Business of Speed Podcast - The One with Tony Kanaan, IndyCar Champion + Arrow McLaren Team Boss

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

In this episode of the Business of Speed podcast, we sit down with IndyCar legend, Indy 500 winner, and current Arrow McLaren Sporting Director,  ⁨@TonyKanaan⁩ .From his early days growing up in Brazil to his legendary rivalry and friendship with  ⁨@H3lioOfficial⁩ , TK opens up about the defining moments of his life. He shares the incredible story of turning down a guaranteed million-dollar contract with Audi to chase the American dream, the emotional promise he made to his father, and the grit it took to finally win the Indy 500 in 2013.Tony also discusses his transition from the cockpit to the pit wall, giving us an insider look at his role running  ⁨@ArrowMcLaren⁩ , the challenges of building a winning culture, and why he believes the future of  ⁨@indycar⁩ is brighter than ever with the new Fox Sports partnership.  ⁨@INDYCARonFOX⁩  Whether you're a die-hard racing fan or interested in the business of sports leadership, this conversation is packed with insights.Key Topics Discussed:The Million-Dollar Gamble: Why Tony turned down a house, a car, and a salary to race for free in the US.Rivalry & Brotherhood: The origin story of his friendship with Helio Castroneves.The 2013 Indy 500: Breaking the "bad luck" curse with KV Racing.Leadership: How Tony is transforming the culture at Arrow McLaren.The Greatest: Who Tony thinks is the most naturally gifted driver he ever raced against.

Hola, Vincenzo. Hola, Lali. Very excited. Oh, I like the hat. Tudo bem. That should be the first clue as to who our guest is. That's what I learned. He is Brazilian.

Tudo beleza, gente. What did you say? I'm pretty excited. This is exciting. This is an exciting guest. i mean all our guests have been excellent guests but i think we're both equally i i actually know i can't even say equally you are next level excited about this guest i'm very very next level um excited because truly this is someone you know that the word legend gets thrown out a lot but

This man is a certified, legit legend. I'm so excited. Legend. The only Tony Kanaan is on the podcast today. Seriously, like, listen, we appreciate everybody that's tuning into our show, sharing the show, because we're making this for ourselves, very much so. But the fact that you guys tune in and you get to hear some pretty awesome guests as early on in the show as we are, it's pretty freaking awesome. It's pretty awesome. And yeah, we're interviewing him in a few minutes.

So I hope you guys enjoy our incredible chat with Tony. Let's see how it goes. Yeah, enjoy. Welcome, Tony Karnan, to the Business of Speed podcast. How are you today? Good and you, Lali. I tell you, you know, we've never actually really seen each other. We talked to each other for more than a decade, so nice to finally meet you and Vincent. Well, I have to tell you something. I did see you once, but you won't remember. You were in a Scooby-Doo costume.

Yeah. Well, why we... Yes, yes. See, things that you don't remember, I don't remember and people remember. Yes. So, obviously, everybody knows who you are, but I'm just going to... Maybe a lot of people know a lot of your accomplishments. I just want to run down them quickly so everyone knows more precisely.

This is an IndyCar champion, guys. Indy 500 winner. He won 17 IndyCar races, 73 podiums. He has an incredible streak of 318 consecutive races, 390 total, which is a mind-boggling number. He's an endurance racer. He's won the Daytona 24 Hours. He's done Sebring. He won his class, P2 overall.

Le Mans, he's had two attempts. He's a legit certified Ironman, accomplished triathlete. And now he's taken on just the small task of running Arrow McLaren IndyCar. There you go. That's you. So thank you, guys. That's it. I love it.

