[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the Marshall Proof podcast. In your week in IndyCar, a listener Q&A show capturing this on a Tuesday evening, headed off Thursday morning, flying back to one of my favorite places, heading into good old MKE, Milwaukee Airport, driving about an hour north. It is time for more Road America, y'all, this time after the IndyCar race in June. Well, it is now August, almost August, which means it is time for IMSA and the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. So cannot wait blast back out there. And yeah, just my favorite-ish place for motor racing on the planet just about. So hope I will get to see some of y'all there. Thanks, once again, for all the questions you sent in. Our pal Jerry Sooteth put them together. Actually Jerry's wife put them together, as he explained here. So Aaron, thank you for being amazing. Jerry preoccupied with some work stuff, as he's been doing so kindly for us, been breaking things down into little groups and preamble here, someone asking about some social media teasing of news coming and whatnot. Alex Pillow is championship bid. You have a strategy being applied there. Do the closing stretch of races unfairly favor a team? Will Marshank Racing stick with their technical alliance partner? Question about Tony Kanan's level of authority. The rumors of indreddy, changing engine partners, number of other things. That second group asking for some favorite racing book and movie ideas, circumstances between Porsche and Daley's substitutions recently, and just a few other interesting items. And if we have the ability, we'll get into the third group. And let's see. We usually have Jerry leaving us with something funny to kick off the show. This one from one of my favorite, unfortunately, late comedians, Mitch Hedberg, who said, an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. Says, you should never see an escalator temporarily out of order sign. Just escalator temporarily stares. Sorry for the convenience. Look at old Mitch, love that guy. Let's take a brief, quick moment to say thank you to those who deserve that thanks and we'll be right back. 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, motorsports, 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 Daytona, 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 torontomotorsports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, thepruitstore.com. All the show stickers, models, racing member of Bieliam trying to sell and put towards our fun to buy a house is now live and rocking. Thepruitstore.com. Should have some newsy items coming in the morning. If you happen to be listening to this right after it goes up, Tuesday evening. Jamie, the rocking and amazingly awesome Jamie Chadwick. Hearing we should have some news about her and her first IndyCar test being scheduled. Also believe young Formula 2 standout front runner who I mentioned in the last racer, silly season piece, looking over here for opportunities, Zane Mahoney. He expected to test, I believe, Thursday or so at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and wrote a embargoed story and filed that a little while ago for some other driver related news coming here. So picking up on things a little bit, why don't we kick off with that first question. Eric Franklin says three ovals to close the season, four races total with that Milwaukee double header. Do you expect Alex polo to try and go for wins? Or play it safe for points given he's never been able to win on an oval. Not winning on an oval seem to have bugged Scotty Mac, but I don't get that impression that polo cares too much about not getting that oval win. Am I wrong? Alex certainly cares. There was some fun banter between he and Scotty Mac at Iowa. Scotty obviously getting his first oval win, saying he now feels like a genuine actual full IndyCar driver and a polo took that in a funny way, saying, so you're saying I'm not. And anyway, said a little bit of back and forth, which was pretty cute. But Alex is not sitting on a ridiculous 100 plus point lead at this stage of the season like he was last year. Less than half of that. And with the five races to go, four of those being on ovals, not a situation where he can race for points. He has to go for the highest position possible. If there's a benefit here and it's a slight benefit, it's that the one acknowledged oval master in the series, that being Joseph Newgarden, who in particular is devastating on short ovals. And every oval we go to is 1.33 miles or shorter to close the season. He's far enough back in the points to where, unless polo crashes, blows engines, has other issues and just sinks like a rock through adversity. We don't expect that to happen based on performance. Unless polo's season just blows up on him, it should be impossible for Newgarden to catch and overhaul him. So from polo's standpoint, that could actually be a positive. If Joseph was sitting P2, P3 in the standings within whatever 50 points, 60 points, I definitely think Alex would be in panic mode and having to drive like an insane person. I don't think he needs to elevate his driving to insanity. But he does indeed have right next to Joseph Newgarden. He's got a couple of folks chasing him, closest behind him in the standings, who are indeed just as much of a threat on ovals. That being, of course, will power, right? Also directly behind him, Scott Dixon. So look back in fifth place and it's Pato Award, Pato another super oval monster. After that, it's Scotty McLachlan, Joseph's, what 140 ish, I forget the exact amount, 140, 150, a crazy amount of points back. So all but impossible unless Alex just blows up for the next five rounds. Power, he tends to be pretty darn good on short ovals. He is somebody who can, I would say for sure, be in a situation where he can draw down that gap on Alex. Dixon as well, who's just a couple points behind power in third, certainly has the ability to do that. So not huge immediate heat from Joseph, but definitely