Episode Transcript
This is track side with Kirk Cavin and Kevin Lee on ninety three to five and one oh seven five is the ban the Yard of Bricks.
You'll get to kiss them, Yes you will.
Hampus Erickson and Danny Fromall.
Speaker 2Fifth win of the season for Wayne Taylor Racing in the pro category and their teammates in Pro Am.
How about Trent Hindman and David Woosier.
Jackson Lee across the Yard of Bricks?
He wins at his home track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Speaker 3Second win of the season.
Speaker 4The cars were great, super quick, but to come home with a second overall and first of Pro Am and and a one to two for the team's really really outstanding.
And this great job by by everybody at Wayne Tail Racing and especially Jackson.
Last end of the race was not easy hot, but he did a great job.
Speaker 5Yeah, trying to appreciate in Jackson, of all where places to wing here, you're crossing the line for Chucker flag promotions.
Oh absolutely, I mean I grew up fifteen minutes from here.
I've been to every Indianapolis five hundred since twenty ten.
It's been my dream to win, dear forever, So this means so much to me, and you know, it's it's a testament to the work that team has put in.
Just looking at my progression, I feel personally from Road America to now all thanks to its all the hard work that Trent and the rest of the boys have been putting into help me learn this car, help me learn as.
Speaker 1Much as I can.
Speaker 5It's been amazing, Super thankful for the opportunity and grateful we're able to get this result.
You know, we did our job P one overall, our P one in class, but the P two overall is just gravy and I'm super happy we're able to get that done.
Speaker 1Amazing.
Speaker 5What happens when you get your races with the same code driver.
Absolutely, this was yeah.
I was telling the boys, this was my first race where I had the same car and same co driver two races in a row in the SERI secndrash.
Speaker 1I appreciate it.
Hey, Daron, welcome.
Speaker 3It's trackside ninety three five one seven five A fan in Indianapolis.
That's where Landon Coons is at.
I'm Kevin Lee along with Kurt Cavin.
We're close enough highlight.
It's courtesy of Peacock and IMSA and Kurt couldn't hear it, but hey, it's.
Speaker 1A hometown show.
Speaker 3I'm not sure that a lot of our audience is that familiar with Jack Aiken to begin with, who won the overall six hour event the Battle on the Bricks the Tirac Battle on the Bricks on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Speaker 1Kurt, I feel more.
Speaker 3Of our audience is familiar with young Jackson Lee, who not only won the highlight we just had that was Race one on Friday as the finishing driver, then started it off and Trent Henman won Race two for a clean sweep.
That audio, by the way, courtesy of Tony Dezeno from IMS Radio had a lot of tweets that said, hey, you need to get Jackson on the show.
We only have an hour tonight.
We've got things to talk about.
But I did a victory lane SoundBite.
I thought that was better with the emotion of it all winning on his home track.
So we won't spend much time on this.
We have things to talk about, but we're going to off with our biased favorite driver for this program.
Speaker 1He looked great afterwards.
He uh, you know, as you know, I had a chance to speak to him, and he was excited about the win.
It was you like it, And I know this happens for all drivers who win at the speedway, but you really like drivers and athletes to appreciate what they've accomplished.
And he's he's done all the right things.
I bring it up a lot, but I still remember when you first brought him into the studio years ago, when he was a little tike, and you said, you know, you can.
You can be a race car driver, but your grades have to be good, and you have to do the things that that we need you to do off the track.
And you know, he was a little squarey back when he was four or five years old sitting in the studio.
But he's he's leveled out, so to speak.
He not so scored me anymore.
Speaker 3He's sat there quietly though.
Speaker 1Yeah he did.
I recall, Yeahsily, that's because you had laid the hammer down.
You got to sit here and be quiet.
Speaker 3So yeah, exactly, all right.
We may get to this a little bit later.
Just real quick touching on the MS weekend, which is always fun.
Anytime there's an event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it matters.
Speaker 1It matters for that series in that sport.
Speaker 3So just a couple of thoughts before we get to IndyCar News, because we do have some, and we'll mention the people that the IndyCar fans are somewhat familiar with.
Overall, Cadillac won their first win of the season, Action Express.
That was significant.
Jack Aiken, who's done a little bit of Formula one racing, really nice young man.
I like him a lot.
Speaker 1In facts.
Today's Jack's birthday.
Speaker 3I mentioned that at one point during the race that he could maybe celebrate an early birthday, which was coming up on Tuesday.
So he turns thirty today and got the win.