I mean, all these compliments. I have to say, I'm extremely fortunate. I can't complain. It's been an awesome career. And now a second one that I found. incredible let's let's go back to the beginning Tony a little bit so you're you're a little boy you're in Salvador and what I have a feeling that at that time it was probably you're into futebol Pele is your guy or Senna is your guy and so how did you pick Senna as your guy and not go

it's a funny story because obviously it's either soccer or racing right and I like both why I picked racing it wasn't me it was my dad but that is a reason for a part that he loved racing more that he loved soccer i did not play soccer very well so he was like maybe we tried the other one because i had zero coordination to be a talented soccer player to the level that brazilians are i didn't know if it was going to be the level of brazilians which i don't know i actually i'm not to the level of senna my racing hero was but i had a better chance and that's how I actually started it I was seven years old and dad and I used to go to Rio or Sao Paulo depending on the Formula One race was and watch live from the grandstands and also every Sunday

watched on TV and on Memorial Day weekend watch the Indy 500 the F1 in the morning the Indy 500 in the afternoon and one day he took me to a go-kart track and my mom all along had told him that if he had put me to race she was gonna actually divorce him so we went to a go-kart track to watch a race and i actually asked him for a go-kart we left the go-kart straight to the factory which was nearby in sao paulo bought a go-kart had to find a place to hide it to go home uh we bought a put it in a little race shop that was near interlagos where i actually grow up at this point i have moved to sao paulo from salvador which is up north and then from then on the first four weekends in a row dad and i will leave and that will make an excuse to my

mother make something up and we'll go to the go-kart track well by the fourth weekend as a very jealous brazilian lady which they we all are guys and girls um she thought this is shady what is this guy doing and the default was she thought was the worst was that he was actually cheating on her and taking me as an alibi so when she found out that that wasn't the case i started my racing career that's funny and then you meet uh your lifelong friend elio castroneves was he a rival how early on did you guys start racing i'm curious so i started racing i was eight when i was 13 so four four almost five years in because he was he started later than me we're the same age but and he used to live in ribeirão preto which means it was a much smaller city than sao paulo so he

was the farm boy typically and i was the city boy right so i'm all cool used to the traffic and this and he's all like everything is nilton we met at the racetrack and actually um it's funny how life fist because um for people that don't know i um start racing and then when i was 13 i actually lost my dad my dad had cancer and was ill for a couple years and the weekend i lost my dad on a thursday night and we had a go-kart race on sunday the story there was my dad made me promise him before he passed the night before he passed that i was always should always take care of my mom and my sister and one day i was supposed to win the indy 500 for him why the indy 500 we can talk about it later on but uh it was the race that i wanted to win and he passed that night and i went

and then to never stop racing and so i went to the track and that day alio's dad who was the first person that came to my uh pit box to actually tell me you know i am so sorry what happened to you i had actually didn't know who he was and then i said no and then he's all my son it's his first race here in Sao Paulo and that's how we met obviously we clicked right away because of that and then we became best friends we raced in the same category for a little bit and then I moved up before him but then life kept crossing paths and I think it was more of a it's one of those things I mean in life that I believe it was a you know destiny I want to say I believe in destiny you create your own but life kept putting us in trials to see if our friendship was really true

or not because to have your best friend competing for the same seat same places this is a very selfish sport you guys do a podcast about racing it's all about us the most successful race car drivers they're nice people but they're extremely selfish you have to be in racing so we had our moments as but we're being friends for so i'm gonna be 51 so is he so do the math there it was since i was 13 years old so we went head to head throughout our career 11 championships that we went actually fighting for the title and um i actually it's funny because he was very well known that he never actually had won a championship in his life until he did it on the sports car So I won 11 out of 11 and he finished second,

but then he had four Indy 500s. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Up until 2013, I didn't. So one of my best friends, and nowadays we're just old with gray hair and we talk about, remember when we did this? And he's just, I love him. Tony, can we talk about what it's like

to have to leave Brazil and try and chase that dream? Sure. Whether it's in Europe, you know, what does that look like from a culture perspective? culture perspective finances i think the three of us we can talk about this really well right i'm sure it's it's is a shock but to be fair i mean to be fair i loved i went to italy first i loved italy enjoy my time there i love love the country have good friends went to the uk but culturally it's never like your home your home is your home right you have to adapt it wasn't easy

