Curt and Kevin Break Down the 2026 Schedule & Preview IMSA at Indianapolis!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is track side with Kirk Cavan and Kevin Lee
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the fan.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's time to get those engine styles. Need to set
the stage for an absolute showdown.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
This is where the club begins.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Here we go.

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Welcome everybody to the Firestone gran Prix of Saint Petersburg
Race Fans, we are racing here and Victor Race Pie.

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Free InCAR racing returning to North Texas, coming down the hill,
rout but quick you can. That's what Micks barbar So
Fugus one is special. And then at the Draan Prix
of Home which we are now racing out of an
out down shown drive a.

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Video games, we are racing at the Indianapolis Buggus being
away for the Socio trol Prai the Indianapolis five Driver
Dart River on the streets of Detroit. It is Survival
of the Minister around this place.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
In Saint Louis's Worldwide Technology Raceway. Yeah, this place is
really unique. Three minutes from the shores.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Of Lake Michigan, off the cope of Sheboygan you'll find
Road Maryland too and a quarta mile racecourse Fitovia. You
really never get a break at this place.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
This is as challenging and oval as we have and.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
This track just brings aggression, bogs and potland, really really
good Bolt.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
The race States Arc, start your angs. The Indy Races
copy fuck.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
A lot of everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sellout here at the Milwaukee Mile. It's the oldest track
in the world. Will be back. It's a Milwaukee Mile,
it's a doubleheader. Then it's set the stage for an
absolute showdown. And this is the glorious Central Coast of California.
This is the goodest sacred that we all lined up
now two x two. What a crazy play Tennessee to
nowhere else in the world like this. They are pelting

(02:04):
them at all full till Championship twenty twenty six is
now set for Indy car Welcome the track side ninety
three to five, one oh seven to five the fan
in Indianapolis on a Wednesday night. I know I said Tuesday,

(02:24):
but the Fever played last night. They won. Check your
local listings. Next week's show is Tuesday, unless the Fever
are still playing playoff basketball and play next Tuesday. Otherwise
it's TBD. You'll need to get on the xbox on Twitter.
That's where we post the schedule of the show the
day that it's going to happen at Kevin Lee twenty
three at Kirk cavin landon Coons Is in the studio.

(02:46):
I'm Kevin, that's Kirk. We have a schedule. Here are
the notes. Schedule remained. Seventeen races out thermal and two
races at Iowa in Phoenix with NASCAR on the day
before the Cup race with Infinity that day. Also of note,

(03:10):
four races to start the season in a five week span.
To make up for the loss of Iowa, there's a
doubleheader at Milwaukee to keep OVAL's at the same number
of events. Gateway is a night race. Nashville is a
quote night race. We'll talk about that. That moves to

(03:30):
July to follow the World Cup Final on Fox with
an eighteen to twenty million viewer lead. In moves to
four hundred miles, and Laguna Seca is the finale. Those
are the highlights. There are other thoughts as well, Kurt,
I want your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, it's interesting that this season ahead is going to
begin bang bang bang. We've talked a lot about the
spring and the early part of the schedule over the
course of the last few years, and I went back
and looked, this be the third earliest the season has
started in the last couple decades. In fact, maybe even

(04:07):
earlier than that. Going back even further than that, the
point is it going to run. We're gonna run four
races in March. That's unprecedented. So if your objection to
previous schedules was, you know, hey, IndyCars started early, it
may have started the first week of March, but there
wasn't much in the spring need to build momentum. That

(04:31):
question or that concern has been answered by the fact
there are three straight races to open the month of March,
March first, March seventh, and March fifteenth. There's a week off,
and then there's a fourth race in March at Barbara
Motorsports Park. And so again you're gonna go bang, bang

(04:52):
bang to get started in the season. It's a time
of the year when it's really conducive to attracting people
because people were kind of for something new. You could
make some arguments that that's NCAA tournament season. You could,
you know, there are other distractions, but from a motor
sports standpoint, once the season starts, you're going to get
a lot of it at least at least through the spring.

(05:14):
And I guess that's the first takeaway. The race at
Arlington has been much hyped. This race return to Phoenix
has been much discussed here in the last couple of weeks.
I'm excited about Phoenix. You and I have talked ad
nauseum about you know, Hey, where would you like to go?
I always start with Phoenix, and so we'll see if

(05:35):
that works. It's a one year deal. It's one year
just to see, you know, is this going to be
viable commercially long term? The balance of the of the
schedule is is still there five street races, six road
course events, and six races on oval tracks. We still

(05:56):
have a double header. I think in an ideal world
you would race single races at every venue. But this
allows Milwaukee to have a good you know, Milwaukee was
outstanding the last couple of years. So a couple of
races there is a good thing. And I guess we'll
argue or debate, or analyze or just discuss the rest

(06:19):
of the schedule.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I agree with everything you said, so I was hoping
for a surprise. And you can't judge what you read
on social media as to what the fan base is thinking.
But it is worth listening to, and it's very mixed there,
and I think there was some negative reaction and a
lot of meh reaction. And I'll be honest, I didn't

(06:47):
know what the schedule was. I was looking forward to
ten am yesterday morning to see what it was. I
thought I knew, But as I've said on this show before,
you know, I was told by people that matter that
Mexico City is happening. Mark Miles has been saying that
publicly as recently as a month ago, and the Hinch

(07:07):
and Rossie podcast spoke as if that's a foregone conclusion.
We haven't announced it, but that's why I said until
I hear it officially announced, more so than just getting
on the plane. But you just never know. There's so
many obstacles in any new event, especially when you're dealing
with a foreign entity. So I didn't know. My approach

(07:29):
had been I believe Mexico City when I see it.
There's a reason NASCAR is won and done. It's obviously
not very easy to do. And then you add in
the element that Liberty media is now involved in how
much are they gonna want? And it sounds like, maybe
that wasn't the big factor. So I didn't know Mexico
City was in or out until that announcement came out

(07:52):
Saturday morning. Okay, we got that, and then the other
reports you've seen was that DC was going to happen,
and DC could be the fallback for Mexico City. And
that's where when I reference, don't believe everything you read,
because my understanding was that cannot happen as soon as
twenty twenty six. However, I left myself some hope. All right,

(08:15):
maybe if Mexico City does fall through, maybe they can
get that together. Maybe something has changed since I have
last heard from any one of authority, So I was
holding out hope for that or maybe Watkins Glenn. I
think there was a real opportunity. I know not everyone
wants that, including some of the decision making process, but
I thought there was an opportunity. Easy for me to

(08:39):
say because it's not my investment to give it a go,
and basically the date the NASCAR ran there, they had
that date equity. I think there is an opportunity next
year for the people who have made it a tradition
going to Watkins Glenn to see car racing that they
might give IndyCar a try. I think that's going to

(08:59):
be to off to make that work. In what has
a better chance of being fifty five degrees than seventy
five degrees And it might be thirty five degrees in
the morning at Watkins Glenn in May. So I held
out some hope for that. I get it why it's
not happening. So I had and then basically I wrote
down what I thought it was and my best guess was, well,

(09:22):
to get to seventeen, you'll probably do a double header
at Milwaukee, And that's what it is. And it's a
bit of a map. Then you think about it a
little bit more, and okay, let's be fair. The big moments,
the big things that would have made us say wow,
had already been known exactly. So that made it challenging

(09:45):
to impress us with this. And while you'd love to
have and hold everything for a surprise, well that's not
the best way to get things up and going. And
plus you'd like to have more news cycles. You know,
the fact that Arlington was announced what nine months ago
or something like that gives it a great chance to succeed.
They're using this entire NFL season for fans coming. I'm

(10:09):
sure to promote this event, and I spoke to someone
about a suite there and it's going quite well. Ticket
sales are going pretty well at this point, so we
knew that We all kind of knew Phoenix. It wasn't announced,
but it had been reported by too many people that
we've kind of known for a few weeks that Phoenix

(10:29):
was going to happen. I think that's a big deal.
I think Markham is an upgrade. I love Toronto, but
you know, I've kind of mentioned that it doesn't feel
big there anymore. I think you've got a chance in
a smaller footprints. There's a lot of unknowns. I'm just
curious about it. I don't know. I think this is

(10:50):
probably an affluent area. I think it's probably a cool area.
So I want to see that because Toronto was good
and it's critical to be in Canada. But I can't
tell you that event has been awesome the last few years,
and this one has a chance of being awesome. So
this is one of those where you trade for a

(11:11):
future first round draft pick because of the upside. It's
pretty good. It's first round draft pick, but you just
never know until you get there. Now, other people have
been there, and they felt confident in this to the
point where they didn't just look for a one year option.
They could have gone to Watkins Glenn to fill that date.
Maybe they could have gone to Canadian Entire Motorsports Park

(11:31):
for a one year update. Apparently there was an airport
circuit that at one point I had heard was going
to happen. I think they found a long term option,
so I think that's a positive. Some other thoughts on
the scheduling, and you hit on this four In the
first five we all complained about starting, stopping, starting, stopping.

(11:51):
If you're going to get going, I feel like the
start is more important than any other time where people
have been clamoring from asport. You announce your presence with
authority with a great looking event at Saint Pete. You're
running with NASCAR the next weekend. Then you have a
brand new event at Arlington. You take a week off
for Sebring, where a lot of IndyCar people will be involved,

(12:13):
teams and drivers, and then you go to Barber which
also does well. You're avoiding the Masters this year. Let's
think business. They are not racing the weekend of the Masters,
they are not racing. The weekend the NCAA tournament opens
more important than week two, week three or anything else.

