November 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Tonight, on another edition of Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee, Kevin starts the show talking about Mick Schumacher joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing full-time in 2026 driving the #47 Honda, replacing Devlin DeFrancesco. Kevin also talks about RLL also bringing Gavin Ward to their engineer lineup. Kevin later talks about whether Juncos Hollinger Racing will retain Sting Ray Robb for next season and if the Team Penske technical alliance still holds with Caio Collet and A.J. Foyt Enterprises.
In the second segment, they talk about the recent trials between Alex Palou vs. McLaren along with 23XI Racing/Front Row Racing vs. NASCAR. They later answer fan questions on TV contracts, show products, and early rookie-of-the-year predictions.
To wrap up another edition of the show, they talk about the return of the Burger Bash for 2026, now on the Thursday before the Indy 500.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is track side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three to five and one oh seven five.
The fan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Indyka was the best option.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I just had to kind of confirm it to me
and to everybody around me that this is something that
I can see myself doing for you know, for the
long term, and therefore, Yeah, I think the decision making
process was pretty simple. It was just trying to figure out, Okay,
how committed would I be. And obviously I wouldn't be
here if it wouldn't be one hundred percent committed. So
I'm very excited for it. I think it's a great championship.
I mean, obviously looking forward to the oval testing, it's
something that stills on the cords and trying to explore that.
(00:36):
But to me, it was important not to do like
a half thing, but actually go in and do it
one hundred percent, and definitely ovals are part of that.
And I've had good conversations with people around who you know,
had good and bad views on it, and I just
kind of had to make an average out of that
and decided for myself.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'm really thrilling good. I think between mc graham and
Louie We've got three strong players, probably the three strongress
we've ever had as a three card team at least.
You know, I feel very good about our future together,
and we're just really pleased to welcome Nick into the organization.
And I know it's going to be a successful experience
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Excited about the future, Excited we're able to put this together.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So a lot has happened in last month, and then
a lot's going to have to happen in the next
month to work up for the challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You're ready to go. We have another confirmation for IndyCar
twenty twenty six. That's former F one driver Mick Schumacher,
also team co owner Bobby ray Hall and team president
Jay Frye. And that wasn't the only move ray Hall
Letterman Lanigan has recently made. We'll get into that. We'll
also update what's left for IndyCar seats. And we're seeing
(01:40):
in the NASCAR versus Michael Jordan company court case why
disappearing WhatsApp messages make a lot of sense. Hello, Welcome,
Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for joining us track side on ninety
three to five one seven five the Fan in Indianapolis
and via podcast at the usual outlets Apple, Spotify and
(02:01):
SoundCloud and all the others. We appreciate you joining us
for the program. Looking at a calendar, I always forget
to do this, so let's see next week we are
on a Thursday. I'm for once going to remember to
mention that early in the show. So next week's show
is on Thursday, December fourth, So everyone take a break.
(02:23):
Dale Coin, I know it talked about getting his driver
announced by Thanksgiving. You are cleared, how about December thirdish?
I think he also said maybe mid December is a
better word. We just want to make sure we have
it done by Christmas. Landon Koons is our studio producer.
He's in Indianapolis. I'm Kevin Lee. Kurt Cavin is otherwise
(02:45):
detained for the moment. He has a good excuse that
we might be able to tell you about before the
show is over, and he actually may join us coming
up in the second segment. But we'll just talk amongst
ourselves and we'll get to some of your Twitter questions
via the xox some in this segment at Kevin Lee
twenty three and at Kurt Cavin. So he thought this
(03:06):
was coming made a lot of sense. I didn't know
that it was definitive, but it seemed very very likely.
After all seemed to get along, everyone seemed to be
happy with one another. After Mick Schumacher tested the Indy
car for Reyhall Letterman Lanigan at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
road course, you know, then it's all right, is Mick
(03:27):
wanting to do it? And then can they pay for it?
This is I think, don't know. You never really know,
or you often don't really know. If a driver can
bring budget, and maybe he is attached to some budget,
and as we've talked about before, they are different levels.
Sometimes it may just simply be a driver can create
(03:48):
budget for himself if he's actively competing in a Premier series,
but you know, at some point he needs to get paid.
The team has to pay potentially seven or eight million
to ten million dollars. That's kind of what it costs.
Ten million is what your goal is for a team
(04:09):
to run a program these days. And the driver who
was in that seat, and by the way, the number
forty seven seat for Mick Schumacher is the same entry
that Devlin d Francesco was running in the number thirty.
So Devlin was attached to budget, so you are forgoing that.
(04:30):
What that number is I don't know exactly, but it
was a decent number. Not full budget, I don't gather,
but it's a decent amount. So you need to replace
that and make up difference and pay the driver and
so forth. So that was the only question is everyone
felt comfortable with that, and they obviously did, and we
had a pretty good sense of it last week. It
(04:52):
had previously been said by the Alpine World Endurance Championship
team leader that we need to know soon from Mick Schumacher,
and Mick had said I'm going to pick one. I'm
going to either do sports cars or I'm going to
do IndyCar, and I'll decide soon. Well, I think of
his last Thursday that it was announced that Schumacher by
(05:12):
his choice, was not going to return to Alpine, so
that seemed to be pretty much a foregone conclusion, and
then we got the official announcement what I guess it
was yesterday morning at nine o'clock was when it was confirmed.
So this is very very cool. Happy to see someone
get an opportunity to come to IndyCar. What is he
going to be I don't know. He's an f two champion.
(05:35):
He's clearly got talent. It's not like he overwhelmed us
in the IndyCar test. There were others there. I don't
think he was the fastest, but it was all very
very close of the five or six cars that were
there on the road course that day. And it's never
apples to apples because you don't know what tires people
(05:56):
are on, or people using push to pass and so forth.
But he clearly was competent and he might be really good.
We have seen before that you can be a successful
Formula One driver. It does not automatically transfer over. And
we also know that in Formula One you have to
have a car, and he was with a poor team
(06:16):
his first of two years. I don't think hasef one
scored a point the entire season, meaning no one finished
in the top ten. I think his best finished that
year was twelfth. The next year he had I know
he had a sixth place finish and maybe like an
eighth or a ninth and it'll win a little better.
Too many crashes, we've seen that with really good drivers too.
(06:38):
You start to press So it is a TBD. On
Mick Schumacher, I don't know what he is, but I
do think he has a chance, and there is a
bit of a marketing factor, But I think they're hiring
him because of Mick Schumacher, not because of Michael's Schumacher.
(07:01):
That would be a mistake to hire him because of
who his dad is. Unfortunately, his dad is not able
to help at this point, so the name only goes
so far. It's like naming a coach that has a
big name. Well, that's great for the press conference, but
he'd better be able to win. You know. That only
helps you in the offseason. Then the season starts and
(07:22):
the fans only care about wins and losses, and the
glossy name goes away really quickly. And that's the way
ob for Micked Schumacher. And I'm certain that the team
is basing this on his potential as a driver. And
as we've always said before, there are people that can
analyze and determined talent in every sport better than others.
(07:49):
And it's never one hundred percent, but it goes beyond
what most of us can recognize, and it goes beyond
what statistics. And I'm not talking just about racing, I'm
talking about any sport. There are people that find diamonds
in the raw or find untapped potential in all of that.
So we shall see if Mick Schumacher is one of those.
(08:10):
Ovals are the uncertainty at this point. Generally speaking, the
feeling is, and I would agree with this, if you
are a talented road course racer, you can adapt to ovals.
It's a challenge, and the short ovals are probably even harder.
But Indianapolis, a lot of people will say is for
(08:33):
really high speed road course corners. And we have seen
many people from road course backgrounds, if they're in a
good car, they come in and they adapt very very quickly.
It's a lot I'm not going to say easy er,
but it is more simple to acclimate to doing oval
(08:54):
racing than it is for an oval racer to come
in and figure out how to do road courses. That
just doesn't work very well. Road course racing one, it
makes up seventy five percent of the schedule, and the
people who have been doing it have been doing it
a go karts a lot of times since they were
six years old. If you start when you're in your
(09:14):
twenties or later, if you're you know, Jimmy Johnson or
somebody else, you're just not going to catch up. You're
not going to catch up in that sense. And I
think one thing that'll be interesting is how they go
about the process. And I read a story on Racer
Today or yesterday. You know they've got some plans and
some resources to help well to Kumasato could be one
(09:37):
of those resources, and it sure would seem like he
would be not the only mentor, but a really good
mentor because well, one he's been a part of the team.
Two he's really good on OVAL's, especially the Indianapolis five hundred,
where he's won twice and has been in contention several
(09:57):
other times. And three he came from the same background.
He is a farmer Formula one driver that quickly adapted
to oval racing, so he's going to be able to
speak his language. So we don't know if Takuma is
signed up for Ray Hall Letterman Lanagan, but that's one
more incentive that they want to get that done. And
(10:19):
I also think they are more incentives to want to
stay with Ray Hall Letterman Lanagan. I've mentioned before that
we don't know, despite what you read, I don't know
that Colton Herda is confirmed for Andretti in the fourth
in D five hundred car. I think that makes a
lot of sense, but I have no information and I
think that's where it's headed, but it won't shock me
(10:42):
if something else comes about, and if it's not Hurd,
I would ask about Sodo. So if ray Hall letterman
Lannigan wants to ensure that Sodo is going to be there,
they probably have already signed him, or if not, they
want to do that real soon. And this is one
other incentive to help a young driver, and then the
team just keeps getting stronger and stronger. We had already
(11:04):
talked about Kurt and I both thought, as does I
think everyone. Adding Brian Barnhardt is a really big get.
