Speaker 1: This is off track.
Hello. Hello. And welcome to Off Track
with Hinch or Rossi today.
Uh, just me, not even any Tim, which is great,
but I'm joined by my good buddy,
will Buxton. Hello. Will.
Speaker 2: Hello? Uh, hello. Hinch. You're up there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're, that's true.
You're right, you're right there.
Uh, as we record, it's what, Monday Post Elkhart? Yes.
Post Road America. Um,
and we are both biting time in our hotel rooms
before we head off to our respective planes.
To the same place actually. Yeah. But on different planes.
Speaker 2: Weirdly enough, I'm going to Milwaukee to fly to Chicago
to fly to London.
And you are going to Chicago to fly
to Boston. To fly to London,
Speaker 1: Correct?
Yeah. The world's a weird place. Yeah.
But hey, technology, ain't it? Grand.
Um, look, I, we've been wanting to have you on
for a couple weeks and so I apologize
for the slight delay in this, but That's
Speaker 2: Okay. We've been quite busy.
Speaker 1: We have been a little busy.
Um, and the, the main reason for it was, you know,
we had you all, you had, you know, you
and t Bell on obviously when the announcement was made
that we were all going to Fox.
And, you know, one of the things I think a lot
of people were talking to you about
and asking you about was
what are you most looking forward to?
And you were getting
to experience your very first Indie 500 Race day Yeah.
On the ground. And you got to do it from
the power position of lead commentator, , seeing it
for the first time, which is quite, uh,
quite something, quite something special.
So I kind of wanted to just do a bit of a month of May recap
and see what it was like for you in this new role going
through the greatest month in racing. So now that the
Speaker 2: Hangover is over, Speaker 1: Right.
Right. Now that we've had, we've gotten through Detroit,
we've had our weekend off, we're back racing
and everything's all, all well and good.
But let's, I mean, let's start right at the beginning
because you know, as you mentioned,
you have watched the 500, you know, a lot.
You're, you're a fan of the sport. You always have been.
You've been to Qualifying Weekend,
but first time doing the race itself.
Yeah. First time being there through all the practice.
What kind of pre-me prep, like explain the level
of pre-me research that you did.
Um,
Speaker 2: A lot like , , I mean, you know, I have, I have folders
and folders and folders.
Um, but for the 500 I was just, I was just handwriting notes
for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And, and that meant going all the way through to the start,
like literally to when the circuit was built in 1909.
So I did everything like down to, as, as even made it
to the broadcast, like the mathematical formula
that they used to design the circuit.
You know? So, you know, I had like reams
of information on the history of the pagoda
and the number of times it had been rebuilt or burnt down
or all of those things, you know, not to mention, uh,
you know, what had happened every year and every race winner
and the interesting facts that had happened in those races,
just to try and, you know, lock it all in.
Um, 'cause so much of what I, I knew about Formula One
and know about Formula One had had kind of come in
by osmosis, but this was very much a, you know, I had
to learn it and I had to sort of get it to go in.
So it was all, it was all handwritten.
Um, but it was great
'cause when, when you were doing, um, the test,
when you're doing the open test and you
and Alan were kind of like having discussions
and I was like texting you through it
and you were like, who's the Italian winner? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like with Corrections . And
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know this one, I know this one.
I've researched this.
And you were like, how do you know that?
And I'm like, today I've been doing pre-war research
and you were like, God's sake man.
Um, so yeah, fun things.
And you know, I never got to bring out my favorite,
my favorite nugget, uh, for the 500, which was the link
between the Indie 500
and James Bond, which was the, in 1932 count,
Louis Roski raced, um, and Za Broski was the designer
and driver of Chili Chili Bang Bang,
which was an actual car.
Okay. And Chi Chi Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming
who also wrote, but the fascinating thing as well is that,
is that Z Broski was married to, uh, a member
of the Asta family, thus giving him a link
to the Asta Challenge Cup.
So I, dude, you know, me,
I just nerded out over all detailed big time.
