bumping. I don't think bumping is important.
I think bumping is a- From a show standpoint, right? From an entertainment standpoint?
No, I don't know. See, that's where I guess we're gonna disagree. Bumping, the entertainment is a
byproduct of something that is a feature slash a fall of the Indianapolis 500.
This is the only race that we have 33 cars. We have 33 cars because it's always been 11 rows of
three. There was a period of time where there was 40, 50, 55 plus people trying to get into the race.
Obviously, had to cap it. The cost plus the technology that is required in order to run
an Indy car these days, you can't have Bill and Tim from Fort Wayne drive down and try and call
for the car and try and qualify for the Indy 500 in the car that they built. It's not possible.
There's, for the reasons we all know. That is a tradition that I think is cool when it happens,
but ultimately adds absolutely nothing to the race because, quite frankly, yes, miracles happen.
A rookie won the Indy 516 when he had no business doing that. I can say what I'm about to say.
The car that bumped their way into 33 is not a car that's going to win the race on paper.
That doesn't add to the overall value of the race. The race is going to be between the
12 to 18 best cars plus the four to six that are good on a slightly different strategy.
That is your race for the Indy 500. It is not all 33 with 33 having the equal chance to win.
For me, if you got rid of the 33 in order to just have bumping when the sport has evolved to a
place where bumping isn't really a product anymore, the bumping that we have had lately,
you say it's good TV. I disagree. It's quite frankly the way the engines work, the way the
cars work. Yes, we've had instances where it was exciting. I think whenever Jack
bumped Graham out, there was some excitement to that. Last year it was not exciting at all.
It was just cars going around to Fernando Alonso. The format needs to be tweaked.
I completely agree with that. It needs to be one and done just the way that the fast six and the
fast four are. I guess my point that I'll end on is that is something that when it happens,
it's like, oh, cool. This is going to be fun to watch potentially. It's going to be really
sad for some bun, but no one disagrees with it because it is part of the race. If you took that
tradition and put it ahead of having 33 cars, I think that's insane. I want to be very clear.
I don't think it's better. I think we should have 33, right? But what you just said, you're like,
well, the last three cars aren't winning the race anyway. Why would you care about losing them
if it makes for a better product in qualifying? There's never once not been 33 cars. There's been
plenty of Indy 500s without bumping. I think they had one out of 110.
Right. Yes, that's a good argument. That's a very good argument.
I'm with you. I don't think that's what should happen. I do think it's important to have that
because I think the analogy I use was like, well, if Rory has a six-stroke lead with six
holes to go at the Masters, do we just stop at the 12th? If a team's blown out to Super Bowl,
do we just skip the fourth quarter? That's the feel. You just take guys off the field to try
to make it more interesting. I know they do that in hockey at overtime and it is awesome,
but that's not the same thing. I do think that, personally, it's important to maintain the integrity
of it. It's not because that's how we've always done it. It's because that's the race.
You could also shorten it by 50 laps, but then it's not the race.
So on that note, we do head to the track tomorrow, which is two days ago.
One more thing to talk about. Oh, shoot. Oh, my God. I keep trying to jump ahead.
Alex has a whole itinerary today. No, but just on that note, it was announced
this week that IndyCar is no longer allowing one-off entries outside of the Indy 500.
Yes. IE, if you don't have a charter, you are not allowed to go race at Mid-Ohio or Long Beach
or wherever that may be, which in my mind is the correct thing to do. And that's going to
be a contentious opinion, but I just want to explain why I feel that way, because otherwise,
this whole charter program is pointless. This whole charter program provides no value to anything,
because ultimately IndyCars without a charter are the value of your trucks and your tools,
because even the cars themselves really have no residual value. So now that we have this
charter program in place, it was always very weird that you could just come and race,
even without a charter. Yes, there potentially could be a scenario where you would have to
qualify your way in and you would go home, but ultimately that never came to fruition.
So it was just, now we have 27 cars, but technically two of them don't have a charter,
but they're treated the same as everyone else, which I always thought was super dumb.
So now it is, well, it's going to go to 27 charter cars with the addition of one from Honda,
one from Chevy, but I think that's a really good thing, because it finally cements the value
of the charter system, so that if a Dryer and Reimbold or a Tom Brady or a Tim Durham wanted
to come and go race IndyCars, they have to pay out a pocket, they have to reward the team owners
for the blood, sweat, and tears that they put in to their team and the sweat equity and everything
that they've invested, and they will get to pull something out if they decide to sell. And I think
that's a fantastic step forward for the sport. I agree. Well, now I'm not going to do it. I was
going to, but... Well, no, now you can't, Tim. That's the point. And I was just about to...
