(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Marshall Crew podcast, the week in IndyCar listener Q&A show, recording this on a Wednesday, early evening, wanting to get this done a little earlier in the week, had to wait until a key piece of news came out of embargo, which is Augustine Canapinos, IndyCar, career, IndyCar, ride is over. We'll get to that in a moment with your questions. First, I want to say big thanks to all the questions you sent in, despite it being another week off from IndyCar. Our pal Jerry Sittath, who puts the questions together for us. So we had about 20 questions and some leftovers from last week, a little over 1,300 words, worth of questions. Says they break down into these groups, which we'll get through as many as we can. Says what grade would you give IndyCar so far this season? Does that test with Connor Daly at last week at Gateway? Does that mean anything? What do you see for who goes along a race and going forward, predictions for drivers and teams? Ongoing questions about Scott Dixon's ability to save fuel, how are finishing orders determined after a crash, how do salaries compare to the past? And then we get into a couple other groups of questions at time permitting, we will digest. Why don't we take just a moment to pay tribute to those and make the show possible? Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAFT Technologies. Build a print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large-scale automotive, motor sports, and military applications. Visit FAFTechologies.com. It's P-F-A-F-F, technologies.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 motor sports McLaren gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotor sports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, thepruitstore.com. For all the show stickers, models, racing memorabilia, trying to sell, and put towards our fun to buy a house, is now live and rocking, thepruitstore.com. All right, it has been, it's been a week, got back late Sunday night from Road America Imsa, which was phenomenal. But anything at Road America is phenomenal. Nonetheless, going to try, going to do my best to make this day, Wednesday, August the 7th, my last day of work this week, which (laughs) I'm really hoping that's the case. I had half a day off, I think the Saturday before last maybe, I don't remember, but yeah, in terms of like actual two days in a row of doing nothing work related, I believe that last happened in, I don't know, early April. So it's just been a ragged pace for a lot of us who work in the sport, not a complaint by any means, just I have tapped out. So in honor of the fact that in theory, gonna be taking a couple days off here, and I still got plenty to do, but just not actually sitting at the desk, we're gonna make this a podcast with a beer episode, Founders Brewing Company, the KBS version here, Imperial Stout, aged in bourbon barrels, and that's kind of the thing that can never go wrong with a beer in my world. And looking here, we have alcohol by volume, ABV of 12%. So this fits all of my categories. I'm holding it up to the window, and I cannot see through it. The sunshine shining in does not pierce the bottle. So can't see through it, so that's prime. It's also at or above 10%, 'cause who wants to drink a six pack, or a 12 pack, or whatever pack, to get your smile going when you can drink one or two. So, yep, that makes me smile. (laughs) All right, let's get going with your good old questions, and yeah, the Augustine news makes me sad for sure. Not new news, I guess we can say. Give you a little bit of a background here, and then we'll get into your questions related to what's gone down here with Augustine. So, I've been expecting this to happen since right after Iowa. Augustine had two very bad races. Big hit in the leader circle championship running. There is no such thing as a leader circle championship, but the entrance championship, top 22, receive leader circle contracts. And there is a little bit of extra math involved, one or two cars that aren't eligible, but regardless, that has been a concern for the team. And Augustine, after coming back, sat out, wrote America, of course, no one's single that is best in that car. The entrance points, by the way, entrance championship, based strictly on the vehicle and where it finishes. It's blind to who drives it. So even though Nolan did a good job at that last minute stand in, it wrote America, car went through latter stages of June, and then all of July really having some hard times for the most part in the final standings. And so, race after race after race of things not going super great. Iowa, particularly bad, I think first out for Augustine, maybe in race one, and then close enough in race two, but two finishes deep into the 20s, and he came out of Iowa with the number 78, Hunkos Hollinger Racing Chevy, in a thoroughly not great state. I was thinking, knowing how bad Hunkos Hollinger Racing's sponsorship pursuits have gone this year, and even last, I did think, haven't spoken to Ricardo Hunkos, gotten a feel for where they were at on the leader circle, the need to get in, need to qualify, earn that $1 million prize money stipend for next year. I thought they were gonna make a change coming out of Iowa. They did not. Did one more race, that being Toronto, Augustine, because the guy is just blessed with insane talent, has his best ever qualifying in a year and a half long IndyCar career qualified 10th, I believe, in Toronto's phenomenal, fast 12, great job, super amazing, and then right off the bat, clash with Scott Dixon, Claude vs. the wall, suspension fails shortly thereafter, day is done, and he's essentially the first car out. Decisions made after that were done. All in the name of, we need to get this car inside the top 22 and entrance points before the season's over. And we're going to, after Toronto, by and large, nothing but ovals. Not as if Augustine is bad on ovals, he's just not an oval expert. You could see with the entrance championship deficit, they were already in. There was gonna be a need to do something special here to get the car below that P-22 or at least in P-22, but below that cut line, and so here we are. So just a little bit of processed background stuff, if it helps, last