Yeah. And big time. Loved it. It was great.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing, I mean, over, what do we do,
36 hours of practice or something like that, you know,
Speaker 2: I think, I think we figured out by the end of the month
and maybe we'd done 80 hours on air if you'd tot it up,
indie GP and practice and qualifying
and Brace Day, it was like, it was like 80 hours.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a lot. Yeah.
But yeah, that's feels like about what we did.
Uh, so why, why handwriting for you?
Does that just like help lock it in more than,
you know, typing it out?
Yeah. Or just reading it on a, you
Speaker 2: Know, oh, totally.
There's, there's something in the physical aspect
of writing it and it kind of took, took me back
to like being at college and handwriting notes.
And then I used to write over the top of the notes
and keep writing of like five, six times
until it kind of went in.
So yeah, I dunno, it's like, yeah, back
to being a teenager again and, uh,
and just handwriting all of my, all of my notes.
But it, it, it seems to go in, um,
and then, you know, once the race starts you just,
you're just in the moment.
Um, but the whole experience was amazing.
And actually doing the NDGP was really helpful
because you get the lay of the land
and you know where you are and where,
and when someone says, be here at this time,
or, you know, you've got a, you've got a, a 10:00 AM you,
wherever it might be, you know, you, you know
where the compound is, you know where the pagoda is.
You know, if someone says you've gotta be here at a, you,
you know, the fact that Yeah.
Speaker 1: Garage N 34. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And, and the fact that it's a very different layout
that there are the, the physical garages there
and you know where everyone's going to be.
So that was really, really helpful as well.
Speaker 1: So, you know, we go into practice week
and everyone had prepped you
that practice week is this like slog of,
of a week from a television standpoint.
Uh, we, we survived it, but I mean, first I really
Speaker 2: Enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Say your first six hour day in the booth of, you know,
four or five know six consecutive
or whatever it was that we did.
Yeah. By the end of day one,
were you still like, oh, this is great.
Yeah. Or were you like, that was a lot of talking. Uh,
Speaker 2: There was a lot of rain on day one,
so we kind of, we had, well that's true.
We had lots of delays,
but, um, it was like F1 testing, you know, and I Yeah, I
Speaker 1: Remember you said that.
Speaker 2: And I always really enjoyed those broadcasts
because they, it, it's really kind of like light and fun
and, you know, day one, I missed my lunch break
because nobody told me I was supposed to be going
to lunch at that point.
And by that point I'd missed my window.
'cause Townsend wanted to go and take his lunch,
and then you need to go and do yours.
And I was like, well, I might as well just stay here now,
um, and eat Twinkies. Uh, so
Speaker 1: so with whistles in them. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: So, um, I love that.
And then, you know, day two, day three, same kind of thing.
It's just, it's so nice just to have that,
that looseness and that freedom.
And I guess for us in the booth as well, you know,
it reps are so important
and that month of May was the first time that we'd had
so much time together because the early part
of the season was really disjointed.
We'd, we'd have a weekend
and then we'd have almost a month off
and then another weekend and then almost a month off.
And, you know, it's,
it's way better if you can just keep the reps going
so you learn consistently
and day to day you can make the changes
and, and make it better.
Um, so, you know, practice is practice,
whether it's cars on track,
or whether it's us in the booth, you know, every, every lap,
every minute on air is, is important in terms of, you know,
getting the setup. Right.
Speaker 1: It, it's funny because we interviewed David Lucas on this
show last week, I think.
And uh, you know, one
of the things we were talking about was how there was this,
and you know, I think we even
mentioned it on, on the broadcast.
Yeah. You know, this, this weekend, this, which was coming
to that team with the form they had at the end of last year
with David's, you know, stock where it was,
everyone was kind of expecting him to step in
and immediately be in that sort
of fighting in the top tens pace.
And the first few weekends were kind of a struggle.
They were disappointing from a results standpoint,
even from a general speed standpoint.
But his point was, you know, we always said that once we get
through May, that's when it'll start hitting.
Because in May you spend an entire month locked in the same
garage, but these guys, and you get so much face time,
you get so much working time, so many reps, like you say,
that it all sort of hits.
