Speaker 1: This is, is off track.
Speaker 2: So you know that the whole genre of talking
to race car drivers while they eat has
already been covered. When,
Speaker 3: But that, that's a show called Dinner With Racers.
We're
Speaker 1: Like Snack with Dudes or
Speaker 3: Snacking with Successful Racers.
Speaker 1: Hello. I'm supporting Once Upon a Time.
Alex Rossi supporter Jimmy John's
with my, I'm supporting election.
Speaker 3: The, the Sun. Oh, alright.
Speaker 1: Obviously that's what what I'm referencing.
Speaker 2: So for those that don't know, do you need
Speaker 3: This one?
Speaker 2: Does it still work? There Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. For those that don't know,
when Alex won the Indy 500
and the press conference afterwards,
he was eating a Jimmy John's sandwich
and they, uh, they thought that was pretty awesome.
So I don't know. Alex, you wanna tell the rest of the story?
No. Okay.
Well, uh, I think our,
our friend Greg at Andretti did he reach out
and it's like, Hey, can we set up some
partnership or something? No,
Speaker 3: No idea.
Speaker 2: This is why I asked you to do the story anyways.
It ended with Alex getting a card
that just lets him get free.
Jimmy John's, it's got a black card.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's um, it's like an unlimited gift card.
I gotta be honest, man. We, uh,
we took advantage of that thing a couple times.
We had some for a while, hefty, hefty orders. Um, those
Speaker 2: That catered.
I think you moved my daughter's class one day. Like
Speaker 1: Catered my wedding .
Um, I think, uh, I don't know.
You know, we, I think we have, I dunno,
I think we pick up new listeners every once in a while.
So those that haven't been listening from the very beginning
might not know about the concept of Brenner,
which was when my golden doodle.
No, not the concept of your golden doodle.
The concept of your golden dole's name. Yeah.
Which came from when on an off weekend we had brunch,
which turned into lunch, which turned into dinner
and we just called it Brenner.
Um, Jimmy
and John, uh, both played a big part in, uh, we
Speaker 2: Yeah.
In those days. And then there was, was it big logs
or where was it that you got free wings from for a while?
Did he also abuse that
Speaker 1: Big lugs?
Yeah. Don't offer, offer
Speaker 2: Free stuff to Alex because James
and I will take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: Especially food related stuff's. Just .
Speaker 2: Actually I take that back. You should
offer free stuff to Alex .
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm pretty sure we're gonna go to Cracker Barrel
for our off track A GM pretty soon here.
Speaker 3: The problem, the problem with, um, the Jimmy John's card
is there wasn't very many of them.
And so when you would try
and use it like in store, they would be very confused.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is true. Um,
Speaker 3: 'cause they were like, oh, is this a gift card?
I was like, no.
Speaker 1: Ish. But no,
Speaker 3: Ish.
But it's funny 'cause like they,
I don't know if they clued into us or whatever,
or just people that they handed said card out to,
but there was a limit and if you went over that limit,
you had to call like a number and have them reload the card.
And so it got a little awkward
because I think it was like,
I don't remember if the limit was 200. I
Speaker 2: Thought it was like 200 bucks,
Speaker 3: $500 or whatever.
Yeah, $200 in Jimmy John's is a
significant amount of sandwiches.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of sandwiches and
Speaker 3: Cookies.
And it was really, it was really tough when like,
I'd reload it and then, I don't know,
a week later it'd be like, Hey,
Speaker 2: The next day I'm Speaker 3: Out.
Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Saturday was pretty hit me up was another, and, uh,
Speaker 3: Yeah, hit me up with an another couple.
Hyundai, please. I
Speaker 1: Need .
I need a, I need a deposit into the bank of Jimmy
Speaker 2: John's.
Speaker 1: Good times guys. Good times.
So yeah, if you're listening and you wanna offer us, uh,
free food, uh, uh, acquiring cards
or apparatus is apparati.
We're in, we're all in.
Um, Tim, you look really young.
It's like you shaved and got a haircut.
Speaker 2: Uh, no, I just showered. I just shaved and showered.
So my hair's still wet because I, I just got home last night
and like today is the do laundry and,
and kind of get everything back in order. Clean
Speaker 1: Your, and you Speaker 2: Just get home face.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shave it off.
Shave off the little bit of growth.
I didn't fly with my razor.
Speaker 3: Speaking of, speaking of, um, grooming.
Speaker 2: Okay. There was Speaker 3: A pretty, pretty fun little scenario
that presented itself, um, to me. Kelly and Tim
Speaker 1: Has Ben shaving already?
Speaker 3: No, uh, Tim text me at like, I don't know,
two o'clock on a Saturday being like, Hey, who's your,
who's your dog groomer?
Speaker 2: Teddy had been in the dirt, you
Speaker 3: Know, and I, and I had, I swiftly responded with, um,
old doggy style to which he responded with.
When I typed that in the internet, other things
populate Speaker 2: .
Speaker 1: Like Speaker 3: What? Which is,
Speaker 2: I wasn't, I wasn't upset with the results.
It was just not I the current problem.
Speaker 1: Right. What, what results came up?
What else is named that? Yeah,
Speaker 2: Google it. You should Google it.
Speaker 3: Could you, could you, like, in
detail tell us what came up? A lot of
Speaker 2: Links that apparently you can't
open in the state of Indiana.
