(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome to the Marshall Prote podcast. In your week in IndyCar, listener Q and A, as promised last week getting this episode in a little bit later than had wanted to, but nonetheless, here we are early. On a Wednesday evening in Northern California, this is indeed not only the week in IndyCar, listener Q and A show. It's also the, or Cat Rocky, sleeping and snoring behind me show. So keep it down if you can, rock. Don't have Rosie in here, she's somewhere else, but that was a fun run, y'all. Four races in five weeks, starting off with Imsa at Road America, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna sake after that for the Rolex Motorsports Monterey reunion. I don't even know, it's all kinds of letters and acronyms here. Then Portland and then Milwaukee for a double header, which was absolutely brilliant. Not perfect, I know from the fan side, definitely some areas to tune up, but in a overarching sense, a really truly positive return for IndyCar, lots of great stuff to build on. So think we're gonna split this into a two-parter this week. We got enough questions, about 2,000 words worth. All assembled by our friend Jerry Sooteth. Get this posted right after I'm done with it. And then likely circle back on Friday and do the part two. Jerry also see that we got some questions after you put the word document together from our friend Cassie Johnston and some others. So might see if there are a few others that we want to rope into an updated part two, but so great to see many of y'all last weekend. Cassie, Craig in June, the Johnston family and the morals. Christy Prudena, just so many of y'all. Rob, who put on the great event Friday night at Hollerhouse, got to go there. America's oldest sanctioned bowling alley. That was great, got to dip in there for about 15 minutes. But yeah, the pre-day listener group. So thankful for y'all and just kindness and love and everything good. So let's see, lots, lots to delve into here. Wrote a story over the weekend. Volving our guy, Alexander Rossi, didn't have anything to offer on where he'll be driving next year, but said there's news and it's imminent. And that's great. Can tell you that I look forward to that news becoming public because part of what I wrote was the thing I have been asked more than anybody about this one guy. Where's he going? What's he doing? What's happening? And that is from team owners, drivers, crew, just across the board. And so I love it, truly do. 'Cause to me, it's just evidence that he has made a huge impact on folks. I realize he's not IndyCar's most popular driver in terms of like spotlight at all time goes to him first. But I can tell you, if there is some sort of strongest bond and deepest bond with IndyCar fans award, that would go to Alexander Rossi. So I'm not saying any of this is accurate on the topic of where's he going next year, but I'll share this, these things spoken to me by a good number of folks in the paddock here, especially last weekend. And I don't share things with you in terms of rumor and what folks say unless it's coming from real folks, folks who I know, they know what they're talking about. They would have a better keener insight than folks who don't. And three scenarios been presented as the most likely answer to where is Alexander Rossi going in 2025? The first, which seems to have gotten the most votes is who goes on racing? That would be an interesting one, wouldn't it? Know that in speaking with the team, even speaking with Romag Roshan, who drives the lead car, if we want to call it that, the number 77, he's on a one year deal option for a second, hoping the team will take that up. I think he's done really well this year, right? They've had more top 10s in a season with that entry than ever before. Also had some decently not great results. So despite Rosie's here, we got both kitty cats. That's really good. Thinking about a lot of the not great results, unfortunately, the five or six top 10s that they have procured with that number 77, instead of that meaning that it's sitting right close to the top 10, Romag is currently 17th in the standings. So it's been a little bit of counterbalancing of the increase in goods with a few too many bads. So, but the potential is there. And of the scenarios, I think Romag's coming back, what I'd love to see, and I do love Romag, what I would love to see is Alexander joining the second car, getting into that number 78 car currently driven by Connor Daley. Believe there's a question this episode about does Connor have a chance of staying in the car, not to my knowledge. And that's no disrespect to Connor, but I'm not aware of that being an active thing that the team is pursuing. Know that at Andretti, Romag and Alexander did not get along. And admittedly, Romag was just pretty dickish there. And I can understand why that didn't work out. They've mended their problems become solid. I think together, they would be a holy cow-type proposition for whom goes Hollinger. If this were to be something where Alexander replaced Romag, the team goes from strength to strength. Alexander is a person whose consistency is just, that's a huge part of the package that comes with him. You get the top 10s. You get very few, 23rds, 27th, 24ths, whatever, to blight that progress. So, big question here as for how that would happen, knowing that the Hunkos Hollinger team has been bereft of sponsorship by and large this year, seemingly almost entirely funded by co-owner Brad Hollinger. Ricardo Hunkos told me last week that he and Brad are discussing an increase in budget for next year to allow them to do more. Would adding an Alexander, not replacing Romag, but adding an Alexander be part of that initiative if that were to go forward. If so, again, that'd be huge. Think about what happens when you