episode of the show went up, what I think last, I don't know, Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm looking here real quick so I can answer this with a little bit of brain power. Went out on July 30th, so that would have been last Tuesday. Mentioned in that podcast, I think early on that we were expecting some news the following morning and this is what I was referring to. Augustine, no longer driving for who goes hauling or racing in a decar. Under embargo. Embargo being offered by the team, been aware again, been kinda on the clock looking for a change to be made well prior to what was eventually done. Team reached out, said, hey, to be interested in entering into an embargo, we'll provide you with advanced team statement, these things are not uncommon by any means, but they also mean you don't talk about it. You don't hint, hey, there's a team that really likes the color black and green and they like to wear bow ties and their team runs like a Swiss watch that sometimes is in France, but also likes Argentine. Like, you know embargo, you know embargo. You agree to it and that's what it is. So mention in the show, without any details, hey, there's probably some significant news coming in the morning, keeping out for it and that was all the plan. Next morning, that plan changes. So this was originally supposed to be announced July 31st, morning of July 31st is when this was supposed to happen. This is what it was agreed to. That ended up changing. Bit of a short week last week for myself needing to get ready to travel to road America. Hey, I got a limited window myself of when I can do things, interact, make things happen. Let me know where we're at. Got to a point to where cake doesn't seem like this is gonna happen this week. Okay, got it. There's a test coming up, not talking about it. Okay, got it, there you go. I'll figure that out myself. Couple of contacts at the test, reached out and said, "Hey, Connor's here. "Connor's driving, Connor's driving the 78." Got it. Again, wasn't totally unexpected, but good to have that formally confirmed. Believe on Connor's podcast last week. He'd mentioned he had to run up to the coin shop to get his seat and didn't put any other color on that as to why. So again, these things kind of shake out and go, "Oh, okay, this is making sense." But nonetheless, the bigger reason why? Agreed to the embargo? Probably should have put a time limit on that agreement, meaning, okay? Since this is not truly new news, but happy and willing to work with you here. Like the team, do that quite often. Probably should have said, "Okay, we got a 48-hour embargo." And if you guys aren't able to get your stuff together by then, I can't pretend things that I haven't been aware of or expecting aren't happening. Nonetheless, sat on it at the request. There you go. So, lots of rumors, lots of other things speculated. And part of being under embargo, you sit. And so, heard yesterday, I believe, was it? Yesterday, I'm forgetting, might have been this morning, whatever it was, "Hey, gonna go live today and great." And so, the story that I had written, I don't know when that was, might have been the 29th Monday, whenever it was. Been sitting there, needed a little bit of a tweak to include the fact that Connor had tested the car, updated that sentence and maybe one other thing or two very quickly bolted in that team statement. And out it went, but I did see at least one person giving Connor some grief online. I think I was tagged on that. So, I could see the giving Connor grief. I don't know why, but part of the game, Connor obviously is not oblivious to what was happening, but also in whatever agreement he reached with the team. You can safely assume that him running his mouth is not an option. And so, badgering him for not saying everything and spilling the beans, like, you know, just 'cause someone speculates something or maybe even they have this spot on. Just sharing that for those of you who didn't know sometimes because of whether it's a contractual agreement by a driver or just trying to be someone who honors their word in this case of honoring the embargo, would love to tell you more. I'm usually under embargo most days about something or under some sort of cone of silence. Just part of the game. So, would have loved to have told you everything about it. The minute that things were starting to brew, but just not how things played out. So, a little bit of background for you. Should have gone live, before we got into August, no question whatsoever and had to adjust accordingly. And so, now here on the seventh of August, we know for a fact, oh, that's a good beer. But unfortunately, Augustine Canapino will no longer be competing in IndyCar. So, Tony Vanney asking what happened there between Canapino and Hunkos, covered that off, right? This is very much about getting into that leader's circle. But also, if you happen to have read what I wrote for racer.com, you'll know that I mentioned a couple things. And Ken Anderson, you asked a question, Raymond Wong, similar. Let me just read those as well, 'cause maybe I'll cover off all of that. Ken says MP2 things, what's up with Connor testing for Hunkos Hollinger? He says also the charter details seem to have ground to a halt. Any news you care to divulge? Yes, Ken, I'm gonna tell you all the news here. Instead of with my primary news outlet clients, he says it sounded like road America was good for your soul, it is always. Yeah, there's no charter details that I'm aware of that have ground to a halt. I don't believe there's any majorly new information to share. So I'll probably do an update here at some point in time, but it's more popping last nights or last month's dinner into the microwave and just warming up. This would be reheating leftovers. So yeah, on the charter side, I wouldn't say ground to a halt, but anyways, on the connor side, on the canopino side, couple of quick things here. Augustine, as it was explained to me, was done at the end of 2023, one and done in IndyCar. It really bummed me out when I learned this. I was told this by someone who knows who knew, had the decision making power on that. And it was because it was meant to be a pretty significant sponsorship portfolio that happened as a result of this. A