Speaker 3: Oh, interesting. And so I was like, okay, yeah,
that's my bad.
Uh, she might not have a website yet, um,
or is on page 17
of the doggy style Google query.
Um, and so I, I just gave her, uh, gave Tim her number
and what a star.
Not only got her in,
got Tim in on a Sunday, responded with
Speaker 2: Yeah, at first I, I texted, said, Hey,
Speaker 3: Is this Tim from off track?
If so, no.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just straight up. Is this Tim from off track?
If it's Yeah, then no, and she was great. She made it work.
I had, I thought I was gonna book it for Monday.
She was like, I'm actually available Sunday. It was great.
She came over, she cleaned Teddy, he looks great.
Everything was awesome and she made fun of me. So
Speaker 1: Let's, let's, can we shout out the company again just
to give her a little bit of love for
Speaker 2: Dog's?
Doggy style. .
Speaker 1: Terrific. Um, wow.
That's actually a fairly interesting
way to market your business.
Speaker 3: It's pretty good though when you think about it.
Speaker 1: Well, good and bad. They could get lost in some other,
like you gotta do some really good SEO you know,
to make sure that that's to
Speaker 3: Beat out, to beat out
Speaker 1: Heavy hitters. To beat out. I had to
Speaker 2: Be careful on the, uh, I had to be careful on the Venmo.
Like, what is it for? I didn't wanna put doggy style.
I'm like just dog grooming.
Speaker 1: Why Speaker 2: Not do I don't know that?
Who's that college quarterback that got in trouble
for his Venmo notes?
Speaker 3: Boy, I'm glad that wasn't a thing when James, Marissa,
myself all used to Venmo each other because
Speaker 2: We, I I thought of that exactly.
We used to put dumbest stuff in the Venmo notes.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that stuff like just stay in your history though.
Speaker 2: Body Speaker 3: Probably Disposal was one of them we used
Speaker 2: Frequently.
Yeah. I remember my, my brother was like,
does Alex not realize that,
that these are all public? Because
Speaker 1: Like, you would've, can we also just talk about how thats
how it's a terrible idea
that everybody's stuff is just public. What's
Speaker 3: A terrible idea is you can't send a Venmo transaction
without a caption.
Speaker 2: Well, you could send it private though,
but like, no, any, all my ven you have to fill out the memo.
I know you still have to do a memo, but that's stupid.
At least you can have it private.
Speaker 1: So I'm going through some Are
Speaker 2: You looking through your old one boy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just found one that I sent to Kelly
for a not insignificant amount of money that says, quote,
A good time in Mexico. .
Oh. Oh. Then Kelly sent me some money that said .
Oh Lord. That said, please keep my brother out of jail.
Hard emoji. That's
Speaker 3: Not even the bad Speaker 1: Ones.
No, it's not. I just laughed so hard. That one.
Speaker 2: Alex, you paid me for annual friendship dues.
Um, I can't read most of these .
Speaker 1: You sure can't. Speaker 2: Yeah.
That's the only one I can read. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, wait, what did you say for this one? ?
That one, the kids say, Hey, .
Oh, what did he say for this
Speaker 3: One?
You can't, you can't say any of 'em. Like,
Speaker 2: Let's, let's, lets actually talk about this then.
'cause it was a, it was a college football guy who had Venmo
comments and it was like sports betting
or like betting on this specific team.
And his response is those were like Venmo caption
jokes amongst my friends.
We weren't actually betting.
Those were just like the joke captions. Oh.
Which quite feels pretty believable to me,
considering everybody I know on Venmo. .
Speaker 3: No, because what we joke about is like, I don't know,
homicide and weapons.
And he was betting about like, oh,
a homeboy is gonna have two and a half plus touchdowns.
Like, that's not funny. Like's
Speaker 2: Not, I didn't go into this specific subject murder,
but I just thought, it just reminded me of like, when
Tom Brady was getting investigated for the Deflategate stuff
and the NF L's, like, gimme your cell phones.
And he's like, I destroyed them with a hammer.
And everyone's like, man, that's super incriminating.
I was like, no, that just tells me that he's in group chats.
Like , there's there you would need a warrant
to get into the group chats that I have with just you guys.
Speaker 3: Oh God. Well, Speaker 2: With,
Speaker 3: I mean, also put a little bit of context into
that based on everything that went
down with him and Giselle.
I don't think it was necessarily a group text.
Speaker 1: Interesting. It Speaker 2: Probably, I
Speaker 3: Individual text we're going off track.
Speaker 2: Not usually a Tom Brady, uh, defender here,
but I I understood that move.
Speaker 1: Okay. So off weekend, Alex, how did you spend it?
Speaker 3: Not on a yacht. Speaker 2: .
Speaker 1: Well let me, let me just preface this
by saying you should try that.
It's great. . How did you spend a dollar?
You you went We went to a little, uh,
sporting event in town.
Speaker 3: I did not. I um, I did our,
our fantasy football draft, which you missed.
I did. Um, and then I hung out for basically two days
with Kelly and Ben with a little bit of Tim thrown in there.
We did two different escape rooms.
Um, we uh, did you get outta both? We did. Mm-hmm .
We accidentally booked the same one that we had already
Speaker 2: Done.
Yeah. We'd done years ago and then we
Speaker 3: Moved into a different room that we thought we hadn't done
and we had also done that one.