(12:35):
That's when no one's bracket is busted and people are
watching games Friday, Saturday, and still Sunday. They're also not
racing Final four weekend, which happens to be in Indianapolis.
I think that's a positive for your local media. TV
stations go down and you're trying to build enthusiasm that
final push for a sellout for the Indy five hundred

(12:57):
is going to be happening there, and you'd love Channel thirteen, six, eight,
and fifty nine to make a trip to erase that
weekend if possible. Now they can't do it at the
Final four is that weekend, So that opens up them
being able to go to barber A lot of them,
A lot of them do other positives. I see, you

(13:19):
only have one other stretch with four straight weeks, and
you have four and five to start the season, and
I feel like that's a time And I know, unfortunately
the crews can't be priority number one or number two.
You know you're in the business, but I think and

(13:40):
hope it matters, and you don't want too much burnout,
which makes difficult for the teams to retain employees. They're
going to be fresh when the season starts. Everybody will
handle that because of the excitement. The only other four
week stretch is in May with qualifying the race, then
Detroit and then now Gateway I think the following week.

(14:01):
But half of that is going to be spent at
home and the other are two very short trips, and
then you have some breaks in the heat of summer.
You don't go every other week in you also, by
the way, only have one There are no three week gaps.
You have I think two circumstances, maybe three where you

(14:22):
have two straight weekends off, including in April. But in
those April gaps, you're going to have the Indy five
hundred Test. And I don't know the date, but I
would hope it's after Long Beach, could be before, but
Long Beach is it's probably after, yeah, I would think.

(14:44):
So there's no racing between the nineteenth and ninth. It
opens up. This happened a few years ago because of rain,
and I think a lot of us would still love
to see that Test day be May first and second,
or second and third or whatever. I don't know. What
days of the week though, but even if it's late April,
that allows everyone to get fans included into Indianapolis Motor

(15:10):
Speedway focus because you've done that before and then you
go to to another race. But then the next event,
yes it's the road course, but you're parked at Indianapolis.
Got to help for the teams. They can just come
in and set up their garage in late April and
not have to tear it down and go to barber
or anything else. So I feel like that's good. There's

(15:31):
a couple of weeks off in the summertime, but no
huge long gap in there. They're not racing on the
day of the Brickyard four hundred minor. But that's a
nice plus for the industry. And I also think for
your biggest television market, you lose out on that when
you race head to head with the Brickyard four hundred.

(15:52):
It's good for IMS, it's good for the para company,
you know, they can focus more on what's going on.
The President of IndyCar and the Speedway doesn't have to
try to be two places at once. More industry things
but small. There are no imso weather tech conflicts. I
don't know when the last time that has happened has
not since I've been a part of both, So that's

(16:13):
also potentially good for business. I know they don't get
big TV ratings, but that's fifty to one hundred thousand
people that are watching those races. Sometimes it's three or
four hundred that are road racing fans that might watch IndyCar.
You need every fan that you can get. There's no
Laman twenty four conflict good for the industry, and both

(16:34):
of those, by the way, are good for Penske entertainment.
So I don't think that's a total coincidence that they
avoided those gaps, but it might be. Certainly helps Jonathan
do Good, the guy who's running the Porschapenski sports car
program and the IndyCar program, that he can go to
every event next season, night race is at Gateway, probably
a better chance of a true night race at Gateway

(16:56):
in the Nashville. I don't know how Nashville is going
to work. It's a huge opportunity because it's gonna be
on the heels of the World Cup finale, and my
soccer knowledge is none, but I think it starts three
o'clock Eastern I'm gonna guess those matches are two hours long.
You never know with extra time, and then they're going

(17:18):
to have some post match awards. Is that a three
hour window? Probably? Is it a four hour window? Well,
if it's a three hour window and you're going on
the air at six o'clock, that's five o'clock in Nashville. Unfortunately,
it's not really a night race, but they did extend
it so and that's going to be a decision that

(17:40):
Fox and IndyCar have to make. Do you do a
long pre race to try to get it tonight. I
think you're probably better served to get in the car
and go and start the race as soon as possible,
But evening race will be better than two o'clock. Gateway
could be a true night race. Like you mentioned, I'm

(18:00):
also not a huge fan and I don't think the
industry is of double headers, but if you're going to
need to do one, I like the idea of Milwaukee
better than Iowa. That going to Iowa multiple days is
a little bit of a commitment. You know, if you're
staying in des moin it's an hour and a half
round trip. Milwaukee is not. You can walk to the

(18:22):
racetrack from quite a few hotels, there's camping at both
and certainly from downtown it's ten minutes away. So if
you're going to do a double header, I like it
being in a city. It's a good race. It's convenient.
By the way, finishing with a double header the next
to the last weekend increases the chances that Polo has
not clinched the championship before the next to last weekend,

(18:45):
So there are going to be three races remaining. But
it seems that it would be unlikely that with two
Oval races he's going to have it clinched in three
to go. And by the way, if he doesn't win,
a new star is born or resurrected, because every as
an underdog. It's Alex Poulo versus the world. So I
do see a lot of positives. I know we're always

(19:06):
hoping for more, and the challenge with Watkins Glenn again
easy for me to say, let's do it, But that's
another event Penske would probably need to promote. It would
have had to have been a track rental, and I
get it, they're stretched already and they promoted Iowa didn't

(19:27):
go awesome, So you know, you might say, hey, let's
try to continue with events where other people are helping.
Milwaukee is really promoted by the State Fair Board. Now
with help from anycar. You have help with the Dallas
Cowboys and Texas Rangers. At Texas, it's really hard to
do it on your own. And we have seen that's

(19:48):
a track owned by NASCAR. You're not going to get
any help. They're not interested in that. I get it.
That doesn't benefit them. So I understand why it didn't
happen in this case. So lots of thoughts. For one.
Let's let's start with the World Cup implications. I don't

(20:10):
know that we have. You know, certainly there's been a lot.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Of discussions, uh with Mexico City and how does that
you know, how does racing there for the first time
from an IndyCar standpoint, from the logistics standpoint. You made
the point that NASCAR only went there once. Is there
some things that we don't know about how that went,
uh that are in play here. One of the things

(20:35):
that Mark Miles spoke about on the teleconference was kind
of the economic impact and not so much from the
promoter and the dollar figure UH at that point. But
you know, you're trying to sell suites, you're trying to
sell tickets and the businesses there, and by the way,
you're going to try to get your communication out by

(20:58):
you know, utilizing the meta and the other avenues of
word distribution, and you're going to be in a very
crowded World Cup space. They're going to be talking about it. People,
local businesses are going to be spending their money on
World Cup. And I think it just from a dollar standpoint,

(21:20):
it just didn't have the same excitement. I think that
was a concern Mark. Mark brought that up. So I
think there's there's a lot to be said for just
pumping the brakes. And as he used the word just,
it just caused us this is his quote. I wrote
it down. It caused us to be a bit more cautious.

(21:41):
And I think that's a the more you think about it.
In the business side of you know, the dollar figures
just don't come or the dollars just don't come from
from you know, the sponsor, from the from the promoter.
It also comes from sweet sales, it comes from ticket sales,
it comes from souvenir sales. And if you're so if

(22:02):
your economy, there is very world Cup focused. I'm talking
about the sports economy of the city and the area,
and obviously there's plenty of people to support something at
the level that IndyCar needs. But if all those entities
are focused on soccer, then it's probably a difficult.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Ask to go into a new market.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
You may go back to Detroit and all the things,
for example, all the businesses that are involved in putting
on the Detroit Grand Prix. You see that this is
a far reaching economic puzzle to put together. That is
just more than just what the promoter pays to the series.
So I thought that was interesting. I don't know if

(22:48):
you have anything to add there, and I want to
move on to a couple other races, but let's talk
about that one if you have any other further thoughts.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, I think Mexico City is the one that surprised
a lot of people. How did it go from being
a foregone conclusion everyone's saying it was done to not
and when you first saw the announcement it's because of
the World Cup. The reaction was, well, wait a minute,
they didn't just schedule the World Cup three weeks ago.
We've known about this since the beginning of these conversations,

(23:17):
what changed and what's the answer? Always? The answer is
always money, And that part makes sense when you see
the quotes from Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles yesterday that
it was about money. But then you still wondered, or
oh wait a minute, still you knew you were trying
to do this a week after it ended. How did

(23:40):
we not see the red flags? And here's my guess
is that someone on the local side, and it kind
of sounds like they're not as they continue this and
they're working on twenty twenty seven already, there's been no
confirmation that the local representative, Riccardo Ascoto is involved. So

(24:04):
just a theory is that maybe they were getting assurances
on the local side, Oh yeah, don't worry about it,
it's going to be fine. We're still going to find
people to buy the tickets. The business is going to
be there, and maybe he was going to cover it
and guarantee it, you know, because we don't know what

(24:25):
the financial share was, how much was IndyCar investing, how
much was the promoter investing? Was it a fifty to fifty?
And I also just wonder, you know, two months ago,
Ricardo Escoto had I would think an incentive to help
his son's racing career, that this will be good for

(24:47):
my son that I'm sure when this started he thought
maybe he would be an IndyCar by this time, but
at minimum he would be an Indie next driver and
we would have a hometown race. Well, Riccardo'scoto didn't finish
the season. Know what happened, don't know if he didn't
pay the crash bill, don't know if he was upset
of the team and quit or whatever. But something changed

(25:07):
and he went away after being there all seasons. So
are they no longer interested in Ricardoiscoto Junior driving in
this series? That might less than the incentive for Senior
to be all in on this. And that is no sourcing,
just a thought. But that's my best guess is that

(25:30):
the IndyCar people were led to believe it's going to
be fine and good for them doing their own research
and saying, you know what, no, even if somebody is
kind of guaranteeing this and maybe we're not at financial risk,
there's no good sense to go there and it not
go well because logic would say, after they've been hosting

(25:52):
the World Cup, you're not going to have the corporate
support and you're not going to have this fan support,
and then it's going to be one and done. And
we've been talking talking about this forever and that's going
to look bad for your most popular driver Poto Award.
And I saw his comments Bob Pokras had Poto is honest,
is he not? If Potter thought they fumbled the ball here,

(26:13):
Potter would be telling us, just like he told us
last year, they're fumbling by not having a race there.
Bob posted comments at the red carpet last night before
the awards ceremony with Poto very measured, and that's what
he basically said was it's going to be hard, and
if we don't do this right, that's going to be it.