Nope. Tomorrow. No. I completely agree. And you said it earlier, the sport has evolved that,
you know, Bill and John up in Fort Wayne aren't putting a car together to run the 500 anymore.
You shouldn't be able to just throw a car in a trailer and try to race them in Ohio anymore.
It's the same thing. There has to be some value to being there all year long.
The sport has evolved, and the way it is structured for the teams in this sense has
to evolve accordingly. So I completely agree. It's absolutely the right move. We can't just throw
together, you know, 50 dudes and go play an NFL game. We can't just do that, right? So it's kind
of the same thing. And I think it's a very good thing for the sport. We're slowly building it.
It's slowly coming together. We'd probably still beat the Browns. Or you'd beat the Colts.
With any players, for me, either of those teams are listening. I agree with this statement. I
will give you their addresses if you want to go steamroll them. But I have a question about the
charter system. No, we're just talking about Indie testing this week.
God, you really are mad that I went to a different team's garage. I slashed tires.
No, you didn't. He won. Not the right ones. Okay. So we all know that when Andretti was trying to
join F1, which shouldn't be the Cadillac thing, there was a mechanism in place for them to
like have a payout for the other teams when they were adding on to the paddock. Like,
is there a mechanism for somebody else to start a new charter in IndieCar? Or is it
a very different problem? Very different problem. Yeah. The way the thing in F1 is the rules were
written to have up to 12 teams. So adding an 11th was within the realm. Essentially, that's what's
happening now with Honda and Chevy getting their individual chargers, which will obviously go to
different teams to run. But we are capped at 27. That's how many cars the series can
reasonably accommodate at every track. So to keep it consistent and to make sure all 27 can race
at each race, that's the number which we are now at. So the short answer is no. There's not really
an opportunity for that to be created. But it's funny because, I mean, Alex, you bring up this
point, right? If Tom Brady wanted to start a team tomorrow, he couldn't just go out spend $50
million buying stuff and hiring people. He would have to go to a team and that team would make
some money out of it. It makes me think back, you know, 18 months to the formation of Prema.
Right? If this system existed 18 months ago, all the investment that Prema would have made
wouldn't have been all into new stuff. They would have had to buy an existing program that would
have a charter that would have solved the problem of them not having charter, which was a big part
of the issue of them kind of pulling out in the first place. So I feel bad for that whole group
because either 18 months sooner or 18 months later, you probably find yourself in a much
better position. But they sort of got stuck in the no man's land right as this program was coming
together, right? Correct. I think I don't want to speak for them because I don't know. But
the word on the street, let's put it as that, is kind of, I mean, I guess you could draw a few
parallels to the journey Cadillac F1 went on, but the Prema was under the impression or these
ownership was under the impression that if they made the capital investment, they got the building,
they presented themselves as a bona fide professional race team and organization that there
was the possibility that charters would be extended to them. And then when the stark
realization came that that was not the case, here we are. So I don't want to submit that as fact
because I don't know if that's completely true. It might be partially true, but I think that
makes a lot of sense if it were to be true kind of the way they ended up. Like you said,
I feel terrible for them. I feel terrible for Callum. I know Callum very well and the situation
he's been put in as a driver is horrible and you would never want that for anyone. So
a shame of the situation, but nonetheless the situation that we are in and with the few minutes
that we have left, let's talk about the open test. Two things. So two things to talk about,
open test being one. So I mean, run us through it. It's two days. Unfortunately, it's only
five sets of tires. Probably going to be one day. Yeah, because Wednesday is not looking super awesome
from a weather standpoint. There's only five sets of tires for... And only five sets of tires. Again,
we're recording this on Monday, guys. So by the time we're listening to it, all of this will have
already happened and it's as annoying for us as it is for you. But so Alex, when you sit down
with the team and you're making your plan for the next two days, are you guys kind of thinking,
we don't have a lot of tires. Wednesday looks sort of shifty. Let's just kind of heavily load day one.
Yes, we're going to heavily load day one. We're happy to use up to four sets.
All right. Well, we will address that in next week's episode, I'm sure. We're going to be a good
race. I'm calling it now. Especially when we get a rain delay.
Especially when we get a rain delay and we start a little later. That'd be pretty neat.
Okay, quickly. I mean, I caused that yellow long beach. I can go out there with the hose.
That was so funny, man. The people, they're like off Rossi's car after Tim said that.
So you've done that now. And by the time you're listening to this, I'm already in Miami for F1.
There's a bunch of stuff on that side of things. What type of jet did you take to get there?
Like a G700 or would you get? No, the 700. Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah. The 800 is going through like final certification. What helicopter did you take to
the FBO? Bell. Bell, right. Yeah, Eurocopter when I landed to get to the trash. Sure.