And for us in the booth, it's,
it's sort of a similar situation.
Yeah. Right. I mean, three of us are new working together.
A lot of the people behind the scenes are new,
working either together or new working in IndyCar
or hadn't done a 500.
So a lot of people were kind
of going through that same sort of thing.
So we get through practice
and then comes qualifying weekend.
Yeah. Which you had been part of before,
but I mean, tell me, you could feel the
emotion and the tension
and the stress
that is qualifying weekend from this position. So
Speaker 2: This, this is gonna sound really weird,
but, um, I think qualifying is, is it's,
it's probably my favorite weekend in racing.
Um, those two days. It's not weird at all.
And, and I, and I think honestly like
on a par maybe even more enjoyable than the 500 itself
because the jeopardy is so high.
And I love the, the stick or twist nature of it.
The fact that everyone's trying to improve or, or,
or having that balance of, well,
I think I'm just about, okay.
And actually a P 15 is pretty good, so I'm just going
to, to stay there.
And even if I drop down to 18th, 19th,
I'm still gonna be okay with that.
Like, um, you know,
and the fact that it was the first time with the hybrids
and the cars were, were pretty skittish
and we had some really big accidents from people
who we wouldn't have normally expected it from.
Um, that made it even more kind of on the edge.
Um, but I love that, you know, it's,
that was probably the longest broadcast we did as well.
All, all month, you know,
that is first thing in the morning till last thing at night
and you don't stop there is, you know,
we were literally in an ad break running to the toilet,
running back Yeah.
And headset on just in time. Welcome back.
You know, it's like, it was, yeah.
It's, it, it's so intense, you know?
And we're getting food sent up to the booth
and we're sitting there literally just like two, you know,
two bites of a hamburger before we come back on again.
And I loved that. That was really, really fun.
Speaker 1: What what was so funny for me is I was, uh, you know,
like you, you end those days, right?
They're marathon days. Yeah. They're exhausting.
'cause you're mentally, you've gotta be on
that whole time you're talking that whole time.
You've gotta be engaging that whole time
and then you get home and you're just absolutely exhausted.
But then I was looking at my phone
and I was looking at like, the pedometer on my phone
and how many steps I'd taken, and it's like, yeah.
I'm like, oh, I'm absolutely wrecked.
I wonder how much walking around I did today.
And then you're like, wait a minute. I
sat in a booth all day.
It's like, you've done 2,400 steps today. It's like, that's
Speaker 2: Not even, it's not that's horrendous.
Like you've done done 1500 or like, like thousand
Speaker 1: Steps.
You zero physical activity. Yeah.
But you're just absolutely exhausted,
Speaker 2: Wiped, like, absolutely wiped.
Um, and do you know, it was, it was really, it was one
of the, the, the mad things about that as well was, um,
my wife and and daughter came out for the month
of May as, as, as you know.
'cause um, we, we spent a lot of time together, uh, in May.
Um, but her parents came out as well just to kind of help
with the transition to America.
And they were there for the first two month,
uh, weeks of the month.
And then as soon as everything
for the 500 started, they went home.
And it was really weird
because suddenly that was the point at which I was
gone every day, right.
From, from like six in the morning till like
seven, 8:00 PM at night.
I was, I was out, I was, I was at track
and then getting home and just dead.
So for those two weeks, that's probably the weeks when she
needed her parents there more than the first two weeks.
Right. Um, lessons
Speaker 1: Learned.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Very, very definitely. Um, a lesson learned.
But, uh, no man like that, that week of just the intensity
of practice and still not really knowing who was
where going into, into qualifying.
Um, and then rolling into the Sunday
and the, the storylines that hit then, you know,
Penske being kicked out, um, the,
the Dale Coin drivers having a knock on another out, um,
Schwartzman like getting Paul.
And that was, for me, that was really emotional as well.
'cause I, I know Robert really, really well
and I know the premier guys really, really well.
And yeah, you know, similarly, you know,
people ask me at the start of the season, you know,
how, how do you think it's going?