have a driver like a Felix Rosenfist, who's only known big teams, Chippgenasi Racing, finished sixth as a rookie, right? Just ridiculous. There for a couple of years, went to Aaron McLaren right after that. Somebody like a fro with nothing but big team experience moves to a Hunkos Hollinger Racing. Sorry, make that a Myerschank Racing. I'm stuck on JHR. Fro moves to Shank. And obviously, there's a lot of great things that the Androidi Technologies folks are bringing from the setup side and that technical alliance. But with Fro, pretty serious leveling up in a lot of ways. I know that his predecessors coming from Team Penske were expected to do that. Team got better for sure, but Fro specifically has been a prime example. Top tier team guy moving to a midfielder and his ways, his being, his everything helps that team to step forward in the paddock, move higher, better, et cetera. Rossi would do that exact thing coming from Andretti. And now, Aaron McLaren to a Hunkos Hollinger, whether it's in addition to or as the new lead driver, Hunkos Hollinger becomes better. So for their sake, I hope that is what is happening. The other option that's presented to me is what folks think is happening with good old Alejandro Rossi. That would be Ed Carpenter Racing. That'd be a more interesting one for me. So I've had the conversation with Ed. Still need to publish a story, but spoke with Ed, spoke with Rienus, spoken with Christian, and all three of them seem to think they're gonna be continuing and working together next year. If that were to change, that would have the same effect, the Rossi effect. Ed Carpenter Racing gets better. There's, to me, no question that maybe over a single lap, Rienus has a little edge on Alexander, but in terms of race day performance, there is nobody currently driving at Ed Carpenter Racing, who is better than Alexander Rossi. So same type of leveling up. Also the same question mark, right? Hunkos Hollinger Racing, hey, those side pods been pretty darn empty. Similar thing at Ed Carpenter Racing. How do you pay for it? That part I don't know. But depending on whether he would be replacing someone like a VK who gets paid, again, I wouldn't pretend to know the full makeup of what it would look like, but Hunkos and also Carpenter would be better and more competitive in moving forward in the driver standings, entrance standings, you name it, if they're able to get ahold of the guy. The third and final scenario mentioned by not a ton of folks, but a couple of folks who again seem to think they know what's happening is the announcement forthcoming that maybe next year will be a little bit of a transition year for Alejandro. Maybe he'll be part time, maybe he'll be, who knows? So I hope that's not the case. Alexander driving and especially full time in IndyCar, really important guy to IndyCar's current fan base. And I want him there full time. Hope that is indeed what is going to happen. J-H-R-P1 from what folks think, E-C-R-P2, if it's someone else, it's not Ganassi, we know that for sure, it's not Penske, we know that for sure, but if it's someone else, it's not Meyer's shank racing. I have missed it and don't know. What else can I tell you real quick before we roll into the show here? Was told one team owner spent a lot of time last weekend talking with team owners, told by one team owner that a fairly significant sponsor in the paddock will be leaving at the end of the year, leaving motor racing altogether, and was asked to keep that sponsor's name to myself. But heard from a couple other folks last weekend that the sponsor was leaving, so I do not doubt the accuracy of this. It makes me sad, of course, but it's not uncommon. Happens in every series, happens every year. But yeah, bummed to hear that that is happening, and obviously when the time is right, we'll tell you about it if someone else doesn't tell you about it first, but was asked to not share, so that's what you do. Hey, let's listen to a little message here about some folks that are really important to me, and hopefully you all, that do indeed make the show possible and help my wife, Shabrel and I, to exist. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAFT Technologies. Build to print composites manufacturing company. They're specializing in medium to large scale automotive, motor sports, and military applications. Visit FAFT Technologies.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 motor sports industries for more than 85 years. The victories in all the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, the 24 hours a day tona, the Justice Brothers products are truly race proven, learn about their vast history, and range of offerings at justicebrothers.com. If you're fond of awesome motor racing collectibles, including FAFT Motorsports McLaren gear and goodies, pay a visit to torontomotor sports.com. And finally, you have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, ThePruitStore.com. For all the show stickers, models, racing memorabilia, trying to sell, and put towards our fund to buy a house, is now live and rocking. ThePruitStore.com. All right, we're gonna get rolling here. Once again, thank you to our pal, Jerry Sedith, for putting the show together, as he always does. If you wanna send in questions for the show, two ways to do it, and email and direct message, ain't it? Jerry has public access to everything you post. When I put out the call for questions on my Twitter/x profile @martialpruit. And then also on the Marshall Pruit podcast, Facebook page. And yes, it is still strange, saying my name over and over again. I probably should've thought to come up with a better name for the show. But anyways, when I put out the call for questions, usually earlier in the week, Mondays, Tuesdays, just reply and post whatever you got. If it's a shorter