(26:36):
And I think that's something what I don't get is
and Nathan Brown at The Indie Star had a story
yesterday because we had been first hearing April and I've
been hearing potentially combining with NASCAR, and then that April
date went away, and then that's when they started getting
into July, which became much more difficult now. I think

(26:57):
Nathan was the one that kind of looked into this
that April is tough. You know you have Easter that
we know, but I believe his reporting said it's not
just Easter that you don't want to have sporting events,
it's other dates in a Catholic environment that you don't
really want to be racing on. So maybe that's why

(27:18):
that went away or some other reason. But once that
wasn't an option, it got a little bit more difficult.
So there should be more options next year. So disappointed,
but also glad that they're not going to go into
something that has a high chance of failing.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I want to circle back before I get to Watkins, Glenn,
circle back on something you said, and I think you've
made the point appropriately, but I wanted to really say
absolutely when you said it, and that is part of
our lack of excitement when the schedule actually came out,

(27:55):
is because you had the news of the excitement.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Some time ago.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Arlington had already been announced with much fanfare. We had
all made some assessments of the Ontario Race at Markham,
and you know, while we don't know exactly what that's
going to look like and feel like, I think we've
all come away with yeah, we're pretty optimistic. Toronto, Downtown
Toronto or Exhibition place has not been I mean, it's historic,

(28:24):
that racetrack is historic, but you don't have a huge
walk up from people just walking down from their condos.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Downtown.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
It kind of have felt like the downtown, if I
can call it, that the downtown had pretty well run
its course. We needed a jolt of energy in the market.
And while this is not technically in Toronto, and it's
not an easy drive from downtown Toronto due to traffic
and so forth, but people have told us Canadians, our

(28:55):
friends in the media who are Canadians have said, hey,
Markham's got a chance here. This is a good part,
good part of town, or the Metroplex if you were
using the Dallas Fort Worth term, this has got a
really chance, good chance of happening so and being successful.
So there's two elements that had been announced previously, and
then the third was was Phoenix and so you know,

(29:18):
again we had not seen an announcement, but that's positive.
I think we all are excited about. You know, what
does this look like just being back at Phoenix Racetracks
different than that it used to be back you know,
we've been racing there since nineteen sixty four, almost without fail.
There's some years, you know, two thousand and six to

(29:41):
about two thousand and fifteen where we didn't run and
we've all missed Phoenix. It's such a it's such a
great place for us. I guess I'll touch on Washington,
d C. For just a second.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Mark Miles continued to just say it's complicated and it
was impossible to handicap whether that happens in the future.
The idea came from Fox. Uh, you know, I don't
I don't see a lot of you know, more than
fifty to fifty here. I don't know it's he said,
you do this.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, I don't know how he told about it. I said,
what race around RFK in Landover, No, No, Downtown. They're trying,
and it's worth a try. You gotta sometimes swing for them.
You gotta hit singles, but sometimes you got to swing
for the fences. And I think that would be one
of those. And if they can pull that off, amazing.

(30:35):
But yes, we should not count on that until we
hear it.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
And then and then with regard to Watkins, Glenn, you know,
I love Watkins Glenn. I think everyone who's been there,
everyone who's watched a race, it's just spectacular.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
It really is. I didn't get the sense.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
From listening to Mark Miles that that's as high on
the priority list as maybe you.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
And and no, no, it's it's zero on Mark's part
already list. I get that he does not want to go.
Someone is going to have to tell him. And he's
not the only person involved in this. You know this,
Greg Penske and Jonathan Gibson and Roger Penske and Doug Bowls.
Everyone is involved in this. But Marc has made his
feelings very known. He doesn't want to go to small

(31:17):
markets and places that they've been to. He wants new markets,
and I agree with that. I also don't think we
should rule out previous markets like where we just were, Milwaukee,
where they're adding another race last year, and like Phoenix
now Phoenix, though is not a small market, that is
a very very big market and in a climate that

(31:41):
you need. Yeah, you need warm weather clients for a
climate for spring races. So I understand Watkins Glenn. That's
that's more the insider thing. And it also does not
tick any boxes for teams entertaining clients. It is difficult
to get there when you're trying to sell sponsorships and

(32:02):
saying we're going to have hospitality for you. They want
where where can I get to fifteen minutes from the airport. Well,
there is an airport twenty five or thirty minutes away,
but it's a little bit more difficult.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
And then lastly, as part of the discussion with Watkins,
Glenn Mark's remarks and his question. The question to him
was about what would you rather see or what are
you leaning toward? And clearly this is, you know, spill
the beans for twenty twenty seven announcement. They're really looking

(32:35):
very hard at Denver. He wants another race in the West.
You know, it would be around the new stadium development
that's ongoing, although I think that's quite some time down
the road before it's open. I don't know all the details.
Patrick Stefan would have to give us. The Denver Broncos stadium.
I just learned recently they're building a new stadium for

(32:57):
that stadium. It's not that old, and I hope this
is not a new development. Someone told me last night.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
That this does not impact Indy Car's plan, so I
hope that's the case.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, So anyway, you know, we've already now gotten word
about Denver. So when when it shows up a year
from now on the schedule announcement, let's don't put poo
it because it's it's it's already been discussed and leaked,
and you know, you just can't. You can't keep these
things under wraps because you know, just because there's too

(33:27):
much involved. So anyway, the whole racing it in Denver
seems like it has real momentum. Mark smiled a lot
when he was asked the question. He you know, he
wanted to give information. He has information. He didn't want
to share information, so but he wants to answer the
question in some form. But I think we'll see that,

(33:48):
and yeah, you know, there's you can always nitpick these schedules.
I think there are some things that I understand why
people are about. I think there are some things that
I'm really excited about. I still would like to see
a bigger oval track other than Indy on the track
in addition to Indy, I guess on the schedule, you know,

(34:12):
but that hasn't happened yet. The balance of street and
road courses and ovals has always been important to me
to have a nice mix. We continue to have that.
It is interesting three of the first five are on
street circuits Saint Pete, Arlington and Long Beach, and so
you're going to you're pretty well and Detroit comes very quickly,
so you're going to have those street races early. Yeah,

(34:35):
Will's going to be uh, he's going to dominate Saint
Pete and then we'll he'll be the one being chased.
The other point I would make, I guess I would
correct you a little bit. You said four straight races
in or four straight weekends in that May period. Actually
five when you throw in the Sancio Grand Prix to

(34:56):
Indie Qualifying, to the Indy five hundred, to De Troit
to Now the fifth one in this mix is Worldwide
Technology Raceway. So that's that's going to be a that's
going to be a butt kicker, especially when you try
to go to Detroit and and I guess the real
one is going to be Saint Louis. When you go
to Gateway and you are three weeks at Indy, You've

(35:19):
been to the Detroit street race and now you've got
to now you got to do an oval.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
I feel like that's better though, than four straight agree
in the summer, all in different locations at least three
straight weekends are mostly sleeping in your own bed, which
is I agree, it's kind of nice. And then you've got,
you know, short drives to the other two. They don't
have to get on an airplane for five weeks. I'm
going to you know, maybe some will fly to Detroit,

(35:44):
but almost everyone will drive to Saint Louis because from
the West side it's what three hours or something like that.
Uh So, big picture, I like to schedule better than
this year's it. It ticks some of the boxes and
some of the things that they are missing. A couple
of other thoughts, and we will address the other thing

(36:04):
that's being talked about most swapping the season finales Nashville,
not the final. We'll get to that coming up next
on Trackside. Hi, this is Poto Award and you're listening
to truck Side. Okay, more schedule talk. If you just
joined this late, podcast will be up just after nine
o'clock Eastern. Search it on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud. Look for

(36:27):
Trackside with Cavin and Kevin. There might be a picture
of an MNA fighter on it, or it might be
a picture of a racetrack, but either one is probably
us because Kevin Lee, the MMA fighter does not have
a podcast or social media, so if he does, let's
see what he has to say. Maybe he'll break things
down for us. We've dressed a lot of things in
the schedule. The other most discussed topic, which was met

(36:50):
with a lot of anger when it first was leaked,
was Nashville moving to summer and Laguna moving to the finale.
I think it's more about what can go, and they
want to go after the opportunity to have an eighteen

