September 11, 2020 • 38 mins
Catch Part 2 of this episode as Rico Elmore and Ken Stout talk with IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe and aspiring driver Robert Stout. Hinch talks about his time on “Dancing with the Stars.” Will he show off his dance moves in our studio? Watch and find out!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Robert Stout, I'm James Hinchcliffe, and this is the
skinny from Fathead Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This is the skinny.
All right, enough of this racing crap. Let's get to
why we really got you in here. Because Sharna, out
of doubt, is the best looking one of a bunch
(00:25):
man and they're all beautiful people, guys and girls. But
in all honesty, I mean, congratulations by the way, second there,
Although did Ale win that? Damn? Yeah? It reminds me
a week. But honestly, I want to know what goes
on behind the scenes, Like how difficult was that that
thing to do? That was insanely difficult to do. It
(00:49):
was so much work, man, it was so much work.
When they when they call you up to sell you
on doing the show, right, They're like, yeah, you know,
it's six days a week and you practice four hours
a day and we'll move you out to Los Angeles
and and you know whatever whatever, And I'm like, okay,
So I'm trying to do the math with my head.
I'm like, all right, So I could do like a
(01:11):
I could do like a early rehearsal Friday morning, you know,
and then like a late rehearsal on Sunday takes Saturday
is my day off, and then you know, my wife
and I can maybe do like a little day trips
around California. I'm like, okay, it's on four hours a day,
like that's the train almost that every day anyway. It's
like okay. I mean, like, don't get me wrong. I
didn't want to do it because I can't dance, right,
I'm a five foot nine white guy from Canada, Like
(01:32):
I cannot dance, Like this is the extent of my
dancing ability. Maybe a macarena. It's a really crazy night.
And so but Indy Car were like, we'd really like
you to do this. This would be great for o
Andalio did it. It It was ten years since Elio Doney's
when he did it, it was huge. You know, we
got this fans whatever and my my sponsors and my
team like, I really want you to do this. I
(01:53):
was like, okay, fine, so so but yeah, four hours
a day, have my day or whatever. No, So it's
at actually eight to ten hours a day. Um, it's
seven days a week. They're they're six days a week
is rehearsal because day seven and show day and show
day you have to get to the studio, you've got
to do a run through, then you've got to do
a full dress rehearsal, and then you've got to do
the show. So it's actually like the longest day is
(02:14):
your off day. Right, It's like, Okay, if they actually
told you what it was, nobody would sign up for it.
Nobody would sign up for it because it is so
much work and it was four to six hours a day. Yeah,
if you wanted to go home first, well no, I
mean it was still four to six. You ended up eight.
But that's true, that's true exactly, but no, but so
(02:35):
so so the first the first show, we were still racing.
It was like two weeks, like I met Sharna, and
then we had two weeks of kind of she would
fly out to certain places and we maybe did like
I don't know, five or six days of rehearsal in
that sort of two weeks moving around whatever. And then
we get to l A and we do the first
show and I don't remember, like I blacked out when
the music started, and all all I wanted to do
(02:57):
is not make a complete ask myself, right, I justed
to not go home first. That was like my only
goal going into this thing and the music ends, and
I hadn't tripped or fallen down. We were both still standing,
so like, okay, this obviously went okay. And we get
our scores at the end, and you know, Sharinont said,
she's like, look, week one, you're going to see three
(03:18):
fours and fives. That's just how it works. And they,
you know, because nobody's that good yet and they've got
to be able to like ramp it up as you
get better or whatever. And so we got sevens and
eights on our first week and she was like, that's
that's not normal, Like okay, sure, whatever. And then at
the end of the night, I clearly didn't read the
rules on how this show actually works, which in hindsight,
(03:39):
I probably should have. I just thought it was all
the fan vote, right, like they give you the little
paddles with the numbers, and it's like, yeah, that's just
to give people at home some sort of reference as
to how crap you are at dancing. And then at
the end of the day, a scoreboard comes up and
it had everybody's scores from the night and I was
tied for first, which was a huge shock in and
(03:59):
of itself, but at that moment and they're like this, yeah,
this is a running tally that we keep throughout the season.
And I was like, oh wait, so like every week
we get a choint, it's a championship and so this
like this, this switch just flipped in my brain. I
was like, this is this is a competition. Let's go.
I was like, what time do we start tomorrow? Let's
get let's get to work. And so that's why it
(04:20):
became like eight and ten hour days because again I
reiterate this, I suck at dancing, and so I needed
eight to ten hours a day to be good enough.
I felt to compete at the level I wanted to
compete at. And so man, it was just so many
hours on your feet and you're constantly doing in between
you doing interviews and like wardrobe fittings and like all
(04:40):
these other things, and it's it's terrifying, Like you have
to go out and dance in front of like seven
people I think in the studio and then oh yeah,
like twelve million of your friends watching at home live.
There's no redus, you know, and it's well, this was
the best part, right, So I get through the first
show and then we had our last race of this
(05:01):
season was I think the next weekend, and I was
fully expecting just a barrage of abuse from everybody at
the track, right, And so I got there and my
buddies were all like, look, man, I'll be honest with you,
like we had some really good ones teat up for you,
but like you actually did really well. And I feel
bad now making funny because we were all like just
pretty shocked that you did that. So like, yeah, just
(05:23):
keep up the good work, I guess, And yeah, we
made it all the way to the end. I was,
I was laughing. I was chatting with Davy Hamilton and
I can't remember who was the race car driver that
was on The Bachelor, because they were good friends with him,
and he ended up getting a nickname pillow Lips out
of out of the show. So running to these kissing
all the girls, all the girls were kissing like old
(05:45):
pillow Lips, you know, so they still bust his jobs
to this day or then your old pillow Lips. Would
you guys videotape yourselves and then go back and rewatch it?
Imagine because I can only imagine having to remember, like, okay,
the steps in the move and we turn and we
do this and that, and then go back and watch
and be like, oh, yeah, I'm frowning the entire her
time and I look like an idiot. That's that's the
thing is or you're staring at your feet. It's a performance.
(06:05):
It's a performance. So that was after the first show,
you know, So after each after each dance on the show,
we'd go back and we'd watch the video like right away,
and the first show, Scharna was like, a great job,
you need to smile once in a while. I look
like I was doing long division right because I'm like one, two, three,
dip move, trull this, and I was just so focused.
And She's like, half of what you're doing is a
(06:27):
performance on that show, right, And so you've got to
learn and send some of the dances are fun, and
some of the dances are sexy, and some of them
are romantic, and some of them and so like, you
got to play this character as as well as that
it's his so much work. I mean, it really goes
back to what we were talking about and racing. Everybody's
really good at the high levels of their discipline, and
you look at them the highest level of their discipline
(06:49):
you're coming into. It would be like putting her in
the car Tony to go qualify at at end and
say you gotta work the bar. Don't forget the usual.
Just yeah, camera in your helmet, so you're looking at
your face and me like, I don't remember if you're
battling with somebody, you're in a battle and you're aggressive.
Now we're happy now exactly. That part I think would
(07:12):
mess with me more than anything like, oh yeah, I'm
supposed to be literally acting a certain persona based on
what song I'm I'm performing to that bizarre that I
heard for the first time five days ago and had
to learn, you know, it's yeah crazy. Well you guys
did the racing world. Uh well you know service well
you and you and did a did a nice job
of that, So thank you very much. Made to make
(07:32):
up for Waltrap, you know, because he went on the
show in year. I mean, I don't know, I don't
know how we don't have this queue up. This guy's
dance that he uh did the choreography too for his
daughter's wedding, You Go Somewhere was epic. Yeah, epic, that's
a good word. I don't know that anybody wants to
(07:54):
watch it. But it was a lot of fun. But
we were going to see it. It took me two
week weeks to work on a two minute routine, so
not six to eight hours yet now that that part
didn't didn't work out. We had a good time though.
She had She had a blast and we put together
a nice little routine so it was fun to do.
Hey man, I want to regress a little bit because
I know Robert loves this series. I love this series
(08:15):
when it was going on, and uh, I didn't realize
until I started doing a little research on you that
you had actually raced in The cars were awesome, went
all around the world. It was the best. Man. The
car sucks. They were terrible cars, but they were fun
to drive, and they raced really well because they were
so bad. And the series was it had everything. It
(08:39):
had everything, so it ran in the off season so
that every every driver could do it right. I mean,
you had your contracts. Maybe wouldn't let some guys do whatever,
but like essentially a lot of guys were available to
run it. You had to be from the country of
the car. The car got points, not the drivers, so
you could swap guys out and give multiple guys a chance.
