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Term
silly season
The time of year in racing when drivers are secretly negotiating contracts, and everyone is gossiping about who will drive for which team next year.
Person
Scott Dixon
One of the greatest race car drivers ever. He has won the IndyCar championship six times and has spent almost his entire career with one team, Chip Ganassi Racing.
Company
Chip Ganassi Racing
A highly successful American racing team that wins a lot of championships in IndyCar and sports car racing.
Company
Dale Coyne Racing
An independent IndyCar team known for being an underdog and helping young drivers get their start in the sport.
Brand
McLaren
A famous British company that builds high-end supercars and races in Formula 1 and IndyCar.
Term
IndyCar
The fastest racing series in North America, where cars look similar to Formula 1 cars and race on both oval tracks and twisty road courses.
Term
hypercar
The fastest and most advanced class of sports cars that race in 24-hour endurance races like Le Mans.
Company
Meyer Shank Racing
An American racing team that competes in IndyCar and sports car racing, known for winning the famous Indy 500 in 2021.
Person
Felix Rosenqvist
A fast Swedish race car driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series.
Person
Pato O'Ward
An incredibly fast and exciting Mexican driver who races for the McLaren team in IndyCar.
Person
Christian Lundgaard
A young Danish driver in IndyCar who quickly proved himself by winning Rookie of the Year and his first race shortly after moving from Europe.
Person
Marcus Armstrong
A young racing driver from New Zealand who won the Rookie of the Year award in IndyCar.
Person
Caio Collet
A young Brazilian driver working his way up the racing ladder to try and reach IndyCar.
Term
Indy NXT
The minor league or developmental series for IndyCar, where young drivers race to prove they are ready for the big leagues.
LIVE
This is Off-Track.
This is a travel podcast after all.
And I had an experience traveling here that was just wild.
It was a first.
It was a first for me.
Decorum-less.
It was so decorum-less.
The amount of decorum that was lacking in this situation was wild.
Tim's hair looks different.
I just got out of the shower.
Okay, so that wasn't like a, it's not like a styling choice.
Like a hair oil.
Got out of the shower and did like that.
There was like grease ball mobsters from like the 80s.
That's what he looks like.
I do, but I gotta be honest with you.
It's just wet.
Tim, I don't hate it.
Like if you were to style it like that with like gel or whatever.
Hey Tim, this is the same guy that kept the handlebar mustache.
So I wouldn't take any sort of static advice from him.
No, you got the handlebar for the kids.
You do not keep the handlebar for the kids.
The deal was I had to keep it through Sunday.
Yeah, but then you kind of shaved.
Oh yeah.
Well, that was, I was trying to grow it out.
I was trying to make sure anyway, that mustache was far more popular
than I thought it was going to be.
I got a lot of positive feedback.
You got sympathy likes.
Nope.
Pity likes.
I mean, yes, there was definitely some of those, but there was some genuine.
That's not the point.
Let's go back to the decorum-less passenger that I experienced on my flight.
Was it Tim?
So this time amazingly, no, it was not.
So we all know that like eating on an airplane, like bringing on your own
food is it's only acceptable like in an emergency situation.
Or it's like tuna fish.
Nope.
That's I wouldn't default to that.
I think that would be the one that I'd be the most against.
I think that's up there.
I mean, to be fair though, tuna fish doesn't actually smell that bad
until it's in somebody's mouth.
Like until unless you're smelling their breath, it doesn't actually put out
that bad an aroma.
But anyway, I digress.
This gentleman in the seat behind me brings a full like a full meal
onto the plane.
And look, I've done it exactly one time in my life.
What does a full meal consist of?
I don't know.
Are you saying like a salad, a soup, a dessert and an entree?
It's not it.
There's no there's this is not a Q&A.
It's not a fireside chat.
This is the story.
You're going to sit down and shut up and listen to it.
I think we need to dive into this.
No, no, let's explore this.
And it's a gazpacho soup.
Gazpacho is a soup.
So I assume it was a full meal just based on how much I could hear being unwrapped.
He was behind me so I couldn't see it.
