The Dale Jr. Download - Bonus: Speed Street w/ special guest Callum Ilott

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

Conor Daly and Joey Mulinaro return for another episode of Speed Street to recap the rain-delayed Gateway race. The guys talk about Conor’s mechanical issues that plagued his top-10 finish, Felix Rosenqvist’s potentially jumped start, and the race’s TV ratings on USA Network, then, they bring on former F2 competitor and driver of the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing car, Callum Ilott, to discuss his transition to IndyCar, developing a new team as a rookie, his top three likes and dislikes of living in America since moving from the UK, and Joey’s new merch idea for the lad, finally, the duo talks about Kimi Raikkonen’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen and the drama between Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.Follow @SpeedStreetpod and @Dirtymomedia on Instagram and Twitter. 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, Deljeet and Download fans. This week, we got a bonus drop on our feed at Speed Street. It's Dirtymo Media's newest podcast featuring IndyCar Driver Connor Daily and comedian Joey Molenero. If you haven't listened to it yet, it's a lot of fun. You're going to have a great time, and it's awesome to start right now. This week's episode, Connor and Joey discussed the past weekend's race at Gateway, which left the top four separated by just 17 points with two races remaining. Plus, they're joined by upcoming IndyCar driver Callum I-Lott.

This episode is a good one, and I hope you enjoy it. And make sure you subscribe and follow Speed Street wherever you listen to your podcast, so you never miss another episode. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Back on another episode of Speed Street, we are winding down the 2022 IndyCar season. Two races left. I'm on Baby Watch. Connor has two races left.

Producer Ben has started being back school. Thanks again for being with us on Speed Street. We got a full show today. We got a big one. We got a recap Gateway, of course, and all the craziness that happened over the weekend. We have young, very good looking, very charming, very talented driver from the UK. Callum Islet is going to be joining us for a conversation. So really appreciate his time there.

It's a great show. And of course, you have me, Joey Mullenaro, and driver of the number 20 bit now ride in the NTT IndyCar series, Connor Daily. What's up, bro? How we feel? what's going on in your world? Well, you know, Gateway was really not awesome for us. So that was a real struggle, but you know what? It is what it is. This sport can really get at you. And that's what it's doing currently. So, you know, overall, though, for us as a team, I mean, it was just tough. So we as a group definitely want to rebound in Portland. We got two races left.

You know, not really sure how, you know, how those are how those are going to go. But, you know, everyone is definitely feeling, feeling rough after Gateway. But I still love that racetrack. It's still one of my favorite racetracks. You know, we qualified. So obviously all three of our cars, we definitely struggled for pace in general. You know, Reinas and Ed more so than me. And I think that's really just because I think I like the track.

And it's just kind of one of those tracks that kind of suits my driving style, whatever it is. but but yeah happy with qualifying happy with the way the race was going but boy did it fall off a cliff directly yeah any insight into that you can you know release from the two meetings or anything for us here as to kind of why that happened for for all three ECR cars yeah you know what was really interesting is it's just we you know as I've kind of mentioned on this podcast before we kind of struggle you we're struggling mechanically for for some grip and and you know the balance of the car, you know, isn't necessarily, you know, tough, you know, something that Ed would say to us is like, it's not like it's really loose or it's a, you know, it's a demon vehicle, you know, it's just,

we're just kind of lacking a little bit of grip and, and the ability to kind of push the car where, you know, where, where some of the other guys are. So, you know, I thought, you know, our car was, was definitely capable of finishing the top 10. You know, we had a great start, had a great, you know, first couple stints. It's got a little wide trying to pass Simon Pajinal. What a surprise. got in the marbles a little bit and kind of lost some time. But even still, even after getting into the marbles and coming back, you know, we were in a position and on the right strategy to kind of, you know, we pitted with Joseph and McLaughlin. And, you know, they obviously finished quite well. And, you know, we were on the right, you know, on the right path. But yeah, we, I don't know what

happened to Renus. It looks like an electrical issue for him. And then, and then it was an electrical issue for me. But what we found is it's no fault of the team at all. They found yesterday in, obviously when the car gets back to do a lot of research, right? What happened? What happened here? And like a piece of the track had got into the side pod where basically the venting cools, the GCU, which is a very important electrical piece of the car. And so there was basically a giant piece of concrete or the track that had then acquired more and more rubber. There's a lot of rubber buildup at that gateway. A lot of tire, just tire rubber comes off the tire. And it's just small. But when you look at the track after, you know, 50, 60 laps, you'll see how many small pieces

of rubber in there. And all that rubber then basically started to coagulate and overheat pieces in our car, which meant that when the GCU overheats, I was not able to shift. And so, you know, shifting was then impossible. But it's hard to diagnose at first. So, you know, we as soon as that happened, you know, our race is pretty much over. But we still try to stay in it. You know, we changed the steering wheel. But then we also had a rear suspension issue.