Yeah. You guys had done, it felt too bad at, at that point
Speaker 2: To like, well it was, it started, it started off
where you get blindfolded and you go in
and it's like pitch black in there
and we're all kind of like, this feels familiar,
but it was like kidnapping two.
So it was like, maybe this is just
how kidnapping one also started.
Hmm. And then we're like feeling our way around a,
a dark room and it's like, oh yeah, okay.
I remember this is here and that's over there.
And like yeah, we need to, we need to switch real quick. .
And so it turns out we've done every room at that location.
Speaker 1: So this is why this
Speaker 2: Is now just every room in Indianapolis.
Speaker 3: Now we've done one of them twice.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be embarrassing if you
didn't get out of it the second time?
Speaker 2: It was six years ago.
We like went through and it's embarrassing.
Saw a picture, so I didn't remember a
single thing from it. You
Speaker 1: Just said, oh, I remember this is over
here and this is over there.
Speaker 2: No, I remember the first one,
the one we switched into was six years. Oh,
Speaker 1: Got it, got it.
Oh, okay. So if you didn't remember fresh enough,
this is why you just need to move
to these virtual escape rooms.
'cause you could just load up a new one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But we tried that and it wasn't that fun.
Speaker 1: No, I know. But they gotta get better.
There's, there's gotta be a better way to do it.
It was like the VR concept.
It just opens up so many possibilities of
Speaker 3: What do you use your VR headphones for Tim?
I don't use 'em anymore. They just sit there.
Speaker 1: Everybody I know that bought an Oculus
is like, yeah, I don't use it anymore.
It just, it was, it was novel for like two months
and then no one cares anymore.
Speaker 3: Correct. I used it
Speaker 1: Once and technology is not Yeah.
Not going. So I, sorry, I thought you went
to the sporting event
that was in Indie on Friday. Did you? Where was
Speaker 3: That?
Are we not talking about Liv?
Are we, do we not like that? Isn't that
Speaker 1: I think that is what he is talking about.
Speaker 3: Not saying that. I mean, it's a, it's a fox.
It's a fox property.
Speaker 1: No, I wasn't trying to avoid the name. Oh,
Speaker 3: Okay.
Um, no I didn't go to Liv mostly
because it was very hot in Indianapolis this weekend.
Um, and it seemed to be incredibly well attended,
which wow, that's great for Liv.
Not great for Alex. Um hmm.
Speaker 1: Lots of people. So Speaker 3: I decided that I didn't want to be
with 50,000 people in a very hot day
for the first event that they've hosted.
Um, so I watched it on TV
and I had a great time watching it on tv.
I do, I do know from the people that went, um,
that it was a great experience.
Um, nothing but but positive feedback.
Um, it seems like they certainly know how to entertain,
uh, watching on tv.
Um, it's, it's fun to watch.
You know, you think of golf and you think of the PGA
and everything as being very, you know, proper
and uptight and very stuffy.
Stuffy. Right. Liv kind
of throws all of that out the window.
Um, there's music on, it's
Speaker 1: Like the bar stool of his Speaker 3: Yeah.
But it's still like some of the best golfers in the world.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it's like, unlike those
that watched Happy Gilmore
and the kind of how they made fun of Max Fly, which was the,
the alternate league to what
Happy Gilmore played in Liv plays by all the same rules.
It's just a little bit more upbeat
and trending for a younger audience.
Anyways, um, everyone said was awesome.
One thing that I, I heard about, which I think is sick
and IndyCar should take note is
so it's a three day event, right?
Um, much like not
Speaker 1: Too dissimilar from Yeah.
Speaker 3: Our races and there's merchandise tents
not too dissimilar from, from our races either,
but what Liv did was every day
they completely like did a 180 on the merch tent.
So it was all different merch from
what they had the previous day.
So like you had people in there
and stuff that they had bought the day
before spending money again.
'cause like that stuff wasn't available.
So I think it's a great idea for IndyCar for the NBA.
Well that's not three day events anyways
for any sporting event.
That's three days to like not have all
of your stuff out all the time.
Yeah. Yeah. 'cause then people are just gonna choose the one
thing they like the most instead of being like, oh,
I didn't know this was gonna be here today.
I guess I have to get my wallet out again. So you
Speaker 1: Got your event t-shirt,
but that means your Saturday event
t-shirt and your Sunday event. T-shirt.
Mm-hmm Speaker 3: . Or your event hoodie.
That's actually, it's only available on Saturdays, so Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that's pretty clever.
Get them back into the store multiple times. Mm-hmm .
Exactly. Annoying for the customer,
but probably a smart move.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: Um,
Speaker 3: What did you do, James?
Besides I went on sitting on a yacht. I on
Speaker 1: Vacation.
What was that? I don't know. What
else, what else do you need to do?
Speaker 3: It looks, it looks as though you either got a lot of sun
or you got blonde tips or maybe it's just the
Speaker 1: Light.
Think it's the light tips are tips are still,
you know, brown.
Um, great. Definitely got a little tan, which
for me is hard to do.
And like, this is tan for me. That's what's so pathetic.
Yeah. Yeah. Um,
but no, great time down in
The Bahamas with some good friends.
Uh, tons of time in the water because it's the best water.
I love it down there. It's so beautiful.
Uh, some great meals, some good laughs.
Um, yeah man, it was, it was wonderful.
I, uh, I love it down there so much.