Was it in foil like prepared at home, not bought at the airport?
No, it was bought at the airport.
But like, you know, like you wrap a sandwich up and like that that like wax paper
that's just so loud and obnoxious.
I'm going to counter with why if they sell it at the airports,
you should be able to bring it on the plane.
I think it's different if you bring like a Tupperware.
What if you ever?
What?
Because if you're in a hurry and you buy something on the airport.
Yeah, Tim, let him finish.
Oh, now we're being polite.
No, look, we all know this show works that there's only ever two people being mean
to the one other person and it rotates at all times.
So it's just it's just briefly shifted to you after you two are on me.
So you Tim.
Anyway, right, Alex?
Correct.
Couldn't have said it myself.
It's just anyway.
Well, it just rolls off the tongue.
It's just shut up.
Let me finish my story.
God, so this guy does this is so close out now.
Anyway, this guy unwraps something.
It's so loud and obnoxious.
And whatever he bought, the smell just envelops the plane and he's sitting
there just chomping away like very audio audibly eating, which again, I know
that we eat on the show sometimes and that some people get very upset by it.
But this is like it's you just it does whatever what what really got like
at this point like maybe there was an emergency, whatever.
We're so we're like we're up in the air and he's opening up and all this
and the noise and the chewing and the munch inch and all of it.
And then he calls over the flooded tenant and he goes, do you bite?
Do you guys have any by chance?
Do you guys have any ketchup or mustard like with a mouthful of food?
I was just like, oh, my God, this is no, that's that's where you lost.
Unbelievable.
The guy's asking if they have condiments for his food that he brought
on to the plane.
It's insane behavior.
Absolutely.
Do I know what else was crazy was same flight coming into land.
We have not landed.
We are still very much airborne.
What I know that Wi-Fi on the planes has gotten very good.
And I know that Wi-Fi on the planes now doesn't only kick on above 10,000 feet
and the kind of just always works.
What's the one rule they have about this new Wi-Fi ecosystem on planes?
No calls, no calls.
No calls.
This guy was having a full on conversation at a very loud volume as we were on descent.
And I was just like, this is why they have people in the exit roast to open
the door to throw somebody like this out.
Super.
Do we go down to that?
Also, I don't think I actually open that high, but I did a shot for this guy.
Oh, I will.
Pressurized cabin.
You think like a passenger could open that up?
Yep.
I think it blows out, isn't it?
It's very bad.
Yeah.
It's like higher pressure in the tube.
So it wouldn't you don't need to throw it.
It'll physics.
Suck it.
Wow.
One other travel note as I'm on this European leg.
I got to just be honest, guys.
Europe's great, but like North American hotels are just miles better.
Like miles better.
But a very distant second to Asian hotels.
You think North American hotels are a distant second to Asian hotels?
Yes.
I mean, I just want to point out real quick, not having any expertise in this, it is physically
impossible to open a commercial airline exit in flight because of the pressure and because
after 92 miles per hour, there's additional locks in place that passengers can't disengage.
Oh, well, okay.
If we're talking about locks, the pressure thing, and the pressure, it says.
No, I disagree with that fundamentally.
Yeah.
I'm just going to say, you should still not try it.
Let's just be clear on that.
Anyways, I love how Tim has to Google things to prove his point.
I was right.
It proved that I was correct.
There's a lot of things on the internet that are fake, bro.
So now that I think about it, yeah, when we went to Japan last year, the hotel's pretty nice.
I've also stayed in one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed in Japan, though.
I'm talking like Hampton Inn equivalent to Hampton Inn equivalent.
I'm talking like...
But see, I kind of am.
Okay.
So because like a luxury hotel anywhere in the world is like, it's going to be good, right?
But like the baseline, the standard, I just feel like there's so much higher.
Quite honestly, I would say that eight times out of 10, a Hampton Inn or a courtyard by Marriott
or a Holiday Inn Express is better than like a Weston or a Sheraton, even in North America.
Certainly in Europe.
I feel like what's good about North American hotels is like in that like mid-range, right?
Baseline range is that the newer the hotel, the better.
