Tonight, on Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee, they recap today’s oval test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward, Takuma Sato, and Alexander Rossi. They also talk about how the test went after the repave in turn 2 along with new brakes and dampers. They later talk about A.J. Foyt Enterprises coming back into Indy NXT with a technical partnership from HMD Motorsports. They later get into the latest in silly season rumors regarding Dale Coyne Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Caio Collett, Mick Schumacher, and Devlin DeFrancesco. They also talk about the latest news regarding Andretti Global and Prema Racing.
In the second segment, they talk about the newest F1 TV deal that’s streaming exclusively on Apple TV, and how IndyCar can jump at this.
To wrap up another edition of the show, Kevin answers fan questions about Mick Schumacher, racing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and the Kansas Speedway, and Jacob Abel.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is track side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the
fan It's great.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I mean the feeling of entering the track and doing
the first couple of laps as a winner, it's it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
So it makes you feel special for a couple of laps,
then you forget about it.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Obviously, you cannot be thinking every single lab that you
want like five or six months ago, but feel special.
And if it feels special today, then there's nobody understands.
I cannot wait for me to all the fans here
and get older energy.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Great to be back in IMS.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Testing tires today for us, a short day, successful day,
played some good stuff and.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah it's time for me to fly to Mexico now
and go drop some Formula one cars. It's an exciting
week ahead. Is it may yet?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We had four IndyCars on the IMS Oval today and
there is more tomorrow. You heard from Alex Plow and
Poto Award. I do believe we might have some more
clarity on the remaining open seats for IndyCar in twenty
twenty six. There's a wild rumor out there we'll speak
of and is f one's new TV deal to stream
(01:27):
on Apple. Good news for IndyCar and Nascar. Hi, welcome,
It's trackside ninety three to five one oh seven five
the fan in Indianapolis for Tuesday, October twenty first, another
sixty plus degree just barely day in Indianapolis that saw
some rain come through speedway oh mid to late afternoon
(01:49):
and stopped testing just a little bit early. But we
think things that they wanted to get accomplished were accomplished.
Kevin Lee, Kurk Caavin landon kons Is in our Indianapolis studio.
Will address some of your social media questions in the
xbox via Twitter. Hat Kevin Lee twenty three and Kurk
Cavin coming up in just a little bit. So we
(02:09):
had Kumasato, Alexander Rossi, alex Polo Poto Award today out
at the Indianapolis Motor speed I think Polo and Poto
took off after lunchtime. Kurk Cavin was there as our
intrepid reporter. First question is what was the purpose of
the test?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So it was multi dimensional. Hey, good to see you.
Nice to catch catch up on a you know, we
don't really think about in the middle of the summer
that we'll still be talking about track activity on October
twenty first, but here we go. It was nice to
see cars on the racetrack. I did not see ROSSI
I did see Sodo and Potto and Polo. By the way,
(02:49):
that's a mouthful, But the purpose of the test was
multi dimensional. The purpose first Poto and Polo was primarily
a tough firestone tire test, and secondarily was to experience
the repaving and reworking of the lower level of Turn two.
(03:13):
You know, they've the bricks had caused and we've noticed
this a couple of years ago, but it was starting
to push up to the point that there was sort
of a bump there. And I guess Kyle Larson in
the NASCAR weekend had seen even even more kind of ripples,
if you will, in that section of the racetrack. So,
you know, as we've seen on social media, the staff
(03:36):
with and kind of excavated that area of the racetrack
found a bunch of bricks. You know, ultimately, it's not
the asphalt that is a concern. Concern is the wrong word,
but it's not the asphalt that causes this. It's the
bricks kind of pushing and the you know, the sand
and the tar and all the things underneath this kind
of push, push up or settle down. One of the
(03:59):
two they move, and so they had to do some
work in largely what the Speedway wanted to see, what
Doug Bowles wanted to see was is that area of
the racetrack better? And by all accounts it is. And
you know, Alex Polo in particular was talking about how
(04:21):
you know that it really isn't in the line, the
natural line for one car that area of the racetrack,
but when you're too abreast, you know, the guy on
the bottom's got to be on his toes or had
to be on his toes in the last couple of
years because that got a little bit squirrely right through there.
He said that that's now going to give the drivers
(04:42):
a lot more confidence going through turn two if you're
on the kind of on the lower side, and so
that'll just make it better for everybody. We already know
it's a pristine racetrack. I think it just got more pristine.
I think that's the essence of the report that we
got today.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I saw some quotes from Polo that said it
was in an issue in qualifying by yourself, but it
was a little bit more sketchy when you were following
behind someone. So this might help along those lines. And
Doug Bowles also spoke the IndyCar President and I am
as president, that just had some concerns.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
What if it got worse. It might be okay now, but.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
If it were to get any worse and you didn't
notice it until May, then you might have a real issue.
I read that Potto felt one compound was better than
the others. It was what they ran last year plus
three others, so you know, he didn't know which one
was which if Firestone didn't think there was that much
(05:41):
of a difference. So we will see if they learned
anything from that front. I understand, and maybe this is
what what was the difference between Palo Poto versus Sotto
and Rossie. I understand some breake testing and some potential
damper shock testing if they want to consider going to
(06:05):
a spec shock which would reduce some cost in the future.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, that was the other element that those guys were
working on. Some break alternatives, I guess you could say,
and some shock options. Doug Bowles said that you know, hey,
we're not ready to make a decision on these things.
But if we don't have the data to consider, then
we don't have something concrete to work with. So that was,
(06:32):
you know, testing various different things.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I think we as outsiders, we always kind of assume
that a day like today, when you have cars on
track is about drivers and teams maximizing speed and performance,
and that's just not the case. Alex Pollo said, Look,
I was probably going. I was certainly less than full
aggression somewhere, you know, toward the level of comfort. But
(07:02):
it's a chance to you know, to run and I
don't know what percent. Let's just say for the sake
of argument, you're running ninety percent, just just hard enough
that they can gather some information, but not hard enough
to kind of scare yourself, if that's the right word.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
The brake issue, the break testing, I think is important
because unfortunately we've seen a lot of people not have
their breaks perform when they enter pitt lane. And that's
not necessarily on the brake manufacturer. The teams are doing
whatever they can to reduce drag, and we've heard the
phrase knock back brakes, where they basically try to get
(07:42):
the pads off of the rotors and then you're supposed
to kind of tap them and get them to engage
before but what if you have to hit the brakes
quickly or what if you forget or what if that
doesn't work? So, you know, I think my best guess
would be this is something. What can we do to
make this more consistent to where there is not the
(08:04):
break drag and everybody sees this performance and there's nothing
that you can do. That'd be the ideal goal if
this cannot be a thing and we can have the
breaks work more consistently, because they don't seem to be
very consistent with why the teams have been operating.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And the other word with consistent is predict is predictable.
You want you want them to be predictable. You can
deal with everything else. It's the unpredictability of this sport
that causes problems. Same same for that bump and turn
two or bumps. You're right if that's what happened. And
you know, if if it would have been ascerbated in
(08:43):
in in the spring test or in May, there's not
time to fix it and test it, and and so
you want to get the predictability back in as much
as you can. That isn't to say it's spec or
you know, those kind of negativity, whereas you just it
needs breaks, need to be predictable.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You bring up the next point. Some see speck as
a negative term and testing a shock many will see
that as a negative. That is one of the few
areas of development. And I'd like to know more about this.
I'd like to know what the cost savings would be
because I think the reality is it's getting really expensive
(09:26):
to run a car and there need to be cost savings,
and if they are not things that the fans really see,
it could be thought about. And even if everyone has
the same shock package and you call it SPEC, teams
will still well one the teams with money. Here's the
(09:46):
other side of that. The teams that have money will
still find a way to spend their money in a
different way. So that's the argument against going to this.
If you have a budget of ten million dollars, you're
probably going to spend ten million dollars, So you're going
to do more wind tunnel testing or shaker rig testing
or more sim days.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So I don't know how much.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm not a tech guy enough to know how big
of a deal this is, and it's not anything we
can see, So I guess I would say I can
kind of take it or leave it, because even if
they all run the same shocks, the good teams are
still going to outperform the funded teams. The people that
can pay their employees and hire the best employees, they're
(10:29):
still generally going to outperform those that don't have the experience.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, no question. The only thing about the shocks and
I don't and the dampers don't. I don't profess to
know how the budgets work internally with each team, but
the sense I get, and I'm closing in on forty
years in this sport, is that it's it's sort of
an arms race in that department. That's where the big
(10:58):
that's what a big money is. So yeah, if it's
that if obviously it's that big of an expense and
a big separation of expense, and what are we doing here?
I mean, again, I don't have a dog in the
fight like you don't, but I do wonder is that
(11:19):
an expense that that makes a difference in in this
in this game? I mean, is an expense from a
fan standpoint? Does it make a difference in the game.
I know it does in terms of performance. Is it
worth it to the fan?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And then another fear on the side of that is,
if they're all running the same is it going to
be more hard to pass because everyone is closer to
the same speed. Will we have less unpredictability? We like unpredictability.
