(upbeat music) Welcome to the Marshall Pruitt podcast and your week in IndyCar and listener Q&A show. Getting this done earlier than I did last week y'all. I apologize though, it is a little bit past 6 p.m. On a Thursday evening, indeed had a very hectic week but nonetheless, good week. I had another round of chemo here early in the week, my wife, she is. Dealin' and doin' okay. Really happy though, her birthday's on Saturday so get to, if the side effects aren't too bad, try and enjoy that with my wife. So that'll be a nice little break from crazy busy stretch for the last couple of months. Got travel next week and then I think staying over. Got IndyCar, Mid-Ohio, double header at Iowa, the following weekend with the timing of things, the race going off Sunday at Mid-Ohio. No way to get back to Columbus or any other local airport and get on a flight and get back home by Sunday night. So would mean flying out Monday, losing more than half of Monday and then turning right back around a couple days later and going back to effectively the same region. So I think the plan right now is to do a bit of a stayover and yeah, all kinds of fun. What's next after that? Not gonna do Toronto, IndyCar the weekend after. A little bit of a break finally. Try and take some days off, which would be the first since I think early April, maybe March, I'm not sure, but take a little bit of a break. I got IMSA where wrote America and then yeah, then we speed through and finish off IndyCar season. So we are what, I think about a half hour issue way from today's Iowa IndyCar test being finished. This being the 27 car full field, everyone in hybrid configuration just got, ooh, should have turned my finger off there, you might have heard that. We are well below the lap record there, according to a friend there on one of the timing stands who just texted me. Been below the track record there at Iowa due to the repave, but the note here was after a long stint on tires still running well below. So that's really good, right? If you're a fan of the Iowa Speedway event with IndyCar, it's been pretty crazy. The amount of degradation during a run, so anyways. Notes here from that same friend that Joseph Newgarden had light contact, Pietro Fittepaldi had heavy contact and Romad Groschia also had contact here within the last little bit. So get the long test day done. I'll write up a little test report and then go about the rest of my evening and why don't we pull up our notes from our dear friend Jerry Siddath, which I'll read to you in just a moment. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAFT Technologies. Build to print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large scale automotive, motor sports and military applications. Visit FAFTechologies.com. It's PFAFFtechnologies.com to learn more about their services and how they can benefit your business. Next, it's the Justice Brothers. Makers of premium additives, lubricants and cleaners and servicing the automotive and motorsports industries for more than 85 years. The victories in all the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours a day tona, the Justice Brothers products are truly race proven. Learn about their vast history and range of offerings at justicebrothers.com. If you're fond of awesome motor racing collectibles, including FAFT motorsports McLaren, gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotor sports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, ThePruittStore.com. All the show stickers, models, racing memorabilia and trying to sell and put towards our fun to buy a house is now live and rocking. ThePruittStore.com. Thanks once again to all of our amazing partners and to our guide Jerry as well, who puts together the questions for us each week. And as we've been doing lately, because just love Jerry, he's awesome, we're going to read his questions. So we have about 25 questions, about 1300 words this week. The questions breakdown has followed, follows. I'll leave that in. Laguna race, new gardens pit stop foible, delayed yellow, David Malucus's day. Does Laguna race differently throughout the year? Item two, driver moves, tail pore shares prospects, details about no one's seagulls McLaren signing, Logan Sargent to prema, any involvement by Tony Kanan in the McLaren polo stuff. Third item team questions, we're going to Rick Ware and Dale coin. And then some evergreen questions. So all from our pal Jerry Suttath, who throws in a funny quote for us to close. He says, the thing about youth culture is, I don't understand it. That being from Leslie Nope from Parks and Recreation, a show of only seen once or twice. But yeah, I feel like, I don't know. I've never particularly cared for it, but maybe I need to watch it a little more and find out. So all right, why don't we do questions? And we'll get through as many as we can. First one going to GB Jeff. Is that Jeff from Great Britain? Or is your name good, but Jeff? I don't know, but thank you for sending this in. And I think you might be a first-time question sender, not totally sure. Asks was a criticism of letting new garden into the pits, undergreen, was that legitimate and consistent with past practice, referring to the late race spin, nudging off of Marcus Armstrong, who spun and ended up sitting backwards, exit a turn four on the inside of the track there in IndyCar's decision to keep the pits open, at least according to my informal when it looks like Armstrong came to a stop to when the caution came on. One minute and 13 seconds is what I measured. That is basically the length of a lap. I shouldn't say the length, the time taken to complete a lap at Laguna Seica. Was consistent with past practices? I think there might have been a little bit of confusion in how it was presented on the broadcast, maybe, maybe not. But Joseph, having been penalized