Curt and Kevin Recap Power and Penske Finally Winning in 2025 & Palou Becoming a 4X Champion!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is track side with Kirk Kavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three five and one oh seven five.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The fan, Oh it's a big one in back.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I think that is Santino Ferrucci and that's big coming
out of twelve rear wing into the pitwall at high speed.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh big, that is big.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
It felt like that. It's been coming for a lap,
lap and a half. The frustration, Oh no, what has
he got a problem?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
He does?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I think he's good. That sounded terminal for Panoa Warren.
You hear the engine, No drop terminal?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
That's it?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Bero.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh captain, my captain? Dare you drop me? Dare you
get rid of.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
The man who has led this tea year after year,
who has more polls, who is faster than any driver
in the history of this series, who will win once again?
Will Power returns victory Lane and put Tenski back on the.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Top step of the podium. Good job boys, weekend, Very
good job, Burgo.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Jel and well, the day belongs to Pawa, The yea
belongs to Polo Alex. Polo is a four timed Indie
Car champion.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, now what do we do? Two to go Championship
is decided. Welcome to track Side ninety three to five
one oh seven five The Fan in Indianapolis and on
your usual podcast outlets. If you're listening to us after
the fact, what Spotify, Apple, all the others rate and
review us, say how much you enjoy the insight or

(01:47):
just lie if you need to, And we greatly appreciate
those that listen to us live on the radio or
streaming at one oh seven five Thefan dot com. It's
a MIDWEK edition of the program. Early notice because I
just looked it up. We're back to Tuesday coming up
next week on August nineteenth. My name is Kevin Leek
or Kevin is where this Lyndon Coons is in the

(02:08):
Indianapolis studio highlights. They will power win for Team Penske.
Will it be the last courtesy of Fox Sports and
a fourth championship in five years for Alex Polow Kurt
who somehow overcame his worst road course finish of the season.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Third kind of amazing. He's been this consistent and this
elite for so long that and this is a topic
for another day. But I don't know what changes as
we move forward in twenty twenty six. You know, we
sat here in discussed during the offseason. Well, he's going

(02:47):
to have a full season of the hybrid unit. That's
going to change things. It's heavier, it's going to make
the car drive differently. So what do you do. He
drove better, he got better, He got me, figured it
out quicker than everybody else. Yep, So go ahead and
put that in the back of your mind. When a
new car comes in a couple of years, he'll figure

(03:09):
it out before everybody else. Most likely will he be
on a six race or a six championship winning streak
by that point five seven. It's really amazing, you know.
He he just continues to put a beat down on
not only the entire field, but that includes a six

(03:30):
time series champion, champion that has every bit of information
that Alex has. Scott Dixon gets every bit of morsels
from a data standpoint, and yet can't do anything about it.
And you know most of the field can't either. It's
only been a rare occurrence when somebody beats Alex on
a given day.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
So amazing stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
You know. I don't like to compare eras, and we
will try to do that in the hour ahead or
hours and off season to come. But my goodness, we
haven't seen much dominance like this in a very long
time in this sport.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
By the way, as we look ahead, I don't know
what you can do to stop alex plow, but I'd
give it a go. And I'd call Julian Robertson his
engineer and just say, all right, I know you've been
there thirty years, but any chance you'd want to come
somewhere else, whether you wanted him or not, just to
try to break up something. I would look to be

(04:28):
doing anything if I'm a competitor of them to just
I'd call Ricky Davis, I'd call anybody. I'd call the
person doing the outside rear tire and say, hey, can
I make you an offer in just while all of
those positions are important, that's probably not going to impact

(04:49):
his performance on the racetrack. But yeah, that's scary. It
is scary. And this was not a surprise. We all
thought it was going to be this way this year.
I didn't think he'd win eight races, and he still
might win nine or ten, but I thought he'd win
however many he needed. What did he win last year?

(05:11):
Two three two two two? But just manage things well
enough to win the championship, but any weakness he had
coming into the season and they would be, well, you
know what, I don't qualify awesome. He qualified well and

(05:31):
he was generally in the fast six, but he wasn't
starting first, second, third, a lot. Well, he ticked that off.
He's winning polls, he's running up front, and he hasn't
won on an oval. He had been pretty good on
some ovals and really good at the NDY five hundred,

(05:51):
but now he's done that. He's won the Indy five hundred,
got the breaks, everything that goes along with that, and
then he is now won on a short oval. There
is nothing missing in his game. Hard tire, soft tire,
long run, short run, whatever it is. He's better than
everyone else. And that's what I'm interested in now. And

(06:15):
that's a debate too, you know, is that an impact
on the ratings? Is that a reason why the ratings
are not as high this year on Network as they
were last year on Network because we go in It's
what we've always said, Well, in Indy Car, you don't
know who's going to win. I got pretty good idea
on road courses who's going to win the race? He
doesn't always win, because he didn't win this one, and

(06:37):
I would have expected him to win in Portland and
he didn't. But is that going to have an impact
moving forward? Or is there an intrigue in can anybody
beat this guy? And the times they do, which is
still about half the time they do? Is that worthy

(06:57):
of celebration and enough to hold our attention?

Speaker 1 (07:01):
To be determined on all those things. But I would
say that one thing that has been positive in this
as you present the ratings, is that Alex Polow's become
or is becoming, to the general public those that tune
in at least more of an identifiable figure. He is
somebody now that you can, you know, you can cheer

(07:24):
for or cheer against, and I have both in my household.
Even though I've said he's might be the nicest guy
in the sport, you know, we still have, you know,
those that don't want to see him win, And so
there's that polarizing aspect to it as well. But bigger
than that is that he is now a name for
the casual fan who drops in, the NASCAR fan, the

(07:47):
Formula one fan who drops in and watches one of
our broadcasts. Now they know Alex Polow. They know the
ten car or the least. They are developing that as
we go. The interesting thing for me not just in
terms of how many races he's won and how many polls,
et cetera. But I think if you, and this would

(08:08):
take a lot of research, but if you went back
and compared his performance this year in particular to say,
Tony Canons in two thousand and four, Dan Weldon's in five,
it is amazing to me. I just have anecdotal information here,
but I think it's true. Alex seems to lead virtually

(08:29):
every session as well. He leads every practice. I'm surprised
when he's not fastest in the warm up. It truly
is surprising to me when he is not the fastest,
has the fastest lap in whatever session we're in, And
so you know and think about this. I mean, even
like the first round of qualifying, he'll be first, the

(08:52):
second round of qualifying, he'll be first. I mean, it
doesn't happen every time, but from a percentage standpoint, it
has to be as impressive as anything we've seen in
those sports history.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
You've got to go back to the late sixties. You're
talking Floyt Mario Allenser who had that one magical year
in nineteen seventy. Maybe he had more than the app
that's the one that really stands out. Those are the
people that have won more races than him in a season,
and his mistake kept him from winning a ninth at

(09:26):
mid Ohio. And I've talked before about you know, Toronto
was one where he easily could have won. They picked
the wrong strategy and or cautions came out at the
wrong time, and he got punted at Detroit, where I
don't think he was going to win, but he was.
He would have wrapped up the championship with with three
to go if any one of those comes through. So

(09:48):
it's just amazing and I applaud him, and I wonder
what's going to change. So that's a problem for another day.
But things do change. I know his competitors would say, well,
he's not had any bad luck. I think he's had
a little bit, but he's not had a ton. But
that's what it's probably going to take, is mechanical issues

(10:10):
or people running him off the road. You know.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
The other thing about this race, and we'll get into
the actually how this race was won and subsequently lost,
but in this race, he effectively raced eighteen seconds of
a twenty second deficit to will Power. I mean, he
was the best car, best car and driver combination in

(10:33):
the second half of this race in Portland, he just
he just came charging through the field, and not necessarily
through the field, but on the racetrack and e racing
a huge deficit. Now Power got hung up in traffic,
but traffic on a two mile racetrack is critical for anybody,
even Alex and he just carved his way into that

(10:56):
deficit and had a.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Chance to win.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
When at one point, and I don't know the exact
lap count, but it was seemed to be in the
forty somewhere, I look up and I think he's got
no chance to win this race. And with ten laps
to go he is on the back end of Christian
Lungard to to try to get second place, and eventually
did actually get in front of Christian. So I guess

