Curt and Kevin Recap Palou’s Dominant Laguna Seca Win, Talk Championship Scenarios, Standings, and Zak Brown’s “Mega” Driver Test!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is treck side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three five and one oh seven five.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The bean.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Two by two and under glorious sunshine here and one
of the most incredible circuits.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Not just on our calendar, but anywhere in the world.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
We are green.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
We are racing here at Laguna Seka on the runout
of turn two and look at the lead that Alex
Plow has already at Corton. Hurt makes the move on
Pato or Ward God, but it's a big one for
Givin Simpson, and how goes Minix Robertson.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Quit as well. Jacob Abel's day is done.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Disapprning for him.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
But it's down at turn two at the hairpin and
he found his way into the barrier and sadly for
him out of the race. Oh and VK and VK
was in a battle with Dixon and Kirk r over
what is seventh place? Turned three again Marcus Erickson seems
we've had a spinner round somewhere. He has made Exitu
six on the way up to the Corkscrew.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
That is a very strange place to be stopped so
far out of turny six up the hill, I wonder
how this happened.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I centered at this tournament and chased it all the
way up the hill.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Stand back and admire him, Stand up and applaud him.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
He has been perfect. Won a performance.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Lots of perfection once again from Alex to low. Eight
wins in a season sensational.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Courtesy of Fox Sports. Highlights of the Java House Grand
Prix of Monterey from this past Sunday Weather Tech Race Way, Laguna, Seka.
Thanks for joining us, Kevin Lee and Kurk Cavin landon
coons Is in the studio. We have a two hour
excursion tonight on the program, which we will continue until
the end of the season. A little bit past that,

(01:53):
then maybe we'll settle back into the our portion of
the program for the off season. Thanks for joining us.
We will get to some of your ex posts Twitter
comments a little bit later on, maybe at the end
of the show as well. At Kevin Lee twenty three
at Kurt Cavin Have you heard this before, Alex Poalo wins.

(02:17):
We could have recorded the show last week. I have
never actually have. I think this is about the third
time this season I've gone into the race Sunday morning,
And if you can find the tape from the Fox
San Francisco affiliate. They did a live show out there
every morning. So I went out early at eight fifteen
and did a live hit in the paddock with them

(02:39):
on Sunday morning, and I said, I would never say
this about any sport taking one over the field. I'm
taking the one Alex Polo is going to win today.
This was not a surprise.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
And I can almost say that about Portland. He last year.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I forgot that.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Actually Power one by nine seconds ahead of Polo. But
Polo is one, you know, two of the last four,
two of the last three, whatever it is, two of
the last four, I guess. And you know these are
if if Monterey is not his best track, Portland is
the second best track. So you know it's just they've

(03:20):
hit the wrong guy for the wrong time. Gonna he's
gonna wrap this up. You know, from a statistical standpoint,
He's going to wrap this up in Portland. Just the
question is what will the spread be?

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah, I haven't started looking at the math yet, but
what is he now?

Speaker 1 (03:37):
So he's one hundred and twenty one points up with
like one hundred and one hundred and sixty four to go.
Here's the thing. The only conceivable way I can see
a pot of Award winning this championship. By the way,
he's the only one mathematically eligible at this point.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
The three races left, and there's one person mathematically.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Alive and he and that's barely barely. Potter would have
to win the last three in a row, and he's
never won two in a row in a single stretch.
So the idea that he's going to win three in
a row, you know, is pretty far finished.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
I did the math last week of what it would take,
and it would just take averaging twentieth and Potter would
have to finish second. I ain't bothering with the math
ahead of this time because it is a I can
do something else with that five minutes in my day,
then that particular math. I'm sure Russ Thompson will still
do it. So yeah, he just needs to finish within

(04:38):
a few spots. And if Poto doesn't win all the
bonus points and just wins the race, Paula can just
follow them all day and finish second and still clinch
the championship.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Why it's not quite because there would be fifteen point
spread between first and second, and.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
He would need to not lose. I thought it was fifty.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Uh, well you they usually you're going to lead one lap,
so it's fifty to forty. Okay, Like I said, no
bonus boot Yes, okay, no bonus VOTs. All right, so
I'll but you're right, it's and then even then it's
it's essentially over. It may not be one hundred percent
mathematically over, but it's over.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah. I kind of hope we're not in that category
of effectively clinches, because that's hard to explain. I either
want to celebrate it and not hand them a trophy.
I doubt we do that, but we'll hand them a
shiny sticker in victory lane at Portland, and then he'll
get the trophy at Nashville. Let's just be done with
it and let's celebrate the greatness. That's what I'm all about.

(05:46):
I always root for the show. I have no particular
driver or team rooting interest. I want to see entertainment.
I want the sport to do well. And I felt
this way since after the ND five hundred. Let's lean in.
We are witnessing something very rare and against really good competition,

(06:13):
he is going to potentially have It's hard to argue
with the sixty four season of foight. Obviously, what was
it ten and thirteen that he won a different era?
I think I looked this up once. Be interesting to
see the number of drivers in the sixty four field.
Maybe you can do that while I babble that have

(06:35):
won a race. Maybe I'll ask Russ Thompson to do
that because that's his era when he was a kid.
But the number of drivers in sixty four that won
a career race, or maybe you can look at it
that won five races, but you know, an Indy car,
it's usually something like seventeen have won a race before

(06:57):
and I'm gonna guess we're talking single digits because the
same guy has won the race every every week back
at that time. But whatever, this is a season for
the ages when you are talking fifty five years the
last time anyone won more than eight races, which Alex
Palow has won at this point. Others have one eight,

(07:20):
but nobody's won more than eight, and it's been since
two thousand and seven in the split series. What is
it we're going back to? Did I don't have the
list in front of me right now? Did Al Junior
win eight in ninety four? He won seven or eight
that year. So that's the last time in a single
series with no cart no irl either way, whether you

(07:41):
count Boorday or not, still just simply remarkable. And he's
done it at all four different types of tracks.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
And he's won the Indy five hundred.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
And he's had some bad luck. Yeah, he should have
won Middle O High. That's not bad luck. That's that's
him making a mistake. But he got let me go
to his season. He got tounded to Detroit.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's right, that's where I was going Detroit.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yea, he was going to be worst case, top five
at Detroit. What are his other non wins this season?
Finished second in long Beach, okay, so be it, finished
eighth at Gateway. What I have in my notes is
he fell to the back when he was blocked entering

(08:32):
his pit box by Louon Guard missed his when long
Guard missed his box. He wasn't a winning car there.
That's about where he was going to be. Wasn't awesome,
you know, maybe with luck he's top five there Iowa
the first one fifth, that's about what he was. He
let a little bit off sequence. Oh and then Toronto. Yeah,
let's forget about Let's don't forget about Toronto. He was

(08:54):
probably the best at Toronto, or certainly should have been
a podium, but they gambled on an altar strategy, being
the only ones in the top six start on the hards,
the blacks, and the cautions didn't work out. He could
have ten wins already. Oh you're not counting Detroit where
he got punted.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, he wasn't gonna win the race in Detroit, but
you know, he might have the championship wrapped up right
now if it wasn't for Detroit. But you know, when
I snuck in, you know, the Indy five hundred. If
he does all this and just doesn't win the Indy
five hundred, then it's not been a it's not been
a completely dominant season. You got to win the Indy

(09:34):
five hundred, and no disrespect to to really more Day
to you know the dominance that we saw from from
Cannon and you know four, But those guys didn't win
the Indy five hundred as well. You know those for whatever. Again,
not bore Day's fault, but those seasons don't include the

(09:56):
Indy five hundred. When you do all this and win
the Indy five hundred. That's pretty pretty special. You know,
we go into these last couple three races. Obviously we've
just talked about Portland being his kind of track, the precision,
and just how well he's performed there in the past,
when you might have said the short ovals would be

(10:17):
troublesome for him, and obviously they're a roll of the
dice for anyone. But he's now won a short track race.
He's now won two ovals in his really strong season.
So I mean, the idea that he couldn't win either
or both of those last two ovals is now. I mean,

(10:39):
you have to think he's got a shot at him.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
There's not a weakness, there's not The difference will be
if Penske is still the dominant team in Nashville. I
kind of remember Nashville more from last year, whether they
were dominant, you know, Power never got a chance to race.
I haven't gotten to it yet. One at a time.
I don't don't remember that. I don't remember Milwaukee from

(11:03):
last year at this point. But we just know in
general Penske is strong on the short ovals, but and
they have been strong this year. That has been the
only thing Penske still has is they have been strong,
but they're they're very average. We'll get to this in
a moment, but the point you made about winning the
five hundred in these dominant seasons. So the three people

(11:24):
that have won more races than Alex Pollo in a season,
what do they have in common?

