Speaker 1: This is, is off track.
Speaker 2: I feel like Tim or James has upped the
professionalism of this show lately.
I was singing that with the polo talk. Well, no, no, no, no.
I've, um, I've noticed what,
Speaker 1: No, what did Tim say Speaker 3: With your polo?
It looks very professional.
Speaker 2: It's not a polo. Oh, it's a button down first.
Speaker 1: All it said button up. Yeah. Speaker 2: Um,
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought it only went down two buttons.
Nevermind.
Speaker 2: Um, yeah, we know Tim,
you don't know anything about fashion,
especially based on what you're wearing today.
Speaker 3: Getting in his Dancing
with the Stars era, taking his shirt off,
Speaker 1: Definitely the Deep V. The Deep
Speaker 2: VI.
Um,
Speaker 1: How am I, how am I making it more professional
Speaker 2: For the past?
Probably seven or eight episodes. Okay.
I've noticed you taking notes, um, oh yeah.
About like things, things that I say.
'cause obviously you don't give a, about what Tim says,
and then you come, you come back to said points later on.
And I just think that that is, that is very impressive. Um,
Speaker 1: Oh, cool.
All right. Shows. So we're pro this behavior good. .
Speaker 2: Well, no, I mean, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: No, no. I'm not saying you should, but
Speaker 2: No.
Yeah. Yeah. I just think that it's, it's amazing
and people, if you don't watch the YouTube version of this
or you didn't catch the,
when you did watch the YouTube version of this,
should have a lot of appreciation for the effort
and time that James puts into this, considering all
of his other jobs and duties.
So that's little a compliment I wanted to give. That's
Speaker 1: Yes.
Kind of you to say. I also keep a,
a running note on my phone
of topics that I think should be covered.
Speaker 2: I don't do that usually on the show.
I'm just looking at Twitter and Instagram. So
Speaker 1: That's, no, we know , uh, Tim even tried to have,
have AI fix your eyes.
So it looked like you were looking at the screen
and Yeah, it was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen.
You, Tim was like, so there was this clip
and Alex was like looking down camera
Speaker 3: Episode clip.
Yeah. You can watch it, it on all of our social. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, you actually let that out into the world. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And by, oh, Speaker 1: That's awful. Because
Speaker 3: By way nobody has pointed it out. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well go back and watch. Last week,
Speaker 3: Clips, Speaker 1: Days.
No, dude. Yes it is.
But whatever Tim used it was,
and this is not a shot of you, Tim. This is like, it was
Speaker 3: Just whatever was in Riverside,
because the other one, right.
Without it, it was so blatant.
Okay, , let me, can I share something
that bugs me a little bit when I'm editing this?
I can't wait for this. I have to edit it as a video
because we put it out on YouTube.
I'm not gonna edit a video separately from an audio file.
When we used to just be audio,
I could just cut silences out without a problem.
I try as much as I can to cut all the ums and likes
and coughs that you guys do when you're cutting video.
You can't cut, you can't cut.
Um, like, and go back to the same clip
or there's like a noticeable jump.
So what I like to do is go from like a single to a double,
but like, I can almost never go to a double
because Alex is like this 90% of the time.
The James, if you are talking,
Alex is like this the entire time.
Alex, if you are talking, you're like this half the time .
Speaker 1: So Speaker 3: Like, makes it really <inaudible> hard to edit
around these cuts.
Speaker 1: Tim, you're ignoring the fact that if you listen
to this show, you know exactly who and what Alex is
and no one is gonna be surprised
or offput by him looking down
at his phone while we're talking.
So
Speaker 2: What Alex is, what am I, James?
Speaker 1: Sorry. I bet who Alex is. Oh.
Who No one will be, be surprised by who. He's Alex Rossi.
He is, he is a man
who gives very few s about very few things
Speaker 3: And is very okay with Speaker 1: That.
And that's, this is the best part about him.
Speaker 3: That's Speaker 1: Anyways
Speaker 3: About him.
So anyways, I was editing last week's clip
and I added the clips in Riverside, which is
where we record, I edit the main episode off of it,
and there was this little thing, it was like, do you want us
to make it look like he's maintaining
eye contact with the camera?
I was like, well, that sounds terrifying,
but yeah, let's give that a shot.
So that's last week's clip. Let's do it.
If you look at it, it's, it's all fake.
Alex is not paying attention. It
Speaker 1: Looks Speaker 2: Creepy attention.
I just don't necessarily look at you guys for an hour.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. This is, this is something that,
I don't know if this is a driver thing
because we're used to having voices in our heads and I,
and I mean that in a literal sense of having your pieces in
and whatever, but like I can,
I can almost have two separate conver.
I can listen to a conversation that I'm not a part
of while having another conversation.
Or I can be like percent writing a text and totally absorb
Speaker 2: It, makes ease dropping totally awesome and easy.
Speaker 1: So good at it. Um, like not to say, like, I'm,
I'm not like rude about texting when I'm just
one-on-one with a person kind of thing.
But like, I could do, I, I, Becky is floored by it
and it drives her crazy, whatever.
But so when Alex says he is paying attention, I believe him
because I can do that.
No problem. It is, yes, you get outed
because we have video on right now,
but I don't, uh,
I think it's a thing I think we're used to doing.
We're used to multitasking.
Speaker 3: Do you think that helps with your broadcasting now?