And I, I kind of compared my journey to premise's journey in
that it's all very new and it's all completely different.
And, you know, I've set myself on fire a couple of times,
like, you know, like, like Robert's car did at Thermal.
And, and there there have been
a, there have been some highs.
There have been some, some lows about a couple of races
that I've, you know, crashed out.
But, um, you know, it's, it's kind of that, that
that period of learning.
And, but watching Robert do it and knowing his story
and knowing, you know, the emotions behind that,
and then being able to go and do an
interview with him afterwards.
And we're both new kids on the block.
And yeah, here we are both about
to go into our first 500 together in that kind
of prominent role, him on Pole and Me
and to do, to lead comms.
It was, um, there was something really lovely about that,
that that really just resonated with me.
It was, it was really nice.
Speaker 1: It's someone a bit poetic about it all. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Um, Speaker 1: So I just wanna backtrack.
It has to have, you mentioned that the Penske drama
as someone in this role, right?
Yeah. And in this role for the first time at the 500
is something like that, is some sort of controversy.
Like, does the journalist in you kind of like, love
that there's a, a story to dive into?
Or would you rather for your first time not have had
something quite so dramatic and polarizing happen? I'm,
Speaker 2: I'm actually really glad that we did
because, um, we set out our stall in
that moment of we are not gonna skirt around it yet.
We, we are new to this and we need to be,
you know, playing the game.
And, and we don't wanna upset anybody
or annoy anybody, especially when, you know,
they kind of thing run, they're under series.
Um, but at the same time, you have a responsibility.
You have a journalistic responsibility not just
to tell people what's going on,
but to be very honest about it
and to come at it fairly, um,
but from, from all angles and, and bring it in.
And I think we did that. And, you know, we, we,
the discussions we were having off mic during that point,
you know, we, the folks won't at home won't know this,
but, you know, Tim Cindrich was, was ready
and available to talk.
And we made the decision then
that we weren't gonna have him on air
until we'd heard from Rocket about, about
what had been found.
Because we were all adamant journalistically, yourself, me,
Townsend, you know, we made
that decision on the flight in the booth.
No, we have to hear the prosecution
before we hear the defense.
Right. And I think that was,
that was absolutely the right way to go.
And then, you know, and then,
and then Tim sort of, you know, said what he said
and I think we would then right.
To also call that out
and say, you know, it wasn't arbitrary.
It's his black and white.
So, you know, this is where we're at.
Um, I hope we dealt with that.
I think we dealt with it well.
Um, I hope the fans thought that we dealt with it well.
Um, and that we didn't skirt around it.
You know, we, we did ask the questions and we,
and we have continued to ask those questions, um, uh,
as the season's gone on, uh, no matter what it is, you know,
whether it's race control
or whether it's, you know, the, the officiating
or the the scrutineering.
Um, yeah, I think that's,
I think that's really, really important.
'cause you set your stall out early
and say, no, we're gonna, we're gonna do this properly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely.
Um, I want now to move on to the highlight of the month.
The big show itself, the weenie 500 on Carb Day. Oh
mate, Speaker 2: , I really hoped you were gonna go there.
Uh, Yes. Forever
Speaker 1: Do, I mean forever. That will give
Speaker 2: My first Oval race Speaker 1: .
That's a, that's a great point.
Speaker 2: Um, Speaker 1: That's a great point.
I just love the fact
that we kind of knew nothing about Yeah.
I don't know, I don't even remember if we've talked about
this on the show yet or not, but like we knew very little.
We heard nothing about it until like
a week and a half before.
And we only kind of started getting details like 48 hours
before this was happening.
We weren't sure exactly what we were calling,
what was really happening.
Well, the tone of what we were supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2: Pam, our producer,
had been really excited about it for a while.
And I think we all kind of thought, it's not gonna happen.
Like this is, this is just right.
Speaker 1: You were like, Roger's, Roger's not gonna let this
Speaker 2: Happen.
This, this isn't gonna fly. And um,
and Pam's like, no, this is gonna be great.