Speaker 2 (11:30):
They do have that they won the.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
All won the five hundred that year, Foight won the
five hundred and sixty four, Big Al won when he
also won ten in nineteen seventy, and Mario won nine
in nineteen sixty nine, the only year he won the
Indy five hundred and the most recent. Al Junior won
the five hundred when he won eight in nineteen ninety four.

(11:53):
The others that won eight did not. Mario did it twice,
Michael did it in ninety one. Borda, as you mentioned,
had no chance in seven in cart what year he
ran the five hundred? One year that feels like it
was five. Didn't he come over and do it one
off and actually got hurt? Yeah, yeah, he got hurt

(12:15):
in one of those years. But I'm not sure that
it was in seven. Yeah, I don't think so, because
he missed some races, so I think it was it
was another still in the championship, but might have missed
some time that season. So just remarkable what Alex Polo
and the team is doing. That's the combination. They have

(12:35):
one of the greatest drivers and they have one of
the greatest teams because and I can't remember when we said, boy,
that was a slow pit stop from that team or
they really bumbled that strategy, and Polo raised his hand
and said, yeah, I'm the one that chose to start
on the other tire at Toronto? Was it Mary Wonder

(12:56):
that pushed us towards that? And so on ninety five
starts to get to nineteen wins, which is tied for
twenty third on the all time list. So really really
cool stuff. I don't know what else there is to
say about Alex Plow other than it's a good thing
we had some cautions, because that's actually what I was

(13:17):
choosing when we made our picks. It wasn't who's going
to win? I said, four, eight or thirty in how
many seconds does he win by? Yeah, and if that's
a one caution race and it's early, he wins by
thirty seconds. He certainly not that much, but he certainly
wins by because he was gapping nine or ten seconds

(13:39):
in every stint fastest lap by seven tenths of a second.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
The most I had him leading was by about nine
and a half seconds. Now, I think he would have
continued to add to that. So I'm willing to give
you twelve to fifteen because I don't know that he
pushes it as hard as he.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Has to correct.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
To fifty.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Shooting the sport, you win by three or four seconds,
that's pretty impressive. And you know, even when we got
late in the race, on those two last restarts, one
lap he was already a second and a half two
seconds faster. I really just kind of expected somebody to
give him a challenge and it just it just couldn't happen.

(14:20):
You know, you think about you know, we talk about,
you know, nobody besides Potto having a shot to unseat him.
Most of the field is two hundred points behind. Most
of the field and some of them. Shoot, there's about
a third of the field that are four hundred points behind.

(14:43):
It's you're kidding me, right, yeah, it's unprecedented.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, what you were doing. So, as Buxton said in
the final app just stand up in applaud. Yeah, you know,
and that's I don't know if that's the right way
to do it or not, but that's how I introduced
long Guard. He's best in class because that's what it is.
And Poto Award if he finishes second, should take pride,
not only because that will be his best championship finish.

(15:14):
But you did all you could. Poto has had a
championship season. In most other years, he's at least getting
to the final race in line and able to think
about a championship when you look at what he's done.
Let's see, he has now two wins. He has finished

(15:36):
second three times. He finished third in the Indy five hundred,
at least a couple of more fifths, if not three.
How many bad results does Potto have, because that's been
a setback, and not many. He finished eleventh at Saint
Pete when he started in the back, so we salvaged something.

(15:56):
He finished thirteenth at Long Beach after he started ninth
Road America, he finished seventeen. That's the only really bad win,
and he said there was something going on with straight
line speed in that one.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
The only thing I would say about Poto in his season.
And I actually was talking about this as we started
the month of July and really the first couple of
races in July. I just don't know how many times
during the course of the season, and I know he
finished second three times. I don't know how many times
I thought Potto has the car to win. You know,

(16:31):
it just doesn't. It hasn't felt like, you know, I
appreciate what you're saying, and he maybe you know, in
any other season he'd be really in the thick of
the championship, and he would, but I just don't know
that he would that. I felt like he was race
worthy very many times. Again, that's just my.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
It's because Alex Pelow has been at all.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
I know, I know, I know it is, but it's
just I just, you know, Poto, it seems like, I
hear you look at let's look AT's laps led. He
hasn't led as many as as I think you would
expect him to have led by this point in the season. So,
you know, I mean, it doesn't take anything away from

(17:14):
from Polo, but nobody else has consistently been up there
challenging the way you know, for all Dixon's you know, greatness,
he's been, I really hate to even compare him head
to head with Polo, because it's since Polo got there
in twenty one, it's not really been a fight, you know,

(17:36):
So I'm looking at Polo's or Potos. Potos lap led
he had fifty one at Thermal Club, and he led
thirty about thirty laps in two other races, but he
really hasn't let a lot of laps beyond that. So
three races he's raced pretty well. The other races he's

(17:58):
not led. So so the.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Rest of the box score. Long Guard has another very
strong day and wins an outright fight with Poto award,
so that is I think always somewhat notable. But Potto
still finishes fourth and Louing Guard had to get by
a few people and makes a nice move on Hurda
late on the pit exchange to finish second. Felt like

(18:21):
Hrda had a really strong race. I know he's used
to winning there, but that's still to go along with
his two wins in a second. Now he's got another podium.
And here's something else I noticed, where is if Formula
one is something he still wants. I've been kind of
just keeping track of where he is in relation to

(18:43):
fifth because if he gets to fifth. There's a pretty
simple path by doing a free practice one or something
like that where he could score super license points if
indeed the team wants, which I do not know what
their plan is if they want him, and if he
is willing, I'm not sure it's one hundred percent certain

(19:04):
that he would take that, considering how challenging that is
at the beginning for a new Formula One team. But
he's he's coming on a little bit and he's seventh
in the championship. In is now forty four behind Christian Loonguard,
who gained a little bit on him by finishing second.
So that's kind of the mark to get to fifth

(19:24):
in the championship if that matters for her to to
But he's had a nice strong little run. We talked
about Potto and fourth, Dixon finishes fifth. He's third in
the championship. Long way back, but he's third, and he's
plus fifteen on Kyle Kirkwood for fourth. Uh Calum I
lot third straight race that Prima has had their best

(19:47):
result there matriculate in their way up up the field
and the final results he finished sixth.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
That's been a place you know, Callum has has raced
well at uh at Laguna and we qualified on the
front row one year and he finished fifth another year,
so you know, that's been a good track for him.
So but to your point, they they have looked kind
of in the second half of the season like I
think we thought they would eventually.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
And they lost some time on a pit stop as well,
or maybe how far behind was he behind Dixon? He
was second and a half, so maybe he's got a
chance to challenge there. He was on the same strategy
as Dixon. One thing that oppressed me is there have
been a few times this year when they were trying
to stretch on fuel and never came close either, you know,

(20:35):
maybe because they didn't get it full. He went twenty
eight laps, which is a lap longer than most people
were going. That's like Dixon type territory in the middle stint.
He pitted on twelve early like Dixon and a few
others did, and I kind of assumed they wouldn't make it,
but they did. So not only was the car good,
they're starting to execute. I think he knows how to

(20:55):
save fuel, but you know there's a team aspect of
that involved highest finishing Penske, best qualifying Penske. Who was it?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
It was Joseph I believe.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
No, no, oh, I'm sorry. He was the highest qualifying
Penske by one. He qualified what fourth?

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, I believe it was fourth, and.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
Power qualified fifth. But who was best in the race again?
Will Power?

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah? Will Power?

Speaker 4 (21:26):
He's he finished seventh. The other two were fine. That's
kind of where it's at. They're just fine. They Joseph finished,
starts fourth and finishes eleventh. And I'll be honest, I
don't know what happened. I didn't see any big issue
in the pit stop. I'm wondering if it was in

(21:48):
and out laps kind of what cost him in the
race at Iowa? I know. I think his post race
quote was we were just not quick enough, you know,
and he was running third fairly late, and what I
failed to notice was how much of a gap there
was between second and him. He was third, but there
was about fifteen seconds and some people were off sequence.

(22:11):
Now also in fairness, what hurt him a little bit
is the number of cautions that came. Because all of
those that stopped on lap twelve, I'm not sure we're
going to make without enough cautions after that. While we
had one at twenty six and twenty seven, and then
we had two more late that helped them get home,
so that you know, the eye lot crew is in
that there were like three or four, so he wasn't

(22:33):
a podium, but I think a more fortunate role of
the cautions gets him to eight or something in a
more decent day. But well, it's what we said, you
cannot lose your top three people.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
You know, we've been focused on that one on each stand.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Is it will still be as good as you were?