heat from power in Dixon, who can overtake Alex if Alex is not excellent everywhere we go, including Portland, the one and only road race left, Alex Pulseter, winner there, like Alex is pretty darn good there. We expect him to go well. But where this could just get interesting to close on this, Polo for sure needs to be on the podium as often as he can, hopefully for his sake, win at least one of the remaining oval races. He's extremely good on ovals. So it's not like he's incapable of getting that first win before the year is over. But New Garden could actually be his best friend. So knowing that New Garden's teammate power is currently second in the standings, I do think we're going to step into a, all right, not saying never, but Joseph, if you're in a situation where you can maybe help Will, he's our best shot at getting the championship right now. McLachlan, not totally out of it, but he's still a fair ways back. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for Joseph to go out and win whatever one, two, three of these oval races. If Alex can finish second or third, having Joseph out of the realistic title frame, taking the big points that Polo's closest championship rivals need, like this could be an interesting thing for us to watch, assuming Joseph is his usual badass on short ovals. If Alex can't win, I bet you he's privately rooting for Joseph to get the job done, as long as he can come home pretty close behind him, get a good haul of points and know that both power and Dixon and potentially Potto and whomever else aren't really able to make any serious inroads on where he's at. Ben Allen saw Dixon's comments about the reigning ovals and only one road course being good for Penske. There's another article stated more teams off the record, felt the end of the year schedules set up to benefit Penske. Is this a nothing burger? First part of the schedule is all street and roads prior to the 500? Or is this continued frustration over no separation of church and state pushed a pass scandal? Yeah, had some of the same folks saying similar things to me. The most interesting framing, I haven't put this in a story yet. We did the interview, I don't know, two weeks ago, if not longer, but long chat with Aaron McLaren team principal Gavin Ward, who wasn't so much saying the schedule is set up to favor Penske. Obviously, Potto, pretty darn good, Juan and Hanoa. More on the topic of testing in test days and who has tested where? Maybe more of a concern of are the top teams. This is one of them and has certainly received some favor in being asked to do a decent amount of hybrid testing by Chevrolet. But his point was, you know, Penske definitely was the most tested team when we went to that hybrid test at Milwaukee right after the road America race. And I hope nobody was surprised because they were one, two, three on the good old speed chart. Test days coming up at Nashville, believe there's going to be a Penske car. I think there's going to be one from Ganesi. There might even be one from Aaron McLaren as well. So as he mentioned, this benefits us too, but said, you know, it does feel like the haves continue to get more portions of things that allow them to run better than the have nots. And if the team that everybody regards as being the best on ovals at the moment, that being team Penske seeming to put in as many if not more miles in testing at plenty of the ovals compared to their rivals or compared to the majority of the teams, right? Maybe Ganesi's up there with similar mileage, maybe Aaron McLaren too. But you can't then be surprised if the Penske's the Ganesi's and the Aaron McLaren's seem to often run away and hide from everybody on the ovals. The way things shook out totally get it with this calendar, the the change up of things, right? We no longer have Laguna Seica as a season finale that got moved forward before the Olympic break. Now Nashville is a season finale. It was originally supposed to be on a street course. It's not like Penske Entertainment pulled some sort of strings to tank the street race on the revised Nashville street course to make it become a Speedway race. We got to apply a little bit of logic here and say we were still meant to end the season on a circuit compared to an oval. So I hear you. I hear some of the complaints of others. I'm not a believer of the whole conspiracy thing. But I would say that we've also had periods where Chip Ganesi racing was the undisputed King of Ovals. We had periods where other teams, not many, but where other teams and Dreddies were fearsome on ovals. Hasn't exactly been that way to the point of like a winds and multiple winds for a while, but it's not like the other teams are incapable of doing a better job than Penske. I mean, they certainly can win on ovals. Just like if we look at road and street courses, those seem to have been more of a Chip Ganesi racing area of expertise in recent years. I know we're talking about being oval heavy to close the season, but just as we have seen some other teams and Dreddy Global being one of them, having lost its really sharp road and street course edge for a couple years and start to get that back last year, won a couple races, won their first race here at the most recent one in Toronto, things can change. So do I believe Penske's orchestrated this to their favor? No, I don't. But I also know that just like Team Penske was lost at Indianapolis for a number of years before finding their way back in 2023 and then really finding their way back in 2024, things can change. Ah, why don't we go to Ed Joris says seems like Meyer Shanks contract is up with Andreddy technologies. Are they likely to stay with Andreddy partner with Ganesi or go out on their own? So there was a Brazilian reporter. I believe they were the first to post this. And if I'm wrong, I apologize. There was a Brazilian reporter who posted, I think what was it? The Friday of Toronto, maybe or who knows, I could be totally off on events, but that look for a chip Ganesi racing and