question, Twitter/x is great. If it's a longer one, Facebook, you got all the words, whatever you wanna use, Jerry'll grab those, decide the ones that work best for the show, put them in a amusing order and send that off to me. And he indeed has his wonderful preambles. He so often creates for us and says, "After seeing the blowback about billboards "related to Pato Award, "combined with a prospect of a processional race, "I was afraid I'd need a flame retardant, "suit this week." And thankfully, when we all needed it most, the series came through and gave us a great weekend. The questions reflect this. We have a weak chock full of positivity and hopes from what we saw this past weekend. So there's three groups of questions. I'll try and get through the first group, which tends to be the deeper one, and then maybe kind of sort of pulled on to the second and third groups and do that on Friday, along with the new ones that came in. So why don't we open with, and I'll do this one quickly because this exploded and then went away, and I'm thankful for that, our friend Matt Phil Pot, one of the long-standing leaders of the Prudé listener group. So Mark Miles, the man is Mr. Company Line. How in God's green earth did he manage to go off-script this weekend when talking about a race in Mexico? And how apparently it falls on Pato Award shoulders to justify a race in Mexico. Oh boy. So Mark's been there for 10, 11 years. I think 2013 or so is when he joined IndyCar. Now he's senior executive in Penske Entertainment, the owner of the IndyCar series. Mark's always been a fairly off-the-cuff guy when it comes to comments, when it comes to quotes, and the framing here to understand Matt, he is, I don't know how old he is. I assume he's in his 60s, mid-late, I'm not sure, but he is not of the internet generation. I can tell you that for sure. The web, the worldwide web. It's not a place that he comes from, not a place that means much to him, never has. Knowing that, knowing that he came to IndyCar, having been whatever the title was, President, CEO, intergalactic lord of the ATP, the American tennis, professional tennis here in the US. Mark just comes from a senior level executive, C-Suite country club-ish type place. And when it comes to interviews, for example, knowing that he's been at the super elevated level, I think there's just been a comfort that the vast majority of interviews he's done over the years have been broadcast television or print, right? Major magazine, major print institution, something where, with him being figurehead, large role in whatever organization, there's gonna be effort made to take care of him. So if he says a thing or two or 10 that are a little interesting or colorful, rocky buddy, you've just jumped up, walked across the laptop, and now he has left a bunch of characters changing some of the questions. Thanks, buddy. This is just not a thing to mark where the internet, the stereotype of the guy sitting in the basement and the underwear, saying mean things, whatever, has ever held any importance. That's not an audience that Mark's ever really considered as I understand it. I've seen just from my own interviews that he's not worried about a thing. His thought is those folks, the internet and what not, whatever, social media, whatever, not him, not his thing. So when he says stuff, there's just truly no regard for how the quote internet and the book faces and the My Spaces and the YouTubes and the whomever might receive the words that he says. So knowing there's this big generational gap, Mark kind of flying a little loose here, just the norm. This caught him out and bit him hard. We are talking about the flamiest of flames catching him here on fire and just share a couple other quick things and then we'll move on to frankly far more important stuff. The reporting done, as I understand it, all spot on, no issue, like right, well researched, well, whatever, if anything, I've been meaning to get ahold of Mark for a couple of weeks. Sometimes with folks like Mark, always call the guy. If I got something, that's not an issue, but try not to call him every single time I got an idea, got a question. So it's not uncommon for me to let three, four, five, six, seven questions stack up on the runway and then say, hey, let me know, grab some time here, get caught up on a lot of things. That's what I was needing to do coming in a Milwaukee, some things at home where I needed to change my flight, flew out Friday morning at 6 a.m., got to the track a half hour before the start of practice, missed the driver media scrum, asked them questions coming out of this Mexico NASCAR announcement. So fair play to all those who were there, got all the good stuff, put stories out, like totally full thumbs up there. But I did have on my list Mark Miles Mexico question, been there for about a week, having known that this was coming and that it was an IndyCar, was gonna ask like, hey, here we are again. And other reporters got there first, did good work, stuff went up and he stepped on a body part that's painful to step on. So reached out Saturday morning and said, well, folks who like themselves on fire usually don't wanna talk afterwards, but I do have a bunch of questions. Do we think we could find some time head of Pensac Entertainment comms that yep, you bet, and ended up taking a day for that to take place. Finally sat down with Mark, it was meant to be 9.30 Sunday morning. Race was I think what, 1.30 to a clock, whatever, but had a 9 a.m. or so over at Pensac, good Lord, getting my teams mixed up. At a 9 a.m. over at Canassie with Taylor Kyle Team Manager, did the interview about downsizing to three IndyCars confirming that and primarily been moved to Indiana XT with two cars. So just developing that story and getting that ready for some point this week, that went up today