earlier in the race, for a mistake, exiting the pits, having to do it drive through, having some issues in general, was on a alternate strategy. At the time the caution happened, he was indeed leading the race, had been leading for a handful of laps. He was needing to pit pretty soon and then would fall back. Where exactly, we don't know, 12th, 10th, 13th, something like that, but he was not leading as a result of truly passing everybody and being up there. It was a byproduct of an alternate strategy. And because he was the leader and because this is a practice, IndyCar has done for a little while now, said, "Hey, we're going to assess the caution." It's not some huge kerblamo where there's car parts and everything strewn all over the place, big wreckage and/or clearly the driver, a very bad crash. And we need to consider some sort of medical intervention. It didn't have the looks of that. So I understand what IndyCar said, "Okay, we're going to want to go yellow here, but we're not going to have a great sense of urgency because our leader has not pitted. We don't want to close the pits, screw the leader and have the unfortunate timing of this caution be something that alters the natural dynamics of the race. Where this might not jive is, this wasn't Alex Polo, for example, in the lead and getting close to needing to pit at the time that this happened, someone who truly started up front, ran up front, et cetera. This was the pits being left open for somebody who was not leading through natural purposes if you wanted to call it that. I would just say this, wasn't anything other than what they've been doing, so no issue there. I mentioned this to a friend at IndyCar this week, just as an external opinion, I get the policy. We don't want to let random yellows screw somebody. A was technically leading, but was about to fall back to more natural place, but the big issue I took was a minute and 13 seconds, like, come on, man. That isn't like, hey, the leaders within a couple of corners of the pits, we'll wait for them to get in and then throw the caution because we're waiting effectively an entire lap. If that's the case, this must not be a very serious thing. Don't throw a full-course caution. Just try and handle it locally. Do something like that. Or give yourself like 15 seconds. Instead of it just being, well, we'll wait forever based on where the leader is. That, to me, you really start to get into a conflicted area. If a driver is sitting stalled and backwards on the racing surface, even if they're not on the racing line, that is not something you would want to have stay in that scenario with cars at speed any longer than necessary. Full lap, that to me seems like way too much. So give yourself 15 to 20 seconds. If the leader is able to get in within that amount of time, once you've judged the incident to be not, oh my gosh, calamity, throw an immediate full-course or even a red, give yourself a window but a small window. And at least for the feedback I got was told that, yeah, that might not be a bad thing to consider going forward. Chris Ludwig says kindly, continued prayers for your wife. Thank you, Chris. It says, "If New Garden hadn't undone the gift "he was given by the delayed caution. "All in his own, how hot with the torches "and how sharp with the pitch forks have been "and the mob gathered on the captain's doorstep." I'll touch on this one briefly. This is always going to be a problem in terms of those who perceive such things as a problem with the conflict of interest. The guy who owns the series enters cars in the series and has cars thereby on what could be perceived as the receiving end of beneficial, prejudicial behavior, if I wanna put it that way. Going back to GB Jeff's question, there was nothing wrong with what IndyCar did in terms of following past practices, it's all good. The main issue is who it was, knowing that we have this ongoing ability to say, okay, the guy who owns the series who's in charge of everything, his car got the super magical, happy gift. Again, no issues as I saw it. No, do I believe there to be any kind of prejudicial behavior going on to favor New Garden here? Not at all, but as long as we have this guy who owns the series also running cars in the series, the potential for this to be called out and questioned is never gonna go away. Ed Joris says, "What is it gonna take for IndyCar "to stop waiting for leading cars to pit "before throwing a yellow for a car in a dangerous position? "Is someone gonna have to get seriously hurt "from a sporting point of view? "It's a huge advantage for the cars yet to pit." Can't argue with any of that, Ed. Greg Moffat says, "David Maluchas, "if not for a cut tire, the kid still has it." Indeed he does. The coolest part for me though, Greg, is no doubt that he had what we last saw that he had. What was cool to me was now in a better team with more money, better resources, better everything. David, to my surprise, while still recovering from this injury, was able to demonstrate that placed into a better team, he was able to level up. Not all the way, still a long ways to go. But, that is the thing that I took away from this. More than anything, hey, given faster and better things, a little Davey Maluchas absolutely made use of those things. Didn't stumble, didn't, right, wasn't delayed, wasn't whatever, whatever. This to me is just something where you go, cool. This kid can do big things. The other part here to close is, we'll talk more about this. I'm sure I'll write more about this. Davey's gotten as far as he has with little to no driver development. Friends at Dale Coin Racing run a fine motor racing team, but they are not blessed with layers upon layers. Of driver development tools, how to make each driver the ultimate professional, all tasks and aspects of how they function, improving those