We went all over the world like the coolest places
(09:02):
check Beijing, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, and it
was incredible and and and then you have a sprint
race which was a rolling start and no pit stop
on the Saturday. And then you had a feature race
which was standing starts and pit stops on the Sunday.
So like it literally had had everything covered at all
(09:24):
the bases. Come did they make enough power where you
could just like knock the tire off of them? Like, yeah,
they were. I I think they were like seven hundred horsepower,
But like I said, the cars were terrible and so
they were at absolute handful. And oh man, the racing
was great and the traveling was awesome, and like the
TV package they put together, like production value was through
the roof, and the prize money was really good and
(09:46):
they threw great parties every Sunday and they spent all
their money in four years and went bankrupt. But other
than that, it was great, super good concept, super good
concept and like, honestly, so what kind of cars were
they want? They were essentially like the tub was some
derivative of an old Formula three thousand car and and
(10:07):
it kind of had its own super unique looking body
work done up for it. It was a lola I
want to say, didn't have a huge rear tr I
mean it was. It was massive, Like yeah, tired of power, yeah,
(10:28):
but yeah. But like we we rolled so many cars
because the rear tire was was so wide that you
get your front hooked. And I got rolled in Australia,
like a bunch of guys got rolled in those cars.
Super dangerous. God, it was a terrible car. But this
series was so good and I ran for Team Canada.
Wasn't not for three years. I ran for two of them,
and then for the fourth season of the Championship, they
(10:52):
switched to these Ferrari cars, which were for all intents
and purposes, it was a two thousand and four Formula
one car and those things were amazing. I never got
to drive that one because Team Canada folded and so
I actually that's kind of one of my first TV
gigs was I did some patle and reporting for the broadcast.
We still got to you know, travel around to be
(11:12):
part of it. But those cars were cool and they're
still sitting in a warehouse somewhere, and every year I
hear a rumor that someone's going to buy him and
do something with them. And I'm really looking forward to
when that happens, because, like, sign me up, it's going
to be a blast. I can't. I ask the question,
and you kind of alluded to it a minute ago.
What if you had to race in another era? What
would it be? Because he asked Connor? And what was
Connor's answer? Oh, he said, I know exactly what you
(11:35):
would be and he nailed. I mean, he went right
to let it. Let do you know which one he
would go? Well? But kind I guess it would be
like oh four to yeah, yeah. So when when when
the series was at but when the series was at
(11:55):
its worse, when the cars were garbage, but that's when
the parting was at. That's dude. You could fly to
like the Bahamas between practice sessions and they wouldn't know
it because there was no social media. Nobody knew what
you were doing. You go down there a party like
a rock star all night and come back and run
again the next day. My little nobody would know, my
(12:17):
little brother. Yeah yeah. Just whatever Scheckter's career was, That's
why he's to emulate that. Yes, no, I would have
gotten more for like the like mid to late nineties,
you know, with like the big high horsepower cars and like, man,
those things were cool and like you know, basically everything
(12:39):
cart up to oh two and then they lost and
then that's when everybody started translit. Penskey laughed and then
Michael and Bobby laughed and Chimp laughed and um, but
up to that point, so like to O two would
have been like the sweet spot. Tobacco money was still around.
The cars were incredible, you know, the the development was
(13:00):
still really big. Many manufacturers were involved. You know, you
read the book The Beast about that engine that Penskey
made for the five, and these guys literally were working
with Filmore in England and literally had human carriers on
the two. Um, what was the Concorde flights. There was
a to Concord flights today back and forth the London,
(13:23):
the UK or to New York, New York, and they
had people on every one of them for like three
months just bringing parts back and forth like that. It's awesome, man,
Like that's so cool. Have you been able to go
to Speedway Motors to their museum in Lincoln Nebraska. He
has one of those Mercedes engines there and and uh,
(13:48):
to my knowledge, he may be the only one like Roger.
I don't think has one, because Roger, I think so
Speedy Bill, right, he's gone now. But Speedy Bill was
talking about it, and and we got the private tour
because I happened to be with Forest and uh, and
he he was definitely showing Forest all of his toys.
(14:09):
And I mean, listen, it's a two day walk through
and I mean the largest pedal cart collection in the world.
The old matchbox with a German helmet on it, with
the stud on the top. He has that car there,
and I mean, so I was just I was mesmerized
by all this stuff, but that that Mercedes engine was
(14:29):
setting there and I looked at it. I said, what
is that? Like I knew what it was. And he was, well,
that fell off of a truck and you know, and
he went on. But I think he had that hidden
for a long time. And then feels like the coast
is clear now that it was. I was really hoping
I'd be able to dig up, you know, one of
those Toyota motors. I mean, you know people I knew
(14:51):
people at t r D. I'm like, there's gotta be
one laying around so at back of the shop. But
I talked to my contact of TIERD and he said
every one of those were cut up, like you never
find one gone forever. Yeah, they're not even in the
cars they still have in Coasta Masa. There's I don't
think there's any of them that survived. It's funny talking
about that era because I would have said the exact
same thing, mainly because of that car. But Betty and
(15:14):
I were just talking about that with NASCAR, and I
think I would have probably said early nineties to late
nineties that era for them was awesome as well. Not
necessarily from a vehicle standpoint, obviously they were heading in
the right direction, but just the fans and like you said,
the sponsors that were behind it, and just that series
was so pumped up and the and now looking back
(15:34):
at the amount of names that were running through and
that that decade is unreal. You know. I feel like, yeah,
after we lost Senior, it was like it you know,
that that whole age group started kind of trickling out,
and you know, we saw a lot of the new
new names and new blood, and I think it's one
of the most competitive series in the world, but it's
just not you know, it just doesn't have that fuel
(15:55):
behind it was something about it. Yeah, NASCAR has had
its its fair share of chow is. Unfortunately they can't
get out of their own way. And uh and today,
the modern era, uh, you know, when Big Bill was
alive and and Bill Jr. It is a different deal,
you know. And I'm I'm happy to hear that Jim
(16:16):
France has got a more active role in it now
and uh is seeing a lot of the things. And
Lace's uh son is maybe the next era apparent to
take over the you know, running of it. But you know,
they just uh, you know, let's just get back to racing.
And I love that about IndyCar. It seems like even
(16:38):
the home and George family where they were turning it
and leading it to it was a lot like it
used to be. Not the same, but a lot like
it used to be. The fans are coming back and
and uh there you know, somebody watches an Indy Car
race and watches a NASCAR race. I mean there's no
there's no comparison. I can honestly say in my opinion
(17:02):
that right now Indy car is putting on the best
four wheeled racing. It's on every weekend. I mean from
qualifying the races, the field is so tight. There's legitimately
at least ten people that can legitimately have a shot
of winning every weekend, and you don't know which one
it's going to be, and there's like five that have
illegitimate shots, but still have shots. These guys can catch
(17:24):
a lucky yellow or whatever. Yeah, based based on strategy,
for man, I mean we saw that at St. Pete.
I remember that a couple of years ago, and those
guys in the front and yeah, yeah, and let's stop
off ending under yellow. But it is what it's here.
But here's the thing, I know what has to happen. Well,
(17:45):
I don't know if it has to happen sometimes, but
but here's the thing. He hits the wall, brings the
yellow out and still finishes in the top ten. How
do you do? How do you pull that one off?
That that? Yeah, because there's there's no rule that says
you can't, because it just doesn't normally happen like that, right,
And then that's you could argue that you could create
(18:06):
a rule where if you're the cause of the yellow,
you automatical at least have to go back of the
line or something like that. And I'm sure it'll be
investigated for next year now. But um, I was, actually
this is gonna sound bad. I was kind of surprised
they threw it. I wasn't. I wasn't because it it's
all with that kind of deal. It's always you've got
the risk if he breaks the toe link and then
the thing just shoots across the track. Right. But when
(18:30):
you think of like the fact we stayed green with
eds deal at the first lap of the five hundred,
and you know, our race Strector Kanovac is as has said,
and since he came in, he very much wants to
reduce yellow flags. And there have been a few situations
on ovals, a lot of situations on rodent street tracks
that three or four years ago would have been a yellow,
(18:50):
no questions asked. And uh, And so I was when
I saw it happening, like four laps to go, and
I don't think he's gonna do it. And then as
the words came out of my mouth, of course throws
the um. But again, if it comes out at that point,
it's it's too close to the end of and it
just gets a protocol. I think. I think it's a
pre planning protocol. And I felt about this at the
(19:11):
well now I will say, and I did subsequently here
that maybe this was the case initially because being on
the TV side of things, I understand there's a lot
going on over there as well, and I didn't know
how much damage it has done to that intenuator. But
immediately in my mind, everybody's yelling, you know, why did
they end under yellow? But I'm thinking, if there's yeah,
I mean, if there's an hour and a half to
(19:31):
fix that intenuator, who knows how much damage has done.