Meyershank racing technical alignment. Neither team is talking, neither team is confirming. We'll just tell you that massive thumbs up to that Brazilian reporter, assuming they were indeed the first to reveal this. And I'll just say that they got good sources. The real question I'm trying to answer here and don't have yet, Ed, is will Andreddy link up with someone else. John Sable says, "How much weight does Tony Kanan have at Aaron McLaren?" So seeing a lot of people pointing at statements he's made and tying them to driver moves, does he have that pull inside the team? Or is he just another sounding board for leadership? Antoine Kanan is, I guess I would say, either third on the leadership or depth chart, maybe co-third. I'm not sure where Brian Barnhart, who I believe his official title is general manager. It's Zach Brown, who's the overarching CEO. It is Gavin Ward, who's the team principal and really, truly runs the team on a daily basis. And Brian, for sure, is responsible for many, many things and not diminishing Brian's contributions at all. But related to your specific question about poll and influence, Tony Kanan has massive influence. He's in charge of the drivers. His recommendations, his thoughts, those are not things that he leaves on the doorstep of a Zach or a Gavin and hopes that they listen or maybe contemplate. He's steering the ship pretty heavily here. And I don't believe Tony is able to do anything in total isolation. Right? Hey, fired this guy, hired that guy. But knowing who he is, what he has achieved, how smart he is, all of his experience, Tony is someone where you do a lot of listening to and nodding your head. And unless there's some sort of angle of conflict that he couldn't predict, I can't think of many situations, John, where Tony's thoughts on what needs to happen with drivers, with personnel, with the structure of the team as sporting director, how they do things from a competitive standpoint. I can't think of many scenarios where whatever he is thinking and believing is not taken as gospel and acted upon. So although their titles are different, Tony is very much like a team principal, title sporting director, but his level of influence and wow, is is up there. Would say reminding me a lot of our dear late friend Gilda Farron, who drivers were also a part of things, but also he was a big, strategic guy, big technical engineering, R&D person. Say those areas probably fall more in Gavin's side, him being a race engineer, technical director, all those things are maybe more of his specialty. But yeah, Tony without a doubt is a wickedly influential person within the team in all the major areas where you would expect him to have influence. Tommy, the treat, zero, zero, zero. So it's with Prema joining any car. If the rumors of Andretti switching to Chevy are true, how that affects Chevy teams who race and then you 500 like John Reinbold and Abel as far as engine leases are concerned. I'm hoping to finish a silly season update tonight and get it posted. Been here in this for a while, right? And I mean months upon months. Been thinking it for even longer. I think we at Racer were the first to say, I don't know when, end of April, maybe early May, like, hey, look for a change on the impsta side with the Acura Air X06 program currently run factory deal on behalf of Acura by Wayne Taylor racing with Andretti. Look for that to leave. Myershank racing is the surprising leading candidate to get the program back and had broken the news a couple months prior that Chip Ganassi racing would be splitting with Cadillac. Look for Wayne Taylor racing with Andretti to return to Cadillac. Take that and you go, well, so we have the Andretti global Cadillac formula one program that they endeavor to create. We have an alignment with Cadillac coming up here in 2025 on the MCGTP side. So this is two factory GM programs that Andretti will have for those who remember their modern era history back when the new formula launched in 2012. Andretti auto sport was Chevy, won the 2012 championship with Ryan Hunter Ray Chevy's first championship of many in this new formula, but this is done with Andretti. They switched to Honda after that after two years and they've been with Honda ever since, but it would not be crazy for Andretti to return to Chevrolet slash GM in IndyCar and be 100% aligned with everything they do in across those series. To the final question of is that happening next year asked Andretti chief operating officer Rob Edwards this question on the record and he said no. Couple other quick things to add and then we'll move on to the next one. I have been told by a few people that Andretti's contract with Honda goes through 2025. Can contracts be exited early? Is there some sort of penalty to pay financial again? I'm sure there are many things that are possible. Here's just the other little part that if we were to see an Andretti move to Chevrolet next year, it would come as a surprise to me. Two reasons. One, asking on the record question that was very straightforward and was told no. You'd hope to not have a falsehood told to you. Again, you could also say no comment or no decision. Lots of ways you could answer that. Answering it definitively isn't no. You'd hope that that stands as truthful. But here's the other part. Separate from that and actually I would say more than any of that. We're looking at Prima coming in as you mentioned. Also had a situation with some other teams wanting to come into IndyCar and talking to Chevrolet. Honda's been pretty straightforward saying we're full up. We got nothing. Sorry. There's nothing left to offer. So that meant that those are new entrants looking to come in or having to go to Chevy. Chevy, as I've been told now by two different sources, made it clear that they were not interested talking about 2025 in supporting any single car entries. They had two leases, a maximum of two leases to offer. They were not interested in doing a pair of single car leases. They ruled out anything with Abel or