Hunter mcilray, former Indy Next runner up who has done an IndyCar race and still who hopes to do more IndyCar racing one, was one of the three drivers that won in the second fastest class LMP two, his second straight at Indie the team's third straight.
Was telling me, well, I have three straight too, because he won the Indian Next race here at the Speedway three years ago, so good for him.
Brownsburg's Wayne Taylor Racing finished second overall with Ricky Taylor and Philippe Albuquerque and Meyer Shank Racing finished third Tom Blow.
I'm quiz glad to see Tom have a better exit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He and Colin Brown, who you know well and known since he was a little kid.
They finished third overall.
Rough weekend for Penske and the poor Schapenske program.
Balance of performance was not kind.
They have not had pace for a little while after they dominated the start of the season, and they got hit again this weekend.
One theory was that, yeah, they didn't really want the championship wrapped up this weekend, so we'll make sure they're slow, and they were slow, and then they were aggressive to try to overcome that and had some penalties going on a lot of RG bargie.
They finished seventh and twelfth.
Romango Jean and the Lamborghini was more a factor.
And as always, I'd missed Roman's radio transmissions, so I was covering his pit, so I got to hear a lot of spicy Roman Rojan throughout the weekend, not happy at times, happy at others, and he was in a battle with I don't know forty five minutes or so left in what might have been the last stint, with a lap down on poor Shapensky and another former Formula One driver in Felipe Nazar, and as you might imagine, Grojean was not too keen on that, and eventually the team just said, because it was in question if everyone was going to make it to the end, so they said, well, we're not going to make it to the end because they're going to crash each other.
I think Roman was being advised he's a lap down, just let him go, and he wasn't going to let him go.
He was going to fight for that position.
That wasn't a position.
So they just said, box, box, box, we'll get you in clean air and we will then be good.
And had the race day green to the finish, Grojean would have moved up two or three at least wouldn't have made it, including the Wayne Taylor team and maybe some others.
The other thing I'll note is, you know how we were talking a few weeks ago.
I wonder if it should be called where you must leave room on the outside for someone to encourage more overtaking.
IMS is requiring right now that you leave room on the outside.
And they were penalizing drivers for running people off the road even if they did not make contact.
Yeah, I like that interest.
I did kind of like it.
It certainly opened up more opportunities for overtakes.
There's a lot to like about IMSA Racing.
I know you know that, and I know some of our listeners know that.
But it's good to see it.
I don't see it often enough.
It's good to be on site, you know, get a chance to see other guys.
And I think we'll see more of Grojean.
You mentioned this on the broadcast, and I think I've sort of validated over the weekend as well that we're going to see more of him in IndyCar coming up.
Speaker 1So let's hope.
So anyway, I can't guarantee it.
Speaker 3I can't guarantee it, but a little while.
It all comes down to they have some investments pending with the team.
I think if that comes through, I believe he will be in the second Dale Coin car Roman did not tell me that, but there are some things that I said to him that he didn't dispute, and so I think that's probably where things are headed.
But it's never done until it's done, and in reality, it's not done until the check clears.
So he doesn't bring budget or if he does it's very little, and what he might bring is just personal sponsors that make it worth his while to drive.
Sometimes drivers do that if they can simply get a ride for free by being an active driver, they can monetize that and find active sponsorship to help pay their salary.
So that's one thing we learned or did not learn.
I saw Callum.
I life actually was when I was with you and I started I asked him something, and then somebody else came along and we got distracted.
And it's probably for the best because whatever Callum would have told me I couldn't have shared with everyone.
I was basically just saying, hey, we got a chance.
What's happening.
That's what everyone wants to know.
What's with Prema?
Is it going to continue?
So on the one positive, I've not heard anything negative.
I've not heard that everyone has abandoned ship and they've got no hope.
And in reality, there is no reason to close the doors.
Now there's no timeline.
It would just simply be when can we sell off the equipment.
So in the meantime they are hoping to find an investor to keep the program going because it went well.
They have two talented drivers that are under contract and so forth.
But what we do know though is something we thought we knew, but we got confirmation at eight am this morning, in part because we're talking with a European based driver, and that is what two or three o'clock in the afternoon they wanted to get the announcement in Norway during business hours.
And Dennis Hauger is headed to dale Coin Racing.
And unlike the last time that Andretti we think had the rights to a driver to bring back, this time Dan Towers is in charge of the organization is we are going to be very transparent, which he has been.
You know, he has said we are going to try to keep tabs on him, keep an option for him, so it's very clear that he's an Andretti driver and to help him out.