Because don't you like have a producer in your
ear one still?
I would say I would never be able to do that.
Speaker 1: That one's still hard. That was different.
Because what makes that hard is when you are talking
and then someone's in your ear talking to you, right?
In the race car, you're doing something,
but it's got nothing to do with your mouth.
Right. And words. So like you're taking in the information
while you're focused on something else,
but they're two very separate things in the
broadcast with the headset on.
It's the exact same thing.
And that throws you off at first, like,
for sure. But it, it does,
Speaker 2: You have to have, you have to have, you have
to have one ear open. Right?
Speaker 1: I would have to like, I can't even, I can't even ear
Speaker 2: Do two headphones. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So one ear always will have the broadcast,
like your microphone and, and Will
and Townsend's microphone's going.
And then the other one keys up with the producer
or director or whoever.
But yeah, it's, it is, it is trippy when,
'cause like sometimes when we're doing like the front
of the grid stuff at the top of the show,
or like anything on camera, top of the show,
it's a different system that we use.
And those ones, you can't have separate audio.
So you either have to have one earphone out.
But sometimes, like when we're doing the warmup show,
the warmup shows are the hardest
because we always put the warmup set like in pit lane
or right beside the racetrack race cars are loud.
So if you leave one out, it's sometimes too loud
to hear anything.
So you put both in.
But what happens then is as soon as the producer talks
to you, all the microphones essentially get lost.
Like you don't hear anything in your ear.
And 'cause you got earphones in
and there's cars going around, so like,
will could be talking to you and asking you a question
and that, and someone's talking to you at the same
and you're like, oh my God,
I hope he's not asking anything important.
And you're trying to listen to what the producer's saying.
You're like, take that in. Try to lip read what he's saying.
It's really tough. No way.
The warmup shows are tough. That that
Speaker 2: Is hard. Yeah. Okay. It it
Speaker 1: Throws you off, huh?
There you go. It's a little, little lessons
of the insider info of, of the TV world. How about that?
Speaker 2: So, um, like, uh, what,
uh, hmm.
What should we talk about James?
Speaker 1: I wanna talk about the fans in Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: If you listen.
Okay. Okay, let's, sorry.
Speaker 1: Do that. What were you gonna say? I
Speaker 2: Was gonna say, I hope everyone that Li is listening
to this show caught this week's Tuesday episode.
Yes. Um, and if you didn't, you should,
you should definitely go listen to it afterwards.
'cause we had, uh, Christian Rasmussen on, um, who has been,
let's, let's face it, um, the, the top of the headlines
for the past two weeks for very different reasons, um, .
Um, but he has been, he has been the guy
that people are talking about.
So go listen to that, um,
because we are gonna talk about Milwaukee and,
and a lot of what goes, what went into that weekend and,
and the goods and the bads,
but, um, probably won't talk too much
about Christian himself.
So you should, um, go, go listen to
that one if you're curious on what he has to say.
Speaker 1: Actually, before we get to the Milwaukee fans,
because that'll lead into the Milwaukee race
and Milwaukee stuffs, there's just one other major topic
that we should probably cover as we pretend
to be a racing podcast from time to time,
is there was some big news in the Formula one
world earlier this week.
If you're listening on Thursday. Yes.
Cadillac F1 announced their drivers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Speaker 1: No big
surprises. I would say no.
Speaker 2: And, and I think that that's a good thing.
Um, yes, I would've been,
there really wasn't any other option in my
mind that made sense.
I mean mm-hmm . You look at,
you look at who's available on the market
and who they signed is two
multi-time race winners
who have very recently been in the best machinery, um,
on the grid in Red Bull
and Mercedes have a decade plus
of experience in Formula One.
Who else would you sign to a brand new team
that has never been on the grid before?
Speaker 1: And that's just it, right? So obviously it's,
it's Sergio Perez and, and Val Trade BOTAs.
And you look at the last eight years,
they have been on the either driver and
or constructor championship winning team for eight
of the last eight years between Mercedes and Red Bull.
So the last two teams that dominate the sport,
they've come from, they've been part of those championships,
they've won races, um, over 500 grand Prix
between them experience wise.
And yeah, when you're building a brand new team from
scratch, you want to fill every position you can with
as much experience as you possibly can, right?
Yes. There's gonna be room for people that are new
to the sport to come in with new ideas
and new ways of doing things, for sure.
But you need to get the basics right
and the fundamentals right.
And especially going into next year with a rule set
that is brand new
and pretty extreme compared to the last rule sets
or any real rule set change
that we've had in F1 in a long time.
I think having drivers that know what questions
to ask have been through a development process
before, all that stuff is still gonna be advantageous
compared to, to two or even one rookie driver
and one experienced driver.
So it's huge. And also, man, just think about this.
When was the last time you can think
that there were two drivers available with that kind
of experience that, you know, there were only a, each
of them have only been outta the car
for a year, . Like that's,
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it was, it was perfect timing for,
for Cadillac to have this happen
because there was such a big influx of rookies
that came into the championship for, for this year.
Mm-hmm . Right? So guys that were hugely experienced
and talented who weren't at the end
of their career quite yet.
But, you know, formula One is a, is a game
of getting the next youngest 20-year-old, right?
That's the, the, the next max for Tappin
or Kimmy Reichen or whatever.
Um, so they were kind of by the wayside.
