The Dale Jr. Download - Bonus: Speed Street w/ McLaren Driver Felix Rosenqvist

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Conor Daly and Joey Mulinaro are back on Speed Street to discuss the “spectacle” that was the Miami GP, the importance of attracting celebrities to big events, Joey hanging at the Kentucky Derby, how impactful Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson’s fight was on the sport, why IndyCar needs more intense rivalries, and answer a couple of questions from Dale Jr. and Mike Davis. Then, the guys talk with Arrow McLaren Racing driver Felix Rosenqvist about his rise through the F1 feeder series, racing in the early days of Formula E, why it was his dream to make it to IndyCar, and transitioning from Ganassi to McLaren. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, it's Connor Daily, driver the number 20 bitnial.com Chevy for Ed Carbner Racing. I've hacked into the feed to put my podcast, Speed Street, on the Dale Jr. download feed. Don't tell Dale. I hope you enjoy. Following is a production of Dirtymo Media. It is a beautiful day in Indianapolis as we recorded this week's episode of Speed Streets. Welcome back. Thanks for being with us. We have Indie cars getting ready to be fired up at the Indianapolis Motor Space. Speedway coming up on Friday and Saturday, of course. We got a big show. We finally locked in Felix Rosenquist. I think he was like our first guest target back in like the summer of 2021 or something like that. I've texted him like possibly 10 times to get him on and we got him finally.

We got like a locked him in at Rev over the weekend. Got a good conversation with old Felix Rosenquist from Arrow McLaren. I'm now preview on this weekend and the 500 and he's talking to all things. about what's going on in his career and over at Aaron McLaren. And then the boss man. I'm sorry, he's got a couple of questions for us. Dale Jr. He'll hear his voice this week. He is asking Connor to me some things.

So he's going to be here. Big show, big week, as always here in the month of May. Can't go anywhere without Connor Daily. What's up, man? Not a lot, man. It's just all is finally moving forward. Like just today we record this show on a Wednesday. I have like three appearances after this show.

I got to go to the track and get my golf car, put my stickers on my golf cart for the month of May golf cart activities, thanks to Cindy Elliott from Elliott's custom trailers and carts for that golf cart. We've obviously got our motor homes out there as well. So yeah, it's just all happening. We were on the simulator yesterday. That was our last day of travel for the rest of the month. We are here now in Indy forever, it seems like, to the end of the month. So yeah, it's all happening now. Love, seeing what we had over the weekend at Rev. For those in Indiana, you kind of seen a little bit about Rev,

a fun little event. Well, not little event. It's a massive event, actually, at the Speedway, which really kind of kicks things off. A lot of drivers there. Got to speak with a lot of different folks. So, yeah, all the festivities are happening. We're basically, I look at my schedule, my little calendar on my phone,

and every day has something on it. So every day from now on has, things on it. So we're locked in. And yeah, Joey, I mean, I saw you had your motorhome out there too. We had thanks to Mount Comfort. Mount Comfort got us all sorted out there again.

Did you spend, have you spent any nights out there yet? Have we stocked it up with supplies? What are we looking like? Oh, yeah. Yeah, dude. Fantastic motorhome out there. I know yours is great as well. Thanks to Rusty and the Mount Comfort team, of course. They actually worked out perfectly because

last year I was in the museum lot, like on the inside of the museum lot. Now I'm on the other side. So like, it's the museum lot, but I'm on the other side of the bushes. And so it's more of like flat ground and there's like a little lawn right behind us right there. Oh, nice. The boy can go play in the grass and we can have, you know, little picnics out there. Haven't stayed the night yet. I plan to do that this weekend starting. And yeah, we stocked that sucker. We went to Costco. drops just an inordinate amount of money for the month of May. So we're ready to go. We're going three wide on all the drinks in the fridge.

Nice. You know, we're at Indies, so we got to do it that way. Three wide Miller Light, three wide water, three wide Coke all the way through. And we're pumped, man. It's a very, very exciting times. Rev looked good, though, and you had a good time? Yeah, with great event, raising money for the IU. health folks there. Obviously, the Med Center at the Speedway is an IU Health Medical Center.

So great to interact with. And we all dress up, you know, big red carpet, a lot of great restaurants from the city of Indianapolis. I mean, I actually, I think I've underappreciated Rev because I got to do it this year with my girlfriend, Amy, and she's obviously new to it. But she was like, well, if there's a ton of food, why are we not trying all the food? And I was like, that's a great question. I'd usually just gone there to go there because it was like basically a required appearance for us to kind of knock one off the list. And, you know, we are assigned to a few different restaurants.

Like I had Abi Yoko Pizzeria and Jugs Catering, which is obviously normal there for the Speedway. And then the Taxman Brewery, Taxman Brewing Company. And great foods there. I usually only go to the restaurants that are assigned to me, try it, and then boom, we do our appearances and leave. But, like, we really started to get adventurous to start to try all these foods. I mean, there's sushi there, there's pizzas there, there's all kinds of different dishes. There's even donuts. So, yeah, it was fun to get moving around a little bit.

Went to the roof of the Speedway as well once it got dark to see kind of, you know, what the party looked like from above. So it just feels right. just feels good to get out to the racetrack, talk to a few of the guys, talk to Tony Kahn for a little bit about what's going on in the world. And that's always a great conversation. So yeah, it was a great event.

But I think what was happening with you was even more cool. I saw, obviously, you were at the Kentucky Derby. An event that I have yet to have yet to go to, very high on my list of events to do. And thankfully, it's an NBC event. event as well. So Marcus Erickson was down there. Also, he got a good interview I saw on the broadcast. There's a bit of, hopefully, some Indy 500 coverage there, some maybe commercials. I watched a little bit of it here on and off. But what you got to do, and some of the people that you got to interview, I thought was fantastic.

And before we get into the people that you interviewed, you're a horse guy. So you're a horse owner. Like, you own a horse. Is this like, are you, is this like the indie NXT? Like, you're looking at like, hey, you're the IndyLight series. We need to get our horse to the derby. Like, this is the stepping stones. Like, what do we, what, how does that work? Yeah, it's, you know, that's the goal, right?

Is it get to it one day where you are kind of looking at that. But where I am right now, I kind of just get assigned, you know, the West Point Thurrowbread, you know, whenever they're kind enough to give me a steak and one or two of their horses, which I actually have two now. Last year I had one. All right. Vinco and Big Wicks. Big Wicks?

Big Wicks? Nice. I like that. So I got two of them. They are not. They were there. So I was just kind of carefree living because my horses weren't racing. I was just that air to bed on the ponies and do some silly interviews and have a good time,

which I did. But yeah, dude, it was nice. It's like, I will say, whenever, you know, next year, whenever you can, If you can get rev off and make your way down to Churchill Downs, maybe we could caravan. We can make it a whole thing. We can do the IndyCar takes the derby. And it's you have to do it.

It is an absolute bucket list item. It's a blast. It's a two-day event. Well, really a three-day event if you go Thursday for thirdby. But you have Friday, you have the Oaks. And Saturday, you have the Derby itself. And the whole day, man, you're just. dressed of. You're looking fly. You're taking photos everywhere. There's a bunch of famous people

there. You're drinking drinks like crazy. You're betting on ponies. You're smoking cigars, all of which I did this weekend. So it was fantastic. I felt like I was kind of, you know, Marcus was obviously the Inde 500 representative there. Yes. But I did a few interviews on the red carpet after I walked the red carpet. And there was multiple like Louisville TV stations, fan duel people who are asking me about the 500. They're like, you know, now you're here, but we know you're a big like Indy 500 guy. And I was like, yeah, absolutely.