You, I try to get down there. You need
Speaker 3: Bit of a break because you had been on quite a stretch
since May, I must say.
Speaker 1: That is true. That is true. Yeah.
It was, yes, it was a welcome disconnect
and like, you'll just leave your phone for the day kind
of thing and you know, check it once in the morning,
check it once a night and kind of get through the rest.
And what a nice, what a nice disconnect and recharge.
And now ready to go. 'cause I'm pretty sure my next weekend
off is Halloween, so that's cool.
Um, but yeah, no back and excited to get into Milwaukee.
Uh, before we chat Milwaukee though, um, we did say that
last week we were gonna talk a little bit about polo
'cause we didn't really get into his grayness.
I know it's Alex's favorite subject at the moment.
Speaker 3: I don't mind it. What we all
what a season our asses kicked. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What a season is it?
Like, are the guys, are you guys like talking
amongst each other amongst yourselves about it in a,
in a way where it's like at the end
of a race you'll go like, or like drive a intros, you'll see
Colton or you'll see, you know, I dunno, Dixon
or someone just be like, man, what the,
how is he, what is happening?
How is this happening still? Uh,
Speaker 3: Not really.
Um, I think everyone has an immense amount of respect
and appreciation for it.
I would say talking to him is more annoying
because for him it's kind of just everything.
It, it, he's not, he doesn't seem surprised by it.
Not saying that he's cocky about it,
but he is just like, oh yeah, you know, we just,
we had a good weekend and the car was good
and strategy was good
and it was just pretty straightforward.
And like that's every weekend you talk to him sort of thing.
Um, so I think that's, that's kind of tough, uh,
to, to come to terms with.
But I think the realization that I have had is
he has differentiated himself so much
that if you're able to kind of reverse engineer
and understand his excellence, especially in 2025,
and you're able to like, apply just a little bit of that
to yourself and, and to the, the, your own operation and,
and the, the things that you're doing, you're going to
elevate yourself in a pretty large way.
Right? Because it's, he's let's say, 30% clear
of the field, right?
And then everyone else is within a couple.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a Speaker 3: Big margin. Think
it's more than that. I mean,
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
I don't think it's more than that. I think
30 percent's large.
Speaker 3: Okay. Eight, eight races
to three would say it's more than 30%.
To three would say it's way more than 30%
Speaker 1: Copy.
Oh yeah. Almost. All right.
All right. I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Okay. 10%, Speaker 1: It's significant.
Speaker 3: Yeah. 10%, whatever. But the
Speaker 1: Rest of the field is within Speaker 3: Three.
The rest of percent of the field is
within a couple percent, right?
Yeah. So if you're able to find, let's say it's 10%,
you're able to find half of what he has, you're going
to make a very big impact on
your standings at the end of the year.
Um, so I think in, in some ways
it's a little bit of a relief.
'cause it's not like, it's not like there's six guys doing
that, right.
It's, it's one individual.
So it gives you a little bit of like motivation of like,
I gotta, if I can figure this out
before the next guy, like we're in, we're in
with a pretty good shot of things.
So that's the way I look at it.
Um, but yeah, I mean, you,
you can't say anything negative about him
because not only we, we, we say this a lot.
He's Scott 2.0 in the sense that he does everything
that Scott does and executes it
to such a high level
regardless of where he starts on the grid.
But at the same time, he is one of the nicest human beings.
You're gonna come across the paddock, such a guy.
And so it's just like, you can't root against him.
Like when he wins all the time, you're like,
man, good for him. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You're not mad, you're not upset about it. No, no.
Uh, great family man. Lovely wife, lovely child.
You know, he's, he's a great dad, he's a great husband.
He's great to just chat, to catch a, you know,
go catch a meal with whatever.
He is just awesome. I mean, he is good at everything.
So it is very, it's in every way. He Dixon 2.0. Mm-hmm.
Um, so as someone like knowing you how I know you
and knowing how you work and how you go about racing, right?
You're seeing this guy doing all these things
and you have this belief, this theory, this understanding
that if you can even just find that couple
of percent towards what he's getting, that's gonna put you
above the rest of the field too.
What are you seeing, like what's the one thing
that you think he does better than anybody else?
Because I know that we talk about how there's no kind
of flaws in his game right now,
but is there one element that is
that much more than something else?
Or is it just that half a percent in 20 different things
that gives them this 10% jump on the field?
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't have an answer to that
because like, I'm not, I can't see everything that he does.
Um, I'm kind of with you, right?
I can just see on the outside kind of the, the execution
that he has and, and we've all all talked about his tire
management and his pace,
especially on the harder tire, right?
But I sat with Felix in an autograph session once,
uh, it was mid Ohio.
And I was like, what's it like,
what's it like to look at his data?
Like is it, is there anything that's like, oh my God,
that's the best break shape I've ever seen,
or that's the smoothest theory I've ever seen.
And he's like, no.
Um, all of the fundamental technique is very good
as you would expect, but it's not, it's not unattainable.
Like, it's not like he sees a break shape
and he is like, I could never replicate that.
He said it's, it is the most infuriating thing.
And I believe him, like mid Ohio, a pretty technical track
with a vast variety of corners, right?
You've got high speed, slow speed, braking zones,
transitions, elevation, combined.
Combined all of it. And he said, dude, I am just the,
the time Delta is just a straight diagonal .
So I'm not faster than him in a,
I'm not faster in a single corner.