(11:21):
my point is you need to win this race. But
if you were just to have watched, you would have
said that's the best car on the racetrack.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
And he was not going to settle with just settling
for a podium to celebrate his championship. It was a
three race, three driver battle towards the end, Power and loan,
guard and plow were all there together, all on three
different strategies. That made it interesting too, and the way
that's one worked out. And for someone like Graham ray Hall,

(11:48):
who finished fourth in the race, what he did, this
is an easier decision if you're in the back and
when they pile up at the start, there's really no harm.
You're losing no track position. You come in and you
get on the preferred tire. So he got off the
hard and he ran just four laps on the black.
He ran one green flag lap on the black, and

(12:09):
because he qualified it in the back, he had three
sets of reds of softs and finished the race that way,
and he was fast. And then there was another caution
and the pit's open a lap nine, he passes those
five or six cars and then he passed other on
the track. Then we had the next caution a lap
fifteen sixteen, And I wasn't sure what the right play

(12:31):
to do was, And it turns out that was good
because there wasn't a right way to do it. Either.
One could have worked Power stayed out. He had started
on a new set, his only new set of safts
reds Loan Guard. He came in because he was on

(12:52):
the hard tire, so that made sense for him get
off of that and then he ran basically used with
one new set the rest of the way. And then
Polo started on the hards. But he did the opposite
of Loinguard. He said, I always make the tires last.
He always does the overcut by going longer. So he
stayed out, went all the way to thirty five, like

(13:12):
Power did. They put on the same lap and they
all end up together but at different places. So I
found that interesting and big picture that race is not
always awesome. It was really good, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
I think it was one of the three or four
best races when we get to the end of the season.
As I wrote on Monday on IndyCar dot Com, I
think you'll want to circle back on this one. This
will be one that ordinarily, to your point, gets overlooked,
but in this case was very entertaining for the reasons
you just described. The last ten to fifteen laps were outstanding.

(13:48):
It felt like will Powers shouldn't have been able to
hold back Christian Luingard and Alex below based on their
advantage from a tire standpoint, but he did traffic was
in the way. We had some spicy dialogue between different
drivers and good racing. I think it was something like

(14:08):
two hundred passes for position. I think I said this
last week that racetrack for me is the closest thing
and I enjoy it for this reason. It's the closest
thing to an oval for a road course. It kind
of has an oval feel. I had a front stretch
andd a backstretch, and kind of two ends of the
racetrack that are pretty sweeping, particularly what would be the

(14:32):
east end of the racetrack, which is the last corners,
feel kind of like an oval swooping around there. So
it's a really it should always be more entertaining than
it has been in the past. But this was a
good weekend, and I think as we reflect back at
the end of the year, you know, let's remember how

(14:52):
good this one was.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
It is kind of like a roll ofval going in
the opposite direction. Instead of left hand turns, you've got
right hand turn We'll get the power and PENSKEI in
a moment, but since I just casually, you know, off
the Cuff mentioned ratings. I want to say something else there,
because it's been interesting following social media and all the
commentary and journalists commenting on what the ratings are and

(15:17):
various opinions on that that are one point eighty difference.
You know, I've said this before too. I'm amazed. I've
always been interested in ratings, not just because it's the
business I'm in. I just like the business of sports.
I am surprised that so many other people care so
much about it and seem to be basing their enjoyment

(15:41):
on whether it was a good rating or not. You know,
I think it's was it a good race? Did you
enjoy it? Did you feel like you had a good
two and a half hours of entertainment? That's all you
should worry about. Don't worry about if someone else likes it.
Think of it like some people actually like their bands
to be indie bands that nobody else really follows. So

(16:01):
different people have different opinions. Some like to see that
their mainstream and so on. With that. Now, why it
does matter at motorsport is that you want the support
to be on solid ground. You want them to have
as many events as they can. You want the bust
drivers to be hired, that it be dependent on that

(16:22):
and the teams to have the sponsorship to hire the
drivers in as many cases as possible. So that is
why it matters a little bit. So the head to
head that's been talked about, and both sides the way
they look at this, I think are accurate. It just
depends on the perspective you want to take. I tend
to take a more positive perspective. Maybe it's biased because

(16:43):
of who I work for, and I'll state that in front.
So I get that the head to head with NBC.
Last year network to network is not as high as
we hoped it was going to be. You know, they
were averaging maybe nine hundred some thousand a million or
whatever on network race not all of them on network,
and this year that is down a little bit. You know,

(17:04):
you had the big one at Saint Pete to start
the season. Obviously, the Indy five hundred was massive, which
should not be forgotten. Saw the list again today highest
rated motor sports events of the year P one, Who's
that Kurt yepy five hundred over all the NASCAR races.
But I get it, you're going to look at everything,

(17:25):
but what should not be forgotten and what IndyCar understood
when they did this deal. When you know, I see
the comments on a Fox Sports PR release, I see
them because I'm tagged in them, so I have to
see all of them. If I'm going to look at
my social media when they post something up eighty six
percent from last year and a negative response would be yeah,

(17:48):
but it was on cable last year, Well yeah, that's
the points. That's why IndyCar did the deal, That's why
Fox offered this, That's how Fox was able to get
it because they were willing early on to say, we're
going to put every race on network, we are going
to guarantee a larger audience next year, and on cable

(18:10):
you're going to get two and three and four hundred thousand.
A lot of times it takes circumstances to draw seven
eight hundred thousand on cable. And when you have a conflict,
when something runs long and I'll speak to that next,
and you get bounced to the number two outlet, you
want to hope that they have a sports channel, because
if it's a news channel, then you're going to see

(18:33):
seventy two thousand people or seventy nine thousand and those
were real numbers from last year or a streaming only audience,
which I don't know what that was, but logic would
say it's a little bit less than that. I'm obviously
a fan of what NBC did. They did a fantastic job.
But Fox is using the asset that they have and

(18:53):
the willingness to put more sporting events on network television,
which I've said many times makes good sense for business
because it's more DVR proof. People are going to watch
the advertisements, So that is I still think the business
way to look at that. It's okay to say and
point out that to head network, yeah we've got a

(19:14):
little work to do, but I still think a lot
of that is anecdotal. It's what's your head to head
And when you don't put all of the races or
events on network television, you can pick the best spots
and look against competition and create good numbers, But when
they all have to be on network, you're just going

(19:37):
to run head to head with other big events. And
the big events that affect you the most are motorsports events.
You are more likely to have some crossover between NASCAR
and F one fans than you are with anything else.
So that's where we're at. But the total number last
year was something like fifteen million, I think for all

(19:59):
the races, and I think we're at like twenty two million.
Maybe I'm wrong in that, but I remember hearing a
while back it was twenty So that is a meaningful number.
That's why you did this deal. So a quote bad
rating is seven hundred eight thousand rather than two hundred
and sixty nine thousand, and that makes it easier for

(20:21):
the teams to sell this and it's something to build on.
And now that Fox is a partner with IndyCar, it's
going to be easier for them to start working ahead.
And all right, how can we avoid a head to
head with NASCAR? That's not ideal. The Cup race started
an hour before. Luckily it went massively fast and the
second half of the IndyCar race did not have that

(20:44):
competition from racing. They probably still drew a pretty good
number from post race. They could be in NASCAR's best interest.
I don't know if they will, but it'd be nice
if they would work together. They had relatively a poor
rating from what they've had in the past in this time,
so I think they're losing people to IndyCar. Some don't

(21:05):
know how many, but some, and IndyCar is losing some
to NASCAR. Let's see if we can figure that out.
And maybe now that they're a partner, Fox is more
open to going in primetime when you're on the West coast.
Can you start at six pm Eastern three pm local
instead of noon local and then you're on after the

(21:26):
NASCAR race. That might be something that they would look
into doing as far as the beginning. You know, I
know people are angry, but let's think about it from
the other way around. If if you want to bounce
live golf or women's soccer or anything else that's going
to run long, be prepared for that to be done

(21:47):
to you. Right. Yeah, If IndyCar is ever starting at
noon Eastern and they have a red flag or a
rain delay, sorry, with six laps to go, we have
a golf event coming up next and it said it
starts at three o'clock, So enjoy yourself on dot com
or FS one. That's just a common courtesy and unless

(22:10):
it's gonna go way way long. Now, had that been
going clear, if they had had a rain delay and
they knew it was going to go an hour and
a half long. Because it's a playoff, it could end
at any time. If they knew it was going to
go an hour and a half long, my guess is
that event would have been bounced to something else. But
since it was a matter of moments and you missed

(22:34):
three or four laps, less than ideal. But I am
glad that they found a place and we still did
our pre race. We still had twenty minutes of setup.
FS one is still in a decent amount of homes.
If you're watching live sports live, then if something happens,
start thinking about what other properties that would be on.