areas, like those are just, that's not what was there for Davey. And so at shank, and through this connection as well with Andretti Global, hoping things go well and he ends up getting to stay, but at least for the 9, 10, however many races he gets to do with shank this year. And there is no contract, there's no agreement or anything beyond the races to close out the end of this year, confirm that. He has the opportunity to become much better. And this is if coin was a really good kind of state school, he's now getting to go to a really high level university. And so is Davey Maluchus going to be a totally changed driver by the end of this season as a result of spending whatever it is half a year with shank? Of course not, but are we going to see him get better and learn things that he didn't learn during those first two years in a smaller team? For sure. And so that's the thing I'm really excited about. Hey, right away, he was really impressive and quick and all those things. What's this kid going to look like once he has had some greater levels of professional development applied to him? Eric Franklin says, "How does Laguna take a race differently in different seasons to the off track areas ever green up?" Or is it always brown and dead looking? Seems the dust from the dry areas off track would impact grip. He asks question mark at the end. Yeah, of course, brother. It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful at Laguna at my other home tracks here's point slash Sonoma Raceway. It's just that during the times when it is warmer, and the big series come to these tracks, they tend to be kind of brown. Yeah, heat comes up and that goes away. But green and lush late in the year, early in the year, just, yeah, unfortunately, not when the big events are in town. Yeah, so pay, we repaved the track. Actually, they repaved both tracks, I mentioned, but this one in particular Laguna, repaved. Awesome. The track surface worn out pretty quickly. So that's one thing. But the thing that wasn't changed, and I guess they could, but I doubt they ever will, is you have a lot of sand on either side of this beautifully freshly paved motor racing circuit. And with wind and/or drivers going off, which they do a lot, you kick up a lot of sand and dirt and whatever it might be onto the track. That is as old a story at Laguna Seca as Laguna Seca is old. So despite the newish track surface, hey, when you put these little small silica pieces, these little tiny miniature, miniature marbles known as sand onto the track, yeah, you certainly impact the grip. Charles Napier, this is Marshall. Missed you in your reporting at Laguna. I love seeing the big crowds for Imsa. Yeah, Watkins Glen last weekend was so awesome. Got to see the Prude briefly. I'm just telling y'all, one of the great gifts of my life is the listener group that has come up in and around from this podcast. And so getting to see so many of the fine folks from Steven Brownabonic to Christy Pardana to, I didn't get to see him, but he brought me snacks, Ryan Caminiti and just on and on and on, like just new folks, new members of the Prude listener group get to meet, which is a real honor. And then there's the many friends, folks who become friends. Who travel to so many events. So that was a great part of being at Watkins as well. I got beer and snacks during a five minute visit. I'm just saying. If that isn't a sign of an amazing life, I don't know what it is. Charles says, "Can you please give us the real story behind the Teopore share seat change and what his chances are for remaining in IndyCar?" You got some other questions here. One more, I'll get to in just a sec. There's a lot of truthiness to what was explained to us. And you might have read in print about the decision to go with Nolan Segal. There's a rumor, and it is a rumor. There's a rumor that there's a lot of money that change hands in order for that seat to become his. I know that when I asked the team at the very highest level, I was told no. Wrong, incorrect, wouldn't take money from anybody to drive for us at Errol McLaren. Take that as you choose. Here's what I would say. And this is the part that I do believe absolutely stands up against any questions. Nolan and his father decided instead of finishing out this year in any NXT, I think they're running third or so in the championship at the time, instead of finishing out this year and then going to IndyCar next year with this Skipping the Road America NXT race to do that in Augustine/Kinapinos car. We've knowingly made it almost impossible for us to win the title in NXT. You could also look and see. Louis Foster is just raging, raging at the moment. Jacob Abel leading the championship for most of the season. Nolan won the first race, but Jacob leading significantly positive for him, big leveling up for him this year, but Louis Foster barring something crazy is going to run away with the title unless Jacob answers. It was already starting to look before any of the Kinapinos stuff happened like, hmm, Nolan looked like Nolan was a title contender last year as a rookie. I expected him to be the clear, decisive championship guy this year. Wasn't necessarily going in that direction. It doesn't mean that he lacks talent or any of that. Just hey, plans don't always go to plan. So even before the opportunity to drive Kinapinos car came about, I would say for sure it stood out to me that he could finish out the year for the sake of it, but I don't know what that gets him. I wonder if they might consider doing some more IndyCar thinking they would stay with coin and just try and do more races in that 51 entry. Regardless, the thing that everybody among leadership at Errol McLaren said, which I don't doubt, is the seagulls decided they wanted to go now. And they were talking to multiple teams. I know that because I have asked and