TV is gonna say, listen, guys, we can't play that game,
and and so that kind of dictates her hands. So
I'll give them a mulligan on that one. But but
to me, the protocol should be, Okay, if we're fifteen
laps to go, everybody's made their final stop pretty much, um,
ten laps to go, five laps to go, let's set
(19:52):
up some protocols here, and if it's five laps to go,
let's throw a red flag right away. Everybody stops. Your
strategy is still your strategy. You've got fuel in the car.
It's gonna be a little bit to get everybody started
back up again. I get that, but that's worth the
price for the fans and the people at home to
watch a race and under a green flag versus the
last five last was it was it two years ago
(20:15):
the shootout when they threw the red, right? Was it?
It was? It was last year, last year, last year. That. Sorry,
I'm usually not very coherent when I'm at that at
that stage in the game, So I just think it's
a pre plan, like if you can. I've had I
had this conversation with them over there, because you know,
being on the TV side of it for this week,
(20:35):
I knew that was gonna come up, and so we
had a meeting with the race director and with Jay
Fry and um, they do. They kind of have a
number at each track after which it's not really possible
to throw the red, and the reasons are things like
the way that they have to reorder the cars to
have to be allowed to open the pits up because
while your fuel, maybe everybody's on the last stop, but
(20:57):
if if there's been an accident and you like this
was kind of more specific to Indie. But if you've
driven through a debris field, you have to allow cars
to come in and change tires and so to get
them around, open the pits, do that, get everybody packed
back up, pull the car in four laps. It's just
you cannot run through the procedure in that amount of time.
(21:19):
So even if you throw the red right when it happened,
which is logistically impossible because of the timing lines and like,
you need to pack the field up before you can
throw the red. And it took almost a lap and
I have to pack Okay, So given that scenario, what
you just said there and I you know, and there's
always a lot of Listen, those guys are smarter than
I am, and you can't just been doing it. They've
been doing it dec something they haven't I haven't thought of.
(21:39):
But why knowing how important it is to finish, let's
just talk about under grain versus yellow, why not do Okay,
we we went yellow with five to go, Let's allow
these guys to come, Let's clean this mess up. Let's
allow these guys to come into the pits, Let's check
stuff out, some fuel, and let's o five lap racing.
(22:01):
Because then it's not the anymore. It's or the inde
a half not if you don't count those, but we
did them. But y yeah, but that that's what that's
that's what it will come down like. That's why the
overtime things they were really be considered because then it's
not like they've done in Daytona so many times. I'm
like that, that's the one that always bugged me. It
was like, you can't call it the five anymore. And
(22:22):
with St. Louis too, I can understand at that point
in the race why it's hard to go red flag.
It's just difficult. And again teams are strategizing. Everything they're
doing is based around that amount of lapse, whether there's
caution or green. End of story. The hard thing to
justify is and I understand why he did it because
on ovals you need to get I mean, as you
very well know, you need to get emergency workers to
(22:44):
the driver's quick responsible so as soon as the car
makes contact with the wall, it's we're going yellow. I
don't remember the last time I saw an Indy car
like that hit the wall and just keep on cruising
like nothing ever happens, Like they're running a pro four
or something. Looking back, it's like they should have never
thrown the yellow, at which point I don't think Tacuma continues.
(23:05):
I think he if anybody will sure, it's probably him.
But but at that point it's probably thinking I can't continue,
the cars damaged, I should to pull in. But they
do throw the yellow. He thinks, well, I'm just gonna
cruise my way to the checker now, so he stays
on track. There's no damage, and now we're stuck with
three laps feels not packed, and there's and you know
the problem is, you know when he did rub the wall,
it's like, Okay, did he knock something off the car?
(23:26):
Did he rubbed something up? There's no way he would
have continued faster than pace car speed, you know. But
you I can understand why you have to throw the
yellow that quick. But had there been even probably a
one Mississippi more of like should we throw it, then
maybe it doesn't happen the race. Probably everybody they need
to get the flagment for just in this series. I mean,
(23:50):
it happens all the time. Bottom line is everybody wants
the thing to end n their green, and the series
does too clearly. But yeah, they stress out about that
a lot, you know, because they know how much flat
they're going to take you the biggest race of the year,
and then the next race it's like, are you kidding me?
I mean, technically we raced on Saturday and that one
in Agreen, but you know, but but not this next race.
(24:13):
But the way you the way you described it, is
like people need to understand that because I mean, hell,
I'm around it all the time, and of course I'm
the you know, I'm the same idiot. Well why didn't
they do this? Why did you know it? And yeah,
it's just so many things that go into it. And yeah,
the main thing that people have to understand, without going
to any detail at all, is that if it's physically
(24:33):
possible to end the race on the green, they will
find a way to do it. And so if it
doesn't end in a green, it's because it was not possible.
You know. People were upset, you know, with the speedway
and about this whole mess that's going on and everything.
There's nobody else more than Roger Penskey that wanted people
in the stands absolutely to show off what he's started
to do and where this thing is going. Yes, get
(24:59):
the series us to get the speedway and then to
have this happened this year. I mean it's it's like
the most unlucky thing for him, and it's the most
fortunate thing for the rest of us because to have
that guy in charge through all this and to kind
of yeah, I mean, he just made a big investment
in it, and this is just a continued investment. It
(25:20):
was just you know, you buy a house and then
you realize, oh, this little thing needs replacing and you
open up the wall. It's like, oh, no, we got
to redo the whole main floor. That's what happened. Yeah,
you know, in in an indirect way, that's what happened.
But yeah, I just hope they don't open up any
of the walls in turn too, they would have to
redo the whole house. I think they'll just burn that
down one day and start from scratch. I had a
friend in Bill Simpson, and I knew Bill from the
(25:42):
race track, and you know, Bill is about the most
unapproachable person if you really didn't know him. And uh,
and then you know, he and I became good friends
and uh, and you know it was it was that's
where it happened, because you know, he was down from
us a few doors and uh, you know I wouldn't
(26:02):
put up with a dish, none of it. You know,
he would get all surly and start raising hell with people.
I'm like, settled down, you know, and he's like, what,
like I said, settled down, what are you gonna do?
You're not gonna do anything to me? So you know,
but uh, he'll be greatly missed. We we Uh we
also lost Cindy, you know, big Red that was over
(26:22):
there forever with with uh C and R and then
Stewart for a long time. So it's uh, there's been
a lot of a lot of loss this year, but
there's gonna be a lot of good that comes out
of of you know, Roger having the place, and uh,
I'm excited to see where it goes. I mean I've
heard of all of the things that have already happened.
(26:44):
I mean, and I love the attention to detail and
and you know, as I always said, the home and
George family. I mean, at some point, when you've lived
that your whole life, you're ready to go pick up
another segment in your life. Of hey, I'll just be
the car owner. I mean, I told you I was
spotting there at the Speedway. We you know, we were
(27:04):
there all all the first week or from Wednesday on,
and then we came out for Friday Carved Day, and
the guys were working over there and turn three. You know,
some of the crew were just working working on the
building underneath the grand stands. Didn't think anything about it.
They're just doing their thing. We're doing our thing, and
you know, we all leave at the end of the day.
I come back on Sunday for race Day and the
(27:28):
stairs where you go up to the grandstands, everything's painted perfect.
I mean literally from Friday to Sunday, with no fans
there whatsoever. They've now completely painted all the stairs that
were rusty and needed to be painted badly, you know,
and anticipation of maybe or next year or whatever. I mean,
(27:49):
they're still working as though he's got a plan. Man. Yeah,
I mean it's it's it was super cool to see.
I was like, wow, look at that, man, it's pretty cool. Hey,
speaking of the future, you do an absolutely great job
on TV. And I promise you, if I didn't like it,
I just wouldn't say anything. But no, no, no, you
(28:11):
you do a fabulous job. And it's always great when
you see a driver that has a rapport with drivers
because you go up, you know what questions to ask,
you know what they're feeling, you know what they're looking
for or maybe what just spit them and they have
confidence in you. So that rapport is just magical that
you're able to bring to all of us at home.
So excellent job on that. But I also with you,
(28:33):
without even asking you, I'm quite certain that is not
what you want to be doing at the racetrack. So
what's the future look like for you? Man? I'm sure
you're scrapping a stay in Acrond, Yeah, for sure. I
mean short, short term. That's definitely not the goal. It was.