And it's not that I'm far off,
I'm a couple hundreds off. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he is not taking big chunks.
Speaker 3: Maybe even maybe a 10th, whatever,
but I'm not, I'm not miles away.
But he said, I'm not beating him in a single corner.
And he is like, I've never had in my entire career
a teammate that is able to do that to me.
And Felix, we all know his single at pace is exceptional.
Um, and he said just the majority
of the time, it's just everywhere.
So it's not, he's able just to extract that little bit more
at all times that everyone else can't do.
Um, and he said what's what's also impressive is like
you would think someone with that, you, you look at him
and he is quite soft spoken
and you, you know that he's very precise
and you, Townsend talks about it all the time.
He's the surgeon, right? Like he's, he's, he uses every inch
of track and he's, he's not often making mistakes,
but you would kind of equate that to someone who maybe is
not that good in the high speed, right.
Or the, the super high commitment or that sort of thing.
And Felix was like, that's the other thing.
Like he has massive <inaudible> too .
So he, he also, he also shifts it in the high speed
and like, I don't really beat him there either.
It's like, cool, ,
sick. That's
Speaker 1: So funny.
It's like, if you want look at a speech trace, right?
Mm-hmm. You know, it goes up and down for those, you know,
it kinda like zigzags up and down.
Yeah. It's like there's no big separations.
It's just his is just above your line the whole way.
It's just barely above it.
But it's just like traced just above it. How is that?
Oh dude, I, I, you
Speaker 3: Can't even look at like, okay, if I just focus on this
section, like I'll be as good as
Speaker 1: This, right?
Yes. Yes. I gotta break later in this corner
and carry a bit more speed here and I got it.
It's like, nope. You gotta do everything
exactly how you're doing it.
Just half a percent better at all times. Yeah, yeah.
Oh man, it's, yeah. It's, that's a tough situation to be in.
That's a tough situation to be in.
But like for the first time in this point system to have a,
a championship locked up with two full weekends to go by.
I think we already mentioned this one
by I think four races to go.
He had already scored, I think it was within eight points of
what total mm-hmm .
Points. He scored to win the championship last year
and had already scored more than
what second place in the championship.
Got with four rounds still to go. Mm-hmm .
It's um, you know, eight races on the season.
We've got two left. He could tie AJ
and announcer for most wins in a season
'cause he is won on short ovals.
Do I think that's gonna happen? I don't, I don't know.
You know, I think it's gonna be very hard
to win the next two for anybody.
Those are, those races are so tough to predict.
And there's a lot of guys
that are very exceptional at those types of tracks when you,
you know, you look at the places where he's super dominant.
Road courses are the bread and butter.
Obviously he's pulled out some good
results in street circuits as well.
But yeah, those ones I think are gonna be interesting.
But credit credit's due, man.
I think we're watching, uh,
you know, we're watching greatness.
We're watching history be made. I, I went on a, uh, uh,
fellow podcast, the Red Flags podcast last week
and the guys asked me, they're like, you know,
do you think you could cut it in F1?
And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
They're like, how do you think you would do?
So I said, well, against who?
Like, gimme a, gimme a car to put him in.
And, and they said, okay, so what if you put him in,
in the Carlos Science Williams beside Alex Alban?
How do you think he'd do? And my point was, I was like,
well, I think they'd be good teammates.
'cause Alban's a very like technical like,
detail oriented guy.
I know Polo's the same way.
Like he really loves diving into the data deep and whatever.
So I was like, year one, he learns the tires and the tracks.
Year two, he beats Alba More often than not
this got picked up by some by
by motorsport.com, some news outlet.
And the, uh, the internet has opinions, has thoughts. Mm.
But I would love to know that's your
Speaker 3: Take for the internet, Speaker 1: Right?
Uh, especially the F1 group.
They're, they're, uh, they're strongly opinioned fan base.
But what do you think if you put him in a Williams,
what do you think he'd stack up?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a weird comparison
because I don't, I, I think Alban's good,
but I don't think he's, he's exceptional.
Um, when you look at some of the guys
that you could have chosen to put him up against.
Um, so yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
You know, the Pelli Tire is incredibly unique.
However, it would suit his driving style almost immediately.
So then the big thing would be learning the tracks
to which he would only know a couple
and a completely different way
of approaching a race weekend, which he would figure out.
'cause he is a smart person. Mm-hmm .
But it's, it's, it's a complete 180 to anything IndyCar is.
Um, so yeah, I, I agree completely with the sentiment
that the first year he would have some flashes
where he was brilliant
and the second year he would,
he would dispose of him pretty quickly.
I think that's a different conversation when you put him up
against Charles mm-hmm .
That's a different conversation when you put him up against
George Max, you know, the, the elites in F1,
because while we know what he's doing here is kind
of unheard of, I think it's unfair to say
that if you put a Charles, a Lewis, a max,
a George in a 10 car at Cani
and give them a couple years that they
wouldn't be doing a similar thing.
Um, you know, I think there's, there's, there's drivers
that are just on a different, on a different level.
And I think he, Alex is one of those,
but I do think there's a couple of those in F1 as well.
So I'm not, yeah, I wouldn't say he's
gonna go over there and be a world champion.
Oh. But I definitely think against your Albans, your glees,
your whatevers, he would, he would've the upper hand.