had that confirmed by more teams than just Errol McLaren. And it was evident they were not looking to sign a half year deal and then try and figure out where to go next year. It's pretty clear from what they were offering, which I'm told was significant, that they wanted to do a multi-year deal. Get going now, lock something in, so wasn't just doing the half season to finish, but also staying for multiple years after and really get something locked in and moving now. And so whether money changed hands or not, I can't tell you. I can tell you, as like I said, there's a rumor of there was a lot offered. I know another team told me they were offered a lot. No, was not told any amount, just told it was significant. I asked the Errol McLaren team, they said, no, absolutely not. Fair enough, asked and answered. The belief was, if we do not sign him now, someone else will for multiple years, and we will miss out on the opportunity, would say there's a lot of faith involved. And this would also have to be something that is a positive and speaks to the belief in Nolan's talent. Today, Thursday, June 27th, or whenever you're listening to this, there is no way on planet Earth anyone can say Nolan Segal is a better open wheel driver than Teoporcher. It's not a criticism of Nolan, it's a statement of fact. Based on Teo's achievement, reigning Formula Two champion, someone who with no knowledge of the Delara Indy car, no knowledge of the tracks, came in and impressed right away. Despite missing two races, two races worth of points, it was within six points of full-season driver and mild Indy car veteran. Petro Fittapaldi in the standings was only 25 points behind Rookie of the Year leader, 2022 Indiana X-T champ, Lesmas Lenkvis at Chipkenasi. Right? So again, two full races worth of points missing from his tally. And was within 25 points, despite knowing nothing about any of this stuff here, of matching leanness at Ganasi. Again, no argument can be made that is credible that today, Nolan is better than Teo. He's not, period, and a statement. But the belief in hope is, since he is newer to this young experience wise, young age wise, Teo's also not exactly old, but give him some time and he will develop into someone who is poor, share-like. That's the hope, that's the belief. And if you look at a lot of what Nolan has achieved so far, despite being years behind Teo in his open-wheel development, you can see some kernels. There you go. Okay. I see the bones of an extremely good Indy car driver here. Won't even get to talking about great, because again, you got to achieve those things, give those indications before you would say, "Aha, I see someone who is going to give Pato, Colton, Joseph, Alex, nightmares." Haven't seen that yet. But again, go a little bit longer on this answer, Charles, just because there's been a lot of questions in and about Nolan and whatnot. And I figured this is a good place to sum up a lot of it. You can see how has a question here about how much he paid. Lint Snyder, as always, our Minister of Mirth has a funny question here. Yeah, funny-ish. But if Aaron McLaren wanted to have the best results possible for its number six Chevy for this season, it would have kept Teo in the car. The belief is, given time, something that Nolan obviously needs more of, he can be a badass Indy car driver. If there were financial aspects to this decision, then there were financial aspects to this decision. And if there weren't, well, there you go. But I can tell you this. The kid was going to be an Indy car next year, full season and beyond, no matter what, because he's really good. Talented, smart, committed, like... I've written this, said this. Nolan is phenomenal. A great kid, first of all, just as a person. Lovely kid, his father, phenomenal guy. Great people, first and foremost. Nolan has been raised in racing in a wonderful way. Father, making sure that he's gaining knowledge and experience in a lot of different series, endurance racing, you name it, and trying to make him a well-rounded driver. Tim Cindrick did the same exact thing with his son when he was coming up, right? He's done pretty well for himself, that Austin Cindrick Daytona 500 winning kid. So very much same type of blueprint. I don't want you to focus on one and only thing. I want you to get a lot of experience and a lot of different, not just types of cars, but series tracks, teammates, teams, engineers, mechanic. I'm going to load you up with knowledge and experience, and that is going to help you to be a professional very early on, and then to help use everything you've learned to develop into someone who's extremely good, if not great, hopefully at one point in time, in the future. So, raw deal for tail. That kid, again, we just met him, but as sweet of a child as he'd ever meet and wickedly talented, obviously. So, nonetheless, no one was going full-time IndyCar next year somewhere. That, to me, was never a question. We just know now it's starting earlier with an extremely good team, albeit in a car where, in a short amount of time, Teo had built a lot of fandom and support. Your final question here, Charles, talking about Teo, would Prema or Honko be an option for him? Yeah, for sure. Got a question here about Logan Sargent to Prema, I'll get to in just a moment. I would say for sure, I would say, yeah, when I got wind of all this, which was about a day before it was announced, I didn't want to bug Teo, waited for it to be announced, but reached out to him right after and said, "Hey, any team owner numbers you need, team manager, whatever, let me know, do it all the time. It's an old practice, whatever you need." And so, sent him, I think, about six numbers. He had some numbers for other owners, and I know that of three, three. Spoke to three owners as well throughout the course of the day, and two of them