(22:56):
Even if you don't do Twitter, log on at IndyCars
Twitter that might tell you where you can find it.
It's not ideal, but it's not that Fox hates your property.
It's just trying to do right by the other properties.
The only way you're going to avoid this is if
you want to start your own network or you're the NFL.

(23:19):
The NFL is never going to be preempted. But I
know this. I can remember when NFL fans were angry
at IndyCar because Football Night in America started forty five
minutes late, which, by the way, is the highest rated
show on television. That's not a sporting event. But NBC
did that a couple of times, let a race run

(23:40):
long to finish the race, and instead of an hour
and a half of Football Night in America, it was
a thirty five minute show. Would they have missed a
kickoff an NFL game, No, I don't think they would have.
But Football Night in America draws eight or nine million people.
So that was them showing the relationship and honoring the

(24:02):
contract with that partner. And that's what Fox was doing
with live golf or anything else.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Two things to two things come to mind. There are
times when I'm watching the Sunday NFL game at one
o'clock when it bleeds into the four to thirty game,
and they have moved those back start times the second
game so that that doesn't happen. The other thing I
would tell you is I have a box and this

(24:29):
is an old man sitting on his trying to keep
people off his lawn here, but I have boxes of
old VHS tapes where I have intended to tape a race,
and you go to the VHS tape and the race
is like picked up on lap thirty four. That's where

(24:51):
it begins. Because whatever you intended to see or did
not intend to see is still happening.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
So Randal all the this is not deal with this
for fifty years.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Thank You's that was more eloquently said. This is not
a new problem.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
But we didn't have dot com back in the day.
I know it's not ideal and we don't want to
be inconvenienced, but if we produce television, it is going
to be available on Foxsports dot com, and it's an
extra step. Some people don't have streaming television hooked up
to their TV, or maybe they don't do iPads or computers,

(25:32):
but if you really must see things, and by the way,
streaming is really the only way you're going to avoid
things because you're just not going to find the contract
that satisfies everyone. I see a lot of comments, oh,
it's so much better with peacock because we could do peacock.
That might be for some other people just refuse to
do streaming, can't figure it out, won't do it, or

(25:54):
whatever the case may be. But there at least is
that option if you are open to calling your grandkids
and saying, hey, can you hook me up to the
internet box because the event I want to see is on.
They can probably talk you through that and you could
watch it on your phone or something else. Backup plan.

(26:17):
The entire race is posted free to YouTube the next
day if you were not watching it live and your
DVR did not catch it, and you are a super
hardcore fan like I am, I like to see all
of events. I will actually go back and watch something,
even when I know the outcome, because I want to
know how we got to that outcome. Go to YouTube
right now, the IndyCar site right Maybe Fox does it too,

(26:41):
but I know it's that's how again. I watched the
race on the plane ride home. It was posted Monday afternoon,
entirety pre race, post race everything, and even what's kind
of cool during the breaks they if it was a
side by side break, you're still seeing cars go around.

(27:01):
So I enjoyed that a couple of times for two minutes,
just listening to net sounds of them cutting from onboards
to watching using the drone camera of you know, just
some a little bit of silence. Sometimes the announcers talk
too much.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, sometimes that guy on Pitt Road is a little
too chatty, But no, it was you know, I think
the Fox broadcast and what Fox with the network coverage,
has been able to provide and did offer, and the
investment they have subsequently made. You know, any feelings that

(27:37):
I had an appreciation that I had for for what
NBC was able to do, was I guess now equal.
You know, it's it's just different. There are different things
that the Fox affiliation has brought, uh and I like
elements of both. And it's it's been a nice you know,

(27:57):
you're you're just always adapting to a new situation. And
when we went to Fox, it took me a couple
of races to kind of get there. But I really
do feel and see the benefits that you've just described
with with all network, with side by side, things have
really smoothed out, and I think it's as where it's

(28:19):
where we wanted to be.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I loved Peacock, and as someone who is open to streaming,
it was nice that I always knew where I could
find it, it was going to be archived and so forth.
But I feel like this is an underrated and discussed
asset of this deal. So with Peacock, you are serving
your hardcore fans. People who wanted to find you could

(28:42):
go and find you at any time. And always know
it's there. And this is one of the challenges. Is
a different aside when you have a network partner, when
there's a tornado warning, you're gonna get bounced. When there's
a preseason football game, I saw a lot of anger.
How dare you show a pre game? Well, you know why,
it's business. The local affiliate controls that. Fox cannot mandate

(29:07):
that their affiliates carry what they are offering on the network.
And the reason the affiliate don't get mad at them
does that because a local preseason game in market. What
did I see was it was it a Green Bay game?
I forget which one it was. It was a fifty
rating locally, fifty one out of two households were watching

(29:29):
that practice game, and I think in general it's probably
ten to twenty, which is what the ND five hundred
does in Indianapolis. So it's massive business. I also think,
and that's why you should follow Bob Pokers on Twitter,
because Bob alerted his followers over the weekend, and I
believe I retweeted this. I hope I did. Of the

(29:51):
seven or eight major markets, there was an alternative, there
was another channel that it was going to be on,
or the website, so it it's not great, but that's
the way it is. But that's what Peacock kind of did.
Now if this ever happens, it's still available on foxsports
dot com. What I was getting to is the practice shows.

(30:14):
We were never going to create new fans with a
practice show on Peacock. That's just not how a streaming
outlet like that works, unless you got them to put
that at the front of your page. As you're going
on and searching for the office. Maybe you occasionally get
someone that's flipping on to watch office reruns. Oh there's

(30:34):
an IndyCar practice on a live sporting event, I'll watch this,
But that's not super likely. But when you're on FS one,
what eight hours a weekend, FS two for a couple
of hours. But most of our stuff is on FS one,
which it's not a million people, but in on average
is probably somewhere between seventy five hundred and two hundred

(30:58):
thousand people for most events, And you've got the chance
of a sports fan stumbling upon you when you go
into a restaurant or a sports bar. There's a good
chance that ESPN is P one and FS one is
P two. Both of those channels are on most of
the time, and I'm hoping that someone will share a

(31:19):
cumulative number how many eyeballs watched IndyCar at the end
of the year, because I think you're adding on I
would say another three or four hundred thousand a weekend
if you added up the what do we have? We
have four Indiecar sessions including qualifying and three Indie Next sessions?

(31:44):
Is that right? Maybe four two practices? Yeah? Four, So
it's eight sessions. That might be low. I think you
might be averaging close to one hundred thousand per session.
Maybe it's a little bit less with an Indie Next practice,
but five eight one hundred thousand on top of what
you're getting for the race, those eyeballs count.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Keep in mind, and I like your your assessment that
you know, the f S one is a is a
strong second choice. It's certainly better than shipping it to
the website or shipping it to Peacock. It's it's a
good option. But on top of that, the Fox broadcast
did have a crawl that was said, if you're looking
for the IndyCar Race, it's on FS one. So that yes,

(32:29):
so that that did give you the you know, the option,
and when this is the other thing that was positive.
When the switch was made, FS one did not just
cut the cord mid mid corner of a pass. They
waited till the end of a of a natural break before,

(32:50):
so you actually could watch it both places.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
As soon as they Buxton verbally said, Hey, if you're
watching FS one, we're ending that you need to go
to Fox now.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, so it was a available on both spots. As
soon as I knew it was available on Big Fox
was able to switch things over, and so therefore it was.
It was a pretty seamless transition, Let's put it that way.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Wasn't the order I planned on discussing this, but just
pop in mind, and since I have no run of
show plan, it's whatever I think about. What I want
to talk about next, and what we need to talk
about is not only Willpower winning, what's next for Willpower
Team Penske and on and on next On trackside, Hi,
this is will Power and you're listening to Trackside. We

(33:34):
are glad you were with us this evening. As we
moved towards an off weekend for Indy Car, you can
watch well, no Formula One either, no sports cars this weekend.
It's NASCAR and NBC. I believe Saturday Night is the
race at Richmond this week on USA with our friend
Lee Diffey, so I will tune into that this weekend.