We had something, you know, something, something fail on the right rear suspension, which actually, the odd part about that is, is if we didn't have the electrical failure or the electrical issue because of the rubber, I probably would, would have had a big crash because we caught the rear suspension early enough to where when we pitted to change the steering wheel, we were also able to identify the suspension and kind of fix what was going on there. So there were some positives to even, you know, even though it being, you know, a very, very not great night for us, you know, we were fast. We were doing the right things. We were on the right strategy to finish, you know, finishing the top 10 to be competitive.

we passed cars, had, you know, had some great moments. But it just wasn't our night. And sadly, sometimes, you know, those things happen in motorsports. So we found all the issues. You know, again, it was something that after the red flag, you know, we wanted to just get out there and make up time. And just basically no one crashed. So we couldn't make up any positions after that. So there was still 40 laps left when we went green.

And we were thinking, all right, you know, maybe if a couple people take each other out here. We get a couple positions. Sure enough, everyone raised pretty respectfully. And we were just kind of stuck where we were. So we figured it all out, though. We kind of know what was, you know, what was happening. And it was tough for us as a team. It was, it was sad to see, you know, when all three cars are stuck there in the 20 position finishings, you know, it's tough. But we know, you know, we know what happened and we know hopefully what we can do next year to, you know, to be better. Yeah, man.

I mean, not only that, but then you look at the weather situation. I mean, I wanted to ask you about the craziness of, you know, while you're trying to race and strategize there, you're looking at the rain, you're looking at the weather radar. You've got to keep up to date there. You know, Scotty Mac is leading. You go red flag. Are we going to get this thing in or not? Then all of a sudden you said you go green after an hour and a half.

What was it? Two hours? I mean, it was quite a while. and they put you guys back out there. I mean, what's going on for the teams? What's going on for you guys, the drivers in a weather delay like that? I mean, we had it in Nashville, right, two weeks ago, but that was before. And then you got the whole thing in.

And then now we have this little delay right in between and go back out and finish it off. So in that break, what's going on? How did that affect the last 40 laps once it went green for you guys? Yeah, very strange to kind of get into a weather delay like that, especially because, you know, but when the rain was coming, you know, that's when our car, like, we actually pitted in, basically to time the rain. Like, we were like, all right, we're going to pit now with a couple of these guys to hopefully time it correctly for the rain to where we kind of cycle forward if it does rain and the rain

gets can't, and the race gets stopped. But yeah, as my car was starting to have its issues, the rain hadn't quite started yet. So we stayed on track probably a bit, a few, you know, a few more laps than we really, I guess, should have or could have. But we're kind of anticipating the rain. And sure enough, you know, we, we had to pit and start fixing things, you know, before the rain came. And then it started pouring down.

So it's definitely odd as a driver to have to get out, especially with, you know, with only one stint left. You know, you only have 44 laps left or however many laps there were left. and, you know, the track changes as well. When it rains as much as it did and it goes through a drying process, you know, the track changes. You know, the car was definitely a different balance, certainly for me, pre-rain and post-rain. And it was the same for Joseph and Scott McLaughlin as well.

Scott McLaughlin, you know, there was a couple different comments about how he thought his car was much more loose after the rain. And it was the same for me as well. You know, mine was definitely. a bit more free on entry than it had been before the rain when the rubber had gone down on the track. So, yeah, the rain changes a lot of things. It might help some people. It might hurt some people. But it clearly didn't hurt Joseph at all. And it definitely didn't hurt David Maluccas because he was out there flying around that track like something fierce. So it was a really interesting race overall.