(37:12):
million lead in audience ish with the World Cup finale.
Do we want it to be something that might be
a little bit processional, which event might convince someone that
is experiencing Indy Car for the first time to continue.
And you know, some might say, well, we don't know

(37:33):
we're going to have a full grand stands at Nashville.
That may not be the best opportunity either, And you
can kind of hide things in the hills of Laguna,
Seka point noted. But it's still not a lot of people.
But I think the opportunity is there though, to have,
as we would say, a banger of a race and
your best chance. Let's look at it this way. An

(37:55):
extra six million people watch the Indy five hundred that
aren't watching the other races to get some of those
six million. What race is closest to the Indianapolis five hundred,
it'd be Nashville super Speedway on the current schedule.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
I'd agree with that. I think, you know, I'm less
worried about the attendance. I don't mean it like that.
Everybody's worried about the attendance.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I don't. It didn't as long as it's at least
as good as it was last year. It did not
look bad, so that's not I saw some quotes from
Scott board Shadow that he would like to see more.
Everyone would like to see more, but it wasn't bad.
And I saw quotes from the IndyCar people yesterday is
that we've got an opportunity here. We are going to
double down and we are going to really try to

(38:41):
make this happen. Now, you don't have to worry about
whether the championship is clinched. You know what you are promoting.
You are promoting good racing, and you're promoting an evening race.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Let me clarify what I said. What I meant when
I mean about I'm not worried about attendance. When I'm worried.
What I'm saying is, I'm not worried about how the
attendance perception shows on television.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
I think people watch a good event, whether or a
good sporting event, regardless of how many people are in
the stands. I've seen some great baseball games with very
few attendants. I'm reading I just got found reading a
book about the Big Red Machine in the nineties or
in the seventies, and in seventy five, seventy six, and
they played. There are several mentions of games where they

(39:28):
had less than five thousand people. The Big Red Machine
were still a big deal. Yeah, that's one of one
hundred and sixty two games. So we won't debate this
too much pous we have before. That's where I disagree
with that. I think perception does matter. You're telling people
it's a big event. If they tune in at Fontene
and see six thousand people in the stands, agreat does

(39:50):
not work.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Great. Wait a minute, you told me this is a
big deal. If it's a big deal the other big
deal sporting events I watch baseball playoff games BA. Do
you not think the NBA would be worried if the
NBA Finals had seventeen thousand, I just mean it's not
a be all, end all, but I think it matters.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
It's not the highest thing on my priority list, Let's
put it that way. I think the highest thing on
my priority list is to show something following the World
Cup that takes your breath away or captures your imagination
or holds your attention. And I think either Milwaukee or
Nashville would have done that. So applause, applause for that.

(40:31):
I think you're going to have a great show on this.
So if the thing gets started and there's some great
side by side racing in this first twenty laps, which
I almost guarantee there will be, people are going to
stay with it. They'll stay with it a little bit longer,
a little bit longer. Anyway, the opportunity to have an
entertaining race is there, and I like that. As for Laguneseka,

(40:53):
you know, it depends on what your what your expectations
are and your goals for a season finale. You know,
it has been a place where where drivers have kind
of run away and hid leaders. Alex Polo's done it, uh,
you know, there there have been others, you know, you're
not going to have some of the oval track action

(41:15):
at Lagunesca. However, it shows great on television and it
is a place where all your big shots are going
to want to go. They're going to want to play
golf at Pebble Beach and then come those are the
people spending money and and there. So it depends on
what your objections are or what your goals, and I
could argue it either way. I wish we were ending

(41:36):
the season on an oval. I've always since I first
began watching the sport, loved oval track finishes. You know,
those at Texas Motor Speedway over the years in the
in the early two thousands were just spectacular with so
much on the line, you know, a very thrilling environment.
But you know we finished at Lagunesca many times over

(41:58):
the years. Uh.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
It is it is good for business to be in
Monterey at the end of the season. It just is. UH.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
So we can we can discuss whether it's the best
race on the circuit, uh in terms of excitement. But
I'm telling you there are there are a lot of
Laguna Seca moments that that we talk about a lot,
not just the corkscrew with Brian Hurda and Alex SNORTI
but going off and turn one, the side by side,
exiting two, pushing somebody into the dirt and turn three.

(42:29):
I mean, there's there's places on that racetrack that are
fun and it is it has still the opportunity to
be a thrilling race, So I wouldn't discount that. The
other thing is the leadership at at the track is different.
You know, Mel Harder being an indie guy and and
he loves IndyCar racing and and it seems like the

(42:51):
infrastructure UH is going to benefit as well.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
At Laguna Seca.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Look at I can understand the fan perspective, As I said, personally,
I'd rather have an OVAL to end the season, but
this is a pretty good place. It's pretty special on
a lot of fronts of.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
The options available, I think this is fine. The reality
is there is not a race on the schedule that
works perfect in the second half the season for the finale.
If you didn't need a doubleheader, you could maybe argue
about Milwaukee that that might work and Labor Day weekend
inside of a city where I heard this from a
lot of people with teams at Nashville, we invited sponsors.

(43:32):
No one wants to come because they have plans on
Labor Day weekend. They're not going to do this. Maybe
there's enough in the Milwaukee area that you can make
that work, but there just isn't a perfect scenario. Laguna
Seka has had its moments the point about entertaining all plays,
so I feel like that's a work in progress that

(43:53):
you could consider that something to search for. However, I
know that it was said yesterday, No, the plan is,
this is not just to stop gap of the year,
plan on this being the finale for a few years.
But you know what event, and this will be blasphemous,
what would be the best event for the season finale? Well,
Long Beach should be Long Beach. And you know, send

(44:14):
your comments into Kurt about the anger of the Boston
consulting group. So they got a lot of things wrong,
but I think that one might be right, and you
run the risk of the date equity, but they ran
it in October one other year and everybody still showed up.
So it's just something to think about. There are a

(44:34):
lot of big events in the first half of the season.
IndyCar needs more, as we call them, tent pole events,
major events in the second half of the season. So
if you really wanted to blow things up and be bold,
that ticks all your boxes. Uncertainty street racing has uncertainty.

(44:55):
Now after the last pitstop, it's probably over as well,
which is the way it is in a lot of
road course races. But being able to entertain people and
have a massive looking crowd, then it's one of those
I'm glad I'm not in charge, but it's something that
should probably be brought up at some point. What if

(45:17):
And the answer made me, no, we're not going to
do it. We can do it, but it's probably something
that should be talked about, big picture schedule thing. The
other is, you know, for it to satisfy everyone. I
know people are angry that Indy Car is not still racing,
but if television matters, it certainly does to the group

(45:38):
that owns one third of your sport. Now you're not
racing in the fall. One, all of our production people
are doing NFL games or college football games right now.
They would have to go to the C team for
anyone beyond announcers, No one is available at this point. Two,
Where are you going to air it? You don't have time. Now,

(46:00):
I did mention it to some people again that if
you ever saw the right markets and a week two
single header without anything in the afternoon, you could generate
a television rating. And they know this because they've done
it for NHRA before and CBS has done it for Formulae.
You know you could if you can guarantee that September

(46:24):
fifteenth ish would get you a four to fifteen Eastern
time events, you're running after the one pm window, and
your rating would start at ten million, and it would
go down to three hundred thousand, because that's what you're
going to get when you run opposite the NFL, but
it would still be a good overall audience. That is
something that could happen, but that's hard to do logistically.

(46:48):
So you're better served and you're likely to see it
ending on Labor Day. So can we start earlier? And
I know Zach Brown mentioned that again in his Papaya
column that he posted yesterday. We all want that. They
know that, you've just got to find markets that you
could do that. And the hatred for thermal eliminates one
of those options, because that's one if you need spring races,

(47:11):
that's a place you could go. We'd all love to
see more bigger ovals, but Homestead hasn't worked. Maybe Chicago
Land gets resurrected with NASCAR back there, and you can
think about that in the summertime. But that's what is
still needed, is a way to start the season in February.
I don't know that it's written that Saint Pete has
to be the opener. If it is written, there are

(47:32):
amendments that can be available. There are ways that that
can be adjusted if it's good for the sport. There
are concessions that can be made if you could find
something and get creative and get started before Formula one significantly.
I think that could also be good. And use the
Fox portion of the NASCAR schedule their biggest ratings are

(47:55):
at the beginning of the season, and use that promotion
the following week. So that's the only thing that long
term I think you could potentially do, and that would
be a way to expand the race to the calendar
to say eighteen, if you can find solid markets there.
I guess.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Last thought on a couple other venues that are back
on the schedule. I'm glad to see Portland still there.
I know it gets it has its detractors to some extent.
I think, you know, I think when we were making
a list of the best races in twenty twenty five,
I think you have to put Portland in the top five.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
It was really good.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Now Alex Polo helped that because he had every reason
and every he would have been let off the hook
if he would have coasted around and finished third or fourth,
and he tried to go for it and was on
the charge. And hats off to Alex for the way
he drove in Portland. But that was a really entertaining event.
I'm glad to I always like Portland. I think having

(48:59):
that West Coast presence is excellent. And then you know
everything else, I think, you know what we've actually talked
about just about every other venue.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
You know, the one race in.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
April being Long Beach is obviously a big attraction Easters
in there, and you really will have like another event,
another another talking point by having the Indie Test probably
the last few days of April. I don't have the
schedule in the twenty twenty six dates in front of me,
but it's you know, you're still going to have. It's