HMD or Pratt Miller or anyone else. It's also told that there could be some interest if there was some sort of alignment between a new team and an existing Chevrolet powered team. So if you have a two car Chevy team and they're looking to add a third entry in partnership with this new team, maybe one of the ones that I just mentioned, that could be a possibility. But we're not going to give you a single engine to run by yourself. We would only want to work with an existing team we know and trust. If you can make that happen, we'd be open to talking. To my knowledge, none of those teams that I mentioned had any interest in basically giving money and their name to have someone else run a team for them. They're wanting to run their own car from their own shop with their own people. Prema, two car program, well-funded, fit the bill, fit what Chevrolet was looking for, signed, order book closed, no ability for anyone else to get any additional full-season Chevrolet engines, whether it's existing teams or new teams. With Prema, done deal, nothing more to offer. Knowing that, where Andretti Autosport would fit into Chevrolet's family in 2025, knowing that they have three cars that would need new engines, full-season plus one for the E-500. With Marco Andretti, we assume, plus maybe another one that has been rumored. I realize I failed to mention this towards the beginning of the show. There's another item to drop into the silly season piece. But one thing that the Andretti team wouldn't confirm, wouldn't really comment on, is something I've been hearing for a little while now, and that is, hey, that Jamie Chadwick, she's pretty amazing. Where might she go to drive Indy cars in the very near future if that is something that were to develop? Well, knowing that Andretti is at three full-time cars, having dropped down from four last year, they cut down to three wanting to be tighter, more efficient, and it's working. No interest in expanding back to four cars. There's also another angle of charter system, and we won't get into all of that. But had heard a little while now. I won't pretend that it's something I've known for a long time, but maybe a month, six weeks? I don't know exactly how long, but I've been hearing that there could be an interest within Andretti Global to activate a satellite team to run an entry for them for Jamie and full season, right? So separate from the test that, again, I'm thinking could be announced here as soon as early Wednesday morning would be a team that is known and familiar within Andretti. I got to leave a little bit in the silly season piece, but I've been hearing that there's at least been internal chats about, hey, we have Jamie who is phenomenal, and we certainly don't want to let her go, but we do not have a seat to offer her within our current team. Got Colton Hurda, Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Erickson, signed to multi-year deals. None of them are going anywhere anytime soon. Don't want to lose Jamie. What could we do? Been some discussions internally as I've been told by a few sources of, well, if we're not going to do it under our own tent, could we possibly do that with a satellite team running her and obviously would receive all the technical support and would effectively be a fourth-end ready car? I don't know what it would be named, just not under their immediate structure. Asked about that, given a non-answer of, again, I'm paraphrasing, but a lot of things being discussed, and I don't think there was a lot more said after that. Just knowing all of this, Matt could push things out to maybe. If that were to happen in 2025, heard it might be more of a 2026 plan, but if that were to be a 2025 thing, that could be four. Full season Chevy engine leases, plus that Indy 500 extra for Marco. I feel confident in saying, again, I could be wrong, but I feel confident in saying that all of the teams using their engines from Chevrolet and Honda this year have supply deals that extend into at least 2025. I'm unaware of any teams that are indeed up and out of contract here in a month and a half or whenever the season comes to an end. So you go, "Well, hey, Andretti would be a big pickup. I'm sure Chevy would find a way. Well, are they going to drop AJ Floyd racing to get two of those motors? Are they going to take one from Aaron McLaren?" No, that ain't happening. I mean, there's not a lot left to take from, right? So if we're just talking about the, "Well, it's Andretti," and, "Hey, forget common sense," they would make it happen for 2025. All right, cool. Hey, Ed Carpenter, you no longer have Chevrolet engines like kind of regarded as Team America, basically. We're going to take away your red, white, and blue motor. What? So again, knowing that Honda is full, knowing that everything I understand is the contract with Andretti goes through 2025. Obviously, if that were to change, Honda could have some supply for a Chevy team that lost its Chevy's to give them to Andretti. Would just say that while in this never-ending silly season, nothing is impossible. That whole chain of events would require a lot of insane things to happen that just defy what I would say logic from start to finish. Okay, we're going to move to Chevy, even though they don't have any motors for us to support the three cars we need them for, maybe four. We're going to bounce Floyd, again, another about as American team as you can get. We're going to bounce Carpenter-ish or something one of, who knows? We're going to upend people, assuming that they have contracts with those teams, all to take on Andretti one year early. I don't see how that happens. It could, and then good Lord, I would have a lot more to write about. But this one, just the math ain't mapping in 2025. 