Or landed on the helipad at the Reds Carlton, where I'll be staying. But no, so obviously,
they made some changes to the rules. It's funny because it's true.
It's funny because it couldn't be further from the truth. I'm like Southwest to a holiday express.
I'm sorry. So you're at a Ritz for the IndyCar race on Fox's dime,
but you're at a holiday in in Miami on F1's dime. It might not be a holiday in, but it ain't the
changes, right? They've had this forced spring break, two races canceled in the Middle East,
and so they've had five weeks now to go over everything, and they've introduced a couple
changes. I assume you know something about these, Alex, or no? I do. I do. Yeah. So the biggest thing
they've tried to, I think it's good they haven't tried to do like some massive adjustments. I
think that's the right move. I think everybody acknowledges that. What they've done is mainly
aimed at making qualifying flat out again, which it just has to be because what we saw
in Suzuka, we just can't have anymore. Correct. Do we think they've done enough?
It's really hard for me to quantify freaking megajoules and so I don't know what the difference is
between eight and a half and seven and a half. That's way above my pay grade. But I think they
understood the problem and so they weren't, with all of the intelligent people that were going to
be in that room and a part of that decision, they weren't, I don't think, going to just partially
solve it. So I would imagine that it solved. Now, the whole procedure of the race, I still
disagree with. I really don't like the way overtake mode works and all that sort of thing,
but I do imagine that based on everything that I've read and the limited amount that I understand,
the qualifying will be resolved, which is, for me, like 60% of the problem. So I think that's good.
I read somewhere that they're still going to have some super clipping. So the cars
decelerating at the end of the straight, but no lift and coast because now you harvest the same
amount of energy, whether you're right. So super clipping, I don't have a huge problem with because
F1 cars of old, i.e., last year, had clipping. Now it wasn't to the extent that it is on these
new ones. You were downshifting. You kind of like maintain a speed, right? You'd stop accelerating,
but you'd sort of, no, there was a diesel. I mean, there was enough of a diesel that they had to put
on flashing rain lights to give the driver awareness of the fact that the car in front
was clipping. So it was significant. Like I said, it's nowhere near what it is now, but
it's not a new concept. And I think that that ultimately, in a lot of ways,
is clever technology that should be in Formula One and should influence
the car market, which is ultimately what Formula One is about. Hybrids, we've all driven hybrids at
this point, or electric cars, it's very easy to feel when you lift off the throttle, how you barely
have to press the brake pedal, right? Because it's harvesting that energy. Now, I doubt you would feel
that when you're at a constant state, 70 miles an hour, that your hybrid Prius or Lexus or whatever
is actually re-gening the batteries unless you pulled up that little screen on the nav page or
whatever. But that is something that exists, but it's a very inefficient way to recharge the batteries.
What F1 is doing now is super efficient, probably not totally safe for a road car
in a highway situation yet. But again, I think this is necessary technology that we are
utilizing and proving out on the racetrack that will make its way into consumer cars in the future.
Yeah. I think as long as drivers aren't having to lift in qualifying at the end of the straight,
and that they're not penalized for going faster through corners, I think if we can
control that, then that's a plus. As long as drivers are pushing as hard as they possibly can
in qualifying, if it clips a bit, cool. If the lap times are slower, cool. I'd be fine with cutting
more of the amount of power you could. Thank you, Selly. Selly agrees. More of the amount of power
that you can give just so that they're not running out. They're not even clipping, but there'll be
two seconds to lap slower. Who cares? They're so fast. They're still so fast that it doesn't really
matter. It's still a spectacle to see them. We'll see. We'll see what Miami holds. I look forward
to it. First F1 race of the year for me. Yeah. You've already tested. We'll talk about that next
week. But have a great rest of your weekend, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. This has been
Offtrack with Hinch and Rossi. Offtrack is part of the Serious XM Sports Podcast Network. If you
enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a five-star rating and leave a review.
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About this episode
The conversation jumps from garage tours and 3D-printed helmet mounts to apartment moving, earthquake prep, and a surprisingly long debate about whether the Indy 500 should prioritize 33 starters or bumping. They also dig into IndyCar’s new charter rules, Catherine Legg’s Indy 500 entry, Long Beach TV ratings, and the upcoming open test. Later, the discussion shifts to Formula 1’s Miami changes, especially efforts to make qualifying more competitive again.
The guys catch up before open testing this week. Hinch brings up a debate topic: what's more important: 33 cars starting the 500, or bumping. Plus, Alex is going open testing, Thim gave a tour of other team garages, and more.
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Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a 5-star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.