So I mean, it, it worked out perfectly for them, um,
because obviously, you know, they weren't finished really
with their career yet in their mind in F1.
And, and as we said, I mean, I think it's a, it's a win-win
and a perfect decision for Cadillac
and it's gonna be nothing.
But, uh, that is one thing they're not gonna have
to be concerned about.
They're, they're, they're gonna have so many fires
to put out, hopefully not literally,
and so many problems to solve, right?
Yeah. With starting a team from scratch with a brand new car
and, and all these sort of things, they're not gonna have
to worry about getting drivers at the speed.
They're not gonna have to worry about explaining to drivers,
you know, how this needs to happen and this needs to work.
Or, you know, working
and developing a young driver in their mindset
and their approach and their philosophy.
Like that's just, those guys are plug and play.
Let's focus on everything else, right?
Speaker 1: The pressure formula one, the, the commitments required,
media sponsor, all that stuff.
You're not getting anybody up to speed, right?
You talk to the Ollie Berryman's
or the, you know, the head jars, the BTOs of the world,
Antonelli are doing this for the first time.
Anton Antonelli being like, the jump from F two to F1 is
so monumental on the track
and it's even bigger off the track.
And so I think it's such a great point is you don't have
to worry about getting anybody up to speed.
You don't have to worry about, you
know, you know how these two work.
There are 10,000 data points on them,
you know exactly what you're getting.
They've taken very different approaches to their
sabbatical years, right?
In that Valerie signed on as a reserve driver for Mercedes.
He's been at every race, he's doing all this stuff.
Checo went home, he's hanging with his family
training on his own recharging.
And look, man, I was the first guy
to look at the host decision to bring Holgenburg back
after three years outta the car, right?
He did a couple super sub
appearances, which were very impressive.
But it's like, where's the motivation for a guy
that's been gone for three years?
He's done two races in three years and performed well.
But, and he's come back
and not only did an an incredible job with Haass,
he's now been signed onto a factory program.
Audi, like his career got a complete second wind.
So anybody that's like, oh, well Checko,
you know, he was, he took off.
He wasn't at the racetrack, he was minding his own business.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to come back.
It's like, it's not how it works, man.
Some drivers struggle
to be at the racetrack if they're not racing.
'cause they're real racers and
they don't like just being there.
And that's not, that's not knocking re's approach at all.
It kept him front and center every weekend.
He was asked about if he wanted to come back
and the answer was always yes.
And it was never a doubt.
He's getting inside information on
what Mercedes is doing in 2026.
So you've, you've really just got everything.
And in, if you look at their careers, right, you've got,
this is gonna maybe sound a bit harsh,
but like, you've got Valry who was probably more known
as a Saturday guy than a Sunday guy, right?
Like his performances against Lewis when they were still
Speaker 2: Won a lot of races, Speaker 1: For sure, for sure.
But like against Lewis, he was half a 10th plus
or minus most qualifying sessions on his day in
a race he could beat 'em.
But often in the race, that's
where Lewis had the bigger advantage.
I guess. Again, you're comparing against
like one of the best to ever do it.
So maybe that's not a totally fair assessment
to call him a Saturday guy,
but he was exceptional on Saturdays.
And then Checko almost conversely right,
was usually not qualifying as close to Max
or some teammates, but his race pace was always
what he was really known for, right?
His tire management,
which is obviously a huge part of, of F1 right now.
So you've got a guy that, you know,
overlap is as good as anybody.
You've got a guy that over a stint, you know,
can take care of the car as well as anybody.
Look, you've got all these elements into,
into the pool now, so it's very cool,
it's very exciting for them.
Um, America's F1 team has arrived and, uh, so,
Speaker 2: So let's, I'm glad, I'm glad you just said that.
Is there, I I'm, I'm fully on board with their decision.
I think they made the correct decision.
This is not, this is not a question of that.
Where, where does this fall in the category of
America's team if there's not an American driver, right?
Like that's, that's always been this topic
of conversation, right?
There was a lot of resentment against Haass from the
American fan base for never having an American driver.
Haass wasn't really, Cadillac is gonna be much more America
facing than Hoss ever was. It'll lean
Speaker 1: Into Speaker 2: It.
Yeah. You know, there, it's Cadillac number one.
Number two, they have, they're gonna have manufacturing
and buildings not only in Indiana as we know,
but also with GM in, in Michigan with GM and in Charlotte.
So there's a lot more American base base stuff happening,
but there's still not American drivers.
Does that matter?
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say no and here's why.
Who drives for Ferrari,
Speaker 2: Char and Speaker 1: A brick and a on gas?
Nope. Lewis .
Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Yes. A brick. That one Alex,
Speaker 2: Right?
Yes, yes. My bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that is like,
that's Italy's national team, right?
So it can be an Italian team,
they don't have to have an Italian driver.
This is, at the end of the day, we're going racing
and you have to have the best drivers,
the highest performing drivers in the car.
Sure. I think that as a team, the fact
that they're prioritizing speed over performance over
nationality is huge.
Is very important. Like, that's, that's a great thing.
I think where the, the emphasis now has to lie for them
among the a hundred thousand other things they have
to do is really start a driver development program that is
geared more towards American talent.
Hmm. And I, and I think that's, that's something
that they're looking at doing.
And you know, you've obviously got,
there's all the rumors about Colton Herda,
then you've got Kyle Kirkwood,
who's now won a bunch of races this year.