Speaker 1: The the other thing that you see a lot
of in those comments, whatever you talk about
guys going in into card F1 or whatever,
and one of the things that a lot of people focus on is like,
oh well, you know, he was in Europe
and he was in the junior categories
and he wasn't good enough so he had to leave.
And it's just like, I know
that these are just people on the internet who dunno
what they're talking about, but it's like, let, let us try
to explain to you why that doesn't actually
translate the way you think it does.
The teams in the junior categories are very different.
There's good teams, there's bad teams, there are drivers
that were pretty average in the junior categories
that are doing very well.
At the high level. There are drivers
that were exceptional in the junior categories
and are bang average at the top.
And so that does not tell the whole story.
It's like Tom Brady was drafted 199th,
he ended up being pretty good at football.
I take a lot of issue when people are like, oh well yeah,
he, he was no good in F three
and he couldn't even podium in F two.
It's like, that's just not the whole story guys.
And like, we make these,
these assessments knowing a little bit about motor sports,
knowing a little bit about driving race cars, looking at
what it is he's doing exceptionally well in IndyCar
and knowing kind of what skill sets translate and,
and translate to performance in F1.
And there's a reason that we are saying this.
This is not just like us, you know,
big up our boy 'cause we're IndyCar guys.
I genuinely think he would be very, very good
for all those reasons that we just said.
Anyway, I I so do digress.
Speaker 3: Good. Good job to him. Good job to kanai.
I think just to close that out, you know, you talk about
what he did compared to even himself last year.
Um, you know, I think that's a
testament to the organization.
Um, you know, because I, I would find it hard to believe
that he himself as a driver improved
that much in an off season.
But I think Anasi, you know, clearly found a,
a more complete package that that allowed them
to be successful at a wider variety of places.
And they delivered the more often than not so huge credit
to, to all the men and women there.
Um, last week we also cut short a topic
that we need to talk about.
And that is, uh, of, of all wheel power, will it p and
and kind of the, the situation that he finds himself in.
You know, I gave my quick thoughts on it at
the end of last week's episode.
If you haven't heard that go, go check it out.
But James, I'd be very interested to hear A,
what your thoughts are, B how
they got into this situation, they being Penske,
and see what the best roadmap out of it for both Will
and Penske would be.
Speaker 1: Great series of questions, my friend.
So my, I think my opinion is very, very similar to yours.
I have, and you know, I, I am as surprised as everybody
that Penske's in this position will,
is still performing at a very high level
and is now the only Penske driver of won race this year.
Now that's not all on those guys.
That's, that's not a shot at Joseph for Scott,
that is just a fact.
He's the highest guy in the
championship, not a shot at the other two.
Just a fact. Everyone's had their fair share
of bad luck, a across all three.
Like they, that as a team,
they've got more DNFs than anybody.
I think Joseph and Scott both have five a piece,
which is insane when we talk about, you know,
lapse completed being one of the big indicators
of championship success.
I think Will's got three, something like that.
But then you look at a, a race like Port, right?
Qualified very well did the strategy just right, executed
what he needed to during the cycles.
And then under immense pressure in the, the back half
of the race, the last 20 laps dealing with lap traffic,
dealing with cars behind it didn't put a foot wrong.
So, you know, he has proven without a doubt in my mind
that he's still incredibly capable.
And, and this is not a shot at, at Lucas at all,
but it's like, if, if the thought was, you know,
he was the next guy
and he was gonna be better than Will,
I don't think we've seen a performance outta him
that makes you think he's gonna be better.
David's got a lot of talent.
David's got a long future in this sport.
He's got a lot of potential,
whether it's the environment there at Foyt, the car,
the whatever he hasn't shown, you know, he's had a couple
of strong races this year,
but he hasn't had the kind of consistent pace
and performance that you would look at
and be like, oh, we should put this guy
into a Penske car tomorrow.
Again, not to say he doesn't deserve
to be there at some point, but when you're comparing up
against one of the most successful drivers in the history
of the sport, it's a tough one to sort
of reconcile in your head, why are we here,
dude, your guess is as good as mine.
Um, it's, it's kind
of sounds like there was some maybe deal done with David
before, like the season even started maybe
at some point last year.
Like who knows? The, there's gonna be so much speculation on
that side of things and hopefully one day, you know,
will writes a book or something and it all comes out.
But it's, it is a peculiar one, you know, a lot of, a lot
of rumors that this was somehow a Tim Cindrich initiated
thing and
that certain people don't necessarily want keep it going
with Tim no longer, you know, part of the program.
That's pure speculation.
I have no idea if that's true or not.
That's just something I've heard kick around the paddock.
And then in terms of how do we get outta here,
where do we go from here for both?
I don't know. I mean, if, if you believe the rumors,
like nothing's obviously been confirmed,
will has said publicly that, you know, he's not,
he's been told that he's not hearing anything official until
after Nashville, which is nuts
because that gives him no time
to go find another ride, right?
Like, that's one of the hardest things.
Most of these IndyCar contracts have a date
by which you can't start talking to other teams, right?
But that's usually like June 1st.
So like you get through May
and then, then you can kind of start, especially
with the season as short as it is now.
So to have a guy on the hook until September
after the season's done is a very bizarre move.
And I don't think his showing will
the respect that he deserves.
But, you know, maybe it's a ploy too,
because they know he's good, their steel is going
through whether they want it to
or not, they don't actually want him in a good car
because that's one more guy they gotta beat next year.