(33:57):
I think the truck's race this weekend. Infinity is also
off for the weekend. So let's talk more before we
get to Milwaukee and Nashville, the two remaining events coming
up in a week and a half and two and
a half weeks. More on Portland. First, on Willpower winning,
I got the sense after the race in the paddock

(34:18):
and as I saw some people out to dinner, that
was a very popular win. Everybody there and I'm including drivers,
wanted to win, and it was kind of a consensus.
You know what, if I couldn't win, I am glad
to see will Power get another win because you never
know when it's going to be the last. And that
hits home a little more because he's got two more

(34:40):
chances and he'll be a favorite at Milwaukee. But I
think we all noticed that he's somewhat used the past
tense in Victory Lane in his conversation with Jack Harvey,
I've had a great career or however you phrase, but
he used the words had with Verizon and Team Penske.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Well, I agree with you in the sense that words matter,
and it was a past tense reference. But every driver
can say I've had a great run with Hunkos Hollinger,
or I've had a great run with Dale Coin raising.
So I actually thought about that just a little bit more.
I agree with you. Eighty percent of me believes that

(35:19):
that was a chosen word on purpose. I mean, it
was not by accident, But I don't know that I
can put all the stock in the fact that he
said had Now having said that, I think he's a
great story for all the reasons we've always talked about
with Will's He's real, he's he is unique, and he

(35:44):
has been successful. You know, there have been sports figures
who have been successful, win games, win races, win matches,
and yet have not done it as long or as
consistent as Will have. There is no doubting Will's place

(36:04):
in this era of the sport. He's won racist he's
the best pole winner qualifier that's ever lived in this sport,
and he has won championships.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
It is undisputed.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
So you know, from that aspect, it's easy to understand
in his story, this particular year of not having a
contract for twenty twenty six, or at least, there is
this perception that he has been treated poorly. Now I
don't know if that's true or not. Will's going to
have to describe that later on. Maybe he's known all along,

(36:40):
maybe they weren't required to tell him. So all those
things can be true, and we will find that out
at years in when the story is unfolding, or is
told to us as it unfolded. But at this point,
he's a sympathetic figure, and we appreciate his greatness, and

(37:01):
we liked the guy, and so you add those things
together and I can see why everybody felt this to
be a popular win.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Do you have an opinion on what he's doing next year?

Speaker 1 (37:10):
I've gone back and forth. You can go back through
this this podcast and reviews of how we've discussed it.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Any chance what just happened changes what was being planned
a week ago. I think it's possible, because here's what
I think. I think Will Power believes he's done at
Team Penske. He has not told me that he knows
he's one hundred percent done, but I believe that's what
he thinks. Is there any chance and I also believe

(37:42):
that has been the case, as a lot of people
have said, people don't hide good news. If there was
a plan where he was going to be safe. He
has admitted here in recent weeks that this is weighing
on him, that this has been difficult, not knowing where
he's going to be. He has not out with this
since the end of two thousand and nine. He's always

(38:06):
had his contract. Now, he had a lot of rough
winners in as he was getting started seven eighth nine.
Remember he came to Team Penske. He turned down what
was it, a one GP yep that winner guaranteed deal,
and he and Liz talked about and said, let's gamble
on ourselves. And he went in with one race to

(38:28):
fill in for l e O castren Nevz and nothing more.
And then it led to a few more races and
he got hurt really bad and had to kind of
start over on things. But since then he has always
known what is going to come. But it's an interesting dynamic.
As much as I think it's been decided, here are

(38:52):
the scenarios. In my mind, it's been decided, and they
don't want to tell him and they're just going to
wait because that's their rights, and that's the way Penske
generally does things. Nothing is ever announced until the season
is done. Even those that do know are not allowed
to speak to it. You know, if you want to
stay in our good graces, you are not going to
speak about this until the date that we allow it,

(39:13):
and you're going to be our employee until that time.
Part two could be that there is language in David
Malucas's contract that says you move over to Team Penske
if this happens. Performance clauses and we do not know
whether he's going to meet them. Is it finishing top

(39:34):
ten in the championship, is it having a certain amount
of podiums? Is it winning a race? All of those
things could still be achieved, and that might be why
will Power has said he's been told you will not
know until August thirty. First. I've shared that opinion with
some and some have said, now, that doesn't make sense.
Others have said, yeah, that does make sense. It makes

(39:57):
sense to me as to why they can't specifically say.
Part three could be Part two is correct, but they
may still decide We're going to encourage David and Malucas
to be content with where he's at with further definition
and enhancement of his program, because we feel it's in

(40:21):
the best interests of the team to stay status quo,
and we want Willpower to be a part of this
team next year. Fourth scenario is that Melucas is coming.
Roger Penske, who also owns the series, understands it's in

(40:42):
everyone's best interest for one of the more interesting characters
who is still good to remain in the sports. He
is allowing him to speak to others. And I know
Will says, I can't talk to anybody. Everybody's talking to somebody.
If they're interested in will Power, they may not ask Will.
But that's why he has a manager. Now they can

(41:04):
go talk to Oriole Survey and say, hey, if you're
not invited back, we'd like to have a talk. Maybe
we can't officially do that, but just want to let
until August thirty first, but just want to let you
know on September first, we'd like to talk. That can
and hopefully has already been going on. If and this

(41:24):
is going to come down to Power. As we look
at where he could go, I could see Brad Hollinger saying,
I'm going to pay for him. I'm ready to up
our program. We are getting better, but we're not there yet.
We need a veteran driver. This is someone who's still
very close to the top of the sport. I'm going

(41:47):
to invest in him in one of our cars and
maybe we can sell him. Having will Power Ray Hall
led him in Lanigan, they have a lot of sponsors.
That's going to be and interesting decision. So I think
we can be honest amongst friends. Let's just look at
everybody at the back of the championship. You know, anyone

(42:11):
outside of the premo drivers. The premo drivers were hired
and they're back there because that's a new program. But
they're getting better and they're on the way up. But
everybody else is bringing most of the budget. That's just
the way it works. And then you're trying to get
hired by someone else. So this could apply for any

(42:31):
of those teams. If you want to hire will Power,
you need to pay him, and then you need to
take out of your budget whatever your driver is bringing.
So that could be six, seven, eight, nine million dollars
or more. Is that going to be worth it? Who
is going to pay for it? So that's the decision
that is going on there, and every owner is debating that,

(42:54):
and I spoke with some of them and they're thinking
about it, and one of them, I feel like wasn't
on the record conversation talk with Michael. Shank said, Michael,
what's your plan for the sixty six? Is Marcus's contract up?
He said, yes, it is. We are talking about it.
They have interest, but he just simply said, you know,
we're looking at the marketplace too. He didn't tell me

(43:17):
which way was leaning. I think Armstrong is saying there,
that's my staying there. That's my common sense. But I
also think he has some interest. He wants to see
what else is out there, and it's not necessarily will Power.
Rena's Vick is another one, Lena's Lunquist. You know there
are other drivers that are out there on that front.
Back to Power, if one of these spots, oh in

(43:39):
aj Foyt would be another one too. If they lose Malucas,
they're obviously going to have at least one opening. Dale
Coin Racing could have an opening, others could. Power is
going to have to decide am I going to be
happy doing this? Does he feel financially set to retire?
Does he have something else he wants to do or

(44:00):
is he willing to be Is he willing to start
over where finishing eighth might be a good day would
be overachieving in that program. That's what I do not know.
I've not really asked him that at this point, but
that's something he will have to ask internally. Or he
could simply come back and say, you know what, I'm
going to do what Eliot and Montoya did. I am

(44:22):
going to if he offers it. I Am going to
do the DY five hundred and a fourth car for
Roger Penske because I know I will have a chance,
and then I'm going to find some other things to do.
I don't think moving to the poor Schapenske program is
an option because those are Porscha factory drivers. They're not
taking the Penske drivers anymore. So I'd be surprised if

(44:43):
that is an option on that front. And the other
thing that I wonder is a possibility. Does Roger Penske
say I need him in the series. There's no other
situation that will FINDS acceptable. And I'd like to continue
this partnership with aj Foyt Racing as a going away present.
You know, we feel like the future is David Malucas.