It was a great opportunity for this year with you know,
the way my season played out with the partial deal
with Andretty and and I've had a lot of fun
doing it, and it's definitely something all you know, look
(28:54):
into in the future. But now we're we're working very
hard on a full time program, multi your program. We're
getting very close. You know, we've had tremendous support from
our partner in Genesis who came on this year. Um,
and yeah, we're just we're kind of we wanted to
get through our season, we knew that, you know, we
were we were done at Indie and uh, and now
we can focus all of our attention on on kind
(29:16):
of building for the future and hopefully in the in
the not too distant future, we'll have, you know, some
good news and something to announce. But that's definitely the plan.
And Robert, I know this year bit you as well,
what's the plans going forward on your slide. I mean, obviously,
just anytime you're trying to chase money to go racing
is it's a difficult thing. And I could only imagine
at the level that you're trying to do it at.
(29:36):
And I almost think there's a very difficult little middle
ground because it's really easy to get stuck kind of
in the price range that my you know, we're I've
been raised in the past few years. Globox five Cup
off road things like that. It's okay to you know,
find that the sponsors that maybe throwing five ten k
here find a few of them. Over time, of course
you want a little more than that, and then maybe
with an Indy car you get uh, you know, the
(29:57):
full TV package and everything that goes along with and
you're you're selling a lot more to sell, so I
almost feel like it's probably maybe not easier isn't the
right word, but um, a little easier to chase, you know,
the five million whatever it maybe I don't know, multi
year deal with these companies that are capable of that,
that want the TV time, to want the exposure. I'd
(30:19):
love to go do something like Indie Lights if I could,
but it's the hardest sell. It's it's the hardest hard
to sell that one million area for almost all series
and that general price range. Yeah, and what you're getting
in return, it's so difficult to sell, to get the experience,
to get to that that next level. But um, you know,
we won the championship in off road last season and
(30:39):
I really was looking forward to chasing that again and
maybe going back to back this year, but that didn't happen,
so hopefully I'll be back in the short course off road.
I love racing that series over there with Lucas Oio
out in the West Coast, so looking forward to doing that.
And sports car is really my home. Sports car racing,
that's what I've been doing, um at a pretty much
a per level for ten years now, and I'd love
(31:00):
to go so racing if I could maybe if I
get lucky, you know, we go to run into this
weekend and continue the point season. If we can get
the championship, then maybe it leads to you know, LMP
three ride or a g T four ride somewhere over
in the MS series. So just chasing it. However, we
can same old deal man. And by the way, that
that off road deal went away directly because of COVID nineteen.
(31:23):
The sponsor two brand new cars ready to go, had
never been so ready ever in in our career, and
knowing what we were going to do and where we
were going to go, and then having the cars too complete,
ready to ready to go cars and this thing bit
and the sponsor who was very concerned about his business,
and I've got to take I've got to make sure
I can take care of my employees before I go
(31:44):
play racing. And so we pulled the plug on the
deal and the full intentions of going, but two cars
sitting there and finally earns the number one plate and
never get to put it on the car. How do
yet it is on the car and we just get
to watch it sit there us. It's even more frustrating,
for sure, but that's the way. Honestly, in hindsight, it
would have been really difficult to do now because of
(32:06):
the consistent scheduling changes, even up till yesterday they just
changed off road race. We're still waiting on a postpone
Indy Car race to be rescheduled Indy Car weekend, so
it would have been really difficult to try to do
both series and juggle those at the same time. Anyways,
so it all worked out awesome. Well, we thank both
of you guys for taking the time to come in here. Hint,
you know you're super busy and uh, by the way,
(32:29):
congrats and good luck with your podcast, and thank you.
You and Alex have some fun doing that, Yeah, we do.
He I have more fun than him. He doesn't. Alex
doesn't have fun doing many things. He's a very serious guy. Well,
it had to be fun watching your tire stacked on
top of your coach. I mean, that had to be
a fun moment. That was Yeah, for for him it
(32:49):
was great. I mean he immediately accused me, which was
which was very alarming. Where I went to the gym
that morning and he comes storming in the gym and
he walks right out to me, and he goes, yeah,
I'm like what for what? What I mean? Okay, I
believe I've probably done something, but which which grievance specifically? Yeah?
Are you upset about? And he showed me the picture.
(33:11):
I'm like, oh, no, that one actually what? That one
wasn't me? So maybe you guys have spoke about this.
I saw something about a social media or something. ROSSI
going into pit fit with a bag with is it
a hundred dollars worth of pennies? Correct? Yes, to pay
his billet? Yes? What's the background story there? That was
so it was It was absolutely hilarious as it cost
him a hundred and seventy dollars to get a hundred
(33:32):
dollars for the pennies, but it was so worth it
for the look on Jim Leo's face. So, Jim Leo,
you know, runs pit fit, and we have a bunch
of kettlebells, you know, for working out whatever, And kettle
bells are all color coded. They're like universally color coded,
so you know that the yellow one weighs this much
and the blue one was this much whatever. But like
(33:52):
there's a lot of them and we don't want to
learn it, and so Alex was like, can you just
put up a sign that says blue is of kilograms
and yellow was sixteen? Can you just put that up there?
For about three years, Alex asked for this right, and
Jim just kept I mean, it's it's insane to ignore.
He's not doing it right. He's I don't know, and
(34:14):
I don't know what actually what actually sparked Jim to
finally do it right. But he finally went out and
got these nice sheets printed off with the colors and
the weights, and he and he put it up above
the mirror where the kettlebells are. And I guess it
cost him a hundred bucks to get it printed. And
so he comes comes in one day and he drops
(34:34):
an invoice on Alex's lap for a hundred dollars for
the sign. Oh yeah. And when he got the sign made,
he cheekly in the corner put donated by Alexander Rossi.
This was not discussed, this was not agreed upon. It
anyway shape before him. Alex was not thrilled by this.
Um you know, He's like, we bear you how much
a month? So he's like, all right, I'll pay you
(34:56):
and went online and found a place where that would
ship him a hundred dollars and pennies in a Duffel bag,
and uh yeah, I waited about sixties something pounds. And
he brought it into the gym one day and walked
up to Jim and just dropped it at his feet
and it was perfect. It was like the the top
popped open and Jim looked inside and his mouth just dropped.
(35:19):
He's like, what is this? And then the invoice is
sitting on top of the paid stamp on it. It
was funny. That was a good one. That's great stuff. Man.
You guys working out all together all the time over there,
That's that's pretty cool too. I mean the camaraderie outside
of the race car, Yeah, for sure, you know we see.
I mean Dixon's there remorning, t K's are remorning me,
(35:40):
Charlie Spencer, Alex Zack's there, Dalton. I mean, it's most
of the guys in town come out and and trained there,
and uh it is. It's it's cool. It's always fun
on like Tuesdays. You know, usually take Mondays off after
the races, but like Tuesday after races, like the best
day to be in the gym because he's here everybody's
stories and he just you know, swapping war stories from
the day or whatever. It's it's cool. It's gotta be
a bit of a motivator too, was like, at least
(36:01):
I wanna have a good time there. There's gonna be
you know, some buddies are there. And well, I mean
the motivator comes in the fact that, like we just
push each other so hard, which is awesome. And by
that I mean Scott Dixon pushes the rest of us
because nobody can beat him and anything. Get on, get
on the Jacob sladder. It's oh, that's that's a medieval torking.
Well I saw that, you know. Let's go back to Iowa.
(36:21):
I mean, guys getting out, I mean, will power done?
You're talking to Connor. Connor said they had to wrap
my legs and I said, he said they had to
help me out of the car so I couldn't stand up. Yeah,
he said he fainted or something when he got in
the car. He was done. I mean a brutal, brutal race.
And and then he doesn't train a bit fit, just
saying all the the pivot guys, we're fine. Weird. Oh
(36:43):
there you go. Something fired, something learned. Yeah, Dixon was
standing there and you know it's hair look great. Yeah,
you could have done another one the next day. He
was fine, he was totally fine. Great stuff. Man. Well,
thanks a lot again for coming out. We appreciate it. Man.
Best of luck the rest of the season, but more
importantly next year, going going towards the next year, hopefully
(37:04):
you get back. We we'd like to see you back
in the car and great on TV, but we'd rather
see you in a car from now one day. One day.
We'll get back back our TV later in the future.
So best of luck next year to you as well. Robert,
I hope hope things come together. And Rico, thanks for
letting us put on this show once again. Beautiful place here, Carl,
thanks man. I don't know if you made any mistakes
yet or not, but when I'll watch the show and
(37:24):
then I'll let you know. You did not cough during
the show. I'm I'm proud of you. It's like two
shows in a row. So thanks again, guys, hope you
enjoyed the show. We'll see you next time here. Thanks
for listening to this episode of The Skinny. To watch
the video versions of all of our shows, please visit
our YouTube channel, fatheads TV. Be sure to check out
(37:47):
all the latest son An optical I wear at fat
heads dot com. Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at
Elliott's Custom Trailers and cards. This has been a production
of Fathead Studios. Please remember to subscribe right
I'm Robert Stout, I'm James Hinchcliffe, and this is the
skinny from Fathead Studios and Speedway, Indiana. This is the skinny.