Um, there's already an association with the Weldon Boys
who are doing very well in the junior categories
and might age up kind of well to end up in a,
in a position there, you've got Jack Crawford who's running
in F two competitively at the minute, who's an American.
So I, it's very much on the cards I think for them.
But I'm very happy that they didn't force the issue
because they wanted to be able to say that. I,
Speaker 2: Again, I, I agree
and I think people should, should have a little bit of,
of understanding of that in the sense that you're,
that the comparison to Ferrari is absolutely right.
And, and this being a US effort isn't about the drivers,
it's about the fact that it is America.
It is an American brand with
American manufacturing going into
the number one manufacturer championship in motor sports.
So I think that's the big takeaway.
The last thing I wanna talk about on this topic
is, is Colton, right?
You know, for, for so long, you know,
obviously we know the connection that Colton has
to Dan Towers, um, obviously has to,
the Andretti global organization, um, has been linked to
some version of this team for, for several years now.
Um, and you know, there was a,
there was a crossroads in his career where he,
he had an opportunity to go to F1 that was, that was stifled
by the FIA and the super license restriction and,
and all this stuff that we've, we've talked, um,
about quite a bit as each year goes by
Colton's getting older and older.
Do you think that for him, and,
and I don't want you to put words in his mouth,
I we could have him on the show and talk about it,
but do you think for him, this is a, a,
when this announcement came, it was kind of like, man,
that this was my opportunity
and I've got a great career in IndyCar.
Maybe I don't care about it anymore.
Do you think that that's, that's kind of where he is at?
Like, I don't know. That's,
Speaker 1: It's such an interesting question. Let's say,
Speaker 2: Colin, let's just, let's just
put yourself in in his shoes.
Speaker 1: Right? Right. Well, okay, look, I mean, you could,
you could use it with the rumors
that started circulating this,
this past weekend about Alex Palolo being in the running
for the second Red Bull seat.
Right? So you've got an example where you've got two drivers
that are doing very well
and have great careers on the IndyCar side of things,
and they're not 21 years old anymore.
Right? Is it a situation where you want to leave something
that you know, that you're competitive at,
that you're having a great time doing, making a good living,
and go roll that dice
and risk that, you know, risk losing that opportunity
and going over there and it being a disaster?
Because again, you have to acknowledge that the track record
of drivers going that way isn't awesome.
It hasn't provided a ton of success.
It has had some, but there's more misses than hits.
So if you're in that position Yeah.
Like, are, do you wanna roll that dice?
Do you, are you confident enough that
if things don't go well over there,
you've always got a home back in IndyCar?
Maybe. But if it, if that's a two, three year experiment
and in that two or three years, you know,
the field in IndyCar gets super deep
and there's no weak links
and there's no obvious good seeds for you to come back to
and you're kind of on the outside looking
in, do you regret it?
So it's a, it's a tough, tough situation to be in
for. Do
Speaker 2: You think, do you think
that had Colton had a different year this year, do you think
Cadillac would've taken a different approach
that we just talked about with the, the V
and the Sergio situation
and plugged in a, a young American driver
and an experienced driver?
Or do you think it still would've ended up being
this what we got?
Speaker 1: I, I would hope not for all the reasons that we said,
it's great they've got the two.
They have. Yeah. Right. Great.
Like it would've been, I think it would've been a slam dunk
to say like, he's the reserve driver
and you know, any, like, once the IndyCar seasons,
because obviously you're gonna need, if you had him,
you'd need a second reserve driver.
'cause there's quite a few conflicts in the summer,
but there's eight or 10 races that don't conflict.
And he could be doing sim work
and he could be, you know, doing,
they don't have TPC testing obviously,
but, um, he could be doing fp ones
and he could be getting some experience
to eventually be in the car if that was, if
that was the trajectory they wanted to take him on.
But I still think it's advantageous to have that
over 500 grand Prix worth of experience
as they get off the ground with a new reg set,
with a new team, with everything and, and
Speaker 2: Everything.
So it's a rarity. I dunno, but I couldn't, I couldn't agree
more. Speaker 1: . .
Yeah. That's like four different things in a row on this
episode that we've been like totally aligned on,
Speaker 2: Huh? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Huh. And I don't think we're gonna disagree. Time. Time.
How Awesome. Changing. Well, I was gonna say,
I don't think we're gonna disagree on
how awesome Milwaukee was. So dude,
Speaker 3: We could bring up Red Vines and Twizzlerss again.
Speaker 2: I am so happy we go back to Milwaukee
or we're we raced at Milwaukee.
What an Yes. Unbelievable racetrack events, fan base
city, all of it.
Like 10 outta 10 no
Speaker 1: Notes, guys.
It's, it makes me so happy.
Like, we were the biggest curmudgeons on this show
when it was announced that we were going back to Milwaukee
and it was all, we've tried this before
and everybody was excited to go and nobody showed up
and screw you guys and blah, blah, blah.
And then last year you, you showed up
and you proved us wrong and that was phenomenal.
And then this year you brought friends
and even more people were there
and we sold out like GA tickets.
I don't think we sold out a beer this year.
They prepared for that, which was great.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness. That's a big improvement. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it is. It is.
Wisconsin, Wisconsin knows how
to drink and that's why I respect it.
Yeah. Fan base. I keep holding these up. Amazing.
So many people showed up, so many fans
of the show, which was amazing.