(49:37):
kind of like an event you're going to have people
talking about you, so that's that's an event that doesn't
have an event. Doug Bowles did say, by the way,
that not only would you expect to see a tire
test at Phoenix, it does sound like an open test
at Phoenix is probably likely or at least better than
fifty to fifty. And I think you know that would

(49:58):
be if you have kind of a spring raining at Phoenix,
that'd be really good.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
TBD on how that goes. You're not going to really
it's going to be more IndyCar promoting NASCAR. And this
is how I think you convinced NASCAR to let IndyCar join,
is that Fox would have presented it. Hey we're gonna
run IndyCar on Saturday, and we're going to promote the
Cup race also on Fox the following day. Remember, Infinity

(50:23):
is on the CW, so there's no cross promotion that's
going to be available for that one. IndyCar needed a date,
so they had to kind of concede some things, and
I think they're going to run before Infinity, probably late
afternoon or early evening. The Exfinity race will be the
night race, but it's worth a try, and you know,
hopefully you find some fans that say, all right, I

(50:45):
probably wasn't going to go to the Infinity race. This
is why it's good for the track and good for NASCAR.
But if you're going to give me an IndyCar race
and an Infinity race neither or longer than two hours,
all right, I'm going to go out there. I can
commit six seven hours and see two races on Saturday
evening when the weather is perfect in Phoenix. Jennifryar did

(51:05):
point out that, yeah, maybe the motivation also was for
NASCAR to show in this ongoing lawsuit with Michael Jordan
company that yeah, we do host other series at our tracks.
We are not a monopoly. See Indy Cars at one
of our tracks. So we shall see. All right, we'll
preview our number two and plenty more to get to

(51:25):
stay with us on trackside.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Hi, this is Mark Sirkson, and you're listening to Trackside
on ninety three five and one oh seven five To.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Fan, there is still one more hour to go in
the program. We have not gotten to the xbox and
we will do that post HeSE. Your Twitter questions at
Kevin Lee twenty three at Kurt Cavan are coming up
in just moment. It's been a big day. Cubs have
clinched a playoff spot. We got that going for us,
or at least some of us do what else? Oh,

(51:55):
we learned the Canadian Grand Prix. We thought hope would
be the case when it was announced that F one
would be racing. They're not in Monaco on Indy five
hundred race day. They're going to be in Canada, which
could be a direct conflict. We thought we couldn't they
just run it at four o'clock to help them and
to help the motorsports world. And they've done it. That's

(52:16):
been announced in the last couple of days. The Canadian
Grand Prix is going to be at four o'clock eastern.
The Indy five hundred should be over at about four
o'clock eastern twelve forty five ish green flag race is
usually three three point fifteen in that range, so a
little bit of potential carryover. So I feel like that's
good news as well, you know, big picture, last thing, well,

(52:38):
last thing for now, because I think some Twitter questions
will be on this schedule. As I mentioned, you know,
it took me a think for a moment to realize actually,
all things considered, this schedule is pretty good. And what
I didn't mention what still makes it really good is
Indy Car is I think the only sport, not just motorsport,

(52:58):
the only sport that has one hundred percent of their
main events meaning games, matches, races on network television. And
we shouldn't gloss over that because that's a huge part
of this deal. All right, our two coming up, including
little conversation what's coming up at Indie this weekend with

(53:19):
IMSA all on the way on trackside?

Speaker 4 (53:22):
How big is this going to be? We talk about
Wayne Taylor Racing. They're gonna win in Pro, they will
win in Pro Am. Jackson Lee spectacular drive after taking
over from Trenton Hemmon. Welcome to the winners Club, Jackson Lee.
You have won in Lamborghini Soup for Trafeo and you've
done it at Road America.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
It's our number two track side ninety three to five,
one oh seven to five the fan in Indianapolis, Kevin Lee,
Landon Kons in our studio. Kirk Cavin has other assignments
this evening or other duties. He will have the rest
of the night off, so we will talk amongst ourselves
sports cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, so

(54:01):
was self serving to our household highlight to start off
our number two that was from the Road America event,
the last IMS event that included all the classes and
the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series what a month ago, six
weeks ago or something like that. And I'm a bad
pr rep I shortchanged our driver. I always joke that

(54:24):
he's not getting on the show again until he wins.
And not only did I not allow him to appear
on the show, we didn't even play the highlight, which
is courtesy of Peacock, and that's pretty cool. My friend
Brian Till called Jackson's first sports car when at Road America,
and I think probably he's not as deep a thinker
as we are. He's a kid young man actually, but

(54:48):
you know, he's known Brian since he was a kid
and not six foot four. And Brian was one of
his first driving instructors and was one of the instructors
and the judges the Lucas Oil Series Carts to Car
shootout where Jackson won a scholarship. So impart, it's Brian's
fault that he's still doing this instead of trying to

(55:09):
play college baseball or something like that and use his
six foot four frame. But I enjoyed that having Brian
and my friend Maran Marine in the booth on Peacock
for that race. So here's what's coming up, of course,
starting with highlights. Lamborghini Super Traveo the races this weekend
and buried the lead. So Jackson is back with Wayne

(55:32):
Taylor Racing. It was kind of a one race tryout
deal to run with Trent Henman, who is a very
accomplished sports car driver, also a former Team USA scholarship winner,
probably seven or eight years before Jackson, but he's won
weather Tech Championships, he won won for Meyer Shank a
few years back. He's won Michelin Pilot Championships, has won

(55:55):
a race this year with Wayne Taylor in their weather
Tech gt D car and the Lamborghini, and he's paired
with Jackson again this weekend in the number sixty nine
cards kind of pink, it's black, it's got some dark blue.
You'll recognize some of our logos on the car like
the IU Signmon Comprehensive Cancer Center and in lun Cancer

(56:18):
Now and Browning Chapman and race for RP. So look
for that car this weekend. They will race on Friday
afternoon at three point fifty five Saturday at five oh
five on YouTube if you don't have Peacock, also on
Peacock and those are archived as well. They'll practice a
couple of times tomorrow, qualify on Friday morning, so we're

(56:40):
looking forward to that. Usually Jackson, the way they did
the last time, Trent will probably qualify for Race one,
start Race one, Jackson will finish, and then they reverse it.
I like that in Super Crafeo that each driver gets
a chance to start a race and each driver gets
a chance to finish a race. Now to the bigger race,
the Tech Race with the four classes and fifty three cars.

(57:03):
Six hour race, not six hours next year. The Endurance
Round moves to Road America next year in IMSA, but
six hours next to last race of the season. Think
about this, they have sixteen hours of racing to go.
We think that this season is almost over sixteen hours
of racing. That's about a half a season in IndyCar.

(57:24):
I think all four of the championships could effectively be
clinched this weekend, but the fields are big enough that
three of them could change leads if it goes the
other way and those in second win and the leader
finishes in the back. Porshapinsky is still leading the overall class,

(57:45):
and we have a lot of IndyCar connections, especially with
the teams in the GTP class. Also of note in
the GTP class is the ray Hall team, the BMWM
RLL team. They finished one two last year at Indy
and they finished one two in the very last race

(58:07):
right after learning essentially they've been fired. BMW is looking
I think they've found They've just not announced yet, but
they will have a new factory team or they will
award the contracts to be a factory team to someone
else next year. And RLLL is looking for another program

(58:28):
to head up. And there's still a few things in
flux there and I'm optimistic and hopeful that they'll get
something done. And the twenty four BMW RL is still
alive in the championship, coming on strong as the Meyer
Shank car, the ninety three, and on and on and on.
Just a few other things of people that IndyCar fans

(58:49):
might be familiar with. They can watch for. Rama Grojean
is going to be back in the Lamborghini number sixty three.
This weekend, we'll see Sebastian Border. Yes, I know he's
running in the World and Durn Championship. Bud does many
of these races as well. He'll be in the number
eight for Tower Hunter mcelray second in the Indie Next
or Indie Lights Championship a few years ago, and did

(59:11):
an IndyCar race last year. Quite well, he's in the
number eleven again. Remember Rubens Barrichello, of course you do.
Great Formula one driver, really pleasant person to get to know.
In the year he was in IndyCar. His son Eduardo,
they call him Doodoo, or at least they did when
he was a kid running in USF two thousand, where

(59:32):
he swept a pair of races at Indianapolis on the
way to second in that championship. He's doing his first
weather Tech race and a GT three car for vanderst
the number nineteen cars. So Eduardo Barrichello, we'll be in
that car. Logan Sergeant, the American Formula one driver, we'll
be making his sports car debut in a P two car,
the number fifty two. Benjamin Peterson is one of his

(59:55):
teammates for PR one Matheson and I've never mentioned That's
Another cool story is that Brian Hurt his team Brian Hurd,
a autosport he owns with Sean Jones. They run the
Hyundai program in Michelin Pilot Challenge. They are stepping up
to WeatherTech in a P two car next year, paired
with pr One Matheson. So an existing program and one thought.