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Is it also possible that the hybrid has just mess
them up? Because really, since you know over the last
twelve thirteen months that's the hybrid era as well.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Well, let's see, let's look back because I made this
note during the qualifying show. When you look at Newgarden,
you can look at awful luck and things out of
his control in the races, and you know, you go
back to what happened at Toronto. He gets collected in

(23:29):
a crash at Iowa. It was never really said, but
I think not only did the cautions not fall his way,
but something broke late in the race that wasn't really
documented mid Ohio and mid Ohio we did ask him,
we chatted with him for a little while on Thursday,
and he's still he is not sure what happened. When

(23:51):
he's fun he said, we couldn't find anything that broke.
We're not sure what the issue is. Did we hit
some dirt that was on the track or whatever, But
that was one that wasn't just something else Road America.
He did make a mistake Gateway. Oh, that's when he
launched over the top of Foster. Not his fault at all.

(24:12):
Five hundred. He's maybe going to charge from the last row,
and if not, when he's going to finish in the
top three before something breaks. Had a mechanical issue at
the INDEGP and had to start last, and on and on.
But what I was getting to pace is not there paces.
Until he made the fast six, he had not made

(24:35):
it out of Q one in five of the nine races.
So now he is five of ten, making it out
of Q one and into the fast six for the
second time. How did he finish last season? After we
had the hybrid on the road courses third at Portland,

(25:01):
seventh and eleventh at Toronto, started seventeenth at midd Ohio
on the first hybrid race, finished twenty fifth with three penalties.
How about McLaughlin, so he's had more pace this year.
He won the poll at Saint Pete, started second at Barber,

(25:23):
but he's had a lot of getting knockouts. Started fourth
of road America. How did he finish last season on
the road courses? Started twentieth at Portland, fourth at Toronto,
sixth at mid Ohio. So, okay, power is probably the

(25:46):
most consistent. But he you know, his poll this year
is on an oval and I think he only has
a couple of fast sixes this year this past weekend,
a fourth at Barber, a fourth at Toronto. So he's
got at least three of them in my quick look.
And the way he finished last season was at Portland,

(26:09):
started second and one, Toronto started ninth, finished twelfth, Mid
Ohio started fifteenth, finished eleventh.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
I don't be Yeah, there's no way to prove it.
I just think the timing of the leadership dismissal and
the road course implementation of the hybrid actually all tracks,
but it started at mid Ohio. I just we probably
shouldn't just discount that impact as well.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
I think that's where you need all of your people,
you do more. Because last year, before the hybrid came in,
you're at least starting with a plug and play with
what worked the year before, and that no longer automatically
works because everything is a little bit different. So the

(27:01):
teams that have the best assets in personnel are more
likely going to adjust and adapt in these short weekends.
And Ron Razuski is not just a team manager and
doing strategy for one of the cars. He's the technical director.

(27:21):
He's an engineer. He was a lead engineer. And now
you're asking also Ben Bretzman, a brilliant engineer, to run
the team, and you're bringing up the number two engineer,
and you're asking David Faustino on powers Car to run
that team and also be the engineer. And it is
a lot to do. Oh no, by the way, you

(27:41):
don't have the guy that was you know, adult in
the room is the wrong word because the other two
people that were dismissed were adults in the room as well.
But Tim Sindrick has a presence, sure, and you know,
I wonder if that resource might have have helped Joseph

(28:02):
Neugarten deal with this very difficult season. And I get
that he doesn't really want to talk to people. There's
nothing else to ask. I don't want to ask him anything.
There's no good questions to ask, and there's not much
else to say at this point. And like I mentioned,
you know, Thursdays are a little bit easier because you've
had time to decompress, and he's always been super fine.

(28:24):
We all had a nice long chat with him. He
did the bullpend talked to a lot of people on Thursday,
and I don't think no I talked to him after qualifying.
I may have even talked to him after practice this weekend,
but he was fine throughout the weekend. But it's just
a lot and it's going to take them a little
bit to climb out of this.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Meanwhile, we've seen, as you mentioned, good stuff from Prema.
We've seen good stuff, really good stuff from Rena's VK
and his dale Coin program. We've seen really good stuff
from Meyer Shank Racing. You know, I don't it's it
is nice and this is not a dig at everyone

(29:06):
not named Alex Polo, but it is nice when there's
balance through the field and we see success in different spots.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
There's always other stories and that's what we'll be searching on.
We'll celebrate Polow and we'll look at the excitement that
Christian Rasmussen is bringing. And he gets his first top
ten of the season on a non oval and was
having a really good day. I heard him on the
radio yelling a little bit. I think there was a
tussle late in the race, and I don't know if

(29:35):
it was someone else's fault or if it was just
you know, a little fight, but he lost a couple
of spots. He was in line to finish seventh, and
he is consistently beating his higher paid and much more
celebrated and successful teammate and Alexander Rossi right now. So
Rasmussen is kind of staking his claim to I belong

(29:56):
here and then we'll get to the VK part in
a bit. Yeah, I think that's kind of the rest
to who had really good days. Rasmusen is one gram,
Ray Hall solid qualifies eighth, start, qualifies eighth, and finishes twelfth.
That's a solid day for where that has been. And
I'm not sure anybody else other than cool for Nolan
Siegel to lead some laps and hold plow behind him

(30:17):
for a little while. I think that's always a step
in someone's career to get to that point. So we'll
get through the rest of the box score and start
to get in some other things from Laguna Seca off weekend.
There is IMPSA this weekend at road America. If you
need some road racing action, we'll talk about that and
much more coming up on trackside.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
This is Alex below and you're listening to truck Site.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Thank you for staying with us. Trackside ninety three five
one oh seven to five the fan in Indianapolis back
for a full two hours tonight. Let me check Kurt
before I forget on next week's show. Is it also
a Tuesday somewhere? I have that next week will be
August fifth. It is a Tuesday. We will have a

(30:58):
Wednesday on August thirteen, So we still bounce around a
little bit because of fever. Games. Looks like Tuesday the nineteenth, Monday,
the twenty fifth is the schedule. I don't know if
that's going to work or not. Looked at my schedule
is that after Portland? Are we in Portland on the
twenty five? No, that's Milwaukee, so I want to be here.

(31:20):
That's the Milwaukee week in Portland is the week before?
Where do we want to go next? Let's just I
saw a few questions come in this afternoon. Neil Strickland says,
how do the payouts work for the final championship standings?
There are some very compelling battles around tenth place. I

(31:41):
don't know that there's really any any payoutside. You know,
you don't see that promoted, and that's probably for a
reason because it's not likely a real big number. I
think the champion used to get a million something like that.
I'm going to guess there's something for second and third.
I doubt there is anything thing beyond that other than

(32:02):
pride and selling your program. You know, if you can
be seventh instead of tenth as you're selling, you know,
your ability to partners and sponsors, your ability to run
up front. The seventh to tenth looks a little bit better.
But you're right that McLaughlin and vk are tied for eleventh.

(32:27):
They are what's that, seventeen behind Malucas in tenth. Who's
thirteen behind Power in ninth. That's interesting those two are
together in the championship. Armstrong is eighteen ahead in eighth,
then hurt Us six ahead in seventh, roseen Quist only

(32:47):
two ahead in six. That result getting punted at the
beginning hurt him and then there's a pretty big gap
up to fifth Christian Looinguard what forty two points or
something like that. Oh, you know what I mean, I
haven't looked at maybe I'll do it. What I'm thinking
about it and pulled up the standings leader circle. Help
me with the math here, so it's easier this year

(33:09):
it's entrant points. But we've had no fill ins other
than extra drivers for the ndy five hundred. Every full
time driver has done every race. And you know, I
remember saying in May you never know. And in the

(33:29):
last few years changes have often been precipitated by teams
trying to improve the program to get in the leader
circle and effectively win a million dollars. That's where the
money comes. It's not for tenth HiT's for twenty seconds.
Twenty second is worth a million dollars, twenty third is
worth how much?