Speaker 1This is what we did not know.
Speaker 3There is a technical alliance now with Andretti and dale Coin Racing.
Speaker 1I think, I mean, obviously it's really good for dale Coin Racing, and we continue to hear positive things about the direction of that organization moving forward in twenty twenty six.
But I also think it's good for Andretti just to have another set of eyes, especially if they've had somebody in the car like Dennis Hauger, and then even like somebody of the caliber of Roman Ga Rojean.
Perhaps to add additional feedback, it's good for the ecosystem.
One thing we were kicking around this afternoon is does that mean now that I believe it's true that the ray Hall team, Ray Haul Letterman Lanigan team is the only Honda team now not in a technical alliance with another organization.
I think everybody else is partnered up.
You know, it's an interesting thing for me as a race fan.
You know, it feels like you you ought to I know, all the Honda teams are in the Honda organization, all the chevyes are in the Chevy organization, but you know, you've got these little subsets of teams so to speak.
When they form a technical alliance.
It almost feels like, you know, we have fewer teams.
We just have them grouped together now.
But I know that's not entirely how it works, but there is some perception about how that works and how much you know is going on, you know, in kind of a and I don't want to even use the word junior team because that's not how it functions.
But you get the point there clearly is one of those two in each partnership that is leading the charge.
So anyway, I don't know how I really feel about that, but it's the nature of how IndyCar has trending, and I see positives for the dale Coin team, for aj foyight Racing, for others who are in technical alliance.
Meyer Shank is another one.
Speaker 3What we don't know is how this works.
Are they just sharing some information with the other relationships.
The engineers are employees of the team providing the help.
In most cases, Penske has provided an engineer that was a Penske employee, only one, not two.
Both of the Meyer Shank engineers the lead engineers, and they have Meyer Shank has their own engineers, but of the lead engineers they are Ganassi employees, and at least one is I think both of them are.
That's the way it was when Andretti was a partner with Meyer Shank and who else am I forgetting?
Those are the partnerships right?
Speaker 1Correct?
Speaker 3Yeah?
So what we don't know are they just sharing information or is an Andretti employee going to be on Dennis Hauger's car.
And then you start to think about, well, you know what Olivier Boson might be available, and he's worked with Dale Coin.
That would seem to be an awesome fit because he has worked in that structure.
He has had great success with that team.
We think they still have Michael Cannon there, they have other talented engineers.
Speaker 1So that's one of the.
Speaker 3Questions that I have, you know, and the other thing that really matters what is technical partnership.
It's been sharing engineering information and the Damper program.
That's the only thing that's really different between teams.
So where does that play in.
Speaker 1And you touched on it, but Michael Cannon's notebook as they moved toward Indianapolis should be very beneficial for a team like Andretti Autosport, which Andretti Global, which you know they honestly could have won the Indy five hundred, probably should have won the Indy five hundred based on performance this year before Marcus Erickson's car was moved to the back post race.
But you know, anyone would be benefiting from Michael Knnig's experience at Indy and the.
Speaker 3Engineering Silly season is also important.
So I forgot to mention this early in the show and didn't get until to the last segment after you had left last week.
But racer dot Com reported a week or so ago that the twenty six car will Powers car now will have a new engineer.
Nathan O'Rourke had been Colton Hurt his engineer for a long time, and well, I feel like was he Joseph Newgarden's engineer at Sarah Fisher ed Carpenter Racing, so very well regarded engineer.
He's going to move more into a shop based role at his request and be someone that is, you know, kind of overseeing or big picture involved in the program.
Not announced yet.
Who is cooling to be will Powers engineer.
Certainly Boson who started last year as Marcus Erickson's engineer, and then they made a shift because they're just simply it's not working very well, so let's try something different.
Or would make some sentence to me that Balsam might fitted in well with coin if they are supplying an engineer, and I just threw it out and I didn't ask anybody this weekend this thought.
But again will Power has worked with Ron Rezuski a lot.
Speaker 1Oh first thing I will work.
Speaker 3Yeah, either he's an engineer, he could just be an engineer, or he could be a technical director, he could be the strategist and help with engineering.
And wouldn't I think I would not come with anyone losing their job.
It would just simply be additive.
Dan Towers and TWG has shown that they will invest and if they can get somebody like Ron Rezuski, and maybe Ron's already agreed to a deal with somebody else, but that's my first thought.
To keep an eye on what happens there.