(01:00:19):
I honestly have not asked Brian or Sean about this,
so I can speak freely, but sometimes this happens. So
they have been in play. I know this is true
that they have bid on the contract to be the
Genesis factory team when Genesis steps up to the top level.
I forget is that in twenty seven I think it is,

(01:00:42):
and they probably need to show, Hey, we can run
a top level sports car team. So it could be
showing or it could just be no, we're going to
give you the bid. We're not announcing it yet, but
we want you to get some experience in this matter.
So that's cool. One other note that insiders would know.
Joe Miller is one of those drivers that got close
to IndyCar in the latter system. Has been doing some

(01:01:04):
sports car racing and he's one of the stewards for
maybe be the chief steward for USF two thousand and
Pro two thousand. He's running in GTD in the twenty
one Ferrari coming up this weekend as well. All right,
sports car stuff this weekend, Oh times, Peacock is where

(01:01:24):
you have us on Saturday with the Michelin Pilot Challenge
race at twelve thirty. Right after that, about fifteen minutes
in between qualifying, we cover qualifying from three to fifteen
till five five fifteen. Then on Sunday, race time begins
at eleven thirty Peacock. Then we're on NBC as well

(01:01:47):
at three o'clock, so the last what two and a
half hours, maybe it's three hours will be on NBC. Yeah,
we're probably on until six o'clock, so look for that.
There's nothing also on Sunday afternoon, right, you're gonna be
watching sports car racing, so looking forward to that. All right,
let's get to the Twitter xbox and see what we

(01:02:12):
have so far from Christensen, were there any thoughts of
a shared Fox NASCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway on
Saturday May second? Do you think it would work or
would it take away from Arlington? Chris? That's a great question,
So I will admit I had thoughts of that. Did

(01:02:32):
anyone in charge have thoughts of that? I do not know.
I've not heard. You know, I've mentioned on this show
over the summer that I've heard a lot of tracks
thrown out there, some that surprised me as being possibilities.
Not once did I hear Texas mentioned by any of
these people. And in my opinion, the only way it

(01:02:55):
would be worth right now going back to Texas is
it if it is shared with now Car because it
just wasn't working. So something is going to need to change.
The sport is going to have to be a lot stronger.
You're going to have to have a great television window.
You know, it can't be eleven am on Sunday morning
local time. That's just not going to work. But man,

(01:03:19):
that seems like a good date. And I believe I
would have mentioned that when we were going through the
NASCAR schedule, and I know I talked about Watkins Glenn
and the gap there in the summer with Cup moving
to May, and I talked about Phoenix which is going
to happen, and I would think I would have mentioned
Texas along with two or three other tracks as well.

(01:03:39):
So I don't know if IndyCar is just not interested.
More likely NASCAR would not be interested. That would seem
to be perfect. And Roger Penske has said and others
have said, we'd really like to have an oval before
the Indy five hundred, and that was one of the
reasons why they, you know, still tried to fit a
square peg into a round hole those last couple of

(01:04:01):
years at Texas. There was not a lot of reason
to think that that was going to be commercially viable
on a Sunday morning. But we're desperate, That's kind of it.
I think we were desperate needed ovals, wanted something before
the five hundred. It turns out, yeah, that doesn't work.
They don't have to have it. Now they do. They
have Phoenix, very different type of oval, and that's better

(01:04:21):
than nothing. And that's the way it used to be
back in the day. I think Phoenix was often the
only oval race. I could be wrong on that, but
I think there have been times when Phoenix was the
only oval before the Indy five hundred. So that's the
one to ask someone. I hope that they could maybe
revisit that, and this is a tryout for Phoenix. It's

(01:04:45):
a one year deal, needs to go well, needs to
work logistically, and it is their event, it's NASCAR's event,
so we the IndyCar world, we're going to have to
play now ice and get along. And that's why I
said last hour. You know, I think as much as

(01:05:06):
anything this is going to be, it's gonna be IndyCar
promoting NASCAR. But it does work or is beneficial because
it's Fox promoting Fox, and Fox is a not just
a partner with IndyCar. They are a part owner of IndyCar.
So there is value in that, and there's still going
to be you know, I saw Ryan Blaney on a

(01:05:28):
podcast talking about how much he is looking forward to
seeing the IndyCar is going six seconds faster than a
cup car. There, you're still going to get some value
by just the endorsement of the NASCAR drivers talking about
wanting to see IndyCar. Racers like watching racing. Those drivers
will watch IndyCar. The IndyCar people want to see NASCAR.

(01:05:50):
Hopefully this year they let the IndyCar people into the
NASCAR patic. They didn't do that the last time around.
It kind of worked one way but not the other.
But again, that's a hard garage to get into. It's
not the patic over there, it's the garage. It is
tough to get in the NASCAR garage. Robert Polissek asks
or says no. He asked thoughts on Nashville's return to

(01:06:12):
the finale in twenty seven. I view the move to
post World Cup Finals a strong move by Fox and
I love it. I'm just hopeful Laguna isn't back to
stay as a finale beyond twenty six. What are your thoughts?
So my thoughts don't matter. I'll go by what was said,
and I believe what was said yesterday by IndyCar officials
was the plan is Laguna Seka is the finale for

(01:06:35):
the foreseeable future. They don't plan on bouncing things back
and forth. So that's what was said, and I take
that to be true. That would make some sense. But
I also know things are sub change and we talked
a lot about that flip last year. Ultimately, you'd like
to have Nashville in both positions. And still my dream

(01:06:56):
move is that the street race comes back after the
new Titan Stadium is done. And it may not be
racing down Broadway, but you're using the bridge and something
somewhat similar to what was done a few years ago,
and then Nashville races the first week ind of May
before the indiegp or something like that. I think that

(01:07:20):
market could handle two races, especially if the Oval Race
continues to be good. And I still think you're kind
of searching for what is the best event. But as
Kurt said last hour, Laguna Seka does have some momentum
and I do like it from this standpoint. This is

(01:07:41):
one of those tracks that people have wondered about, and honestly,
it's on the schedule because they were willing to pay
full sanctioning fee. This is the one that is out
there public one point five million dollars. If they're willing
to do that, you want this to be on the schedule. Now.
You also want it to be a strong event, and
you want them to continue to want and be and

(01:08:03):
see the return on paying that sanctioning fee. So let's
make it better. And Mel Harder, who knows IndyCar well
very well from all sides, is in charge, and I'm
optimistic about Laguna Seca and they're strengthening the facilities even more.
The crowd was up this year. Why not grow that

(01:08:25):
a little bit more Nashville. I think people are going
to want to see because it's a good race. And yeah,
maybe forty five minutes out of town, but it's still
close enough. People want to go to Nashville at all
times of the year. That race I think should be
able to stand on its own whenever it is. Laguna
Seka is one of those that by making it something

(01:08:50):
where it's the championship, it's the celebration, there's going to
be a lot of entertainment there. Maybe that helps it
by being the season finale again. Lynn Drive for seven,
Lynn underscore IndyCar. Do you think IndyCar should go to Monterey,
Mexico instead of Mexico City? Lynn says I do because one,
it's Poddo's hometown. Two not dealing with Liberty Media. Three

(01:09:12):
three hours south of Texas. Four the second best track
in Mexico. So I will defer I have no opinion.
I've never been to Mexico City. I've never been to Monterey,
so I have no idea about this track. My assumption
would be they've looked into this and they've tried, and
if it was an option, they would have done it

(01:09:34):
and commercially. Now, if IndyCar was just willing to rent
something and do it all on their own, which it
doesn't sound like they are, and I'm not sure they should.
It's hard enough to promote a race in Des Moines,
Iowa when you don't live in Des Moines, Iowa. How
hard do you think it is to promote a race
in another country that you're not familiar with? I would.

(01:09:58):
I know people give Mark Miles a hard time about
not getting this done in the past, you know, last
year or two years, in the comments that he's made,
but I don't think anyone was willing to front its
to promote it until this recent group, and even that
didn't get to the finish line. But I think it's
a bad idea for IndyCar to try to promote event,

(01:10:19):
to pretend like they know the market in a country
where it's going to be difficult. You're gonna have to
learn the language first of all to be able to
get that done. So I'm not sure that that's a
great idea, And that's probably the biggest obstacle that someone
was willing to say, all right, I think we can
do something in Mexico City. Maybe that can get resurrected

(01:10:43):
if they find too many obstacles in Mexico City, but
I think they would have done that if they could. Next,
Muhammad has several questions summer sports car related. I'm gonna
push those down because I don't pretend to know World
Endurance Championship and what's gonna happen over there. But he

(01:11:03):
asks about his man, Renasvk and what's going on there.
So I had no sourcing on this. Mine was a
guestimate that he was going to end up at aj Foyts,
and I think others had some sourcing because it was
written in a few places. But I think maybe I

(01:11:28):
did a copy and paste. I think I did. Marshall
Prutt wrote something on racer dot com last week. Let
me read along rather than try to remember that here
it is. Multiple sources told racer dot com former Dale
Coin Racing driver Renasvk was headed to aj foyd Racing,
but new and significant doubt has been cast on that move,

(01:11:49):
which could put the Dutchman in play at Honkos Hollinger
Racing and Rayhall Letterman Lannigan Racing. So my best guess,
and it's only a guess, I saw her Cardo Junkos
the victory celebration last night, said hello, but did not
ask him anything. Didn't see anyone else that would know.
My guess is if he indeed has something else, and

(01:12:12):
I'm also now hearing from more people he's not going
to fight, and Malucas is still going to Penske. I
think either of these could be announced soon. But my
guess is Renus is going to Hunkos Hollinger, and that
surprises me a little bit. But the first thought I
have is, so once we all kind of started thinking