(45:04):
We want him in our car now. We think he
is going to contend for wins and be upfront in
the championship in a Penske program. But will you can
be subsidized by Team Penske and one of our partners
like Gallagher That was just on Melucas's car this weekend,
and if you'd like to do it, We're going to

(45:24):
supply you with a Penske engineer and it is essentially
a trade. I just those are all the scenarios that
I'm seeing at this point for power.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
I think you're right. I think the you know, we
got two races here, he could win either or both.
If he were to end the season with two of
the last three race wins. I don't know how. I
don't know how this ends without him having a huge
Penske role in twenty twenty six. I just don't, you know,

(45:54):
whether it's at the Indy five hundred and you know,
or maybe he's at four to you know, whatever. But
I think it's going to be very difficult to send
him on his way if he's won two of the
last three races.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And what they did a few years ago when they
had the next driver they were ready to bring on,
but not ready to get rid of the current drivers.
They ran four cars yep, for a bit. That's no
longer really an option. Yes, they could run for but
I don't think that would be welcomed really well, if
one of the Penske cars that owns the series is

(46:33):
bumping another car that's investing to come. Unless we got
to a point where a team went away and we
were below twenty seven cars, then maybe that's a possibility.
If something happens where someone falls off the grid, then
maybe they just do expand to four cars this year
and they're not worried about the charter. But as things
stand out, that's a twenty eighth car. I don't see

(46:55):
that happening.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
I agree with you on that it's a fast and
that's why everybody was so happy for Will.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Again.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
He's in a tough spot. He's been in limbo. You
can see it on his face, you can hear it
in his words, and you could imagine that this has
been difficult on he and his family. You know, I
can't I can't run through scenarios where he goes and
does something else. He hasn't been a sports car driver,
you know, unlike Dixon, unlike Rosenquist, unlike several others in

(47:28):
this paddock. He hasn't done anything else. Has he driven
any other kind of race car since twenty ten.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
So he was going to run a GTD car and
Liz was sick two years ago. He was really excited
about it and was going to do the Rolex twenty
four and I will Liz almost died and he said,
I can't go. I can't leave him right now, and
he hasn't. You know, I think he would still welcome
the option to do that, but yeah, he now could

(47:58):
he do, of course, he'd be awesome, he'd be great.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
No, I just meant in terms of him being a
frontline guy to take a frontline seat.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah, it's hard to get those seats if you were
an IndyCar driver. You know, there are a lot of
people that have one, a lot of IndyCar races that
are trying to get sports car rides at the top level,
and they're saying, well, how much money can you bring? Yeah,
that part of the business is there too, Yeah, but
some of those they it's you've got to be entrenched
with the factories they hire from within for the paid

(48:28):
paid rides.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
But Scott Dixon would get hired tomorrow by any good
team because of his experience.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yes, because he's been doing it forever and he's been
just as quick as the regular factory drivers. But it
doesn't hurt him that his team has generally had a
seat that Ganassi has off. But even in the years
when he doesn't, Dixon still gets hired.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
So I'm just saying Will doesn't have that kind of background.
That's what that's my point.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
So anyway, so maybe some more that we'll get to
on this. We'll preview hour two coming up next on
track side. This is Alex below and you're listening to
Truck Site. While we have a moment. Wanted to mention
the three winners of the USF Pro Championships over the weekend.
Some had already wrapped it up, like Max Garcia, who
won the USF Pro Championship to get a scholarship to

(49:15):
go to Indy next just sixteen years old. He's from Miami.
Maybe you saw him in the booth with us for
one of the USF or for one of the Indie
Next practices, So he's going to be somewhere next year.
He's won the last two championships USF two thousand, USF
Pro two thousand. I don't think anyone has ever won
all three in back to back to back years. Kirkwood

(49:37):
won them in three straight years he competed, but there
was the COVID year in between when there was no
Indie Lights or Indy Next. But he did it in
the first try at all three levels. So Garcia could
do that, but he will still be sixteen next year
at Saint Pete when that season starts. USF two thousand
was won by Exclusive Racings Jack Jeffers and in USF

(50:02):
Juniors Leonardo as SCORPIONI of Zanella Racing won that championship.
In Hour two, we can look at the schedule. We
need to go through the box score from Portland, more
destination possibilities and we'll get to the xbox. Your Twitter
questions coming up at Kevin Lee twenty three at Kirk
Cavin on Trackside. Hi, this is Graham ray Hall and

(50:23):
you're listening to Trackside on ninety three five and one
oh seven to five the Fan Hour two. Thanks for
staying with us. Ninety three to five, one oh seven
to five the Fan in Indianapolis. It's trackside landon Coons
Is in the studio, Kevin Lee, Kirk Cavin are not
I will probably make an appearance again sometime this fall
again just to make sure the key card works, so

(50:44):
that'll be in the plan coming up sometime here after
the season is over. It's an off weekend and then
it's to the Milwaukee Mile and to the Nashville super Speedway.
I saw somewhere I'm not seating in my Twitter mentions.
Maybe it was a direct message or somewhere something asking
if the Milwaukee Mile is okay. I'm hearing it is.

(51:07):
All is still fine. They got deluge with about nine
inches of rain and hour and a half or something
like that over the weekend and the tunnels were all full,
but the track is fine. Unfortunately it closed the State
Fair for the last day on Sunday. But yes, we
are all go for Milwaukee coming in next week. Two
day show Saturday and Sunday, and it is packed with

(51:30):
IndyCar and Indie Next with a lot of activity all
day Saturday and quite a bit of things on Sunday,
including the Indie Next race on Sunday morning and then
the IndyCar Race which will be live on Fox let's
go to the Xbox Twitter questions before we forget and
see if that covers some of the other things we
want to discuss. Brian at five hundred and Indye nineteen

(51:53):
eleven says or ask was there a reason the Astra
Cup wasn't brought to Portland for a possible then clinching
champion celebration? Is it in the contract for it to
be given to Nashville regardless of when it is clinched?

Speaker 1 (52:06):
So the answer to that is, you know, we've this
last three years, as Alex has been you know, wrapping
these things up in advance. It's been a real delicate balance.
I mean, you want to honor the champion and the
championship race at Nashville super Speedway this particular year, last

(52:27):
year as well, and so you're you're trying to preserve that,
whether it's in the contract or not. I suspect there's
some you know, there's some promise that it will be
you know, officially awarded it at Nashville, whether it's specified
or not. But we also recognize that the championship was

(52:48):
clinched in Portland. So let's give him the sticker. Let's
give him the CONFETI or the banner or whatever we're
gonna whatever was actually given to him. But let's let's
recognize the obvious here and do what's best for the
moment and still do what's best for the season ending
race at Nashville Super Speedways. So trying to walk both

(53:10):
sides of the fence on this one, and he'll get
the Astro Cup at Nashville.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
And then that leads me to something else. And I
just did a quick Google search to see what we
said publicly, so this has come up. You know, is
IndyCar going to need a playoff? Is that something Fox
is going to ask for. I have no idea what
Eric Shanks thinks on this front, but I did have
a conversation in the spring with Scott Boorschetta and he said,

(53:37):
one of the reasons why we are not promoting this
race anymore is that I asked for a playoff and
they didn't want to do that. So I want to
make sure he had also said that publicly, and he
has said that publicly, and he just said it again
in the lead up to this particular event, saying, yeah,
I think it's probably time for a playoff. So talk
amongst yourself on that, I first thought would be I

(54:01):
don't want one, It's a short enough season. However, I
would like to think I'm open mind enough to listen
to smart people who have been successful and hear their
argument on that. And unless Alex Polo is going to
Formula one next year, which I don't think he is,
I'm not going to immediately dismiss it, because I think

(54:22):
we're going to be in this situation again. At least
start thinking about things as we're rewarding more points for wins.
Help Actually probably not, because he wins a lot of
races and he probably clinches it even earlier. But it's
just going to be something that will spend some time
with in the offseason. Look at the pros and the cons,

(54:43):
and I think we all take note that a lot
of NASCAR fans are getting really annoyed with the playoff.
And I don't think they'll do this, but I can't
rule it out. It sounds like at least some want
to have that discussion of going back to the old
points system in NASCAR. I'd be surprised if they do that,
but some people with influencer saying it's worth a rethink