I, the way actually I moved, like I said, I lost my dad. I made that promise to him. So we, I did, we lost my sponsor, my dad, my manager. So I had to grind quite a bit. And when I moved to Italy, actually, I had zero money. I had zero support as far as financial support. So I lived in a race shop for three years. I slept on a shop, on a mattress, on my boss's office, that the deal was at eight in the

morning i need to pack close my you know make my bed put it inside this closet and because he was going to come to work and i hang there so not the best of the situations as far as oh i moved to a country i have a house i have nothing right we all know we need to make new friends and so on but for me it was what i wanted to do what i promised my dad so it wasn't easy but we can make things more complicated if you put it in your head i that was the only option so i have to make it work and then i think since then i can say that now i'm not gonna sit here and say oh it was great all the time i felt like you know sometimes you feel sorry for yourself you want to go back home because there is no place like home you know on a friday night i'm 17 years old in a race shop by myself and all

my friends are back home doing something fun with girlfriends and but i had a purpose i had a a goal i had a promise that i made my dad and and those are the trials in life that is going to say how bad you really want it because that's how you differentiate how much you are willing to pay the price and those are i love that yes ourselves no i was just going to say that it seems i was going to ask you why because you went up to f3 you did quite well in f3 but then you didn't stay in europe so i'm wondering if you ended up in indy lights and indycar because of the promise to your papa yes but then when i went to italy to europe it was because i didn't have a choice to go to america so at one point lali i had to actually ask myself if i don't make to indycar do i just

stop or what do i want oh i love racing i start racing because i love the racing part it wasn't to be famous it wasn't to make money those things were never in my mind then i wanted to be a professional race car driver so the opportunity was in italy with formula three maybe i would had make it to formula one and so i had to put it in my mind that i want to live out of racing if i was going to be a professional go-kart racer or the goal was win the Indy 500 but that was way up there and I was going to work as hard as I could but I had to leave with myself saying what is the there was no plan b people kept asking me what was the plan b if it didn't work I said plan b was plan a so you so you so you ended up in IndyCar we're now we're in the late 90s let's say right

what was the learning curve like in the early years so the ironic part of that i made to indycar but at the time indycar had split right it was cart cart and then irl well the indy 500 was kept by the irl i went to cart so i have to say a brazilian in italy i felt a lot more home because we're very similar we talk with our hands then you come to america i spoke zero english zero like literally i asked rubens barichello uh for a sheet of paper to tell me which i didn't speak italian either but that was easy for me because it's a little bit closer between portuguese and italian sure you put a sheet of like i'm hungry in the translation where is the bathroom like so it was a little harder right because then you come to like and you know my

wife is american all my kids are american now i became a dual switz and they speak with this we don't even have the tongue like the accent it's inevitable the three of us maybe lali is the best one by the way but yeah so she speaks every language any language you can think of she speaks correct that's the thing you know you know we're the ones that are not that much talented year no not at all but but yeah that overcame of man now i made i'm so close to the goal but still i did cart for so came to indy lights to be able to make it to to indy car and the story there i know we don't have a lot of time to tell the whole thing but when i got the proposal to come to america it was because the ceo of philip morris at the time you guys remember

Marlboro was sent as a sponsor, knew my story. And the Latin American CEO said, I want to give you an opportunity. Three days prior to this phone call to come to Indy Lights to do a test, I had in my desk at the race shop a contract from Audi Sport Italia, Italy, to replace Emanuele Piro, that was going to the UK with Audi, for a million dollars a year. A house and an RS6, which is my all-time favorite car. Great car.

But a kid that I was living in a race shop in Chainsaw, and I had no salary. So for me, it's like, where's the pen? This proposal came in, and I spoke to the CEO of Philip Morris, but it's not guaranteed. You're just going to test. He says, yeah, you test. If you're the fastest, we'll pick you.

We'll pay for two years. First year, you learn. second year you uh you win the championship we'll take you to indycar what's my son there's no salary the same conditions i had in italy um it was tough because i'm like million bucks two years anyway um i went to bed and i asked my dad if he could talk to me which i knew was not gonna i said just give me and i woke up to be fair there was no windows shattering or the door that that's you know none of that but they pop up into my mind remember the promise you made your dad and i said no and i packed my bag from milan to phoenix and they test 10 people and they pick

two drivers tony cannon and edo castronaves and the rest then i came to cart but then in 2000 at the end of 2002 i was okay in cart i won one race in 99 ironically was the us 500 which was the replacement for the indy 500 in our version which was never gonna happen and i got a proposal from honda to move to indycar uh at which irl at the time in 2003 and that's when my uh my dream started to become closer and closer. Your dreams started creeping toward you. I'm going to sort of accelerate a little per time. So, 2004, you win the championship.