expressed interest for sure. One of them may be short-term, or shorter-term, meaning, could he have something for him to derive maybe before the end of the season? Yeah. Congratulations to our guy Toby Sowery. He'll be making his IndyCar debut here at Mid-Ohio at Dale Cohen in that 51 entry. Would hope they would give Teo a shot, because I think that kid, again, I think he can do a lot for them. Two other teams that could have vacancies next year who expressed, said they were, yeah, wanted to talk to them were very interested. So, I think there's something there, Charles. The main question, though, is this. It's the end of June. We got, what, two-and-a-half-ish, two-and-three-quarters, more months left in the season, knowing that he's no longer employed. Again, well, let me rephrase that. I don't know if they're paying, I would assume they're probably paying him through the end of the season, since that's what they announced. They were planning to do. Does the guy sit around and hope and wait for the phone to ring? Does he show up at Mid-Ohio and other tracks trying to meet with more people in person and see what he can develop? Or does he say, you know what, I'm headed back to France. I'm headed back to F1, see if and what I can find there, or similar. It's one thing if he'd been an IndyCar driver for a full year. I'd say, yeah, he'd stay here for sure, be fully committed, knowing that he was an IndyCar driver for two-and-a-half, three months, whatever it was. I'm just saying, I don't know how long he sits in limbo here before he says, you know, let me go back to where I come from and see if I can figure out more stuff there. Fermented laws. Have you heard anything about Logan Sargent joining Prema next year? Rumor floating around is that he's already signed, emphasis on rumor. Yes, have a story, probably for tomorrow, Friday, or you might be listening to this on Friday or whatever. Spoke with Prema IndyCar CEO, Pierce Phillips. Try and get that story out here shortly. That was, I think, one of my last questions. He was not particularly interested in talking about any specifics, nor would I expect him to on the topic of drivers. Did give us a general idea of how it's going, when how many folks keep talking to him about wanting to drive, but I did ask on the topic of Sargent, which, again, wasn't interested in addressing by name. I just simply asked, okay, let me ask this. Have you signed any drivers for next year, or beyond? To which he said, single word answer, two letters, no. So it didn't come across as fake or false. Took what he said to be on at face value. If we see Logan Sargent announced here in the coming weeks or whatever, and it's with Prema, well, then maybe they were talking, and things just got close, but weren't done. So when I asked and he said, no, well, that was the true and accurate state of where they're at. Or who knows? Maybe they have started talking today. Who knows? I can tell you this. I am aware that the Sargents are talking to multiple teams, including outreaches within the last week to inquire about talking with another team. If there were to be something already signed, it would come as a surprise, because I would not understand why one team on this topic, and this was before that story went out at wherever it was saying that he had signed. This was before, so pre all of that before there were any rumors. A team told me that they had an outreach asking if they'd be interested in talking. So again, possible that he signed? Sure. Would it be strange to still be reaching out to teams if that were the case? Yes. Asking the person in charge of building and running the team he's said to have signed for? He said, no, we have signed nobody. Kosa underscore horrible. Boy, we got a lot of newish, newer question submissions here, which I love. In the whole polo Ganesi McLaren drama, how much of a role did Tony Kanan play in all of it? He seems to have nestled himself into a cozy position at Aaron McLaren and was the one that teased the whole thing on his twitch. From what I remember, the NTT data guys loved him as well. Is this one of those things that Chip is shooting daggers his way every time that he sees him? Boy, we're getting into fun. As I understand it, there was a belief that Alex could be had and a desire to be paid more than he was for sure. As I'm told drove outreaches to other teams to see if they had interest. I'm trying to remember exactly where Tony was in all this at this time back in '22. I don't know why Tony would be in the middle of all that back then. And if I'm wrong, then again, I'm just giving you what I know, which might not be accurate or have the whole picture to it. Tony being sporting director for Aaron McLaren, it's a big deal, obviously, big, big deal. He has become very much of the right-hand man to Zack, to Gavin. I mean, he's right. He is at the top of that leadership structure there. I can't tell you where this whole thing originated back when Alex was at Ganesi. But the thing that I had heard multiple times was just of the dissatisfaction. Hey, I just won the 2021 championship. I'm getting paid pennies. Let's redo a contract here that's more commensurate with my value and achievement. It wasn't done. And so I think as many of us have written countless words about a year or two ago, efforts to try and find a new home where more money could be offered took place. I don't believe, again, unless I'm totally blanking, I don't believe Tony was involved with Aaron McLaren back then in any way. I know that he did his farewell drive for them, signed and did the Indy 500 in 2023, but again, a year before is when all the stuff was kicking off. So not sure I see those angles, but again, I could be totally wrong and I don't watch Tony's Twitch stream, so I don't fully know in the reference there. But we're going to say about our guy