by the way. Had that 9 a.m. with him, was like, cool, I'll just walk right over once we're done to the 9.30 with Mark, got the note, hey, can we change this to 10.30? I'm like, okay, sure. So finally sat down with him for, I don't know, half hour, maybe, maybe a little longer Sunday morning and won't bother regurgitating the whole story again, having mentioned it here more than once on the show, but scenario last year, where Mark went after my livelihood a couple of times and I am one who will choose snarkiness and sarcasm whenever possible, so coming out of that, been referring to Mark calling him, when I see him, hey, it's the magnanimous Mark Miles, giving kind, benevolent, right? It's full sarcasm, hey, it's a magnanimous Mark Miles. And so saw him came out from the Newell or the whatever million dollar motor coach that he spends most of the weekends in, walked out to a little bench area in front of a concession stand and sat down, was about to sit down and said, hey, by the way, change your nickname. It's no longer the magnanimous Mark Miles. And he kind of knew something was coming. I said, Mark Miles, Penske Entertainment CEO. Oh, and he kind of looked at me a little like, okay, that's not really a nickname. Oh, my bad, my bad. And this is an ear most moment. I said, in response to shitting the bed, worse than I've just about ever seen on Friday, CEO now stands for Chief Excrement Officer. And I thought it was a good one. And he kind of didn't really smile, didn't frown, kind of wrinkled up his nose a little bit. I was like, okay, I'm looking right, here we go. So anyways, if you can try to have a little bit of fun at my expense and take away my livelihood, I figure I can at least change his nickname to IndyCar or Penske Entertainment CEO, Chief Excrement Officer. So spoke with him, Mexico came up. That wasn't the main thing. I had plenty of other things talk about, I'll get developed into stories here. Some of the answers are almost nothing burgers, but again, sometimes reporting what the state of things involves telling you, all right, well, if you're curious, here's where this thing is at, even if it's not really going anywhere. But did speak about the Mexico side? As I've understood, this was Mark framing positioning, what he was told by the Otto Dromo Hermanos Rodriguez, facility saying that they didn't feel potto was popular enough to host a race. I think he could have just done a better job to shield himself with that. Hey, we believe he is ready to go and we wanna make a race happen tomorrow if we could, unfortunately, they don't believe, again, you can just position things a little more strongly in that direction, cover himself with a bigger shield. But here's just this to farewell the topic. That's not the only track in Mexico. Good Lord. Like, I realize it's the most obvious thought. It's like saying, hi, I wanna hold a race in America. Well, then let's go to Indianapolis. They go, yeah, Indianapolis is great. They got this thing called the Indy 500. It's kind of popular. NASCAR goes there and, you know, that draws a bit of a crowd. Impsico, like, if you're trying to show up in America to put on a new race and you're not like formula one, you're gonna fall second, third, fourth on the depth chart. Why? Find someone else, somewhere else that is unique to you. That's my exact thought and has been about the Otto Dromo or Monos Rodriguez, phenomenal place. Formula one goes there, packs the joint. Formula E goes there, does really well. NASCAR is going there. Even if they said, yes, we want an Indy car race, my reaction would be, good Lord, run away from there. Because you're going to look small and unimportant compared to those other series. Find something different. Can we go back to the Monterey road course? Make, is there an oval we can go to? Make a street course event happen somewhere. That is 1,000% unique to Indy car and Potto. So you're not having these massive shoes to fill that you cannot fill at this track known first and foremost for its Grand Prix race. So beyond the whole stepping on appendages and not coveting yourself enough in the shield of other people's words, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, my biggest thought is, this is an old topic, right? Potto's been like, hey, let's go for a while now. Hasn't happened. Do something unique. I am confident, even if it's a, doesn't have to be a giant event, doesn't have to be a huge marquee town, but find something where you go, yeah. We can draw a decent crowd here. We can do this ourselves. And this would actually be really positive and additive. But that's the hard way of doing things. So there's that. And thankfully, this whole thing seemed to die down and go away before the green flag waved over Saturday's race. It was really hoping that all this nonsense, right? Not the reporting, none of those all spot on, but the silliness that created all this, Matt, really happy to see it did not overshadow the racing because it felt like while there and it is the only thing people wanted to talk about. It is absolutely something that, thankfully, the racing put to bed. And this will be one that we remember in terms of messing ups, but not one that indeed diminished the racing itself. All right, we normally open on a fairly large topic. We just did and we're putting that to bed. Jake Ward, awesome race weekend in Milwaukee, he says. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of both races. Just wanted to share a thought about the crowd. This was by far the most diverse crowd I've ever seen at any race. People of all colors, lots of kids and families. I was so proud of Milwaukee for hosting such a great event for the fans. The one thing that wasn't diverse was nine out of 10 people wearing IndyCar gear, we're wearing papaya with the number five on the back, that being good old Pato board. Said Kyle Larson had the second most popular jersey in the crowd, can't wait to go back next year. Okay, Jake, so are you trying to tell me that Pato award has some fans? Come on, man, you know, join us in reality here. That is impossible, there is no way. I love that kid by the way. Yeah, look, that was another great thing to see there, right? It was almost entirely IndyCar driver jerseys that we saw, right? If folks were wearing racing themed stuff, I saw the barest of minimum formula one and/or NASCAR things. Those are usually pretty common at other IndyCar races. This was, I don't know what percentage I would say, but if someone was wearing a racing themed something, it was either new, modern, something bought in an IndyCar store or one of the driver's stores or retro stuff. As a multiple X size guy, I'm somewhat limited on what size shirts I can wear. I've reduced an X, almost two Xs in the last two years. So I'm working on it, but I did see one guy standing near Victory Lane, I think Saturday after the race and he was a size medium for sure. And it was a Danny Sullivan, Penske Miller crew shirt from '88 or so. And I wanted to buy it, even though I got him money to buy it. I wanted to take it, that would have been illegal, but I'm staring and staring and hoping he's not looking back because it would have been awkward 'cause it would have been one of those things where like, "What's up, what's your problem?" Like I was staring that intent because it was so beautiful and I wanted it so badly. And there were a number of folks wearing really cool retro cart era, you name it, IndyCar things from their Milwaukee mile past. So I loved that part of it, Jake, and thanks for reporting in. Jason Hoover, this MP first continued good thoughts and prayers to you and your wife. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Secondly, those two races in Milwaukee were fantastic over the weekend. What made the package work so much better here than it did at Iowa? Can IndyCar translate what was learned here into over races going forward? Yeah, you're totally right. So I'm not hesitating in my response because anything you said is wrong. This is Milwaukee, first of all. This is a very Milwaukee thing. So not unexpected because great racing has happened and tends to happen at Milwaukee with IndyCar. Why? The fact that it is flat, the fact that there's no banking helping, you have grating of the tires against the tarmac. There's no level, there's no helping of the car around the corners because there's meaningful banking to just lock the car in through gravity. So you have cars, even the ones that are running P1 and are the best handling vehicles there, they're still sliding tiny bits in every corner. And that is taking rubber off of the surface of the tires that is also getting them a little hotter and compounds starting to surrender a little bit and you get tire degradation. It just simply happens at Milwaukee. Could have come with a harder tire, thankfully Firestone did not and those tires would not have really degraded but the pace would have also been painfully slow. So great call by Firestone on the tires that were brought. Slightly softer left sides than what were used at the test I was told and that right there made a huge difference. Short oval racing, go to higher downforce package, right? Basically a road course, downforce package, depending on the size of the short oval, it could be more or less the full road course, wing package or taking an element or two off here there to slightly reduce but it's a lot of downforce. So you think about that at Milwaukee with no banking where you really do need that aerodynamic push down into the track but there's still that sliding that causes the tires to wear and that's a big factor in where things start to get fun because you have some cars that are handling better than others and their tires tend to last for a longer duration during the stints. There are others more ill handling cars where their tires surrender sooner and all of a sudden you have the dynamic that is critical for oval racing that is risers and fallers. Those who are charging towards the front because their car is handling better halfway through three quarters of the way through a stint Jake or who are already there and can stay there. And you have others who might have been good but start to tail off and all of a sudden you have this dynamic faster cars and slower cars and passing and getting jammed up behind somebody and trying to make a pass but they close the door or it doesn't work and the faster car under steers up and gets passed by two or three drivers capitalizing on that mistake. That's where getting the tires right and the aero configuration right is so critical. This type of track is perfect for that. There's one other aspect to consider here as well and it is possibly, I mean, those two things are the most important but there's kind of an equal third aspect that is really important for an entertaining oval race and particular short oval, medium size oval. And that is cautions. Need to have a caution halfway through that opening stint before the end of it for sure, halfway through three quarters at most to give the drivers who are struggling and it's at least half the field, a chance to pit and go on to an alternate strategy. Then you truly get the risers and followers dynamic and you go, "Wait a minute, good old so-and-so has just run in 22nd." And it's a little too early for those in the lead to want to pit but that one who's been out to lunch in 22nd decided to pit along with others in 23rd and 21st and whatever. And all of a sudden they're on new tires, halfway through three quarters of the way through that opening stint and they are rockets and they are just impossible for the leaders to pass and it creates this risers