Yep. So, everything clicked, I guess. Timing is everything in racing, right? Yes. But then it takes you another nine years. So, Lali, I'll move forward quick. So, from 2003 to 2012, I won a championship. I finished every lap of every race in 2004, won all the races,

had led more than 200 laps at Indy 500, which is more than the entire race, had a second place, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, you name it, never had won. At the end of 2010, I had a long-term deal with Andretti for five years that I just had renewed. I get fired because the sponsor left

and he didn't honor my contract. So I was without a ride in November, which everybody had a ride already. Anyway, I gathered some of my mechanics. We built a small little team with Jimmy Vassar, which was a race car driver too. I went to KV Racing. And for the first three years, sponsors, everybody felt compelled by what happened. So I had a lot of backing as a small team.

One car team, never had one race. So, well, after two years, everybody's like, okay, Tony, you know what? Good, we'll help you out, but we're done. So in the winter of 12, I got with Jimmy, Eric Calton, my engineer, Olivier, my other engineer, and we decided that we only had money to do the first four races, which the fourth was the Indy 500. So we bought a new chassis. Buying the new chassis, I couldn't continue the rest of the season.

We prepared for the Indy 500. I did the first three races. I could not crash my primary car because I didn't want to use the Indy car that was prepared for Indy. And the Indy 500 in 2013 was going to be my last race. And for the first time, and this is, I know you guys heard that. And also you talk about ladies and couples that want to have kids so bad. And then when they finally say, you know what?

And that happens. I went into the 2013 Indy 500 month because it's a long period of, you know, almost a whole month. So, you know what? I'm going to enjoy my, probably going to be my last race. all the stress i'm gonna enjoy the fans i'm gonna enjoy the festivities instead to be like racing racing with a team that never had won a race the right people because all those guys were with me and andretti and i was able to gather them and by the way disclosure the people that i mentioned they're all here today working still with me we start 11th nobody cared about us the

whole month and we won and the andretti cars finished second third and fourth so weren't you 11 in the in the 7-11 car was that car i wasn't i took the number with me as well so you know you're gonna take my job give me my number that's good um so you win of course and and somehow that win really resonated globally tony and the the indie people as you know because you've been introed so many times they go nuts with you you are beloved by the crowd um and i know and vincenzo knows that you were the backup driver for Kyle Larson this year and you had to do your veteran orientation. Rookie. Rookie laps. I call it a veteran orientation. So that taste must have been delicious to be in that car again. But I've read and I've seen some interviews. You didn't get

fully hooked again. Tell us about that. No, Lali. I obviously, I mean, again, we're probably going have to go a little further. Zach, I have a meeting with Zach Brown, guys, after this, but he's going to wait. He's very important. No, he's okay. I mean, he's important, but you guys are... I tried to retire three times, right? So I announced my retirement the year that COVID hit. And then when we raced in August at the Speedway with no fans, for the point that you just mentioned in your question, I felt that I was going to do a disservice to the fans to leave the sport without Not anybody understands. So I decided to come back.

I came back, almost won the race, but I retired. And then Zach called. And the reason that I came back, one of the biggest ones was what Vincenzo had. It would say, it would answer that. Zach's proposal was, come back, Zach. It's the third time. My friends are going to be making fun of me. He says, do you know who was the last Brazilian that drove a McLaren car?

which i knew so and where you're going and i'm excited you're telling this story and then he bribed me to say if you sign with us and start that car in the top 10 i'll let you drive santa's car that i was sitting in the wall and interlago's go-kart track watching him win that race in sixth gear that whole ordeal the 91 mp46 thank you great car and i drove and yes and that became a bat and i i was able to do it i cannot describe you guys can probably go on youtube and watch the video that was uh something that i i don't have words to talk about and i had a little bit of history as well as you guys if you don't know we can talk about it in a bit but Yeah. So we went to, and to be fair, it was set that I had a long career, almost 400

degrees. It was time. The biggest thing was as being an athlete since I was eight, professionally in IndyCar for 26 years, it's daunting sometimes to ask, what's, what now? Right. Okay. Financially, I mean, I have four kids. I did really well in my career. I lived, I had no money. I wasn't concerned about making a living because we can always adapt to that. It was like, what am I going to do? And people also like, what are you doing next? And I had no clue.