It's almost more of a function of when it was built because like you said, you have like a slightly higher end one
that's 15 years old or like a brand new Holiday Inn Express.
I mean, put me in that HIE all day long, you know?
Whereas over here, that level of hotel is awful.
You're right.
It's like really bad.
I agree.
I agree.
Okay.
I'm glad we're on the same page about that.
So we're doing this episode.
We're talking about European things that we don't like.
Yeah.
Soccer's stupid.
World Cup.
Not because the game is stupid.
Not because the World Cup is stupid.
The World Cup is...
The World Cup is cool objectively.
Very cool.
But we are in this group chat and our friend group in the United States who has ever once spoken about soccer in their lives.
Just so we're clear.
Sorry.
This is the one that Tim's not in.
Correct.
We're going to talk about this chat for quite a while now.
He knows.
We could invite him.
We cannot.
We have other things we can talk about.
We can talk about racing.
Anyways, so the World Cup...
I can't get behind a soccer game at 2 o'clock on a Wednesday.
I can't do it.
I'm not saying that it's not...
It's more of a timing thing, eh?
Well, it's no.
I struggle to get behind it at 8 p.m. on a Saturday, if I'm honest.
Okay.
But I certainly am not going to be taking time out of my day in the middle of the week to watch a soccer game
if I'm not going to do it on my off time on the weekend.
Prime time on a Saturday.
Right.
That's fair.
And also, okay, so let me ask you this.
Have you watched any of the Team USA games?
The first one.
And at that point, I determined the USA was going to win the World Cup.
So the next World Cup game that I will watch is the final that the USA is inevitably going to be at.
I just want to remind you that the World Cup final does happen like moments before the green flag in Nashville.
Like, it'll end when you'll be on the grid for the anthem, probably.
I mean, I was kind of lying when I said I was going to watch it, but now I can just admit that I'm definitely not going to watch it now.
Now you have a plausible and really good reason to not watch it.
I can tell you one thing I'm definitely not going to do, like record it.
Yeah, you're not going to watch it back.
No.
You'll see the Twitter highlights and be done.
And scroll right past them, yeah.
So I'm with you.
Like, I today, whatever day it is that we are recording this, England played and I am in England.
So I went to a pub with a friend and watched the England game where they beat Congo, two to one.
World Cup game for England, big soccer place in England.
The correct time of day.
They won good time of day, 5 p.m.
Kickoff or whatever they call it.
And I was like, I was like happy for them.
I was like, I was, I was happy for the environment and the people, but like, I still just, I just can't, the game just eludes me.
It just, it's just not my thing.
And I'm okay with that and I'm okay with everybody that enjoys it.
We're just going to agree to disagree.
Some people like cilantro, some don't.
It's kind of, I'm just putting it to that.
There's like a gene that I just don't have.
Yeah.
And even though it was like England should have won that game and for a long time they were not winning that game.
And it was like, you could feel the tension in the room and even still I was more interested in just like chatting to my buddy.
The game itself, I just don't find exciting.
I feel like the game would be infinitely more exciting if like the field pitch was like half the size.
It's just too big.
I can see that.
Because it has elements of hockey, right?
And hockey is very entertaining to watch.
Very entertaining.
But if hockey was four times the size wouldn't be that interesting.
It would be much less interesting.
I agree with you.
So I think that's kind of harder to get into it.
Yeah.
So look, I am supporting Team Canada.
I want them to do well.
I am cheering, go team, national pride, all that stuff.
Name one player.
Davies.
And I am not going to watch any games after this is done.
I'll probably watch the remaining.
Because now we're like at a point of the tournament where like it matters and like it's elimination and stuff.
So it's important.
One of our buddies in this group chat that Tim's involved in compared it to the Olympics, right?
It's like, well, I don't watch swimming or track and field any other time of the year, but I'm going to watch it on the Olympics.
And while that point has some validity, I still can't get behind this stage of the tournament.
Because we're not at the point where like it really matters yet.
Well, I think we are now.
I think now it's like elimination time.
So if you lose you go home.