26 would say that could make an awful lot of sense with some other things potentially happening on engine overall engine supply. Chevrolet and Honda, I believe, are signed through 2026. It's been another rumor of if Honda were to leave, could they look to leave a year early? There's a lot of stuff going on, but we just ran through a lot of scenarios here. None of this is just my own supposition. This is based on talking with real people in the paddock who know real things, not jokers, not, again, real conversations with real people. Doesn't line up. I'm almost, though, never heard the way this year has gone, willing to say it's 100% impossibility. I just can't see how it happens. As for Dronne Reinbold and Abel, month of May would expect Chevrolet to take care of them, the two cars for Dronne Reinbold, and the one for Abel, which did buy a car. I wouldn't foresee that changing. Whatever it is, though, assuming those two teams want to continue entering cars for many years to come, despite not receiving charters, one side of the current two manufacturer supply camp will have availability. It's been Chevy of late. Great. For Dronne Reinbold, it's been Chevy for a good long time since they stopped working with Lotus, but I realized that Abel's one race that they did was indeed with Chevrolet, but whomever has availability, that is what I am thinking, they're going to end up working with. Where do we go next? I underscore run, underscore from, underscore problems. Hey, let's do more rumors with Logan Sargent officially out of an F1 seat. Are there increasing, increasing rumors of him coming over? I know the long standing rumor was prema. Has that changed? Also, is there any truth to the growing Volteri Botos rumors? Yeah. So have asked maybe half of the team owners, primarily, I think the ones that have something that could be used, right? No reason to ask Roger Penske. He's got three cars, he's got three drivers signed. There's no vacancies. For the teams that don't have anything to offer, I don't believe I've asked any of them because I know they don't have anything to offer. The majority of the rest in recent weeks, I have asked about Logan Sargent mentioned Logan in the last racer, silly season piece. I don't remember the number whether I said two or three teams told me they've been contacted by Logan's manager, inquiring about a seat. I think I might have written two. Soon after that went up, I heard from a third who told me they'd been contacted by his quote, camp. The message was uniform across all three. And that's where the Logan to IndyCar thing doesn't look as promising as it could be for those who are fans of his. And that is in what those three owners have told me, the message was very clear. Logan is interested in IndyCar. He's also interested in endurance racing, F-I-E-W-E-C-E-MSA, something like that. In whatever it is that he does next, he expects to be paid and would not be bringing any money. Now, knowing that Logan has been able to put in some good results on occasion in his one and a half-ish years of Formula One, there's been some definite promise shown. You also have teams over here looking at the fact that driving for one of the lowest performing teams and championship-wise, he's been at the back. Nothing to hold against him. Nothing to say he's not capable and won't be great at some point in time. He just has not been in a team and been able as a result to put up results that make IndyCar team ownership. Oh my gosh, we have to give this guy a run. If he were bringing funding, I do indeed think there would be more teams that would have told me they are interested in him. With the need to pay him to drive for them in a car he's never driven, at tracks, by and large he hasn't driven. That's where some of the existing free agents, maybe newer crop coming up through Indiana XT or even Formula Two, like the Zane Mahonies and such, that are farther up the shortlist for a number of teams. Teo Porsche, for example, continues to be wickedly coveted by two teams. Had a really interesting conversation with one team owner about Teo within the last two weeks, I think, three weeks, whatever it was, and I left that conversation thinking, do not be surprised if Teo is driving for them next year. That doesn't mean anything's been done. That doesn't mean, again, just saying I came away like, wow, I have no doubt as to how much interest you hold in having young Teo from France be one of your drivers. But you take someone like Teo who's been here and he's done what, four or five, however many races, and I realize that he hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but he has shown, wow, you have crazy potential. Champion and Formula Two, pedigree, unquestioned, you learn at a massively fast rate, we see something here we can work with, driven by the fact that you've been here and done this. That's where the big thing to understand here with Logan leaves us where he's at. It's not impossible that an IndyCar team would not step up and say, yeah, we want to hire you. But the fact that he hasn't been here and driving these cars is a detriment. So of course, he's going to go to Formula One, got an opportunity. Of course, you're going to take that. He's done exactly what he should. At least if we're talking about paying people to drive, and we're talking about mostly teams in and around the midfield or lower, since the majority of the teams packing the top 10 already have their drivers and don't have opportunities to offer, we're not talking about teams that tend to be super flush with money. And we're also talking about teams that as a result, like Zane, who I understand would be able to bring a fairly decent budget, might tend to get a stronger look. So while a poor share doesn't bring any money, he has certainly shown that, hey, this guy has got real talent. We need to really consider him. But if we talk about a Logan versus a Mahoney, they're both very, very good. One of them is willing to bring a budget. The other is not for the teams that would have vacancies going into 2025. Probably going to favor the ones with a budget. As for Valteri, I have asked three three team owners, and they have said, no, haven't heard a thing. I have also asked those owners about Kevin Magnuson. And at least so far, the