And I mean, from a perspective of watching it, Joey, did you think it was a good race? Was it, what was the product like? Because obviously I haven't watched you yet. And I want to know what, you know, what you thought it looked like on the television. Yeah, I mean, I think at the beginning, right, you had Felix just absolutely putting on the burners and then passing like 13 people, right? And like the first two, three landing. Which is interesting, though. I think that's a jump start.

Like, I'm not going to lie. Great timing from Felix. But I'm very curious to ask at the next driver's meeting. hey, if you pass four rows of cars before you get to the start finish line, is that a jump start or not? Right. No, I mean, so that was certainly all the talk and you had like, oh, wow, this guy is really, like you said, you're jumping up pretty quick, right?

But then that for a while when you got settled into a groove, it was just, you guys are just kind of spinning laps from a view. I mean, in my perspective, right? I mean, it was just kind of like, all right, you know, this is good. Jack goes into the wall. You yellow it. You know, you bunch back up a little bit. Patto made some nice moves up there.

some nice passes. But really, I mean, it was not one of the more entertaining races, in my opinion. Yeah. You know, I was watching it, and I was in there, and I was over at the in-laws and having some wine and, you know, doing the thing. And, but it was, no, it definitely wasn't one where I was kind of on the edge of my seat

as we've had here over the summer. Yeah, I think what's interesting about that is like kind of what we're, you know, We talk about it a little bit in our interview with Callum, but it's, we need more downforce, I think, for that race in particular. And I think we need more downforce for the Indy 500. I think we need more downforce for Texas. I think we need more down force for Iowa. Iowa is a pretty good race, and I think some people wouldn't argue that we need more.

But in this current generation of car, I think with the way it has, handles and the way, you know, the way we try to get the balance on it. Yeah, I think there's definitely an opportunity for us as a series. Maybe, maybe look at that and be like, all right, well, let's maybe make some changes. And to be fair, IndyCar is listening to us for sure. We have had, you know, the ability to run more downforce at Iowa. We have had the ability recently to run more downforce to Texas. And so I think we are going the right way on that. So hopefully, I mean, Gateway is one of those races that you're not. never going to have side-by-side racing through, you know, full laps. You're not going to have

two cars running side-by-side, you know, multiple laps in a row. We're not looking to do that, I would say, just maybe more opportunities for cars to challenge other cars. And that's what I think, you know, that's what the fans want. I mean, ratings-wise, I think that's what everyone wants, but, I mean, to be fair, not terrible ratings for us, I guess. I mean, I mean, There was, we got to the magic half a million dollars, not half a million dollars, half a million people. I wish we made half a million dollars at Gateway. And you're up over 200, 250,000 from the last USA race. Yeah, we obviously all thought the world was crumbling down into absolutely nothing after the last USA network race.

But this one was watched by a lot more. And, you know, maybe that, maybe because the X-Finity race was right before us. Yep, that always Saturday night. Saturday night. Yeah. So there was a lot of positives there. Obviously, we didn't, you know, we didn't get, we're not going to get to the million dollar number, the million, million people number on USA yet. But it is possible. We see NASCAR doing it. And it is possible to get motorsport fans to turn into USA network. So I think that was a positive. But yeah, when it comes to the racing, you know, I think there was some good moments. I think there were a lot less, a lot less accidents than I expected as well. It was a pretty clean race overall. Yeah, I want to ask you about two guys. Both of them were on the podium. David Malukas has been the darling all week so far all weekend.

He finished a hell of a race. His post-race interview was gray. Oh, my God, there's two Penskees, right? He's this 20-year-old kid out there just literally balls of the wall on the final lap, you know, passing Scotty going up towards Joseph. I mean, what do you think about? David Malukas. What do you think the future looks like for him?

It's a great question. I mean, I think without a doubt they've had quite a strong second half of the year. I mean, the coin team in general as well, you got to look that, you know, Takuma Sato is there as well, right? And Takuma's been fast at several places. He's got a lot of experience. He brings a lot of experience from, you know, big teams there. Ray Hall and Andretti. and I think when the driver has the tools to do the work, it all works together very well.

So clearly those guys, and I know a lot of those guys of that team, you know, that was where I spent my rookie year, right? Like now both David Maluccas and I have second place finishes with coin in our rookie year. You know, it's a great, you know, it's a great place to be a rookie. And I'm sure Dale, the only issue is, is that now I'm sure. David Malucas is probably going to, you know, be sought after for the 10 car or any, you know, any big team is going to be trying to give them a call. But what's interesting is, like, if not, well, guess what?