Yeah, I think now we're there.
Well, that's more interesting.
Because before it was like if you lose you still it's like points that are acquired and all that.
Anyways, it doesn't matter.
That's not what we're here to talk about and we don't have that much time left.
Some big news hit the internet today.
Well, can we call it news if it's still speculation?
No, but I feel like it's one of those things that has enough where there's smoke, there's fire, right?
Like there's always rumors in sport and there's always rumors in racing when it comes to silly season and stuff.
But like this one has now persisted so far and for so long that I can't help but think there's some reality to it.
I'm not saying there's not true.
I'm at Dixon DeCoyne.
Dixon is leaving.
Dixon is leaving Genasi and we should not be surprised because we have been calling it on this show for half a decade now.
So he's finally leaving Chip Genasi racing allegedly, which opens the door for him to finally make his Dale Coyne racing debut.
Makes sense.
Now, for some weird like inexplicable, you know, twist to the universe, Christopher Nolan type stuff, he doesn't end up at Dale Coyne racing.
One of the other crazier, we're way less realistic things out there is that he might be going to McLaren.
Which to me just says, I want a hypercar ride when I'm done racing IndyCar and Chip no longer has a sports car program.
I think it's more than that.
I think it's a couple things.
I think, you know, his family spends a lot of time in England.
I think that his two daughters go to school over there or at least part time go to school over there and Emma is obviously from England.
And McLaren is a brand, right?
It's a it's a manufacturer.
And so as much as Scott Dixon is the greatest of all time, like at some point he's got to go beyond putting the helmet on.
And so I don't know if this is true, but you would have to imagine that there's some sort of role post driving career with a brand,
a British brand of that night and two that could allow him to live in England and should you want that be the guy?
Because like it's not going to be a ganassi because they already have that in Darryl.
But they're also not a manufacturer.
It's not a brand.
Yeah, it's not like right.
It's just like a role within a team.
So yeah, if that's if that's true, man, like I got to be honest, I did not think I'd see the day that Scott Dixon drives for somebody other than Chip Ganassi.
And I've heard rumors in the past.
I've had conversations with Scott in the past about the idea of, you know, seeing what else is out there and maybe trying somewhere else.
But at this point in his career, you sort of like thought that he got to the point where he kind of it's almost like Lewis Hamilton, right?
You've got like the go.
Tom Brady.
Tom Brady.
This is Tom Brady.
This is Tom Brady leaving the Patriots going down to the...
Does that mean he's going to win a championship with McLaren?
Because that'll be annoying.
If not that a 500.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, either or both.
Who knows?
I mean, he's well capable of it.
But like also, man, what a coup for any team that presented a case appealing enough to Scott Dixon for him to leave Chip after 22, 3, whatever it is, years.
Unreal.
If it happens, again, we're all still speculating, but like, again, with a smokeless fire, we know for sure that Felix is leaving MSR and all the rumors are that he is also going to McLaren.
So you've got a guy that's already been to McLaren going back, a guy that's already been teammates with RosenQuest, potentially going to be teammates with him again.
I get some of it.
Like it kind of makes sense in a lot of ways.
So the Felix ones know the question.
So here's the question mark, right?
You've got currently at McLaren, you've got Pato, who's the guy.
And you've got Lungard, who is the only guy to not only win a race this year from McLaren, but also the only guy to stand on the podium from McLaren this year, which is not.
That's two ends.
Right.
And he's further ahead in points.
But again, it's right.
Not to say anything bad about Pato.
This is more of a testament to the job that Christian is doing.
So how can, how can if you're McLaren, let that guy go?
I'm just playing devil's advocate.
Like where, how does that work?
It, it is a tough one to understand, right?
It's, it's a tough one for like, okay, let me, let me, I'm going to take names out of this and just say, if I was in a position where I was ahead of my two teammates in points and was the only member of my team that had not only one on the race, even stood on a podium in the year, and I was being told that my option was not being picked up or my contract was not being renewed.
I would be very, I would have a lot of questions.
Carpuffled.
I'd have a lot of questions.
I'd be very carpuffled.