TK. He is someone in the paddock where nobody has a vanilla opinion of him. He's either loved or not loved, and I guess I could say I know exactly what that's like. Yeah, look, anything involving Zack and Chip is going to be not great. Now, knowing that there's former Gennassi driver Tony Kanan, there's a sporting director. I mean, I can only imagine that this has not helped in terms of chip shooting daggers from his good old eyeballs. But yeah, if Tony played a role in all this, and I'm talking back when it really started in 2022, not the blown up again in 23 part blind to that. Rally Lotto says, what is the situation with Dale Cohen and Rick Ware's partnership on the 51 car? Still has the Rick Ware Racing logo on it, but no RWR sponsors have crossed over like when Grosjean and Sato drove it. Conversely, we're not seeing Elf or Gav on one of Rick Ware's Mustangs or drag cars. Is the DCR and RWR partnership reaching its end or is something else at play? Don't know. Great question. I have wondered the same thing. Usually the big contribution from RWR has been a NERTech ODT. Is that it? Some sort of commercial support. Does that mean RWR isn't contributing something privately? Doesn't. So that's been my assumption. That okay, I don't know what the deal is, but obviously for it to continue, there has to be some sort of financial arrangement. We do know for sure though, that both cars are drastically underfunded. First, second, we also know they are drastically short on sponsorship. So, Dale tends not to go into the full financial details, nor do most team owners of how they pay for what, but in the past, having spent a lot of his money to support the team, this has looked like a year where Dale has needed to come out of pocket. Again, to make that happen, my assumption is Rick Ware has been a part of that. I just don't know to what degree. Andrew Miller says there was apparently a charter meeting at Laguna. We didn't get any announcements, but this is getting any closer to reality or heels being dug in. Story on this coming. As soon as I can. This was the make up for the one at Road America that was scheduled and then canceled. And the thing that I heard from a handful, not many, but a small handful of team owners during the Road America weekend is charter blew up and badly. And all I've heard since, leading into Laguna, obviously I wasn't there, but leading into Laguna, asking folks, hearing that, okay, maybe things are expected to be back on track. And coming out of Laguna have heard that indeed things are headed in a very good direction. So, if I had to guess, Cadence Wise Andrew would be, hey, we've been trying to go hybrid for a long time. We announced we were going hybrid in May of 2019. Like, what was Earth even like that? Like back then? I remember. It seems like a real long time ago. I don't even know. I've been trying to go hybrid for a long time. And it's about to happen. So, let's get that done. And then hopefully it all goes super well because we go hybrid at Mid-Ohio. And then just a couple days later, we do a double head of race at Iowa, first ever hybrid oval race to my knowledge. If I'm IndyCar, again, I could be wrong, but we'll see. If I was having to pick dates and times, I would say, let's focus on going hybrid. Hopefully having a bunch of really positive things to talk about promote. Let's get through this really quick three in a row, Mid-Ohio, Iowa, Toronto. Then we go into the good old Olympic break. And why don't we take a quick beat, take a deep breath coming out of the three in a row. And in this dead zone of activity and you name it for IndyCar, why don't we use that Olympic blackout to do a big rollout in all the bells and whistles about charters. That's my thought. That's how I would do things. Does that mean they will? Absolutely not. Barry Lee, getting down to the last couple of questions here. I'm looking forward to seeing the hybrid formula in action. I'm curious who do you think will have this figured out first and who will be behind the curve? Well, the teams that did more miles than anybody be Team Penske and Chip Canassi Racing. In that same general sphere of hybrid running, in terms of mileage, you would throw in after, I believe, and Dredi Global and Aero McLaren. They also happen to be the top four big four teams in IndyCar. So kind of expect that from them anyways. Bear, but yeah, those four for sure. At least when I was at the Milwaukee hybrid test a week or two ago or however long ago, the thing that really stood out was for many of the teams during the two hour, two and a half hour. You test all you want on your own. And then in the afternoon, we IndyCar are going to take things over and we're going to do mock race starts and cautions. We're going to put the hybrid units through all kinds of race simulation things to get a true feel for how they react. The amount of drivers I spoke to after that two, two and a half hour do whatever you want portion of the test, who said they did nothing hybrid related or very little hybrid related, despite it being a hybrid test was eye opening. And what it spoke to was for many of the teams who are going to Milwaukee either for the first time ever, right, got a lot of new new ish teams and or entries that are new drivers that are new, right. A lot of the folks were like, Hey, okay, hybrid. Yep, got it. Well, I'm sure we'll get to it at some point in time and play with it a bit, but we're just going to work on setup stuff. And so that to me was a big emphasis for a lot of teams during the one and only time they really had to just choose whatever they wanted to do. I was thinking it was going to be way more intensive for them wanting to get into all kinds of hybrid running and trying this and harvesting this way and so on. Wasn't the case as many told me, so just share that to close out on this because