You know, to think about the Kentucky Derby, but it's even, it's twice as big. And it's twice as fun. And it's just, you know, a real party. You know, so I was pubbing out the N8500 as much as I could, man. I invited Jack Carlo, but I doubt it comes. No, I saw that. Great interaction between you and Jack Carlo.

I even showed Amy. I was like, man, look at Joey. out here just dapping up Jack Harlow. It seemed like a nice little environment. I enjoyed your interview with Kay Adams as well. I'm a big fan of Kay. I got to do Good Morning Football once many years ago with Rick Flair. She was very, very nice. That whole group there on Good Morning Football were awesome. But like what was your highlight? Was it the Jack Harlow? Was it that lady that you interviewed where she didn't know who Patrick Bahomes was? I thought that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

And she looked like that per, like she has something from Bugs Life. Yeah, no, so she was crazy until like, I walked up to her and at I literally, this is how old that I am getting, I was like, whoa, like, are you allowed to be on camera and I was to take? You look really young.

Like, are you allowed to be on camera? Like, I'm 21. I didn't ask her ID, whatever, but anyways. Yeah, she killed it. She was in like the pre-fashion show for the derby. So she made, Austin. She was with like people who made their

outfits and everything. She looked like the queen from both life. She did not know who Patrick Mahomes was, so I was pretty bad. Man, it's, it's tough to pick just one because the whole weekend is just, I mean, it's a paradise, dude. Like, whenever, I think I told you before, but whenever you're going to the derby like that, you know, everything's, like, included in the price of the ticket. So you're just walking up the places, grabbing julebs, grabbing beers, you know, going to the concession stand, like, it's just a free for all, man, it's nuts. So, like, wait, so you don't have, like, when you get a ticket and you get there.

it's like an open bar. Yeah, I mean, yeah, but it's like, okay. You give it like a cruise, you know, like in a cruise. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, you pay this much for the packet and you're like, oh, okay. But then once you get there and you're on the cruise, you're like, holy shit, this is all free. It's not free, but it feels free because you don't have to buy your card or your wallet,

you know what I mean, unless you're tipping. Yeah. Which you tip the, you'll tip the vendors and stuff. Respectfully. Yeah. But, yeah, like, you're sitting there. We're sitting in our fantastic seats and turn one. this new area they play turn one in Churchill Downs.

And, you know, vendors just walking by. They're like, drops. And you're like, two jobs. They're like, two jumps. And they hand them right there. And there you go. You're good to go. Wow.

So, yeah, do you definitely have to go? I mean, the red carpet is super fun because you get to see so many cool people. Jack Harlow, knowing who, like, I was and like coming to shake up with me. It was super cool. But really, just the whole weekend is the highlight, dude. It's just like, yeah. Every time you're there, it's like, wow, this is definitely. Definitely a bucket list thing.

It was funny because celebrities were either there or the Miami Formula One race. I can't welcome. Two places, I mean, to get right into the motorsport of the weekend, you had all the people that were at the Derby, and then you had all the people at the Miami Formula One race. And there are a few things that I think people, listeners of this show would probably expect us to get into. Because we, again, we respect all motorsport, right? I like to respect forming the one because I tried to get there very difficult. Some of the best drivers in the world, some of the best drivers in the world in IndyCar, some of the best drivers in the world in NASCAR.

You can't say one is the best. Like, it's just that's bad. And there was L.L. Cool, J, right before the race, saying that everyone here is the best. and it was the greatest spectacle in motorsports, which right out the gate, send him a letter, we're going to sue you.

Like, I mean, it was something that, I mean, I don't know, I look at the Miami race, and I will give it credit for, my gosh,

it looks like a great event, like that the paddock in the football stadium, which apparently, according to my inside sources, extremely hot down there. Like, they said the paddock was so hot, because there's no air movement. You're in a stadium.

And I was like, well, man, that's why the dolphins put their opponents on the sunny side. It's like, it's got to be awful down there. But there was a lot that went on that weekend, which, again, I think a lot of the comments, we are jealous of F1 in certain ways. I think there are so many celebrities down there. You know, you had Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, those guys, but that's their thing, right? Like, they have billions of dollars. So F1 is kind of, like, it's always been for them.

You know what I mean? But I think one thing we have to remember, and this might be the same for several different events, a lot of those celebrities get paid to be there. Like, everyone thinks that, like, oh, everyone just wants to go to F1. It's actually not true. Like, a lot of those celebrities are invited by teams

and maybe, you know, giving some little dust on the hip, little cash, little money here. I remember talking to Chloe Grace Barrett's in Austin last year. She's an actress, quite a famous person. And she was like, yeah, Williams Esports like paid me to be here. And I was like, what's great? Like that's easy to come to a Formula One race then, right? Like, because it's like, I'm definitely going to go anywhere that I'm going to get paid to go. You know what I mean? So a lot of these companies like Heineken, they pay people to be there. watch companies, IWC, like Tag Hoyer, all those companies will get their celebrities that they are involved with there. So it's not like everyone was like hunting for, like Patrick Mahomes didn't go to the website and buy an F1 ticket because he wanted to go see a race.

It's like, no, Patrick was invited. Now again, all these celebrities, they know about Formula One now more often because of the show, because of how everyone thinks it's cool. but there are so many people that get paid to go there and there are so many people that like I saw a bunch of tables like did you see that whole area where they have like basically like pool cabanas and they're watching the race and then some guy I saw a great TikTok video of a guy who paid like three grand for tickets and all he got was like a lanyard

and he was looking at people across the way with pool cabanas and I saw again I'm a big internet guy I try to dive deep into some of the internet folk spaces and you got to remember that the Miami GP might also pay people to be there, right? Because some of the people that were in those like cabana areas are just like club people. And they're like famous people that are just influencers, right? They're just like people that party and they're like, oh yeah, cool. We'll go, you know, buy alcohol at your racetrack for the weekend for free or to get money.

So it's a bit of a smoke and mirrors thing. And again, we also do that for the 500. Like we don't necessarily just invite people and say, hey, like we'd love you to come to the 500. Like, we fly people on private jets in to the 500 to make sure that we have celebrities there. So it's very common, but I just want to let people know that like, hey, this isn't, let's not feel as bad as we could. I would say. But what's the red carpet looking like for the 500 this year? I actually do not.

Have you heard? I don't know yet. I think we have the chance to probably have some really cool folks. We always have cool people. Last year, Miles Teller, like, having him there, I thought was really cool. I'm sure they're going to have a great person to wave the green flag to, you know, all kinds of things. But they keep that under wraps. They do a pretty good job.

But that's kind of part of the excitement leading up to May, right? But this whole thing that F1 did, you know, to kind of continue the rant. I don't know if you saw it, but the LL Cool J intro's thing. I was watching. I mean, Indy, car, well, Penske Entertainment and the folks at IndyCar had sent, have sent a message to F1 about the, well, violating, you know, a law of, of copyright on the phrases, a trademark law around the F1 race in Vegas, right? Like, they were using the greatest spectacle in whatever. Greatest spectacle. You can't do that. Sorry, it's against the law. It's not yours. And then when L.L. Cool J comes out, I mean, it's, it. It really does, I want to let you know, it does make folks mad inside of our camp, the IndyCar camp, because I know personally, my stepdad, Doug Bowles, president of the Indianapolis Air Seaway,

if there's one person who hates to hear that and all these people trampling over our spectacle, which is easily the greatest spectacle in motorsport and all of racing, and it's 10 times the size of Miami, this boat race down there essentially, uh, It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's when, it's targeting, targeted attacks at us and, and, and everything, and they're trying to really get into it. And again, Logan Sargent, love what he had to say. He got on the mic, right? It was like, what's up America? He's our guy, obviously. Tough weekend for him, but he's our guy for sure. and we still, again, I have to respect the series,

but it's very funny to see their reaction to the driver intro's thing. I mean, it looked like a bit of a circus. Like a cool circus. It's not weird, you know, you're like, Will I Am is orchestrating a fire suit. What, I mean, huh? Like, Will I am an L.L. Cool, Jay?