And guys, it still blows me away every time, every weekend,
the, the disparity in our fan base.
It could not be bigger, it could not be bigger.
It is the broadest demographic of people
and it makes me so happy.
Um, yeah. But it's funny, like you sometimes ,
I dunno how to say this without it sounding bad,
but I sometimes have people come up to me that are like,
there, you know, they're, they're elderly.
I don't know if there's a nicer way to say that,
but like, they're, you know, and,
and I sometimes sit, I'm like, man, some
of the things we say on this show,
I feel like I shouldn't be saying that in front
of certain demographics, but they listen
and they're sunlight.
Like that's a topic that, you know,
you wouldn't expect a certain area
of our fan base to be totally into. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: Listen, it's amazing. Um,
Speaker 3: I think the main takeaway from this is James can't do an
impression of himself and he
doesn't have respect for the elderly.
Those are my two takeaways.
Speaker 1: Where, where did the first one come from?
Speaker 3: Oh, you, you were like an impression of Oh,
we were curing, we were like, oh,
people aren't gonna show up.
You were doing an impression of
yourself, didn't sound anything.
Like you got it right and you hate
and James hates old people, which is ironic
given his advanced age, how
Speaker 2: Old I am.
That was a, that was a stretch, Tim. Uh, nice try.
Speaking of listeners on the show,
Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 2: I had, I had a very special,
I had a very special kind of situation present itself
to me on Sunday.
So I got a, I got a, a dm, which is a direct message
for the elderly , um, on Instagram .
Speaker 3: Oh no. Are there any other demographics of our fans?
We can insult . Are we just trying out
serious, gimme a better word. Like what, what
Speaker 2: Am I supposed to say?
Experience nothing
Speaker 3: Long term Race fans. Mm.
Speaker 2: No. Anyways, I got a dm, um, Ray
Speaker 3: HARs buddies Speaker 2: From someone that I didn't know,
and I opened it and it was this gentleman explaining, um,
that his girlfriend was, was a, was a big fan,
um, of the show.
And, and had watched me since I had kind
of come over from Europe and all this sort of thing.
And they were gonna be in Milwaukee
and he had a plan to propose to her.
Um, and he wanted to know if there was anything
that I could do
or any time that I had to kind of be involved.
And I was like, immediately, yes.
Um, that what, what an honor that is.
Uh, so I, I put him in, in touch with, um, Brie, uh,
who's the, the head of comms for ECR and,
and kind of manages all of our schedules and stuff.
And they, this, this gentleman
and Brie formulated a plan, uh, for
the grid before the race.
And essentially ECR was gonna reach out to him, um,
on social media and be like, Hey,
you wanna, you want a contest?
Um, and we randomly selected a winner
and your prize is kind of two race modes
or a race mode, two race modes, you and, and a guest.
Um, and you can come meet Alex, uh, before the race
and get a picture and sign some autographs
and ask some questions and that sort of thing.
And so we, we did drive our intros
and I walk up to the car and, um, they're there.
And, uh, and I meet, I meet his girlfriend and,
and talk to her for a few minutes.
And, and she's just super pumped about being at the track
and, and being in Milwaukee.
And so I'm like, all right, let's get a picture.
And then the plan was I was gonna sign a hero card to her
and ride on there.
So it was to Deanne, you should say Yes.
And so I, I handed it to her
and it was the most perfect timing
because she kinda looked at it
and was a little bit confused trying to understand like
what I wrote and, and what she was reading.
And by the time that she looked up, he was on his knee,
uh, with a ring out.
And so she said yes.
And, and it was, it was just a really cool thing to,
to be a part of before, before race.
So, yeah. Amazing. I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Love, love you love, love happening at the racetrack. What
Speaker 2: A call, Sam, she said Yes
though, because that would've been, could you
imagine? Mm. Tough.
Speaker 1: Yeah. 'cause I mean, you gotta remember, there's, there's,
there's three outcomes to that question.
Speaker 2: Yes. Maybe Speaker 1: There's no,
and there's, I gotta think about it. ,
right? See, could have been, could have gone two outta three
of those are not the answer you want.
Very, when you're on the grid.
Speaker 2: Very public setting as well. Speaker 1: Yeah. It's always a risk.
Always. At least it wasn't like on
a jumbo Toronto or anything.
We didn't, we didn't have it on the broadcast.
That could have been potentially not great,
but it turned out to be like a good luck sign for you guys.
'cause you ended up having a pretty good race. Alex.
So why don't you walk us through your
Speaker 2: Weekend.
I don't want to take too much time
'cause we don't have that much time left talking
about me per se.
But, uh, we, we went into the weekend with,
with a bit of a new philosophy.
Um, Milwaukee was not a good, uh, track
for the team last year. , um,
Speaker 1: I, I just, sorry, I just wanna jump in.
And this is how, you know, we're recording earlier in the,
in the day and that Tim's not on his a game
because when Alex says something like, we went in
with a new philosophy, the fact that I was just,
I literally held my breath waiting for Tim to chirp in with
what are you trying to do better?
You trying to finish higher? You trying to drive faster.
Like one of those types of jokes.
And you just sat there with a thousand starry. Yeah.
A thousand yard gaze and nothing. I got
Speaker 3: Nothing. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's okay. Sorry, Alex didn't mean to a call call. Can't
Speaker 3: Think of, can't a good qui for that. I'm really tired.