He has a significant amount of experience. He knows who's good,
who you want to hire. He can support Jay Frye,
and I mentioned Kyle Sagan as well is going to
come in and help not only over the wall if
(11:27):
he still is over the wall, but he's a pit
stop manager and has a lot of experience there. Kyle
messaged me and I saw Marshall Prul wrote this is
too that he Keto Kosik, who's been with ray Hall before,
he's been with Ganassi. He was with Mayera McLaren last year.
He's come back to ray Hall Letterman Land again. He's
a chief mechanic type one other aside. So one of
(11:50):
the departures that I had heard. I don't know if
it was his choice of the team's choice, but Derek
Davidson has been with the team as a strategist to
chief mechanic any other roles for a long time, and
I had heard he was gone. I'm happy to report
I didn't have Derek's number to confirm this with him,
but we are Facebook friends and I see his Facebook
(12:12):
profile now says he is a team manager at ed
Carpenter Racing. So I'm really happy that Derek has landed
in a good spot. And this is good for ed
Carpenter Racing as well because Derek is very respected. So
we talked about what ray Hall had already done. I
don't think they've announced this yet, but it was on
racer dot com and we've been talking before. Where is
(12:32):
Gavin Ward going to end up? When does his non
compete end We had kind of a guess that he
could be available as soon as October ish, meaning last month.
Don't know the exact date when he separated with Aerol McLaren,
but it was last fall. It was September, October, November,
somewhere in that range. Could have run all the way
(12:53):
through the end of this year or is it one
year from the separation. Well, he is coming to ray Hall, Letterman, Landigan.
And if you don't know Gavin Ward, he is a
former Red Bull Formula One engineer. He won what a
championship or did he win two championships with Joseph Nugarten.
(13:13):
I think yeah. I won his second championship in twenty
nineteen and then went to Errol McLaren was going to
be an engineer and then Taylor Kyle left to go
to Ganassi, so they had a need very quickly, and
I think he was going to be sort of the
overall engineer looking over the entire program in a bit
(13:35):
of a management role, and he was elevated to the
team principal and as was set at the time, you know,
there's a lot of money spent at ERL McLaren and
this was kind of a lot of people's fear. If
they don't win in the manner they are expected to win,
somebody's going to answer for that. And Gavin did answer
(13:58):
for that, and he was released of his duties last fall.
And I don't know that he's not I'm not going
to say he's not cut out to be a team
principal or a manager. I don't know. I'm not inside
the building, but I do know he is minimum a
very very very good, if not great, engineer, and I'm
going to guess he had many options. And this is
(14:21):
a huge get. It's being listed in this article in
the quotes from Jay Fry is kind of TBD, and
what he's going to be doing in an open capacity
in a special advisory role. But this story was also
written before they had announced Mick Schumacher. I would also
think this helped Mike Schumacher make up his mind that
(14:41):
all right, I'm going to win. They're going to be
better than they have been, and there's going to be
somebody I can communicate with. Like I said, Sado should
be able to help him. He's coming from a Formula
one world. What better person to help him than someone
who has engineered a Formula one car? And Mick Cans
say it feels like this now Gavin hasn't driven a
(15:03):
Formula one car, but he still dealt with Formula One driver,
so I would think that's gonna help that transition a
little bit there. So those are all good gets. It's positive.
We want depth as just fans, not rooting for any
particular team. We want strong teams. We don't want the
same two three four teams winning all the time. And
we know it's been two teams winning championships, so this
(15:26):
is good for Ray Hall. Letterman Lanigan sneak in a
Twitter question from Christensen because it's on topic, he asks,
how would you compare mix arrival in Indy Car to
Grojean's Do you think Mick will be more or less
successful than Grojean's first season at dale Coin Racing. That's
a good question. It might be tough to match what
(15:50):
Grojean did at dale Coin. I can probably look that
up pretty quickly. But he had a couple of podiums.
You know, Grojean is a far more experienced driver at
this point than Mick Schumacher is. Schumacher has an F
two championship but has had no success in Formula One,
whereas Grojean probably had ten podiums and came close to
(16:14):
winning a few times. So Grojean was is and was
a much more finished product. But what Schumacher has is
he has more upside. He has a longer shelf life
in front of him, not being in his mid thirties
at this point. So that's the positive that I'm not
(16:35):
going to waste any more time trying to look up
what Grojean did. But he had a solid rookie season.
He did well for dale Coin Racing, and actually did
better with dale Coin Racing than he did once he
moved over to Andretti. So I think it's different now.
As far as the impact, I think that was part
two of the question. Will he have a bigger impact?
(16:57):
How would you compare? It will be more or less successful? Okay,
So as far as the impact, I'll just add in
my own part to that. Grojean is a bigger deal
coming to IndyCar. He was a highlighted feature with the
host team and with gunther Steiner, you know as always
(17:18):
being a part of Drive to Survive. I don't remember
Mick Schumacher. I know he was in it some, but
I don't know that that crowd is here following him.
His announcement in IndyCar is a big deal in international
motorsport and with hardcore motorsports fans because he spent some
(17:39):
time in Formula one, and frankly because of who his
dad is. But I don't know that the general casual
American fan that that matters all that much. I do
think more casual fans because of drive to survive and
because just a few months earlier, Roman Grojean we had
nearly watched burn on live television. So Frankly and Roman
(18:02):
understands that too, that he leaned into it, you know,
with with different marketing aspects, and you know, the hat
would he would wear? What the phoenix, you know, kind
of going with that nickname rising from the ashes that
made him a very sympathetic and notable character. So we
came in with some splash there. And it always comes
(18:26):
down to the team, and they're probably at similar levels.
Ray Hall has a lot more resources though, and I
do think they are going to be able to take
a step forward this year. So I'm looking at year
two or year three to make that judgment. And if
Schumacher is what Ray Hall thinks he is, then then
(18:47):
he'll do more long term than what Grojean did. What
else I'll sneak this question in next because it'll get
to our next topic of topic of what is still remaining?
Lynn had underscore IndyCar says, what's up with Hunko's website?
One Renus VK listed as a driver two, second driver
(19:08):
listed as TVA three. A few Rob posts have been
scrubbed from the website happy birthday post and another one too,
so that has been noticed. Bob Pocris of Fox Sports
actually sent it to me because Bob knows everything. He
sent it to me a week and a half or
so ago and got a comment that Marshall Prewitt also
(19:32):
essentially got from Peter Rossi, Stingray Rob's manager as well.
So here is what Marshall Pruitt wrote on Racer last week,
saying there was a surprise return to the silly season
debate this week the second who goes Holling a racing entry,
but it might be a little more than a storm
and a tea cup. As we noted in our August update,
(19:53):
both HR seats were underested to be up for change
and Renas VK did and indeed replaced Connor. Daily manager
Peter Rossi insisted his client and returned to the second car,
which we chronicled in September and then the team launched
its new website in recent days and no longer lists
Rob as one of its drivers. In a call with
(20:14):
Rossi this morning, this was last week. Rossi sought to
quiet the speculation regarding Rob's future in the number seventy
seven Chevy and reiterated his stance, I'm not sure if
that's the number nine. I forget what numbers they were
in saying the young Idahoan is confirmed with JHR for
next year and announcements to that effect are on the way,
and outreach to JHR seeking comment a wait to reply,
(20:36):
And that was written last week, and since I haven't
seen an update to this story, I'm going to guess
it still seeks a reply. Now. This simply could be
what it stated that Maybe I need to look up
what the release said last year. I thought it was
announced as a multi year contract. But maybe there is
going to be a reason behind this new sponsor, new
(20:59):
car number. We just want to start over with a
big splash and reconfirm things. Does seem odd, though, with
a driver that drove for you from last year, because
generally speaking, you know, it's not like you really posted
the launch of the website on social media, you could
(21:20):
just leave the driver on there and you could still
make the announcement with the new sponsor. So I'm hoping
for Stingrays case because I'd like to see him get
another chance to I'm hoping that this is all accurate,
but it unfortunately doesn't feel that way. It feels like,
at minimum, the team wants to let it be known
(21:42):
to other drivers, especially those that they deem having talents
and have budget. I think they want to let people know, Hey,
give us a call. We might be able to work
something out. Help me if I'm wrong here, But that's
the message that I'm seeing that the team wants it
to be known that this seat could be potentially available.
(22:03):
As I've said, and I think I'll still stick with this,
but I'm getting more and more concerned. I still think
Stingray Rob is going to be in the car because
I don't think they're going to find anyone that they
deem better that can bring the amount of budget that
they'd like to have. But as we like to say,
I suspect they are still efforting either from a driver
(22:27):
or from sponsors or an investor on their own. So
that is still unfortunately a bit of a well clearly
it's TBA. That's what the team website says. It is TBA.
So we have to leave that on the list along
with the second coin car at this point. One other
(22:48):
thing that's still uncertain. So I heard I didn't hear it,
but the Larry Foyd teleconference announcing Kyle Collette, I was
of the understanding that he said the technical partnership with
Team Penske continued. And I've seen quotes and this is
also from Marshall Pruitt. He wrote this, and I think
(23:10):
I saw it somewhere else too, that Jonathan Dogood, the
new what is his title, managing director, he's team president,
team president of Team Penske, is not ready to confirm
that at this point. And that's what Marshall wrote in
a note last week. It's technical alliance foights with Team Penske,
which has been in place for three season, is meant
(23:31):
to carry on, but awaits confirmation from Foyt and Penske.