You know, some teams are really good at some tracks.
(11:54):
Some teams are not very good at some tracks, and
that's probably because they have a better shock damper program.
They all have the same, then might it be really
predictable all season and in a little less interesting That's
one of the things that we like about IndyCar is
the number of people that make a podium, you know,
(12:16):
that have a weekend at some point. Almost everybody has
a moment. And if you're all running the same stuff,
is it gonna just be status quo?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Maybe not?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Maybe that's an argument to the other side of things
that if you all have the same stuff, you have
more than those two weekends when you're really good to
be able to nail the strategy, get the timing, ride
and qualifying and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
What I came up with a stat I looked it up.
I forget what the number is. Is like fifteen different
different drivers were on a podium this year, and it
was more than in the past. It might have been
a higher figure than that, even but but I would
have guessed higher. I think it might have been higher.
Fifteen is the number that came to the top of
my mind in this conversation. But again, when I'm talking
(13:03):
about predictability, breaks are just not something you want to
be unpredictable with. Yeah, breaks, I'm talking about damn shocks. No,
we want the.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Best breakpackage they could have and they all need to
be the same.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's not It's kind of like tires.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I know people would like to see tire wars, but
you also want some predictabtability, predictability there, and you don't
want anyone saying, well, this can be a little bit quicker,
but we're not sure if.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It's going to blow up or not.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
So anyway, they just something to discuss and that's smarter
people than us. We'll have to figure that out.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
But it's uh.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
You know, it could be a part of the new
car package. In twenty eight twenty twenty eight, and Doug
Bowles was asked about that. We've been asking when might
we see some images. He didn't mention images, but he
mentioned actually seeing a car.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He did, and he said first quarter of twenty twenty six.
Perhaps I was a little unclear on whether he thought
we'd see a car. I mean I've said I think
I said to you a week or two ago. I
think if you saw everything by May, that feels like
the right place and showcase point. And that's what happened
in the past. Is used the month of May as
(14:15):
as kind of your big kind of rollout. I would
expect that that would be a good target. But we'll see.
I will have kind of a detailed Doug Bowls story
on Thursday. I know it's going to wait a little bit,
but we got some other things and it's it's just
Doug talking about various subjects that were addressed today, so
that that will be interesting to look on IndyCar dot
(14:37):
com later in the week. But but yeah, it's I'm
trying to think where I was going to go with that,
But it's I.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Got another question for you outside officiating, because he was
asked about that.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And he gave a little bit of insights. Well, he's
come up with with some options. Plus he's I mean,
he said he's gone to three different options and those
were presented of the teams recently. I forget when that
exactly was maybe Road America and I think it was
later than that. I'll have to review the review the transcript.
(15:10):
But what do you do for you?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, they presented three options to the teams that Road
America and a fourth has recently surfaced, and he said
we need to finalize it in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, so yeah, that was where I was getting too.
I thought it was Road America and then so I'm
intrigued by what the fourth option is. Don't have any idea.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
So tomorrow, Sodo and ROSSI, you're back out there for
a bit.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, I'm I'm surprised. You know, when I saw Poto
and Polo at noon, I mean they were on the
racetrack at nine am. I could hear the cars, Yeah,
you know right away. I mean I pulled into the
into the speedway about ten till nine and I was
barely out of my car and could hear the cars
rolling off. So they were up and going and they,
(16:02):
I mean, Pelo said pretty well done. Now, so they
got a lot in which is surprising because it was
pretty crisp from a temperature standpoint. I kind of thought
it might be ten o'clock before we saw cars on track,
But when I, you know, walked out the house this morning,
it was it was ready to go.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I wonder if Potto had a time he had to
leave because he is driving the Formula one car in
Mexico City. And did anyone or did they say, we
can't speak to this, but does Polo have to get
back to the UK to appear in court? I'm serious, No,
I probably has to leave asap.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I was. I almost asked him, but you know, I
want to ask him anything about this. I can't say
no one asked him about it because he did various stations.
But I started to ask him, and you know, we
know each other pretty well, but I don't I didn't
really think it wasn't really a joke, but I was like,
I wanted to say, do you have a flight? What
(17:01):
times a flight to London? Some kind of comment like that,
and then I thought that would be inappropriate and I
was probably correct in that assessment. So I didn't ask him,
but I'm sure somebody asking. But we'll have to see
if somebody reports that. Okay, well, not that I mean
not that there will be any news out of that.
You know, there's not He's not going to say anything.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I don't know if he has to, because it's all
kind of come out.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We don't we.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Don't have time here, but at some point review the transcripts.
There has been a lot of fire taken by a
lot of different drivers and a lot of things have
been learned, and I haven't had time to go through
all of it, but I've just seen little snippets.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
The funniest part of the whole interview exchange today was
was Polo got there first ahead of Potto, and then
Poto showed up, and when Alex had had a chance
to stop talking for a minute, he turned to Polo
and they started having a Spanish conversation, which obviously most
of us were not privy to. But standing there, you
(18:04):
could hear one word that we all resonated with, and
the word was five million. The word was Zach, So
we all kind of knew that we were talking about
something that had to do with some race team in London.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Well, according to Zach, Poto should be thanking Alex for
his salary. Yeah, right, Because, according to Zach Brown, that's
the only reason they are paying Poto award what he's
making right now, which is probably somewhere around five million dollars.
It's because they couldn't secure Alex Below. That's his story.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
There's a lot of stories out of this.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
This is Tomorrow's not the last time you'll see race
cars at IMS.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It is on the oval for the year.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
The road course will be in action this weekend the
USF Combine, that's USF I think Juniors, USF two thousand
and then USF Pro two thousand, Saturday and Sunday, and
Indy Next will be on the track for their big
Fall combine their test, the Chris Griffiths Tests on Monday.
A little next news today, aj Foyd Racing is back
(19:06):
in Indy Next they were there way back in the
day fielding a car for Tony George, then for aj
Foyd the fourth and for Ed Carpenter.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And now they are working.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
With HMD, you know, inside baseball or inside racing. I
don't know if this ever came out officially, but it
sure sounds like Indy Car wanted no more than four
cars per team and HMD had eight. So they've come
up with a couple of partner teams. Cusic Motorsports has
(19:40):
two cars and now EJ. Foyd Racing has two cars
and HMD has four. There is a technical partnership still
with HMD, so they still sort of have eight cars.
But this works out as a benefit for Cusic, who
runs an Indy five hundred program that now they can
apply sponsors on the next car if they want, and Foight,
(20:00):
who has a full time program. You could do a
lot of different things. And remember the David Malucas just
drove for that team, and there is a roundabout. This
is still one of the unquestionable unanswered questions of the offseason.
Does Team Penske still have a technical partnership with AJ
Foyd Racing? If they do, that's kind of a roundabout
since you've got David Malucas with Team Penske as his
(20:28):
father owns HMD, still working with AJ Foyd now where
he drove last year, and potentially with Team Penske, so
there's kind of a treika or triumvirate involved there. So
that's a good thing put on your to do list.
What I would like to see spelled out is what
(20:48):
are the advantages And I'd love to know this what
do advantages does an IndyCar team get from fielding and
Indie next team that's good?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Is there's something? So can you ask someone?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I sent an email to the series director a few
weeks ago and didn't hear back about something else.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So it must have gone to spam. Your emails don't
go to spam. Well, then he ignored it. Well that
might have been either one is.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Awesome, but yeah, no, I think they do go to
spam sometimes.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Gmail doesn't work very well. I don't have him, I
don't have an office, I don't have an official email anymore.
All right, So what else is night?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Oh, we've got more announcements and you'll see a lot
of Indie Next driver announcements. I think many have already
been out there. But I saw Josh Pearson was announced
today with ANDRETTI. I thought that had already been announced,
but it hasn't been. So that's confirmed. I know of
a couple of others. They're gonna get confirmed before they're
on track. On Monday, Colin Kaminski is coming back. He
(21:50):
didn't race this year, but he'll be back with Able
Motor Sports and we'll maybe next week kind of go
of a rundown because I think most I don't know
if they're going to be twenty four cars on track
next week. That's the goal for the series with the teams.
I don't know if twenty four are sign now, but
we are really close to that being done. Just like
(22:11):
we say for the Indy five hundred, it got late
very early for Indy Next seats as well Indy Car seats.
So I started updating my digital sheets and I've gone
ahead and taken the question mark up the number four car,
even though we haven't seen an announcement there. From what
(22:32):
I think and what I hear, everyone else can stop asking.
You know, we've had some questions. Could Connor Daily end
up in that set? Is there something for anyone there?
I think it's for Kyle Collettes. I think Kyle Collette
will run that car the entire season, and it makes
a lot of sense. We've not had a Brazilian driver
(22:54):
for a couple of years, and one would think for
someone that finished second in the next championship that there
could be enough support around him to get him back,
especially with the momentum that aj Foyd Racing has had
and the success that they've had over the last couple
of years. This is a much better seat than it
(23:14):
was three years ago. So I didn't ask Kyle when
I saw him other than I just said congratulations and
he smiled, And I think we'll see something there at
some point. Now checks always have to clear, and you
want to get them some things aligne But I think
that's done. So what is still TBD is the second
(23:36):
car for Coin, whether that's the fifty one or not.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We need to know car numbers.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The whatever car number for ray Hal. I've heard they've
had some longtime employees that aren't there anymore either as well.