answer has been no. Now, could that change? Possibly. But again, Magnuson might get a little bit more interest, but it's not as if there is a lack of really good options to consider folks who are already here, or already in the pipeline coming up through the USF championships in Indiana. So it's not a great time to be a Magnuson sergeant or similar, just because there's so many people trying to get into IndyCar. At least half of them have some form of budget to offer. Go back a couple years where it seemed like, hey, we're running short on real quality and experienced drivers. I think the answer would be a little bit different. Spencer Henson says, MP, hope you're doing well. It's a solid day from solid days. I think you mean from a Lucas, any updates on his 2025 plan? No. Other than to say, I understand he has received a fairly solid offer. To use solid again, a fairly solid offer from at least one team that isn't myershank racing. I do know that myershank racing would love to hold on to David and keep him. But as I understand, that will be a decision for David to make now that because he has shown so well in that MSR car coming back from injury, he's had at least one team. I'm guessing it would be two. I'm guessing those two teams would be Prema and Ray Hollowtterman Lanigan. He's got some decisions to make. Throw in as well. David's father, Henner Maluchus, HMD, Henner Maluchus drivers, they're trucking business, funded his career, funded the last two seasons. Full season, I should say, at Dale Coen racing, 2022, 2023 was signed by McLaren, moved to myershank. Message has been made clear. We're looking at David, looking to the future. The family backing is no longer part of the equation. That's awesome, right? Sorry. I guess I'm going through puberty. I think my voice just broke there. Same kind of thing. Obviously, David's a lot younger, but same kind of thing with Marcus Erickson, right? It's backer, been rousing, funded his racing for a long, long time. Message was clear as he got into his last years at Knessy. Hey, we're going to continue. I need to transition to being a paid driver and didn't happen and move to Andretti where he is. Very well paid. Everything's good to go. David being able to make that transition an important thing, too. So for his self-worth, just his overall image within the paddock, no longer being a kid who's there because family success allows it, getting its talent certainly belongs there. But the money is what pushed that over the edge, especially with the Dale Coin racing team. Team that often helps drivers to come into the series. Does that with the backing that they can bring more often than not? It fit. We're at a place now where David, having rebounded from really bad first half of 2024, showing that, yeah, this kid is super talented in a better team than he's raced for an indie car. This kid is very serious, definitely worth coveting and, for the first time, has multiple teams bidding for his services wanting to pay him. Just contemplate this. Talking about the unconfirmed Chip Ganesi racing, Meyershank technical alliance. If that were to happen. It's not as if the alliance that Shanks had with Andretti hasn't been good. Last year, Andretti wasn't great, but we definitely saw that and Meyershank racing's results. But this year, Andretti's been much better. Similar rising of tide from Meyershank racing. Best season they've had in a really long time. Definitely is a two car team once Maluchus has been installed. If you think about how well Meyershank has done this year with support from Andretti, think about how well they would do with the support of the best team in indie car. And I'm not saying that based on personal opinion. I'm saying that based on facts. If we look at this decade, indie car champion, Chip Ganesi racing 2020 Scott Dixon 2021 indie car champion, Alex Palau, Chip Ganesi racing. 2022, those team Penske, those will power. 2023, Alex Palau, Chip Ganesi racing. They have won three of the last four championships. Also won an Indy 500 in there in 2022. Currently leading the championship, they're won three in the championship right now with Dixon close behind. This is the best team in indie car that could change. Obviously will power pop toe or someone else could overtake and get that title this year. But there's no team in the Honda camp that is better than Ganesi. If they were to be partners next year, technically. Got to think about that, right? It's one thing to know who you're aligned with this year, technically. It's another to know what what what is allegedly happening next year. I would think the Maluchus family would indeed be saying, so if we were to come out of pocket, could we please hold on to that seat? So this all of a sudden is a game changer. Felix Rosenvist signed to a multi-year deal go nowhere. They love him. Ganesi loves him. Never wanted to let him go. It's a beautiful thing. That second car knowing that like they have now sitting in debriefs with all the Andretti drivers, the setup data, simulation info and dampers, race engineers, supply and all kinds of great stuff like upgrading to the best team. Just saying. If I'm David Maluchus's parents, manager, friend, pet or whatever, I'm whispering in his ear, I don't care what anybody else is offering you financially. Do not walk away from this opportunity. So we will see what the lad decides because there's also something to consider here Spencer of, hey, someone's throwing big money at you. That's maybe hard to ignore. I wouldn't pretend to know what Marshank Racing would offer David, but I can tell you that if someone else is offering you a million dollars more and it is not Penske or Aaron McLaren or Andretti, none of them have openings right now. You're taking more money to be less competitive. Let's get into the last couple of questions here and say farewell. Charles Napier, you have a question about a team and its drivers and what will be happening with them next year. I invite you to read racer.com in the morning. Ed