All right, enough of this racing crap. Let's get to
why we really got you in here. Because Sharna, out
of doubt, is the best looking one of a bunch
(00:25):
man and they're all beautiful people, guys and girls. But
in all honesty, I mean, congratulations by the way, second there,
Although did Ale win that? Damn? Yeah? It reminds me
a week. But honestly, I want to know what goes
on behind the scenes, Like how difficult was that that
thing to do? That was insanely difficult to do. It
(00:49):
was so much work, man, it was so much work.
When they when they call you up to sell you
on doing the show, right, They're like, yeah, you know,
it's six days a week and you practice four hours
a day and we'll move you out to Los Angeles
and and you know whatever whatever, And I'm like, okay,
So I'm trying to do the math with my head.
I'm like, all right, So I could do like a
(01:11):
I could do like a early rehearsal Friday morning, you know,
and then like a late rehearsal on Sunday takes Saturday
is my day off, and then you know, my wife
and I can maybe do like a little day trips
around California. I'm like, okay, it's on four hours a day,
like that's the train almost that every day anyway. It's
like okay. I mean, like, don't get me wrong. I
didn't want to do it because I can't dance, right,
I'm a five foot nine white guy from Canada, Like
(01:32):
I cannot dance, Like this is the extent of my
dancing ability. Maybe a macarena. It's a really crazy night.
And so but Indy Car were like, we'd really like
you to do this. This would be great for o
Andalio did it. It It was ten years since Elio Doney's
when he did it, it was huge. You know, we
got this fans whatever and my my sponsors and my
team like, I really want you to do this. I
(01:53):
was like, okay, fine, so so but yeah, four hours
a day, have my day or whatever. No, So it's
at actually eight to ten hours a day. Um, it's
seven days a week. They're they're six days a week
is rehearsal because day seven and show day and show
day you have to get to the studio, you've got
to do a run through, then you've got to do
a full dress rehearsal, and then you've got to do
the show. So it's actually like the longest day is
(02:14):
your off day. Right, It's like, Okay, if they actually
told you what it was, nobody would sign up for it.
Nobody would sign up for it because it is so
much work and it was four to six hours a day. Yeah,
if you wanted to go home first, well no, I
mean it was still four to six. You ended up eight.
But that's true, that's true exactly, but no, but so
(02:35):
so so the first the first show, we were still racing.
It was like two weeks, like I met Sharna, and
then we had two weeks of kind of she would
fly out to certain places and we maybe did like
I don't know, five or six days of rehearsal in
that sort of two weeks moving around whatever. And then
we get to l A and we do the first
show and I don't remember, like I blacked out when
the music started, and all all I wanted to do
(02:57):
is not make a complete ask myself, right, I justed
to not go home first. That was like my only
goal going into this thing and the music ends, and
I hadn't tripped or fallen down. We were both still standing,
so like, okay, this obviously went okay. And we get
our scores at the end, and you know, Sharinont said,
she's like, look, week one, you're going to see three
(03:18):
fours and fives. That's just how it works. And they,
you know, because nobody's that good yet and they've got
to be able to like ramp it up as you
get better or whatever. And so we got sevens and
eights on our first week and she was like, that's
that's not normal, Like okay, sure, whatever. And then at
the end of the night, I clearly didn't read the
rules on how this show actually works, which in hindsight,
(03:39):
I probably should have. I just thought it was all
the fan vote, right, like they give you the little
paddles with the numbers, and it's like, yeah, that's just
to give people at home some sort of reference as
to how crap you are at dancing. And then at
the end of the day, a scoreboard comes up and
it had everybody's scores from the night and I was
tied for first, which was a huge shock in and
(03:59):
of itself, but at that moment and they're like this, yeah,
this is a running tally that we keep throughout the season.
And I was like, oh wait, so like every week
we get a choint, it's a championship and so this
like this, this switch just flipped in my brain. I
was like, this is this is a competition. Let's go.
I was like, what time do we start tomorrow? Let's
get let's get to work. And so that's why it
(04:20):
became like eight and ten hour days because again I
reiterate this, I suck at dancing, and so I needed
eight to ten hours a day to be good enough.
I felt to compete at the level I wanted to
compete at. And so man, it was just so many
hours on your feet and you're constantly doing in between
you doing interviews and like wardrobe fittings and like all
(04:40):
these other things, and it's it's terrifying, Like you have
to go out and dance in front of like seven
people I think in the studio and then oh yeah,
like twelve million of your friends watching at home live.
There's no redus, you know, and it's well, this was
the best part, right, So I get through the first
show and then we had our last race of this
(05:01):
season was I think the next weekend, and I was
fully expecting just a barrage of abuse from everybody at
the track, right, And so I got there and my
buddies were all like, look, man, I'll be honest with you,
like we had some really good ones teat up for you,
but like you actually did really well. And I feel
bad now making funny because we were all like just
pretty shocked that you did that. So like, yeah, just
(05:23):
keep up the good work, I guess, And yeah, we
made it all the way to the end. I was,
I was laughing. I was chatting with Davy Hamilton and
I can't remember who was the race car driver that
was on The Bachelor, because they were good friends with him,
and he ended up getting a nickname pillow Lips out
of out of the show. So running to these kissing
all the girls, all the girls were kissing like old
(05:45):
pillow Lips, you know, so they still bust his jobs
to this day or then your old pillow Lips. Would
you guys videotape yourselves and then go back and rewatch it?
Imagine because I can only imagine having to remember, like, okay,
the steps in the move and we turn and we
do this and that, and then go back and watch
and be like, oh, yeah, I'm frowning the entire her
time and I look like an idiot. That's that's the
thing is or you're staring at your feet. It's a performance.
(06:05):
It's a performance. So that was after the first show,
you know, So after each after each dance on the show,
we'd go back and we'd watch the video like right away,
and the first show, Scharna was like, a great job,
you need to smile once in a while. I look
like I was doing long division right because I'm like one, two, three,
dip move, trull this, and I was just so focused.
And She's like, half of what you're doing is a
(06:27):
performance on that show, right, And so you've got to
learn and send some of the dances are fun, and
some of the dances are sexy, and some of them
are romantic, and some of them and so like, you
got to play this character as as well as that
it's his so much work. I mean, it really goes
back to what we were talking about and racing. Everybody's
really good at the high levels of their discipline, and
you look at them the highest level of their discipline
(06:49):
you're coming into. It would be like putting her in
the car Tony to go qualify at at end and
say you gotta work the bar. Don't forget the usual.
Just yeah, camera in your helmet, so you're looking at
your face and me like, I don't remember if you're
battling with somebody, you're in a battle and you're aggressive.
Now we're happy now exactly. That part I think would
(07:12):
mess with me more than anything like, oh yeah, I'm
supposed to be literally acting a certain persona based on
what song I'm I'm performing to that bizarre that I
heard for the first time five days ago and had
to learn, you know, it's yeah crazy. Well you guys
did the racing world. Uh well you know service well
you and you and did a did a nice job
of that, So thank you very much. Made to make
(07:32):
up for Waltrap, you know, because he went on the
show in year. I mean, I don't know, I don't
know how we don't have this queue up. This guy's
dance that he uh did the choreography too for his
daughter's wedding, You Go Somewhere was epic. Yeah, epic, that's
a good word. I don't know that anybody wants to
(07:54):
watch it. But it was a lot of fun. But
we were going to see it. It took me two
week weeks to work on a two minute routine, so
not six to eight hours yet now that that part
didn't didn't work out. We had a good time though.
She had She had a blast and we put together
a nice little routine so it was fun to do.
Hey man, I want to regress a little bit because
I know Robert loves this series. I love this series
(08:15):
when it was going on, and uh, I didn't realize
until I started doing a little research on you that
you had actually raced in The cars were awesome, went
all around the world. It was the best. Man. The
car sucks. They were terrible cars, but they were fun
to drive, and they raced really well because they were
so bad. And the series was it had everything. It
(08:39):
had everything, so it ran in the off season so
that every every driver could do it right. I mean,
you had your contracts. Maybe wouldn't let some guys do whatever,
but like essentially a lot of guys were available to
run it. You had to be from the country of
the car. The car got points, not the drivers, so
you could swap guys out and give multiple guys a chance.
We went all over the world like the coolest places
(09:02):
check Beijing, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, and it
was incredible and and and then you have a sprint
race which was a rolling start and no pit stop
on the Saturday. And then you had a feature race
which was standing starts and pit stops on the Sunday.