So we shall see on that front. And then I
threw out a bunch of names last week. You know,
of all the people that could be in play for
indy five hundred seats and would be in play for
the coin seed and if Hunko Sollinger is open. And
(23:52):
Marshall mentioned some others that I should have included, and
I did say this. I said, anybody that has driven
a race card in the last few years or still
in probably should be considered. I forgot about Katherine Legg.
You know she was close to have something done last year.
She's been able to raise budget and have partners before,
as a unique story and very competent. So put Katherine
on the list as somebody who could be in play
(24:13):
for the five hundred. Marshall said that Charlie Kimball reminded
him I should have included Charlie. I know he has
had some budget at times. There were years though, when
there were no seats available. As we say, it gets
late early and after Christmas there are no seats available,
So you need to get your budget together and get
something done. And Stepan Wilson should have mentioned Stefan. He
(24:36):
didn't go out the way he wanted to. Last I
talked with Stefan. He still had some budget. I don't
know if he had enough for a program, and that
price keeps rising, but keep him on the list with
all the other people I've mentioned, like Jacob Babel if
he's not full time Devil and d Francesco. What does
he want to do? James Row I've mentioned I noticed
(24:57):
that he's on the Honkos hauling her website as a
te driver because he drove for them in the Ims
road course test. Miles Row in a one off Hunter,
mcilray Jr. Hildebrand, Benjamin Peterson, who's doing sports cars now?
Zach Viech is still doing sports cars? On and on
and on. What happens with Connor Daily? Does he get
(25:19):
the coin seat? Is it Grojan? Is it linas Lunquiz?
Is it Toby Salary? Could it be calum Ilot? If
Prema doesn't get it done? Robert Schwartzman. I think Robert's
best chance is probably staying with Prema. But we shall
see on that front. Okay, coming up, got some other
things to get into. Cool new exhibit at the Ims
(25:43):
Museum I had a chance to see this week. We'll
tell you about that. We'll get into some of your
questions and ooh, what we've been learning in court here
recently too. Stay with us track side ninety three to
five one oh seven five the fan Hi, This is
Graham Rayhill and you're listening to Trackside on ninety three
to five and one oh seven five the Fan. Thank
you for staying with us, and we welcome to track
(26:05):
Side with Cavin and Kevin, the aforementioned Kurt Cavin. And
we've got news coming up in a little bit on
the program regarding the show that you'll want to stay
tuned for. I think you'll you'll like this news. But
we have even bigger news, and it turns out you
do have a good excuse for missing the first segments.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I do have a good excuse although I'm not really
doing much. I wasn't doing much during this segment, and
that is because my daughter, who many people who listen
to the show know because she had a stint of
working at IndyCar and the Fan the Fan Participation in Activation, whatever,
the fan club, Katie is having our first grandchild as
(26:47):
we speak, and so she's been in labor most of
the day. I was hoping that I still hope that
it'll be born today. Lucy is her name, and I
hope Lucy is born tonight because it would be on
the twenty fifth, which it would be easy for me
to remember. It would be a month before Christmas, so
that's my logic, but it also means that maybe I
(27:08):
could not stay up till four am. But we'll see
how it goes. I'm pretty excited about this. You don't
get you know, you can remember having your first child.
Having your first grandchild is a different level because your
daughter is involved in addition to your granddaughter.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So pretty special stuff. Well, congratulations, good luck. Those that
have come to the Burger Bash have probably interacted with
Katie before as well. She's been a long time helper
for the Burger Bash. And you're cheating. You already have
names picked out our kid? What name was for at
least two days?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, yeah, I don't know. It's not what I did.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
People do it. It's good. It's good. Congratulations, very very
very exciting news. And we'll look to have an update
on the show next week. I mentioned the top for you.
Now it's Thursday. Next week's show is on Thursday, so
we'll have a little time. And we've asked Dale Coin
to hold off on his announcement. He's probably gonna miss
Thanksgiving unless it comes out tomorrow, so Dale, you can
(28:13):
go ahead and wait till December fifteenth. Let's pace yourselves.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I do expect that I'll be clear by a week
from Thursday. So Katie, we should have should have Lucy
by then, I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So all right, let's get back into some things. I
covered some of the latest Indie card news and this
one I still have not gone through. There's a couple
of articles about the Polo McLaren trial that I need
to dig into. Of all of the strays that we're
cast and you know we learned salaries from other people. Well,
(28:46):
what we're getting now is in the NASCAR trial with
Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin and Nascar, we're getting a
lot of emails and texts uncovered. And do you remember
in the Polo trial, the one thing we learned is
that McLaren has a mandate of using WhatsApp, which has
(29:06):
a disappearing messaging function. And now we see why that's
probably a good idea, and it is probably why we
also advise everyone, don't write it down if you don't
want anyone to see it, if it's going to be embarrassing.
And it just keeps flowing in this NASCAR trial, and
(29:29):
Bob Pokerus is relentless. He's going through the records, he's
finding everything, and the latest that came out was some
of the actually was Steve Phelps is now the NASCAR
commissioner and I think was president at the time. In
some of the depositions between twenty three to eleven in
front Row and NASCAR referred to Richard Childress as an
(29:54):
idiot and a redneck and a lot of other things.
And Childre has put out of statement he's threatening to
sue now, so there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
You know he should fight back against that, because you
know he's a he's a really solid businessman. I mean,
he has he's done really well. I got to tell
you of the people who I came to know in
this sport, Richard Childress is one that impressed me far
(30:26):
more than my expectations would have presented themselves. The very
first opportunity had to meet with him, he just invited
us to have alligator with him. He was grilling out
at Talladegan was going to have alligator, and I thought
it kind of fits who I think Richard Childreness is
and I spent the evening with him and got to
(30:48):
be around him for a few more years after that.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
He was always I.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Just couldn't I couldn't believe what a really smart interesting,
well versed in and you know, again I don't have
years and years of experience with him, but to call
him an idiot in a redneck is doesn't seem fair.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I get it that it's private that people say things.
It's not meant for public consumption, but just a reminder
you probably shouldn't write it down. It's a lesson to
all of us, and they're going to learn that the
hard way. That's a hard one to walk back. And
you know, it was said that they called and apologized.
Obviously that didn't work. I think the statement came out
that NASCAR let Childress know that this was going to
(31:34):
be made public and smooth things over. Doesn't look like
they smooth things over because a couple of days later
there's a statement from RCR about how angry they are
and they are leaving all of their legal options open.
I don't know what you're suing at this point, other
than defamation of character or whatever the case may be,
(31:57):
but it is all not happy at this point, and
that might lead I think that was one of the
other Twitter questions that we had on this front. No,
this is a different one, so I'll come back to
this one. But one was you know, just simply about
what's going on in NASCAR at this point from Tommy
(32:20):
the Tree zero zero zero with all the NASCAR drama
and F one going behind a paywall next year, do
you see twenty twenty six as a make or break
year as far as growing IndyCar is concerned.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
So I don't like make or break. I think that's
that's not fair to the situation. Do I think it's
an opportunity? Yes, I do, I think, and I think
Fox started that the momentum of you know, the state
of the series. I suppose that Jay Fry had helped
build within the competition department and the number of cars
(32:54):
and teams, and yeah, we don't know about what premise
situation is just yet, but all the things that were
positive on the racetrack and a schedule going to Arlington.
You know, you put all those things Phoenix, you put
all those things together with the Fox seventeen races on
network and then the investment that Fox made from a
(33:15):
from an ownership standpoint, I think the opportunity is squarely there.
So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You got to make the best of it, and you
have F one going to Apple TV.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
And you know it's hard to turn down double the
rights fees, but they just your one point five million
for a race that started just before midnight on the
East coast. Now that's still eight pm West Coast time,
and it had a lot of hype. But you think
Sports Center is sending Nicole Brisco out there next year? No, no, no,
(33:46):
they're not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
You will disappear off Sports Center. Maybe maybe you get
an occasional, but I doubt it. If it's not a property,
you're going to lose all that promotion and you're ratings
are now. Maybe the revenue can go up, but that
that's a big deal in NASCAR is still working through
the challenge of multiple networks. Works well for the NFL.
(34:11):
The NFL, and I think this is what NASCAR was thinking,
so you can't say that's a wrong way to look
at it. But the NFL likes to have everyone as
a stakeholder. You know, they have every single network is
promoting the NFL, and that works, but it doesn't quite
work that way for other properties because they're not all
(34:34):
on at the same time. It's just it's our races
that we have. Then they have their races and the
only cross promotion is what is going to be mandated
by contract, and when the practices are on a different
channel and some of them are streaming, it just makes
it challenging for people to consume it.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And as I watch NFL, it's amazing how much cross
promotion there is between the networks. I mean it's you know,
Mike Krica will say, you know, this game is on CBS,
this game is Sunday Night on ESPN. This game, I mean,
they go through the list and you haven't seen that
(35:15):
in NASCAR. So I think having one consistent platform, you know,
all network races is going to be really a positive
moving forward. And you know, I think there was some
we did have some questions on the show about you know,
Mark Miles was still not ready to go to streaming
in this last contract discussion, and I think he's still
(35:38):
right about that. I feel like it, you know, I
don't think we're quite there out there.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yet, and there is getting to be more and more
pushback there is. And what it really seems that there's
going to be two models. There's network television where if
you want, you can do an antenna that is cumbersome
for some. So it's still going to be some sort
of subscription to get your network television and then your
cable television. Are all these streaming packages, and I think
(36:04):
part of this ESPN, Disney and YouTube tv agreement is
that YouTube tv is going to be able to offer
some sort of a sports bundle in the future for
people that are interested. So it's an ever changing market.