But as I said last week, unfortunately I don't expect
deviln d Francesco to be back in that car. So
it's a matter whether it's Mick Schumacher or is it
(24:02):
Toby Sowry or Linas Lundquist or Connor Daily or someone
else in that car. And then I think we're still
going to need some confirmation other than just showing up
at Saint Pete for the seventy seven car for who
goes hauling her.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I agree because there's just.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Been a lot of smoke there and if there wasn't
anything at all to it, they could simply say, oh,
I'm sorry this has been announced before.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, I think you know, we both think it's it's
north of fifty percent that it's Sting ray Rop. But
until it is.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Well the way north, yeah, I think he'll be in
the car. I think they are just allowing themselves some options.
If somebody comes in with big money and says we're
going to find a way to bring a different driver
in here, here's another way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
This is not.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Piling on Sting who I have said before when he
takes a lot of heat. No, he's very competent. He's
very competent. But when the team is where they're at
and they made a lot of changes last year, a
team doesn't want to say, well, we're the problem. It's easier.
Just like in any other sport, it's easier to change
(25:20):
the head coach, to change one person than it is
to change everyone else. So if you're trying to explain
why it's not going well, sometimes it's easier to look
to one person than it is to say, yeah, we
got to get a whole new.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Crew in here. Having said that, the driver and I
had to forget the example. I really kind of light
Bulb went off with me, you know, the other day
on a driver. But he was making the point that
a driver is so much more than just one person.
Though he's the coordinator, he's the quarterback, he's the one
the communicator with everybody. He's the thing that pulls everyone together.
(26:00):
So you know, I know, we know that, but it's
a big deal. The driver is a big deal, and
the driver has to sometimes this driver just has to
get you a little bit more than you're worth if
you will, you know, sometimes you just have to. You know,
we see that in football, the quarterback just makes up
for some other misgivings of the race team or the
(26:22):
football team. So you know, the driver's got to do that.
Having said that, Stingman and Rab was second and Indy Next,
I mean, you don't get to be second in Indy
Next with even though he had been there a couple
three seasons, I mean, obviously very experienced in that series.
You don't get there without having a great deal of talent.
And that's been part of my point defending him. You know,
(26:44):
I don't think he's been in the best circumstances, but
the teams and I'm not talking about this team in particular.
I'm just saying any team, any team.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
That is outside the leader circle is going to start with, well,
you know, we must.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Be good to wall we're doing.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It's got to be the driver. We just need a
better driver. So let's see if we can get that done.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
On the on the flight news, you know we were
here and maybe you'd said this and I heard it
elsewhere as well, but that they didn't have the full
package put together. That Kyle was good for several races
to start the season, So maybe they're just waiting and
get all the partners lined up. I've been told other
drivers can stop inquiring. Yeah, no, I think that's true.
(27:27):
I'm just saying I think I think they're far enough
down the road now that that that's why other drivers
can can stop asking questions.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Lynn underscore IndyCar asked what's the latest with Prema?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Are they one and done? I noticed the.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Test last week the Andretti Global car had TWG branding
instead of Andretti. Is TWG IndyCar Group moving away from
the Andretti name. Might we see a return of Michael
Andretti in the series. Maybe Michael Andretti follows Lynn on
Twitter because Michael posted today on x Just to set
(28:01):
the record straight, I have no intention whatsoever to become
an owner of an IndyCar team. I will admit I
had not heard this. Apparently Marshall Prue had mentioned it
simply as a rumor. He just kind of laughed and said,
you know, someone said that there is something about Michael Lanretti.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And he wasn't reporting it.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
He wasn't saying that he believed it, but he just said,
someone said that there is conversation about Michael Andretti and
or a group which would be more likely as someone
you know, with Michael fronting it, spending the money taking
over Prema, and you know, no idea whether it was
(28:47):
true or not. And then I heard a few other
people ask me about this in the last few days.
I don't know if it's because they heard Marshall Pruett
talking about it, or if there was anything to it.
Michael is trying to shut that down. My first thought
was that would surprise me, but you just never know.
One It would surprise me because Prema doesn't have a
(29:07):
charter and that's a bit of an issue, and they're
trying to find investment. They're trying to continue on but
that's a challenging cell because that equips some of that
equipment is obsolete, namely the cars in two years, and
the value of the charter is going up. So you
(29:29):
were not guaranteed of making races. So I don't know
what were your thoughts. How much would that shock you?
With Michael Andretti walked back in and said I'm back,
and I bought another team to compete against the team
with my name on it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
See here's the thing, here's what we don't know. We
don't really know what the exit plan was for Michael
and Andretti Global. You know, did they say, did Dan
Towers say we get the rights to your and ready
name for two years and now well that's coming to
an end two We don't really know what Michael's feelings
(30:07):
were relative to the change in ownership. Did he want that?
Did he like that? Was he irritated? Was it amicable?
We don't really know how that how they left that
and so And the other thing is that I know
your point about the cars being obsolete in two years
(30:28):
and the charter. I get all that, but I would
also say that that that's still an opportunity for somebody.
Somebody's gonna probably maybe not, but I could see an argument,
let's put it that way. I could, I could. I
could envision a situation where somebody would say, I'm going
to get that relatively affordably, and I can make that happen.
(30:50):
And maybe Michael is you know, bored and still wants
a challenge, and he's not that old. And but to
answer the question, what likelihood did I give that when
I first heard it? Five percent? Not much? Not much.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
And you're right that even though the car becomes obsolete,
there has been conversation. I don't know where they're going
to end up with, but they'd like some of the
parts to be transferable. Yeah, from the current car to
the next. I don't know if they're going to be
able to get that done or not. And in reality,
in a ten million dollars per year budget, you know,
(31:29):
the race car is what's a car? Four hundred thousand
And your point is it's not significant. Yeah, it's not
half of that budget. So you've still got a lot
of other things. And a lot of that budget, by
the way, is people and operating costs and travel and
things like that. But and those cars will still have
(31:51):
value as show cars and maybe you can sell them
to collectors. You know, one of them, by the way,
won the poll for the D five hundred that Prema
has this year. You can sell them to vintage racers
because remember they're already vintage because they're whatever fifteen years old,
so they could start competing immediately in that sense. Yeah,
(32:13):
So we don't know the terms of the agreement. Would
he be allowed to come back? I put it very slim,
but we don't know a lot of things. I think
it's very plausible that this was an amicabal, amicable departure
and separation, and it's okay, you know, let's try something different,
and you're gonna pay me a lot of money to
(32:35):
go take some time off and not have to go
to the racetrack for the first time in forty five years. Okay,
I'm open to that. Maybe he is bored, maybe he
wants to come back. Maybe it's semantics, maybe he's not
going to own a team, or maybe all of this
came from other people saying, Michael, if you let us
use your name, it's not gonna cost you a dime.
(32:58):
We just want you to show up to the racetrack
every weekend and we're going to front it all and
we're going to pay you something in that.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Now.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
If that's me, I'm going to listen to that. So
who knows, but you can never say never. He's still
a young man, I think, and has a long time.
His dad is still coming to the racetrack all the time.
So if he wants to get back involved at some
point after a bit of a respite, he can do this.
(33:26):
I don't know what's happening with Prema, but that is
one of the silly season questions as well. It's one
of the things that needs to be answered, not only
for the people to work there, including the drivers, but
the ND five hundred gets a lot trickier getting to
thirty three, or a lot easier if you're trying to
put a program together if they're not involved.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Last thing I would add, well, two things. One, the
Andretti's racing is what they do. It isn't. It isn't
just because they were good race car drivers. This is
their life and Michael's life, while fulfilling in many other respects,
this is what he does. Second thing is we talk
about all the prima things. As someone who owns a
(34:06):
small business, one of the most valuable things we have.
We're in year two and a half of a ten
year lease. So the lease that we have on the
building and the commitments that we've made are for ten years.
And if somebody wanted to buy us, I'm not offering
it for sale, but they have stability and that may be.