So like it literally had had everything covered at all
(09:24):
the bases. Come did they make enough power where you
could just like knock the tire off of them? Like, yeah,
they were. I I think they were like seven hundred horsepower,
But like I said, the cars were terrible and so
they were at absolute handful. And oh man, the racing
was great and the traveling was awesome, and like the
TV package they put together, like production value was through
the roof, and the prize money was really good and
(09:46):
they threw great parties every Sunday and they spent all
their money in four years and went bankrupt. But other
than that, it was great, super good concept, super good
concept and like, honestly, so what kind of cars were
they want? They were essentially like the tub was some
derivative of an old Formula three thousand car and and
(10:07):
it kind of had its own super unique looking body
work done up for it. It was a lola I
want to say, didn't have a huge rear tr I
mean it was. It was massive, Like yeah, tired of power, yeah,
(10:28):
but yeah. But like we we rolled so many cars
because the rear tire was was so wide that you
get your front hooked. And I got rolled in Australia,
like a bunch of guys got rolled in those cars.
Super dangerous. God, it was a terrible car. But this
series was so good and I ran for Team Canada.
Wasn't not for three years. I ran for two of them,
and then for the fourth season of the Championship, they
(10:52):
switched to these Ferrari cars, which were for all intents
and purposes, it was a two thousand and four Formula
one car and those things were amazing. I never got
to drive that one because Team Canada folded and so
I actually that's kind of one of my first TV
gigs was I did some patle and reporting for the broadcast.
We still got to you know, travel around to be
(11:12):
part of it. But those cars were cool and they're
still sitting in a warehouse somewhere, and every year I
hear a rumor that someone's going to buy him and
do something with them. And I'm really looking forward to
when that happens, because, like, sign me up, it's going
to be a blast. I can't. I ask the question,
and you kind of alluded to it a minute ago.
What if you had to race in another era? What
would it be? Because he asked Connor? And what was
Connor's answer? Oh, he said, I know exactly what you
(11:35):
would be and he nailed. I mean, he went right
to let it. Let do you know which one he
would go? Well? But kind I guess it would be
like oh four to yeah, yeah. So when when when
the series was at but when the series was at
(11:55):
its worse, when the cars were garbage, but that's when
the parting was at. That's dude. You could fly to
like the Bahamas between practice sessions and they wouldn't know
it because there was no social media. Nobody knew what
you were doing. You go down there a party like
a rock star all night and come back and run
again the next day. My little nobody would know, my
(12:17):
little brother. Yeah yeah. Just whatever Scheckter's career was, That's
why he's to emulate that. Yes, no, I would have
gotten more for like the like mid to late nineties,
you know, with like the big high horsepower cars and like, man,
those things were cool and like you know, basically everything
(12:39):
cart up to oh two and then they lost and
then that's when everybody started translit. Penskey laughed and then
Michael and Bobby laughed and Chimp laughed and um, but
up to that point, so like to O two would
have been like the sweet spot. Tobacco money was still around.
The cars were incredible, you know, the the development was
(13:00):
still really big. Many manufacturers were involved. You know, you
read the book The Beast about that engine that Penskey
made for the five, and these guys literally were working
with Filmore in England and literally had human carriers on
the two. Um, what was the Concorde flights. There was
a to Concord flights today back and forth the London,
(13:23):
the UK or to New York, New York, and they
had people on every one of them for like three
months just bringing parts back and forth like that. It's awesome, man,
Like that's so cool. Have you been able to go
to Speedway Motors to their museum in Lincoln Nebraska. He
has one of those Mercedes engines there and and uh,
(13:48):
to my knowledge, he may be the only one like Roger.
I don't think has one, because Roger, I think so
Speedy Bill, right, he's gone now. But Speedy Bill was
talking about it, and and we got the private tour
because I happened to be with Forest and uh, and
he he was definitely showing Forest all of his toys.
(14:09):
And I mean, listen, it's a two day walk through
and I mean the largest pedal cart collection in the world.
The old matchbox with a German helmet on it, with
the stud on the top. He has that car there,
and I mean, so I was just I was mesmerized
by all this stuff, but that that Mercedes engine was
(14:29):
setting there and I looked at it. I said, what
is that? Like I knew what it was. And he was, well,
that fell off of a truck and you know, and
he went on. But I think he had that hidden
for a long time. And then feels like the coast
is clear now that it was. I was really hoping
I'd be able to dig up, you know, one of
those Toyota motors. I mean, you know people I knew
(14:51):
people at t r D. I'm like, there's gotta be
one laying around so at back of the shop. But
I talked to my contact of TIERD and he said
every one of those were cut up, like you never
find one gone forever. Yeah, they're not even in the
cars they still have in Coasta Masa. There's I don't
think there's any of them that survived. It's funny talking
about that era because I would have said the exact
same thing, mainly because of that car. But Betty and
(15:14):
I were just talking about that with NASCAR, and I
think I would have probably said early nineties to late
nineties that era for them was awesome as well. Not
necessarily from a vehicle standpoint, obviously they were heading in
the right direction, but just the fans and like you said,
the sponsors that were behind it, and just that series
was so pumped up and the and now looking back
(15:34):
at the amount of names that were running through and
that that decade is unreal. You know. I feel like, yeah,
after we lost Senior, it was like it you know,
that that whole age group started kind of trickling out,
and you know, we saw a lot of the new
new names and new blood, and I think it's one
of the most competitive series in the world, but it's
just not you know, it just doesn't have that fuel
(15:55):
behind it was something about it. Yeah, NASCAR has had
its its fair share of chow is. Unfortunately they can't
get out of their own way. And uh and today,
the modern era, uh, you know, when Big Bill was
alive and and Bill Jr. It is a different deal,
you know. And I'm I'm happy to hear that Jim
(16:16):
France has got a more active role in it now
and uh is seeing a lot of the things. And
Lace's uh son is maybe the next era apparent to
take over the you know, running of it. But you know,
they just uh, you know, let's just get back to racing.
And I love that about IndyCar. It seems like even
(16:38):
the home and George family where they were turning it
and leading it to it was a lot like it
used to be. Not the same, but a lot like
it used to be. The fans are coming back and
and uh there you know, somebody watches an Indy Car
race and watches a NASCAR race. I mean there's no
there's no comparison. I can honestly say in my opinion
(17:02):
that right now Indy car is putting on the best
four wheeled racing. It's on every weekend. I mean from
qualifying the races, the field is so tight. There's legitimately
at least ten people that can legitimately have a shot
of winning every weekend, and you don't know which one
it's going to be, and there's like five that have
illegitimate shots, but still have shots. These guys can catch
(17:24):
a lucky yellow or whatever. Yeah, based based on strategy,
for man, I mean we saw that at St. Pete.
I remember that a couple of years ago, and those
guys in the front and yeah, yeah, and let's stop
off ending under yellow. But it is what it's here.
But here's the thing, I know what has to happen. Well,
(17:45):
I don't know if it has to happen sometimes, but
but here's the thing. He hits the wall, brings the
yellow out and still finishes in the top ten. How
do you do? How do you pull that one off?
That that? Yeah, because there's there's no rule that says
you can't, because it just doesn't normally happen like that, right,
And then that's you could argue that you could create
(18:06):
a rule where if you're the cause of the yellow,
you automatical at least have to go back of the
line or something like that. And I'm sure it'll be
investigated for next year now. But um, I was, actually
this is gonna sound bad. I was kind of surprised
they threw it. I wasn't. I wasn't because it it's
all with that kind of deal. It's always you've got
the risk if he breaks the toe link and then
the thing just shoots across the track. Right. But when
(18:30):
you think of like the fact we stayed green with
eds deal at the first lap of the five hundred,
and you know, our race Strector Kanovac is as has said,
and since he came in, he very much wants to
reduce yellow flags. And there have been a few situations
on ovals, a lot of situations on rodent street tracks
that three or four years ago would have been a yellow,
(18:50):
no questions asked. And uh, And so I was when
I saw it happening, like four laps to go, and
I don't think he's gonna do it. And then as
the words came out of my mouth, of course throws
the um. But again, if it comes out at that point,
it's it's too close to the end of and it
just gets a protocol. I think. I think it's a
pre planning protocol. And I felt about this at the
(19:11):
well now I will say, and I did subsequently here
that maybe this was the case initially because being on
the TV side of things, I understand there's a lot
going on over there as well, and I didn't know
how much damage it has done to that intenuator. But
immediately in my mind, everybody's yelling, you know, why did
they end under yellow? But I'm thinking, if there's yeah,
I mean, if there's an hour and a half to
(19:31):
fix that intenuator, who knows how much damage has done.