What is this combination? I don't know what the hell is going on. But yeah, man, I mean, it's straight up. So keep going off what you're saying. Just the L.O. Cool J. That hit me straight in the gut. It felt like somebody slid him a card beforehand. Because I'm like, no way, L.O. Cool J is that much into NF1 or Motorsport.

It felt like somebody handed him a little note card before he went out there and was like, hey, make sure you say this exactly this way. Okay? Let's see, whatever else you want, make sure you say this. and that's what it felt like and it fucking pissed me off and I turned it off and I watched an ass car

there you go and I and I to be fair I tried I did the little recall button on my remote I was like m F1

oh wait there's literally nothing happening okay the first 15 laps you know watching Max go from ninth to first easy

but like no one challenges Max so I I don't actually think people that like F1 like racing because I like racing but there's not a lot of it to watch in Formula One.

So I understand like, a lot of driving. If you love driving, boom, F1's your thing. And that's a great way to put it actually. But I, again, I don't, I will say that because it just makes me sad that we don't get as much attention. And again, it is a pure jealousy thing. I'm happy to admit that. Because if you are a racing fan, if you're not watching Indy car, I don't understand. understand how you can say that you're a racing fan of open wheel racing because

Formula One, I watched two teammates, Lewis Hamilton trundling along, George Russell, he's faster than Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton just let him by. I'm like, that's not motorsport, that is driving fast. And if you get to an impeding car, that car lets you buy. And it was like the same thing with Max. Like everyone knows that Max's car is so much faster than theirs that they didn't really care. It was just like, Max will drive around us. And he was very fast. Like Max put on a great race to get the win by a mile. But it's just, it's just sad to see that like there's so much hype around it. But it's really just because you have to be there to be cool, right? Everyone with their 78

lanyards. I don't know if you saw how many lanyards people were worried Joey. But boy, do they have a lot of lanyards on. And I'm not sure if the more lanyards you wear, the cooler you are. I haven't heard that yet, but it's just... That's what I'm going to do. Put on 12 lanyards. Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. Ah, we go to a dollar general? I'm just going to, yeah, I'm going to get like 16. They have to be gold, though, like, make one of them gold and the other has to be like silver, maybe platinum, and like put a coin on one of something that makes you like just a celestial being. I don't know. I will say, I'm just thinking about it and kind of. terms of this whole, you know, the whole hype and excitement and celebrity around whether

it's the Derby or F1 or any 500, I will say that now after two years in a row of being a part of and around the red carpet at the Derby, that the one at the 500 is much cooler. I love it. I'll tell you why. Because the one at the 500 is made for the fans and is very easily accessible, whereas the one at the red carpet, there's literally like. like two fences to where the spectators and the fans are behind. And then there's like the media and the camera people.

And then there's another fence. And then there's the red car. Yes, a separation of the public. Like, four people go away. You know, like, I don't like that. Right. You know, so it's very like limited for the general people to be able to come to the red car bed see these famous cool people.

Whereas at Indy, you know, yeah, you will have to get there kind of camp out. But even if you're not camping out, like I was 10 feet away from. Christian Bale and Matt Damon in 2019. You know, I was right next to Hemsworth the year before, like, and I did camp out. I just kind of like squirmed my way. It was right there. And there he was, like sign autographs and take his selfies. So I think that the overall number of celebs and famous people and cool people, if you will,

like at the derby may seem like the quantity of them is more than what we get at the 500. but I'd say your access in a location of the red carpet at Indy is way cooler. Yeah, and I, and the, like, I love that as well. We do give people access, which is awesome. But I think the fact that F1 drivers as well, this kind of goes back to our interview with Jaime Algaswari, who, again, I think he said I was still pronouncing his name wrong. He sent me a message, but I was like, well, then blame Will Buxton because he told me how to say it. But if you haven't listened to that episode.

Honestly, please do. It is a fantastic interview. But he mentioned something in his interview that drivers are being programmed to be machines. And when you see drivers say what they say about driver intros, which is supposed to be like an enjoyable experience. Like, it's supposed to be like, oh, this is cool. Like we're interacting with people, fans. More than one drivers get programmed to be machines. And are you having fun?

Yes. Bad. Like, I mean, if you had the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders in L.L. cool Jay there. I mean, as a driver, I think that's awesome. Like, I'm going to go do my job and I'm going to go do it to the best of my ability. But hey, are we going to have a cool experience until we get there? Absolutely. Why not? I just, it's, it's something to me that seeing, seeing them say that, like, we have an hour's worth of driver intros at the Annie Apple's Soter Speedway. Like, there's all kinds of things that we're doing. And NASCAR, every single weekend, you got stages and cool stuff. Because

guess who you're trying to engage? The fans, the people. The people. there to support you, you know what I mean? And like people watching on TV. So I, again, it's another thing that since Formula One is now thrust into our faces with this show and like you realize what, how, how people are actually built and made and like the mindsets, again, I respect that, like, dedication, whatever you want to do and like, oh, it's too hot. Well, I'm sorry, your cars are like, your cars are way easier to drive physically than ours. Like neckwise, yes, you have a bit stronger next than we do. but you have power steering. Let's not complain about it because you got to realize that there are other people out there. Better dealing with way hotter conditions and way harder cars to drive from a physical standpoint.

Not the switches and all the things, but it was just interesting to see. I'm sure this conversation will make some people angry that love Formula One. But again, I do like Formula One. My father was a Formula One driver. I have respect for it until the day I die. but it's still you get to those arguments and you're like, how in the world, if you're a racing fan, are you not going to respect the series that actually does racing with really good drivers like the IndyCar series? So I thought it was astounding to look at. Now, again, the ratings for Formula One did,

like they were less than the first Miami race. So maybe some people did actually give up on it and were like, actually, yeah, this is boring. I don't know. But for the first time, I was like, oh, ratings for Formula One actually went down. So good for us. And Goethe Stiner said IndyCar ratings were going down.

He's actually wrong. Technically. I was going to ask, what's up with this guy? He just here spewing nonsense? Goetter Steiner hates America. He hates everything about America drivers and everything about us. And he's on the record saying that for years. So the fact that he's, I don't know how, now I like Gene Haas.

Well, he just seems to like America in Formula coming in a fucking pigeonhole of their foot in here. Yeah, I mean, he is technically captain of the American Formula One team, which is not an American Formula One team. But Gene Haas, I respect Gene Haas. I love what he does because he's with, you know, he's with some great drivers in the NASCAR Cup series, and he's done a lot of incredible business in motorsport.

But my gosh, having that guy as you're ahead of an American Formula One team is so sad. But he's clearly wrong. Look, everything, a lot of motorsport had been up and down in ratings this year in general, but our ratings, I would say honestly, for the series overall, have not lost as much as NASCAR had in a few races. So I actually think we're doing fine. We need to be more,

but we need to go higher. We need to get better, obviously. But he thinks IndyCar is dying is the dumbest thing ever. We've got seven more cars on the grid than he does. We've got 33 at the Indy-534 trying to qualify. So Indycar, I think, is strong and on the way up. And he, I think, well, it's just sad. I've always been,

Gunter is just, it's astounding what comes out of his mouth and I don't know how he's allowed to keep saying that stuff, but he's a Netflix personality, so he's a huge, you know, big, big fans of him now.

Yeah, I like your shout out, you're calling out of him on Twitter. That was good. Mead, Kenny Wallace. All right. Yeah,

Racer.com, they came out with their report that, hey, since Long Beach, Detroit, Iowa, ticket sales are all up. So.