It's gonna be really, um, and we were like, okay, cool.
And then I don't think we realized the scale of, of
what it was gonna be and that it was actually gonna
be a race broadcast.
And I remember getting to the platform with you and Townsend
and we were just kind of huddling
and we went, right, we've got
to do this absolutely straight.
Like right if, 'cause
'cause if we, if we goof around with this, it's,
it's gonna be too goofy and it's it,
you know, play it straight.
And it was, it was so the right thing to do
because it, it was just, it was so fun and, um,
and, and play it.
And there were moments where by playing it straight,
we were almost all, uh, you know, in just fits of laughter
and trying to hold it together. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you re-watch that broadcast pretty much anytime
there was silence of more than five Seconds, it's
because the three of us are all just trying to not laugh,
Speaker 2: Gone like absolutely gone.
Um, and
Speaker 1: You and your slippery wieners in turn three. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And, and, and Wow. You know? Yeah.
And, and, and, but just all of it,
You know, people, people will ask me, oh, you know, so,
you know, the first oval you ever called was the Indie 500.
And I'll be like, funny story actually , it was
Foid six giant hot dogs.
Um, I love the fact that, you know,
because the Pacers were, were, were playing that week.
The New York dog got booed, uh, every time around.
But mate, honestly, like the way the fans reacted to it
as well at the track, there was 70,000
people there for Carb Day.
Right. And the genuine cheer, uh,
was just, there was something beautiful about it.
It was so silly and it was so innocent and,
and just so wonderful.
Um, I loved,
and do you know what I'll completely, honestly, you know,
I've been a Formula One races where there hasn't been that,
that noise of, of cheering for a driver over the line.
Right, right. As there was the weenie 500.
Like it was, yeah, it was nuts.
And I think it, kids loved it. The broadcast was fun.
It kind of went viral 'cause it went, it went everywhere.
We got on Sports Center. Um, pat McCafe had it on, hi.
I think they were watching it live, uh, on Pat McCafe show.
Like it was, it was completely crazy.
Um, and totally unexpected.
I guess, you know, the question is like,
what could we do next year? Like, like
Speaker 1: I know, I was just gonna say, we've used all
of our, of our wiener jokes.
Yeah. , willies
Speaker 2: Time to be back or will it
be something completely different?
I, I said No, but dude, the merch as well, I went into to,
uh, one of the merch stands
and everyone was like, with their Palolo shirt
or their Colton Herter shirt, you know,
they were picking up a weenie 500 shirt.
Uh, yeah. Sold, uh, sold, sold out. Yeah.
Completely sold out. Like it was huge,
Speaker 1: Huge extent.
And so I thought, 'cause we caught in the stands, a bunch
of people wearing like the hot dog costume,
like the full body hotdog costume.
Shout out to the Simpson sister
or Katie Simpson and her sister.
Um, and I assumed they were selling these at the track.
Okay. 'cause I'm like, that would make sense. Yeah.
No, no, I learned 'cause friends of ours were wearing them.
I'm like, no, no. They went out
and like premeditated got these suits with the intention
of wearing them for the weenie fight.
People were looking like they were amped up about it.
Speaker 2: And the anthem, the hands over your stomachs.
I wish so good.
But you know what's really weird for me now is so, um,
back home again in, in Indiana.
Like I, 'cause it's my first time, like I heard the, when I,
when I try and sing it, I can sing the first line
of back home again in Indiana.
But the second line
Speaker 1: Morph
Speaker 2: Song, it's
Speaker 1: Too good.
That's too funny. All right.
Uh, did you sleep well Saturday night before the race?
Speaker 2: Um, yeah. Yeah. I, I, I,
Speaker 1: I You felt good, felt prepared, yeah.
Did sleep well. Um,
Speaker 2: But I don't think I will next year
because I didn't know what I was getting into.
Speaker 1: You don't know what you don't know. Ignorance is bliss.
Speaker 2: I'm Robert Schwartzman. Dunno what you dunno. , right?