Yeah. Speaker 1: , you got nothing? All right.
Speaker 2: All right. Oh, oh, did, did you have a big day yesterday?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's still, 5 45 is an early time
to get up anyway, and then to immediately get on camera
for two episodes in a row.
Speaker 2: Anyways, we went in with a new philosophical
approach from our good friend
Socrates. No, I don't know. Was
Speaker 3: It to try to win?
Speaker 1: You can't see it Speaker 2: Now. It was, I'm, I'm trying.
It was, it was Tim and and me. Did it work? .
So, so I mean, you can make, have you guys
Speaker 3: Considered just doing that? Every race?
Speaker 1: There you are now are, thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: We are now. So anyways,
Speaker 3: I'm going back to my crossword puzzle.
Speaker 2: A very Oh, you thing. I don't pay attention.
A very poor track for the team last year, year.
Speaker 1: The only person who pays attention to this show.
Speaker 2: Well, you and the old people Speaker 1: the elderly
Speaker 2: So Speaker 1: Well experienced.
We, we, we prefer to be called the elderly .
That was like your word. I didn't think I could use it.
any
Speaker 2: Ways.
Speaker 1: So James, how you doing? ? You're the worst.
The the worst.
Speaker 2: Like, do you want me to talk about
Speaker 1: It?
Yeah, I do. Sure.
Speaker 2: I mean, at this point sure. Speaker 1: It's this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we tried something new and it worked anyways.
, that was our weekend.
Speaker 1: I go back to bed. Oh, no so close pal. So close.
No. Okay, so you tried a new approach
and you guys qualified well
and you were confident after practice.
And then you went to the race. And the race was interesting
because you did that.
We did a low line practice, right? Mm.
But even in last practice, we were worried.
And even the first part of the race,
it didn't look like the low line was working as well
as maybe we even saw it last year. No,
Speaker 2: I, I I agree with that.
I don't, I don't really know why.
Um, I, I think again, you know, there's,
there's a little bit of,
last year was the first time we were
seeing this place in a decade.
Yes, there was a test there,
but ultimately people weren't super dialed in.
So race one was, was very chaotic and,
and the low line was, was ripping and,
and you could kind of drive anywhere and, and make it work.
Race two, the low line was a little bit less good,
uh, last year than it was in race one.
And it was, it was different conditions as well.
So we thought maybe conditions were something to do with it.
But after this year, I think it's pretty clear that just as,
as everyone's cars get a little bit better
and people are able to manage the deg a little bit more, um,
you gotta be quite off pace in the, in the preferred line,
which is lane two to, to make the low line work.
It was still usable, it was still effective.
It, it still allowed you to get by cars,
but it wasn't as much of a guarantee as it was, uh,
in race one last year.
So what that meant was the race was still awesome, um,
because there was tire dig and,
and there was still a huge advantage, um, from,
from being on, on new tires versus even like 10
or 15 lap old tires.
So as we know, especially on, on short ovals, that makes
for, for great IndyCar racing.
And there was a enough yellow, so there was enough restarts.
Um, and, and there was enough kind
of variance in, in strategy.
And the undercut, uh, was super powerful and effective.
Kind of like we used to see at, at Old Iowa.
Um, you know, if you're willing to take the risk of,
of being caught out by a yellow,
you can make up a huge amount of track time, um,
with fresh tires as other people were kind
of struggling at the end of the stint.
That was something that on the 20 car, um, we had a plan to,
to at least do in the beginning.
'cause we felt we qualified a little bit out
of position in, in 12th.
Um, you know, we thought we were,
uh, uh, a better than that.
So we were planning on the first stop to kind
of come in early, take that risk, find clean air, and, and,
and, and use the undercut to our advantage, knowing that
we also felt that we had pretty good stint pace, um, so
that if we had to go a bit longer on the second
or third stint, like we felt that we could manage as,
as long as we were able to get track position.
Um, so that's what we did.
And, and it worked really well, uh,
on the first pit exchange.
The first cycle. We went from 10th to, um, fourth, fourth,
um, and we lost one spot ultimately over the next
150 ish lapse to, to Pato.
Um, but, you know, it was kind of, I I was racing the,
the five car and the 12 car
until he went out kind of all day.
Um, so even
before the end, like it was, it was a really positive, um,
weekend for ECR, you know, to,
to be on the same level as Andretti, as McLaren,
and as, you know, some of the Penske cars, um, was,
was really a big accomplishment.
You know, I think there was still a, a, a pretty large gap
to the 10 car, um, to McLaughlin to Lucas
before he had his issue in pit lane.
So, so we by no means, um, solved everything, uh,
but clearly, you know, the car was good enough, um, to,
to be competitive and, and when the opportunity presented
itself at the end of the race, um, Christian was able to,
to grab it with both hands won the race.
I was able to pass, um, Patto who was also on new tires.
So we didn't quite have the same ability to get
through traffic that Christian did, but,
but still we're the, we're the second, um,
second car on our strategy.
So just a, a huge, hugely positive weekend
for the organization, one that was so needed.
Um, especially with having the new ownership, uh,
come on board this year and,
and the realization of, of how challenging the sport is and,
and how hard it is to, to compete with the best teams.
Like I said, we know we're not there yet.
We know that there's still, uh,
a huge gap that we have to close.
And, and just 'cause you have one good weekend doesn't mean
that we're gonna show up in Nashville
and have another good one.