Exactly. And I think that's solid. And I think there was, I saw a few folks that, you know, were like, oh, well, you know, Iowa tickets might be a little expensive. It's like, I'm sorry, but we are not allowed to complain about that. If people are paying $3,000 for tickets to the Miami Grand Prix, you know, we're paying a couple hundred bucks for some of the most competitive motor racing on the planet right now, if not the most competitive motor racing on the planet right now in concerts, huge music concerts. So I think you need to be at Iowa. It's going to be a great weekend. And there was a lot that went on overall this week. And there's a lot of NASCAR stuff.

But I do want to get to Felix Rosenquist as well because I think to have him also say what's going on. Because again, he's part of sort of an F1 team. You know, McLaren IndyCar, McLaren Formula One. McLaren Formula One had a lot of folks, you know, there this weekend as well. So let's, before we get into NASCAR. After the Felix interview, we will get into the NASCAR race, because again, there was a fight that happened after the NASCAR race, which I found very interesting. And we will definitely have a few opinions about that, Joey, I think. But for now, I would say let's get to Felix and see what he's got to say. All right, as mentioned, we have a very, very wonderful guest. A guest that I have bothered about this show for many weeks, many months, even,

And in fact, a very accomplished racing driver from all around the world, trophies across many, many different countries and continents, an IndyCar trophy holder as well. IndyCar race winner driven for, well, really good teams in IndyCar, a part of the McLaren team right now, Felix Rosenquist. Thank you so much for being here, my friend. I'm sorry for bothering you for many weeks, but how are you feeling now? Are you feeling good?

I'm feeling great. It's good that we finally made it happen. I love it. They didn't mean to be a dick about it. No, no, no. It's all right. Don't worry. He decided to wait and see.

He said, oh, they got Jimmy Johnson. They got... Yeah. Brojohn. Okay, cold down. Oh, I can go. God, that's fair. I make sure the quality was there.

Very high quality. We wanted to make sure the show was respectable enough for you, too. But I think your path to IndyCar, I would say, is very interesting. I like we kind of, I would say we're similar in age and we kind of, I would say did the European thing, but you did a lot more of it and you did the Formula E thing as well. But a lot of people I would say don't know how good you were in that European ladder system. I would say a lot of people would have thought Felix Rosenquist, we're going to Formula One, right? How close were you? Do you think to getting into a, a Formula One race C. Like what was the, because I mean, you won everything in Europe. Like there was a lot of victories over a lot of success. How, like let people know how close, like how close were you to get into Formula One do you think?

Well, it's interesting over there. I mean, you know that because you, as you say, you pretty much did the same thing. And you pretty much ended your European journey where I ended mine, which is in Formula 3 and you were GP3. Did you do GP2 as well? A little bit, it was like you're not the best situation. A little bit of it. But basically, when I came to that stage, it was just a matter of the good old budget. Yeah.

You know, as I said, I won many races, many championships, but yeah, at some point I basically had to look for other options because I just didn't, you know, I don't know if I wasn't good enough at finding sponsors or my dad wasn't rich enough. It just didn't. Eventually, the reality came, like, hey, if you want to keep doing this, we can't, you know, find hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to try to, you know, do another year of Formula 3. Like, we have to go to Formula 2 and we couldn't. So I started, you know, I played around in GTs, prototypes, and then I did some Indy Lights,

actually, that way back 2016. and that kind of that whole I kind of had an upswing doing all that and that led me into the Formula E deal which was my first ever paid drive when someone gives you a contract and some cash on the side so that was pretty cool

and since then I just kind of been you know I think my Indy Lights days was kind of put my my footprint a little bit on this continent and that came back years later you know, when Gannasse was looking for a seat in 2018 and 19, and it all came back.

And that's always been my dream to do IndyCar, so it was kind of full circle at that point. But yeah, the F1 thing, I think. Were there any junior programs? Like, did you ever have any, like, surely, because at the time you were winning a lot, right? Was there no interaction with Red Bull or any of these other programs that were like, hey, we need to get you on our roster,

or was there anything like that? So I was with Mercedes for a long time So from 2011 till 2016 I was Mercedes Junior And kind of the thought behind that program at the time Which looks very different to what it is now Was to get drivers into DTM Which is a very different series than it is today

But you're probably familiar What it looked like back in the days Like it was a pretty serious Manufacturer Championship with Mercedes BMW and Audi Massive Robert Wiggins did it with a lot of good drivers. Yeah. And it was like a dream to get into that series at the time

because it was also a professional championship and all the drivers got paid. But yeah, that didn't happen for various reasons. I was kind of a reserve driver there for a while. And actually I did a few races my last season. But then at the same time, I had the thing Formula E that came up. And I thought that was, you know, DTM was kind of trending downwards. and Formula E was on an upswing,

so I made a decision to kind of leave that program and go with something new, which was obviously risky leaving a manufacturer. But yeah, that Mercedes obviously made my whole junior ladder possible because they obviously invested a lot of me and they had me for many years. But I think at that time I probably thought I had more in me to go to the bigger leagues,

and they probably had something else in mind. so we basically split. But otherwise, not really no Red Bull or anything. Felix, you mentioned that IndyCar was your dream. Why here and now one of the other series, why were you dreaming for that? I mean, I grew up watching it when I was really young. So when I was eight, I think I started watching Kenny Brack. And me and my dad was like, this is way cooler than F1 because

It was like, I love that. I don't know. Like, we watch both, but yeah. Middle of the night, it was kind of cool to like stay up with that at like 11 p.m. I watched Kenny Ray. You know, if there was like a rain delay, you would just like have to, you know, sit, like, kind of have a nap in the couch and dad would wake me up. And like, we followed all the races.

And that's actually kind of what got me into, like, the woke my interest for racing. So it was very natural to have that as, you know, a goal in my career. like if I can raise Indycard that would be awesome but I think for many years it wasn't really like like it wasn't in my reality to do it because I didn't have any connections over here you know I didn't have anything like all my all my leads to to a professional career was European base and like manufacturer based but yeah I'm happy how it worked out like I did a test in Indy Lights and Palm Springs and oh yeah 15 I think and uh with uh oh I feel bad because I forgot the name.

But yeah, I did a test there. And yeah, then I did a couple of races. And that's kind of where the whole thing started. Yeah, it's a pretty cool deal how all of a sudden, you know, you might get a little taste of it. You might get your foot in the door with the Indy light stuff. And then when you got to IndyCar, I mean, driving for Gannasi, you know, right out the gate, right? like it's it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a

best team on the grid for sure I think we can everyone can you know you drive for a very good team right but I think gannasi when it comes to the stats overall everything and when we see the speed that they have certainly at the speedway too they've done a really impressive job so working with them was that was that I mean are to start there like because because everywhere else you're like oh man this is going to be hard to be, but like, good working with Chip and at Mike Hall over there and those guys. I mean, was that a pretty impressive environment to just be boom? Here we go. For sure.

It was kind of odd because I don't think I actually, I met Chip once at Lamont when I did it. And apart from that, like, I never went to the shop or really like saw the team before actually to work with them. I mean, I did a couple of tests back in 2016. We have visited the team lead very quickly just to make sure I knew the steering wheel and talk to some engineers, but I feel like I was kind of uneducated in a way

like when I came over. I didn't really know, you know, I kind of thought that every team was like a nasty. I mean, they have a, you know, their shop is like super nice and it's obviously one of the most impressive teams. And I knew that, but I think I somehow like underrated how, how, like what a level. they were operating at.