TV is gonna say, listen, guys, we can't play that game,
and and so that kind of dictates her hands. So
I'll give them a mulligan on that one. But but
to me, the protocol should be, Okay, if we're fifteen
laps to go, everybody's made their final stop pretty much, um,
ten laps to go, five laps to go, let's set
(19:52):
up some protocols here, and if it's five laps to go,
let's throw a red flag right away. Everybody stops. Your
strategy is still your strategy. You've got fuel in the car.
It's gonna be a little bit to get everybody started
back up again. I get that, but that's worth the
price for the fans and the people at home to
watch a race and under a green flag versus the
last five last was it was it two years ago
(20:15):
the shootout when they threw the red, right? Was it?
It was? It was last year, last year, last year. That. Sorry,
I'm usually not very coherent when I'm at that at
that stage in the game, So I just think it's
a pre plan, like if you can. I've had I
had this conversation with them over there, because you know,
being on the TV side of it for this week,
(20:35):
I knew that was gonna come up, and so we
had a meeting with the race director and with Jay
Fry and um, they do. They kind of have a
number at each track after which it's not really possible
to throw the red, and the reasons are things like
the way that they have to reorder the cars to
have to be allowed to open the pits up because
while your fuel, maybe everybody's on the last stop, but
(20:57):
if if there's been an accident and you like this
was kind of more specific to Indie. But if you've
driven through a debris field, you have to allow cars
to come in and change tires and so to get
them around, open the pits, do that, get everybody packed
back up, pull the car in four laps. It's just
you cannot run through the procedure in that amount of time.
(21:19):
So even if you throw the red right when it happened,
which is logistically impossible because of the timing lines and like,
you need to pack the field up before you can
throw the red. And it took almost a lap and
I have to pack Okay, So given that scenario, what
you just said there and I you know, and there's
always a lot of Listen, those guys are smarter than
I am, and you can't just been doing it. They've
been doing it dec something they haven't I haven't thought of.
(21:39):
But why knowing how important it is to finish, let's
just talk about under grain versus yellow, why not do Okay,
we we went yellow with five to go, Let's allow
these guys to come, Let's clean this mess up. Let's
allow these guys to come into the pits, Let's check
stuff out, some fuel, and let's o five lap racing.
(22:01):
Because then it's not the anymore. It's or the inde
a half not if you don't count those, but we
did them. But y yeah, but that that's what that's
that's what it will come down like. That's why the
overtime things they were really be considered because then it's
not like they've done in Daytona so many times. I'm
like that, that's the one that always bugged me. It
was like, you can't call it the five anymore. And
(22:22):
with St. Louis too, I can understand at that point
in the race why it's hard to go red flag.
It's just difficult. And again teams are strategizing. Everything they're
doing is based around that amount of lapse, whether there's
caution or green. End of story. The hard thing to
justify is and I understand why he did it because
on ovals you need to get I mean, as you
very well know, you need to get emergency workers to
(22:44):
the driver's quick responsible so as soon as the car
makes contact with the wall, it's we're going yellow. I
don't remember the last time I saw an Indy car
like that hit the wall and just keep on cruising
like nothing ever happens, Like they're running a pro four
or something. Looking back, it's like they should have never
thrown the yellow, at which point I don't think Tacuma continues.
(23:05):
I think he if anybody will sure, it's probably him.
But but at that point it's probably thinking I can't continue,
the cars damaged, I should to pull in. But they
do throw the yellow. He thinks, well, I'm just gonna
cruise my way to the checker now, so he stays
on track. There's no damage, and now we're stuck with
three laps feels not packed, and there's and you know
the problem is, you know when he did rub the wall,
it's like, Okay, did he knock something off the car?
(23:26):
Did he rubbed something up? There's no way he would
have continued faster than pace car speed, you know. But
you I can understand why you have to throw the
yellow that quick. But had there been even probably a
one Mississippi more of like should we throw it, then
maybe it doesn't happen the race. Probably everybody they need
to get the flagment for just in this series. I mean,
(23:50):
it happens all the time. Bottom line is everybody wants
the thing to end n their green, and the series
does too clearly. But yeah, they stress out about that
a lot, you know, because they know how much flat
they're going to take you the biggest race of the year,
and then the next race it's like, are you kidding me?
I mean, technically we raced on Saturday and that one
in Agreen, but you know, but but not this next race.
(24:13):
But the way you the way you described it, is
like people need to understand that because I mean, hell,
I'm around it all the time, and of course I'm
the you know, I'm the same idiot. Well why didn't
they do this? Why did you know it? And yeah,
it's just so many things that go into it. And yeah,
the main thing that people have to understand, without going
to any detail at all, is that if it's physically
(24:33):
possible to end the race on the green, they will
find a way to do it. And so if it
doesn't end in a green, it's because it was not possible.
You know. People were upset, you know, with the speedway
and about this whole mess that's going on and everything.
There's nobody else more than Roger Penskey that wanted people
in the stands absolutely to show off what he's started
to do and where this thing is going. Yes, get
(24:59):
the series us to get the speedway and then to
have this happened this year. I mean it's it's like
the most unlucky thing for him, and it's the most
fortunate thing for the rest of us because to have
that guy in charge through all this and to kind
of yeah, I mean, he just made a big investment
in it, and this is just a continued investment. It
(25:20):
was just you know, you buy a house and then
you realize, oh, this little thing needs replacing and you
open up the wall. It's like, oh, no, we got
to redo the whole main floor. That's what happened. Yeah,
you know, in in an indirect way, that's what happened.
But yeah, I just hope they don't open up any
of the walls in turn too, they would have to
redo the whole house. I think they'll just burn that
down one day and start from scratch. I had a
friend in Bill Simpson, and I knew Bill from the
(25:42):
race track, and you know, Bill is about the most
unapproachable person if you really didn't know him. And uh,
and then you know, he and I became good friends
and uh, and you know it was it was that's
where it happened, because you know, he was down from
us a few doors and uh, you know I wouldn't
(26:02):
put up with a dish, none of it. You know,
he would get all surly and start raising hell with people.
I'm like, settled down, you know, and he's like, what,
like I said, settled down, what are you gonna do?
You're not gonna do anything to me? So you know,
but uh, he'll be greatly missed. We we Uh we
also lost Cindy, you know, big Red that was over
(26:22):
there forever with with uh C and R and then
Stewart for a long time. So it's uh, there's been
a lot of a lot of loss this year, but
there's gonna be a lot of good that comes out
of of you know, Roger having the place, and uh,
I'm excited to see where it goes. I mean I've
heard of all of the things that have already happened.
(26:44):
I mean, and I love the attention to detail and
and you know, as I always said, the home and
George family. I mean, at some point, when you've lived
that your whole life, you're ready to go pick up
another segment in your life. Of hey, I'll just be
the car owner. I mean, I told you I was
spotting there at the Speedway. We you know, we were
(27:04):
there all all the first week or from Wednesday on,
and then we came out for Friday Carved Day, and
the guys were working over there and turn three. You know,
some of the crew were just working working on the
building underneath the grand stands. Didn't think anything about it.
They're just doing their thing. We're doing our thing, and
you know, we all leave at the end of the day.
I come back on Sunday for race Day and the
(27:28):
stairs where you go up to the grandstands, everything's painted perfect.
I mean literally from Friday to Sunday, with no fans
there whatsoever. They've now completely painted all the stairs that
were rusty and needed to be painted badly, you know,
and anticipation of maybe or next year or whatever. I mean,
(27:49):
they're still working as though he's got a plan. Man. Yeah,
I mean it's it's it was super cool to see.
I was like, wow, look at that, man, it's pretty cool. Hey,
speaking of the future, you do an absolutely great job
on TV. And I promise you, if I didn't like it,
I just wouldn't say anything. But no, no, no, you
(28:11):
you do a fabulous job. And it's always great when
you see a driver that has a rapport with drivers
because you go up, you know what questions to ask,
you know what they're feeling, you know what they're looking
for or maybe what just spit them and they have
confidence in you. So that rapport is just magical that
you're able to bring to all of us at home.
So excellent job on that. But I also with you,
(28:33):
without even asking you, I'm quite certain that is not
what you want to be doing at the racetrack. So
what's the future look like for you? Man? I'm sure
you're scrapping a stay in Acrond, Yeah, for sure. I
mean short, short term. That's definitely not the goal. It was.
It was a great opportunity for this year with you know,
the way my season played out with the partial deal
with Andretty and and I've had a lot of fun
doing it, and it's definitely something all you know, look
(28:54):
into in the future. But now we're we're working very
hard on a full time program, multi your program. We're
getting very close. You know, we've had tremendous support from
our partner in Genesis who came on this year. Um,
and yeah, we're just we're kind of we wanted to
get through our season, we knew that, you know, we
were we were done at Indie and uh, and now
we can focus all of our attention on on kind
(29:16):
of building for the future and hopefully in the in
the not too distant future, we'll have, you know, some
good news and something to announce. But that's definitely the plan.