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Not a million dollars, not a million.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
It's not nothing because there also is prize money for
the top three or something like that that are not
in the leader circle of whatever five ten, fifteen thousand
dollars a race that if you and it's just among
those other contenders and you know, you can maybe pick

(34:10):
up if you're the best of the rest, a couple
extra hundred thousand dollars, but that's a lot less than
a million, so you can kind of just look at
the driver's standings. The forty five entry with Louis Foster
is last in the leader circle right now. And you
also say this understanding that Prema is not eligible, but
neither of the premas are in the top twenty two

(34:32):
right now, and the premas are twenty third and twenty fourth,
so there's a big cushion behind Foster had. The next
up is sting Ray Rob and he is twenty eight
points behind. Yeah, twenty eight behind, which you know, I know,

(34:52):
if we were talking first and second in the championship,
we would say it's dead even. But here's the problem.
There's usually one or two or three points et step
these people because they normally run between eighteenth and twenty seventh.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, it's at the what I would call the back
half of the field. I don't like that designation, but
that's where the points are the narrowest between positions, and
in many cases, like in the last six five or
six spots, they're actually the same. And they did that
Brian Barnhart when they set that up, really wanted to
de emphasize just bringing your car out after damage, you know,

(35:30):
so that you know, you know, you watch a Cup
race and a guy's got torn up equipment and he's
trying to pick up three extra positions to gain five
points that might help him in the championship. Well, you know,
they they the intent from an IndyCar side was to
not have that be a factor here.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
You know.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
It's so twenty fifth, twenty six, and twenty seventh all
score five points. Then it's six for twenty fourth, seven
for twenty third, eight for twenty second for twenty first,
ten for twenty ten and so on. So what sting
Ray Rob is going to need? And this also would
apply the NEXTUS. Devlin d Francesco was another eleven back

(36:10):
from Stingray, So what's that That makes him thirty nine
behind almost a full race. But that's if you could
win the race and the other finishes in the back,
and then Jacob Abel because he missed the Indy five hundred,
is not going to have a chance. What it's going

(36:31):
to take is what Connor Daily did last year, finishing
on the podium in Milwaukee one of those Stingray or
Devlin are going to have to have a top five
and they never had that in their career, so it's
probably kind of where it is.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, you know, I kind of remember that the top
five in the Championship got a boost an in dollar figure,
but I may be confusing that with the Indy five hundred,
that there was a bigger sort of reward if you
were in the top five of the Indy five.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, but you know what, I doubt the top doubt
ninth and tenth pay anything for the World Championship points.
It's that leader circle for the twenty two and it
doesn't look like that's going to be a race either.
Nolan Siegel was in a little bit of concern there,
especially after he scored only two points in the race
he had to miss. But he's plus nine on Foster
and it's very very unlikely now if something changes and

(37:23):
sting Ray or Devlin can get a podium, you know,
and score thirty five points, then all of a sudden,
it's game on, and that will be a lot of
pressure on Foster to be able to come back and
converts from the Moon corp. No, I'm not that guy
is the Twitter handle. How can any car justify leaving

(37:44):
cars stranded on a live racetrack. They're playing games, people's lives.
So a couple of cars can get to the pits
before a yellow. Whoever made these calls needs to be fired.
Nothing can justify that decision, period. So the first one,
I don't know, the Rinas VK was in a dangerous
position and that was one where that was left green

(38:08):
so everyone could finish the pit cycle, which is what
the drivers have asked for, what the teams have asked for,
and that has been consistent. They have been very consistent
in that regard, and we've talked about that, and I
may bring it up again here. You know, maybe it
should just be if it's a yellow, it's a yellow,
whether it's now or a minute and a half later,

(38:28):
and that ends that. But there's going to be arguments
about that because great performances are not going to be
rewarded and we're going to have very random things. Some
might say that might be the only way you can
stop Alex Pulow from rattling off another four championships, and
then we really will have that danger zone in and

(38:51):
make things more interesting. There's not much of a danger
zone anymore on road courses because we know they're going
to do everything they can to allow the leader to pit.
What changes that is if someone hits the wall, now
do they is that any wall contact or is it

(39:12):
still a judgment called That's where you're going to start
to get arguments from teams, because I can see a
scenario where someone nudges into the wall, or more than
nudges into the wall, looks fine, but we stay green
because they're in the middle of the pit cycle. So
I don't think anybody had much of a problem with that.
The one that I think most are wondering about is

(39:34):
when Marcus Erickson went off and I saw his social
media post something broke on the car and caused him
to go off. How was it described? The skid plate
broke and folded up under the car, so we didn't
just lose control. But he's off. They're waiting for him

(39:54):
to get started. There is the hybrid now and he
sat there for about a minute and half, and the
two racing drivers on the broadcast and the play by
play announcer thought that was pretty dangerous. And the drivers
that I saw after the race, we're not happy about that.
I don't want anyone being fired, but I do think

(40:16):
we need to rethink that was not impacting competition. Everyone
had pitted. I understand Alex Polow would not be happy
about that because he had a nine and a half
second lead. And then when you saw the onboard from
Potto of Poto Award the helmet cam and that's what

(40:36):
shows you that's blind. The spotters are all saying, stay left.
But what if somebody's radio is not working? Which have
we seen that happen before? Occasionally? Yeah, occasional, Yeah, like
Scott Dixon this year. It happens and you don't hear
about it because they don't want to get black flagged.
But if somebody misses that, or someone is involved in
a battle and looks down, they looks down to adjust

(41:01):
the fuel knob or something else and doesn't see the
local yellow waving we've got willpower Sonoma two thousand and
nine or something else. So I'm sure that's going to
be addressed that they they may need just to say,
all right, sorry, everybody, we're gonna throw a caution. You
better pit on the early side of the window from

(41:23):
now on. But that one was an easier one because
he was in peril. Renas VK is sitting in an
open section, not a big deal. So I don't know
that they need to change the whole philosophy. But cautions
are not horrible. In fact, we are in the entertainment
business and restarts are actually okay, they're actually good. So

(41:45):
it'll be discussed and I'm sure that won't happen again.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, to your point, there are times and places where
you can leave a driver sit for a little bit.
I mean, I remember and we've talked about it. You've
talked about it when James Hnscliffe was left for the
whole race at Barbara Motorsports because on lap one or
lap two or three he was in a spot we
was just couldn't get him. I mean unless you're gonna
shut the whole thing down. And there wasn't a caution,

(42:08):
so you know you're gonna have those. Renus was fine.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
You know some of those road courses, Monterey in particular,
there's a lot of runoff room. There's a lot of
room for a driver to kind of get out of
the way and he's not trying to get out of
the way, but you know, if he ends up in
the sand, trap, he might end up twenty or thirty
yards away from the racing line. The difference here is

(42:34):
Marcus Erickson was in the middle of the racetrack, or
at least at least he was on the racetrack. And
so yeah, I think it'll be addressed.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
All right.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Coming up, we'll get you said for our number two
and plenty more to come track side ninety three to
five one oh seven five the fan.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Hi, this is Colton, heard it and you're listening to
trackside on ninety three five and one oh seven five
the fan.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Coming up in our number two, we will address some
more of our Twitter comments from the xbox and look
into the box score a little more in detail, talk
about what's still to come, schedule conversation, what we're hearing,
what we're thinking, silly season, and more. Kurt. We've also
got imse coming up this weekend, so if someone would

(43:19):
like to see one of our favorite venues, then we
have that for you. I'm gonna Moonlight again for NBC
this weekend. It's a peacock only weekend, so limited commercial
interruptions for us. Here is our schedule for the weekend.
A lot going on Saturday, the Michelin Pilot Challenge two
hour race at three o'clock Eastern time, two o'clock local,

(43:43):
and then about a half hour after that at five
forty Eastern time qualifying. We are qualifying for a ninety
minute show for the weather Tech sports Car Championship and
then the Sunday two hour and forty minute race, the
last what they call sprint race of the season before
they race an Indy six hour race in just past
mid September at in the Indianapolis Motors Speedway and then

(44:05):
Petite Lamont the ten hour race Sunday at two o'clock.
So join us on Peacock on Sunday, and we have
breaking news, Kurt. It's out there now. Today the household
driver Jackson Lee is joining Wayne Taylor Racing, one of
the top teams in sports car racing, teaming with Trent
Henman in the Pro Am class in Lamborghini Super Trafeo.

(44:25):
So this is a really cool opportunity because Trent is
a former champion and he's racing in their higher level
weather Tech team. Fact is the most recent winner. Trent's
a great young man. You may not know much of him,
but he is solid. He was a Team USA winner
seven or eight years before Jackson and has made a
great career as a sports car driver, has won a

(44:46):
couple of championships before, and he will be able to
tutor Jackson in how to go faster. And they should
have an opportunity in the pro am class in the
number sixty nine car and they will race on all
also on Peacock and there is a free YouTube stream
too for these races on Saturday at twelve fifty Eastern

(45:07):
and Sunday at ten twenty am a pair of fifty
minute races. The drivers split them in half. So there
is your im sub update. Porschapenske's are still one to
two in the overall championship there and BMW is looking
for a new home. They left the ray Halls, so
that's one of the storylines too. So hopefully another customer

(45:28):
opportunity is coming up for Rayhall Letterman Landing and they
will not be a part of BMW in the days
coming ahead. All right, thanks for your insight on Imsekert.
I was going to tell you that I couldn't ask
for it. I don't know you didn't ask any in
years past. In years past, the house car was not
necessarily a complimentary term. So I'm glad you called Jackson's

(45:52):
program the household car, which is the house car doesn't
sound too good. But what's the house car? Would that
be like the owners?