lot of companies meant to put in significant money by and large coming out of Argentina. Native land of Timona Riccardo-Hunkos, Augustine as well, didn't really come to pass. At some point in time during the season, I don't remember whether it was early midway through 2023. I also legitimately don't remember the names, they weren't super memorable. There were some sponsor hunter people that appeared within JHR. And there was a flurry of press releases. Hey, we signed this new company, that new company and pay.com and this and that. Side pods are taken now and the rear wing top of the main plane and this and that. And hey, all of a sudden, it was just seemed like there was a flurry of sponsorship announcements and logos going on the cars. There weren't a lot of details about, okay, and this is like real, real money. Like they're giving you actual dollars that you can spend or is this promise of money? Is this a B2B? What are all these things? The appearance was one of somewhat instant prosperity. Aligned through, I believe it was a husband and wife, sponsor hunting, communications and whatever team there. Happened through Laguna Seca. I seem to recall some of those were announced as multi-year deals. Really excited about that for them. And then poof, that couple went away. The air quote sponsorship went away if it was ever really real. And we went from, oh, hey, we thought there was going to be a big windfall, didn't happen, kept going. Hey, you found some folks who say they found money. Great, press releases, sponsors, stickers. And then that all went poof and got into the early stages of the off season. Things went sideways with Callum Eyelott. He's gone. And then the other talking point was, it looks like we're going to be one of done with Augustine because there's just no money behind him. Believe that off season went a little farther along. New found faith that there were new potential sponsors, new interest, had it characterized in a way that might not have it now, but we are confident it is going to arrive. Can we continue with Augustine? Brad Hollinger, co-owner of the team, big investor in the team. Decision was made to do that, Brad, being very successful in business and able to contribute. But that's not really what he's meant to do. Just come in and spend a lot of his money to fund the racing team. The team's supposed to find its own money, but as I understand it, there was a faith-based move. Okay, let's avoid that one and done with Augustine. We've got some great leads. We're not going to have all of it up front to start the season, but we feel like that's going to happen. We'll keep working throughout the year. We'll find more sponsors. We'll get the budget covered off. Let's go. And so they did. And unfortunately, nothing happened. Truly, nothing happened, but a commitment was made. And so, ran Augustine. They've run Romad Grocha as well. And there haven't been a lot of sponsors on his car. Either. Romad really being Brad's driver, the one that he wanted to win after, secured Augustine being Ricardo's driver, Ricardo's project. And you could see how that number 77 entry that Romad drives, despite being largely blank in terms of sponsors. It's one where he's the benefactor's driver in the other car. This is now year two of coming up pretty darn dry on funding. So with those things known, knowing that Augustine was looking at being one and done from the team side, able to engineer a situation where it continued for a second year. Love that. But that hope, that faith and funding never materialized. Been expecting this to be his final season. Barring some sort of big crazy money falling out of the sky to change things in an instant. Things are worse this year than they were last year financially. And so knowing that they came close to parting the end of last year, to me, it's been really clear. Even if they were sitting pretty in the entrance championship and their ability to secure a leader circle for that number 78 that Augustine drove, this I've been 100% convinced was going to be his final year, strictly due to the team's ongoing inability to find money to cover off the budget so that Brad Hollinger does not have to backstop things. You then add a bit of a new ish crisis that cropped up heavily in July. And what I mentioned in the outset of that 78 going backwards in the entrance championship and all of a sudden, with the background you now understand of dollars being super tight, getting that million bucks is really, really, really important. And with the inconsistency that they've had with the 78 car, mistakes made by Augustine, obviously, it's not trying to make mistakes. But noting the reality of the situation they're in, both financially and in the standings for the entrance, got to a place to where, needing to game the system a bit. And because we fall back to that entrance championship is blind to who drives, doesn't care. Where that car finishes and the points that it gets, that is what matters when tabulating the entrance points. Go grab a ringer. In this case, it's unannounced by the team. But it doesn't take a whole lot of guessing to suggest, hey, who should we put in the car to test? And who was indeed super quick? Romain was extra quick at the worldwide technology raceway circuit test last week, crashed hard. But Romain was a rocket there. And Connor was super close, lots of potential. You can see where the need to go grab crazy amounts of entrant points from WWTR, Portland, obviously, road course final one of the year, double header at Milwaukee, and then finale at Nashville. Four out of the last five races are on ovals. Go grab yourself an oval ringer. Can't guarantee Connor is going to haul the car into the top 22. But I can tell you there's nobody better who is available to help the team to do that. Only other one who comes to mind is our guy Ryan Hunter Ray also hasn't been crashing the boards hard to try and land whatever IndyCar seat here there. So Connor being active, having just been in a car at Iowa, subbing for Jack Harvey, makes sense to give him a ring. Say, hey, let's head to Gateway, WWTR, do a test. Test went great. And we'll wait for the team to announce who's going to be in it. But if you're a fan of Connor Daily and want to see him driving IndyCar, be