(34:30):
Those are other things, other considerations for someone like Michael
or for Prema.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
I mean, yep, Okay, new Formula one TV deal we'll
discuss and the impact on IndyCar.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Next on trackside, this is Alex below and you're listening
to truck Site.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Okay, a few things to cover here in this segment
talk Driver silly season. Just want to mention a couple
of quick updates on engineers. I don't know if I
ever have mentioned this on the show. We had a
question about Gavin Ward last week. Still don't know if
he wants to go back, when he's able to come
back and so forth. I believe Olivier Boson is no
longer with Andretti, so that's a pretty key engineering free
(35:09):
agent available out there. And racer dot Com wrote a
few weeks ago that Eric Cowden has left ed Carpenter
Racing to.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Go to Aero.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
McLaren and he has a long relationship with Tony Kanaan,
the engineer in his ninty five hundred winning car and
going way back in the day, and he will be
the director of engineering. So there is a lot of
depth at Aero McLaren. So we'll still wait and see
if anything else shakes down on the engineering front.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
We talked about what was happening now. Actually, I'm going
to save this.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We'll save this for the following segment if I have time,
because I want to make sure we get to speak
on this new Formula one television deal is streaming and
streaming only. ESPN has been a part of the biggest
wave and popularity for forming the one in this country.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Is that fair to say? Ever? Oh yes, and the
ratings are higher. It was different back.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
In the day, But the percentages and the attention that
Formula one is getting has never been this high, in
part because of ESPN, in part because of Drive to Survive,
and in part, if not the number one part, because
of a pandemic and no one could leave the house
and everyone ran out of things to watch, and they
went back and watched two year old editions of Drive
(36:28):
to Survive, and then ESPN out of necessity taking a
feed that was commercial free, had to go commercial free,
and they then became the only sport in America.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
One of the few.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Maybe soccer sometimes is commercial free, it probably is that
was commercial free, and ESPN wasn't super keen on going
above seventy five million per year.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
May not have even been willing to do that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
This is a reported five year, seven hundred and fifty
million dollar deal.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Or Apple.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
They're going to have four or five races that are
cleared from a paywall, so apparently you're going to be
able to go to a link and watch these races,
which is smart to try to get people to experience it.
And apparently the practice sessions are also going to be
free from behind the paywall, with the hope that you
see a practice session, experience it, and decide that you
(37:23):
want to be a part of that. By the way,
broadcasters TBD, they're not doing their own broadcast, so it's
not going to be like diff Matching and Hobbs and
Buxton that NBC did.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
It's going to be either.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
The Sky people that you've been watching on ESPN or
Hinch in the Crew on f one TV. So that's
TBD they're banking on all of the Apple devices we
have and getting messages on our phone that that is
going to be the difference maker. It's not worked for
(37:58):
Baseball on Apple, it's not work for MLS. How is
it going to work for f one? And is this
good for IndyCar, Nascar, any IMSA, anyone else doing over
the air broadcasts in motorsports?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
So I had this. I spoke to a college class
today at Franklin College and a student told me that
he was doing a paper on basically this. You know,
it was about the NBA and in the NBA, how
many different streaming platforms you had to have to watch,
you know, to watch and it was it was added up.
(38:35):
I mean, it was a lot of money, and he
was pushing back. I just think Apple will benefit because
they're going to just like Peacock when when we went
through this with Peacock and watched the IndyCar You know,
now Peacock is pretty well accepted, but it took how
long has that been five years since IndyCar Race has
started on Peacock. So Apple will get there, but it's
(39:00):
to be a challenge initially and there will be some pushback.
But I think this is good for Indy car. As
I told the class today, this is this is really
the only motorsport correct me. If I'm wrong with everything
that you want to watch race wise on broadcast TV.
Is there anything else in motorsports where it's all on broadcast.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I think you can go past broadcast. Yeah, I mean
it's motorsport. It's the only sport, correct that is fully
on broadcast because you have to have Amazon, you have
to have NFL Network, you have to have Peacock a
couple of times a year to CV. NFL Baseball has
division championship series on cable, if not actually league championship series,
(39:47):
some of those are on cable. The NBA, I think
some of the conference finals are going to be on
Amazon Prime. So we're not just talking regular season. We're
talking big playoff games that are going to be on streaming.
This is a grand experiment. The NBC is banking a
lot on people going to Peacock. They paid a load
(40:08):
for the NBA and a lot of the games.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
By the way, it's underway tonight on NBC Network television
for the NBA.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
This is why they did it on a Tuesday night,
not streaming on NBC but a lot of this programming
is going to be on peacock and are people going
to go to the Trouble when they can on Wednesday
night watch it on ESPN and on Sunday night after
football is over watch it on NBC. And they already
have Amazon Prime, and you know, YadA, YadA, YadA, what
(40:37):
is the limit for that. They're not going to see
one point two million anymore. Apple is not as prevalent
as Netflix and Amazon. NASCAR did better than we expected
on Amazon Prime. They had a great marketing push, they
had Dale Junior behind it. And I may be off
on this, but I feel like they were at sixty
(40:58):
or seventy percent of the audience, especially for the Koke
six hundred. Then it dwindled a little bit. I do
not think you will see sixty to seventy percent. I
think you're looking at I think you're looking at two
hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
I think you're right. I think kind of a number
to start with. You know, I don't know what the
price I don't know what the price point is on
Apple TV and being able to watch that, Like, like
I said, the student today gave me a list of
all the ways you could or needed to watch all
of the NBA. No one's going to watch all of it.
But the point was it was going to be about
eight hundred dollars a year to do all those things.
(41:34):
And you know, I think there will be some conversion.
There will obviously be enough conversion that Apple thinks it's
worth it, and they know what their expected market reach is.
But it's it's going to take a big hit in
Formula one, you know, building an audience, I mean maintaining
(41:55):
an audience, growing the sport. But who knows. You know,
I'm not willing to say it's a bad deal. I'm
not either.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
These people are a lot smarter than I am, and
while they may have fewer eyeballs, they may have the
more desired eyeballs and it's all about monetizing it.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So and I hope they do. I hope they do
one experiment. I hope they do well. I think by
the way, they may have the question you are asking this,
will this be beneficial for IndyCar And I think the
answer is yes. Okay, we'll wrap up and see what
we missed next on track side, Hi, this is Poto
Award and you're listening to Truck Side.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Final segment and we've got a little more time than
I feared, so we can go to the Twitter xbox.
This is from last week from Stephen kill Stunk and
someone else mentioned this to me as well when I
mentioned that Mick Schumacher had a hat on with the logo,
so there may still be some budget behind him, and
Steven says the company on mix hat is the same
(42:56):
business which sponsored his dad's had from about two thousand onwards,
so maybe there's something that can help. I still think
bottom line on that is Ray Hall Letterman Landing is
hoping the enthusiasm around Mick Schumacher can lead their commercial
group to find some of the budget that would help
(43:16):
fund Mixed.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Schumacher.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
He's got to decide if he wants to do it,
and then maybe part two is he decides or asks
those that support him, hey, can you help a little
bit or at least pay my salary? So this is
a better option for me than racing in the World
Endurance Championship or formulae if there are any seats there,
or whatever the case may be. The Purple Sector asks
(43:41):
do you ever think any carr would come to the
Charlotte Roval, Joseph Newgarden tested on the track a few
years ago and didn't hear a thing after that. Fans
in the Carolinas, Georgia would love to have a race
be great. It seems like that could be a good market.
I do not think that's very likely, though. I'm not
sure if that is really big enough commercially. If it
(44:03):
was a no brainer and the track said, yep, we're
giving you one point five million dollars in sanctioning fee,
and we're going to promote it, and we think we
can sell tickets it's going to be a good event,
then you'd probably go ahead and do it. But those
things are not always slammed dunks in a fifty one
second lap or whatever it is isn't great. It's probably
(44:25):
a little bit small, and I don't know that it'd
be a super exciting event. And they've already got road
course racing there on the Rovo as well. I would
say not say never, but it doesn't seem super likely.
I have not heard any conversation of that as well. Doug, No,
(44:46):
where not I see this question. I saw a question
somewhere come up today. Yes, Andrew Rowlinson asked, will Indy
Carr ever returned to Kansas, same kind of thing. I've
heard no conversation about that, but I think would like
to have another Oval. I'd love to have more ovals,
but I feel like they really want to have another Oval.
(45:08):
And probably best case scenario is there are no doubleheaders,
so another oval would still allow you to have a
pretty even split between road street and oval races. It
might take though Phoenix going well and both sides IndyCar
and NASCAR are saying we want to do this somewhere else.
(45:29):
I believe the Kansas Cup race next year is in
late April. That's where it could make sense for IndyCar. Now,
April is also really really crowded, so that's a little
bit challenging even if NASCAR did invite you in there.
But honestly, I think early May would be great for Kansas,
but it's not going to happen unless their Cup race
(45:51):
moves to a different time. The track is not going
to and it's not going to go well even if
you wanted to rent the track doing an IndyCar race
two weeks after there was a Cup race. So I
don't think it's super likely, but I would not rule
eat it out. Also, Doug Ivy twenty twenty five says
guessing now Collette may have more budget than able, referring
(46:15):
to how we all think that Kyle Collett's going to
be in the Foight car.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I don't know what budget Jacob Abel has. And it's
not just a price when teams are securing a driver
for a seat, you know, number one, as they find
the sponsor and they simply hire the driver, and after
that it's a sliding scale based on the talent level
(46:41):
and what they expect for results from a driver. And
here's where perception sometimes becomes a thing. So the perception
would be, you know, upside is always something that Kyle
Collette is better than Jacob Abel, But let's look at
it from a fact standpoint, and I don't know who's better,
but they both finished second in the Indy Decks Championship
(47:01):
with multiple wins. So I'm not sure that Jacob has
gotten a fair shake to show what he could do,
and I'd love to see him get another opportunity. But
my best guess is that the Foight team would probably
ask for a little bit more budget from him, But
I don't know what budget they want to commit to. IndyCars,
(47:24):
so we shall see if there's any other option for Jacob.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
We're out of time.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
We'll talk to you again next Tuesday night, seven o'clock
on track side ninety three five one oh seven five
The Fan
This is track side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three five and one oh seven five the
fan It's great.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I mean the feeling of entering the track and doing
the first couple of laps as a winner, it's it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
So it makes you feel special for a couple of laps,
then you forget about it.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Obviously, you cannot be thinking every single lab that you
want like five or six months ago, but feel special.