I don't, I don't know if there is a way out of this
for Penske, because, you know, as I've always said,
you don't hide good news, right?
You don't hold, you don't hold back good news.
And because they're waiting so long to say anything, it,
my gut feeling is that it's done.
And so their, their bet is made as far as Penske goes,
the bigger question is then where's will go?
What, what does, will do at this point? I don't know.
I dunno what your thoughts are on that.
Speaker 3: I, I have, I have a few thoughts, none
of which can be shared on the podcast,
but I I think it's, it's a, it's a really strange,
it's a really strange situation because I,
and I mentioned this on, on last week's episode,
any other driver that has won, well,
if we were looking at 20, 24, right?
Any other driver that had won three races
and was the only driver in contention
to win the championship going into the final race,
even though it was a long shot,
but mathematically possible would've had a deal done,
or at least some sort of idea of what
that deal was gonna look like.
And he, he didn't have either of those things.
So that's, that for me is, I,
I can't quite wrap my head around it.
It's very, very strange. And if I'm will, um,
and again, we're on a, on the speculation train, but after,
after all of this, and maybe it's not speculation
because there's been a couple, there's been a couple quotes
that he's had where it's like,
who says the decision isn't up to me?
Let's say, let's say that the powers that be at, at,
at Penske Racing team, Penske, Penske Corp, whatever,
decide, all right, we,
we resolved whatever situation we got ourselves into.
Come on back. If you're a driver, let's,
let's just take this example out of it.
You're any sports person for any team in any league,
and you've been kind of strung along for that period of time
and been forced to kind of perform under that undue pressure
and have to tolerate all of the questions and the media
and all of the, the presumptions that go along with that.
Would you really want to just walk back into that door?
I don't know. Maybe, maybe
because at the end of the day,
that is the most successful team on the grid
and he knows he has his best shot, um,
to be competitive and successful there.
So maybe, and you swallow your pride sort of situation and,
and you take what they give you.
But at what point do you not do that?
And that, I don't know, you,
Speaker 1: You, you could argue that there's a, there's been a level
of disrespect now that you would just out of, out
of bitterness, not want.
'cause it's like you weren't
wanted, you weren't good enough. Right? That's
Speaker 3: My point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right. And so, yeah. But, so
I think he's in a unique situation
because Will's got nothing to prove to anybody, right?
He's in the top five all time wins.
He is the top all time qualifier.
He's got a 502 championships willpower could retire tomorrow
and it's a hall of fame career.
And no one looks at Willpower's career with, uh oh.
What if, you know, so he kind of has the freedom
to tell a team of
that caliber if he feels he's been mistreated to pound sand.
And if he just loves going IndyCar racing, yes,
he might be accepting
that he's not gonna have the same
opportunity to win as much.
But at the same time,
that's what's cool about IndyCar racing is
everybody can win most years.
Thanks Polo. But minus 25,
but yeah, minus 25, what is Well this
outlier, this doesn't count.
Yeah. Yeah. But so he, he, he kind of does have that,
that power, which I think is awesome.
And I mean, I would love nothing more than to hear,
you know, years down the road.
He's like, yeah, no. And you know,
on September 4th they called me
and said, all right, let's do it.
And he's just like, no, absolutely not.
You got, i I have no interest
in working with this group anymore.
Yeah, it'd be, it'd be such a cool story. Um, so yeah, man.
Okay, so let's say for whatever reason he's not at Penske,
whether it's his choice, it's their choice, whatever.
Um, 'cause again, I dunno if you, if you kind of picked,
I dunno if you wa you probably didn't watch the race, uh,
from Portland, but his interview, his victory, yeah,
Speaker 3: I had a great career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Yeah.
And like thanked, it was nice.
It was so nice working with all the people.
Like, it, it sounded very past tense esque. Yes.
So again, I, I don't think they had good news.
I don't think he's going back my opinion. Where's he go?
If your willpower and Pence's not an option, where do you,
like, where do you wanna end up?
Well, I mean, Dixon's going to coin.
He could take his seat. Great point.
Speaker 3: Well, James, he could Preem Speaker 1: Dixon going to co It's,
Speaker 3: It's a pretty easy, pretty easy answer.
You wanna end up at Canas. Andretti?
Speaker 1: Okay. What are the,
what are the realistic prospects of those things happening?
Speaker 3: This is motor supports, dude. A hundred percent, 80%.
I mean, realistic, I don't know, but like, could it happen?
Absolutely. Like Yeah,
Speaker 1: Anything's possible, I suppose.
I mean, I mean, I'd throw
McLaren in there as well. Obviously.
Speaker 3: I think that one's harder. Why?
Speaker 1: That one's harder, one's harder.
Speaker 3: Um, well obviously the,
I I can't talk about
it. Speaker 1: ,
I can't because there's one car
that's not performed at the level of the other two.
Right. There may be some other
elements that are involved there.
Fine. You know, I know that MSR was one of the teams
that was talked about a lot,
but it was just announced that Armstrong's going back,
congrats to Marcus, uh, at MSR.
Good job. They'll be back together in 26.
Ray Hall's kind of seems to be the lead candidate in terms
of, you know, possibilities.
No one really knows the details of Deb's deal, man.
For all we know Graham's, like Graham's kind of threatened
to retire a couple times already.