Joris, wondering when Alex Pillow will take his fifth engine knowing that indeed he's on his fourth and will probably need to move to a unapproved engine change and then take a penalty, a grid penalty. Yeah, I don't know. Great question. Obviously he comes with a nine spot penalty on ovals and a six spot for road and street courses. I would suggest doing it on an oval. It's not as if Alex couldn't blow by a lot of folks at Portland. He's done it in the past, but yeah, I would probably look to do that immediately. I would do that at the next round and go into the final four five races with a freshly fresh motor. Obviously you'll be putting some miles on that, but by the time you come out of Nashville, you know, you shouldn't be on the verge of the thing wanting to fall apart. So that'd be my suggestion, but that would maybe not be the right one. Randy Maynard says in the recent racer article, talking about the Floyd McLaren damage, Larry Floyd says, "Because new cars are coming supposedly in a couple years." He says, "Any news you can share about this would be greatly appreciated." And he says something that many of you have said, and I don't read all of them, and I apologize. I just want to keep the show as tight as I can, but he said, "Healthy and caring thoughts to you and your wife's abreel." Thank you, Randy. So yeah, written about this, not a ton this year. It's been a bit of a whack-a-mole of truthiness, but IndyCar has been saying in a more consistent manner that they plan to go to a new car in 2027. Asked IndyCar CEO/Penskin Entertainment CEO Mark Miles about this, forgive me for not remembering whether it was April or May or something, isn't something that I wrote, and wanted to truly see if I could pin that down as fact. And Mark was unwilling to do that. I'm paraphrasing his response. Again, this isn't on the record thing in a story on racer, but paraphrasing, but basically he modified it to as soon as or as early as 2027. So a little bit of an out, a little bit of a wiggle room opportunity there. I think it might have been May when I wrote this Randy. So if you want to do a little bit of searching there in the IndyCar tab on racer, you might do that. But the very quick answer is this, with the brand new energy recovery system that fits in the DW12, if that low voltage system is something the current manufacturers and who knows any future manufacturers decide they want to hold on to, would expect the DW12 to live beyond 2027 for a while. If there's a decision taken to go to a totally new energy recovery system, a high voltage version, and that is what I've been told, manufacturers are wanting something that would be too big and couldn't be retrofitted to the current car, that could only fit into a purpose built new design made to carry it from the outset, space created within that car to do that, that doesn't exist in the current car. That would be the trigger for a new chassis. So I assume manufacturers are going to say, yeah, to develop something new, like true, more traditional lithium ion battery based, got to design a new tub and other things to accommodate all this, that would be the thing that would make a new chassis happen. Do I think that's going to take place by 2027? That's the thing where I say, you know, they just got the new energy recovery system developed after years out halfway through 2024. Are they really going to bend that thing after like two and a half years? That seems like a lot of expense and not a lot of lifespan out of it. So again, a lot of caveats here, but we know what would make them go to a new chassis. What we don't know is whether existing manufacturers would say, we might need another year or two to amortize our expenditures on this energy recovery system we just made before we can get the approval to whip up something totally new and design and pay for that. Lance Snyder, you say it's battle. The Q&A shows this week as off track with Hinch and Rossi is also having one. Well, that's cute of them. So in that context, would you rather fight one life-size them, their producer, or 100 ankle bitersize them? Yeah, them is bigger than me. So while I don't doubt my ability to win in a fight, I also don't doubt his ability to beat me. So yeah, I'm never lacking in confidence and that's not always a good thing. Anyways, I actually love them just truly, a delightful human being. You know how in life, there are probably very few people you can think of. Like really, I mean, there's very few people you can think of where you go. Every interaction I've had with them, in person, online, tech, whatever it is, I've smiled or left feeling good or positive. I know it's fun to rail on him and make fun of him. And that's kind of the shtick. But like, he is actually Mr. Tim Durham, Tim Durham, Tim Durham, sure, one of my favorite movies as well. Tim Durham, someone who I just think of and I smile because I've always enjoyed every interaction with a guy. Hinch, Rossi, just despicable human beings. So I'd rather fight them. That'd be fun. Grant, again, wouldn't beat them in a foot race. But yeah, bopping them in the nose, that'd be funny. Let's see where we at on the good old clock. Well, we are right at one hour. Let's see if I can rattle off a couple more in super stopwatch mode. Corey Johnson says, hopefully we'll see it. Impsit IMS in September. Yes, indeed. Do you have the favorite racing related book in our movie and why is it driven? I mean, it's got to be driven, of course, right? The worst racing movie ever made. How could you not love that? Gerald Donaldson's. I don't know why we've gotten into the show and I can't pronounce words good with my face. Gerald Donaldson's biography on the late Jill Villeneuve, one of my two or three driving heroes. The great Canadian, French Canadian, lost the Zolder event, Zolder Race in 1982. That book, one of the greatest books about racing I've ever read. So that for sure. As for movies, boy, that's a one longer answer for another day. And Corey Johnson, thank you for sending that