Speaker 1Well, I think Ron has to just surely is going to emerge somewhere.
I just and I think it'll be in this paddock.
And now that you know Turis is leading the charge at that race team, You're right, they've shown a real desire to invest and the fact that will's there now, I think it just if it wasn't adding up prior, I think it certainly is now.
Speaker 3We'll do more Twitter questions, but this one is on topic.
Christensen asked, with three of the four big teams having technical partnerships, does McLaren think they need one to be successful and if so with who?
Speaker 1Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2You know.
Speaker 1The one that comes to mind ed Carpenter Racing on the Chevy side.
Maybe another one just off the top of your head.
But you know a team that you know you could see a good return from the standpoint of you've got an experienced driver, you've got somebody you've worked with, you've got an Indy five hundred winner, you've got Ed's Ed's notebook of success at Indie.
Not that not that that's an important factor for Aero McLaren, but but you know, it may be something in McLaren's DNA that they don't want to do it with somebody else.
Of all the team, that's my guess.
Of all the teams, I think McLaren's the one that you could see saying nope, we do things our way, buy ourselves and we'll take the credit and success when it comes.
Speaker 3So they had started down a path with a relationship with Hunkos Hollinger, but that was not a technical partnership, right, That was a Marshall partnership.
Yeah, because they thought they had sold too much sponsorship to fit on their cars and we're going to place some on the Honkohs cars.
Speaker 1I'd love a true.
Speaker 3Honest answer, and I think for each each situation is different.
But my first thought is these technical partnerships are much more beneficial to the quote lesser team, the one that's not the Big four, and they are paying for it.
They are, essentially and by the way, they're saving money too.
So Meyer Shanks simply just decided, all right, we're gonna have to buy and pay for an engineer and salary if you want to get a good one is probably.
Speaker 1I may be way off on this if you could get a good one.
If you could get a good one.
Speaker 3But a good one probably command I hope, at least for their sake, it's four or five hundred thousand.
Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe someone's laughing now and saying I wish I got paid five hundred thousand, it's two hundred thousand, but I bet it is.
And if it's not, it should be.
For the top seven or eight engineers, they probably should be paid a third or fourth of what some of the top drivers are getting paid.
And maybe it's maybe it's higher than that.
So the point being, one of the numbers that I've heard is somewhere around a million, you know, a little over a million for the technical partnerships.
And this is how the teams substantiate that.
Well, we save on two salaries because of that, and we're getting information, and I might be off on what that number is.
Maybe it's two million, maybe it's less.
And I'm sure it's depended on whether you get an engine whether it's one engineer two engineers.
So for Foight that was very helpful.
But for Penske, we all think it helped them at Indianapolis and got them sorted a couple of years ago.
I feel like the Andretti meyer Shank relationship became more beneficial last year.
Two years ago, I think it was more of a one way streat.
But meyer Shank started to make some ground last year.
And I know this because Rob Edwards told me this.
We are seeing more benefit coming from Felis Rosenquist, especially with our program for this year.
I would guess Ganassi feels the same way with Rosenquist, and also with Marcus Armstrong, who was driving their car, and that's a different relationship.
So not only did it work out to have somewhere to place engineers when they lost the sports car program, that Marcus Armstrong is their driver.
They want to keep tabs on him.
They want him to do well, they want him to stay in the family and if it goes well, maybe he is the heir apparent for Scott Dixon or maybe the number two driver, a three driver, you know, slips up and there it becomes a spot to get back into the fold.
So I think every situation is different in that regard.
But you mentioned an Ed Carpenter that could be additive at Indianapolis right now that they have one driver that's had a lot of success there in Poto Award.
Now, Ling Guard had a pretty good year, pretty good May, and I think might have broken through a little bit on the last two ovals.
I think we're going to see a different loan guard next year at Indianapolis.
But Nolan Siegel is still very young.
I don't know who's in the fourth car.
My best guess has been Ryan Hunterray is who we're going to see in that car next year, who would also be additive.
But you could argue that they could use the help from Ed Carpenter Racing, But there's money that would change hands there and does Ed want to do that.
There's also a pride factor, and I think there is an annoyance factor when announcers credit the technical partner rather than the team itself, right, so it goes well, you don't want to hear it's only because of the partnership with Aaron Mclair and it's no, these are people we did this.
Speaker 1I think there's a pride factor involved in addition to Arrow being one of the ones most likely in my in my mind not to do it.
I think Ed Carpenter fits all the description.
You just came up with a pride factor.
It's a pretty hard people.