You have a great spot there at Coyne. Like, they've been so strong this year. Why wouldn't they be even better next year? You know what I mean? When they, when they come back with more and more experience. So it's something that I. So do you think, can this happen in race? soon where like could he make a jump too soon, right?

Like could it be too early for the 10 ride for a spot at Penske? Or is it when you get that opportunity in his shoes, you just, you go for it? I don't think it's too soon. Yeah. I think when you have a year of IndyCar under your belt, it's definitely fine. I think we've seen, you know, the kind of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, The mold, I think in general, was Joseph Newgardens' journey, right? You had a three-year deal right out the gate with a smaller team. It was Sarah Fisher's team, that Ed Carpenter's team.

But after that, it was like, all right, straight to Penske, straight to win in races and championships. You know what I mean? So like, there's that. And then there's, you know, spending a rookie year with a great team like coin, really smart young people there, a lot of experienced people as well, Dale being one of them. But I think, you know, David has also not crashed a lot. You know what I mean? He's not written the car off a bunch. You know what I mean? He's making he's making good decisions. And those are all things that big teams pay attention to. So very, very curious to see, you know, how really how the how the next three, two, or three months play out, right? Or maybe it'll be even sooner than that because the season,

you know, season ends in a few weeks. So I think he, you know, if he gets that opportunity, I think he'll be ready for it. But you know, what's really interesting is, you know, when Grojan left coin, I think a lot of the times he was like, I don't know why I left. You know what I mean? Like he had a, he almost, I think, had a much more competitive full season at coin than he has it And Dreddy. So it's a really interesting kind of career move that like right now, coin is not a bad team by any means. And I, and I still know a lot of the, they're putting out fast cars and they're calling great races and they've got a lot of great core people there. And I think that team deserves more respect, honestly. Yeah, no, they've had a strong 2020 for

sure. And Malucas is coming on hot as a blade. He was running in top five in Nashville. podium at Gateway. But then that brings me to the next guy I want to ask you about. He's a guy who finished first for the fifth time in 2022, Joseph Newdgarten. I was having this conversation over text with a few of my buddies who are race fans. And we were talking about Joseph Newgarden and the career that he's had so far, right?

Two championships could very well be on his way to a third. Win in races all the time. but the big elephant and the resume is the no he hasn't drank the milk right do we do we do we look at him like i i kind of look at him right now it's almost like john elway of indy car right john elway had an illustrious career was an all-timer but but it took him to the last two years of his career to win the super bowl finally like how much you think i mean i know it has to play a lot in Joseph's mind, but like, are we going to get to the point to where, okay, let's say he's 34, 35, he's got four, maybe five IndyCar championships. He still hasn't, he still hasn't

gotten his face on the Borg Warner. What are you, what are your thoughts there? Yeah, it's a really interesting, a really interesting thing to talk about in general. I was literally in a group chat this morning talking about how this championship, if Scott Dixon doesn't speed in pit lane, Scott Dixon wins the Indy 500 and Scott Dixon is leading the championship by a country mile, right? Like Scott is in the hunt and he pretty much gave up the Indy 500. Like Scott was going to win the 500. Like no doubt about it. Yeah. Yeah. And that is really interesting to think about it. And then I had I had someone else send a message, a listener to the show, appreciate it by the way. but and I did not know this was a thing, but there hasn't been an ND 500 winner to win the championship since 2010, which is like a wild, like it's a wild thing to think about.

Because Dario won in 2010, won the championship. And I don't think there's an argument, it's not like the people that won the Indy 500 were a bunch of flukes. You know, I mean, they're all in the hunt. You know, it's like Joseph has been, you know, Willpower won the 500. He probably, he's also finished second in the championship several times. You know what I mean? So, and, you know, when Ryan won the 500, you know, that was not the year when he won the championship. So a lot of the guys that do have Indy 500 wins also have championships, just not in the same year.

So it's very, it's a very interesting topic. And I don't necessarily have a great answer for it. It's like, I think the answer for it is, well, Indy car is hard. And like, like, 8,500 is super hard. Exactly. Like winning one race doesn't mean you have it all locked up. You know what I mean? So.