But yeah, I mean, there's, there's questions on the, I got questions on the Felix stuff too.
I don't know.
So.
But my, my question is, so there's these rumors, right?
And we know that, we know that Felix, it is a bit like, oh, let's just stick to the facts here.
We know that Felix is not coming back to MSR.
That was announced by MSR.
We're pretty sure that this rumor speculation about the Dixon, the McLaren thing is true.
That does not mean that Felix is going to McLaren.
I think that there's a lot of like,
I was just saying, I'd also heard that rumor.
Right.
There's, there's a lot of, there's, there's other teams like Felix drove for Ganassi in the past.
Then MSR is the, the customer team, the B team to Ganassi.
Like is there not a world where Felix just goes to the nine car?
No.
Okay.
I only say that because of the team statement from MSR.
With their relationship, it seems to me that if there was some move to get Felix from MSR back to CGR,
there would be some understanding, some discussion, some whatever.
And it would kind of be like a happy go lucky joint announcement, maybe, or something like that.
The, the announcement from MSR, the statement from MSR,
the positive and supportive of everything Felix has done with the team and for all that stuff
still sort of had the undertones of like, this is not our doing.
This is not our choice.
This is not what we wanted.
And I just don't feel like that would be the tone if he was going just across the street.
That's a fair point.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then, okay, let's say, let's say Lungard is departing.
Does it not make sense that it's just a straight up swap fix in for Lungard?
Because like,
Well, it could be MSR, Rosenquist for Lungard.
Right.
So then who goes in the nine car?
You have the kind of quote unquote, promote Armstrong into the nine car.
Or you look at a, you know, so yeah, okay, find that.
Or you look at like a renus who we know we've talked about as having had, nope.
Okay.
Okay.
Then you do look at a young guy like a Collette, like Chip's been known in the past.
Like there was a year where Chip ran two Formula 3000 drivers.
Bernard Jankara and Nicholas Monassian.
I mean, he took Palo from Coyne, who had Coyne, he didn't really do anything.
Not saying obviously that had anything to do with him.
He took Ed Jones after one year at Coyne.
So Chip has been known to kind of do some wild things.
So yeah.
And there's a lot of potential there.
We've talked about it.
I think that's a great shout.
It'd be very interesting.
Like, my God, what a coup.
How about being Kyle Collette and just being plucked out of, you know, rookie season, plucked
out and put into the nine car?
Like I was fortunate that I had my rookie year and then I got picked up by Andredi.
That was massive.
But to like go straight into the car that's been occupied by Scott.
Mother.
Dixon for this long.
Like that would be huge, but that could be very cool, man.
I'd be excited to see that.
I don't know about you, but I'd be excited to see it.
Do you think there's a scenario where, and I'm talking about this purely from a fan
standpoint, not that I could disclose conversations anyways, but you don't imagine that Felix
would have told MSR no without another option.
Do you?
No, that makes no sense for a driver.
So then what is the reason why Felix has not disclosed his plans?
Because you would, you would imagine that like when, when I made the shift mid season
or at least the announcement was made for my switch to McLaren that came in after the
500 in Detroit, because as a driver, especially in a contract year, you don't want to be dealing
with, it's just, it's an unnecessary conversation that you don't want to be having, right?
And so if the deal is done, why would you not announce it?
I can, I can then, okay, go ahead.
Yeah.
Well, let's say for example, let's say he is going to McLaren and he's taking, pick
a car, the six or the seven doesn't matter, right?
Okay.
If McLaren is not ready to announce that one of those two drivers is not going to be there
anymore, then you cannot announce where you're going, right?
Like there's two parties in this.
And so maybe, maybe wherever Felix is going, the ride he is filling has either not been
told or like they just haven't put all their ducks in a row to make that announcement yet
and you can't do one without the other, right?
Like when you made that announcement, we knew who was, who's car.
No, they were, they were adding a car.
Or whatever.
They knew, we knew, we knew you were adding.
We knew where you were going to end up.
Right.
It's a bit, I think that's potentially why.
What would be the motivation or incentive for MSR to issue a press release stating
that Felix isn't coming back?