Yeah, it's it's a pretty loyal, pretty defiant in that respect.
Speaker 3What's different now, though, is he has a partner.
What does Ted Geloff think he has a partner?
You know, they had some success at the end of the season, but they're not quite there yet on the road and street courses.
So I'm not knowing anything.
I would just say keep an eye on that, and I could see him looking down that path.
Someone that is closed to the Ray Hall program this weekend asked about this.
Does my team need to have a technical partner?
We're the only one.
Well, the problem is there's no one left.
Speaker 1There's no one left.
Speaker 3Yeah, unless somebody was willing to have multiple teams and you did something like that.
But that doesn't seem to make too much sense.
That would be a little too crowded and you still, you know, you look at where the championship is at, and what were they like eighteen twenty first and twenty fifth or something twenty sixth.
I felt that's harsh because I felt like they had some moments, but those are bottom line numbers that do not lie in there.
They're confronting if that's your team, not to go down the path.
Speaker 1Because there's certainly a lot of questions about both organizations to some extent, not necessarily negative questions.
But you know, we have heard some connectivity if you will, between Hunkohs, Hollinger and Prema.
Does is that become some kind of a relationship?
Is that just uh Prema being absorbed?
Is that I don't know what it really means, but you've heard a little bit of that chatter.
I don't know how it benefits Hunkos.
I'm not sure that it does.
Speaker 3I'm saying if I'm Unkohs, I would simply wait for them to fold.
Speaker 1I wouldn't pay them, no, no, no.
If they fold, I would be called.
Speaker 3I would be calling all of them right now, all of their employees that I like if I wanted them, and then go to the yard sale to pick up any extra equipment that we need at the end.
But it's not like they're bringing any commercial partners.
It don't really have any So they and they no longer have any money.
You know, if they had an investor, if they had someone that says, well, I can you know, front seven million dollars year, then we're talking.
But it doesn't sound like they have a whole lot.
But yeah, that's been discussed, but I've just been unable to grasp what's in that for Hunko's holling her agreed, agreed.
I'm just saying that's that's the other marriage of convenience that you could conceive.
Speaker 1Let's put it out.
Speaker 3Yeah, short answer to what Chris said, does McLaren need a partner to be successful?
Speaker 1I think no, they do not.
Speaker 3They were second in the championship this year, they were best in class and third named Alex Plow second and fourth fourth.
Yeah he's because he had he lost an engine long guard did in the last race.
Speaker 1But no, they're very successful and.
Speaker 3They're doing quite fine on their own.
I think they seek one out if if if you can basically become a customer program like we see in sports car or junior car racing, you're selling your services, and you know how to provide a serve for someone else if they feel like they need that and they have enough personnel to do that, that's where that would make.
Speaker 1Some sense for them.
Okay, so here's.
Speaker 3What we have left.
So, by the way, what day is this?
It's September twenty third, and we have a dale Coin announcements and he said we'd have.
Speaker 1Them by Halloween.
Speaker 3So one more.
But we're way ahead of the game.
And I saw a lot of comments today.
I'm gonna miss TBA.
You know, TBA had a large fan base, had should have had euro cards and should have you know, had their their their own merch as well.
But don't forget his partner.
One TBA left.
Speaker 1Don't forget his partner TBA and TBD, TBBA and TBD.
Speaker 3So what's left, Well, the other dale Coin racing car is still TBA, TBD.
Uh the David Malucas since our last amounts, since our last show, we all kind of knew it was going to happen.
But yeah, that that's official.
Nowadays Malucas is in the number twelve.
And I think this was something else after you left.
They had posted the teaser on social media that you know Verizon phone call incoming, So all right, we know that's going to be Malucas, So that is official that he will be in the number twelve Verizon car.
So now who replaces him at Foight we do not know, and there is a technically a seat open and who goes Hollinger Racing.
Connor Daily was on a one year contract.
He is one of the candidates for that.
But it may it may require budget, it may not.
They may want to change.
We don't know what the plan is there.
And Muhammad asks a weekly question on Renas Vik no new update.
I should just get Mohammed Renus's cell phone number and maybe Renas will tell him what his plan is.
But I've heard from many people that Renus is not going to fight, and since he left Dale coin Racing and said I'm not interested, surely he has something lined up because Dale wanted him.
And I don't think Dennis Hauger is taking his place because I was under I've thought Slash heard Dennis was going to coin since late August, so I think it was going to be Hager and Vik, and now that Vik is exited, Grojean and maybe Linas Lungquist are in play there, so I have to think that Rena's vik is going to who goes houling a racing.