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (46:02):
Like this? Would it be the Bill Franz car? Would
that be the Tony George Carr?

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Correct?

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Would that be the Team Penske car? Is that what
you're saying, is that the house car? Now, I'm gonna
get you in trouble. It's been nice work. We heard
the term house car. Yeah, it's been it's been nice
working here. You got some other projects, all right. Hour
two is coming up in a moment. You'll see if
we come back next on trackside. Hi, this is Potto

(46:27):
Award and you're listening to truck side our two track
side ninety three to five, one oh seven five the
fan in Indianapolis. That's where landon Coons is at. Kevin
Lee and Kurk Cavin are close enough. Thank you for
joining us the first time we've had a second hour
for a little while. We'll continue this for a bit
until we get into the off season. Then we'll decide.

(46:50):
I'm going back and forth, Kurt, because this is a
live radio show. And radio shows are two or three hours,
but it's also a podcast, and as I've been thinking now,
we shrunk it to an hour because I've just had
some things going on this summer and really couldn't commit
to doing more than an hour. But now I'm thinking,

(47:11):
you know what that time length might be about, right,
because as a consumer, I don't know that I want
to invest ninety minutes to a podcast every week. So
we're open to thoughts whether it's be a little more
fast paced. It's almost like, you know, without commercials. I
think the show has been a little over forty minutes
and I just needed about five more. We'll see if

(47:34):
we need a full ninety five we do in the season.
That's not a problem. We never have a problem quote
filling the time, but I want to do more than
fill the time, so we'll kind of keep that under advisement.
But normally we'd be done. And it's a good thing
we have two hours tonight, because I think there are
other things that we need to address, But I'm kind

(47:55):
of leaning towards after the season is over and we
wrap it up a little bit, about forty minutes might
be about perfect to talk about this that and the
other and silly season bringing on a guest every once
in a while and so forth.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
So yeah, I agree, I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
I like the I like the intensity that a one
hour brings, that you got to get to your point,
because in a one hour show, I would never be
able to mention. This is probably the first time on
live radio that a T shirt has been worn that
says the Wiener five hundred.

Speaker 4 (48:25):
Oh I forgot that, Yeah, which is I heard hard
to come by and I should have just sold it.
I think I had people tweet me after the Weeni
five hundred that they'd pay several hundred dollars for this shirt,
and they sold out. They sold out, and they were
tough to come by. And I think you're going to

(48:46):
see another quote Weenie Engagement in twenty twenty six, because
that was such a big hit. Yeah, they find the
broadcast on YouTube or Foxsports dot Com, so it might
be on real television in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
We don't need to get into this because I still
maybe I undervalued it, but I don't know. I was
so taken by the fact that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
with all its heritage and traditions, and I had had
for a Grand Marshal, one of my favorites. But I'm

(49:21):
still surprised that the Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster was the
Grand Marshal that which was a great idea. It was
a great idea, but we've seen the Weeni five hundred
and the Cookie Monster all in the same year. The
fact that the Cookie Monster was at the podium doing
a press conference, I am sad that I missed it
because I was committed to IndyCar on this particular weekend.

(49:44):
So I'm not sure how that transpired, but I may
need to see live video of that.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
Grand Marshals are in part supposed to help promote the events,
and the Cookie Monster promoted that event. There were more impressions.
I'm serious. I know, I know you are impressions that
the Cookie Monster. It probably let a decent amount of
the audience reminded them, Oh, the brickyard is this weekend.

(50:10):
Oh that's where NASCAR is going to be. Those are
the things that you're hoping for with your Grand Marshal.
Someone who is going to activate a little bit or
have someone activate for them.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Well, I mean, you just kind of hit it.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
The Cookie Monster probably doesn't have the number of commitments
that some Grand Marshals of the past have had, so
his social is a little more social. So I just
like I said, we need five hundred and the cookie
Monster on the same year. This has been a big
year at the speedway.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Yeah, I wasn't sure about the we NEI five hundred,
but we leaned in. It was fun, it was a hit.
It has a chance to be commercially viable moving forward
for a lot of parties. I'm going to guess it
went well for Oscar Meyer to so yeah, that's why

(51:02):
you do those kind of things, and it was fun.
We don't have to take ourselves too seriously. It was
not done before the race. I don't know that I
would like to see that during the ceremonies two hours
before the race. But carbon days about this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think back
to the baseball parks. What is the most consistent fun
thing that happens at a baseball game, and it's on
the scoreboard where three or four little dots are racing
on the scoreboard and you're betting on whether the red
one wins or the blue one.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Or I forgot about our grand idea over dinner recently,
and I need to tell someone or have someone else
higher in the food chain than me reminded the idea.
Our idea was because I think we're going to go
to a Brewers game to get all of us as
one of the hot dogs racing in the outfield. So

(51:57):
it's been discussed. Yeah, I don't know that we need
that pull of hamstringed. Nobody has to know who you are.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
You need one of those. And I forget where they
do it. Where the guy starts running and then the
mask runner.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
At the Phillies to do that. I can't remember, but
there is a borderline Olympic level sprinter, there's a college
sprinter or something like that, and you get like a
fifty yard head start around the warning chap field. Yeah,
and usually the sprinter wins, but every once in a

(52:32):
while just an average person will win that race. Or
maybe it takes more than that. Maybe it's when someone
was a high school runner is able to beat them.
So anyway, we're here four hour number two and we'll
be back next Tuesday night at seven o'clock. And if
we don't get to your Twitter question tonight then because
we're still a bit plausibly live late afternoon until we

(52:56):
get to the end of the show where where we
doing more of a closer to live segment. But if
we don't get to you this week, we can catch
on to it next week and we can still cover
some things from what we saw lagoon a Seka off
weekend this weekend, and then Portland is the week after next.
Maybe we'll touch on the brickyard a little bit better.
The NBC portion of the NASCAR schedule. Get to see

(53:17):
our buddy Lee Diffy on television again this weekend with motorsport.
He's been doing a lot of motorsport with Supercross and
IMSA along with this Track and Field and other duties.
But he'll be back in the commentary boxes. We like
to say for NASCAR and NBC on USA, this weekend
is where they will be. And again IMSA is on
Peacock and then we're back to Fox coming up at

(53:39):
Portland the week after next. And cannot believe we are
down to three races to go in the IndyCar Championship.
Mohammad asks we or says we got to talk about
Kirkwood's incident. VK was again P five six, same strategy
as Dixon, but he got pushed by Kyle, and Kyle
still finished the race way better, and then he should

(54:03):
Indy Car and he's asking should IndyCar be more strict
on an incident like this? And VK is fighting for
a top seats, So I don't know. Kyle finished sixteenth,
that's definitely better because VK was twenty third and three
laps down. I saw Kyle's thought on this, so Renus

(54:26):
posted the video of it and essentially said, someone else's
mistake cost me the race and Kyle's response, maybe I
should just look up Kyle's response that, you know, it's
unfortunate that someone would out me like that, especially when
you broke seventy feet further earlier than you were expected.
So they disagree. What brings me back to what I've

(54:49):
somewhat joked about. Why don't we have break lights like
they do in sports cards. How are you supposed to
know when somebody ahead of you is going to break?