Mm mm-hmm . Um, okay, how about this,
how about this possibility is if, if Ma Lucas is going to
Penske, there's an open seat of Foy.
He's a big GM guy.
He is, he's raced, you know, with Chevy for a long time.
There's still, I mean, maybe
that technical partnership continues
and that's kind of like the, the parting gift to Will is,
hey, you go into the Foyt car,
we continue supporting it from an engineering standpoint.
Maybe that's a possibility. I dunno if it's what you want,
Speaker 3: But that, I think that I think is the most
logical solution.
But I don't, I don't think this, I don't think the sequence
of events that are gonna unfold in the next
two months are gonna be logical.
That's my, yeah. That's just my guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah. If Speaker 2: Only there was a name to show
that it's like illogical, I guess.
Like it was silly, like a silly period of time. Hmm.
Speaker 1: Almost like, like almost like a, an entire season
of the sport that was dedicated to the silliness of,
Speaker 2: Of driver.
Look, I think, I think we're good. I think silly period
of time has a ring to it
and I think that's what people are gonna
use. I don't think we need to keep going.
Speaker 1: I that sounds a little too simplified,
but like silly period of time involving driver
movement is probably a little more
just so that we know what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Just so it's more Yeah. Okay.
I get that. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Silly period of time could just be like
at the zoo , you
Speaker 2: Know? That's true. That's
Speaker 1: True.
Whatever. Yeah. Well that's great. Um, the zoo would
Speaker 2: Be silly.
Speaker 1: Alice, did you know
that you have a phenomenal finishing record at Milwaukee?
Speaker 3: A hundred percent. Are Speaker 1: You super
excited about going to Milwaukee?
Speaker 3: I am. I, um, that was one of those tracks where I,
I was told by you, by Old Man Hunter Ray, by a lot of people
that like, man, I wish you were
around when we raced in Milwaukee.
And then it came back
and I went to the test there in like, June of, of last year
and I was like, these guys are probably full of
and it takes a lot, as we know,
it takes quite a bit to impress me, .
Um, and I did, I did my first run.
I was like, hell yeah, this place is bitching .
Um, and, and it, it raced.
Not only is it awesome to drive, like it's awesome
to do a cute qualifying lap there.
Um, it raced excellent last year, both races,
which is a little bit of a rarity on Doubleheaders
because usually, you know, a lot of improvements are made
to the cars between race one, race two,
and people are kind of more dialed in,
so there's less separation.
But because there was so much tired egg
and, um, there is two line
or two lanes that open up, there's three, um, at times it,
it made for an awesome race, uh, which probably means,
you know, it'll be a different tire
and we won't get the same thing.
But here's hoping
Speaker 1: don't do that.
Don't, don't ruin that for us.
Are you like, are you bummed that it's only a,
a single header now? Yeah, only a single race.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm super bummed. Yeah.
Like what? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: If only there was another doubleheader we could
have traded it for anyways.
Um, uh, the, the fan turnout, the fairgrounds,
like I loved last year how outside the grandstands,
like all the concessions that are usually a part
of the state fair were open
and it just made it a really cool
and nice environment to be a part of.
Mm-hmm . And, and all the fans that asked for so many years
to go back to Milwaukee showed up.
They were treated to two awesome races.
Um, it seems as though, from what I've heard, ticket sales
or eclipsing that of last year.
So yeah, I mean, it should be another fantastic weekend
and, and super pumped for it. I don't like
Speaker 1: This positivity. You be negative about
something. Speaker 3: ,
I already threw my negative thing in there. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Tim, you're still here.
Anyway, there, it's, you know, we, there was,
there was a call to action.
I was like, Hey, don't complain about Milwaukee not being on
the schedule and then don't show up.
You guys showed up. We had fans that bought tickets
and didn't even show up just to support the race.
Again, shout out, appreciate that.
I believe she's actually coming this year, which is great.
And, and the fans,
you guys drank Milwaukee out a beer, which was impressive.
Like the, the grounds actually ran out of alcohol, which is
so Wisconsin, and I absolutely love that.
So, uh, I'm, I'm super excited to get back.
Great place to have, you know,
a race near the end of the season.
And then dude, we're like, we're two away,
like two weeks from now, two
Speaker 3: Weeks away. I know
Speaker 1: You're on, you're on temporary leave. ,
you're on six month, uh, what's, what's the word?
It's so dumb. What, what's that word?
When you kinda get put on, you're on,
uh, word maternity leave.
No, no, no, no, no. When you fur, it's you like a professor,
you get furloughed or No, I'm
Speaker 3: Talking.
Gets to the professor when you're trying to get, um,
Speaker 1: Oh, Speaker 3: Tenured oriented tenure. No, it's,
Speaker 1: It's a no no.
I'm talking about furloughed when you're not really sabba,
but you're not unemployed.
Sabbatical. Sabbatical is a good one too. Sabbatical. Yeah.
Either way you're gonna have a lot
of spare time on your hands.
It's gonna be, I can't believe this season's almost done.
I can't believe we're August 19th and it's almost done.
I five episodes of Off Track a week during
Speaker 3: The offseason.
I absolutely hate it. I love it. I think it's, it's so dumb.
But we can talk about that
for the seven months that we have to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. In the meantime,
I'll see you in Milwaukee Powell.
I hope you're able to continue your wonderful streak
and I think it's like your best finishing average track.
So let's keep that going.
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