Speaker 1It just makes all the sense in the world that it's just the last I'm not saying it's the last place for him, but it honestly kind of is.
I don't.
I hope that doesn't sound derogatory.
Speaker 3I mean, unless someone gets bounced that is said to be under contract, that would be the only thing because as we know, contracts are suggestions, and I know there's been a lot said about this driver's under contract and it's a multi year contract.
It's not my contract, so it's going to be up to others to confirm all of those things.
So we think there are three seats open, or we know there are three seats minimum three seats open at this point, and the drivers in play Connor Grojean Lenus, Renus, Jacob Abel, Kyle Collette.
Speaker 1I would keep.
Speaker 3Him in mind.
How much budget can he raise the runner up in Indie Next.
Here's what we also don't know about aj Foyd.
I need someone from the company you work for to confirm that they still have a partnership with aj Foyd Racing at some point and hopefully when a driver is announced that would come along with it.
I don't know if that's the case.
I get the impression there is no more financial support, because that was kind of what a lot of this thought that Renus Vick might get some support financially, as if Joseph Newgarden is in the last year of his contract and you wanted to try out Renus as an eventual Joseph Newgarden replacement.
By the way, I don't know for certain if Joseph is in the last year of his contract coming up.
I don't know if it's one or two years.
But season finished well.
That was one race out of two out of seventeen, the first one in the last one went well and the rest did not go so well.
But if things don't massively change, I got to think Joseph is going to want to explore what else is around there.
And that's absurd to leave Team Penske, but someone just did it.
So now we all know why that happened.
It's because they didn't make him an offer until a week left in the season.
Going back to it, flight may need budget because Santino Ferucci is pretty much a higher driver.
He finds some budget, but he's not bringing a whole lot, and it might be the same.
Santino might just have some partners that help pay his salary, but I don't know.
He might not be giving anything to the team, or if he is, it's.
Speaker 1Not a lot.
Speaker 3So that's been their sponsorship.
And then we think Penske funded the Malucas car, so who's funding the four this year?
So can Kyle Collett raise some money?
I'd keep Connor Daily in mind there if he is not going to be invited back to Hoop Coast, and he still might, but if he's not, we know Connor can get the job done and can also raise some funding.
I don't know how much funding Jacob abel has and I'd like to see Jacob have another chance.
It was a rough season two seasons for dale Coin Racing, and if enough can be raised that may be needed to keep that car on the track.
And then what we also don't know is who's given up on Formula one and the F two budget can be three million dollars, so it doesn't take a whole lot more to be able to be the driver that has the most budget in hand to come to IndyCar to help a program along with their other sponsors to make something happen.
Do II Lot and Schwartzmann get in play for any of the cs people are asking.
I think it's going to be tough unless the teams find their own sponsorship because neither one bring budget.
They are higher drivers on salary.
Speaker 1I don't know Kyle Kolet's financial backing.
I just don't know him well enough.
He doesn't.
He does not bring unlimited budget.
He cannot.
Speaker 3His family wealth is not going to be able to get it done.
But I asked him about this.
I said, would you consider Indy Next again?
And he said, well, I would if it's free, But you know, it's too hard to raise the over a million dollars that are needed.
And I don't and I agree with him.
I don't feel like it's worth it to go to the trouble to raise that.
And I said, all right, so it's been tough to raise a million, is it going to be easier to raise a little more than that for Indy Car?
And he said, yes, you know, you're just selling something different.
It's going to be easier to raise Now what is that?
But I don't get the impression that he's going to be able to snap his finger and bring six million dollars.
But maybe he can, and hopefully we see him in a test here sometime soon because there is some testing coming up.
Speaker 1I read that.
Speaker 3Halger is going to be at midd Ohio.
I think we might see another driver too there.
There's a little bit of testing that is coming up, and a young driver can get a chance to show what he can do.
Speaker 2Well.
Speaker 1I I've got Collette and on my big radar screen for the freight car.
Again, I don't know his his financial situation, but I think that makes a lot of sense.
You know, I heard as you did the Jacob Abel talk.
That surprised me.
Speaker 3Honestly, it doesn't surprise me because I don't know what budget they brought from Able Construction and the Able Construction partners.
I think you probably get a pretty good deal with dale Coin Racing, So I don't think he was bringing six to ten million dollars.
So then it's going to come down to what are they willing to invest because it it might require something like.