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Yeah, I know it's and I've never asked somebody why
we just don't put a brake light back there, But yeah,
I mean you're trying to still judge things and put
it in the driver's hands to figure it out. It
was unfortunate and.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
The tweet was from Rena's a good day ruined by
someone else's mistake. Kyle responds, it's a shame someone will
put someone's mistake on socials like this. Yes, I misjudge
someone hitting the break seventy feet earlier than the previous lap. Sorry,
I take full blame, although that's impossible to judge. Yeah,
and I've seen it many many times, you know, and

(55:38):
especially when you are a fast car and you were
in the back and the faster car is one of
the reasons why they're faster is they break later, and
that is all part of it. You have to take
that into consideration, and I think that's how you know
race control. When they did penalize, Kirkwood would say, well, unfortunately,

(55:59):
at this high left level, those are one of the
things that you have to anticipate. Not that VK is
not a capable driver, but he had just had a
big wiggle moment. Kirkwood had tried to pass Rena's got
a little bit squirrely. You know, that's maybe something for
young drivers to keep in mind. When someone has a moment,
they're probably going to try to collect themselves and not

(56:20):
going to go full send into the next corner.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Yep, no, I I was going to bring that up.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I wasn't sure how clear it was that that Rena's
had a wiggle just before that, But.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Tough call. It's it's unfortunate. You're still responsible for the
car that you're driving and Kirkwood's you know, can't hit him.
But I get it. I get it, and uh, you
know the penalty was probably drive through is the penalty?
It's a show. Yeah, you know it was a stop

(56:55):
and go.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
So I'll tell you what. Kirkwood's had a bad mind
of July. He is like average, finishes about fifteen in
these five races. He went from being second in the championship.
I think he's lost like one hundred and forty points
to pull oh in the month of July alone. I mean,
it's been it's been tough sledding for Kyle.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
Crash from the right front failed at Iowa in the
first race. Second race, they gambled and stayed out for
a caution. Late caution heard their chances. They finished eighteenth.
Decent drive at Toronto, but still very disappointing because he
made a mistake in qualifying and started the sixth, and
had he thought the fastest car and certainly the second
fastest finished sixth, and then what we just see a

(57:42):
sixteenth a Laguna seika. So yeah, he goes from second
in the championship to now what is the fourth? He's
behind Dixon by just a little bit. Back to Muhammad's
other point about VK in line for a top seat,
let's just kind of assess where we think things stand there.
What are his chances at improving his lot in life?

(58:07):
Is there a better opportunity for him than where he's
at with Dale Coyn Racing.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
I don't see it, honestly, I've unless you do. But
and you know what, sometimes you have to just think about,
look how good he's had it. They figured out he's there.
He's there a driver. You know, there have been a
lot of guys have some really good runs at coin

(58:33):
and then leave and then in some of those cases
not the grass wasn't greener.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
So I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
I don't see it either. I don't see it either.
And I would say to him, and maybe I have
said to him, you might be in the best position
that is available and give Michael Cannon a winter to
help them with their ndy five hundred program and it
is going to be a different situation. It's okay to

(59:01):
keep looking, but it's a delicate balance. Dale understands it,
but don't take him for granted of giving you this
opportunity when we all had a fear for Renus that
there wasn't going to be any place for him, and
it's now you know, Dale could kind of run this
program out of his own pocket when the budget was

(59:23):
four five six million. I don't know what is budget
is what is being spent on those cars, but everyone
tells me you can't do it for less than eight million.
Now and to do it properly, it's ten million, and
ask Roi and Todd Alts. Companies are helping, but I
don't know to what level, but I doubt it's ten million.

(59:45):
So a lot of this is Dale's supporting the program,
and you just look at what's realistic. So here's where
I think things stand, and there's a lot of I
don't know. I don't know what's happening to the twelve.
I think it's Melucas, but I don't know that for certain.

(01:00:07):
I still think there is a chance, no matter what
a contract says that someone gets together and says, we'd
like to keep will and we think it might be
good for you to spend one more team in a
less pressurized environment one year to knockout that first win.

(01:00:29):
But and if it's not in writing, maybe we put
it in writing. But some people think it's in writing.
I don't know. But the twelve is not going to
be an option. It's either going to be Power or Melucas.
Would the foight entry? Would you do that? If it's

(01:00:53):
still a Penske technical partnership and you still have James Schnabel,
you could say that's an upgrade and probably is to
get you in the door there, And who knows how
long Joseph Newgarden's going to drive. He doesn't seem super happy,
so he might be one of those that retires earlier
than you think. Or you know, if Malucas doesn't work out,

(01:01:20):
that's he could be open in a few years, so
you'd think strongly about that. But if that does happen
and Malucas gets there, they're going to try to get
Power in that car most likely, And does Roger Penske
help fund that as kind of a going away, But
that that's going to be an anticipated seat. I think

(01:01:41):
Will is going to have some options if he does
not stay with Penske. What else is out there. I
don't think there's going to be any change it at
Carpenter Racing or Meyer Shank, so there's one to look at.
I don't think so either, but I do think the
sixty six is open. I'm guessing Marcus Armstrong is coming

(01:02:06):
to the last year of his contract, which I think
and other people have written this. I think Nathan Brown
has written this, maybe Marshall Pruitt has as well, but
I've seen it out there that he's under a Ganassi contract.
That was my assumption and they did not have to
take him when they did that technical partnership, but it
worked out quite well to help that chip, and it

(01:02:26):
worked out well that Marcus has come with some budgets
and he's really good. So the dynamic there is going
to be as Marcus Armstrong continues to get better, and
it could be argued he should be a higher driver,
you know, kind of where Marcus Erickson was at now.
He's not done as well as Marcus Erickson has done,

(01:02:46):
who finished sixth in the championship three times, won four races,
including the indy five hundred and finished second another time.
But does he want that dynamic to change? If he does,
then you you know, that's a different story. And you're
looking at all, right, do I want him? Do I
want will Power? Do I want reenas VK? But if

(01:03:07):
he is still capable of bringing budget, and that might
just be through partnerships, may not be the family writing
a check, I don't know that that dynamic might be
business to business deals. His father is a very successful
car dealer and more in New Zealand. But if you
have Marcus Armstrong and he's bringing a good chunk of

(01:03:28):
the budget, that is tough to say no to because
I think you could just debate you're hiring them. You
could say I might want Renus, might want Marcus. I
don't know what is the right answer. Maybe Renus because
he's won a race and he's effectively got it done
on teams that aren't Gonnassy, which is sort of what
Shank still is. And then the debate where a will

(01:03:51):
power is do you want somebody that's forty five or
twenty four or twenty five upside versus right now? Can
you imagine what will power might do with a Ganassi
engineer and the ability to look at Alex Plow and
Scott Dixon's data and learn some things from them and
read juveniate things. So I would not automatically rule that out.

(01:04:17):
And two, what if the partners like Sirius XM and
there are a lot of partners with Meyer Shank, say
this guy's interesting. He gets covered because he's interesting and
because he's fast, and he's always going to have a
chance to win the indy five hundred. We are going

(01:04:38):
to invest and we are going to pay willpower so quickly.
If I'm thinking where will could get hired that he
is going to find most attractive, I think that is
P one. I don't know if they will offer him that,
but they've got to at least be thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
So just one point you made that, I would tell
you where I stand on that I were a team owner.
You ask would I rather have a forty five year
old who is still on top of his game or
would I rather have a twenty four with upside? I'll
take the forty five. And here's why. If the twenty
four or twenty five year old continues to be successful,

(01:05:17):
you ain't keeping him for very long. You're not going
to build the next twenty years. If this, if Marcus
Armstrong is the real deal, you're not going to have
him in three.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Years, certainly not with him bringing budget exactly. So he's
going to get hired at some point, and you know what,
they will probably always be another Lenus lun Quist or
you know, somebody who's really good you'd like to see
have an opportunity. Yeah, so you know a lot of times,

(01:05:47):
that's why it's not easy just to say this is
your choice. I don't know they're financials. You know, they
may need a driver that brings budget. A lot of
teams do. The only teams that don't need anybody are
Penske and Andretti. That might be it. I'm not sure
if he's a primo and I'm not sure if either

(01:06:08):
promo driver brings any budget.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
You say they don't.

Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
I say it's Andretti because I Ganassi has a driver
that is helping with budget, and I think McLaren has
a driver that is helping in some sorts.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Well, look, even a Penske and and the others that
you mentioned, they may not have a driver that's that's
bringing budget. But if one comes along who's worthy of
the seat and brings budget. You're not discounting him just
because you're not taking budget.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Penske's never done that. I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
I understand that. But we're also in a different dynamic.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Yeah, and ANDRETTI wanted to make a point when they
drop down from five to three, we want to be
able to hire our driver. So that's where they're at
in this current environment. But sometimes things do change back
to renas you know the other options, ray Hall letterman Lanagan,
I don't know what the situation in the contract is
for Devil and d Francesco. Bobby Rayhall recently said, where

(01:07:14):
did he say that it was either race or Indie
Star that Louis Foster is on a multi year contract.
I still want to know options. It's easy to say
multi year contract. I have a multi year contract. I've
always had a multi year contract, but someone else has
the option on that. That's how those things work, because
like it does for most race car drivers, just like
it does for NFL players, India and Baseball are the

(01:07:38):
ones where there are guaranteed contracts. The rest of the
athletes oftentimes do not have guaranteed contracts and there are options.
Ray Hall has more shiny things. But do they always
outperform Dale Core in racing?

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Do they haven't always?