From James Robert Mitchell, I watched the Las Vegas GP
was amazed by the F one show in quotes except
(36:27):
for the actual on track product, which was boring. What
can IndyCar do to get a sliver of the F
one cross promotion that seems to be everywhere? Why is
IndyCar's marketing so bad? So we always hear that, And
I've been in the sport now for a pretty regular
basis for about twenty five years. You longer than that,
And we can go back to when Robin Miller started,
(36:50):
and my guess is that people said that marketing was terrible.
Then that's just the easiest thing to say. And what
I've come to conclusion of the last few years is
I don't know how to market it better. We always
just that that's our fallback market it better. Well, how
do you do that, So I can't say that that's
(37:10):
specifically the issue other than if you had oodles and
gobs of money like Liberty Media does and the ability
to I'd love to know what the books are for
the Las Vegas GP because they're probably losing many, many
millions of dollars on that, but it's been a good
investment for them.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
One of the ways you can market your sport, and
I see that Fox is doing it right now, is
on FS one. You're getting one hundred days to Indye,
you're getting. As Chip Ganassi noted on social media yesterday,
I believe that last year, this year's Indianapolis five hundred
was airing on FS one, and so people are jumping
(37:51):
around looking at different options. FS one and Fox those
are big timers in the all the channels that you
could have, those two are still pretty big. But the
opportunity to consume our product in the middle of November,
when you didn't have to do anything for you you
just gave them, you know, they got the tape of
the race, They just playing the race. You give them
one hundred days, Andy, go for it. And that's a
(38:14):
great way to keep the message going and keep the
interest up when you're not really creating new content.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Now I'm not totally dismissing what James mentions there, because
you are trying to capture some of what F one has.
They clearly have figured something out. So that's what you're
trying to do, and I think that's what Fox is
going to help bring to the table. Working with Penske Entertainment,
they do want to make all of the events have
a little more glitz and glamour and make them feel
(38:42):
like bigger events. And I still think I know they
are people that bristle a little bit about F one mentions,
but I think you try to capitalize on it. You
take advantage of that popularity and you become much more available.
(39:02):
If you want to go to an F one event,
you need to be if you want to really experience something,
you need to have some cash to spend. You know,
you're going to need to spend several thousand dollars to
have any kind of access at all. How about you
spend two or three hundred and come to an IndyCar
event by a pit pass and can get something that's
pretty similar.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Well, it's it's all about bringing your companies and your
partners and your customers and your race fans to the racetrack,
and you know some of the social that I saw
over the weekend at from F one. You know, T
Mobile has got a got a suite and they you know,
they're showcasing their people at the event. So you know,
marketing is a tough thing. It's all about spending money.
(39:45):
And you know, you can't do marketing really without without investing.
And I think this regime has done a pretty good
job of it. I don't know that it's fool proof,
but you give it your best shot.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Rom branded who is the current favorite in your opinion
to win Rookie of the Year. Also, who's the most
likely to get on a podium this year amongst those
rookie candidates? Good question. So you got Kyle Colettes, you
got Mixed Schumacher, and you've got Dennis Hauger.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So I think the answer lies with Rayhall, Letterman Lanigan
because they have invested behind the scenes, so outside of
the driver market, and I think if they take a
step up, Mix Schumacher is going to have a really
strong chance. Dale Coin Racing works magic, so Hager is
(40:38):
going to have some good runs. Kyle Collette obviously Fots
done some really nice work here in the last two years.
I think you have to give a slight edge to
mix Schumacher. He's got more experience, honestly, but he has
less experience in this discipline. It's going to be a
great race. It really is an interesting threesome.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I like to just agreed with you when I can,
but I don't think I can here. I think it
is Schumacher because of the strength of the team. He's
more experienced, he's more mature than these other drivers. Now,
Dennis Hauger is you know, he won five F two
races and has some experience, but he's still what twenty
two years old in that range, and Schumacher won the championship,
(41:22):
so he's got a similar level of experience. Kyle Khaled
is younger. You know. One thing I want to know
is Penske's still involved with Foyd. I mentioned this in
the first segment. I thought Larry Foyd said that yep,
that's still continuing. Well, Johnny Dogood does not agree yet.
He won't say now that may just be Hey, I
haven't seen anything signed yet. We still need to come
(41:43):
to an agreement, so we need to get this before
I'm going to say anything on the record, I want
to make sure that this is official, and you know,
his money changing hands. I got the impression in the
past who was more Tim Sindrick wanting to help out
aj Foyd racing and looking for a place or David
Malucas down the road for mechanics for Miles Row, whatever
(42:04):
the case may be. It may now be a little
different arrangement, but it seems likely to happen. But I
do need to see that confirmed at this point. But
with the changes that ray Hall, Letterman Landing and is
making outside of drivers, I feel like they are poised
to take a step forward this year. So that's my
(42:24):
best guess. Speaking of ray Hall, Sarah Morris asks how
come Graham ray Hall wasn't ever in the Indie next booth?
Was that his decision or was that someone else's decision?
So I think that was probably his decision. I was
not in charge of bringing in our guest hosts. I
(42:45):
got involved when someone would ask me, hey, if you
guys can use me, I'd be interested and I would
pass that along and oftentimes it would lead to someone
coming on and I was never told, no, we don't
want that person but usually Pam Miller, our producer, she
was setting that up before I'd even thought of it.
You know, we'd have a call on Tuesday and she
(43:07):
would say, Santino's going to be in the boot this weekend,
and that usually came from the driver reaching out to
one of the producers and making themselves available. I do
believe we asked some but the challenge for this year
and we're hoping that changes a little bit. There are
a few more races on Saturday. There are doubleheaders on
(43:28):
road course weekends, but on Sundays it is very difficult
for an Indy car driver to do their day job
because the Indie next race is always right after the
morning warm up when they are going to an engineering meeting.
So I feel confident that the door was open for
Graham if he wanted to, but he's like, no, I
got to take care of the day job. But I
do think we'll see Graham at some point, and hopefully
(43:51):
this year. But Graham never specifically asked me. I don't
know if he talked to anybody else, but I think
we'll see it at some point.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
And Graham also has more team, team and initiatives than
say Santino just because of his family being involved with
the team. The other thing is I think he's going
to be a great broadcaster at some point in his
life if that's what he wants to be, if he wants.
Really he's really good at it.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Charlie Max is excited for what URLLL is doing. I
think Mick will enjoy Indy cart and it's racing culture
now at the track. Let's let him be mixed Schumacher,
IndyCar driver, not Michael Schumacher's son. He's always been blessed
with that heritage. I think those of us that are
there will let him be mixed Schumacher. It probably is
going to be a bit of a process for him
in every market when we have the bullpens from the
(44:38):
local media, He's unfortunately going to have to answer some
of those questions. But hopefully they all understand there's not
a lot he can say right at this point, so
there's not a lot to ask, so hopefully we'll move
on pretty much.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
The most of these markets aren't aren't as entrenched in
F one as the markets he's been going to in Europe,
so I don't know that he'll get as many as
we think.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I think You're probably right. As I said in the
first segment, I don't think America, this is really not
that big of the deal. Ray Hall, Letterman Lanigan did
not hire him because he's Michael Schumacher's son. They hired
him because they think he's going to be good.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Well, no, I agree mostly with that, but I.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Think it's because the being Michael Schumacher's son is not
going to carry very far.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
No, it's not. But the name Shoemaker is going to
make a difference in their in their attracting of sponsorship.
It just is come on, I mean it should, it should,
and and the other thing is, I mean, with each
passing year, we're moving further and further away from the
number of people who had any association with Michael Schumacher.
In this country. We just are there, just aren't a
(45:49):
lot of people have a lot of information to draw from.
I happen to be one of them.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But you know, it's not like, not like I'm going
to be seize him with questions. I mean, maybe one
day we'll get some questions, but I mean I'll be
able to ask a couple questions about his dad and
his dad's influence on his career, but certainly not about
his dad's health.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Okay, we need to step away for just a moment,
so when we come back, we'll share some show news.
Stay with us. It's trackside, Hi, this is what power
and you're listening to trackside. Okay, final segment. Unfortunately, no
time for what we missed and what Twitter questions we
didn't get to. We'll do next week on Thursday. But
I think I have some news that people will welcome.
(46:34):
The Burger Bash is coming back in twenty twenty six, Kurt.
That is part one. But we bounced around to a
few different locations. We've bounced around to a few nights
and started on Carb Night. Shifted off of that because
Jackson was racing on Carb Night and then I was
busy doing other things. You were busy, So we've moved
to Mondays. But a lot of our out of town
(46:56):
fans have said, can you move it back to the weekend.
We're only there for race weekend, and we can Thursday night,
so not Friday night. Thought about Friday night, but there's
already stuff going on on Main Street. There's usually a
Clayton Anderson concert and there's a lot of frivolity going
(47:16):
on that I don't know is necessarily our crowd, which
our families and race fans. Logistically doesn't work very well
at IMS because they kind of have a big event
the next day about eighty to one hundred thousand people
coming to carb Bay. So we're moving back across the street.
Our friends at USAK are going to welcome us. So
it's still the corner of sixteenth in Georgetown, Maine, Crawfordsville roundabout.
(47:40):
You can still park in the same spot, and we'll
have the Burger Bash benefiting the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer
Center on Thursday. I think it's May twenty first is
the day. The Thursday of Race weekend in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Should be good. I like the Thursday night. We're gonna
really look to exploit that night and really really do
it right.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
So I wanted to get this out as soon as
possible for people that are booking flights to make sure
that you get there by Thursday afternoon. We'll probably start
at around five o'clock or so. In otherwise, same format
as usual. All Right, we're out of time, Best of luck.