And if it feels special today, then there's nobody understands.
I cannot wait for me to all the fans here
and get older energy.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Great to be back in IMS.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Testing tires today for us, a short day, successful day,
played some good stuff and.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah it's time for me to fly to Mexico now
and go drop some Formula one cars. It's an exciting
week ahead. Is it may yet?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We had four IndyCars on the IMS Oval today and
there is more tomorrow. You heard from Alex Plow and
Poto Award. I do believe we might have some more
clarity on the remaining open seats for IndyCar in twenty
twenty six. There's a wild rumor out there we'll speak
of and is f one's new TV deal to stream
(01:27):
on Apple. Good news for IndyCar and Nascar. Hi, welcome,
It's trackside ninety three to five one oh seven five
the fan in Indianapolis for Tuesday, October twenty first, another
sixty plus degree just barely day in Indianapolis that saw
some rain come through speedway oh mid to late afternoon
(01:49):
and stopped testing just a little bit early. But we
think things that they wanted to get accomplished were accomplished.
Kevin Lee, Kurk Caavin landon kons Is in our Indianapolis studio.
Will address some of your social media questions in the
xbox via Twitter. Hat Kevin Lee twenty three and Kurk
Cavin coming up in just a little bit. So we
(02:09):
had Kumasato, Alexander Rossi, alex Polo Poto Award today out
at the Indianapolis Motor speed I think Polo and Poto
took off after lunchtime. Kurk Cavin was there as our
intrepid reporter. First question is what was the purpose of
the test?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So it was multi dimensional. Hey, good to see you.
Nice to catch catch up on a you know, we
don't really think about in the middle of the summer
that we'll still be talking about track activity on October
twenty first, but here we go. It was nice to
see cars on the racetrack. I did not see ROSSI
I did see Sodo and Potto and Polo. By the way,
(02:49):
that's a mouthful, But the purpose of the test was
multi dimensional. The purpose first Poto and Polo was primarily
a tough firestone tire test, and secondarily was to experience
the repaving and reworking of the lower level of Turn two.
(03:13):
You know, they've the bricks had caused and we've noticed
this a couple of years ago, but it was starting
to push up to the point that there was sort
of a bump there. And I guess Kyle Larson in
the NASCAR weekend had seen even even more kind of ripples,
if you will, in that section of the racetrack. So,
you know, as we've seen on social media, the staff
(03:36):
with and kind of excavated that area of the racetrack
found a bunch of bricks. You know, ultimately, it's not
the asphalt that is a concern. Concern is the wrong word,
but it's not the asphalt that causes this. It's the
bricks kind of pushing and the you know, the sand
and the tar and all the things underneath this kind
of push, push up or settle down. One of the
(03:59):
two they move, and so they had to do some
work in largely what the Speedway wanted to see, what
Doug Bowles wanted to see was is that area of
the racetrack better? And by all accounts it is. And
you know, Alex Polo in particular was talking about how
(04:21):
you know that it really isn't in the line, the
natural line for one car that area of the racetrack,
but when you're too abreast, you know, the guy on
the bottom's got to be on his toes or had
to be on his toes in the last couple of
years because that got a little bit squirrely right through there.
He said that that's now going to give the drivers
(04:42):
a lot more confidence going through turn two if you're
on the kind of on the lower side, and so
that'll just make it better for everybody. We already know
it's a pristine racetrack. I think it just got more pristine.
I think that's the essence of the report that we
got today.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I saw some quotes from Polo that said it
was in an issue in qualifying by yourself, but it
was a little bit more sketchy when you were following
behind someone. So this might help along those lines. And
Doug Bowles also spoke the IndyCar President and I am
as president, that just had some concerns.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
What if it got worse. It might be okay now, but.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
If it were to get any worse and you didn't
notice it until May, then you might have a real issue.
I read that Potto felt one compound was better than
the others. It was what they ran last year plus
three others, so you know, he didn't know which one
was which if Firestone didn't think there was that much
(05:41):
of a difference. So we will see if they learned
anything from that front. I understand, and maybe this is
what what was the difference between Palo Poto versus Sotto
and Rossie. I understand some breake testing and some potential
damper shock testing if they want to consider going to
(06:05):
a spec shock which would reduce some cost in the future.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, that was the other element that those guys were
working on. Some break alternatives, I guess you could say,
and some shock options. Doug Bowles said that you know, hey,
we're not ready to make a decision on these things.
But if we don't have the data to consider, then
we don't have something concrete to work with. So that was,
(06:32):
you know, testing various different things.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I think we as outsiders, we always kind of assume
that a day like today, when you have cars on
track is about drivers and teams maximizing speed and performance,
and that's just not the case. Alex Pollo said, Look,
I was probably going. I was certainly less than full
aggression somewhere, you know, toward the level of comfort. But
(07:02):
it's a chance to you know, to run and I
don't know what percent. Let's just say for the sake
of argument, you're running ninety percent, just just hard enough
that they can gather some information, but not hard enough
to kind of scare yourself, if that's the right word.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
The brake issue, the break testing, I think is important
because unfortunately we've seen a lot of people not have
their breaks perform when they enter pitt lane. And that's
not necessarily on the brake manufacturer. The teams are doing
whatever they can to reduce drag, and we've heard the
phrase knock back brakes, where they basically try to get
(07:42):
the pads off of the rotors and then you're supposed
to kind of tap them and get them to engage
before but what if you have to hit the brakes
quickly or what if you forget or what if that
doesn't work? So, you know, I think my best guess
would be this is something. What can we do to
make this more consistent to where there is not the
(08:04):
break drag and everybody sees this performance and there's nothing
that you can do. That'd be the ideal goal if
this cannot be a thing and we can have the
breaks work more consistently, because they don't seem to be
very consistent with why the teams have been operating.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And the other word with consistent is predict is predictable.
You want you want them to be predictable. You can
deal with everything else. It's the unpredictability of this sport
that causes problems. Same same for that bump and turn
two or bumps. You're right if that's what happened. And
you know, if if it would have been ascerbated in
(08:43):
in in the spring test or in May, there's not
time to fix it and test it, and and so
you want to get the predictability back in as much
as you can. That isn't to say it's spec or
you know, those kind of negativity, whereas you just it
needs breaks, need to be predictable.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You bring up the next point. Some see speck as
a negative term and testing a shock many will see
that as a negative. That is one of the few
areas of development. And I'd like to know more about this.
I'd like to know what the cost savings would be
because I think the reality is it's getting really expensive
(09:26):
to run a car and there need to be cost savings,
and if they are not things that the fans really see,
it could be thought about. And even if everyone has
the same shock package and you call it SPEC, teams
will still well one the teams with money. Here's the
(09:46):
other side of that. The teams that have money will
still find a way to spend their money in a
different way. So that's the argument against going to this.
If you have a budget of ten million dollars, you're
probably going to spend ten million dollars, So you're going
to do more wind tunnel testing or shaker rig testing
or more sim days.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So I don't know how much.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm not a tech guy enough to know how big
of a deal this is, and it's not anything we
can see, So I guess I would say I can
kind of take it or leave it, because even if
they all run the same shocks, the good teams are
still going to outperform the funded teams. The people that
can pay their employees and hire the best employees, they're
(10:29):
still generally going to outperform those that don't have the experience.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, no question. The only thing about the shocks and
I don't and the dampers don't. I don't profess to
know how the budgets work internally with each team, but
the sense I get, and I'm closing in on forty
years in this sport, is that it's it's sort of
an arms race in that department. That's where the big
(10:58):
that's what a big money is. So yeah, if it's
that if obviously it's that big of an expense and
a big separation of expense, and what are we doing here?
I mean, again, I don't have a dog in the
fight like you don't, but I do wonder is that
(11:19):
an expense that that makes a difference in in this
in this game? I mean, is an expense from a
fan standpoint? Does it make a difference in the game.
I know it does in terms of performance. Is it
worth it to the fan?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And then another fear on the side of that is,
if they're all running the same is it going to
be more hard to pass because everyone is closer to
the same speed. Will we have less unpredictability? We like unpredictability.
You know, some teams are really good at some tracks.
(11:54):
Some teams are not very good at some tracks, and
that's probably because they have a better shock damper program.