(01:12:34):
he was going to Foight, the assumption there would be, well,
Penske is still going to be supporting that program to
some extent because they're going to need the money from somewhere.
And that makes me a little bit concerned that Penske
is not necessarily still supporting Foight financially, and that may

(01:12:55):
have been very clearly stated this was a one and
done deal. We are doing it because we have dibbs
on David Malucas and he is an essentially our driver
of the future and we want him in a seat
that is proper. And now that is done and he's
going to be moving to Penske, and we'll still share

(01:13:17):
technical information. Although I need to see that confirmed too.
I don't know if that continues. I think it's got
a chance because Miles Row is still going. Miles is
doing another season with Able Motorsports has to be supported
by Penske Entertainment and the Drive for Diversity program. Actually
it's not called Drive for Diversity. That's the NASCAR name

(01:13:38):
of it. I will find in my notes exactly because
I always have notes in front of me for the telecasts,
but the Race for Quality and Change to announce that
this soon, somebody is paying for it, so has to
still be Penske. And you know, the common thought is

(01:13:59):
and was, when Miles Row is ready, that's going to
be a perfect place to place him at AJ Foyd Racing.
By the way, I don't think I've said this before,
maybe I have on this show. I think it's very
viable to consider Miles Row for a one off for
the Indy five hundred. I like that he's coming back

(01:14:19):
and doing another year for Indy Next. It was debatable,
you know, he won two races, both on OVAL's, but
he had podiums on road courses. Some have moved up
to IndyCar with far less credentials than Miles. They could
have pushed that along, but it would be tough. He
is going to be better prepared with another year in

(01:14:41):
Indy Next. But I do think it's viable. He's done
well on the oval races and it can help the events.
They still need car count. I think they'll get to
thirty three pretty quickly. I'm still hopeful somehow there's thirty five.
I don't like thirty four that much, but there still
is some value at LEAs having some bumping that's got

(01:15:03):
to be paid for. But Miles is a worthy candidate.
I hope that can happen. I'd love to see him
in the Indy five hundred along with this full season
Indie Next program for next year. Back to Renus VK.
So I'm hoping that Penske is still a technical partner
with Foight. I'm hoping that Penske is still supporting them,

(01:15:25):
or they've got some other ideas. I saw Larry last
night too. It wasn't really a reporter idea. It was
just kind of they hied everybody finished the season kind
of thing. So why would Renus leave coin for junk
goes Hollinger. Well, maybe just a little steadier ground with funding,

(01:15:46):
and I'm sure would have to do with the comfort
level when you talk to Brad Hollinger and you talk
to Ricardo and what types of things do you have
in play? And what we always say the answer to
your question is money. What was his salary at Coin
wasn't all that high? Probably can be higher at Hunkoh's
hoilingers so and especially if they only ask you to

(01:16:06):
sign a one year deal, who knows. If I'm the team,
I'm probably if I'm paying him and not requiring him
to bring any sponsorship, I'm probably saying I want options
to make it multiple years. But and the reason, if
I'm rinas I'd want one is because there are a
lot of drivers, There are a lot of seats open
after twenty six, They're gonna is going to potentially being

(01:16:30):
more change next year. So if he out kicks his
coverage again in twenty six, he might be high on
the free agent list. Or maybe the other thought is,
you know, if many of these big name drivers are
free agents, maybe I'm not p one anymore. So I'm
not going to strike here. And I do think Khunkos
is on the rise. I think there are possibilities there,

(01:16:51):
So that's my best guess on that front. Tommy the
treat one after Dennis Howger's successful switch from F to
two to winning Indie next, do you see other drivers
from F two trying to do the same thing. If so,
do you see he's certain drivers in mind, or do
you have any in mind? No, I'm I'm I'm not
watched an F two race all year. Actually that's wrong.

(01:17:14):
I did watch an F two race early in the
season because I know a kid racing in F two.
His name is Max Esterson. Where's Max from? He's from
the East Coast. Is he around the Pittsburgh area? I forget,
But Max was teammates with Jackson in the UK and
Formula Fords, and they ran here together a little bit
and we bump into Max every once in a while.
So I think I did watch a race. I'm not

(01:17:38):
talked to Max, but I wonder if he's one that
is coming over. He's not had great success. I don't
know what team he was on, how strong they were
or not, but I did just see that he was
mutually announced between Max Esterson and his F two team
that he was leaving effective immediately. So I wonder if
he's coming home to do the Indie Next Test at

(01:17:59):
Autoble on next week and get prepared for next season.
That would make a lot of sense. You give it
a go in Europe like Bryce Aaron did, who and
for Ganassi this year, and you say, yeah, we're never
going to be able to make it to F one.
That's not logical, but we've got good racecraft experience. Let's
come home to America. I know there's someone else that

(01:18:22):
is signed that is expected to be a championship contender.
If you're an Indie Next team, you're looking for the
next Dennis Hauger, somebody that's won races before in F
two that realizes I'm not getting a Formula one and
it's half the budget to come over and run Indy Next,
or maybe just a little more than half. I think

(01:18:43):
F two can be two and a half three million dollars.
Some over there are subsidized a little bit. Full budget
over here, if you're paying full price is about one
point five to one point six million in that range.
That might include crash damage for some teams. It doesn't
include crash damage, so add in probably a couple of
hunds thousand on that, but you will see some new names.
It will start to see some of those trickle out

(01:19:05):
here in the next little while. Tyler Wong sixty five.
Do you see a chance of IndyCar adding a street
race in Denver in twenty seven or is twenty eight
the most likely possibility? I don't know a timeline. Kurt
mentioned it again, and apparently Mark Miles mentioned it on
A Kyle yesterday. That is a very open, non secretive secret.

(01:19:26):
It's been spoken about that they are efforting this to
get it to the finish line is another factor. I
had heard someone tell me it was gonna happen a
few months ago this year, but I think they were
just a little bit confused. The more people I asked,
it was no, this was always looking at twenty seven.
And maybe that has to do with the timeline of

(01:19:47):
the new stadium build and when they would have the
space and so forth to do that. But yeah, it's possibility,
and that'll be nice. That means there's going to be competition.
Maybe you don't do a double header, maybe you still do,
and it's let's choose. From our strongest I think they
could go up to eighteen if all is going well,

(01:20:08):
unless television ratings really sore, and revenue is really coming
in to share with the teams or sponsorship is on
a rise. I think going past eighteen in the near
future is not likely. Mister James Clark contribute question. You
can ask Kurt apologies he's gone, but you actually answered

(01:20:30):
it here and Kurt was tagged on it, so he
would have had the answer. So we'll just talk amongst
ourselves with this. Who was the last driver to make
their F two debut after their IndyCar debut? And James says,
answer is Poto Award, who made one F two start
in twenty nineteen after his IndyCar debut in eighteen. Yeah,
he did that, and what he was doing super formula
as well, and then they discovered, ooh, he doesn't have

(01:20:52):
a super license because the year he won the Indie
Lights Championship did not qualify. I think that the going
he was a Red Bull development driver and they had
thoughts of moving up up very quickly because he was
a champion. But there is a provision that there must
be a certain amount of drivers in that championship, and

(01:21:16):
that was the year that there were sometimes six cars
and I think the average was probably about eight now
it was deep. It was four or five deep, and
it was Colton Hurt and Podo Award and others battling
for that championship. But that was one of the reasons
why that got derailed. He worked out pretty well. Even
at that time. Zach Brown was starting to ask around.

(01:21:37):
I remember at Long Beach, Zach was there and he
was asking people, what do you think of Podo Award
he had I can't remember if he was still driving
for Carlin or if that had already fallen out, or
maybe he was doing just partial and was doing more races,
but Zach was thinking about him at that time, and
it worked out quite well. All right, more Twitter questions

(01:21:59):
and comments coming up in just a moment, and we've
got plenty of other things we can talk about too.
Stick with us a Trackside ninety three to five, one
oh seven five the fan. Hi, this is David Lucas
and you're listening to track side. Okay, let's continue with
some of the things we've missed, and just keep going
through the Twitter box the xbox. Indy car Ken points

(01:22:19):
me to a Team Penske tweet from late this afternoon,
and we see that I mentioned that I thought we
might see Melucas news soon, and well, this isn't Melucas news,
but it's pretty close to it. It is a teaser
for an announcement coming up tomorrow, and it has trying

(01:22:43):
to pull it up. It's an incoming phone call. It's
it's clearly they're announcing who's going to be driving the
Verizon car. So there you go. I think we'll get
the DAVI of Malucas official confirmation for that one tomorrow.
What else? Chris mister CMB ninety just comment says he's
pumped for the IndyCar doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile, looking

(01:23:04):
forward to making the drive from Detroit. Yeah, I get it.
I'm not, as I said, huge fan of the Milwaukee Mile.
My reasoning may be flawed. It's more then, I'm a
stats person and I like to remember who won the weekend,
and it becomes a little more confusing. But if I'm
a fan traveling, you know, I've always said, when I

(01:23:27):
go to a race, or might go to any kind
of sporting event, if you can add more to it
than just that event, than all the better. So you
look at what else there is to do, and in
this case, if you're just all about the racing. Having
another race is even better. And last weekend's doubleheader was good.