Next week. Grandpa Cavn will join us on the show
on Thursday night and we'll have good news about Katie
(48:24):
and Lucy and the family and more. Thanks for joining
us ninety three five one oh seven five The Fan
This is track side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee
on ninety three to five and one oh seven five.
The fan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Indyka was the best option.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I just had to kind of confirm it to me
and to everybody around me that this is something that
I can see myself doing for you know, for the
long term, and therefore, Yeah, I think the decision making
process was pretty simple. It was just trying to figure out, Okay,
how committed would I be. And obviously I wouldn't be
here if it wouldn't be one hundred percent committed. So
I'm very excited for it. I think it's a great championship.
I mean, obviously looking forward to the oval testing, it's
something that stills on the cords and trying to explore that.
(00:36):
But to me, it was important not to do like
a half thing, but actually go in and do it
one hundred percent, and definitely ovals are part of that.
And I've had good conversations with people around who you know,
had good and bad views on it, and I just
kind of had to make an average out of that
and decided for myself.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'm really thrilling good. I think between mc graham and
Louie We've got three strong players, probably the three strongress
we've ever had as a three card team at least.
You know, I feel very good about our future together,
and we're just really pleased to welcome Nick into the organization.
And I know it's going to be a successful experience
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Excited about the future, Excited we're able to put this together.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So a lot has happened in last month, and then
a lot's going to have to happen in the next
month to work up for the challenge.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You're ready to go. We have another confirmation for IndyCar
twenty twenty six. That's former F one driver Mick Schumacher,
also team co owner Bobby ray Hall and team president
Jay Frye. And that wasn't the only move ray Hall
Letterman Lanigan has recently made. We'll get into that. We'll
also update what's left for IndyCar seats. And we're seeing
(01:40):
in the NASCAR versus Michael Jordan company court case why
disappearing WhatsApp messages make a lot of sense. Hello, Welcome,
Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for joining us track side on ninety
three to five one seven five the Fan in Indianapolis
and via podcast at the usual outlets Apple, Spotify and
(02:01):
SoundCloud and all the others. We appreciate you joining us
for the program. Looking at a calendar, I always forget
to do this, so let's see next week we are
on a Thursday. I'm for once going to remember to
mention that early in the show. So next week's show
is on Thursday, December fourth, So everyone take a break.
(02:23):
Dale Coin, I know it talked about getting his driver
announced by Thanksgiving. You are cleared, how about December thirdish?
I think he also said maybe mid December is a
better word. We just want to make sure we have
it done by Christmas. Landon Koons is our studio producer.
He's in Indianapolis. I'm Kevin Lee. Kurt Cavin is otherwise
(02:45):
detained for the moment. He has a good excuse that
we might be able to tell you about before the
show is over, and he actually may join us coming
up in the second segment. But we'll just talk amongst
ourselves and we'll get to some of your Twitter questions
via the xox some in this segment at Kevin Lee
twenty three and at Kurt Cavin. So he thought this
(03:06):
was coming made a lot of sense. I didn't know
that it was definitive, but it seemed very very likely.
After all seemed to get along, everyone seemed to be
happy with one another. After Mick Schumacher tested the Indy
car for Reyhall Letterman Lanigan at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
road course, you know, then it's all right, is Mick
(03:27):
wanting to do it? And then can they pay for it?
This is I think, don't know. You never really know,
or you often don't really know. If a driver can
bring budget, and maybe he is attached to some budget,
and as we've talked about before, they are different levels.
Sometimes it may just simply be a driver can create
(03:48):
budget for himself if he's actively competing in a Premier series,
but you know, at some point he needs to get paid.
The team has to pay potentially seven or eight million
to ten million dollars. That's kind of what it costs.
Ten million is what your goal is for a team
(04:09):
to run a program these days. And the driver who
was in that seat, and by the way, the number
forty seven seat for Mick Schumacher is the same entry
that Devlin d Francesco was running in the number thirty.
So Devlin was attached to budget, so you are forgoing that.
(04:30):
What that number is I don't know exactly, but it
was a decent number. Not full budget, I don't gather,
but it's a decent amount. So you need to replace
that and make up difference and pay the driver and
so forth. So that was the only question is everyone
felt comfortable with that, and they obviously did, and we
had a pretty good sense of it last week. It
(04:52):
had previously been said by the Alpine World Endurance Championship
team leader that we need to know soon from Mick Schumacher,
and Mick had said I'm going to pick one. I'm
going to either do sports cars or I'm going to
do IndyCar, and I'll decide soon. Well, I think of
his last Thursday that it was announced that Schumacher by
(05:12):
his choice, was not going to return to Alpine, so
that seemed to be pretty much a foregone conclusion, and
then we got the official announcement what I guess it
was yesterday morning at nine o'clock was when it was confirmed.
So this is very very cool. Happy to see someone
get an opportunity to come to IndyCar. What is he
going to be I don't know. He's an f two champion.
(05:35):
He's clearly got talent. It's not like he overwhelmed us
in the IndyCar test. There were others there. I don't
think he was the fastest, but it was all very
very close of the five or six cars that were
there on the road course that day. And it's never
apples to apples because you don't know what tires people
(05:56):
are on, or people using push to pass and so forth.
But he clearly was competent and he might be really good.
We have seen before that you can be a successful
Formula One driver. It does not automatically transfer over. And
we also know that in Formula One you have to
have a car, and he was with a poor team
(06:16):
his first of two years. I don't think hasef one
scored a point the entire season, meaning no one finished
in the top ten. I think his best finished that
year was twelfth. The next year he had I know
he had a sixth place finish and maybe like an
eighth or a ninth and it'll win a little better.
Too many crashes, we've seen that with really good drivers too.
(06:38):
You start to press So it is a TBD. On
Mick Schumacher, I don't know what he is, but I
do think he has a chance, and there is a
bit of a marketing factor, But I think they're hiring
him because of Mick Schumacher, not because of Michael's Schumacher.
(07:01):
That would be a mistake to hire him because of
who his dad is. Unfortunately, his dad is not able
to help at this point, so the name only goes
so far. It's like naming a coach that has a
big name. Well, that's great for the press conference, but
he'd better be able to win. You know. That only
helps you in the offseason. Then the season starts and
(07:22):
the fans only care about wins and losses, and the
glossy name goes away really quickly. And that's the way
ob for Micked Schumacher. And I'm certain that the team
is basing this on his potential as a driver. And
as we've always said before, there are people that can
analyze and determined talent in every sport better than others.
(07:49):
And it's never one hundred percent, but it goes beyond
what most of us can recognize, and it goes beyond
what statistics. And I'm not talking just about racing, I'm
talking about any sport. There are people that find diamonds
in the raw or find untapped potential in all of that.
So we shall see if Mick Schumacher is one of those.
(08:10):
Ovals are the uncertainty at this point. Generally speaking, the
feeling is, and I would agree with this, if you
are a talented road course racer, you can adapt to ovals.
It's a challenge, and the short ovals are probably even harder.
But Indianapolis, a lot of people will say is for
(08:33):
really high speed road course corners. And we have seen
many people from road course backgrounds, if they're in a
good car, they come in and they adapt very very quickly.
It's a lot I'm not going to say easy er,
but it is more simple to acclimate to doing oval
(08:54):
racing than it is for an oval racer to come
in and figure out how to do road courses. That
just doesn't work very well. Road course racing one, it
makes up seventy five percent of the schedule, and the
people who have been doing it have been doing it
a go karts a lot of times since they were
six years old. If you start when you're in your
(09:14):
twenties or later, if you're you know, Jimmy Johnson or
somebody else, you're just not going to catch up. You're
not going to catch up in that sense. And I
think one thing that'll be interesting is how they go
about the process. And I read a story on Racer
Today or yesterday. You know they've got some plans and
some resources to help well to Kumasato could be one
(09:37):
of those resources, and it sure would seem like he
would be not the only mentor, but a really good
mentor because well, one he's been a part of the team.
Two he's really good on OVAL's, especially the Indianapolis five hundred,
where he's won twice and has been in contention several
(09:57):
other times. And three he came from the same background.
He is a farmer Formula one driver that quickly adapted
to oval racing, so he's going to be able to
speak his language. So we don't know if Takuma is
signed up for Ray Hall Letterman Lanagan, but that's one
more incentive that they want to get that done. And
(10:19):
I also think they are more incentives to want to
stay with Ray Hall Letterman Lanagan. I've mentioned before that
we don't know, despite what you read, I don't know
that Colton Herda is confirmed for Andretti in the fourth
in D five hundred car. I think that makes a
lot of sense, but I have no information and I
think that's where it's headed, but it won't shock me
(10:42):
if something else comes about, and if it's not Hurd,
I would ask about Sodo. So if ray Hall letterman
Lannigan wants to ensure that Sodo is going to be there,
they probably have already signed him, or if not, they
want to do that real soon. And this is one
other incentive to help a young driver, and then the
team just keeps getting stronger and stronger. We had already
(11:04):
talked about Kurt and I both thought, as does I
think everyone. Adding Brian Barnhardt is a really big get.
He has a significant amount of experience. He knows who's good,
who you want to hire. He can support Jay Frye,
and I mentioned Kyle Sagan as well is going to
come in and help not only over the wall if
(11:27):
he still is over the wall, but he's a pit
stop manager and has a lot of experience there. Kyle
messaged me and I saw Marshall Prul wrote this is
too that he Keto Kosik, who's been with ray Hall before,
he's been with Ganassi. He was with Mayera McLaren last year.