And Robert, I know this year bit you as well,
what's the plans going forward on your slide. I mean, obviously,
just anytime you're trying to chase money to go racing
is it's a difficult thing. And I could only imagine
at the level that you're trying to do it at.
(29:36):
And I almost think there's a very difficult little middle
ground because it's really easy to get stuck kind of
in the price range that my you know, we're I've
been raised in the past few years. Globox five Cup
off road things like that. It's okay to you know,
find that the sponsors that maybe throwing five ten k
here find a few of them. Over time, of course
you want a little more than that, and then maybe
with an Indy car you get uh, you know, the
(29:57):
full TV package and everything that goes along with and
you're you're selling a lot more to sell, so I
almost feel like it's probably maybe not easier isn't the
right word, but um, a little easier to chase, you know,
the five million whatever it maybe I don't know, multi
year deal with these companies that are capable of that,
that want the TV time, to want the exposure. I'd
(30:19):
love to go do something like Indie Lights if I could,
but it's the hardest sell. It's it's the hardest hard
to sell that one million area for almost all series
and that general price range. Yeah, and what you're getting
in return, it's so difficult to sell, to get the experience,
to get to that that next level. But um, you know,
we won the championship in off road last season and
(30:39):
I really was looking forward to chasing that again and
maybe going back to back this year, but that didn't happen,
so hopefully I'll be back in the short course off road.
I love racing that series over there with Lucas Oio
out in the West Coast, so looking forward to doing that.
And sports car is really my home. Sports car racing,
that's what I've been doing, um at a pretty much
a per level for ten years now, and I'd love
(31:00):
to go so racing if I could maybe if I
get lucky, you know, we go to run into this
weekend and continue the point season. If we can get
the championship, then maybe it leads to you know, LMP
three ride or a g T four ride somewhere over
in the MS series. So just chasing it. However, we
can same old deal man. And by the way, that
that off road deal went away directly because of COVID nineteen.
(31:23):
The sponsor two brand new cars ready to go, had
never been so ready ever in in our career, and
knowing what we were going to do and where we
were going to go, and then having the cars too complete,
ready to ready to go cars and this thing bit
and the sponsor who was very concerned about his business,
and I've got to take I've got to make sure
I can take care of my employees before I go
(31:44):
play racing. And so we pulled the plug on the
deal and the full intentions of going, but two cars
sitting there and finally earns the number one plate and
never get to put it on the car. How do
yet it is on the car and we just get
to watch it sit there us. It's even more frustrating,
for sure, but that's the way. Honestly, in hindsight, it
would have been really difficult to do now because of
(32:06):
the consistent scheduling changes, even up till yesterday they just
changed off road race. We're still waiting on a postpone
Indy Car race to be rescheduled Indy Car weekend, so
it would have been really difficult to try to do
both series and juggle those at the same time. Anyways,
so it all worked out awesome. Well, we thank both
of you guys for taking the time to come in here. Hint,
you know you're super busy and uh, by the way,
(32:29):
congrats and good luck with your podcast, and thank you.
You and Alex have some fun doing that, Yeah, we do.
He I have more fun than him. He doesn't. Alex
doesn't have fun doing many things. He's a very serious guy. Well,
it had to be fun watching your tire stacked on
top of your coach. I mean, that had to be
a fun moment. That was Yeah, for for him it
(32:49):
was great. I mean he immediately accused me, which was
which was very alarming. Where I went to the gym
that morning and he comes storming in the gym and
he walks right out to me, and he goes, yeah,
I'm like what for what? What I mean? Okay, I
believe I've probably done something, but which which grievance specifically? Yeah?
Are you upset about? And he showed me the picture.
(33:11):
I'm like, oh, no, that one actually what? That one
wasn't me? So maybe you guys have spoke about this.
I saw something about a social media or something. ROSSI
going into pit fit with a bag with is it
a hundred dollars worth of pennies? Correct? Yes, to pay
his billet? Yes? What's the background story there? That was
so it was It was absolutely hilarious as it cost
him a hundred and seventy dollars to get a hundred
(33:32):
dollars for the pennies, but it was so worth it
for the look on Jim Leo's face. So, Jim Leo,
you know, runs pit fit, and we have a bunch
of kettlebells, you know, for working out whatever, And kettle
bells are all color coded. They're like universally color coded,
so you know that the yellow one weighs this much
and the blue one was this much whatever. But like
(33:52):
there's a lot of them and we don't want to
learn it, and so Alex was like, can you just
put up a sign that says blue is of kilograms
and yellow was sixteen? Can you just put that up there?
For about three years, Alex asked for this right, and
Jim just kept I mean, it's it's insane to ignore.
He's not doing it right. He's I don't know, and
(34:14):
I don't know what actually what actually sparked Jim to
finally do it right. But he finally went out and
got these nice sheets printed off with the colors and
the weights, and he and he put it up above
the mirror where the kettlebells are. And I guess it
cost him a hundred bucks to get it printed. And
so he comes comes in one day and he drops
(34:34):
an invoice on Alex's lap for a hundred dollars for
the sign. Oh yeah. And when he got the sign made,
he cheekly in the corner put donated by Alexander Rossi.
This was not discussed, this was not agreed upon. It
anyway shape before him. Alex was not thrilled by this.
Um you know, He's like, we bear you how much
a month? So he's like, all right, I'll pay you
(34:56):
and went online and found a place where that would
ship him a hundred dollars and pennies in a Duffel bag,
and uh yeah, I waited about sixties something pounds. And
he brought it into the gym one day and walked
up to Jim and just dropped it at his feet
and it was perfect. It was like the the top
popped open and Jim looked inside and his mouth just dropped.
(35:19):
He's like, what is this? And then the invoice is
sitting on top of the paid stamp on it. It
was funny. That was a good one. That's great stuff. Man.
You guys working out all together all the time over there,
That's that's pretty cool too. I mean the camaraderie outside
of the race car, Yeah, for sure, you know we see.
I mean Dixon's there remorning, t K's are remorning me,
(35:40):
Charlie Spencer, Alex Zack's there, Dalton. I mean, it's most
of the guys in town come out and and trained there,
and uh it is. It's it's cool. It's always fun
on like Tuesdays. You know, usually take Mondays off after
the races, but like Tuesday after races, like the best
day to be in the gym because he's here everybody's
stories and he just you know, swapping war stories from
the day or whatever. It's it's cool. It's gotta be
a bit of a motivator too, was like, at least
(36:01):
I wanna have a good time there. There's gonna be
you know, some buddies are there. And well, I mean
the motivator comes in the fact that, like we just
push each other so hard, which is awesome. And by
that I mean Scott Dixon pushes the rest of us
because nobody can beat him and anything. Get on, get
on the Jacob sladder. It's oh, that's that's a medieval torking.
Well I saw that, you know. Let's go back to Iowa.
(36:21):
I mean, guys getting out, I mean, will power done?
You're talking to Connor. Connor said they had to wrap
my legs and I said, he said they had to
help me out of the car so I couldn't stand up. Yeah,
he said he fainted or something when he got in
the car. He was done. I mean a brutal, brutal race.
And and then he doesn't train a bit fit, just
saying all the the pivot guys, we're fine. Weird. Oh
(36:43):
there you go. Something fired, something learned. Yeah, Dixon was
standing there and you know it's hair look great. Yeah,
you could have done another one the next day. He
was fine, he was totally fine. Great stuff. Man. Well,
thanks a lot again for coming out. We appreciate it. Man.
Best of luck the rest of the season, but more
importantly next year, going going towards the next year, hopefully
(37:04):
you get back. We we'd like to see you back
in the car and great on TV, but we'd rather
see you in a car from now one day. One day.
We'll get back back our TV later in the future.
So best of luck next year to you as well. Robert,
I hope hope things come together. And Rico, thanks for
letting us put on this show once again. Beautiful place here, Carl,
thanks man. I don't know if you made any mistakes
yet or not, but when I'll watch the show and
(37:24):
then I'll let you know. You did not cough during
the show. I'm I'm proud of you. It's like two
shows in a row. So thanks again, guys, hope you
enjoyed the show. We'll see you next time here. Thanks
for listening to this episode of The Skinny. To watch
the video versions of all of our shows, please visit
our YouTube channel, fatheads TV. Be sure to check out
(37:47):
all the latest son An optical I wear at fat
heads dot com. Special thanks to our sponsorship partners at
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