But in terms of the morale and,
and just the, the encouragement to everyone that like, okay,
we, we are capable of doing this.
And, and yes, there's a, there's a long journey
and a long road ahead,
but when you have that kind of incentive that that happened
so recently, instead of like, oh yeah,
we won a race the last time the team won a
race was 2020, right?
So it's like, oh, we did this last week.
So it, it makes everyone excited to, to just put in
that little bit extra effort.
And it's really cool to be a part of.
Speaker 1: It's, it's such a great point, right?
I mean it's, this is literally
what fuels people in racing, right?
Is winning. It's, it's, it's you and MA's golf game.
It's that one shot that you hit well that, that fuels you
for the next 108 that you just are awful at. And
Speaker 2: It's 104. It's
Speaker 1: So details, you know?
But yeah, it's so great that that that Ted and,
and you know, all the, all the new elements that are,
are part of that team, got to really experience that now,
know what that feels like
and that just, I mean the, the burner gets turned up
to 11 mm-hmm .
You know, when you talk about lighting the fire under a
group to, uh, to try to go get that feeling again.
So, uh, credit to the team, congrats to Christian.
I mean, we, I say we talked to him on Tuesday,
if you haven't listened, what we didn't talk about a lot on
Tuesday was just how dude, how loose that kid is .
And I mean that in the, both like the metaphorical sense
and in the little sense on an oval.
Mm-hmm . Wow.
I've never seen that many corrections on an oval.
I don't think outta one car
that didn't either end up four laps down
or in the wall ever.
And like you see the moment,
and like normally when you see a, an onboard
of a guy have a big moment, maybe like two
or three big moments in a row, you're looking
for the adjustments to the tools.
You're stiffening up the front bar,
you're soft in the rear bar, you're right on the weight.
Jagger no hands were on the wheel, hands didn't move,
just carrying on.
Like it was no big deal.
It was like, is this, is this how
indie cars are on ovals now?
Like are we seeing what No. Okay.
Speaker 2: No, no. Speaker 1: He
Speaker 2: Like, like I said there, there's a, let's be honest, um,
you gotta give credit to the 10 car and,
and Alex, you know, he was there.
He he do, he was dominating that race. Um, we'll get there.
Um, ultimately, ultimately ECR made
an aggressive strategy call.
Um, we were very surprised that really we were,
we were stunned that we pitted fifth
from fifth and came in for new tires
and came back out in fifth.
Like we were fully I expecting
Speaker 1: Yeah.
To cycle back because we were looking at it, we're like,
we're like, who, who's, who's gonna pit?
And I was like, uh, I think if you're 10th
on back, go for it.
And then you like you and Patto pit.
I was like, oh damn, okay, we're going for this.
And immediately, so the Penske guys are just like,
ah, Speaker 2: .
So, um, it it, it worked out in a perfect way
and it played into Christian's strengths
For sure in, in a big way.
You know, being willing to, to take huge risks
and kind of just muscle your way through a situation that
maybe he can do for 250 laps.
Like, I'm not gonna say that he can't at this point,
but certainly for 20, 24 laps, he tires,
he's definitely tires, he on new tires,
he's definitely gonna go for it sort of thing.
So it is not, it is not the future of IndyCar oval racing.
I don't think that that is what the 10 car is doing.
I don't think that is what McLaughlin was doing, right?
Yeah. I don't think that had Joseph taken new tires,
that's what he would've been doing.
But certainly in this instance and,
and for our car that we had,
he was the right guy to have in it.
And when I look back at his data and,
and his onboard, I'm like,
yeah, I'm pretty good with fourth.
Like, congrats dude, . That's that's great
Speaker 1: Dude.
I was sweating in the booth, dude.
He, he, I guarantee you, he,
he aged his engineers right on that race just watching.
He did all this, the steering traces like,
like those guys have lost years off their life.
Speaker 2: So I talked to, to my engineer who's also the technical
director, um, of the team and we were kind of debriefing
after and he was like, so how was it?
And I was like, man, I was pretty loose.
Um, you know, throughout the race, I, I took four turns
of front wing out Christian also took quite a bit
of front wing out and he was like, Christian was also loose,
um, and crashing every corner,
but he just didn't hit anything .
So don't really have much to say.
Like, we need to get the rear better for sure.
And and, and honestly that was
Christian's comments after the race.
He was like, yeah, we, we need to make the rear better .
And it was like, yeah, no bro.
Um, but anyways, uh, yeah, just in summary, the best,
the best two car result that that team has had in history.
Um, so amazing. Just, uh, an awesome thing to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Golf clap. Um, you mentioned it, it's impo it's impossible
to not talk about the weekend
that Palolo had. Don't I think
Speaker 2: It was the most impressive of the year. You
Speaker 1: Know, we, I completely agree.
I completely agree. I, I said as much to him afterwards.
I, I said as much to him after qualifying.
I was like, that's the most impressive pull
that you've had all year and sixth
of the year, which is insane.
Short tracks. Chevy tends to have the advantage.
Uh, we saw that at Gateway.
We saw it for the most part at Iowa as well.
Um, the fact that him, and,
and you know, Dixon ish also was up there.
He was there thereabouts.
But to have seven tenths of a mile an hour on the field
in a Honda when it's a Chevy type of track was unbelievable.