(01:23:47):
So if you're going to have one, like I said,
I think that's a good place to have one. Tom
Robbins Tom Robs seventy six has come on nothing in
the New England area again now Mexico, but is expected
from what I understand, getting something in the whether it
be New England Northeast or maybe just call it East,

(01:24:09):
is a high priority. Where's that going to be? You know,
I've heard I think I've even read maybe Adam Stern
wrote this or someone else that Philadelphia is mentioned. I
think you just think any big market where there is
the space to do something around a football stadium, and

(01:24:30):
Philadelphia is a market that could work, so hopefully they
can get something done. NASCAR's at they a loud or
in New Hampshire they're at Loud New Hampshire coming up
this weekend. So that is one that I've always been
interested in, but I don't know that it's coming anytime soon. Again,

(01:24:52):
that's another one I have not heard mentioned. Speaking of
the East, I was in the East over the weekend
weekend off, so we went to Boston for the weekend
to do some different things, including walk the Freedom Trail.
We walked down by the waterfront and didn't I didn't
take the time to see what the prospective map was
going to be. But when I tweeted a couple of

(01:25:13):
pictures of Paul Revere's house and some of the pubs
on the Freedom Trail, the Sincy Buckeye responded. Boston twenty
twenty six confirmed the Jason Hatfield said, ooh, scouting out
the famed IndyCar Boston track layout. Oh wait, so actually
someone this year at Fox that hadn't been around IndyCar

(01:25:35):
for a little while, you know, and we're just kind
of spitballing and talking about markets and was mentioned, you know,
Boston would be great, and I said, ooh, do a
Google search. And that's probably why that's gonna be tough.
I think there are probably lawsuits still pending. But you
know what I wish, I wish that could be resurrected

(01:25:57):
Baltimore and Baltimore was great. It's so expensive to do
stree races, and there's so many entities involved and so
much pushback. I've already seen that some people at Markham
are complaining, and I get it. If it was going
through my front yard too, and it was going to
impact me, because let's face it, we're all about us.
We always are, and if it impacts us negatively or

(01:26:19):
we don't care about that. You know, It's like if
there is if there is a parade that blocks you
from getting you in your neighborhood, you're all for that parade,
but it's no I got to leave the house or
I got to get back into the house. So you
are concerned about the greater good, and the greater good
is always looking out for number one. But man, if

(01:26:42):
they could get past that, Boston would be the perfect spot.
I don't know how they were going to do that
track there and how you make that happen, but at
one point it was. It's unfortunately just the local promoter
had some problems there. What else. Steve Schmidts at Hail
Purdue asks any idea how tickets work for the Phoenix

(01:27:04):
Infinity Double. Pir doesn't know, which is hilariously on brand,
so he said this yesterday. The reality is it was
announced yesterday. So normally tickets for motorsports events do not
go on sale at the time. I'm sure someone at
pir knew, but oftentimes we don't see tickets go on

(01:27:25):
sale until I don't know how long before an event. Now,
this one's going to need to get on the gidea
up pretty soon because this is a March event, so
it's not long. I would ask that same question and
tag the track on social media and tag IndyCar. Call
the IndyCar office, say I want to buy tickets. Surely
someone will hook you up with how to purchase tickets

(01:27:50):
for that one. The Cincy Buckeye posts this, it's a graphic.
It's Grid saying we have seen Alex before. His name
is Rick Mears. Compare their stats through Alex's twenty five
season and up to rick San Air crash. That's where
his feet were very mangled. And since he Buckeye says,

(01:28:12):
I often think Mears gets overlooked other than Indy because
San Air robbed us of him and his peak and longevity. Agreed. Now,
I wasn't around for the beginning of Mears time. I
was around, but I wasn't paying attention at that time.
I was going to grade school. But I've thought of
that too, that this is a guy that compares and

(01:28:35):
I do know history a bit, and I know that
Mears would have been even better than he was if
he was still able to be the type of driver
he was on road courses. So here are the stats.
Starts ninety four to ninety eight merors Is. I'm going
to list first wins. Twenty one to nineteen Mears had more.

(01:28:57):
Mears had won twenty two percent of his races nineteen percent.
Polo has two more podiums, four more starts, but close enough.
Poting percentage almost identical, just shy of forty five percent.
Mears had won two to Indy five hundreds Polo one
at this point Championships, Mears had three Polo four. That
is a great comparison, and we will hope the best

(01:29:21):
for Polo in the second half of his second half.
Uh next two thirds or three fourths of his career
at this point are all possible. Indy kr Ken says
the World Cup's good opportunity in twenty six I'd much
rather take my chances with a potential playoff in a
live tournament for a lead in versus Bass Masters. Cooper

(01:29:42):
at racer X Underscore sixty six says, listening to last
week's episode, he may actually have sent that in. At
the end of last week's episodes. Two weeks ago, he
made the comment regarding Toronto that increasingly people didn't know
the race was in town. The same can be said
about Portland. The common thread the promo I could go on,
but I'm running out of characters. Cooper says, yeah, okay,

(01:30:04):
that is true. I would also say, in fairness to
that promoter also does one of the top three events
behind Indy Long Beach in Saint Pete that does really
really well, and I think midd Ohio does really really well.
I don't know what the number is at mid Ohio.

(01:30:25):
It's one of the beauties of places like that. They
really aren't stands, but it looks good and it's not
just a Sunday crowd. There are people there on Saturday.
There are people there on Friday as well. So it's
I always say this, it's easy to spend other people's money,
and I'm including myself in those comments because we all

(01:30:47):
want more. But when you're spending money on advertising, you
want to make sure that you're going to get that back,
and it's so hard to decide how to advertise. We
can't just say well, I didn't hear a radio commercial.
That's anecdotal listening to every radio station at every moment
of the day and tracking what the buy is unless
you are you know, you don't know billboards, those can

(01:31:11):
be pricey. I still think billboards work, but I'm also
not an advertising genius in that front. Social media work
things that don't cost anything. You know, getting out and
doing some boots on the ground thing often works, but
it is definitely hard to get this done. Tyler Wong
sixty five sent out a chart and tag me and

(01:31:33):
the broadcast crew, and I don't know where he found
these ratings, but I've often talked this year that I
want to know what the total numbers were, you know,
not just that the race broadcasts were up twenty seven
percent because you had one hundred percent network nothing where
you were depending on streaming or on a cable channel.

(01:31:57):
But you know, I thought you were getting somewhere between
one hundred between fifteen one hundred and fifty for these
practice sessions. Well, Tyler often posts ratings, and I see,
like the race ratings out from the usual suspects, but
he's got practice ratings in here going through the season,
and you know, there are a lot of one hundred

(01:32:19):
and sixteens. There's a two hundred and twenty. No, there's
a there's some twenty three thousands, especially on the FS
two's there's some FS two ratings that are higher than
I expected, and a lot of practices that are over
one hundred thousand. Indie Next races look like they averaged
about one hundred and twenty thousand on the year. That
is very impactful, So good work on that. Thanks for

(01:32:42):
sharing that, Forrest Tyler. All right, I'll check in to
see what else we've missed in more coming up in
a moment on track side.

Speaker 4 (01:32:49):
How this is Scott McLachlan and you're listening to track
side on ninety three five and one I seven five
the fan.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Okay, well, we missed in the final segment, actually a
couple of significant things. I probably we should have moved
to Pire. Maybe we'll touch on it a little bit
more earlier next week. But Marshall Proud at racer dot
com reported last week that Willpower is going to have
a different engineer than Colden hurd Ahead. Nathan O'Rourke had
been Colden's engineer the entire time that he was there,

(01:33:18):
very well regarded, and he is going to be moving
to a shop based role at his request. This is
often the case. It's grind being on the road, especially
if you're a relatively young young person and you have
a family and you're you know, it's kind of a
seven day a week thing for a long time to
be the lead engineer. So he's going to take this

(01:33:40):
opportunity to step back and TBD on who that will be.
According to Rob Edwards, so they could promote from within
from their indie next team. Remember Olivia Bolson is available.
They were trying to kind of jumpstart Marcus Erickson's program
and reassigned Olivier to work on shop based program. So

(01:34:01):
there's someone right there that is very well regarded. Maybe
they feel like they need depth and they need multiple
engineers not on cars doing extra things, so a no sourcing.
No one has told me this, but I've said this often.
If Ron Razuski wants to work, someone's going to hire
Ron Rezuski whenever his non compete is over. Ron is

(01:34:24):
an engineer, and that's what he was for a long time,
was a Penske engineer that became a team manager and
a strategist. So he could simply fill that, combine that
and be the strategist at the same time, or he
could simply come on and become a strategist. He could
he could join that team. I think every team, it's

(01:34:46):
not like they need to replace anyone or fire anyone.
Everyone can use more smart people. So no idea if
that's where he ends up. Maybe he's already agreed somewhere else,
or maybe he's decided I to take some more time
off in that regard. And we got some more word
on Aera McClaren from The Indianapolis Star last week that

(01:35:09):
in TT Data already they have been informed by the
contract that they're out with Aerol McLaren after one more year.
They had to inform the team by the end of
this year. So in some ways does that strengthen the
argument that by not having Alex Polow driving the NTT
Data car in that lawsuit between Polo and McLaren, where

(01:35:31):
did I read this? So I think Marshall wrote this
as well, that Polow might have been in for an
accurate ride at Petite Lama in sports cars, but knew
he needed to say no because he may be busy,
because that's when this may come to a head. In
October somewhere around that time, we're out of time. We'll
see you next Tuesday night, unless The Fever are playing.
Thanks for joining us on track side

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