Because we have, I mean, we have some teams in the series that have, like, in total, 12 employees and can have a 100-plus employee operation. And so is Aaron McLaren now. So, yeah, obviously, I had the joy to work with the two of the absolutely best teams in the series. But, yeah, it's hard. In a way, it's hard to start there because it's like I had a lot of pressure straight away out the gates and people were, it's even before.

I came here, like, people were expecting me to win races and, and, and I think I had a lot of confidence coming in. And then I, the Indycar kind of like, you got the Indycar smack in the head eventually, like, you know, like I did St. Pete, which went great. And, you know, I almost won that first race. And then I don't remember where we went, but it was just like, oh, shit, like, this is so much more to learn. It was not. This is hard. And I mean, I was 27 years old. So like, I, in a way, I expected myself to be like a fully completely learned, you know, mature driver. But yeah, it was kind of weird to be like to waking up being a fully rookie to Oval's and also a lot of the road courses.

I mean, it was just such a new thing with like all the different tire compounds, setups that you change all the time. Like in Europe, you just drive with the same setup everywhere. Yeah. You're quick on one track. You're quick everywhere. And there was not the case here. So, yeah, very, very, like, humbling experience.

Do you, have you tried to relay that to fans of motorsport overseas that, you know, maybe with folks like Formula One who kind of perhaps look down on a baby car, you try to say, hey, hey, hey, what you just said right there about, we got all sorts of different setups and your car can be the quickest somewhere and then absolute shit somewhere else. Like, do you have those conversations? Do you try to relay that message at all? Yes, but I think, I mean, Connor can probably say his version of that.

But I think when you haven't been here, you don't understand it. Like, you have to drive it yourself to understand the difficulty. I think even watching a TV, you don't really get the challenge of it. just a variety of tires, setups, tracks, you know, there's new bits coming to the cars, there's, you know, some tracks your engine is good, sometimes it's not good, and there's different, yeah, there's just so much changing all the time. And even in the race, it's like strategy-wise, like, you can sit the whole week and like, okay, I'm going to fuel save on Sunday, it's going to be a fuel save. And you're like prepping in your mind, you're playing in a simulator, you're fuel-saving.

then all of a sudden everything just flips upside down. Like, okay, three stops, the quality pays the whole race. Alabama, yeah. It was like that for us. And you just never know. And I think that's the hard part. Like you just have to be open and ready. And like you can't just plan something.

Like it doesn't work in IndyCar. But it's easy to defend IndyCar though now. Like now that you're involved with it, like you're like, hey, this like, I get like personally offended. when people start talking about how like, like what their opinions are on IndyCar if they haven't watched it. Like it's something that I think we, because you know how hard it is every weekend we show up physically.

Like physically it's so freaking hard to drive these cars. But also like mentally and everyone is good in this series. I think it's something that I try to defend a lot. Do you think that there's like, hey, we got to defend ourselves quite a lot here nowadays? Yeah, I think it's hard to mark. at the difficulties of the series because it's all

auto racing. You watch it on TV and you're like, oh, how hard can it be? Right? And all those little stories are kind of hard to capture and I don't blame the series for that really. It's just very hard to, if you're not really involved in a sport, it's hard to see.

But yeah, I mean, I think every championship is super difficult in its own way. Like F1 is mainly about being fast, right? I mean, fast. Being able to look after tires. But like if you're quick, you're going to be a ride. But like in the car that doesn't, like there's so many quick drivers in the series and it just doesn't, I think that was me. Like I came to the series. I was only worried about how quick I was and like it didn't get

me anywhere. Like you got a poll here and there, but it's like, dude, like you're not, you're not getting into the top 10. And that's very different. That I think that's like where it's just hard to explain to people how that works. Like how can you be quick and not in the same? in the top 10. Like, how does that work? And that, yeah, I mean, I think that's up to us to kind of tell that story. And obviously, I think the commentators do a good job. But, yeah, until you, if you haven't been in the car, you don't understand. Where do you stand on your, the amount of times you've been viewed in 100 days to indie,

your appearances? Are we meeting well? Are we happy? Are we like, what the hell is going on? So, too. Star of episode two right here. Dude, I haven't seen episode two yet. Oh, come on. I still have to see it.

You and your lady play a big role in it. Oh, cool. Yeah, so I saw some little takeouts, but, uh, yeah, I mean, they haven't been bogging me that much. I think Paddo, they're definitely in love with Paddo. They're like, Paddo's got 20 camera guys following him at all times. So, yeah, like when Paddo does is debris. Like, they, they're in our truck.

we all like me Alex and Patto are talking and then like Pato starts talking it was like yeah oversteer, up to seeer blah blah blah and then when he's done like they all head out they don't even like stay so yeah I feel like I saw that coming though like I mean Pato is a very fun guy and he's very like marketable and obviously he's a good driver and he's fighting for the championship so I could definitely see that coming but I don't complain either

like I don't love having a camera in my face all the time, but yeah, I guess we all want to be, not featured a lot, but like, featuring the right light. Yeah. Well, I mean, Polsitter at Texas two years in a row, like, you obviously get it there in qualifying. Like, you and that team have done a great job there. I would say you've done, you've had some speed at the ovals for sure. I mean, all across the board, but did you expect to like ovals as much as you do? Or is that something that has been a surprise to you? I think it was, I was expecting a hard time on Oval in general when I came over. I mean, it's five years ago now.

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's a long time ago, but first of all, it took me a long time to get good at them. It took me like two years before I could do results on Oval's. And there was a hard work. Like it's, I don't know how to, because like driving a road course is so natural. And I know that I'll always be quick on a street or a road course. But the Oval just took so much work to get there, like so much working against your, how do you say, like your natural. Yeah.

Like it just, it didn't come naturally. Now I think it does in a different way, but it's still like, as I have to work a lot harder on the Oval's than the road courses. And it takes more discipline. It takes more, yeah, just more fault in general. Respect, I guess, is the word. Yeah. And it's like, I think. I feel like the hard thing with Ovo's is maybe people don't know about, but it's like,

you can go quicker way easier. Like, it's super easy to be quick. And then when you find the limit, like, it's too late. And then you're in the world. That's what happened to me in Texas. I was fighting a free car, most of the race, and you're like, should I deal with it? Should I take out front wing? And then I'll be slower.

You know, it's always that, like, risk versus reward. You're fighting that all the time. I mean, you have to be very disciplined with that. And every time I've kind of ignored that, I've been in the wall. And that's just how it works. It's, yeah. It's crazy hard. Yeah.

I mean, that's a great description of it, though, as well. Being a part of that McLaren team, now that three cars full time, I think that team has the most employees in the paddock. They've got the biggest stuff. They've got the brightest colors. They've got everything. It's like a giant. It's like as if you built an F4.

one team directly into the Indycar paddock. And you've got Alex Rossi there now as well. Obviously, very accomplished driver. What's that environment been like? Are they running you guys ramp it with all kinds of media activities? Is there enough time to focus on stuff? And having Alex there, has that added another level to the team? Because he, I find talking to him about it is very interesting, because he thinks it's completely different car to drive from Andretti, completely different things that he's used to, which is very interesting. Yeah, I mean, he probably had a pretty similar experience coming from Andretti to Aaron McLaren as I did from Gannasi, I think.

It's obviously the team is in a different place today, a couple of years down the line, and obviously we've grown a lot. It's become a different organization, you know, it was, I think the roots are really there still from the Schmidt-Pedarsson-Da-Sto, which is great. I think that's one other pure strengths of our team. Like that core group is still there and it's a great bunch of people. But obviously a lot of new faces coming into the team. But I think Gavin has done a mega job without.

When I heard like how many people they tried to hire in a short time, it was like kind of alarming. Yeah. I'm not jealous of Gavin's job to make that happen. But he did really well. And like Alex crew, which is basically a new car, like it's all new people. That's like it's worth flawless. Like his pit stops has been, I mean, maybe it's been one or two hiccups like, but it has it's been pretty flawless and that's impressive.