and followers dynamic. So tires, downforce, the track layout itself, Iowa being highly banked, that's one thing but also the new pavement wasn't something that was able to nail in terms of tire degradation. So coming back next year, I am completely confident Firestone will have tested there multiple times and come up with something that is a better match for the newer grippier track surface. But yeah, tires, downforce, first stint caution, create the alternate strategies that have folks running different races at the same time. It was a magical combination of that, Jake. So boy, did we not benefit in both events. Jason Hoover, you had basically the same question here. So hopefully I covered some of that off. Karen Porter, great to see you and your wife, by the way. Sorry, it was over offense. Yeah, sorry about that. That says MP, so glad. My wife and I could see you in Milwaukee, so I'm exciting racing this weekend, my opinion. I was wondering if the podium finished Saturday evening renews or creates any interest and someone bringing Connor Daly in for a full-time ride. Says some very kind things about my wife and the cats. Try to only just read one of those per episode not where you guys out. Not that I'm aware of with Connor. Connor has a problem. He is an extremely good indie car driver without meaningful season long budget to bring and a reputation. Not saying this is a fully accurate reputation that he has been bestowed, but he is viewed by far too many in the paddock as a short oval specialist, slash an oval specialist, but in particular short oval. He certainly did nothing to dispel that reputation, right? Pole winner in short oval, now podium finisher in short oval. That is different though than the average team thinking. I need to hire a great driver who can perform for me at St. Petersburg, Barber, Motor Sports Park, run through all the different tracks on the calendar. Connor has been pigeon-holed as short oval monster. So if there are any teams next year that find themselves, Garin, on the wrong side of the leader circle conversation at about the halfway point, middle of summer, whatever it is like Hunkos did with cutting bait with Augustine, Canapino, and they really need to get in and get that million dollar contract. I expect to see Connor in this position next year. It'd be stupid for a team to not do that. But because he does not have five, six, seven, eight million dollars to bring and way too many teams look at him as a specialist, I'm unaware of anybody actively pursuing him for a full-time ride. Love the guy, like using someone else who I always want an arpatic in a car. For sure, but yeah, I'm not seeing that right now. pal Jeremiah Morrill, by the way, happy birthday yet again, Sarah. Great to see you. So it's fantastic racing in Milwaukee. Can we find that miracle arrow and tire balance for Iowa next year as well? And again, there's a lot of folks just hoping that what we saw evidence of at Milwaukee can be replicated at Iowa and I'm confident that it can. There's a lot of great race engineers and whatnot throughout the paddock who want to help any car to make sure that that happens. So famous last words, of course, but I do feel like, yeah, we could indeed be seeing that next year when we go back. Let's get into your last round of questions here. The first group of questions and then we will see farewell to this episode. Where should we go next? Michael Everson, how you doing? So seems to have a lot more mechanical misfortune in Milwaukee than we normally do. Are there any common underlying reasons for what we saw? Perhaps a function of it being into the season and parts like gearbox internals being up against end of life. There were quite a few gearboxy issues, weren't there? In particular, I believe at least two cars on Sunday's race with Aeroma clarin, which was a surprise. Wouldn't be a case where teams were trying to extend gearbox component life with a team like Aeroma clarin there. Anything that looks like it is suspicious and/or is close to the end of its life. That is just not something a top team would fart around with at all there. But yeah, I mean, we had a whole array of things. Like Kiffin Simpson, for example, I think it was Saturday's race. Running decently came in, saw the NBC cameras, looking down from the grandstands, putting in, looked like there's one or two crew members like buried deep inside the cockpit, leaning over the arrow screen. I think he lost 10 or 11 laps. They lost radio communication, right? Don't know what happened. Cable or cord get pinched, did something get unplugged, rattled around, who knows? But you do not want a driver running around without a spotter speaking to them or anyone else on a short, fast oval like this. So that was one, again, just weird. And yeah, there were other issues for sure that happened, but I'm with you. I don't know the reasons why, in particular, for the gearboxy issues there, but high attrition. Oh, hey, Alex Palau, by the way. You're seemingly on the way to a championship, but no, your car is just gonna sit. And that was one as well, where I know NBC reported it was a battery issue. I'm told that NBC Pit reporter was told that by, believe Alex's manufacturer, not number 10, Ganasi Honda. And Dylan Welch, great reporter, understand everything he told was told was 100% accurate, went and asked the team, spoke with Barry Wands, but the team manager of the 10 car, immediately after the race, I mean, basically, Alex Polden came to a stop, and about five seconds later, I was stepping over the pit wall and went straight to Barry, and said, "Barry, what happened? "Can you run me through what took place?" And he said, "We don't know, "but something majorly bad happened. "Something within the electrical system." He thought it was something hybrid-related, shut the car off. Just