He's come back to ray Hall Letterman Land again. He's
a chief mechanic type one other aside. So one of
(11:50):
the departures that I had heard. I don't know if
it was his choice of the team's choice, but Derek
Davidson has been with the team as a strategist to
chief mechanic any other roles for a long time, and
I had heard he was gone. I'm happy to report
I didn't have Derek's number to confirm this with him,
but we are Facebook friends and I see his Facebook
(12:12):
profile now says he is a team manager at ed
Carpenter Racing. So I'm really happy that Derek has landed
in a good spot. And this is good for ed
Carpenter Racing as well because Derek is very respected. So
we talked about what ray Hall had already done. I
don't think they've announced this yet, but it was on
racer dot com and we've been talking before. Where is
(12:32):
Gavin Ward going to end up? When does his non
compete end We had kind of a guess that he
could be available as soon as October ish, meaning last month.
Don't know the exact date when he separated with Aerol McLaren,
but it was last fall. It was September, October, November,
somewhere in that range. Could have run all the way
(12:53):
through the end of this year or is it one
year from the separation. Well, he is coming to ray Hall, Letterman, Landigan.
And if you don't know Gavin Ward, he is a
former Red Bull Formula One engineer. He won what a
championship or did he win two championships with Joseph Nugarten.
(13:13):
I think yeah. I won his second championship in twenty
nineteen and then went to Errol McLaren was going to
be an engineer and then Taylor Kyle left to go
to Ganassi, so they had a need very quickly, and
I think he was going to be sort of the
overall engineer looking over the entire program in a bit
(13:35):
of a management role, and he was elevated to the
team principal and as was set at the time, you know,
there's a lot of money spent at ERL McLaren and
this was kind of a lot of people's fear. If
they don't win in the manner they are expected to win,
somebody's going to answer for that. And Gavin did answer
(13:58):
for that, and he was released of his duties last fall.
And I don't know that he's not I'm not going
to say he's not cut out to be a team
principal or a manager. I don't know. I'm not inside
the building, but I do know he is minimum a
very very very good, if not great, engineer, and I'm
going to guess he had many options. And this is
(14:21):
a huge get. It's being listed in this article in
the quotes from Jay Fry is kind of TBD, and
what he's going to be doing in an open capacity
in a special advisory role. But this story was also
written before they had announced Mick Schumacher. I would also
think this helped Mike Schumacher make up his mind that
(14:41):
all right, I'm going to win. They're going to be
better than they have been, and there's going to be
somebody I can communicate with. Like I said, Sado should
be able to help him. He's coming from a Formula
one world. What better person to help him than someone
who has engineered a Formula one car? And Mick Cans
say it feels like this now Gavin hasn't driven a
(15:03):
Formula one car, but he still dealt with Formula One driver,
so I would think that's gonna help that transition a
little bit there. So those are all good gets. It's positive.
We want depth as just fans, not rooting for any
particular team. We want strong teams. We don't want the
same two three four teams winning all the time. And
we know it's been two teams winning championships, so this
(15:26):
is good for Ray Hall. Letterman Lanigan sneak in a
Twitter question from Christensen because it's on topic, he asks,
how would you compare mix arrival in Indy Car to
Grojean's Do you think Mick will be more or less
successful than Grojean's first season at dale Coin Racing. That's
a good question. It might be tough to match what
(15:50):
Grojean did at dale Coin. I can probably look that
up pretty quickly. But he had a couple of podiums.
You know, Grojean is a far more experienced driver at
this point than Mick Schumacher is. Schumacher has an F
two championship but has had no success in Formula One,
whereas Grojean probably had ten podiums and came close to
(16:14):
winning a few times. So Grojean was is and was
a much more finished product. But what Schumacher has is
he has more upside. He has a longer shelf life
in front of him, not being in his mid thirties
at this point. So that's the positive that I'm not
(16:35):
going to waste any more time trying to look up
what Grojean did. But he had a solid rookie season.
He did well for dale Coin Racing, and actually did
better with dale Coin Racing than he did once he
moved over to Andretti. So I think it's different now.
As far as the impact, I think that was part
two of the question. Will he have a bigger impact?
(16:57):
How would you compare? It will be more or less successful? Okay,
So as far as the impact, I'll just add in
my own part to that. Grojean is a bigger deal
coming to IndyCar. He was a highlighted feature with the
host team and with gunther Steiner, you know as always
(17:18):
being a part of Drive to Survive. I don't remember
Mick Schumacher. I know he was in it some, but
I don't know that that crowd is here following him.
His announcement in IndyCar is a big deal in international
motorsport and with hardcore motorsports fans because he spent some
(17:39):
time in Formula one, and frankly because of who his
dad is. But I don't know that the general casual
American fan that that matters all that much. I do
think more casual fans because of drive to survive and
because just a few months earlier, Roman Grojean we had
nearly watched burn on live television. So Frankly and Roman
(18:02):
understands that too, that he leaned into it, you know,
with with different marketing aspects, and you know, the hat
would he would wear? What the phoenix, you know, kind
of going with that nickname rising from the ashes that
made him a very sympathetic and notable character. So we
came in with some splash there. And it always comes
(18:26):
down to the team, and they're probably at similar levels.
Ray Hall has a lot more resources though, and I
do think they are going to be able to take
a step forward this year. So I'm looking at year
two or year three to make that judgment. And if
Schumacher is what Ray Hall thinks he is, then then
(18:47):
he'll do more long term than what Grojean did. What
else I'll sneak this question in next because it'll get
to our next topic of topic of what is still remaining?
Lynn had underscore IndyCar says, what's up with Hunko's website?
One Renus VK listed as a driver two, second driver
(19:08):
listed as TVA three. A few Rob posts have been
scrubbed from the website happy birthday post and another one too,
so that has been noticed. Bob Pocris of Fox Sports
actually sent it to me because Bob knows everything. He
sent it to me a week and a half or
so ago and got a comment that Marshall Prewitt also
(19:32):
essentially got from Peter Rossi, Stingray Rob's manager as well.
So here is what Marshall Pruitt wrote on Racer last week,
saying there was a surprise return to the silly season
debate this week the second who goes Holling a racing entry,
but it might be a little more than a storm
and a tea cup. As we noted in our August update,
(19:53):
both HR seats were underested to be up for change
and Renas VK did and indeed replaced Connor. Daily manager
Peter Rossi insisted his client and returned to the second car,
which we chronicled in September and then the team launched
its new website in recent days and no longer lists
Rob as one of its drivers. In a call with
(20:14):
Rossi this morning, this was last week. Rossi sought to
quiet the speculation regarding Rob's future in the number seventy
seven Chevy and reiterated his stance, I'm not sure if
that's the number nine. I forget what numbers they were
in saying the young Idahoan is confirmed with JHR for
next year and announcements to that effect are on the way,
and outreach to JHR seeking comment a wait to reply,
(20:36):
And that was written last week, and since I haven't
seen an update to this story, I'm going to guess
it still seeks a reply. Now. This simply could be
what it stated that Maybe I need to look up
what the release said last year. I thought it was
announced as a multi year contract. But maybe there is
going to be a reason behind this new sponsor, new
(20:59):
car number. We just want to start over with a
big splash and reconfirm things. Does seem odd, though, with
a driver that drove for you from last year, because
generally speaking, you know, it's not like you really posted
the launch of the website on social media, you could
(21:20):
just leave the driver on there and you could still
make the announcement with the new sponsor. So I'm hoping
for Stingrays case because I'd like to see him get
another chance to I'm hoping that this is all accurate,
but it unfortunately doesn't feel that way. It feels like,
at minimum, the team wants to let it be known
(21:42):
to other drivers, especially those that they deem having talents
and have budget. I think they want to let people know, Hey,
give us a call. We might be able to work
something out. Help me if I'm wrong here, But that's
the message that I'm seeing that the team wants it
to be known that this seat could be potentially available.
(22:03):
As I've said, and I think I'll still stick with this,
but I'm getting more and more concerned. I still think
Stingray Rob is going to be in the car because
I don't think they're going to find anyone that they
deem better that can bring the amount of budget that
they'd like to have. But as we like to say,
I suspect they are still efforting either from a driver
(22:27):
or from sponsors or an investor on their own. So
that is still unfortunately a bit of a well clearly
it's TBA. That's what the team website says. It is TBA.
So we have to leave that on the list along
with the second coin car at this point. One other
(22:48):
thing that's still uncertain. So I heard I didn't hear it,
but the Larry Foyd teleconference announcing Kyle Collette, I was
of the understanding that he said the technical partnership with
Team Penske continued. And I've seen quotes and this is
also from Marshall Pruitt. He wrote this, and I think
(23:10):
I saw it somewhere else too, that Jonathan Dogood, the
new what is his title, managing director, he's team president,
team president of Team Penske, is not ready to confirm
that at this point. And that's what Marshall wrote in
a note last week. It's technical alliance foights with Team Penske,
which has been in place for three season, is meant
(23:31):
to carry on, but awaits confirmation from Foyt and Penske.
So we shall see on that front. And then I
threw out a bunch of names last week. You know,
of all the people that could be in play for
indy five hundred seats and would be in play for
the coin seed and if Hunko Sollinger is open. And
(23:52):
Marshall mentioned some others that I should have included, and
I did say this. I said, anybody that has driven
a race card in the last few years or still
in probably should be considered. I forgot about Katherine Legg.
You know she was close to have something done last year.