I'm like, I don't know. Can I take some time off? And we bought a motor home. And then Lori and I, my wife says, we're going to take the kids finally for a summer somewhere. Well, the little that I know. So I was fine. And I drove the car. Anytime you're going to put me in an Indy car, I'm going to love it.

Does that make me feel, does that massage my ego that I can still drive even though I retired? There's some people that retire because they're not capable of doing it anymore. Yes, but my head wasn't there anymore, Lali. I had a bigger commitment here in the team and truly what it took for me to be who I was. And then I'm not saying that it applies to every athlete. That was work for Tony Kanaan. I was intense, which I still am in a different way. i lived breathe about racing my family always came second and they all okay with that i'm not

saying i'm not preaching that that needs to people please kids don't do like but out of the four kids i wasn't present when both of two of them were born because i was racing so i wasn't willing to do that anymore and that's when you need to realize i had a great career do i want to keep bracing 100 i was like the people like you fit and then led to people kept trying to bring me back because still i was capable of doing so that feeling to me was actually rewarding and so that is no regrets but also when i got the opportunity to say you're gonna replace kyle if that doesn't happen just to think what was gonna take from me to be back to that stage and that right frame of mind, I didn't want to do it. And that is something that I didn't know, to be fair, if I was going to

miss it or not when I decided. But my wife, to finalize, my wife, three months after the Indy 500 that I retire in 23, one morning we're having breakfast and she looked at me and says, you know, you're a better person. I'm like, what do you mean? We've been together for 15 years. I'm being bad. And the way she was putting it is because that pressure was off. I have a lot of pressure today, but it's different. So now you've done the same to your good friend, Ryan Hunter-Reay. You've dangled the carrots. What does his wife think about you?

You know, I think, but that is a great example. If you look at our career path, wins, championship, it's so similar. It's like a photocopy of it. And for me, now that I run the team, to fill the fourth car for the Indy 500, I don't want to put a car on the grid because I want to fill the field with 33 cars. It needs to be the effort it takes from my guys. It needs to be a car that is capable of adding to win. And that I took from the Andretti days with four cars,

and the Ganassi days that actually the year that Ericsson won and I finished third, that we almost won Dixon and Palou, we're all running in the top five at one point. So I know it's beneficial. And who's the best guy out there today? I mean, there is no question it's Ryan, so I had to convince him a little bit. Becky as well, but, you know.

Best choice I could ever make is I wouldn't feel the car just because. And the history of that car, Montoya, myself, Larson, I can't just get somebody just because. You can't bring Vincenzo in. Well, I could, but, you know. We need a Captain America. I mean, I could try. Exactly.

I like your, you know, you don't know until you try it. Maybe he's better than me. You never know. You know, I know we have a time. You have an important meeting. 50 more minutes. It's okay. Sports car, endurance experience, open wheel experience. Does that make you an ideal team leader? Do you feel that all of that experience combined gives you some sort of advantage as a leader of a team? it's funny since i've switched roles which by the way completely not intended completely not planned wasn't something that i didn't say i wouldn't do but when i retire i decided to stay with the team

to help the drivers on the weekend as a consultant a very light only go friday saturday sunday so i can plan my weeks and that became in a hurry became something else and then a year two almost two years later now i'm running the whole team to answer your question doing all those type of you know different categories and and in racing helped me to understand the business yes to being a leader i don't think that is anything uh that you will learn you could learn anywhere not you don't need to do it's about the people being the leader i think the misconception of being the leader is i actually should be the guy that know the least of all the people that work for me not the other way around because if i do that then why i'm gonna hire you if i know how to do it i don't

need you and as a race car driver that taught me to a lot because remember as a race car driver you also a type of a leader right because you have to be you take all the credits you you make all the motivate people but also every time i jump in that race car i basically handed my life to these people and you gotta trust them and they gotta trust you and they want they probably gonna want it to work hard for you and pay attention because they know the responsibility they have and i think i was able to i mean i am a people person i enjoy talking to people i'm happy people approach me all the time, but also people know how obsessed I am when I put something in my head, which we just talk about my entire career here. And that's the people that I surround myself with. It did help.