Like I've never seen a team get together so quickly and also become integrated in the rest. But we have fun. It's a fun team. It's quite high energy. Like as I say, we do quite a lot of media stuff. I think it can be stressful at times, but it's worse when you see what they do because they do a lot of cool stuff.

I think they kind of set a new bar for the series when it comes to marketing and just fun social media stuff. I mean, I'm not super active on social media, but the team does a good job of capturing me and my personality and with other drivers. And also having Alex on the team now is great. I think he actually really sits in with me and Patto. He's a great guy,

super clever, I think, and it's very interesting to kind of hear his take on it coming from a, you know, obviously the other, one of the other biggest, or maybe the biggest organization in the paddock. Yeah, super interesting. I think we've kind of found a balance this year with everything, like, I feel like we just learn from all that growing and now we're like in a happy window with everything. Felix, who's a celebrity you would love the CD out on, uh, the grid right before the start of the UD 500. Who would you want to see at the U.S. Oh.

We saw all the celebrities down in Miami trying to be F1 fans, even though they don't know what's going on, and they support a racing series. It doesn't do racing. Yeah, I mean, maybe she was doing the same strategy. Paris Hilton. Oh, Paris.

That is not who I was expecting you to say. But Paris Hilton knows more, though. You know, I've met Paris for. Huh? She's a DJ. She can play some music. We'll get Paris sold to DJ driver intro is like Steve Aoki did last year. Hell yeah.

Very interesting. I like it. Very interesting thing. I don't know. I mean, dude, as long as they like the racing and they're into it, it's like I don't care. There you go. It was definitely interesting grid walk at that phone, I thought. Oh, yeah.

Felix, I would say, again, highly, people don't know enough about. your personality. I think Felix has a great time when he's out on the streets after celebrating race wins, having a great time. I respect that out of you. And I think this month, let's say, you know, I obviously hope to win things, but if you also win things, you know, there's going to be some celebrations that are going to happen. And I think the American people, the American public, need to see more, more, you know, maybe celebration feelings. What do you think? No, you're right. I need to be more, I think it just comes down. Like, I'm not very good at posting stuff. on Instagram. Now when I have a team that is, like I just re-tweet what they. Yeah.

But yeah, maybe I need to like hire someone. It follows me or something. It's, uh, it's something I I've been thinking. Just take one of the Lattos 17,000 and you should be fine. Man. If we'll let you call on. So we like to, before we let people go, because I appreciate your time. But I want to get it, and this is a purely speculative guessing game, but I want to get a top three. Indy 500 prediction. And it doesn't have to be in finishing order. It can just be three drivers you think will be in the top three of the Indy 500 in a couple weeks because we're all, I mean, I'm pumped. I cannot wait to get there. I think it's going to be a great time. Okay, so I can't take

myself. Yeah, you could. Technically, you could. Well, I will, I would take myself, but I won't. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. I would. would say Palau. Yep. I would say Dixon. Two good guesses. I mean, those cars are going to be fast. I would say Patricio.

All right. There you go. That's a solid top three. We've had some similar top threes and other guests that we've had. So it's going to be interesting. Give us a quick Indy GP preview for this weekend. We're feeling good about it. You guys obviously have been pretty much strong.

everywhere. What are we thinking for this weekend? It looks like it's going to rain. We think it's going to be a rain race? Yeah, it looks like Friday might be wet. You and I were together in the rain last year. I never saw you, but you finished right in front of me. I had no idea that you passed me. Dude, I think no one's... No, I didn't pass you. You didn't pass. Wait, where did you finish? Yeah, I finished P6. Okay, yeah, so then you were behind me. I just had no idea what was going on in the race, and I saw you afterwards. I was like, how did you get there? I don't think either us saw anything. We just drove and magically fast cars.

Yeah. Yeah, like I would love to have a wet race again because I think we're pretty strong in the wet. We're really good there in quality, but we normally struggle a bit than the race, so like tag. So that's something we have to figure out. So I don't mind the weather.

Maybe we cooked up something new on the setup for ADGP, but it's a tricky one. like I feel every time I come there I'm qualifying in the fast six and then I'm just falling falling like a rock yeah we have to find something but I like kind of like

the track it's I think the race distance is not optimal sometimes like when it becomes a fuel save it's kind of a boring one but yeah I actually don't know what it's going to be like this week and haven't really looked into the race length yet but do we know? Nope I assume it's just going to be the same

We're just going to try to save fuel at some point, and hopefully I'll see you in the fast six again, and we could just have to have a good race instead of having a crazy one. I don't want the race. Honestly, I would like it to be dry. I would like to be dry, but we'll see. It looks like everyone is saying that it's going to be a bit wet at some point. So that'll be very interesting. Yeah, you guys are normally good there, so we'll...

I'll probably guess that one of you guys would be in the fast six. Well, fingers and toes cross. If I can ask a question, what makes you guys so good at Indy? You've probably heard out of a million times. It's the surface. It's a high grip surface, and we are able to use that, and sadly, it doesn't work anywhere else. So we have got a great car for the GP, great car for the 500. I love our 500 car.

And then when we come back in August, we usually been fast there too. So hard to understand, but it seems to be the surface. and whatever tire that Firestone brings there works really well with our package and we desperately need to try to figure it out at other places too. That's funny. That's also the thing with IndyCar.

Sometimes you don't know really why you're good. Yeah. Sometimes you don't know why you're bad and sometimes you don't why you're good and it's different tires and it can be confusing, but... A lot of variables. A lot of variables.

Yeah. But hey, I think I'll see you in the past six. I love it. I love it. Felix, thank you so much for being on here, man. I really do appreciate it. our whole group appreciates it. And Ben, I would, would you like to ask Felix the final question of the interview

because I wanted to get you more involved. Ben is a big race fan. He understands everything. Ben, do you have one final question for Felix here? I do. Ben's last shot. This is my last shot. And I really briefly, so you talked about being informally what we had, I'm going to try

this out. Jaime Algarhawari last week. Yeah. He tested kind of some of the early generations of Formula E, just like you give us like a quick thing. What is the big difference making that transition to Formula E versus driving, like the GP style cars in Europe and even any car? It was honestly not that difference.

It's actually easier in a way because electric motors kind of have the, like whatever you ask from it, it will give you. Like if you want 30% power, it'll give you 30% power. It's one gear, so you don't really have to play with gears or ratios. It kind of simplifies things in a way, but I thought a hard thing was probably breaking because you have regenerative braking. So parts of the brakes is like physical, like IndyCar brakes, basically like carbon brakes, and parts of it is like a motor that recharges a battery.

And to set that up so it feels natural is kind of hard. and also the more region you want, the harder it becomes to drive because it's kind of like a handbrake effect on the rear. I think now the cars are kind of different though. So this is way back like five years ago, but the braking was pretty much where people made a difference. Like some people just couldn't deal with it

and some people were, it came naturally to them. Obviously the tracks are really small as well. So that was a big thing. You don't have slick tires. So they're like pretty much, the best when you roll out of pit lane and then they just grade. Well, yeah, it was fun. Like, I had a lot of fun in it.

There was a lot of good drivers and it was kind of like, in a way, like IndyCar, like all of the drivers were super good, all the teams were super good, you know, all paid drivers. Like, there was pretty much, if you didn't have a good lap, you'll be P20. So yeah, that's kind of all you need, I guess. I love it. Felix, thank you so much, man. Felix obviously is a McLaren driver You'll see him this weekend along with me

Thank you so much man We will we will chat with you at the racetrack All righty Thank you guys The yellow blood-haired blue-eyed driver Rob McClaren Felix Rosenquist Appreciate the time for Pam

Great conversation We've been after him since like July of 2021 And here we are in May of 23 And we finally came through He was our white whale And we got him So I really appreciate him, looking forward to seeing him more over the month of May. But, Connor, now we got to, let's get ready to rumble, my man.