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
I tell you your point about Michael Cannon is not
on give him a little bit more time in the
program if he can stay connected to the program. He's
bounced around a little bit lately. But if if he
stays with the program, you know Dale, You can say
this about Dale. Dale always has some pretty crafty engineers,
whether it's guys like Bill Pappas, whether it's John Dick,

(01:08:17):
whether it's Yeah, I mean, go down through the list.
Michael Cannon, Now he has had good engineers. Uh, and
there are others.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
But unless the Meyer Shanks seat is offered to him,
there is not a note that there's no brainer. Only
one that is a no brainer.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
I don't think Androidie is going to make him an offer.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
I don't think fight will. I don't think fight will.
It's not out of the question, but I don't. I
wouldn't wouldn't count.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
That's one you'd think about, Yeah, you would. You would
think about that one. With the Penske relationship there all said,
Renus has been awesome, And you know, maybe my opinions
are clouded because I always like to see people stay
where they're at. I like good drivers on teams that
are not the big three or four teams, So that

(01:09:12):
just well, I think those are some of the fun
stories when a dale Coin is on the podium, hadnto.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
I hope you're not saying that. You know, Renus VK
is a good driver and he's better than dale Coin Racing.
Maybe dale Coin Racing has helped Renas VK become a
good driver. You know, it is a team sport and
they have figured out how to work together. I mean,
it wasn't working for Renus last year on what you
could and I'll put my air quotes up say it

(01:09:41):
was a better organization. And you can say that, well,
we're talking a budget. We're just saying they have a budget. Yeah,
the better organization is Who's to say who's better, but
we have we have found something that works with Renus
VK and dale Coin Racing, that's what we're saying. And
we found that, you know, other with other arrangements at

(01:10:02):
dale Coin Racing. Now, obviously we all agree that Sebastian
Boordat is world class. He's as good a race car
driver as we've had in the last twenty years, so
obviously at that organization having seib was a big was
a big boost. But it worked with those two. I
mean the board day pairing with dale Coin's team worked,

(01:10:24):
and he's had other ones, So you know, I'm just saying,
sometimes a marriage just just really works for you. And
it may be about the driver, and it may be
about the team, or maybe it's just that they are
working well together and they fit each other.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
Yep. I like what they're doing and I'd like to
see that exactly. Attinue Brett dru asked this a bit ago,
and we had one hour show so we couldn't always
get to the Twitter question. So catching up a little bit,
he tells me it sucks that the Indie Next Race
has moved to a different channel. I forget which weekend
this was. I missed the end of it because I dvr'

(01:11:02):
maybe something Fox can work on in the future should
have started soccer on a different channel. It's not me
losing Nielsen ratings. So on ratings, I think, you know,
unless you have a diary, you're actually not counting on
Nielsen ratings, although I've still never understood that. I don't
get how in the digital age, they're not counting all

(01:11:22):
of us. Here's the thing when they bounce things around.
And I know there were complaints about us going on
late because of soccer, Well what about the people who
want to see soccer? How would you feel if our
race they just knock us off of three laps left
because the UFC fight was about to begin. You try
to finish what you started, and then you have to

(01:11:45):
make some contingencies in for this particular race, this was
probably one of the ovals. I think because we were delayed,
something happened. We didn't run our race on schedule. That's
the commitment. After that, it's just the best you can find.
But we can't bounce someone else out of their slot.

(01:12:07):
Most of the time, especially if it's a live event.
They have contracts, and in some cases it might even
be a higher rated event. I don't know which soccer
this was, but I know the soccer that preceded IndyCar
on Sunday had twice the audience. So that's just business.
But beyond that, it's just fulfilling the contract. There's nothing

(01:12:30):
you can do, and they did everything they could by
pushing the start of the race back five or six minutes.
So we still had three or four minutes to set
it up. You know, some people will still argue you're
better off just coming on and throwing, you know, the
green flag. Anyway, if you're trying to capture a casual audience,
don't make them sit through a lot of chatter. Let's
just see race cars. I still watch Laguna Seca and

(01:12:54):
I'm captivated. I think it's a wonderful visual it is
with that backdrop and the landscape and the up and
down and the cars look fast there. Oh and then
I think I responded to this to Brett. Here's the
thing too, if you miss something IndyCar related with Fox,

(01:13:16):
just keep trying. Because they aired ninety six times a week.
You cannot miss us. They re air practice shows from
Indie next just set the season pass, or if you
miss something, just look on FS one FS two. I know,
and everyone has FS two, and I get the complaint
that I'm not going to spend for that. You know,

(01:13:36):
first world problems. We can't have everything, but there are
a lot of things available on different channels, and it
generally re airs at some point. And you know what
they also do. How I watched the race on the
plane ride home last night YouTube. The entire races were
posted free to YouTube within about twenty four hours.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
So.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
It's out there and available. I had another one recently
yelling about asked if Fox requires me to spoil the
Indie Next result when I mentioned Miles row one at
Iowa during the IndyCar race. That's I think the first
time we've done that. And I also think Miles row
is probably pretty happy, so were his backers. So was
Indie Next that we got to mention on. He happened

(01:14:23):
to be standing in the pit box when we did
a Ben Bretzman interview, and I thought, oh, here's a
nice way to kind of give the young man some
recognition on a very significant victory. Spoiler alert to you all,
there are no more spoiler awards alerts in this world.
If you don't want to be spoiled. One, you obviously
know you need to stay off social media, which it

(01:14:44):
can be done. I've done it. Two, you have to
watch things in the order they aired, because even if
the end right, let's just use some smart thinking here
and let's just have a teachable moment for everyone, because
there's going to be a crawl at the bottom of
a lot of broadcasts that is automated that nobody can control.

(01:15:08):
And thank god Fox actually includes IndyCar and Indye Next
on the FS one and FS two. I'm not sure
about fox other sports programmings, but out at dinner on
Sunday night, I thought it quite cool that in the
basketball game we were watching on FS one, there's the
Indie Next standings going through the crawl on there, so

(01:15:32):
you must watch in order that they happen. If the
Indie Next result was the most important thing that you
didn't want spoiled, you better watch that before the IndyCar
Race or any other sporting event that weekend, otherwise you're
going to have to suck it up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
Coaching with Kevin this has been good. The only thing
that was confusing about the weekend is moving the morning
warm up to the evening and then it was going
to go on f S two, but FS two is
showing something else IndyCar related.

Speaker 4 (01:16:04):
Yeah, yeah, And then the kind of think the thought
there was what we will air it on dot com
and it was going to be on FS two, which
is not a huge audience, and then you just air
it on Sunday morning in the original FS one block.
So that's kind of something I think will need to
change in the future that we're kind of learning. There
is no point in scheduling an eight thirty session at

(01:16:27):
Laguna Seka. No, it ain't gonna happen now somehow the
porsch Or Sprint Challenge doesn't require a helicopter because they're
out there running around. And one joke was because a
lot of the drivers are also doctors.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
That's a good one. That's a good yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
Yeah, I may or may not have said that, but
IndyCar understandably is not going to run if the safety
helicopter cannot land or take off. I think it was
already there, but it can't take off, and you're always
going to have that, so that seems like a good
schedule adjustment. One mention was, let's just do two practices
on Friday, do an afternoon qualifying on Saturday, and then

(01:17:06):
the warm up late in the afternoon, because there have
been other places where we're starting really early where the
warm up quote has come at the end of the
day on Saturday. That happens at times, and there's no
reason to schedule something in the morning on Saturday or
Sunday because there's about an eighty percent chance it's not
going to happen. Shoot, you almost now the Indie Next

(01:17:26):
Race had to bounce until after the IndyCar Race, and
we missed it by about five minutes. About five minutes
after they called that race, it was cleared and it
was all go. By that point, you could only run
like fifteen of the thirty five laps because we were
out of time.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
Yeah, I was going to say we essentially couldn't have
even had the Indie Next Race. So yeah, that's you know,
there's something. There's a lot of things that are consistent
or predictable in life, and one of them is fog
at Laguna Seka in this in the morning. Through most
of the year, you just.

Speaker 4 (01:17:59):
Did beautiful there. So it was dreary in the morning.
It was sixty five and sunny every afternoon, and sixty
five there feels like seventy five, maybe because it's in
the desert and it's really chilly at night. It's especially
chili near the bay. But it is just perfect out there.

(01:18:20):
And I hear Road America is going to be quite
nice this weekend, like in the nineties now even up there,
but it's supposed to be in the mid seventies if
you want to see some racing in your area for im.
So this weekend, all right, we'll see what we need
to still get to. I think there is more to
cover as we continue trackside ninety three five one oh
seven five The fan? How this Scott Dixon and you're
listening to trackside on ninety three five and one oh

(01:18:43):
seven five the fan? Okay this segment. Go back into
the box score and see there's anything else we need
to talk about. We talked a lot Kurt about the
top ten from Laguna Seka. I'm not sure anybody else,
you know, roseen Quist is one. I'm looking to see
if there was anybody that's kind of out of place?