But I don't, I'm not going to say because of that, I am the leader that I am today because I don't think it's fair. I like what you said because I actually spoke with Zach in Las Vegas on behalf of T-Mobile. And one of the things he mentioned was people. Lali was there. He said, you know, I asked him what's important technology and partnerships, and you have all these things and how do you build winning culture? And he looked and without even hesitating, he said, people, having the right people around me, having the right people. And so knowing that, knowing how much Zach is, is, is involved and whatnot. And again, Vincenzo, Zach, you know, Zach and I race back in Europe in 93 together and we've been friends forever. So it was hard

to deal with that because when we talked like he's like do you want to run the team like me running the team what are you talking about but he's a good marketer no he is well zach listen there is one thing about zach if you're gonna sit down with zach to talk business be prepared that you you're gonna do what zach wants and you're gonna be happy about it you're gonna like it no matter what you're gonna enjoy it you're gonna enjoy it you don't have a choice so but to zach's point he said and he said that in interviews before too if you ask about specifically my role he says race car drivers probably be one of the best leaders because we are under pressure all the time i just talk about the relief that i had when i retired yeah pressure here it's big i now

i'm responsible for 120 people but sorry it is different man it's so i learn how to deal with pressure more but like to be fair um it's it's different it's not I'm not going to compare Seattle last more but I it's completely different so and that's probably why I want to talk about those 120 people because they're they're all wonderful you said you brought some from Andretti and now you guys are actually moving your shop so that signals to me that you guys are in it big time. I want to talk about sort of the immediate and long-term goals. You mentioned you have four cars in the 500. Let's talk a little bit about what that path forward for our McLaren is, the new shop. Can we talk about that a bit? Of course. Let's go back a few years

ago when McLaren decided to buy Schmidt. Well, the day that that happened, it was a big name. So the expectation already, you put the McLaren name on it, we're a big team, we're going to win everything well i wasn't here when they did that but then we kept the same the same people there were we went from 30 people and the same race shop to 120 we like were crammed this is a very small race shop because it was made for one or sometimes two cars were four now and backups and So let's fast forward a bit to I take over. And remember, guys, I took over the team, but I was here for two years. I was here very present doing other things on the shop floor, listening to things.

And in a way, reporting to Zach things that I think needed to be changed because it was not fine. Right. And this is not about the right people, the wrong people. It's more of some people went on with the program. some people didn't like the new bosses brand because they're a family team small everybody could do everything one people cleaned the bathroom did the gym and did the front suspension and that was okay when you start introduction the introduction of some rules some people don't take it that well and that was a lot of that kept this team behind and also my standard of doing good

it's paloo's year we finished second people say you guys had your best year yeah but the only guy that had a good year here was paloo let's face it i'm not trying to be so but that changed that mentality sometimes you have to change the people because you need one guy's tony canada's not going to make the difference by himself so passing forward to we needed a new shop to be able to compete with the people that they say we're in the same level we're not because having a small shop the capacity of building things manufacturing things that it is not we need to outsource well when you outsource it takes time it's shipping and so it's not so we're we're not competing the same level and but they need a guy to that has the credibility to tell zach that or the board or

whoever that wants to listen to that it's not an excuse it's a reality so and that's been my goal since people people number one people it that is no different than when a ceo takes over a company he brings some of his people it's not because the people there they are bad but they need to buy in to the mentality of the leader and that is just the way it is some people don't accept that and some people get on with the program look at roger bought the speedway didn't change a single person doug bowles is still there because he got on and that was the biggest challenge for me to be fair and still as we've been through now i think i got to the point that i got the people that i trust i got the people that i need and now we're gonna now from

the leadership from the top we're gonna start transforming people to get on and in the process I have to say, when we did that, some people decide to leave voluntarily because now they cannot be the way they were before and they're not fine. And that is totally okay. The new shop, environment, right? You guys doing a podcast.