sure to have your eye on pulling the trigger on some tickets to see him do that, that number 78 Chevy. But again, we'll leave that up to our friends at Hunkos Hong Racing to confirm. I am only aware of him being the one to get the final rose if we use bachelor phrasing. I've never seen the show, but I guess I've seen enough commercials or highlights to know that's what they do, but yeah. So if someone else were to sneak in and drive the car, that would be a massive shock to me. But we'll wait and see what the team has to say. Oh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Jeff's are asking, how you doing, Jeff? He's one of many of y'all, very sweet. He says, continued positive thoughts for your wife, Shabell, and the cats, and yourself. A little update from last week's show. Just could have had a couple of folks ask, not in your questions here, but offline or directly. Everything turned out well with our kitty cat, Rosie. The-- what did she have done? The ultrasound? Yeah. All that came back with positive news. Got her on a little bit of medication to work on one thing. But she is running around crazy, just with a shaved belly. But yeah, she's doing well. And then next week, what do we have? A couple of appointments. We've got infusion or chemo again on Tuesday. I then leave, crack of dawn. Wednesday morning, I think this is going to be my 16th year in a row of consecutive coverage of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports reunion known for most of its life as the Monterey Historic. This is the 50-year anniversary. And I love it. And for those of you who are either longtime knowers of me or listeners of the podcast, whatever it is, I don't care what is happening in the current racing world, I will always be, if there's a conflict at Monterey for the reunion. And we're going to be doing some really fun stuff there with a couple of different clients. So more to follow on that. But yeah, won't be headed out to Good Old Gateway. We'll be focused on historic racing in Monterey. It's just a big part of my heart. So we'll be talking about what happens at Gateway, and I'll be following it remotely. But I won't be on site, y'all. But I'll be so happy. Jeff says, what does the rest of the season and off season look like for Hunkos Hollinger? Rest of the season for Hunkos Hollinger looks like stabilizing to get both cars locked into the leader circle. Crochette looks like he's in pretty good shape to do that. So I think we should be fine there with him getting the 77 in. 78, again, should have stronger likelihood of that happening. And from there, the other thing that will be taking place is looking at who might want to drive cars and be able to pay for it. There are a number of drivers who have reached out to inquire. This is before the change was made in the 78. I think also, for those who have a feel for IndyCar and what was going on, I think a number of drivers that I'm aware who've reached out to Hunkos Hollinger racing weeks at minimum prior to the change, kind of sort of see the riding on the wall to expect a seat to be available, some of the names that I am aware have reached out to them, pretty darn solid. So do I think we would see Augustine's car become something that transitions from two drivers who are paid to one driver in Romach who is paid and the other someone who is fully paying to drive for the team? Do I think we'll see that second car convert to a four higher seat completely? Yes. I'd be very surprised if that didn't happen. I do know the team is continuing to work super hard as they have been all along to try and find their own sponsors so they can hire everybody they want. Knowing the deep trench they're having to dig out of in that regard, they have some good new-ish people there trying to help with this, it's a rarity. When things go sideways like they did the previous year, you bring in some new and good folks to try and help, it usually takes a year and a half to two for any significant leads to develop and turn into real money. So even though there are good hands on deck helping, I would be very surprised if we saw much come to pass even by 2025, halfway through 2025 where you go, hey, those are big names and that's a lot of money being spent. So that's why I think, Jeff, that second car, it's a lot easier to try and find the best driver you can based on the amount of money they were able to bring. I think we're looking at those two things as the primary items, leader circle, funded driver. The engineering side, teams taking a nice step forward, they already had a really strong compact, but strong engineering team. It has only gotten stronger this year with the addition of Alan McDonald. This is an impressive little team. Hope they can bring in more money to be able to expand, add more talent, that's what every contending team is doing, more engineers, more folks in charge of special projects, more and more and more. This team has great potential and I think it's been performing exceedingly well this year. Some stability, not second car. You bring that in, I love where they could be headed. Acceptable Airy 645 says, is it likely that Callum Eyelott never drives an IndyCar again? I have had his name go cold in my calls with team owners when it comes to silly season stuff. Would also say that having written this a couple of times, so probably isn't a total surprise. He's been doing so well in his debut season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is someone being sought after by multiple manufacturers there in the top hypercar class. So I'm sure Callum would love to drive IndyCars again and for a very good team. And he has the talent to do impressive things with them. We know that because we've seen it. The market, the got to have Callum Eyelott thing, seems to have cooled. And so if he is not doing a multi-year WC hypercar factory deal, I will be quite quite surprised. So yeah, very possible. We have seen the end of Callum at least for the short term, next couple of years. But who knows what the future might hold for him? Let me drink a little bit more here. Jordan Darwin, you're up next. It says, "With more and more talented drivers viking for an IndyCar seat, IndyCar looks like a great place for talent." This is on the flip side what