Speaker 1That seems like a lot, But I mean it seems like a lot for them to do.
But you know, it's a good program, that's a good seat, it's a good seat, and he needs a second chance.
I think we all agree that.
Speaker 3That's why I thought Renus was going to be there, because he's the best remaining free agent.
Speaker 1But that tells me I think you might choose Foight.
Speaker 3Over hun Goes.
Speaker 1I might be wrong, though, because I like the program at Indy.
I think you would at.
Speaker 3But overall, I think who Goes.
Hollinger is on the right trajectory and he's been there before renas has he.
He was there and finished second in the Indie Lights Championship, so he knows them.
Speaker 1So hey, who knows?
Speaker 2You know?
Speaker 3The thought is last week he's not going to Foight.
Maybe it all turns around again.
And what we don't know is what was the plan.
What was will Power offered.
There's so many unanswered questions that probably no one is gonna tell us where they just gonna keep.
My guess is they were gonna say, David, you're gonna need to be patient.
You're gonna stay where you're at for another year, which is what people like you and me were saying all along.
I mean, that makes the most sense.
They just forgot to tell will Power until it was too late.
Speaker 1Oops.
Speaker 3And the other thing we don't know is Team Penske.
Okay, that will found another ride And for Penske Entertainment, this is good for the sports because we spread around some town and we have a big personality with another team where they don't have to worry about as Team Penske.
If he really wants to show his personality and let it fly, or are they angry because he didn't work on their timeline and they are holding him to his contracts to the end of the year where they have the use of his replacement.
You know it's been mentioned, Well, wait a minute, you have his replacements.
What do you need will power for?
I think the Penske answer would be, we don't want to set the precedence because there may become a time where someone leaves in a different fashion and we don't want them to be able to take us to quarter or something and say you let the last guy out.
Why are you're letting this guy?
That's just my best guess that you just, whether you like it or not, you need to be.
Speaker 1Consistent.
Well, I think, and we touched on this.
You may have even brought it up, but you know there's going to be a task to the Speedway in the all next month some point.
I don't have the date in front of me.
And if it was like last year, last year each team had one car in that.
Speaker 3Test, you'd like to have your new driver on it.
Speaker 1You would, especially if you're Andretti, you'd like to have will Power drive that car.
Speaker 3There's so little to you know.
If my first thought was it's not that big of a deal, it is a big deal.
Speaker 1It's a deal now, don't I don't think the test will be every team this year.
I don't think it's going to be from just things.
I'm breadcrumbs I'm picking up.
I don't think you're going to see one car from each team.
I think you're going to have a reduced field.
But if Andretti had the choice, they're a Big four team, they would want will Power over their other drivers at Indy.
Maybe not everywhere, but at Indy for sure.
All Right, more to cover.
We'll get to some Twitter questions next.
On trackside.
Speaker 3Hi, this is David Lucas and you're listening to track side.
Speaker 1Let's go to the xbox.
Speaker 3Via Twitter, Doug Ivy dg Ivy NASCAR fans says, why did Richmond not make the twenty six IndyCar schedule with Richmond down to one NASCAR date, the floodgate should be open.
Hopefully they finally go back in twenty seven.
Well, my guess is because Richmond wasn't interested in IndyCar and Penske Entertainment can only rent and promote so many tracks, right or the price point?
Speaker 1You know, that's always a factor.
But I agree with you.
I'd rather next to Phoenix.
Richmond is a place I'd most like to see IndyCar return to.
Speaker 3Jeremy Lukoska, is Phoenix Raceway promoting your IndyCar race next year?
Can't find anything on their website about it.
I figured there'd be some sort of promotion for Omega weekend of Phoenix seems off to a sloppy start already.
I hadn't checked the website.
I don't know.
I'll just say this, it's going to be up to IndyCar to promote this.
It's not going to be in NASCAR's They're not worried about it.
Speaker 1They may to some extent, but this is.
Speaker 3A NASCAR weekend, and you know, hopefully the paddock is not across the street.
Hopefully it's somewhere on the grounds of the facility, but considering at the racetrack that they own, they couldn't get use of the garages and had to be in temporary tense.
You know, I'm not optimistic about where we're going to be for that weekend, but I still like it.
It is worth it because we needed an event at that time of year in that weather, and we needed another oval.
So it's worth it trying.
And if it goes well and they sell tickets and the Cup race rating is higher than NASCAR will say, okay, then we can use them.
We can use because that is somewhat what the IndyCar Race can be, is a two hour promotion for the next day's Cup race on Fox.