Yeah. Um, no, uh, I had no idea.
And, um, I was more nervous about the pre-race
show because we've got, you know, we have our normal setup
that we take to every race weekend.
But for the 500 there was, you know, four times,
Speaker 1: Three setups and Speaker 2: Yeah.
Yeah. The amount of trucks and a green room and more staff
and you know, bill Richards who, you know, directs the,
the Super Bowl and all of that.
And these guys were, you know, it was big time
and a huge investment and I was more, you know,
and Chris Meyers like one of the best in the business and,
and he's hosting one desk
and I've gotta host the other desk.
And it's like, okay, don't <inaudible> this up.
Um, so that's, that was big pressure.
That was the biggest pressure for me
was, was going into that.
Yeah. And, and honestly, like, that was my, my real kind
of thought process that morning was get through that
and then like, sell into the race.
Speaker 1: You gotta think of it, like, think of it as, you know,
for, for people listening, it's the, the pre-race show is a,
is a scripted feature length film.
Yeah. Right. But live, so think the the,
the pre-show is like a, like a live piece of theater.
Yeah. Right? Like, go and see a play.
You gotta hit your marks, you gotta hit your timing.
Like we've got commercial, everything is to the second.
The race is a free flowing improv. Right.
It's, it's a lot less structured
because you're just reacting to what happens.
Yeah. But the pre-race show is so different to what you
and I do for most of our broadcasts throughout the year,
which is improv and, and,
and reacting to what you're saying. And even
Speaker 2: Our, you know, when we do like the warmup show
or if we do pre-race segments, or, you know, you
and I, we've done F1 pre-show
and post shows for years, their improv.
Nothing in there is scripted.
And also not having to hit commercial breaks and Right.
And we are Main Fox, it's a two hour show
and you've got to hit your marks.
And, but the weird thing is, is that
sprinkled into the scripted elements are still moments
of improv where you are asking questions.
Sure. You're eliciting answers.
You don't know what those answers are going to be.
You have to react to those, you know,
you've got an interview with Alex Palolo on the desk,
you no idea how, what, what he's gonna say,
how long his answers are gonna go,
what he's gonna talk about, where you pick up off the back
of what he said, and then what that leads to.
But you've still got to get out exactly at the right time
and lead to the next piece and look at the right camera
and, you know, and this and that and, and, and all of it.
So it's, it's improv and it's scripted
and it's everything within the bubble of like,
the most focus, the most investment as well of the year
on this, on this huge show.
Um, and I'd never been a part of anything like that before.
And that was, that was huge fun. That was huge fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was wicked. Yeah, it was great. It was fun.
What was, this is the classic kind
of cliche question everybody gets asked.
What you, what was your favorite part
of the pre-race ceremonies?
What's your favorite element of pre-race ceremonies?
Taps? Yeah.
Speaker 2: That, that really got me.
Like, that really got,
because I'm from a military family, uh, so that yeah.
That the thing about that now I'm kind
of getting a bit bit misty about it.
That was something very, very special.
Um, yeah, that was, that was the one for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's, I that's a popular answer
because it is, I mean, you've got this stadium
with 300 plus thousand people in it and it's just
Speaker 2: Silent. It's
Speaker 1: Dead silent.
Yeah. And it's one, one note at a time, Ugh.
From this singular trumpet.
Speaker 2: But do you, it's incredible. That's so tough
to, to to play.
Like, you know, we have in the,
in the UK we have the last post, which is kind of the,
you know, our version of that.
Um, and I, I grew up as a trumpet player, um, oh, in a way.
Yeah. And like in, in the UK it's normally played on a bugle
rather than on a trumpet, but it's
because you have to change your <inaudible>
because it's all played open.
There's no, there's no keying on a, on a,
on a trumpet. Um, and
Speaker 1: Oh, I actually don't think I've even noticed that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: There's no, there's no, there's no keys.
It's all open because it was,
because it was originally played on a bugle, a
Speaker 1: Bugle. Um,
Speaker 2: There's no, oh, wow.