And again, we see this year, Marcus Erickson, 8500 winner. He's in the championship fight, you know what I mean? And so is Pat O'Wa Ward, who also had a strong 8500. So is Scott Dixon, who didn't have a strong ND500, but he's been wildly consistent the rest of the year. So there's a lot of, a lot of interesting things about this battle. there's a lot of interesting, you know, ways that it could still play out in two races. Because, my gosh, you have one thing go wrong and things are just completely out of place.

But for some reason, in IndyCar, for these, you know, the top four or five in the championship, no matter what happens, they always seem to, even if they're in first lap accidents or whatever it is, they always seem to end up in the top five or top ten again somehow. You know what I mean? So the powerhouse teams, which are obviously all competing for the championship, you got Gannasi and Penske, you know, those operations are always going to get their guys to the front no matter what it takes. And that's what you got to do to win a championship. Yeah. We were talking about it. And obviously, Joseph Newgarden is really an all-timer. I mean, he's on the pace to be an all-timer. He just is absolutely great out there.

But it is interesting. That 500 still hangs over the head, right? It's still that kind of looming because I know there's some old heads. I'm sure because I fired out a tweet that was like, hey, we're watching greatness here, man. I mean, five wins in one year. Like, it's just what Joseph does. I'm sure there's some older heads. They're just like, yeah, it doesn't want a 500 though.

And it's like, okay, that's fair. But he still has plenty of time to do so. It's just that little caveat that's just hanging in there, you know. Yeah. And the interesting thing is, is he hasn't really even been in contention to win a 500. He hasn't even been, like, you know, getting passed on the last lap for the win. You know what I mean? And I find that absolutely fascinating.

But in general, it's not just a him thing as well. I think Penske as a team definitely struggled this year in particular at the 500. And so it's not a Joseph thing in general. And you saw, you know, Willpower barely make the race, you know, last year. Yeah, 20-21. So it's something that is not. totally just on Joseph for sure. Oh, yeah, no doubt.

But it is fascinating because at several races, you know, a lot of us in the paddock are like, just hand Joseph the trophy already. Like, we don't even need to race. Like Joseph's going to win. Like, and he's on a, you know, he's in a different stratosphere at times, you know, with that Penske crew. And what's interesting as well is like, I restarted right behind Joseph. after, you know, before the rain was coming,

uh, restarted right behind Joseph. And I was like, all right, you know, let's, you know, Joseph's going to be on the hunt here. But Joseph's also, he's a respectful racer. He's a good racer. You know, we went side by side into one. Uh, he made the right lane choice call. You know, he goes to the outside and that guy's gone.

Like from then on, he passed like three guys right out the gate. And a lot of people don't necessarily, I would say people don't necessarily think of Joseph as like a super aggressive, you know, I'm going to crash that guy to win until we saw Nashville. You know what I mean? Joseph's out of firing offenders at people. So I saw that then firsthand at Gateway, too, because it looked like Joseph was going to go wheelbanging Scott Dixon into term one and two at Gateway,

got by him, and he was, you know, but that's part of what it takes to win. So I like what I see out of Joseph. I find it very hard to believe that he is going to lose this championship. I see Will taking the fight to him, but there's something about what Joseph's got going on right now that it's like, how do you beat him? How do you beat him? No doubt.

Absolutely. Well, let's get to our conversation with the young Callum Isla. Really fun one. Really enjoyed this guy. You talked about it, and I got the chance to hang out with you guys before the 500, and he was a lot of fun that night, and I was enjoy his interviews, whether it's he just getting out of the car with Kevin Lee or, or what have you.

He's always a pretty entertaining personality. So let's get to Cala Milon. All right. We have a very talented foreign man, racing driver in the NTT IndyCar series. A man that I did not know until he came over to this side of the world. But very, very respected and talented human being all across the planet. He's got more Twitter followers and Instagram.