We had some big happen things in NASCAR over the weekend that was shaking up the motorsports world. I was a few Greeks deep when I was seeing it, and I was like, holy hell, what's going on here between Noah Gregson and Ross Chastain? Yeah, I think, you know, this was a something that we had to get to. I listened to DBC Door Bumper Clear this morning, heard their chats about it. I listened to Denny Hamlin's podcast as well, two great podcasts under the Dirty Mo Media banner. I mean, I think, first of all, that any time someone punches someone in NASCAR, big story. And it doesn't matter why. It doesn't matter where, but if there is a fight in a sport that's normally not for fighting, it's a big story.

Like, I just, I love it for them because, again, no penalties, like everyone's good, no penalty for Noah. Like, we're all, everyone's fine. It looked a little crazy. But, like, the emotion of this sport is, is so strong. What we feel in these races, like, NASCAR drivers get to let that out, which I think is so important. I think, and this might be a weird thing to admit, but, like, I am sad that like IndyCar and F1 or what's, I mean F1 there's never going to be anyone fighting each other, but like in IndyCar, I don't know if it's like an arrogance or like we

think we're better than that or whatever it is, but like there are many times where I would have loved to have punched someone. But again, we're kind of built as well to maybe not necessarily express our emotions. I don't know, but we need it because it becomes the most talked about thing on the internet. It becomes, it goes on Sports Center. It becomes the most talked about thing on with their I've now now three podcasts where I've heard it discussed you I mean it's on every podcast um because it's entertaining like people watch television to be entertained and I mean I felt bad that Noah didn't get a swing in like that was I that security guy needs to be uh like come on let these guys go at it you know I like the NHL rules until they

go to the ground you know it's it's fair game um but I mean Joey do you agree like you think all of a sudden if there was a, it doesn't matter what any car race it is, if there's a fist to come, if there's fists flying after the race, it's going to get huge coverage. I do. Yeah, I, Greg said, yeah, he bounced back pretty well

from that punch. He took it. Oh, yeah. Thought. Um, I, you know, I see both sides because, you know, you don't want to come off as sticking your nose in the air, but at the same time, you don't

want to never be able to express frustration, like you said. I mean, don't get me wrong, you know, like, this is just an example I'm thinking of. It's not because I wanted to see this person and get punched, but like, you know, imagine if after Barber in 2022, you know, Graham Rehael and Jean and Robo

and Grojan are, you know, duke in it out, um, over by the spider, right? Like, yeah, yeah, of course that would have been great. Um, do I think, and I know this doesn't happen every weekend in NASCAR, but, you know, it's all about timing, Right. What I'm saying is that like you don't want to do it every weekend or every other weekend if it was IndyCar or whatever because then it's just like, all right, is this WWE? What are we going for? But sure. Yeah. I mean, when the high drama calls for high reactions and hot reactions, then not why not? Yeah, not every race weekend. No, like we're not saying go out there and try to find someone to punch every day. But like that might happen in NASCAR. Let's say they have 38 races, right? It might happen once or twice or twice. twice a year, right? Which is, hey, that's fine. Like, if we have one of those moments

happened during the year, people still talk about that for six months, you know what I mean? So it's, and it's not something that we have to do, but I, but I know for a fact that I am literally so emotionally and physically and everything mentally invested in this sport that you care about it. And like, you know, Graham, you know, Graham running me off the track at, you know, at Barber, right? Like, that's for 20th, you know, it's not, no, we're no, no one's, 19th, like no one's, that doesn't really matter that much. And again, Noah and Ross, like, it wasn't probably for a great position for them at the time, but there's still a lot that can happen in those NASCAR races. And there's a lot that Noah again probably felt from Talladega

because he had just been rubbed a little bit the wrong way by Ross there. But I just think that if there's a moment after the race where there's, not even for the win, but for the top, 10 because it means so much to finish in the top 10 in IndyCar. If there's someone who has a problem with someone else, because there are drivers now just knocking people off the track in IndyCar left and right. It's just there's no rules in our series anymore. So someone else is going to get knocked off at some point in the top 10, usually not as much in the top 10 because people are pretty respectful there, but it's going to happen. And I just hope that there is some sort of altercation at some point, maybe some pushing and shoving. I don't think we need to

to be above it because again everyone's fine after the Noah and Ross thing everyone's good no one took a clock to the face but like you know what everyone's fine it's not like we're people are out there getting sent to the hospital like just a couple swings hey we've expressed your emotion i don't know i like i just i see it as something that obviously it has to be you can't encourage it because you know we we don't want a bunch of fighting on the pit lane but like honestly it shouldn't be not encouraged. Like it's like, it's something that is so popular. And it just makes, it just blows up.

And sadly, we're fighting for those viewers. We're fighting for these things. It's entertaining. Does it, is it, do people make fun of it sometimes? Yes, a lot of memes. But it ended up on the Pat McAfee show. I mean, it ended up on pardon my take. Like all the, all the biggest podcasts in the world essentially when it comes to sports.

We're talking about it. And that's huge for NASCAR. Like, I just, yeah. I see the positives to it. Noah is a friend of our show, from the show. Ross, I know. He's been very nice to me.

But I don't agree with a lot of his moves at all. But I just think for that series, they are probably, and again, NASCAR, they have so many social clips about it, right? Like, they had guys right there on the social team following them. So, like, literally they're all about it. You know what I mean?

So, yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on it for sure. Yeah. I know this happens more and more but I think what I would like to see is because what I feel that happens a lot is when an incident I'm like to that happens an indie car I'm talking wrong on the track

then when a microphone stuck in their face after or whether it's on social media after you know then even they can't you guys feel like you have to button up really quick and you know deflect and you know safe face for the spawn or the team or whatever it is. I was watched in the,

I think it was the 2000. Man, I can't remember which 500 it was. I think it was the 2009 or 2008. No. I was, I'm trying to, was it, uh, anyways, Marco got ran off the course in the first turn, or the second turn of the first lap.

Um, I think it was 2009. And his day was done, and they stuck a microphone on his face and he was like, well, that guy's an idiot. What do you expect when you're racing a dude like that? It was no clue what he's doing. Like, he's just a complete idiot, all this. And I was like, huh, I feel like I don't hear that kind of stuff that much now.

Everybody's like, um, you know, it's just a tough, tough situation. And, you know, we're just to feel bad for the, you know, uh, range rover, Dorito, icy hot, McLaren vehicle. And you know what I mean? And then they would move on the next thing. So that's where I'm like, maybe. you a little bit more of that, not so much like Vistakov's, which I'd see what you're saying,

and it would be viral and it would be great, but just even give me the saucyness of just the afterwards where you're calling each other out and call each other dumbasses or jackasses or idiots, so this guy sucks or that guy has no business being here. That's a ducy enough for me, and I think that was the same

kind of run on social media, you know? Yeah, no, and you're exactly right about that. So I, like, Scott McLaughlin, Roman Grosjean, after St. Pete. I love that it was a nice story that they all apologize to each other, but boy, I'd tell you what, a scrappy Grojean and Scott McLaughlin fight would have been sweet, you know what I mean? But the emotion that Grojan showed, like, you know, slapping the tires, like, that was great.