(55:05):
over there too.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I just the thing I don't care for the NASCAR
system is that. I mean, one, I do like that
it's weighted and you get you know, a win gets
you in and all those kind of things. But what
what's frustrating for me is you get to the last
race of the season and the fourth place guy in
the standings has the same opportunity to win the championship

(55:28):
as the first place guy. You know, it's four guys
with the same equal chance. I mean, if if it
were a situation where and this is a very bad example,
but let's say it was a baseball game and you
said the guy with the guy who's first or the
team that's first in the standings gets a four run
lead in the last game of the year. Well, okay,

(55:50):
he's earned that advantage. But there's no you can't do
anything other than maybe say the guy who's got the
got the points league gets to start on the poll.
I mean, it's just again, I think there's been in
these last several years some guys win that championship that
I don't think we're the best car all season.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I know in other sports we could make the argument
the Pacers, for example, we're not the best team in
the East all year they were the sixth seed, but
they got hot at the right time and got to
the NBA Finals. And we're one freak injury away from
having a legitimate chance to win the whole thing. I
get it, and baseball and the NFL has countless examples

(56:32):
where that's happened. I just don't think in a seventeen
race season that's what we want to do.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
I'd prefer it NTS, But again, I want to hear
some ideas and maybe it can be tweaked and be
a little bit better. And I think we're also going
to watch and see what is the attendance like and
what are the ratings like for these final two races.
Not head to head with the NFL, not head to head,

(56:59):
I don't think with NASCAR, I can't recall Milwaukee if
that's head to head or not. Nashville is not because
that's Darlington that particular night, and maybe it's not. Maybe
it's the Alex Pelow effect right now. Maybe that's the
difference in the head to head with NBC on network
versus Fox. And why it's down because we've known the

(57:20):
championship has been over since May. How many people does
that turn away? You know your hardcores are still there,
but you're looking for that extra fifteen percent. That's what
we're missing from these events. So if the business part
of it matters, and it seems too to a lot
of people, you at least have to have that discussion.

(57:41):
You might dismiss it, but you should probably have the
discussion at some point. At storm and Soda says, Malucas
continues to be ahead of two Penskes still, but not
the one whose seat is available. I'd be shocked if
Power doesn't stay another year. When will this drama end?
Where there's a will there's away sign willpower now is
what Storman Soda says, Yeah, we've talked about that, and

(58:04):
does anything change. I wouldn't think one win should change
it because it's not like will Power came out of
nowhere to win a race. He's been a factor to
win a race for a long time. But we shall see.
How about townshend Bell's idea on the broadcast? Did you
hear that I missed that one? He suggested? He said,

(58:25):
I had this thought in the shower team Penske owns
a NASCAR program. Who's the best Cup driver right now?
He's the best, certainly on the road courses. Or maybe
he just I think he said who won the race today?
And Sveg has won four of the five road course races.
He's going to be second or third going into the playoffs.

(58:46):
He's got a chance to get into the final four,
or at least get into the second or third round.
Who's the only guy when they did what they were
doing that could beat SVG, Scott McLaughlin and Scott McLaughlin
always thought when he talked with Team Penske about coming
to America, he assumed it was going to be to
drive a stock car. Would they switch him over at

(59:10):
some point? So that was what he threw out there.
I happened to end up sitting next to Scott McLaughlin
at dinner on Sunday night and he said, that's the
first I've heard of that. And then I think he
came back at Townsend on social media and said, how
about this, how about we farm out Townsend Bell to
become a sideline reporter for the Big ten network and

(59:32):
put Jack Harpy in the booth. I like that. Here's
the other reality in Indy. Car seat is a better
job than being a NASCAR driver. They're not paying what
they paid in NASCAR back in the day. If you
can get that ten or fifteen million dollar contract, yeah,
sign me up. But they're not generally paying that anymore.
And you got to work twice as long. There's no

(59:55):
off season in NASCAR. Off season is December. That's it.
I'm gonna guess Scott is pretty happy where he's at now.
Roger Penskey's the boss. If he decides he wants to
do that as a fix, I suppose he could, that'd
be a shocker, though. Maybe that's why we're not hearing
anything to clarify. I did hear towns he's got a plan.

(01:00:18):
I did hear Townsend say that, and I was fixated
on is this how Townsend belt comes up with his
ideas and so? And he didn't even share that one
with us. At dinner the night before, we all for
the four of us, had dinner, Me, Hinch, Townsend, and
Will Buxton, and we talked about a lot of things
and a lot of ideas. We debated playoffs, and we've

(01:00:39):
talked often about what happens with will power. None of
us know. We all have theories and thoughts. But he
saved that one for the show, and that's why Townshend
is a brilliant broadcaster, because he surprised Will and Hinch
he hated for the show. Yeah, it's good talk show material.
Throw against the wall, see what happens? Yep, yep. Chris

(01:01:04):
Curtis says, any rumors on Connor Daily for next year.
If there's one thing this series needs more than less
street courses and more ovals, it's Connor Daily. The man
cares more about the sport the ninety eight percent of
the people in the world. It needs him, We need him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
I would say this about Connor. If Will Power is
the most interesting individual in the sport, Connor's in the
top three, and I'm not sure who else is in
the top three. He is interesting, His driving is entertaining,
especially on short ovals. He which basically, as we argued

(01:01:40):
earlier in the first hour that Portland is kind of
a short oval. And then he's not afraid to say
what he what's on his mind. And I wrote the
other day the old podcast of Connor Daily this week
is going to be interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
It is going to be a must listen. I agree
with that the series does need them. Connor Daily is
good for the sport, and if anybody can find a
way to stay, it will be Connor, who has learned
the business side of things and hustles more than anyone else.
And that's what it takes. If you are not in
the Penske, one of the top Ganassi seeds, the Andretti seats,

(01:02:20):
a couple of the Air McLaren seats, you are generally
required to bring some of the budget, and he's good
enough that he's not bringing eight million dollars. I don't
know what the number is, but I know it's not
anywhere close to the full budget. So he is still
being hired on his talent and what he brings to
a program. But these are always year to year deals,

(01:02:41):
so I hope it works out. But he's going to
have to get the people on board to renew. He's
going to have to find more and he's going to
have to hope that someone wants some talent doesn't come
around with a six million dollar check because that's hard
for the team to turn down. To be close to
fully funded, it is teams want ten million dollars. That's

(01:03:03):
kind of what the budget is. It's eight to ten
million dollars. You'd like to have ten million dollars to
feel like you can compete with penzh Hee, Genassi Andretti
and Erl McLaren.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Is this a spot to talk about Connor d Alien,
Christian Rasmusen.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
So I think that's one of the questions I'm going
to get to. Okay, I'll save it for that, and
I just keep rolling through. Chad Frankinfield tweeted Alex plows
on a one race windless strout. Is he no longer
the peak of his career? He didn't keep the smiley face,
but I know he meant it. Mohammad asks as a

(01:03:37):
VK fan, as you guys know, I know that he
is probably gonna stay, which is crazy, like he is
so fast every weekend. It's him only able doesn't bring pace.
Who will gets the fifty one? There is two options,
one Dennis Hauger with help from Ndretti, or even a
partnership to a pay driver. All right, let me sift

(01:03:58):
through that back again. So for VK, I kind of
think dale Coin racing is his best option, and he's
to listen. But just like we were talking about with
will power, the places that we think are most likely
to potentially have seats. And remember it's the same aspect.