looks like-- who looks like they might not make it back to the grid in 2025. And what about Indy-only drivers like Stefan Wilson and Takuma Sato? Well, no stuff is working super hard to try and get back. Do at least one more Indy 500. Haven't checked in on the Takuma Sato side, but do need to do that. Thanks for that reminder, Jordan. Who might not be back? I think I did cover off a decent amount of that in my silly season update from the end of last week. But let me crack open the entry list once again and rattle through some names of those who might not be continuing their IndyCar journey. Scott Dixon, it's time. The guy's been scamming people for way too long. I think he's finally been exposed. No, let's see. Where do we start? Yeah, we're good there. No, I think we'll be OK there. I mean, here's a couple of things. Mark Armstrong should be able to continue. He brings, as I am told, about half a budget. And these days, half a budget's a really impressive amount to offer. A lot of folks bring in like 1/10 or 1/8 of a budget. So being able to bring one half of a budget, that would still be a pretty impressive thing to offer someone other than Gennassi. But no guarantees, obviously, until a deal is done. Rienus VK, free agent. I believe the carpenter team wants him back, but also know that-- I mean, I know they do, because Ed Carpenter's told me that. But he currently does not have anything signed that I'm aware of. I know that last year, Myerschank Racing was very interested in signing him. Might have thought that they had him, and then that changed. If it's not Ed Carpenter, I don't know if I love his odds at other teams. Now, Ray Hollowedom and Lannigan, for sure, would be one. Prema would be one. Shank would be the other. The three that I'm looking at is the ones that would be most interested in Rienus VK, hiring him, paying him good American dollars to drive their cars. There's a lot of other folks, though. That's where this is getting a little bit crazy, Jordan. It's one thing when we're talking about, OK, there's a couple of free agents. We know they're all good, and they're going to land somewhere. If not staying with their own team, there are a couple other openings. And it's just going to be rearranging chairs. Seats, I should say. We've got a lot of folks looking in, a lot of folks with budgets coming out of F2, Indiana XT no longer in a case as I am viewing things as, oh, yep, even if they don't stay with the current team, yeah, they'll definitely land here or there in the paddock. Depending upon the financial needs, I don't know if I see those who are unbudgeted like a VK as being a true lock to return. Linus Lunkfist is probably top of that list. Do not expect him to return to Ganesi because they are looking to downsize from five cars to three. Since he doesn't bring a budget, hasn't had the best of year. I know that he had that podium at Barber. It was on poll at Road America. But just had a lot of races where he was there, but nothing memorable happened. His market value has certainly dropped in terms of other teams fighting over him. That happened at the end of last year. Ganesi Wonk shank was pissed that they weren't able to hold on to him. I don't know if anybody would look at Linus after what's taken place this year in a car. The defending series champion, right? Team that's won three out of the last four championships. Realize he's a rookie? Think he's wickedly talented, but I also would not think he'd be sitting 18th in the championship after 12 races. And I think that's a bit of the general consensus. Like, yeah, so I fear for Linus. Will he be one and done in IndyCar? It is possible. Don't want that to be. Love that kid. Want to see him get a second year and show folks that, hey, maybe it was just a learning year. And he needs a second year to show his true capabilities. But Armstrong, for sure, is someone where? I think he's gonna land because he has ability to bring some money. VK, if it's not at carpenter, he should have strong options elsewhere, but season has improved of late. Three consecutive top 10s. It's just been another rough-ish year. He's 15th, and I wouldn't put a lot of that down to him. But regardless, momentum is a thing. And with a lot of other folks, hey, Louis Foster leading Indiana's team championship, very likely to win the thing. Hey, at least we don't know what he's capable of. Could that be the thing? Coming out, done a great job, assuming he wins the title, you go great. Maybe we look to pay him, because at least we don't know what we're going to get from him in terms of a peak. That's a thing sometimes, depending on the team, instead of, cool. This person's been in here two, three, four, five years. Similar finishes every year feel like I know what we're getting. Maybe try something different. So Armstrong, VK, Lundkfist, Pietro Fittepaldi, I'm concerned about, his first full season here. This being in that number 30, Riholettoman, Lannigan racing car, which hasn't been a good year for Pietro. No way to spin it otherwise. Top finish is I think a 13th or so. Realize there's, again, it's a learning year. Some of the tracks never been to before, new team. A lot of new for him, totally get that. But I think the exp, I shouldn't say I think. I know the expectations were higher. Granted, talking about Pietro being 19th in the standings, teammate Graham Rihole is 17th. So can't point too much at Pietro is like, boy, you're doing terrible and the rest of your teammates doing awesome. Christian Lundgaard, P-11, so he's been setting the standard for the team. It has, though, been a case where more often than not, Pietro has been last among the three. And rarely in the conversation of, hey, this is how their day went and it was really positive. After that, assuming Stingray Rob is still sitting on a decent amount of cash to spend, he will be back. If anything changes there financially, he will not. It's not a driver which any team would hire, unfortunately. Just not blessed with that kind of talent. The lightful child, just not everybody has. Pato, Palo, Dixon, new garden talent. And then after that, Christian Rasmussen had a little bit of a rough time, obviously, crashing out to start Toronto. He was P-27, I believe. I think that backwards, Augustine, I think