She's been able to raise budget and have partners before,
as a unique story and very competent. So put Katherine
on the list as somebody who could be in play
(24:13):
for the five hundred. Marshall said that Charlie Kimball reminded
him I should have included Charlie. I know he has
had some budget at times. There were years though, when
there were no seats available. As we say, it gets
late early and after Christmas there are no seats available,
So you need to get your budget together and get
something done. And Stepan Wilson should have mentioned Stefan. He
(24:36):
didn't go out the way he wanted to. Last I
talked with Stefan. He still had some budget. I don't
know if he had enough for a program, and that
price keeps rising, but keep him on the list with
all the other people I've mentioned, like Jacob Babel if
he's not full time Devil and d Francesco. What does
he want to do? James Row I've mentioned I noticed
(24:57):
that he's on the Honkos hauling her website as a
te driver because he drove for them in the Ims
road course test. Miles Row in a one off Hunter,
mcilray Jr. Hildebrand, Benjamin Peterson, who's doing sports cars now?
Zach Viech is still doing sports cars? On and on
and on. What happens with Connor Daily? Does he get
(25:19):
the coin seat? Is it Grojan? Is it linas Lunquiz?
Is it Toby Salary? Could it be calum Ilot? If
Prema doesn't get it done? Robert Schwartzman. I think Robert's
best chance is probably staying with Prema. But we shall
see on that front. Okay, coming up, got some other
things to get into. Cool new exhibit at the Ims
(25:43):
Museum I had a chance to see this week. We'll
tell you about that. We'll get into some of your
questions and ooh, what we've been learning in court here
recently too. Stay with us track side ninety three to
five one oh seven five the fan Hi, This is
Graham Rayhill and you're listening to Trackside on ninety three
to five and one oh seven five the Fan. Thank
you for staying with us, and we welcome to track
(26:05):
Side with Cavin and Kevin, the aforementioned Kurt Cavin. And
we've got news coming up in a little bit on
the program regarding the show that you'll want to stay
tuned for. I think you'll you'll like this news. But
we have even bigger news, and it turns out you
do have a good excuse for missing the first segments.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I do have a good excuse although I'm not really
doing much. I wasn't doing much during this segment, and
that is because my daughter, who many people who listen
to the show know because she had a stint of
working at IndyCar and the Fan the Fan Participation in Activation, whatever,
the fan club, Katie is having our first grandchild as
(26:47):
we speak, and so she's been in labor most of
the day. I was hoping that I still hope that
it'll be born today. Lucy is her name, and I
hope Lucy is born tonight because it would be on
the twenty fifth, which it would be easy for me
to remember. It would be a month before Christmas, so
that's my logic, but it also means that maybe I
(27:08):
could not stay up till four am. But we'll see
how it goes. I'm pretty excited about this. You don't
get you know, you can remember having your first child.
Having your first grandchild is a different level because your
daughter is involved in addition to your granddaughter.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So pretty special stuff. Well, congratulations, good luck. Those that
have come to the Burger Bash have probably interacted with
Katie before as well. She's been a long time helper
for the Burger Bash. And you're cheating. You already have
names picked out our kid? What name was for at
least two days?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, yeah, I don't know. It's not what I did.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
People do it. It's good. It's good. Congratulations, very very
very exciting news. And we'll look to have an update
on the show next week. I mentioned the top for you.
Now it's Thursday. Next week's show is on Thursday, so
we'll have a little time. And we've asked Dale Coin
to hold off on his announcement. He's probably gonna miss
Thanksgiving unless it comes out tomorrow, so Dale, you can
(28:13):
go ahead and wait till December fifteenth. Let's pace yourselves.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I do expect that I'll be clear by a week
from Thursday. So Katie, we should have should have Lucy
by then, I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So all right, let's get back into some things. I
covered some of the latest Indie card news and this
one I still have not gone through. There's a couple
of articles about the Polo McLaren trial that I need
to dig into. Of all of the strays that we're
cast and you know we learned salaries from other people. Well,
(28:46):
what we're getting now is in the NASCAR trial with
Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin and Nascar, we're getting a
lot of emails and texts uncovered. And do you remember
in the Polo trial, the one thing we learned is
that McLaren has a mandate of using WhatsApp, which has
(29:06):
a disappearing messaging function. And now we see why that's
probably a good idea, and it is probably why we
also advise everyone, don't write it down if you don't
want anyone to see it, if it's going to be embarrassing.
And it just keeps flowing in this NASCAR trial, and
(29:29):
Bob Pokerus is relentless. He's going through the records, he's
finding everything, and the latest that came out was some
of the actually was Steve Phelps is now the NASCAR
commissioner and I think was president at the time. In
some of the depositions between twenty three to eleven in
front Row and NASCAR referred to Richard Childress as an
(29:54):
idiot and a redneck and a lot of other things.
And Childre has put out of statement he's threatening to
sue now, so there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
You know he should fight back against that, because you
know he's a he's a really solid businessman. I mean,
he has he's done really well. I got to tell
you of the people who I came to know in
this sport, Richard Childress is one that impressed me far
(30:26):
more than my expectations would have presented themselves. The very
first opportunity had to meet with him, he just invited
us to have alligator with him. He was grilling out
at Talladegan was going to have alligator, and I thought
it kind of fits who I think Richard Childreness is
and I spent the evening with him and got to
(30:48):
be around him for a few more years after that.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
He was always I.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Just couldn't I couldn't believe what a really smart interesting,
well versed in and you know, again I don't have
years and years of experience with him, but to call
him an idiot in a redneck is doesn't seem fair.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I get it that it's private that people say things.
It's not meant for public consumption, but just a reminder
you probably shouldn't write it down. It's a lesson to
all of us, and they're going to learn that the
hard way. That's a hard one to walk back. And
you know, it was said that they called and apologized.
Obviously that didn't work. I think the statement came out
that NASCAR let Childress know that this was going to
(31:34):
be made public and smooth things over. Doesn't look like
they smooth things over because a couple of days later
there's a statement from RCR about how angry they are
and they are leaving all of their legal options open.
I don't know what you're suing at this point, other
than defamation of character or whatever the case may be,
(31:57):
but it is all not happy at this point, and
that might lead I think that was one of the
other Twitter questions that we had on this front. No,
this is a different one, so I'll come back to
this one. But one was you know, just simply about
what's going on in NASCAR at this point from Tommy
(32:20):
the Tree zero zero zero with all the NASCAR drama
and F one going behind a paywall next year, do
you see twenty twenty six as a make or break
year as far as growing IndyCar is concerned.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
So I don't like make or break. I think that's
that's not fair to the situation. Do I think it's
an opportunity? Yes, I do, I think, and I think
Fox started that the momentum of you know, the state
of the series. I suppose that Jay Fry had helped
build within the competition department and the number of cars
(32:54):
and teams, and yeah, we don't know about what premise
situation is just yet, but all the things that were
positive on the racetrack and a schedule going to Arlington.
You know, you put all those things Phoenix, you put
all those things together with the Fox seventeen races on
network and then the investment that Fox made from a
(33:15):
from an ownership standpoint, I think the opportunity is squarely there.
So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You got to make the best of it, and you
have F one going to Apple TV.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
And you know it's hard to turn down double the
rights fees, but they just your one point five million
for a race that started just before midnight on the
East coast. Now that's still eight pm West Coast time,
and it had a lot of hype. But you think
Sports Center is sending Nicole Brisco out there next year? No, no, no,
(33:46):
they're not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
You will disappear off Sports Center. Maybe maybe you get
an occasional, but I doubt it. If it's not a property,
you're going to lose all that promotion and you're ratings
are now. Maybe the revenue can go up, but that
that's a big deal in NASCAR is still working through
the challenge of multiple networks. Works well for the NFL.
(34:11):
The NFL, and I think this is what NASCAR was thinking,
so you can't say that's a wrong way to look
at it. But the NFL likes to have everyone as
a stakeholder. You know, they have every single network is
promoting the NFL, and that works, but it doesn't quite
work that way for other properties because they're not all
(34:34):
on at the same time. It's just it's our races
that we have. Then they have their races and the
only cross promotion is what is going to be mandated
by contract, and when the practices are on a different
channel and some of them are streaming, it just makes
it challenging for people to consume it.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And as I watch NFL, it's amazing how much cross
promotion there is between the networks. I mean it's you know,
Mike Krica will say, you know, this game is on CBS,
this game is Sunday Night on ESPN. This game, I mean,
they go through the list and you haven't seen that
(35:15):
in NASCAR. So I think having one consistent platform, you know,
all network races is going to be really a positive
moving forward. And you know, I think there was some
we did have some questions on the show about you know,
Mark Miles was still not ready to go to streaming
in this last contract discussion, and I think he's still
(35:38):
right about that. I feel like it, you know, I
don't think we're quite there out there.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yet, and there is getting to be more and more
pushback there is. And what it really seems that there's
going to be two models. There's network television where if
you want, you can do an antenna that is cumbersome
for some. So it's still going to be some sort
of subscription to get your network television and then your
cable television. Are all these streaming packages, and I think
(36:04):
part of this ESPN, Disney and YouTube tv agreement is
that YouTube tv is going to be able to offer
some sort of a sports bundle in the future for
people that are interested. So it's an ever changing market.
From James Robert Mitchell, I watched the Las Vegas GP
was amazed by the F one show in quotes except
(36:27):
for the actual on track product, which was boring. What
can IndyCar do to get a sliver of the F
one cross promotion that seems to be everywhere? Why is
IndyCar's marketing so bad? So we always hear that, And
I've been in the sport now for a pretty regular
basis for about twenty five years. You longer than that,
And we can go back to when Robin Miller started,
(36:50):
and my guess is that people said that marketing was terrible.