I have a theory, but I don't want to get yelled at for it.
Then don't say it.
That's fine.
We're just, we're just having a chat here because I, we're trying to answer and maybe
put out some questions into the universe that people haven't thought of because all
of this is not as simple as it may seem.
No, nothing, nothing in this business is as simple as it seems, right?
I think that the reason that may have happened and this is purely speculation and I'm, I
don't mean anyone, anything you'll buy it, but I feel like there's a chance that MSR
was sort of shocked by Felix telling him they were going, them, them, they were going elsewhere.
And it was almost like reactionary from the team, like, well, we want it out there.
We want people to know that you're walking away from the team you just won the 500 with.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Or, or maybe they caught wind of potential people becoming available that weren't expected
to become available, i.e., the Christian Lungard.
And wanted people to know that they had a seat available.
For sure.
For sure.
A lot of games, a lot of politicking guys.
But very interesting.
It's a much bigger shakeup, I think, than a lot of people are expecting in some respects,
but also a shakeup with the names you weren't expecting.
Like I think, you know, at the end of last year, beginning of this year, like Joseph
was on people's lists of maybe moving, Marcus was on, Ericsson was on people's lists of
maybe moving.
And it seems like for our own intensive purposes.
No, no, I don't think they're going anywhere.
So there's going to be some shakeups, but people that we thought were kind of just indefinites.
Like you would have thought Lungard was going to be in McLaren for a long time.
You obviously would have imagined that Bixam was going to end his career with, with chip,
but it's exciting.
Sport never ceases to amaze.
Hey man, LeBron's leaving the Lakers, right?
Well, that's not that interesting.
He was only there for a few years.
The interesting part is he, he is signing with CGR.
Oh, I thought it was, was DC, I thought it was going to be Dixon's teammate
at McLaren.
Oh, that coin?
Yeah.
Well, we'll find out Saturday of St. Pete weekend.
But yes, to put it, yeah, like, like we talked about off the top, if this Dixon rumors true,
this is Brady going to the Bucks, like this is a huge, huge deal.
And it's exciting for the sport, man.
I'm, I'm whatever happens.
I'm, look, I'm happy for Felix wherever he ends up.
I'm happy for him.
I'm happy for Scott, whether he stays or whether he goes.
It's cool.
It's cool.
And again, we heard all these rumors and we thought for a time that like, we were coming
up with all these potential scenarios and it's like, there's going to be like no move.
Maybe one driver will move and everything else will be exactly the same.
That does not appear to be the case.
It looks like it is really going to shake up next year.
There are still some Indian X drivers that we haven't even brought into the conversation
that are doing well and whether it's Nikita Johnson, whether it's Max Taylor, whether
it's Josh Pearson.
There's a couple of them out there that have some potential and, you know, big interest
in moving up.
So there's a, there's a lot of unknowns.
You know, I think Kevin Lee on a call the other day was, was talking about how he did
the math and it was something like it was well over half of the field is technically in a
contract year, right?
And so as pieces start to move, some things that may have kind of been foregone conclusions
may no longer be that.
So we will continue to wait and see.
We know that you're not going anywhere, which is what we care about the most.
And it's going to be interesting to see kind of like I said, how it all shakes out.
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About this episode
James Hinchcliffe, Alexander Rossi, and Tim Durham dive into a hilarious debate over travel etiquette after a nightmare flight experience involving a loud, condiment-seeking passenger. The guys compare hotel standards across North America, Europe, and Asia, arguing why mid-range American hotels reign supreme. They also tackle the World Cup, sharing their unfiltered thoughts on why soccer fails to capture their attention compared to hockey, despite their national pride. It's a candid, banter-filled look at travel pet peeves and sports culture.
Original notes
Hinch dealt with someone eating a full meal they brought onto the flight, despite Rossi and Thim's best efforts to derail the story. Plus, the guys can't seem to get into soccer. And -finally- there's a lot going on in IndyCar silly season rumors and news. The guys dive into it.
+++
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.
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Off Track with Hinch and Rossi
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