It's not what it's all going to be, but it can.
Speaker 1Be a little bit of that.
Speaker 3Stephen Pancal asks, we talk a lot about drivers bringing budget to teams.
Why did the small team struggle to even find a logo to put on their endplate.
It seems like cgr Andretti and Penske have sales teams and some of the smaller teams have have drivers for that or am I missing something?
Speaker 1No, you're not.
Speaker 3No, if you can find a driver that is willing to bring the budget and do the work.
You save money on a sales staff.
And I go back to the quote that dale Coin has said, probably somewhat joking, but in all seriousness, I don't really want to mess with sponsors.
I'd rather just be more successful with my business and pay for it myself.
It's easier for me to be better in business and pay for it myself than it is to deal with sponsors.
There's some entities that enjoy the marketing part.
I like that.
I enjoy the challenge of providing a return for partners.
And I know vass Or Sullivan.
Somebody just asked me why are they not back because they haven't found the opportunity and they're doing well as basically a factory program in sports cars with Lexus.
That was their path back.
Had Toyota as was I think close a couple of years ago coming and joining as an engine manufacturer, I believe Vassar Sullivan would have been the flagship team, maybe in partnership with someone else, but they would have come back.
I've not heard anything on the front lines anytime in the near future on that, but you know, it's hard servicing sponsors and making sure that they receive enough return, and some teams really go after it, and some teams say, you know what, We're always going to be able to find some drivers with some budget.
So yeah, Lynn drive for seven, I says, I'm going to miss my favorite tradition.
Eighteen TBA and fifty one TBA.
You're right though, one is TBD, one is a TBA and one is a TBD.
And we talked about Mohammad's todd and Phoenix asked, how about a court update?
Is there a trial date for the Alex Pulo versus McLaren contract dispute, any update on charges stemming from the FBI rate at rll Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star is your court reporter.
He has time to dig into those things and has sources.
I do not, but I believe I've heard that we think something on the PLO McLaren might go late this month, and that's maybe why pul cannot run the sports car finale.
And the employee that was in the middle of this, I believe it was working in the paddock this year.
So I'm not sure there's anything to that FBI rate.
I've heard nothing more.
Speaker 1About that, and the employee in question.
Speaker 3I believe was working for another team this year, so that would tell me he's not in jail.
And maybe there was nothing that authorities may have said, Yeah, you'll work this out amongst yourselves.
We got more important things than whether somebody is stealing engineering information on this.
Speaker 1All right, well see what we missed.
Com back up next on track side.
Hi, this is Rene Speak and you're listening to trex side.
Speaker 3Okay, final segment and what we missed.
We started the show with the highlight with Ryan Marine and Brian till of Jackson's win one of his wins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Lamborghini Super Trafail with Wayne Taylor racing on Friday and then again on Saturday.
I didn't want to get too much into it, but if you really interested some more to tail.
All was cool about this?
Well, one, it's winning at Indy, and two it's class racing their four classes.
He's in the second highest class, the pro am class, So they won that by like forty seconds, but they finished second overall, so that's what's really cool.
Jackson was the second driver.
Trent Heyman gave him a little bit of a cushion and then Jackson kept the pro drivers who were right behind behind the entire time had really quick laps, and then in race two didn't get to stay in a lot because of a really scary fire at the beginning, so he mostly ran behind the safety car, lost the lead from poll at the beginning.
We had all told him the team, did you just have to get through the first lap because you guys are faster than everyone.
So he was really conservative, gave up the lead and then got it back on the one lap after the restart that he ran, and then Trent Hinman finished it off.
So one, two, four, Wayne Taylor racing really cool, working on getting to the world finals in Italy, and early November Jackson actually goes to and this is here's the IndyCar tie.
I read that, I think in Racer that Christian Lungard tested at what used to be the Miller Motorsports Park is now called the Utah Motorsports Campus.
Apparently pretty cool track.
But in case IndyCar, we're to go to Mexico City or Denver, you got to deal with the elevation.
So apparently he tested there with McLaren.
Recently, Jackson is doing a couple of endurance races this weekend in the World Racing League.
You could find a YouTube stream.
Speaker 1If you would.
Speaker 3The reality is they don't really have much of an entry list to know what driver is in the car eight hour and seven hour races on Saturday and Sunday.
We'll tell you how they did coming up next week, and we'll get to the tweets that we missed a couple of good questions next Tuesday night at seven.
Thanks for joining us track side ninety three to five and one oh seven five The Fan