(01:19:05):
Was better than where they finished? Uh or the only
the only comment then where they they started. Rose and
Quist stands out because he was second in the second
round of qualifying, went off, caused a local yellow, had
to start twelve, and then he gets hit from behind
on the opening lap. So you know, I would have
been curious to see what rose Quiz could have done.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
You know, I brought up Poddo earlier.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Being a driver who has you know, I don't think
he's had as many shining moments as like a champion,
a true championship contender would expect, and this was one
of those races. It just felt like it just felt
like he was never really in contention. You know, he
qualifies second, looks like it's gonna and immediately he's third,

(01:19:54):
and he's dropped a fifth pretty quickly, and it's almost like,
you know, we talked about the sometimes in racing or
events where they time each other, it's like he never
got a call. It was like Potto was never really
a factor. And that was just interesting. I mean, just

(01:20:14):
he was kind of at the edge of the camera
shot all day, but fourth or fifth most of the
race and never any better, never any worse, And it
just seemed like it was kind of one of those
ho hum days for him, and I hate that. I
wanted him to put some pressure on the on the
championship leader, and it just never really came.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
So don't really worth mention it is. I think Connor
Daily had a good recovery. Yeah, I don't know whose
fault it was, whether he tracked out or Schwartzman came in,
but they made contact at the beginning went off. He's
got a lot of catching up to do, and you
know still started twenty third to begin with, but he's
effectively last or just ahead of Kevin Simpson and Felix

(01:20:56):
roe'sen quist and finishes thirteenth, So that's good for Connor.
That's a solid result for them as they continue to
try to dial in the program. You know we haven't
mentioned yet was the Nathan Brown story with Zach Brown
from Aerol McLaren from their visit together in Toronto and

(01:21:19):
Zach knows how to get people talking. Apologies to Zach
that I didn't get to this until the next segment,
but he told The Indianapolis Star that he is working
on scheduling a rookie OVAL test for a driver, and
Tony Kanaan wouldn't reveal it either. Brown said, We've got
to trick up our sleeves and it would be so

(01:21:39):
cool if it happens. This one would be unreal, it
would be mega, which got everyone to start thinking.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
About who it might be. You got to guess, well,
Sebastian Vettel came to mind. That was one that you
know he's not He's not shied away from the conversation
about Indycarr in the past. I've actually been around Sebastian
a fair amount, but it's not it's not Max for stopping.

Speaker 4 (01:22:11):
I just can't well, it's not an active F one driver, correct,
they can't do it. This schedule doesn't work. So you're
looking at Vettel, you're looking Ricardo.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
So I think it's vital That's who I think.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
I don't. I don't think he's I don't think he's
going to do that. Next was I wonder is it
Kyle Busch? The next I wondered, is it Connor Zilich,
who apparently did say this weekend, which I think he
said before, he's going to do the Indy five hundred
at some point, but I think it's probably going to
be with Justin Marx and track House agreed, agreed. Exton

(01:22:47):
wants to do the Indy five hundred, but I don't
know that it's going to be next year, doing during
what is likely to be his full NASCAR Cup season.
And Zilich, by the way, one what I hear is
another entertaining race. So he's winning on all the road
courses and now he won at more of a driver's
track in the Infinity race at the Brickyard. By the way,
very cool for Bubba Wallace to win this this weekend

(01:23:09):
as well, and he gets himself in the playoffs. I
really wish the Brickyard was not on an IndyCar weekend
so we could all experience that a little bit. Here's
another thought I have. I wouldn't be surprised if Zach's
giving us the okie doke and he's going after Ryan
hutter Ray and he's making a joke that because Ryan

(01:23:30):
hutter Ray is the best available driver out there. And
I think, well, I think I've said before. You know
they're gonna win another big name driver, and maybe it's
Kyle Busch. With Larson not coming back. I think what
Aaron McLaren needs to do next year is bring in
someone who can elevate the program, because they still have

(01:23:50):
one driver that you would say has a good chance
of winning the race. Christian Longuard's not there yet until
proven otherwise, he still has some more work to go.
I'm sure he's going to be better next year after
a year in the program, but he's not quite there yet,
or at least his car wasn't quite there yet to
be talked about as a contender. Nolan Siegel's not there

(01:24:12):
yet either, they would be well served on a one
off to find the best available driver, and if Tony
Kanaan won't do it, that best available driver unless he's
already re signed with Ryan Ryin Bold and Cusick Motorsports.
And I saw Don Cusick mentioned in a story this
weekend that on Racer that they haven't re signed with

(01:24:33):
Dryan Ryan Bold. So I had a couple people say, yeah,
just keep an eye on Ryan. Maybe I'll ask him
next time he's in the Indie next booth.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
No, I think I think that makes a lot of sense,
not just because it's Ryan, but you're right, they need
another bullet to win the Indy five hundred. They need
somebody else who can win the Indy five hundred. And
Christian Lingard, for as good as his season has been,
has not been great on obles. He's not there on
ovals yet, and he's not there at the speedway, even

(01:25:05):
though you know he carried you know, his program pretty
far up the up the grid last the last few years,
last couple of years, but then you're talking eleven to twelve,
fourteenth something like that. You know he's not been in
the conversation. So yeah, there are just not a lot
of options out there for drivers that can win it.

(01:25:25):
Taku Mesado could still win it. Ryan hunter Way could
still win it. But that's that's the short list of people.

Speaker 4 (01:25:34):
Yeah, I'm just kind of guessing on Hunter Ray. I
don't have any good sourcing on this. It's just as well,
let's just call him. Let's just call and ask him.
We just as we chat around and talk about Bettel. Now,
I don't think so. Now, I think Zilich is probably
gonna come with Justin Marx. Who else is it? So
there's probably some other names. And knowing Zach Brown, he's

(01:25:54):
probably got something that I haven't thought about yet that
will be quite interesting. That's why he's good at his job.
He markets.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Well, what about Elliot.

Speaker 4 (01:26:05):
Other than he's a co owner of Meyer Shank Racing. Yeah,
but you know, I just think commercially they're going to
want him in the car again. But he's chumming with
Tony Kanan. Yeah, I can't rule Tony Kanan saying, you
know what, I was actually getting kind of excited about
jumping in the car. Maybe I will go ahead and
do it. And that's why maybe they're joking about a

(01:26:27):
rookie test, because he would have to go through the
rookie test right.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
To do this.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Yeah, that's why the rookie part was why I didn't
think about somebody like kind of Ray.

Speaker 4 (01:26:39):
But sure, when you're a rookie, we're thinking someone in
NASCAR or Formula one or whatever. But just stand by.
That's what we can talk about in the off season.
All right, Well we missed in more is coming up
next on track side? Hi, this is what powe and
you're listening to TRACKSD all right, final segment. What we missed. Oh,
I forgot to mention that there was some testing in
Portland today. I knew ANDRETTI was going there. I heard

(01:27:02):
somebody mention that, and then I saw a social post there.
I'm not sure if anybody else. I saw some others
that said that they were going to be testing at
Nashville Superspeedway before we got there. I don't think it's
this week, but there's still a little bit of testing
before the season is over. To Twitter, Matt Arcoletta, when
Kurt mentioned the Weeny five hundred shirt that I have on,

(01:27:25):
he found a screen grab from the broadcast with someone
standing in full view with the back of one of
those shirts that says there's only one Wiener still getting
a lot of life. Mark Zastro says interesting that IndyCar
listened to hitchdown on the VK incident. Full course caution
was held until the leader's blended. But seeing cars at

(01:27:47):
full pace for so long as Jarring proposal a timing
loop caution when the road when race controlled declares won
all cars can pass, all start finished lined and blend
lined once then position is frozen. You have to think
about that and see that play out. But you're right,
it would be nice to see something with technology, if
it's available, to figure that out, because that's part of

(01:28:08):
the challenge, is that, all right, you hold the yellow
until everybody pits, but unless you get the outlap to go,
then there is a huge advantage for those that pit
right just before that caution because they don't have to
do the outlap. And they did try to make them
do at least half the outlap and get back up
to speed, but that means you have somebody sitting there

(01:28:31):
not being able to move for even longer. One other time,
for I saw someone for the love of INDI said
it was Newman Haas that I mentioned that went to
Indy five. It was Bruno jung Kara that got hurt,
not Borda who had a late crash in that race,
so thank you for that. Bruno jan Karra, by the way,

(01:28:53):
is racing and Michelin pilot challenge in a TCER card.
Now I think I haven't gotten my statuet, but I
think he's racing this weekend of Road America, So hope
you can watch US Saturday and Sunday on Peacock. We'll
see you next Tuesday here on track side

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