you have the Penske Ganesi and Dreddy McLarens who did the absolute majority of hybrid testing for IndyCar slash for Chevy and Honda. If they aren't the ones who know more and are more clued in on best practices, best uses of the capabilities, I'll be shocked. It's the midfield and lower teams who've had a comparative, minimal amount of running, plus a need like at Milwaukee to focus more on making their cars just simply handle at a new track with this chassis in this configuration. Then becoming hybrid subject matter experts, so look for the big teams that are already beaten up on everybody to keep beating up on everybody. Chris McCarry say MP, hope all is well at home. Thank you. Says with the new Fox deal, I guess it's sponsoring an IndyCar will now cost a little more for teams with contracts in place already for next year. Do they have kickers for viewership numbers or whether the race is on network versus cable? Great question. I don't know if any sponsors that come to mind would be open to an open ended sponsorship agreement, meaning we can only pay you what we know the value to be. If you want us to obligate ourselves to potentially giving you millions more. If next year on a different network with ratings that should be better, but we don't know because we haven't run any races and haven't seen them, but potentially obligate ourselves to give you millions more. I know that's what IndyCar teams would love. I just don't know how many sponsors would actually opt in to that reason being everybody's working with more or less a fixed budget. Hey, this is how much we have to work with the valuation on what you just did, which is, but we can only go with for next year. Probably going to have to work with the numbers in front of us, not what we hope they would be because then you have the flip side of that. So I'm a sponsor. You come to me and say, Hey, you've been paying five million. Next year, we should have bigger ratings and we think it could be worth as much as seven. Can we sign for, again, five based on what we expect the average to be coming out of 2024? But if things are better, can we have a window up to seven million? I would say something to this effect. It's possible. What if they're lower? If you're willing to bring the number down to three, if they don't meet those lofty expectations, then sure. Basically, what you're asking me to do is gamble and gambling is going to get me fired from my company. So we can talk about that, but are you willing to give us money back if it doesn't meet whatever forecasted numbers because who knows what they are? How can you forecast something if you just have never done it? So anyways, just share all that, Chris, because I think the answer is more a case of do I expect teams to come out of this year? We expect since we have more time on USA and doubling the streaming races. We don't want it to be this way, but I'll be very surprised if the year's average TV audience is anything other than down. Again, hopefully, if it is, hopefully it's by a tiny amount, but anyways, we'll see where we end up. But would I expect teams to say, okay, look, just cost of inflation, you name it. We'd like to ask for a little more for next year. That's not out of the norm. Being able to say, hey, we are really killing it with TV audience size. That's more of a get-through 2025. That's where you have a real number. That's where you can put that in front of sponsors and you don't have to sell anything. It is just right in front of you, fully justified. gelatinous cube shots asks for getting into the little bit of overtime to one or two here real quick. MP, since there isn't much going on this week, news-wise, well, that's why we're looking at it. Oh, congratulations, by the way, to Marshank Racing confirmed going back to IMSA. Representing Acra as their lone factory team in GTP wrote about that being what we were looking to have happen back in May. I can tell you now knew what was happening back in May. It wasn't a question mark, but was asked to present it as a question mark. So did, but congrats to MSR on going back after one year hiatus to GTP. gelatinous cube shots asks, what's your favorite breakfast food? Ah, I no longer eat the things that are my favorite. And those are usually chocolatey and doughy and croissant and that kind of stuff, but cereal, right? Oh, I mean, again, I've sworn off all the bad stuff, but yeah, and it's not just breakfast. There's some days where my dinner is cereal. And just to tell you how far I've come along as a evolved husband drank nothing but regular cow's milk grown up. Came a point where lactose intolerance was a real thing. My wife being lactose intolerant, she hadn't pretty much drank cow's milk forever. So she drank what almond milk for a long time. I didn't care for it. And so just drank the regular stuff. And then she moved off from almond and moved to oat milk. And she was like, give this a try. I don't like this stuff. I just like regular like 2% or whatever. And lactade and tried the oat milk and I just smiled. And I'm like, this is amazing. So I don't know what's wrong with me. Actually, it's a good thing. But like, it's really healthy and I really like it. I never thought, I'm just telling you, if this was me five years ago, twenty years ago, I'd tell you, nope, never happier, just this pure fantasy. I don't know what to tell you. But yeah, oat milk with like, yeah, some sort of Cheerios, honey nut Cheerios. It might be like, you never go wrong. So anyways, there you go. Ken Anderson, how are you Ken? One of the details of the chart is to be released, discovered or went into that a little bit. There's Dale Koins, a true racer, but their struggles have me wondering if they are charter worthy, hardly any sponsors, carousel of drivers, equipment shortcomings, makes them almost the laughing stock of IndyCar. Will