Then that's just the easiest thing to say. And what
I've come to conclusion of the last few years is
I don't know how to market it better. We always
just that that's our fallback market it better. Well, how
do you do that, So I can't say that that's
(37:10):
specifically the issue other than if you had oodles and
gobs of money like Liberty Media does and the ability
to I'd love to know what the books are for
the Las Vegas GP because they're probably losing many, many
millions of dollars on that, but it's been a good
investment for them.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
One of the ways you can market your sport, and
I see that Fox is doing it right now, is
on FS one. You're getting one hundred days to Indye,
you're getting. As Chip Ganassi noted on social media yesterday,
I believe that last year, this year's Indianapolis five hundred
was airing on FS one, and so people are jumping
(37:51):
around looking at different options. FS one and Fox those
are big timers in the all the channels that you
could have, those two are still pretty big. But the
opportunity to consume our product in the middle of November,
when you didn't have to do anything for you you
just gave them, you know, they got the tape of
the race, They just playing the race. You give them
one hundred days, Andy, go for it. And that's a
(38:14):
great way to keep the message going and keep the
interest up when you're not really creating new content.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Now I'm not totally dismissing what James mentions there, because
you are trying to capture some of what F one has.
They clearly have figured something out. So that's what you're
trying to do, and I think that's what Fox is
going to help bring to the table. Working with Penske Entertainment,
they do want to make all of the events have
a little more glitz and glamour and make them feel
(38:42):
like bigger events. And I still think I know they
are people that bristle a little bit about F one mentions,
but I think you try to capitalize on it. You
take advantage of that popularity and you become much more available.
(39:02):
If you want to go to an F one event,
you need to be if you want to really experience something,
you need to have some cash to spend. You know,
you're going to need to spend several thousand dollars to
have any kind of access at all. How about you
spend two or three hundred and come to an IndyCar
event by a pit pass and can get something that's
pretty similar.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Well, it's it's all about bringing your companies and your
partners and your customers and your race fans to the racetrack,
and you know some of the social that I saw
over the weekend at from F one. You know, T
Mobile has got a got a suite and they you know,
they're showcasing their people at the event. So you know,
marketing is a tough thing. It's all about spending money.
(39:45):
And you know, you can't do marketing really without without investing.
And I think this regime has done a pretty good
job of it. I don't know that it's fool proof,
but you give it your best shot.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Rom branded who is the current favorite in your opinion
to win Rookie of the Year. Also, who's the most
likely to get on a podium this year amongst those
rookie candidates? Good question. So you got Kyle Colettes, you
got Mixed Schumacher, and you've got Dennis Hauger.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So I think the answer lies with Rayhall, Letterman Lanigan
because they have invested behind the scenes, so outside of
the driver market, and I think if they take a
step up, Mix Schumacher is going to have a really
strong chance. Dale Coin Racing works magic, so Hager is
(40:38):
going to have some good runs. Kyle Collette obviously Fots
done some really nice work here in the last two years.
I think you have to give a slight edge to
mix Schumacher. He's got more experience, honestly, but he has
less experience in this discipline. It's going to be a
great race. It really is an interesting threesome.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I like to just agreed with you when I can,
but I don't think I can here. I think it
is Schumacher because of the strength of the team. He's
more experienced, he's more mature than these other drivers. Now,
Dennis Hauger is you know, he won five F two
races and has some experience, but he's still what twenty
two years old in that range, and Schumacher won the championship,
(41:22):
so he's got a similar level of experience. Kyle Khaled
is younger. You know. One thing I want to know
is Penske's still involved with Foyd. I mentioned this in
the first segment. I thought Larry Foyd said that yep,
that's still continuing. Well, Johnny Dogood does not agree yet.
He won't say now that may just be Hey, I
haven't seen anything signed yet. We still need to come
(41:43):
to an agreement, so we need to get this before
I'm going to say anything on the record, I want
to make sure that this is official, and you know,
his money changing hands. I got the impression in the
past who was more Tim Sindrick wanting to help out
aj Foyd racing and looking for a place or David
Malucas down the road for mechanics for Miles Row, whatever
(42:04):
the case may be. It may now be a little
different arrangement, but it seems likely to happen. But I
do need to see that confirmed at this point. But
with the changes that ray Hall, Letterman Landing and is
making outside of drivers, I feel like they are poised
to take a step forward this year. So that's my
(42:24):
best guess. Speaking of ray Hall, Sarah Morris asks how
come Graham ray Hall wasn't ever in the Indie next booth?
Was that his decision or was that someone else's decision?
So I think that was probably his decision. I was
not in charge of bringing in our guest hosts. I
(42:45):
got involved when someone would ask me, hey, if you
guys can use me, I'd be interested and I would
pass that along and oftentimes it would lead to someone
coming on and I was never told, no, we don't
want that person but usually Pam Miller, our producer, she
was setting that up before I'd even thought of it.
You know, we'd have a call on Tuesday and she
(43:07):
would say, Santino's going to be in the boot this weekend,
and that usually came from the driver reaching out to
one of the producers and making themselves available. I do
believe we asked some but the challenge for this year
and we're hoping that changes a little bit. There are
a few more races on Saturday. There are doubleheaders on
(43:28):
road course weekends, but on Sundays it is very difficult
for an Indy car driver to do their day job
because the Indie next race is always right after the
morning warm up when they are going to an engineering meeting.
So I feel confident that the door was open for
Graham if he wanted to, but he's like, no, I
got to take care of the day job. But I
do think we'll see Graham at some point, and hopefully
(43:51):
this year. But Graham never specifically asked me. I don't
know if he talked to anybody else, but I think
we'll see it at some point.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
And Graham also has more team, team and initiatives than
say Santino just because of his family being involved with
the team. The other thing is I think he's going
to be a great broadcaster at some point in his
life if that's what he wants to be, if he wants.
Really he's really good at it.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Charlie Max is excited for what URLLL is doing. I
think Mick will enjoy Indy cart and it's racing culture
now at the track. Let's let him be mixed Schumacher,
IndyCar driver, not Michael Schumacher's son. He's always been blessed
with that heritage. I think those of us that are
there will let him be mixed Schumacher. It probably is
going to be a bit of a process for him
in every market when we have the bullpens from the
(44:38):
local media, He's unfortunately going to have to answer some
of those questions. But hopefully they all understand there's not
a lot he can say right at this point, so
there's not a lot to ask, so hopefully we'll move
on pretty much.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
The most of these markets aren't aren't as entrenched in
F one as the markets he's been going to in Europe,
so I don't know that he'll get as many as
we think.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
I think You're probably right. As I said in the
first segment, I don't think America, this is really not
that big of the deal. Ray Hall, Letterman Lanigan did
not hire him because he's Michael Schumacher's son. They hired
him because they think he's going to be good.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Well, no, I agree mostly with that, but I.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Think it's because the being Michael Schumacher's son is not
going to carry very far.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
No, it's not. But the name Shoemaker is going to
make a difference in their in their attracting of sponsorship.
It just is come on, I mean it should, it should,
and and the other thing is, I mean, with each
passing year, we're moving further and further away from the
number of people who had any association with Michael Schumacher.
In this country. We just are there, just aren't a
(45:49):
lot of people have a lot of information to draw from.
I happen to be one of them.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But you know, it's not like, not like I'm going
to be seize him with questions. I mean, maybe one
day we'll get some questions, but I mean I'll be
able to ask a couple questions about his dad and
his dad's influence on his career, but certainly not about
his dad's health.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Okay, we need to step away for just a moment,
so when we come back, we'll share some show news.
Stay with us. It's trackside, Hi, this is what power
and you're listening to trackside. Okay, final segment. Unfortunately, no
time for what we missed and what Twitter questions we
didn't get to. We'll do next week on Thursday. But
I think I have some news that people will welcome.
(46:34):
The Burger Bash is coming back in twenty twenty six, Kurt.
That is part one. But we bounced around to a
few different locations. We've bounced around to a few nights
and started on Carb Night. Shifted off of that because
Jackson was racing on Carb Night and then I was
busy doing other things. You were busy, So we've moved
to Mondays. But a lot of our out of town
(46:56):
fans have said, can you move it back to the weekend.
We're only there for race weekend, and we can Thursday night,
so not Friday night. Thought about Friday night, but there's
already stuff going on on Main Street. There's usually a
Clayton Anderson concert and there's a lot of frivolity going
(47:16):
on that I don't know is necessarily our crowd, which
our families and race fans. Logistically doesn't work very well
at IMS because they kind of have a big event
the next day about eighty to one hundred thousand people
coming to carb Bay. So we're moving back across the street.
Our friends at USAK are going to welcome us. So
it's still the corner of sixteenth in Georgetown, Maine, Crawfordsville roundabout.
(47:40):
You can still park in the same spot, and we'll
have the Burger Bash benefiting the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer
Center on Thursday. I think it's May twenty first is
the day. The Thursday of Race weekend in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Should be good. I like the Thursday night. We're gonna
really look to exploit that night and really really do
it right.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
So I wanted to get this out as soon as
possible for people that are booking flights to make sure
that you get there by Thursday afternoon. We'll probably start
at around five o'clock or so. In otherwise, same format
as usual. All Right, we're out of time, Best of luck.
Next week. Grandpa Cavn will join us on the show
on Thursday night and we'll have good news about Katie
(48:24):
and Lucy and the family and more. Thanks for joining
us ninety three five one oh seven five The Fan
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