They all have the same, then might it be really
predictable all season and in a little less interesting That's
one of the things that we like about IndyCar is
the number of people that make a podium, you know,
(12:16):
that have a weekend at some point. Almost everybody has
a moment. And if you're all running the same stuff,
is it gonna just be status quo?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Maybe not?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Maybe that's an argument to the other side of things
that if you all have the same stuff, you have
more than those two weekends when you're really good to
be able to nail the strategy, get the timing, ride
and qualifying and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
What I came up with a stat I looked it up.
I forget what the number is. Is like fifteen different
different drivers were on a podium this year, and it
was more than in the past. It might have been
a higher figure than that, even but but I would
have guessed higher. I think it might have been higher.
Fifteen is the number that came to the top of
my mind in this conversation. But again, when I'm talking
(13:03):
about predictability, breaks are just not something you want to
be unpredictable with. Yeah, breaks, I'm talking about damn shocks. No,
we want the.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Best breakpackage they could have and they all need to
be the same.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's not It's kind of like tires.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I know people would like to see tire wars, but
you also want some predictabtability, predictability there, and you don't
want anyone saying, well, this can be a little bit quicker,
but we're not sure if.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It's going to blow up or not.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
So anyway, they just something to discuss and that's smarter
people than us. We'll have to figure that out.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
But it's uh.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
You know, it could be a part of the new
car package. In twenty eight twenty twenty eight, and Doug
Bowles was asked about that. We've been asking when might
we see some images. He didn't mention images, but he
mentioned actually seeing a car.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He did, and he said first quarter of twenty twenty six.
Perhaps I was a little unclear on whether he thought
we'd see a car. I mean I've said I think
I said to you a week or two ago. I
think if you saw everything by May, that feels like
the right place and showcase point. And that's what happened
in the past. Is used the month of May as
(14:15):
as kind of your big kind of rollout. I would
expect that that would be a good target. But we'll see.
I will have kind of a detailed Doug Bowls story
on Thursday. I know it's going to wait a little bit,
but we got some other things and it's it's just
Doug talking about various subjects that were addressed today, so
that that will be interesting to look on IndyCar dot
(14:37):
com later in the week. But but yeah, it's I'm
trying to think where I was going to go with that,
But it's I.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Got another question for you outside officiating, because he was
asked about that.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And he gave a little bit of insights. Well, he's
come up with with some options. Plus he's I mean,
he said he's gone to three different options and those
were presented of the teams recently. I forget when that
exactly was maybe Road America and I think it was
later than that. I'll have to review the review the transcript.
(15:10):
But what do you do for you?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, they presented three options to the teams that Road
America and a fourth has recently surfaced, and he said
we need to finalize it in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, so yeah, that was where I was getting too.
I thought it was Road America and then so I'm
intrigued by what the fourth option is. Don't have any idea.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
So tomorrow, Sodo and ROSSI, you're back out there for
a bit.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, I'm I'm surprised. You know, when I saw Poto
and Polo at noon, I mean they were on the
racetrack at nine am. I could hear the cars, Yeah,
you know right away. I mean I pulled into the
into the speedway about ten till nine and I was
barely out of my car and could hear the cars
rolling off. So they were up and going and they,
(16:02):
I mean, Pelo said pretty well done. Now, so they
got a lot in which is surprising because it was
pretty crisp from a temperature standpoint. I kind of thought
it might be ten o'clock before we saw cars on track,
But when I, you know, walked out the house this morning,
it was it was ready to go.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
I wonder if Potto had a time he had to
leave because he is driving the Formula one car in
Mexico City. And did anyone or did they say, we
can't speak to this, but does Polo have to get
back to the UK to appear in court? I'm serious, No,
I probably has to leave asap.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I was. I almost asked him, but you know, I
want to ask him anything about this. I can't say
no one asked him about it because he did various stations.
But I started to ask him, and you know, we
know each other pretty well, but I don't I didn't
really think it wasn't really a joke, but I was like,
I wanted to say, do you have a flight? What
(17:01):
times a flight to London? Some kind of comment like that,
and then I thought that would be inappropriate and I
was probably correct in that assessment. So I didn't ask him,
but I'm sure somebody asking. But we'll have to see
if somebody reports that. Okay, well, not that I mean
not that there will be any news out of that.
You know, there's not He's not going to say anything.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I don't know if he has to, because it's all
kind of come out.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We don't we.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Don't have time here, but at some point review the transcripts.
There has been a lot of fire taken by a
lot of different drivers and a lot of things have
been learned, and I haven't had time to go through
all of it, but I've just seen little snippets.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
The funniest part of the whole interview exchange today was
was Polo got there first ahead of Potto, and then
Poto showed up, and when Alex had had a chance
to stop talking for a minute, he turned to Polo
and they started having a Spanish conversation, which obviously most
of us were not privy to. But standing there, you
(18:04):
could hear one word that we all resonated with, and
the word was five million. The word was Zach, So
we all kind of knew that we were talking about
something that had to do with some race team in London.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Well, according to Zach, Poto should be thanking Alex for
his salary. Yeah, right, Because, according to Zach Brown, that's
the only reason they are paying Poto award what he's
making right now, which is probably somewhere around five million dollars.
It's because they couldn't secure Alex Below. That's his story.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
There's a lot of stories out of this.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
This is Tomorrow's not the last time you'll see race
cars at IMS.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It is on the oval for the year.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
The road course will be in action this weekend the
USF Combine, that's USF I think Juniors, USF two thousand
and then USF Pro two thousand, Saturday and Sunday, and
Indy Next will be on the track for their big
Fall combine their test, the Chris Griffiths Tests on Monday.
A little next news today, aj Foyd Racing is back
(19:06):
in Indy Next they were there way back in the
day fielding a car for Tony George, then for aj
Foyd the fourth and for Ed Carpenter.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And now they are working.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
With HMD, you know, inside baseball or inside racing. I
don't know if this ever came out officially, but it
sure sounds like Indy Car wanted no more than four
cars per team and HMD had eight. So they've come
up with a couple of partner teams. Cusic Motorsports has
(19:40):
two cars and now EJ. Foyd Racing has two cars
and HMD has four. There is a technical partnership still
with HMD, so they still sort of have eight cars.
But this works out as a benefit for Cusic, who
runs an Indy five hundred program that now they can
apply sponsors on the next car if they want, and Foight,
(20:00):
who has a full time program. You could do a
lot of different things. And remember the David Malucas just
drove for that team, and there is a roundabout. This
is still one of the unquestionable unanswered questions of the offseason.
Does Team Penske still have a technical partnership with AJ
Foyd Racing? If they do, that's kind of a roundabout
since you've got David Malucas with Team Penske as his
(20:28):
father owns HMD, still working with AJ Foyd now where
he drove last year, and potentially with Team Penske, so
there's kind of a treika or triumvirate involved there. So
that's a good thing put on your to do list.
What I would like to see spelled out is what
(20:48):
are the advantages And I'd love to know this what
do advantages does an IndyCar team get from fielding and
Indie next team that's good?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Is there's something? So can you ask someone?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I sent an email to the series director a few
weeks ago and didn't hear back about something else.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So it must have gone to spam. Your emails don't
go to spam. Well, then he ignored it. Well that
might have been either one is.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Awesome, but yeah, no, I think they do go to
spam sometimes.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Gmail doesn't work very well. I don't have him, I
don't have an office, I don't have an official email anymore.
All right, So what else is night?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Oh, we've got more announcements and you'll see a lot
of Indie Next driver announcements. I think many have already
been out there. But I saw Josh Pearson was announced
today with ANDRETTI. I thought that had already been announced,
but it hasn't been. So that's confirmed. I know of
a couple of others. They're gonna get confirmed before they're
on track. On Monday, Colin Kaminski is coming back. He
(21:50):
didn't race this year, but he'll be back with Able
Motor Sports and we'll maybe next week kind of go
of a rundown because I think most I don't know
if they're going to be twenty four cars on track
next week. That's the goal for the series with the teams.
I don't know if twenty four are sign now, but
we are really close to that being done. Just like
(22:11):
we say for the Indy five hundred, it got late
very early for Indy Next seats as well Indy Car seats.
So I started updating my digital sheets and I've gone
ahead and taken the question mark up the number four car,
even though we haven't seen an announcement there. From what
(22:32):
I think and what I hear, everyone else can stop asking.
You know, we've had some questions. Could Connor Daily end
up in that set? Is there something for anyone there?
I think it's for Kyle Collettes. I think Kyle Collette
will run that car the entire season, and it makes
a lot of sense. We've not had a Brazilian driver
(22:54):
for a couple of years, and one would think for
someone that finished second in the next championship that there
could be enough support around him to get him back,
especially with the momentum that aj Foyd Racing has had
and the success that they've had over the last couple
of years. This is a much better seat than it
(23:14):
was three years ago. So I didn't ask Kyle when
I saw him other than I just said congratulations and
he smiled, And I think we'll see something there at
some point. Now checks always have to clear, and you
want to get them some things aligne But I think
that's done. So what is still TBD is the second
(23:36):
car for Coin, whether that's the fifty one or not.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We need to know car numbers.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The whatever car number for ray Hal. I've heard they've
had some longtime employees that aren't there anymore either as well.