the situation change next year? I presume Dale Koins wants to continue. Yes, he does. Dale's been in this place before, right? Like the rotation of driver. I think what with Toby, Toby, I think will be the sixth person in the 51 car this year. I don't know if it's ever been this many in one year for Dale, but for those who weren't around in the champ car days and even the car days, this was not anything other than kind of normal. High rotation of drivers and/or, Rando drivers who brought whatever budget who sucked, achieved almost nothing and went away and were forgotten, but helped keep the team going. I would just say this about the charter as I understand it. It is not so much a question of worthy today in 2024 as it is committed. Who's been here for a while, if not a long time, full time? Those are the folks being, quote, rewarded. I don't know what is the grandfather, I think, is maybe one way you might think of it, but if this was done on a year by year basis and charters were given or taken, it would be pretty volatile because they would be taken from one team that rose one year and fell the other. Yeah, not a huge fan of the charters at all, but if we're just grading on this year, I hear you. But this to me is something where, you know what, when IndyCar needed entries and needed cars, Dale Coin's been there for a really, really, really long time. So, to me, he's just as worthy as anyone else. Another just quick thing to close, in every racing series, there's a bottom. And unless there's some sort of extraordinary circumstance, the teams or drivers or engineers or the whatever's at the bottom suck. That doesn't mean they will next year, but it means they're at the bottom for a reason, it's where they belong. There's always a bottom and you can get rid of a coin or you can get rid of a Haas formula one, you can get rid of a run down the list, get rid of a Williams. Cool, put in one or two others, fill them back, fill those spots. People who suck are going to be at the bottom. I've worked for one team that's certainly qualified as trash. And our results showed it and we sucked and that team disappeared before too long because it deserved to go away. To me, a guy like Dale, he gets a pass, many passes because he's been so committed. Employees, many people, gives young drivers, young mechanics, young everything a chance to come up and develop. Yeah, I tend to look a little bit bigger picture. Now, if the Dale coin racing team that we are seeing this year can is the same next year and the year after, maybe it's time to have a conversation. But yeah, a little too soon for me to do that right now. I will just go, let's see, Ed Canerva, sorry, I'm getting to this late in the show, Ed, curious about the regeneration with hybrids on the ovals. I've been intrigued by the thoughts about drafting and the like, but one here is wondering about is the super hard breaking before pit lane. Would this be an opportunity for regeneration or is it negligible? I would encourage you, Ed, to go to the good old YouTubes or the Instagrams or the Twitter /Xs and find Honda Racing Corporation US, finished editing back and forth or producing on my end. Part three in the HRC US hybrid 101 video series that should be going up, I think today. Might have already gone up, but if you take a look at episode one, episode two, episode two in particular from last week, even episode three a little bit. Today with Linus Lundqvist, go take a look at that, find that on your preferred social outlet HRC US. There are, I think, on YouTube and, I'm sorry, on IG and X, there are the little quick 45 second cut downs from the videos. Those are fine, watch them please, but go to YouTube and/or find the full-length video link in the descriptions of the cut downs, Ed, and watch the full ones. So myself and HRC US President David Salters, we put in a lot of time, along with our good friends, partners, friends of mine at Co-Force, on the filming, production, editing, you name it side. We put in a crazy amount of time to develop the series and make it happen. So, hopefully everything to answer for you there, Ed, go and spend some time on the good old YouTube's. Two other quick ones to answer, James R_IndiCarfan, MPNE updates on Honda in their situation. It also kind of says all the best to your wife, Chabral, and you and the cats. No updates, but I wouldn't expect to have any updates yet. Looking forward to getting to Mid-Ohio and having a little bit of FaceTime to try and get an update there. I heard one thing about this and wanting to talk to folks in person face-to-face before saying any more. Outcast of life, final question. Hey MPNE forcing any big driver moves coming, considering the seats we think are available. Yes, indeed, of the many things I need to do outcast of life, one of them is to finish a silly season update. And, yeah, in calling around and talking to some teams, not all yet. Still need to do that for sure. Yeah, we're going to see some movement. There is one team, for example, and again, I'll save this for the silly season update because that's what I get paid to do. There is one team that surprised me quite a bit by saying when asking them, "Hey, silly season stuff, yada yada yada." And had that conversation and the person said, "If anyone asks or however you might say it in your own words, we potentially have two openings next year." So, yeah, there's the ones we know about, and then there's, I think, as I call around, maybe I might find even more that I wasn't expecting. But, yeah, I do indeed expect to see some more movement. All right, y'all, thank you so much for everything you sent in. Big thank you to our super paltry setup for putting everything together. And to great friends at FAFF Technologies, the Justice Brothers in torontomotisports.com. I'll speak to y'all here very soon. (upbeat music)