(01:04:21):
If there is someone that is bringing budget to that seat,
now you have to subtract that and add in what
Renus wants to get paid. So without even naming names,
you can pretty much just look at everyone not named
Joseph Newgarden at the back of the championship and he
is eighteenth. Oh, it's unbelievable. It's behind Kiff and Simpson

(01:04:43):
in the championship right now. But everyone not named Joseph
Newgarden and not the premo drivers because both of those
drivers are really talented and it is a learning curve
for that team at least. I don't know about Schwartzman situation.
Maybe he is bringing some budget. I have no EA idea,
but I know Calumi Lot has always been a higher
driver and my guess is Schwartzman is as well. So

(01:05:06):
you have to decide, am I willing to forego the
budget that that driver brings to hire someone? And then
Renus even has to say, okay, say they are willing
to do that. Look at where they're at in the championship.
Now he's going to believe in himself and say, well,
I'm better than that driver, I will do better than them,
just like he did better. Dale Coin Racing was in

(01:05:28):
that situation with their cars last year, and he has
elevated that program. I would contend he's better staying off
where he is unless something becomes available that I am
not aware of.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
I would agree with you. He's twelfth in the championship.
He's one spot behind Scott McLaughlin. He is, he has
Michael Cannon and as an engineer, and he has dale
Coin on his pit stand. Well, what better combination could
you ask for? I mean, assuming you're not to get
a Penske, a Ganassi or an Andretti or Aero McLaren ride,

(01:06:05):
I'm not sure what you could ask.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
For Meyer Shank. You would take the Meyer Shanks seat
as well. You're right, but I don't know that those
are going to be offered. Bet.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
The point is, regardless of how you ranked the spots,
that's that has a chance. He finished second at Toronto,
he's got a chance to win a race there. They've
won six races and they've won with Carlos Schuertras, they've
won with Mike Conway, they've won with Sebastian Boordat, they've

(01:06:37):
won with Justin Wilson. Uh and there's somebody else I'm forgetting.
But they have won races in different eras, with different
drivers and different types of race tracks. They want a
Texas Motor Speedway. They've wanted Detroit, in Bellisle they've won,
you know, they've won in Houston on the street circuit.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
They can win a race. I just petd to championship,
you know, and I mentioned New Garden. There's one other
one that is a higher driver. Marcus ericson twentieth in
the championship. Now there is an asterisk there because he
finished second in the inndy five hundred and was credited
with thirty second or third, thirty first, thirty first, thirty first. Okay,

(01:07:18):
so but he still would be about seventeenth. You get
he has two hundred and eight points, he'd be right
around there with Kiffen Simpson and Joseph Neugarden and Alexander
Rossi off the top five. Is still only sixteenth in
the championship. What a weird year. Who would have guessed?

(01:07:41):
And then to part two about Dennis Hauger, I do
see that as a potential destination for Hager. So for Coin,
their first goal is going to be getting Rena's VK
to come back, finding the budgets to come back, and
I think they will. They've generally been able to hire
one driver or often have. But what do they want
to do for the second car? What does Jacob Abel

(01:08:02):
want to do for that second car. I have not
asked Jacob or his dad Bill what their thoughts are
for next year, but you know, reality would say there's
going to be some frustration on both parts. Jacob Abel
is competent. He won races and contended with Louis Foster
in the championship last year, beat Louis Foster at times.

(01:08:26):
Whose you know points You would say, well, Louis Foster
is only twenty third in points, but he's been quick,
he's done what a rookie has to do. And maybe
that's a reason to not give up on Jacob because
Louis Foster is well regarded by his team and in
the sport, and he's only twenty third compared to where
Jacob is, who missed the NDY five hundred because they

(01:08:47):
were in a bit of disarray. And I think he's
on like his third different engineer of the season, So
I still see potential for Jacob. I don't know what
level of budget they able to bring through able construction
and partners have able construction, But is he going to
look around? You know that sometimes it's good just to
flip flop things around and you can look. I'm sure

(01:09:09):
they're going to want to talk to Foight and Hunkohs
and Ray Hall and anyone else that needs some budget
to help their program around. Or you know, maybe they say, no,
we see it, we see some light in the tunnel,
and we want to just stay where we're at. But
that's the part too. But I do think Dennis Hauger
is going to find a spot somewhere. And would it

(01:09:32):
be in an Andretti situation if they think really highly
of them, I think they would just simply say you
sign a one year contract and we'll come back and
talk in another year, just like Kyle Kirkwood did, or
maybe they even put it a little more in writing,
which may or may not have happened with Kirkwood. I'm
not sure that. I don't know if the statute of
limitations have passed on whether I don't one hundred percent know,

(01:09:53):
but that's always been my suspicion on that front. But
I don't know, maybe maybe it was just hey, let's
talk again in a little bit. Next question, Nick Jeffers
had Nick the Koala says, I saw Connor Day and
Christian Rasmusen hashing out their beef at the midtown Carmel

(01:10:13):
Java House today. No questions, just some on the ground reporting.
And then someone responded to that and said, maybe Connor's
podcast has already posted. He said he mentioned on the
pod they were meeting a Java house on Wednesday. Well there,
so there you go, and that's probably a good thing
because this isn't stock car racing. You don't want to

(01:10:36):
let this fester. And it looks like that is part
of what happened. So let's rehash this and whether it
should have been a penalty not a penalty. The one
that I was more surprised about was the first off,
so Rasmussen said, when Connor went around was going around
the outside in seven is that he got understeer and

(01:10:59):
that's that's on me. And I pushed wider than I
wanted to, and that seems perfectly explainable. Now the question
would be, you know you're still responsible for your car.
Is a penalty deserved? There? I think in many ways
it is. However, it's not called that way, so the
way it's been called there would not be a penalty there.

(01:11:21):
And that's something that I think maybe deserves a rethink
at some point and has been one of my annoyances
sometimes because it's a car that I'm responsible for crash
damage for that. In this sport, you pass on the
outside at your own peril, and you simply understand, and
those that you are passing understand you can just run
them off the road. It's been that way since go karts.

(01:11:44):
Help me when I'm missing maybe I'm missing something. But
the only series I'm familiar with that requires you to
give space to the passing car on the outside was
Formula Fords F sixteen hundred that they had a rule
that you must all one car link. Now, part of
that's because it's a learning series combined with a gentleman

(01:12:05):
driver series. There were fifty some year olds and there
were thirteen year olds in that series, and that seemed
like the smart way to do it. I'm not sure
why that can't apply to other sports, because I think
it would encourage more action. You don't want to try
to pass on the outside because they simply know. All

(01:12:26):
I got to do is track out like I normally
would and you're going sailing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
It drives me crazy when when I hear Townsend and
Hinge talk about yeah, the driver just has to open
up his hands and let the card drift, And I'm thinking,
if I did that on the highway, somebody's going down
the embankment, and I just don't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
I don't think that's accepted, and that really stand it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
I don't think that's in the spirit of how professional
drivers should react. I agree with you on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
I'm going to start asking some people what they think
on that regard. Is that's something it Now it'd be
really hard to officiate. That's part of the problem. So
that's part one. No penalty was going to be called there.
Then Connor probably had the red mist and came back
and I think townshend to ultimately he mentioned this, you know,
I think he felt like, yeah, Rasmussen was at fault

(01:13:21):
in the one that caused Connor to go really hard
with a scary hit into the wall. And the first
thought with both analysts and I will always defer to
the people who have driven race cars on this was yeah,
I think that's ras Mussen's fault. And then thinking through
it when there's not a penalty. Maybe it was decided
and you're just trying to think through it. You're talking

(01:13:44):
out loud, you're thinking out loud. And I could see
this thought well. They were both going back at each other.
It looked like Connor might have been retaliating a little bit,
and they eventually decided, Eh, it's on you guys. May
not be the best way to do things. I'm going
to need that explained to me again. Of Rasmussen got

(01:14:04):
into the back corner of Connor and he contends that
was his corner. And I say this being a big
fan of Christian I've known him since he was a kid.
But the common perception is and again ran into quite
a few drivers as we went out to dinner on
Sunday night. Not a big fan favor right now and

(01:14:26):
a lot of concern and that can work to his
benefit because they think he's nuts and they're worried. But
the common perception has been right or wrong, that somebody
might get hurt and a big one is coming. I
don't know the race control can stop that. A penalty
doesn't necessarily stop that. So I don't know. And here's

(01:14:48):
the other one. I don't know what the right answer
is here too, but someone I forget which journalists asked
for a comment from race control, you know, kind of
like we sometimes see in other sports a pool reporter.
If there is a controversial call in the NFL, there
will be one reporter that asks a question, maybe even

(01:15:10):
writes it down, and there is a statement delivered. The
NBA now has their two minute report where they admit
all their mistakes. I'm not sure that's done any good.
You know, maybe it's good to just get it out
there publicly. So I'm not willing to say, yes, we
need to do that, but that is something that some
would like to see. And we don't really have any
explanation as to this is what we saw and this

(01:15:31):
is why we did not make a penalty. So it
leads it up to us just to kind of guess.

Speaker 1 (01:15:36):
The only thing I would say and add, finally, at
my final thought to the comment or to the situation,
is if if those two cars had battled their way
back to the front straight away. I think if I'm
the race director, I say I want the seventy eight
and the twenty one on pit road next time by calm.