was 26th, but I have it in the back of my head, at least, to close here, that if Renis were to move on, I think the team has a really good young talent to backfill that seat with going with Christian. Granted, like Honko's Hong Racing, they are certainly in need of funding. So keep an eye there for what happens in terms of drivers who can bring a budget to compete with them. So that's what I got for you on that, Jordan. Thank you as always for sending in great questions. Let's get to the last handful here and then say farewell to this episode. Charles Napier has questioned dovetails. To my other question, what are the future of the following drivers and teams that you can devolve? Myershank racing, will David Maluku stay with the team? Rode about that in depth in the most recent silly season peace Charles on racer, so you might consult that. Here's what I can tell you. We don't have confirmation yet in terms of both teams saying it is happening, that Myershank racing will be switching to a new technical service provider in chip Ganesi racing, but it's happening. That all of a sudden does a really amazing thing for Myershank racing. It's not as if the existing, ongoing, multi-year technical alliance with Indredi Global hasn't been a very good thing for them. This year has been particularly good. Both teams are very competitive. Not a contender to beat Ganesi, not a contender to beat Penske on a regular basis though. No, obviously Colton just got his first win in a good while and first win for Indredi Global this year and super positive. Nobody at Ganesi and nobody at Penske is currently afraid in a race by race capacity of what Indredi Global is bringing to the track. Indredi Global is working to change that at the moment in recent years, just not there. When we're talking about the potential of a Myershank racing Indredi Global technical alliance continuing into 2025, 26. I think that if I am trying to use David Malukis' position and any of those who would be advising him, I hope they would be advising him along these lines. If you're talking about staying, hey, clearly the car is good. Team is very good. Alliance with Indredi is very powerful. You're gonna be a top 10, top 12 person, basically everywhere you go. But not gonna be fighting for a championship, truly running top two, top three. You're gonna be eighth, seventh maybe in the standings, between seventh and 12th. That's where you're gonna end up. That's why you would look elsewhere. That's why you would field offers from other teams. Understood, believe he's gotten at least one significant in offer. A number of folks tell me they believe that's Rahal at him in Lanigan to backfill the outgoing Christian Lundgaard. What I also think, Prema racing would be very wise to make Malukis an offer. Kid's great on ovals, great on everywhere. Super talent to have. Then we have this Ganesi angle come in, Charles. And all of a sudden the, well, you know, staying would be good and love Felix and love the team. And again, we're gonna be good, but you know, I know we're not going to be crowned as Indicars champions anytime soon. All of a sudden an alignment with Ganesi changes that. Now do I think Marshank racing is realistically going to be knocking Alex Palau and Scott Dixon off? There are things that make Alex Palau Alex Palau and Scott Dixon, Scott Dixon, okay? But all of a sudden instead of like, "Yeah, you could be top 12 now." It's like, you could be top six, seven, top eight. And you should be winning across both cars. You should win at least two races a year combined, if not more, multiple polls. Now is a technical affiliate with Ganesi. Their setups would imagine their engineers sitting in debriefs, looking at all the data from two of the best drivers in Indicar period. That's a powerful thing. So if anybody within David's hemisphere is suggesting, go get that check and it's probably a bigger one. On offer from some of the other teams, I would feel really bad for David. Because I know last year, realizing he was coming to the end of a two year contract, his first two years in Indicar, that being with Dale Cohen Racing, he knew he was leaving. He told me at the beginning of 2022, privately, this would be his final year, wasn't looking to stay. Talked a lot of teams. The team he really wanted to go to, thought that there might have been a chance since there were some seats and opportunities, was Ganesi. Didn't happen. Ended up going to Aaron McLaren, which is awesome for him. We know how that story played out, but this could be a really amazing opportunity for him as a remote Ganesi camp member. Camp member to not only have better results than any other team he would sign with, but also to showcase his talent within Ganesi, without Ganesi having to sign him, Scott Dixon's not going to drive forever. Obviously, there'll be plenty of drivers. They would hope could be involved there to replace Dixon, but there is no better situation. David Maluchus has ever been presented in IndyCar than the one that currently exists with the unannounced technical alliance with the reigning defending IndyCar Series champions. If he does not take that deal now, if he has not signed that already, even if it pays half of what some of the other teams are offering, that's going to tell us a lot of things. Right, Charles? Hey, went for the money, not for glory. Hmm, it's one thing if you're 35 mortgage kids, you name it, got it, probably need to chase that money. His age, early 20s, this is the win-win-win-win-win phase of his career, all you care about, winning, nothing up money, of course, important. You want to feel valued, but I hope folks are telling him, sign it before someone else does, because now absolute stampede, absolute stampede for folks wanting to get into that remote Ganasi entry. And I would say while there are many candidates, the one who I have in the back of my balding head, as one who like, "Hmm, boy, if Maluchus hasn't signed or is still playing the field, I realize, tail pore share, I know for a fact, both teams think very highly of. We're looking down the pipeline, realizing Scott Dixon's not going to drive forever. The ability to work with pore share next to Rosie, and do some potentially big things. Yeah, this to me, just to close your Charles on