Yeah. So you, so, so every note is just a change
of your omnisure.
So, so how, how you pucker your lips and the amount of air
and how tightly it's, it's the air is squeezed
through in order to raise the pitch or lower the pitch.
And that's why very often you'll hear the notes crack.
Speaker 1: Um, Speaker 2: Every note was just,
it was like dead in the middle.
It was so well played. Um, and so I also Oh, that's amazing.
From a musical perspective, I was gonna say, yeah.
I was appreciating it as well. But, um, yeah. Right.
Incredible, absolutely amazing moment.
Speaker 1: That's, I I learned something today.
I love that little little piece of info.
Um, so the race happens. Yes.
Everybody, everybody saw the race
Speaker 2: After a delay.
Speaker 1: We, yeah, eventually it was a small delay. Yeah.
It wasn't like the, the year before, but that was,
Speaker 2: That was kind of fun because we kind of got into, I
that actually kind of helped
'cause that got us into a rhythm of,
we got 30 minutes to fill in the booth.
And so we were kind of like, oh,
we're doing our own little extra pre-show now.
Um Right. Which kind of settled everything in,
but then yeah, then Scott goes and stacks it.
So we're like, are we gonna get a three wide start?
Are they gonna single file it?
Because theoretically it's a restart
because the race started under caution,
but then we did get a three wide start.
And, and then you're in like,
Speaker 1: And Speaker 2: Then you're in it's go time
Speaker 1: And then it goes and it, and it goes like another race.
It's just a long race. Yeah.
Uh, but you get through it, we have a first time winner.
We have kind of history be made in, uh,
in a couple different ways.
And at the end of it all,
Speaker 2: Um, Speaker 1: What was kind
of the overwhelming feeling when we went off air.
So
Speaker 2: I am not happy on Sunday night ever.
And you know, that, like, you know that last night ,
you know, when, when you were, when we were having
Speaker 1: A, which is still insane.
We we're still fighting about that, but okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But you know, it's, it's me.
I'm never gonna be never gonna be happy
with the job that I do ever.
Um, I don't think I,
I didn't understand it still until Monday night.
And it was going to the celebration dinner
and talking to all the drivers afterwards
and actually getting to see everybody
and the recognition that one guy and one crew are related.
And there are 32 other crews
and 32 other drivers who are utterly devastated.
You know? And at that moment you're like, okay, this,
this is way more than just a race.
Um, and even, even the Monday morning, you know, I didn't,
I I knew what it was about,
but I don't think I truly got it
until, until Monday night.
And that's something that I will take into next year
because the, the importance and the impact of it.
Now, I, I, I understand that now.
And I didn't until, and I've gotta be honest,
I didn't until Monday night.
It was just, and also I think, I think Sun by the end
of Sunday, we were all just knackered.
Um, yeah. I think I'll, I'll know how to pace myself better,
um, next year. It's,
Speaker 1: It's one of the things you
experienced as a driver too, right?
The first time you go through the month of May,
I think no matter what role you play in that sphere,
by the time Sunday comes around, you're just like,
we just want to get the race going.
Like we're just so over all the buildup, it's time
to just go and get going.
Yeah. Um, and kind of the same situation for, for everyone.
Have you watched the race broadcast back? Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have, I have.
Um, I watch everything back, you know, um,
'cause you got to, you, you have to go through and,
and make notes and figure out what you, what you did
that you liked and what you did that you didn't like.
And as always with me, there's about 98%
that I wish I'd done differently. .
Uh, but, you know, there you go. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: You know, coming into this, I was gonna ask you to kind
of give yourself
and then the broadcast as a whole, like a,
like a midterm report card grade.
Okay. But I don't even want to hear it
because you're gonna give yourself a, a,
a criminally low grade, which is not fair or
Speaker 2: Accurate.
Yeah. I think I'd probably fail myself. I think I'm
on Speaker 1: .
You're such an idiot. You've
Speaker 2: Been, I've been kicked out of college
and I've been, I've been sent back to take my s sat t
Speaker 1: You've been held back a grade.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Speaker 2: Um, my, my scholarships on the line.