from my own experience, having done a lot of IndyCar, electronics over the years, when you have a battery going bad, it's either dead and doesn't work from the beginning, or it tends to degrade, right? Starts going flat, and that could take one lap, 10 laps, something, but there tends to be a bit of a arc from good to bad before you get all the way to bad. This, as they told me, Alex told me as well, it just shut off. Don't know what caused it, but tried to run through the problem, try and solve whatever it was, got the car back to their paddock space, went through a reboot cycle, and that, according to Barry, fried the battery. That would be different than the battery being the instigator of the problem and the need for it to be changed and everything to be good. So, what was reported, again, I'm not saying was wrong because that's the information that was given. Speaking to the team, the person who was in charge of the car, moments after the race ended, was told that there was something that caused the battery to die, and they were still digging into it. Texted Barry a couple hours after the race to say, hey, found what it was, also spoke with IndyCar about this, they said they were looking into it as well. Barry texted me back, I think after getting home and Indianapolis was about, I don't know, 10, 30, Sunday night and said, still haven't found it. And admittedly, I haven't thought to try and chase it down and see if an answer's been provided. But as it was presented, the battery failing was a symptom of the bigger problem with the team looking to try and find what the bigger problem was, the cost. Where do we go next? Len, formerly the Spurs fan. MP, were you surprised at power to not take more advantage of Palo's car issue? Crazy to see power spin like that, but it doesn't surprise me because Palo is who he's chasing. Yeah, Alex Palo, the luckiest person in the world. I need him to pick some lot of numbers for me. I need him to do everything. That guy is truly the luckiest dude on earth. He's got, what, a 33 point lead, heading into the season finale. It was 54 points coming into Milwaukee. The fear was it would get knocked down a bit. He lost what tennis points on Saturday wasn't bad. Rallyed to a decent finish there will obviously doing quite, quite well. But yeah, watching the live points tracker on the IndyCar timing and scoring screen that they make available to us and to the broadcast booth. There was a point where indeed Will had overtaken Alex in the championship, which was just unfathomable. And then poised to capitalize on Alex's super misfortune, not of his making, Will gave it back. So, what does that mean going into Nashville season finale? Does it mean Alex has too many points for Will to overcome? It does not, but he needs Will needs the same thing that happened to Alex at Milwaukee race two to happen at Nashville and for things to not be solved as quickly as they were by the team. There needs to be a pretty decent gap between where Will finishes and Alex finishes. And as good as the Ganesi team is on Ovals, it's one of those deals where if Alex can just finish the race without any adversity or significant adversity, he's the champion. So, this is the thing where you look at Lynn where the team loses the football game and it's the kicker who missed the field goal and they lost it right as the clock went down to zero and you, oh, the damn kicker and you go, okay, true. If that thing had gone through the upright, so it would have won the game, but they didn't lose because of the damn kicker. They lost because all the other things that didn't go well throughout the game. We will look back if Will does not win the championship and say, oh, if not for that unforced error, that spin coming back to green on a restart, given the rear tires a little too much horsepower, those tires weren't old, right? I think he'd pitted 15, 20 laps prior. So, they were by no means worn out, but just dipped into the throttle a little too much, looped the thing off he went. But we will look at that and say that was the point where it transformed his ability to win the championship. But there are other things that happened throughout the year where you go, yep, this here, that there, missing the Firestone Fast 6 by a fraction of a milazilius, still the second, and starting seventh or ninth and having to fight through a couple extra cars, and therefore you came up with a few less points than you should have. So, yeah, we'll remember this one, but it won't be the sole reason. Eric Frank, you got a question about how Willpower got the fourth in the first race. I don't know, brother. My brain's a little bit fried. Flamingo girl, 156, you've got the penultimate question. Seems like there were some shenanigans going on with Willpower's right rear tire changer, trying to delay Alex Palau's exit out of the pits. What are the rules since safety is involved? Well, the rules are you're not allowed to do that. Here's the thing. If you go back and watch this race specifically, right? Forget other races, this one, since we're talking about was there an effort to impede? If you watch pit stops of other drivers on the broadcast, 'cause I saw them on the broadcast, you'll see Rossi's right rear tire changer in within an inch, the same exact distance to the tire, that right rear tire. And you'll see this with other tire changers, where that outside tire, with the offset of the wheel being what it is, and also with the ramp that sits in front of the tire, you've got to pull it out a decent amount to get it clear and free from the stub axle, suspension breaks, all that. That's why outside tire changers tend to sit out farther, or not tend, they do sit out farther than the front tire changers. They need more gap to create enough room to pull that tire out, get it out of the way, and install