in. Leroy Rochester. I'm curious why Porsche was totally fine getting fired right into qualifying in Toronto was zero practice in the hybrid, but Connor Daly couldn't run race one at Iowa without a practice session. Well, you kind of answered the question with your question. Uh, daily couldn't race without a practice session. Correct. Porsche could race because he took part in sessions prior to the race. So if you strip it down to the most basic part of what you're asking here, daily, unable to drive the car before the race by the rules was then not allowed to take part in the race. Porsche, who was able to drive the car twice, both in qualifying and morning warm-up, was able to drive it before the race and therefore was allowed. Uh, Magic Max says I saw that Prema purchased five cars for next season. What is the average amount of chassis that an established team has per entry? Uh, that's one of those. How long is a piece of string questions? Max, uh, there's no single answer. If you look at the teams that've been around for a long time, the Andretties, the Ganassi's, Penske's, I mean, 10, 12, maybe more chassis per keep in mind that Ganassi runs five cars now. Minimum, they have spare cars for all them, plus some speedway cars, plus some others. Um, you also have inventory that gets destroyed, right? Four chassis destroyed tubs, primarily is what I'm talking about. Uh, the driver safety cell. Um, two at Foyt and two at Aaron McLaren between Iowa and Toronto. So, uh, those are the truly valuable things that take a long time to manufacture that are held onto and prized. Um, so that's why teams have a bunch of chassis to be able to recover from stuff like this. But even so, they do try and replenish their inventory after tubs are destroyed. Uh, why don't we take two more quick ones here and then say farewell, uh, our pal Ryan VB MP. Do you think any of the current NXT grid gets a shot of IndyCar next year? Uh, well, we already covered off the possibility of Jamie Chadwick in a satellite and ready entry. We'll see what happens, but as it was phrased to me, could be wrong or could change and might be more of a 20, 26 thing. Uh, boy, I've got to look at Louis Foster, championship leader and say that guy is ready for IndyCar. So I feel like he's going to be in somebody's car for sure. Jacob Babel would say the same thing. We know it's not going to be in a family run car full season. I already covered that off, but would hope to see him, uh, in select number of races at least so he can do that. And right, you wouldn't want someone to spend all that time on the ladder to get to IndyCar and not be able to do anything. So worst case, I expect to see him in the able car at the Indy 500, but I'm hoping he's able to do some more with another team. And beyond that, you know, Josh Pearson sign with Ed Carp and erasing as a development driver in 2022. And I know there hasn't been a specific timeframe for when would he go to IndyCar, but could that be something that maybe happens for him next year? I mean, there's a number of drivers, quite a few of them that have funding, not the best drivers. And this, or take that back. I mean, Louis is established himself as a best. He's really the only one who doesn't have a big budget to offer, but a lot of the drivers who are kind of top eight who have any car aspirations do have a lot of money they could bring. So yeah, I think we're going to see more drivers who aren't necessarily NXT title, like hardcore title contenders, Ryan, get a look because finances from the midfield back are really tight, really, really tight. They were last year, they're even tighter this year. Inflation isn't really going way down. Yeah, times is hard on the boulevard. Last one here. Actually, no, because I don't fully understand the question here from outcast of life, incurring about hybrid. So I apologize. But does leave with a nice nothing, but the best for you and your wife. Let's do that. Todd Murray and Chris Ludwig. And who else? Andrew Miller, a couple others. Daryl Finch, right turn lover. Few of you, maybe we'll hold your questions and carry them over to next week. But let's say farewell to the show. Thank you again for your kindness. So many of you sent through just really sweet, sweet notes, wishing my wife in particular the best. Yeah, tomorrow morning is going to be an interesting one, not just news wise, but heading out the door early ish, just sharing this because she gets mentioned on the show about half the time because she tends to come in here and hang with me. And she's our little terror of love. Our cat Rosie had their most recent, she and Rocky had their most recent annual physicals or checkups or whatever. And blood work came back on Rosie with some concerns. So you go spend a lot of money tomorrow morning, ultrasound for her. And yeah, we're concerned that based on what the doctor says they see in her blood work, that if you're there might be cancer somewhere. So we're going to go do ultrasound tomorrow, belly get shaved and looking for answers, looking for directions. So not trying to end on a down here just sharing look what life is. So I'm going to go deal with that and I'll go take her and onwards and upwards. Road America this weekend. Hope to see some of you some of you for imps of fun. Next IndyCar race still a few weeks away. I will be skipping that one to stay home and cover the annual Monterey reunion. The Rolex historic race is there, which is amazing. One of the manufacturers involved in IndyCar and I won't give it away because they haven't announced it yet. But one of the manufacturers you love an IndyCar realizes it's only two. Some cool stuff and people being brought to Monterey. So I won't be at gateway slash worldwide technologies raceway. I always cover the reunion no matter what weekend it clashes with but can tell you that we're going to be doing some fun stuff there too. So thanks y'all for listening in. Thanks for your questions. I'll speak to you all next week when to get back from Wisconsin.