But as I said last week, unfortunately I don't expect
deviln d Francesco to be back in that car. So
it's a matter whether it's Mick Schumacher or is it
(24:02):
Toby Sowry or Linas Lundquist or Connor Daily or someone
else in that car. And then I think we're still
going to need some confirmation other than just showing up
at Saint Pete for the seventy seven car for who
goes hauling her.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I agree because there's just.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Been a lot of smoke there and if there wasn't
anything at all to it, they could simply say, oh,
I'm sorry this has been announced before.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, I think you know, we both think it's it's
north of fifty percent that it's Sting ray Rop. But
until it is.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Well the way north, yeah, I think he'll be in
the car. I think they are just allowing themselves some options.
If somebody comes in with big money and says we're
going to find a way to bring a different driver
in here, here's another way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
This is not.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Piling on Sting who I have said before when he
takes a lot of heat. No, he's very competent. He's
very competent. But when the team is where they're at
and they made a lot of changes last year, a
team doesn't want to say, well, we're the problem. It's easier.
Just like in any other sport, it's easier to change
(25:20):
the head coach, to change one person than it is
to change everyone else. So if you're trying to explain
why it's not going well, sometimes it's easier to look
to one person than it is to say, yeah, we
got to get a whole new.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Crew in here. Having said that, the driver and I
had to forget the example. I really kind of light
Bulb went off with me, you know, the other day
on a driver. But he was making the point that
a driver is so much more than just one person.
Though he's the coordinator, he's the quarterback, he's the one
the communicator with everybody. He's the thing that pulls everyone together.
(26:00):
So you know, I know, we know that, but it's
a big deal. The driver is a big deal, and
the driver has to sometimes this driver just has to
get you a little bit more than you're worth if
you will, you know, sometimes you just have to. You know,
we see that in football, the quarterback just makes up
for some other misgivings of the race team or the
(26:22):
football team. So you know, the driver's got to do that.
Having said that, Stingman and Rab was second and Indy Next,
I mean, you don't get to be second in Indy
Next with even though he had been there a couple
three seasons, I mean, obviously very experienced in that series.
You don't get there without having a great deal of talent.
And that's been part of my point defending him. You know,
(26:44):
I don't think he's been in the best circumstances, but
the teams and I'm not talking about this team in particular.
I'm just saying any team, any team.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
That is outside the leader circle is going to start with, well,
you know, we must.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Be good to wall we're doing.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It's got to be the driver. We just need a
better driver. So let's see if we can get that done.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
On the on the flight news, you know we were
here and maybe you'd said this and I heard it
elsewhere as well, but that they didn't have the full
package put together. That Kyle was good for several races
to start the season, So maybe they're just waiting and
get all the partners lined up. I've been told other
drivers can stop inquiring. Yeah, no, I think that's true.
(27:27):
I'm just saying I think I think they're far enough
down the road now that that that's why other drivers
can can stop asking questions.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Lynn underscore IndyCar asked what's the latest with Prema?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Are they one and done? I noticed the.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Test last week the Andretti Global car had TWG branding
instead of Andretti. Is TWG IndyCar Group moving away from
the Andretti name. Might we see a return of Michael
Andretti in the series. Maybe Michael Andretti follows Lynn on
Twitter because Michael posted today on x Just to set
(28:01):
the record straight, I have no intention whatsoever to become
an owner of an IndyCar team. I will admit I
had not heard this. Apparently Marshall Prue had mentioned it
simply as a rumor. He just kind of laughed and said,
you know, someone said that there is something about Michael Lanretti.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
And he wasn't reporting it.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
He wasn't saying that he believed it, but he just said,
someone said that there is conversation about Michael Andretti and
or a group which would be more likely as someone
you know, with Michael fronting it, spending the money taking
over Prema, and you know, no idea whether it was
(28:47):
true or not. And then I heard a few other
people ask me about this in the last few days.
I don't know if it's because they heard Marshall Pruett
talking about it, or if there was anything to it.
Michael is trying to shut that down. My first thought
was that would surprise me, but you just never know.
One It would surprise me because Prema doesn't have a
(29:07):
charter and that's a bit of an issue, and they're
trying to find investment. They're trying to continue on but
that's a challenging cell because that equips some of that
equipment is obsolete, namely the cars in two years, and
the value of the charter is going up. So you
(29:29):
were not guaranteed of making races. So I don't know
what were your thoughts. How much would that shock you?
With Michael Andretti walked back in and said I'm back,
and I bought another team to compete against the team
with my name on it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
See here's the thing, here's what we don't know. We
don't really know what the exit plan was for Michael
and Andretti Global. You know, did they say, did Dan
Towers say we get the rights to your and ready
name for two years and now well that's coming to
an end two We don't really know what Michael's feelings
(30:07):
were relative to the change in ownership. Did he want that?
Did he like that? Was he irritated? Was it amicable?
We don't really know how that how they left that
and so And the other thing is that I know
your point about the cars being obsolete in two years
(30:28):
and the charter. I get all that, but I would
also say that that that's still an opportunity for somebody.
Somebody's gonna probably maybe not, but I could see an argument,
let's put it that way. I could, I could. I
could envision a situation where somebody would say, I'm going
to get that relatively affordably, and I can make that happen.
(30:50):
And maybe Michael is you know, bored and still wants
a challenge, and he's not that old. And but to
answer the question, what likelihood did I give that when
I first heard it? Five percent? Not much? Not much.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
And you're right that even though the car becomes obsolete,
there has been conversation. I don't know where they're going
to end up with, but they'd like some of the
parts to be transferable. Yeah, from the current car to
the next. I don't know if they're going to be
able to get that done or not. And in reality,
in a ten million dollars per year budget, you know,
(31:29):
the race car is what's a car? Four hundred thousand
And your point is it's not significant. Yeah, it's not
half of that budget. So you've still got a lot
of other things. And a lot of that budget, by
the way, is people and operating costs and travel and
things like that. But and those cars will still have
(31:51):
value as show cars and maybe you can sell them
to collectors. You know, one of them, by the way,
won the poll for the D five hundred that Prema
has this year. You can sell them to vintage racers
because remember they're already vintage because they're whatever fifteen years old,
so they could start competing immediately in that sense. Yeah,
(32:13):
So we don't know the terms of the agreement. Would
he be allowed to come back? I put it very slim,
but we don't know a lot of things. I think
it's very plausible that this was an amicabal, amicable departure
and separation, and it's okay, you know, let's try something different,
and you're gonna pay me a lot of money to
(32:35):
go take some time off and not have to go
to the racetrack for the first time in forty five years. Okay,
I'm open to that. Maybe he is bored, maybe he
wants to come back. Maybe it's semantics, maybe he's not
going to own a team, or maybe all of this
came from other people saying, Michael, if you let us
use your name, it's not gonna cost you a dime.
(32:58):
We just want you to show up to the racetrack
every weekend and we're going to front it all and
we're going to pay you something in that.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Now.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
If that's me, I'm going to listen to that. So
who knows, but you can never say never. He's still
a young man, I think, and has a long time.
His dad is still coming to the racetrack all the time.
So if he wants to get back involved at some
point after a bit of a respite, he can do this.
(33:26):
I don't know what's happening with Prema, but that is
one of the silly season questions as well. It's one
of the things that needs to be answered, not only
for the people to work there, including the drivers, but
the ND five hundred gets a lot trickier getting to
thirty three, or a lot easier if you're trying to
put a program together if they're not involved.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Last thing I would add, well, two things. One, the
Andretti's racing is what they do. It isn't. It isn't
just because they were good race car drivers. This is
their life and Michael's life, while fulfilling in many other respects,
this is what he does. Second thing is we talk
about all the prima things. As someone who owns a
(34:06):
small business, one of the most valuable things we have.
We're in year two and a half of a ten
year lease. So the lease that we have on the
building and the commitments that we've made are for ten years.
And if somebody wanted to buy us, I'm not offering
it for sale, but they have stability and that may be.
(34:30):
Those are other things, other considerations for someone like Michael
or for Prema.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
I mean, yep, Okay, new Formula one TV deal we'll
discuss and the impact on IndyCar.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Next on trackside, this is Alex below and you're listening
to truck Site.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Okay, a few things to cover here in this segment
talk Driver silly season. Just want to mention a couple
of quick updates on engineers. I don't know if I
ever have mentioned this on the show. We had a
question about Gavin Ward last week. Still don't know if
he wants to go back, when he's able to come
back and so forth. I believe Olivier Boson is no
longer with Andretti, so that's a pretty key engineering free
(35:09):
agent available out there. And racer dot Com wrote a
few weeks ago that Eric Cowden has left ed Carpenter
Racing to.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Go to Aero.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
McLaren and he has a long relationship with Tony Kanaan,
the engineer in his ninty five hundred winning car and
going way back in the day, and he will be
the director of engineering. So there is a lot of
depth at Aero McLaren. So we'll still wait and see
if anything else shakes down on the engineering front.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
We talked about what was happening now. Actually, I'm going
to save this.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We'll save this for the following segment if I have time,
because I want to make sure we get to speak
on this new Formula one television deal is streaming and
streaming only. ESPN has been a part of the biggest
wave and popularity for forming the one in this country.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Is that fair to say? Ever? Oh yes, and the
ratings are higher. It was different back.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
In the day, But the percentages and the attention that
Formula one is getting has never been this high, in
part because of ESPN, in part because of Drive to Survive,
and in part, if not the number one part, because
of a pandemic and no one could leave the house
and everyone ran out of things to watch, and they
went back and watched two year old editions of Drive
(36:28):
to Survive, and then ESPN out of necessity taking a
feed that was commercial free, had to go commercial free,
and they then became the only sport in America.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
One of the few.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Maybe soccer sometimes is commercial free, it probably is that
was commercial free, and ESPN wasn't super keen on going
above seventy five million per year.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
May not have even been willing to do that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
This is a reported five year, seven hundred and fifty
million dollar deal.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Or Apple.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
They're going to have four or five races that are
cleared from a paywall, so apparently you're going to be
able to go to a link and watch these races,
which is smart to try to get people to experience it.