the new one. Is there a case where you can stick your booty out a little bit extra? Sure. If we were to try and measure things, could powers or whomever's, they've been protruding by the tiniest amount more than others, it's possible. Did I see anything that looked like, oh, okay, this is egregious. I did not see that at all. So maybe I'm blind, maybe I don't know, blah, blah, blah, but I didn't see that. So, again, if that was the only car, or the only team where we saw that, we got something to talk about. I didn't see it, and I don't feel like this was really a thing. At the same time, and again, I could be totally wrong, I also love the fact that Palau seemed to say, well, I am not going to let you impede me. And guess what? You want to potentially cause me to lose a fraction of whatever amount of time coming out of the pits. I'm going to fire out here really hard. And I believe he did run over an air hose on the 12 car. And I believe they received a monetary fine for that. So anyways, a little bit of games, woman, games, man, games, person, ship, for sure. But yeah, this to me wasn't much of a thing. We're going to close with Mark Cardela. Says, "Should one of the NBC broadcasters "have stood up for Georgia Hennaberry "when New Garden was disrespectful to her "when she asked him a question about "who he was referring to that quote didn't get the message. "Is New Garden trying to be more unlikable? "Or was it just frustration about the weekend?" I'd have to go back and watch or listen to that exchange. Georgia Hennaberry is awesome. So she is the person who deserves zero disrespect from anybody. Joseph messed up, Joseph messed up for sure. And PR rep from the team came by, appreciate him, and said, "Hey, what do you think?" He says, "You know, Joseph." He says, "Joseph feels terrible about this. "What do you think?" I'm like, "You know, man, again, overstating the obvious, "but yeah, not a good look." I said, "Only real avenue for him now "since the TV cameras are not going to be "pointing back at him today is to get on to his social media "and apologize directly to her and say, "Hey, a thousand percent my fault. "You did not deserve any of that. "I own this completely. "Mad was this, was that?" The guy's pole sitter of the race and gets taken out. Zero fault of his own. Doesn't justify his reaction, but you can at least understand in a very heated mindset, not totally out of the realm of possibility for someone as severely pissed off as he was, to be short and disrespectful to a reporter. I have certainly received words like that from drivers in similar positions. Max Chilton comes to mind when he failed to qualify for the $3,500 I think in 2019. Hadn't spoken to Max much that year, hadn't done super well that year and admittedly, there just wasn't a lot to speak to him about. And he was all full of testosterone and anger when he saw me and dressed me down for wanting to interview him. Basically saying I was, he didn't say it, but was in the framing of me being a vulture or something like that, of only being there to want to talk to him at a low time and when he's really sad and upset. And it was like, "No man, I'm truly just doing my job." So again, that's not the only time. But regardless, not something she deserved, Joseph realized it, I haven't looked to see, but I was told by his PR rep that yes, he indeed, either has or was going to jump right onto social media and race his hand and say, "Totally my bad." Should the other broadcasters have gotten her back? Again, I don't know, is that the culture there? Possibly, I mean, you'd like to think, but she's a grown professional, Joseph's a grown professional and yeah, we're not going to get into the whole Joseph and evolving into a very different person than he was as a younger IndyCar driver thing, 'cause we've done that plenty of times, but the fact that this happened from Joseph to her, not a total shock, also keeping in mind that we had our guy Will Power telling Dylan Welch to F off, not so many races ago when he was super pissed about what happened, that being a gateway. So yeah, if you had to compare the two, I'd say Joseph was actually the nicer. So yeah, they'll move on. She's awesome, Joseph's amazing as well. Interpersonal side certainly does not seem to be getting easier for Joseph, but I hope that he finds that place because hearing him booed at driver intros, two days in a row, like bum me out. Granted, on Sunday, the governor of Wisconsin, again, apologies, but didn't know who he was and never heard of him, but like hearing the intros going on while I'm out and around pit lane and all of a sudden, I just hear the crowd, super booing and I'm like, what's going on? Turn around, look at the big screen. It's the governor of the state. I'm like, oh boy. And then I'm like, okay, and they booed Joseph as well. So there were some cheers for him too, but yeah. It's one thing if he owned the heel side, then you'd go cool, all right. Here's a real thing, but since it's not something he fully owns, there's nothing really positive to come out of it. All right, y'all, we're a little bit more than the 45 minutes that I'd hoped, but nonetheless, we'll be back here on Friday and maybe do a little bit more of a championship primer. Again, it's basically a polos unless something crazy happens yet again, but if we have any other questions that come in, Jerry's gonna grab a couple more, trying to do another show and give you a little something to hopefully enjoy over the weekend. Thanks once again to y'all and everything you sent in to our great and dear, long-standing friends at the Justice Brothers, FAF technologies, and then also the mighty torontomotorsports.com payment visit, they got a lot of really fun and amazing motorsports memorabilia for y'all. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