(01:15:59):
We all saw this down and this was no surprise
that that happened. Intern eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
This was on my pit producer. This is going to
end in tears when they first started going at it,
because neither one we're going to give.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
So, you know, that's one of those that I think
if you're in a junior category, you're quick to say,
come here, you're going to sit down for a minute,
both of you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
But feel like it's kind of a lesson for all
young drivers. I know you get angry, but this is
not a sport where we can afford to be angry exactly.
You can get angry in football and try to get
the hit the guy a little bit harder. You can
swing harder in baseball. You can drive to the basket
and see if they want to stand in for a charge.
Doesn't work that way in this sport. Bad things happen.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Very lucky that Connor Connor hit as flush as he did,
or that he didn't he wasn't injured. Very lucky because
that car could have dug into the dirt. If that
if those wheels catch you know, a rut, that car
is going in a different angle into that barrier, no
doubt all.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Be interested to see if we hear anything more on that.
I guess the answer is is, well, we didn't think
of as a penalty, and that's kind of the final judgment.
We feel it's fifty to fifty because there's probably things
that both could have done absolutely to avoid things. But
it was curious. Richard big cat Struth says, do you

(01:17:37):
think that another team will be an IndyCar next year?
That puts the car count at twenty eight to twenty nine?
If so, will ever be a grid limit in mostly
road in street course races. I don't see anybody coming
on in this environment. I don't think anyone is going
to want to come on and must qualify, especially now

(01:17:57):
that PRIM is in year two and presumably will be
better and they are getting better. The only way we
see a new team come in is if someone goes away.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, you know there and there is
a limit. Obviously pit boxes create that limit, but I
don't see it either. You know, if one of the
teams went away, or as we talked about earlier with
will power, if there was a reduction in some form,
there's people perhaps ready to step in or could step in,

(01:18:30):
but I don't see it at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Charlie Max C five. All the talk on returning to
forming racing venues, why do I never hear New Hampshire.
I seem to remember good racing there in the northeast
is lacking. I would hope they are looking into that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
Yeah, I agree. Let's ask will Power about that. That's
a famous moment in time.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
Hey, you want to market that event? Yeah, he can
help market that event. We are definitely going to need
Willpower in the grid if there is a return to
New Hampshire. Just do a little Google search. Google search
that two thousand and eleven and maybe put double birds
in there as well. Okay, we'll see what else we
have time for. Oh and we want to go back
through the box score a little bit and those that

(01:19:12):
had good days and those that did not. From Portland
coming up next on track side. Hi, this is Alexander
Rossi and you're listening to trackside. Okay, let's start going
back through Portland. We talked about top five quite a bit.
Maybe didn't get Christian Lungard enough love. Third time this
season he started seventh and finished second. Finally, it wasn't
to alex polo. I know he's frustrated. I know he's

(01:19:34):
getting annoyed. I think Louing Guard has had a fantastic
first season with Aaron McLaren.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Yeah, this is second straight top two finish and he's
probably got six or seven of these all year in
the top three, so he's had a very good year.
And he could finish third in the championship pretty easily.
And for Aaron McLaren to finish second and third with
you know, behind a dominant polo season be pretty pretty special,

(01:20:00):
especially with what's happening with their organization in Formula One,
you would say that was a great year.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
We talked about Graham ray Hall twenty second to fourth,
and I actually talked I think I talked on the
show about this last week and talked with Graham about this.
What he's kind of figured out this year is qualifying.
Going into this race, it had been what four of
the last five or four of the last six he
had made the fast six, didn't always start there because
of engine penalties and in this case back to kind

(01:20:27):
of old So he said, well, one thing is when
you start up front, it's a little harder to pass people.
You know, in the past it's been he drives forward
and this year he's not been doing that as much
because he's been starting better and this was more like
a last year. Start twenty second, finished fourth. They used
good strategy, he was quick. ROSSI needed a result, had

(01:20:47):
just a solid day start sixth, finishes fifth. Calum I
lot back to back sixth place finishes, just like Graham.
He's plus eighteen on the day. I think they're starting
to figure it out in that car. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
I don't know how they'll end the season with two ovals,
two short ovals, but it's been it's been a It's
been the kind of year I think we expected, and
maybe even better than we expected. I mean, certainly, Schwartzman
winning the poll at Indy. You couldn't have seen that
with four pair of binoculars. But it's been a good
year for them.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
I feel like they were decent on the short ovals,
one of them at Iowa. They just miscalculated on fuel
little bit. I think they could be a player, but
you're right, that's harder. This is not their home turf.
McLaughlin has a solid day, finishes seventh. Got a little
bit of help because some others that were going to
be up there had issues, So Dixon got a penalty
for punting new Garden. And what other way can it

(01:21:44):
go poorly for Joseph Newgarden? What has not gone wrong
for him this year? And you get punted by the
one of the greatest drivers that ever lives, that takes
you out of a top five or six, a guy
who never makes mistakes. How many penalties does Dixon have
and one of them is on new Garden this year?

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, It's it's been an an unexplainable year.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Marcus Armstrong does what he's been doing, just solid, starts eighth,
finishes eighth, right ahead of his teammate, the veteran Felix Rosenquist,
who had an okay day. Some of those used some
strategy with those stops on four and nine to jump
rosen Quist, but he was generally a sixth or seventh place.
Car rass Musen Soldiers home a twelfth. Out of all

(01:22:27):
the controversy, I think Louis Foster was hit early in
the race, or he probably couldn't have been a little
bit better than twelfth of where he ends up on
the day. Thirteenth. Actually VK was also involved in early contacts,
so he wasn't able to have much of a day.
Really surprised at Andretti and once again shows that just
because you test doesn't mean it's going to apply. They

(01:22:50):
were the only team that tested, and it was only
a week and a half ago and they were not
a factor. Colton hurt to finish his tenth Kirkwood and
Erickson are twentieth and twenty not on the lead lap.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
Kirkwood's had a bad second half of the season for sure,
certainly the last four races so.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
And then Potter Award. I guess we never even got
into that, and I think a fair point that he
made he knew the championship wasn't happening. I actually said
to him before the pre race interview when I said,
all right, I'm going to ask you what do you
need to do to keep the championship alive? And please
don't say it's over, bro, I'm just here to win
the race. Please don't say that. Play along with me,

(01:23:32):
and he said yeah, yeah, yeah, and he said I'm
here to win the race or something like that. But
he had completed every lap all season, which they're just
barely more than a handful of people and that's what
was still attainable that hadn't happened since twenty two. We
remember it back in the day. Cannan was the first
one to do it right in four in the modern
era yep, So yeah, that hurts a little bit through

(01:23:53):
no fall of his own, just a freak mechanical. But
it's still I think, been an awesome season for Poto Award.
He's done the things that he hadn't done before finishing
race is being consistent being there. Yep, it's been a
good year. All right. We'll see what we missed coming
up next on trackside how This is Scott McLachlan and
you're listening to track side on ninety three five and
one I seven five the fan Okay, final segment. Time

(01:24:16):
for what we missed, or at least what I'm aware of.
Scott McLaughlin's going to be doing some sports car racing
in the off season. It was announced, I guess late
last night early this morning that he's going to be
doing a Corvette in the Suzuka one thousand kilometers. What else?
Max Verstappen says he would like to do all the

(01:24:37):
big ones in sports cars, So that's Lamar Rolex twenty four.
Who knows what else becomes a little easier with Ford
being a part of the Red Bull program starting next year.
I don't think we have confirmation that Ford is coming
to IMSA in the GTPE or HyperCard category, but we're
hoping that happens. We know they're going to LAMA in
the World Endurance Championship, and then what else. Into the

(01:25:00):
show last week I mentioned the new Fox streaming deal,
which was a little less expensive than what I feared
at thirty dollars a month. No, I'm sorry, twenty dollars
a month. Nineteen ninety nine. ESPN came out with theirs
that's twenty nine to ninety nine, and they've already come
together on plans for a bundle for ESPN's properties and
Foxes that's forty dollars a month. So that'd be a

(01:25:22):
ten dollars a month savings if you're all into streaming
and refused to do cable or get an antenna and
things like that. Out of time, we'll talk to you
next Tuesday here at seven on trackside

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