And apparently the practice sessions are also going to be
free from behind the paywall, with the hope that you
see a practice session, experience it, and decide that you
(37:23):
want to be a part of that. By the way,
broadcasters TBD, they're not doing their own broadcast, so it's
not going to be like diff Matching and Hobbs and
Buxton that NBC did.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
It's going to be either.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
The Sky people that you've been watching on ESPN or
Hinch in the Crew on f one TV. So that's
TBD they're banking on all of the Apple devices we
have and getting messages on our phone that that is
going to be the difference maker. It's not worked for
(37:58):
Baseball on Apple, it's not work for MLS. How is
it going to work for f one? And is this
good for IndyCar, Nascar, any IMSA, anyone else doing over
the air broadcasts in motorsports?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
So I had this. I spoke to a college class
today at Franklin College and a student told me that
he was doing a paper on basically this. You know,
it was about the NBA and in the NBA, how
many different streaming platforms you had to have to watch,
you know, to watch and it was it was added up.
(38:35):
I mean, it was a lot of money, and he
was pushing back. I just think Apple will benefit because
they're going to just like Peacock when when we went
through this with Peacock and watched the IndyCar You know,
now Peacock is pretty well accepted, but it took how
long has that been five years since IndyCar Race has
started on Peacock. So Apple will get there, but it's
(39:00):
to be a challenge initially and there will be some pushback.
But I think this is good for Indy car. As
I told the class today, this is this is really
the only motorsport correct me. If I'm wrong with everything
that you want to watch race wise on broadcast TV.
Is there anything else in motorsports where it's all on broadcast.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I think you can go past broadcast. Yeah, I mean
it's motorsport. It's the only sport, correct that is fully
on broadcast because you have to have Amazon, you have
to have NFL Network, you have to have Peacock a
couple of times a year to CV. NFL Baseball has
division championship series on cable, if not actually league championship series,
(39:47):
some of those are on cable. The NBA, I think
some of the conference finals are going to be on
Amazon Prime. So we're not just talking regular season. We're
talking big playoff games that are going to be on streaming.
This is a grand experiment. The NBC is banking a
lot on people going to Peacock. They paid a load
(40:08):
for the NBA and a lot of the games.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
By the way, it's underway tonight on NBC Network television
for the NBA.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
This is why they did it on a Tuesday night,
not streaming on NBC but a lot of this programming
is going to be on peacock and are people going
to go to the Trouble when they can on Wednesday
night watch it on ESPN and on Sunday night after
football is over watch it on NBC. And they already
have Amazon Prime, and you know, YadA, YadA, YadA, what
(40:37):
is the limit for that. They're not going to see
one point two million anymore. Apple is not as prevalent
as Netflix and Amazon. NASCAR did better than we expected
on Amazon Prime. They had a great marketing push, they
had Dale Junior behind it. And I may be off
on this, but I feel like they were at sixty
(40:58):
or seventy percent of the audience, especially for the Koke
six hundred. Then it dwindled a little bit. I do
not think you will see sixty to seventy percent. I
think you're looking at I think you're looking at two
hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
I think you're right. I think kind of a number
to start with. You know, I don't know what the
price I don't know what the price point is on
Apple TV and being able to watch that, Like, like
I said, the student today gave me a list of
all the ways you could or needed to watch all
of the NBA. No one's going to watch all of it.
But the point was it was going to be about
eight hundred dollars a year to do all those things.
(41:34):
And you know, I think there will be some conversion.
There will obviously be enough conversion that Apple thinks it's
worth it, and they know what their expected market reach is.
But it's it's going to take a big hit in
Formula one, you know, building an audience, I mean maintaining
(41:55):
an audience, growing the sport. But who knows. You know,
I'm not willing to say it's a bad deal. I'm
not either.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
These people are a lot smarter than I am, and
while they may have fewer eyeballs, they may have the
more desired eyeballs and it's all about monetizing it.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So and I hope they do. I hope they do
one experiment. I hope they do well. I think by
the way, they may have the question you are asking this,
will this be beneficial for IndyCar And I think the
answer is yes. Okay, we'll wrap up and see what
we missed next on track side, Hi, this is Poto
Award and you're listening to Truck Side.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Final segment and we've got a little more time than
I feared, so we can go to the Twitter xbox.
This is from last week from Stephen kill Stunk and
someone else mentioned this to me as well when I
mentioned that Mick Schumacher had a hat on with the logo,
so there may still be some budget behind him, and
Steven says the company on mix hat is the same
(42:56):
business which sponsored his dad's had from about two thousand onwards,
so maybe there's something that can help. I still think
bottom line on that is Ray Hall Letterman Landing is
hoping the enthusiasm around Mick Schumacher can lead their commercial
group to find some of the budget that would help
(43:16):
fund Mixed.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Schumacher.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
He's got to decide if he wants to do it,
and then maybe part two is he decides or asks
those that support him, hey, can you help a little
bit or at least pay my salary? So this is
a better option for me than racing in the World
Endurance Championship or formulae if there are any seats there,
or whatever the case may be. The Purple Sector asks
(43:41):
do you ever think any carr would come to the
Charlotte Roval, Joseph Newgarden tested on the track a few
years ago and didn't hear a thing after that. Fans
in the Carolinas, Georgia would love to have a race
be great. It seems like that could be a good market.
I do not think that's very likely, though. I'm not
sure if that is really big enough commercially. If it
(44:03):
was a no brainer and the track said, yep, we're
giving you one point five million dollars in sanctioning fee,
and we're going to promote it, and we think we
can sell tickets it's going to be a good event,
then you'd probably go ahead and do it. But those
things are not always slammed dunks in a fifty one
second lap or whatever it is isn't great. It's probably
(44:25):
a little bit small, and I don't know that it'd
be a super exciting event. And they've already got road
course racing there on the Rovo as well. I would
say not say never, but it doesn't seem super likely.
I have not heard any conversation of that as well. Doug, No,
(44:46):
where not I see this question. I saw a question
somewhere come up today. Yes, Andrew Rowlinson asked, will Indy
Carr ever returned to Kansas, same kind of thing. I've
heard no conversation about that, but I think would like
to have another Oval. I'd love to have more ovals,
but I feel like they really want to have another Oval.
(45:08):
And probably best case scenario is there are no doubleheaders,
so another oval would still allow you to have a
pretty even split between road street and oval races. It
might take though Phoenix going well and both sides IndyCar
and NASCAR are saying we want to do this somewhere else.
(45:29):
I believe the Kansas Cup race next year is in
late April. That's where it could make sense for IndyCar. Now,
April is also really really crowded, so that's a little
bit challenging even if NASCAR did invite you in there.
But honestly, I think early May would be great for Kansas,
but it's not going to happen unless their Cup race
(45:51):
moves to a different time. The track is not going
to and it's not going to go well even if
you wanted to rent the track doing an IndyCar race
two weeks after there was a Cup race. So I
don't think it's super likely, but I would not rule
eat it out. Also, Doug Ivy twenty twenty five says
guessing now Collette may have more budget than able, referring
(46:15):
to how we all think that Kyle Collett's going to
be in the Foight car.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I don't know what budget Jacob Abel has. And it's
not just a price when teams are securing a driver
for a seat, you know, number one, as they find
the sponsor and they simply hire the driver, and after
that it's a sliding scale based on the talent level
(46:41):
and what they expect for results from a driver. And
here's where perception sometimes becomes a thing. So the perception
would be, you know, upside is always something that Kyle
Collette is better than Jacob Abel, But let's look at
it from a fact standpoint, and I don't know who's better,
but they both finished second in the Indy Decks Championship
(47:01):
with multiple wins. So I'm not sure that Jacob has
gotten a fair shake to show what he could do,
and I'd love to see him get another opportunity. But
my best guess is that the Foight team would probably
ask for a little bit more budget from him, But
I don't know what budget they want to commit to. IndyCars,
(47:24):
so we shall see if there's any other option for Jacob.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
We're out of time.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
We'll talk to you again next Tuesday night, seven o'clock
on track side ninety three five one oh seven five
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