Um, yeah, listen, I I I, I think that the great strength
with, with our team is, is that, uh, every weekend,
but also every day, you know, we're taking learnings
and we're recognizing ways that we can improve.
Um, you know, I think that the pylon is a really good piece
of evidence of that and how much
that has evolved from the first weekend to now.
Um, not just, you know, the fact that it,
it works more often than not now.
Um, but also the sizing and, and how things are shown.
And, you know, this, people might not have noticed,
but you know, we, we've moved from highlighting the top five
to now highlighting the podium.
And, and so that allows more space
for more drivers on the lower part of the,
of the, of the pylon.
And, you know, these are, they may seem like little changes,
but they're actually quite big changes in terms of
how we're presenting the information and uh, you know, tires
and all those kind of things.
So those, those modifications are happening there.
And that's a very kind of visual representation
of the changes that are being made within the,
within the group every single weekend.
You know, we have an amazing team,
but very few of them had ever broadcast IndyCar before.
Some have never broadcast Motorsport before.
So it's a massive learning curve.
They're, they're hugely experienced in other sports and,
and they come with a, a wealth of, of, uh,
award-winning experience.
Um, but IndyCar is, is unique.
It's unique within Motorsport.
Um, and it's, it's funny
because, you know, the season is so short that, you know,
by the time we've been doing this for six months,
we're we are then on a six month hiatus.
So yeah. So I look, I'm still finding my feet.
I think we're all still learn.
You you always learn, you know, in, in, in whatever you do,
whatever job you do, you learn every day.
Um, but uh, we, we, we are getting there.
I think I'd give us a, I'd probably give us a b,
like a BB minus.
Um, I'd give myself a d you and you and you
and Townsend get an a plus. Um, no,
Speaker 1: No, that's not those words.
That's not, you don't get to do that.
That's why I, yeah, I did. I retracted the question.
Oh yeah. Sorry. Now no, we edit this,
so I'm just gonna bleep that part out. Yeah, fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Whatever the mark is, just bleep it.
I give us a beep.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, exactly. Well look,
I think you've been doing a phenomenal job
and it's been such a blast getting
to work alongside you the first half of the year
and see the growth and see the enthusiasm
and see the whole group all
coming together and getting better and better.
And I think it's coming across in the broadcast
and from what I hear from people, you know,
we ran into a lot of fans this weekend in Elkhart Yeah.
Who had, you know, some really good things
to say about the work that Fox is doing
and the production team's doing
and the broadcast team's doing.
So, um, so far so good, bud. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: Think so.
And uh, and do you know what, what's really cool as well,
you know, obviously we all focus on the, on the figures
that we get after the, after the races,
but I think something that,
that maybe hasn't been spoken about as much is actually
how much the Fox promotion is, is helping
the footfall at racetracks, you know, from St.
Pete, the busiest St. Pete that anybody can recall.
Long Beach was jam packed. Indy 500 was a sellout.
Like, you know, everywhere we go, the,
the promoters are saying this is huge.
We've, we've sold more tickets than than ever.
Um, and that's a big part of the promotion as well.
So I think, you know, to, to our bosses at Fox,
like amazing job that they've done with the promotion,
not just in terms of getting it out through the TV
to people, but getting people to come to the track as well,
because it's really cool man.
It's great. Great to see how busy the races have been.
Speaker 1: Yep. And we still have a bunch to go.
We still have eight races left.
Uh, we get a, we get a week off I races
Speaker 2: In nine weeks or something.
Like, this is mad,
Speaker 1: Some mad stretch, but it's gonna be fun.
Yeah. So buddy, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.
Uh, great work as I've been saying. Thanks buddy.
Safe travels. We'll wave to each other
from different planes.
Going to the same place you are,
Speaker 2: You are upstairs, so I'll probably, I'll see you
before we, before we go and fan that.
I'll see you in the UK next week, mate.
Speaker 1: Alright, sounds good buddy. Safe travels. Bye mate.
Speaker 3: This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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