And then you go into the race
and his ability to take care of tires
on an oval is evidently as good, if not better
than it is on road courses, which is saying something.
'cause he is pretty good at it on road courses, .
But like, you know, you, you sort of set the tone
of the race when, 'cause you were the first of the leaders
to pit on that first cycle.
And the, and the undercut killed it.
You said you went from 10th to
fourth or fifth or whatever it was.
And then, you know, Paolo's just standing out there
and he just kind of keeps going around it keeps going
around, it keeps going around
and I'm like, man, like he's gonna lose a lot of time here.
But it's like, oh, he already had such a gap.
He had like five seconds to play with
so he could go an extra 5, 6, 7 laps
still come out in the same track position
and now have shorter stints
to worry about later in the race.
And it's like, man, and like all he talked about on the
radio after every pit stop was,
how long is this thing gonna be?
Alright Alex, we need another 48 laps outta this stent.
He goes, okay, I gotta take care of the tires.
And he was just so methodical, so precise.
So everything that Alex Polo is
and had it not been for the,
can we talk about the like random sun shower
that caused the yellow?
Speaker 2: I never even saw it. Speaker 1: So you didn't see any rain?
Speaker 2: No, Speaker 1: There was rain on the leaving window. Yeah.
Oh no, no. It definitely rained.
Like there's a couple of the onboards like
had a decent amount of rain.
We saw some drops on our window and,
but like bright sun, like sunny warm, everything's great.
There's just some freak little 32nd shower.
But I mean credit Danny car, they, they, they threw it
as soon as they saw any kind
of moisture on the track, which is what you do.
Actually, a couple like that,
they were really quick on the gram caution,
which it gave them a lot of credit for.
They threw that caution when there was ilot lost an engine
and there was concern of maybe some fluid.
'cause they saw, I think it was Kirkwood's onboard was right
behind him and there was a ton
of Kirkwood's screen, so they threw the caution.
So I think race control was really on it this weekend.
But yeah, I mean Palo's gotta be, be, look, he, he's won it.
He's having, you know, a career year,
but like still, when he thinks back to mid Ohio
and he thinks back to uh, Milwaukee, he's gonna be like,
ugh, I should already have 10,
which would be matching the record.
And I got a shot at setting the record in Nashville.
But I don't know man, you would've circled the last quarter
of this season as like a, oh well I like P'S got a buffer,
his lead in the championship going into the last quarter
because it's heavily because
Speaker 2: Pat is coming, new garden's coming,
Speaker 1: Pat is coming, new McLaughlin's coming, Colton's coming,
you know, nah bro, no.
Mm-hmm He's in five race
Speaker 2: Also sorted, Speaker 1: Right?
And five oval races. He's won two, could've been three.
Now look, you can play,
you can play it the other way too, right?
Like Iowa Race two, Joseph lost that race, right?
Joseph was robbed of that race
because of two times he got sent
to the back on a time to caution.
So this one would've been a more like legitimate, I mean,
pull to flag win, you know, would've been incredible.
But still, just the level of that guy's operating on is,
uh, pretty
Speaker 2: Neat.
Listen, I hope he goes to F1 if that rumor's true
because man, does it make the rest of us
breathe a sigh of relief
Speaker 1: Outta here.
Got outta here.
The, the other, the other props I want to give is
to Firestone because that tire from, at least from my seat,
tell me if I'm wrong, but that tire seemed perfect.
It was like good grip with new,
it was the right amount of day percent.
It didn't make it like scary.
Like you could make it to 50 laps.
It wasn't like you were saving your life to get
Speaker 2: To 50 like wild vibrations. Right,
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, it, it's a wonderful tire.
Speaker 1: Very, very good. Yeah. So they've nailed that balance,
which is so hard to do, um, at that place.
So credit to everybody there
and yeah man, just credit to the fans
of Milwaukee for coming out.
Um, at the time of recording,
we have not seen the viewership numbers, so I don't know
how many of you watched on tv.
I hope it's many. Uh,
'cause it was a heck of a race, obviously.
And you know what's funny is I, I'm not entirely,
I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty sure
that we went long into golf this weekend.
So everybody that was upset in Portland, they got their,
they got their, you know,
it's all evened out, uh, live sports.
Anyway, um, dude, great job all weekend.
Awesome result for you. Awesome result for Christian.
Awesome result for the team. Uh, we head to Nashville,
30 seconds on Nashville. It was a,
Speaker 2: It was a good race last year.
Um, I, I imagine it'll be very similar, you know,
we're doing the weird, uh, two tire compounds again.
So alternates and primes.
I don't think that that made the race great last year.
Um, I think the, the arrow package, do you
Speaker 1: Think it was a negative?
Speaker 2: No. Or was it kind of, I think transparent.
It's a weird thing to, to have in there.
And the production of the events
and the people that turned out was also
very, very good last year.
So hopefully that continues to, to grow, um,
as we have moved that race to the new location.
But looking forward to it. Very
Speaker 1: Cool.
Alright everybody, thanks for tuning in.
And we got one left on the old Indy car calendar. Should be
Speaker 2: Lame.
Speaker 1: A banger, but yeah, it's lame, but it should be good.
So definitely watch or come or both.
Leave your TVs on as
Speaker 2: You leave, watch, and come to go to the
Speaker 1: Airport.
Yeah, I don't like
Speaker 2: The way you said that. Speaker 1: ,
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