Hopefully we're going to grow like crazy. We're going to have the nice, it's always nice to get to a nice studio. So it doesn't mean that it's going to make a big difference or not. It's not about that. In a sport that psychologically, environmental, I want a place that people are going to look and say,

wow i want to go work there but being a mclaren people want to work here but then the building doesn't this building doesn't suit the name you know i can see people like whoa this is a mclaren shop but we're in a transition ironically the shop that we're going back is the shop that i got fired out of it so ironically i'm in a position to go in now that i'm the one that can fire people which but that yeah it feels good a lot of renovation we're in the process of moving now okay so a lot of work but now the people are like okay you guys are asking me for everything that over the few years the past few years i've always heard well but i don't have that because we are humans we make excuses like that or put it in our heads we're gonna build a team there will be no excuses

And it's going to be on the people's accountability to be able to perform. And that's my goal. And that's who I am. I am fully accountable for the goods and the bads. I'm responsible for everybody. I will have zero issues taking criticism, blame, or whatever that is. But one thing I told these guys here when I took over was, I don't know anything more than none of you. All I have here is an obsession.

I'll be here 14 hours a day. and so I have it I'm going to be pushing every one of you to be able to perform so final last three questions very very quick questions

future of IndyCar what do you think is working now very quickly what do you think is working and what has to improve we

what has to improve I think we are Fox bought into the series I think we need to get known Vincenzo the series is great the cars are great

I know we need new cars all those debates it will not matter if people don't know who we are Right. And no secret that Formula One was going through a transition and Liberty and Netflix basically made it. We need something like that. And Fox is extremely committed to do it. So the future really bright, but it depends on all of us in every team to keep pushing IndyCar, Fox and ourselves to be able to do it.

It's not not Fox alone is not going to do it. it's a shame they didn't renew the 100 days to Indy because it was so well done. Such a good show. It was, but also on the flip side, was that the views, you know how shows work. If you guys don't listen to you guys, at some point somebody's going to go.

So maybe taking a step back to regroup and say, where do we really need to go to be able to do it? I think is not a bad thing. It felt a little more reactionary towards like other pieces of content, like Formula One's Drive to Survive instead of really thought out. You copy and you're already behind.

I tell this people all day here. Yeah. And the problem is also that people just need to sit down and watch a race. If I had the choice, Tony, and I'm saying this honestly, if they said for me, for the rest of your life, you can only watch one form of racing out of everything, I'd choose IndyCar because the racing is so good and unpredictable. But see, Lala, I haven't met a single person,

and I'm not saying we're bad or worse, that watch an IndyCar race for the first or second time. The accessibility of the fans, they love it. So we just get to, we need to get famous. There you go. So we're going to wrap it up with two questions that we love to ask people whenever we have the chance. So I've asked a few of your friends this question before, so I'm curious to hear your answer. Okay.

So forget about hardware, forget about wins, forget about championships or employment status. Who is the most naturally gifted driver you've ever raced against? I am going to have to say my good Colombian friend, Juan Pablo Montoya. he's a machine wow well you just won her heart there you go and for the people

the young kids that don't have it just go watch what he did to Michael Schumacher it's Michael Schumacher is a guy

that hasn't won a lot in his career but just go look that he has everything and the attitude is awesome I wish I had that

I'm too nice that guy could win a tractor race as I say like really he's okay

that's interesting and then final question what is your favorite circuit in the entire world to race at i mean i i don't i need to pick two sorry but i would say interlagos my hometown i was going to put it first but i wouldn't leave it out the indy 500 for the environment and the people but interlagos i would say it's it's it is and look at it look how good the formula one

races are there it's not just because so it's interlagos amazing lovely tony canan it's been an absolute pleasure the only thing i want you to promise is that you'll be back because there's so much more to cover with you there's so much yeah lali you have a will's email just send us an email we'll be back for sure to uh if you guys you know hopefully the listeners will enjoy and we'll come back and yeah yeah oh they can't how can they not enjoy listening to tony no thank you guys thank you tony