this one, I'll crack through the other ones quickly. If David is not seeing this as one of a couple options, but now as I am under massive threat to lose the best opportunity of my IndyCar career, I don't know what to tell you. You ask about Prema, wondering if Logan Sargent's a good possibility. He wants to be paid. He's made that clear. I've now had three IndyCar team owners before I mentioned I had two tell me. I've now had three who've met with his agent. They've all said the same thing. He wants to be paid. Not saying Logan doesn't deserve to be paid, but having competed on basically zero-ish of the tracks, we're going to. No oval experience, no IndyCar experience. Very good driver, but I don't know if those things fit exactly what would be in Prema's best interest. Possibility. Y'all say is there any chance for Jamie Chadwick in IndyCar next year? Wrote about that in my silly season as well on Racer Charles, so I would strongly recommend if you don't. And this isn't really so much of a plug for my own work. It's just, this is the primary place where my work goes up on a daily basis. You might give Racer.com a visit each morning. Noon Pacific is usually when I'm filing things. So I realize that's mid-afternoon Easter and depending on your time zone. But if you check in there once a day, you will probably learn a whole heck of a bunch about whatever is going on. Chris Ludwig, we are going to get into the last couple of quick questions and say farewell. Chris says during the Toronto broadcast, Hinch mentioned a fuel flow meter that's part of the hybrid packaging. And then during the broadcast, while discussing Scott Dixon's fuel run at Toronto, it said something of the fact that things would look different in 2025. You find out anything about Ganassi's impressive mileage. No, I don't listen to their podcast. I don't think they listen to mine, so it's not a personal thing. But I know that I've had many, many, many, many questions this year specifically whether here in the podcast are Racer's mailbag where I am taking from the questions on the same theme that on the Hinch and Rossi podcast, they talk a lot about Scott Dixon's fuel saving and some sort of belief that there might be something wacky or weird or whatever going on. I don't know why it would be a constant thing. I'm not saying it's a constant thing 'cause I haven't heard it to know that to be true myself. I just seem to get questions like this a lot out of the same podcast. I don't know what the fuel flow meter addition for next year happens to be. So I will find out and try and circle back. But unless there's some sort of fuel equalization going on, meaning you have X amount of fuel to use per lap and on linear phrase that you must consume X amount of fuel per lap and you can no longer try and save. You know how some drivers are better at making their tires last an entire stint to the point to where their tires are faster on average from the time they leave pit lane to when they stop and change tires and you look at their average and you go, wow. So they weren't a rocket for the first half. Burn their tires to the ground while doing that and then suffered in the second half or they were great for the first 80% of the stint but boy, their tires fell off and their lap time suffered. You know, some drivers, not many but some drivers are supremely good there and they get 90 or 95% of the stint. With high achieving tire performance they can make their speed in such a way where the lap time is amazing but they're really saving the doing things and how they make that speed that save and extend the life of the tire. The same phenomenon happens with making speed and using the throttle and conserving fuel. This is something that has been Dixon's superpower. In the same way, Alex Polo quite often, not always but quite often is making his tires last insanely long when we see others dropping off a little bit earlier. This is a skill. It's either something that has been learned through intent or just comes natural, where it's just, hey, this is, I don't know, this is how I do it and it happens to be an advantage. I don't know why the Dixon thing has become a, ah, this can't be what it is. This has to be something not right must be behind this. That's how it's been presented to me repeatedly. So I'll try and find out on the fuel meter thing, fuel flow meter and find out what that is. I just, yeah, don't know. It wasn't in Toronto, therefore, not able to give you deeper insight. Chris Kalevich, I think I got that right. I hope so, Chris, if not, you'll tell me. Yes, how is finishing order determined in large wrecks? Toronto, it looked like the order was based off. The order everyone hit each other. What are the rules saying? How is this determined, you know, man? If I've had to restart my computer, I think, like five times today, it has been throwing up all kinds of middle fingers here, unfortunately. But I had, Adobe Acrobat open to the page or so where kind of sort of has your answer. I realize that I might not be finding the exact perfect answer for you, Chris, but did have this open and had to open this up multiple times, but there are a few things here. Let me see if I can scroll down. If you wanna look in the IndyCar rule book, page 30, 31, we get into the timing and scoring part of how things are done and get a couple of things here. If a car returns to pit lane under its own power and retires from the race, IndyCar may credit the car with completion of the lap. What else? Cars not completing the scheduled number of laps will be ranked in order by total laps completed and sequence of completion. Whether the car is running or not, IndyCar shall determine the reason out for each car not listed as running. There must be something else that maybe breaks this down a little bit more, but yeah, I have sometimes wondered exactly how they come to some of the determinations, at least for what I've read here, because we are talking about timing and scoring-based decisions, right? It's not that we saw the winner cross the finish line first that made us say you are the winner from an official standpoint. It is timing and scoring system, right? Now granted, if timing and scoring crashed, they probably would go to it. Here's what our eyes see results, but they state very clearly that the electronic timing system is the primary record. There is a secondary part to that, which also lends to, I think the final part of your, or the thrust of your question. 