I just wish there was like maybe a little interaction, but Scott, of course, continued in the race, so there was no connecting until they all cooled down. But yeah, anyway, not promoting it, but it's something that I do believe that I wish we could show more promotion. I wish our drivers and teams were more comfortable with it. Because again, you can't argue that people talk about it. And it is on the wild world of sports. It's on all the ESPN television programs. It's on every podcast. So just something to think about. No Indy car drivers listen to this, but just something to think about for our show. But I had to get to that. There's a lot going on. But now it's all May.

We're focused forward. The Indy GP is going to be an awesome weekend. The rain is going to be crazy. Like we mentioned with our conversation with Felix, but the bus is looking good. Everything is excited. We're all excited about this. And it's going to be a great month for Dirty Mo.

We're going to get a lot of support from those guys too. And yeah, what do you think? Should we move on to questions from our boss? Mr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis? Yep. I was just about to say. I think it's that time. Let's do it. What are they got? So I'll ask Connor. You can ask Joey. I'm going to ask Connor. And he's going to answer this on Speed Street. Okay. All right. I want to know what's your most embarrassing moment behind the wheel of a race car. Wow. All right. That's for Connor.

My question for Joey will be what's your most embarrassing moment outside of race cars, which means all the time. Come on, Joey. He's got to have an embarrassing moment. I'm sure he, maybe a routine that bombed or something. Okay. Well, let him answer that. So Joey and Connor, we were looking for some embarrassment moments, and we'll listen to Speed Street for your answers. All right.

Well, Mr. Beeler and R. Jr., that is a great question. Behind the wheel, an embarrassing moment, not necessarily in life. I always think stalling in the pits is very embarrassing. I think it's very possible in these Indy cars nowadays because they don't have enough power. People stall a lot more than you think. And I stole the IndyGP, well, the Harvest GP literally last year. And that wasn't the most embarrassing, but like that's what I can think of right out the gate. We don't have enough power to launch these things.

And so me as a driver, you've got to be on the clutch slip. You got to figure it out. And that was pretty embarrassing. So painted right behind Joseph New Garden, fifth and six, and just having a great day, stalled in the pit. So my mistake, embarrassing moment. But there's probably other things, but I try to avoid embarrassing things behind the wheel, honestly. Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, it's interesting for us, we're regular pedestrian folks when we're just our normal cars if you're right out of gas or the engine light's been all too long.

stops and you're off to the side of the road, so can't imagine being on TV and doing that big guy. I hear you. And I haven't like hit the safety car under yellow or spun under yellow. I haven't had any moments like that. A jet dryer, you know, at the day time of 500. Yeah. I haven't hit a jet dryer, thank the Lord. Yeah. So Dale Jr. mentioned something about bombing. I had, I don't have one of those yet, knock on wooded. I don't want to bring up because I try to avoid those as well like you do on the track. So I'm going to give you a little bit of a wild one here, Mike and Dale Jr.

And I think you guys will appreciate this one too. I'm doing it back to the summer of 2006, right? Oh, you're with me here. I'm playing in a baseball tournament. I'm batting. I hit a line drive back up the middle, hits off the pitcher's chin, knocks the pitcher out of the game.

Then I'm on first base, right? Because I reach safely. Ben, I don't know. You're a baseball guy at all? I am. Yep. You go. So you're following.

I'm on first base because, I reach safely. I get my lead off. I'm watching the pitcher. As soon as he breaks to the plate, I take off for second base to steal. Turns out, I totally forgot that they had brought in a new pitcher to relieve the guy who had been injured. So the guy was just doing warm-up pitches as the relief pitcher. And I absolutely went full balls to the wall and stole second base while this dude was just

thrown his first warm-up pitch as the backup pitcher who came in after I heard the other one. So I love it. I went and slid and was like, oh, looking up, everybody's dying because I stole a non-existent pitch. I don't know what something that sticks with me. Also, when I was in sixth grade, this is for all the church-going folks out there. I was up in front of the whole church. I went to get communion like you do as a good Catholic boy. And the priest handed it to me and I dropped it.

And it fell on the ground in front of everybody in the church. I didn't know what to do. So what I did was just pick it up and put it back in my mouth and did the sign of the cross. I didn't know. Man, I still sweat thinking about it. So at least you didn't set the church on fire. That's good. That's important.

Yeah. So, you know, those aren't performance ones or maybe necessarily my professional career. But I think the audience will get some kicks out of those. you know. I love it. I love it. We appreciate those questions from our fearless leaders. I mean, yeah, hysterical. So I can't wait to hear more from those guys this month. And now I think we can probably get to the random Indy 500 driver of the week. What do you think? Let's do it. Let's do it. Get into it. All right. The Ricky Treadway, random Indy 500 driver the week. For those who don't know Ricky Treadway, please use the Google machine. This is a

our favorite segment. And I've had a lot of people comment on this, which is very funny. It's like a lot of them think that I like know who I'm talking about, but like I don't. I have tried to learn. Even my uncle last night, he was like,

you didn't know Josei Garcia? And I was like, no, I didn't know who that was. And he's like, yeah, you were pronouncing his name wrong. I was like, I know.

I was like I was trying to just use the Wikipedia. So again, my family, yeah, come on. We got to be kinder here. But anyway, I went with a more recent race because they were kind of getting jazzed up about the race here. This person, you know, it might be alive.

I don't know. But until we read the Wikipedia, you know, we don't know. But, and again, a more recent driver, if I don't know this name, now again, I've heard of this name before, but I don't know this person. At least I don't think I know this person. So this is purely going off of my dumb brain. We're going to go with the 1990 Indy 500. 1990 Indy 500, of course, won by the classic Domino's Pizza Wagon, Arielyondike. Great looking car there.

But the 1990 Indy 500, we're going to go with, where did you go, the 17th place finisher. Dean Hall. Dean Hall finished 17th. Palo Alto, California, raced in the 1990, 91 and 91. seasons, only 21 career starts, including the 1990, Indianapolis 500. It looks like his Indy 500 career, only one race. He tried to qualify for three, only made one, and he made the race in 1990 with Dale Coin Racing. So, hey, I know Dale Coin Racing very well, but in 91 and 95, he did not qualify. So only one Indy 500 for Dean Hall. So,

We got a little history here, huh? How about it, Dean? One more than I'll ever do, so I tip my cat. Sir, that's always not. Best finish, best cart finish was 11th of the 1990 Cleveland Grand Prix, which is a race that we should absolutely still be racing at in Cleveland. Love Cleveland. People are big on Cleveland.

People hit us up all the time about wanting to go back to Cleveland. Cleveland, Milwaukee, those are two huge ones that people are always hitting us up about. Dean Hallborn, November 16, 1957, like countercept. Palo Alto and according to Wikipedia, he's still with us. So that's great. That's great. At least I hope so. If he's not, boy, we are real losers.

I'm sorry. And there is no criminal record for him, as I see. That's good. Not a criminal didn't die on a boat. This is better. Didn't get eaten by a shark. Got a look. Yes.

All right. Here we are. Race weekend finally. A race weekend finally at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2023, GP this weekend. and I'll be out there Friday Saturday. Obviously, Connor will be out there Friday, Saturday. We always tell folks, you know, the 500 is the spectacle. It's the jewel.

It's the gym. We all know that. But if, you know, you got little kids or if you've never really been out there or, you know, it's very accessible, those are two great days on Friday and Saturday to be able to get around the track, to be able to see cool things, see cars go around and, you know, experience racing at the motor speedway, you know, without 350,000 people there. If that's not what you're about, totally get it. So, I hope to see you guys out there.

Stop and say hello if we do. Good luck to Connor, obviously. Had a real solid result at the GP last year. Hoping for the same this year or better, definitely better coming up this weekend. All right. Going to wait it. We will narrow, Connor, Dale, they bit and Wallen. We appreciate you guys.

We'll talk to you next week on Speed Street. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.