7.3.3.2. IndyCar may also consult with other officials. That's an interesting one. I don't know what other officials mean. Hey, NASCAR, what do you think? Review, camera footage, and consider such other data as necessary or appropriate to decide the order of the cars. Yeah, as they note here, the electronic system is the primary record. So the timing and scoring transponder on the cars, when that crosses the finish line, that provides the system with a, hey, this person's first, second, third. So that is what they tell us and the rules they've written for themselves. Then there's that bit of a caveat of 7.3.3.2, which says, hey, we're gonna review things, camera footage possibly, talk to other officials, consider other data to decide the order of the cars. So maybe there isn't another highly structured, if car A hits car B, wherever car, if car A ends up seven inches farther down the road, then it's scored a hit. Like, I don't know if they have that level of a breakdown, but it seems like this is the one where timing and scoring might not be able to provide the exact information, right? That there's gonna be a little bit of a video review possibly and where they think folks should be placed if they're indeed out of the race. Then also that mentioning of if a car is able to make their way back to the pits, we assume again after a crash or maybe a mechanical problem and then retire, it's the series discretion to award them that lap and use whatever the addition of that lap would do to determine how they don't finish the race. John Wire, we're gonna go with you as a final question. Ed Joris, Todd Murray, Wright turned lover, Jeremy Davis, Sriracha, TH. Jerry, let's carry those over the next week for sure, Colido Crypto. Let's carry some of these over in the second tier then third tier over the next week 'cause yeah, might have some more questions related to Canapino or whatever, but we're still gonna have not a lot more to talk about until we actually go back to racing. Let's close with John, it says, how did team budgets and driver salaries compare to 20 or 30 years ago when the sport was flush with beer and cigarette money? You know, let me take a sip here. Oh boy, thank you. Father, that's a great beer. Also says positive thoughts to your family and pets. Thank you, John. Well, it sure certainly costs more without a doubt. Let's see, of course, bigger teams can always spend more and do more smaller teams, less so, but I mean, if we're looking back 20 years, mid 2000s or so, cars that have been around for a while, getting into a spec engine formula coming up pretty soon with Honda powering the entire field, you know, three and a half, four million dollar budgets. We're not two outlandish, can certainly spend money there, we're spending more for sure, but get in around there 30 years ago. I mean, it could be a crazy amount more 90s for sure. Yeah, you could be spending 10, 15 million more per entry. Yeah, I mean, there are some drivers making seven plus million, I should say some, very few, but at the high end, crazy, crazy. Yeah, above five million for sure. And you also had big manufacturer money being spent, auto manufacturer spending a ton, paying teams a ton. Yeah, so could be huge back then. We got into the DW12 era and, you know, five to six was a pretty standard amount per entry. Some who's still trying to do it on four and a half million, but yeah, five to six million became pretty solid number for quite some time. Then recent years, that is crept up. I mean, there's one team that I'm aware of that is spending 12 million per car. And I'm not saying they're the peak. I happen to know that number in that team. It's not something to share publicly who it is, but yeah, seven to eight is kind of that new happy spot. Eight being something a lot of teams are looking at as wanting, if not a little bit more. The costs to go hybrid are real, just like they are at any technology changeover point. We're going from old battle acts, Delara, spec Hondas to, okay, hey, turbocharged V sixes, those cost more, new chassis, new everything. Oh, hey, that costs more. Anytime you go to whatever it is, it's new. It's gonna cost you more money. So not diminishing the costs of going hybrid, just saying that if you've been around the sport for a little while, you've heard the same complaints about the same things across a variety of series, cart, champ car, IRL, IndyCar series. What we have today is the NTT IndyCar series. It's just the norm. We're going to new technology and the budgets haven't gone up is a sentence that's never been spoken in motor racing. So, yep. And when IndyCar goes to a new chassis here in a couple of years, hopefully, guess what? Budgets are going to go up and folks are going to complain like mad. Name whatever it is. If it's new, it's going to cost. So wasn't crazy to hear folks talking that, hey, if you could bring four and a half to five, you're good for the season. Now, yeah, folks are saying don't even call me unless you got seven, but really, it's eight. And if you get to nine, then it's probably yours. It's getting expensive. That's where the going to Fox and every race on cable, I'm sorry, every race on network and the hope of those delivering bigger audiences, better ratings to give teams opportunity to upsell themselves and ask for more money from sponsors because they're getting bigger audiences. That's where maybe, hopefully, we start to get more income coming in and get the balance coming back a little bit on budget. All right, y'all, greatly, greatly appreciate your time, your questions. Our pal, Jerry Siteth, cats, dogs, whomever it is in your life that you care for. Big thanks, once again, and we'll have something, hopefully, coming out, calling for questions on Monday, try and get that done before hitting down two good old Monterey for the reunion next week. And yeah, life is good, y'all. Thanks, once again, thanks to our friends at FAFF Technologies, the Justice Brothers in Toronto Motorsports.com, and I'll speak to y'all very soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