followers than most indie car drivers because he was big F1 guy. Callum I lot. Thank you for being here. First question right out the gate. Is Callum a top three British name of all time? No. It's not? No, it's Scottish technically. Oh my gosh. It sounds, I had a British Callum teammate in GP3 for like two races. and I was like, that's got to be one of the most on the island type names. I mean, it's iconic maybe to the UK. There you go. So your journey over to America. Let's give us a quick summary of what you've, how do you think of your, you know,

what do you think of your IndyCar experience so far? Has it been enjoyable? Has it been something that you think? I love talking to Europeans, right? at the gate about the respect that this series deserves. Tell us a little bit about that. I mean, to sum it up, yeah, it's probably the most competitive series I've done or seen. I think there are some areas of improvement to make it a bit more visible, but as a racing series, it's incredible, sometimes a bit of a lottery. But from a driver's perspective, yeah,

the competition is super high. From a personal experience, I've been kind of thrown in the deep end a bit, you know, one car team, rookie, all of that, but that's life. You've got to deal with it. Hopefully next year that changes and improves a little bit. But yeah, overall, it's been a kick-up the ass, but a good one. What would you do to change the viewership? How would change in that? What's your ideas? I can't say too much, probably without getting in a bit of trouble. But no, I think... That's the point of this show. Oh, right. Okay. Well, yeah, okay. For sure, on the media side, I think there's, like,

the social media side there's quite a bit to do i think like uh maybe a slight bit of modernization um and then you've got to link that in with something that just just attracts people you know like for me what's surprised i don't have the answer because i didn't do a a degree in uh socials and all of that sort of stuff but uh consider we have like personalities which should we say get more uh more visibility than f1 f1 in a certain way is very close. Like if you go into a paddock, it's very rare that you'll see a driver here. You can get a three-year-old kid walk up to any driver and have a chat. And the fact that that isn't showing on a viewership scale and stuff is a bit strange. And so I think there's some ways

to adapt that to make it more accessible on a social side. Because if people don't understand how outgoing the personalities are. I mean, I've sat there in a press conferences and just been like, how can you say that? Because in Europe, we'd get shot if we said that. But out here, it's like, it's normal. So I don't know, there's a combination of lots of things. I think, should we say, a drive-to-surve version,

you know, obviously there's other streaming platforms available and stuff. That would be good to get some visibility. But yeah, maybe it's just in the marketing. Maybe it's got to be slightly less Americanized and a bit more Europeanized, but not to Europe. No, no, no, it sounds silly, but with all the commercials and everything you have, it's so, everything's the same. You know, what stands out anymore from a commercial side? Maybe that's why F1 got a bit of a boost in America because it's different. There's no ads, for example, the ads are integrated into the show instead of taking over your whole scale.

screen and distracting viewers. I don't know. There's a, there's a couple of things that maybe I would go, if you could look at something separately, maybe, but we don't control that. And then you have to pay for onboard cameras. That pisses me off a lot. Well, look, that's, that's been an issue with everyone for years. I mean, like, I remember when we were, like, when I was racing GP3 and GP2, you know, they'd rotate cameras around. You'd have, you know, each, like different drivers got them every weekend other than obviously the championship competitors towards the end of the year. I love that. And I think, still to this day, all of us drivers agree that every car needs an onboard camera, every single one. It's not at least once.

Exactly. Yeah. Not just 12. If we can't have them all like in Formula One, like everyone deserves one at least for one weekend or like a rotate. There's a rotating camera for sure because like look, the sponsors, they do float the boats. You know what I mean? Like they like yes. But the coverage that cars get with an onboard camera is so much more.

then the cars would not. So without. So hopefully that, like, I hope that that message is definitely received. But like, I mean, honestly, like we both, we could talk about how to, you know, how to do marketing and stuff like that for hours. But I think what I want to talk to you about as well is like I know a lot of those guys on that team, obviously, you know, the Carlin and Yunkos integration. I know Ricardo, I won a championship for Ricardo. very, very close to that family, was almost maybe your teammate for the Indy 500 if my ride didn't actually end up materializing for this year. So definitely got close to doing a couple things with that team. But as a one car operation, it's very difficult.

Like I was there with Carlin, understand how difficult it is. But you've now been, you know, making it into the Fast 12 several times, right? Which is tough. Qualifying, I think, in the IndyCar series, right? now is without or doubt one of the most one of the most difficult things on the planet for sure and do you see the team on this very kind of linear like linear slope that's kind of starting to go higher and higher and higher and and when you get two cars like next year obviously that's what everyone wants right that's what the team wants that's what you guys want I mean I see you guys

being extreme competitors, you know, in next year. Like this is basically a building year, I would say. And then next year, here we go. Yeah, I think it's such a long process because I think like in a certain way you can, I would accumulate it to time, money and development. But like you can start here, which I think you can tell is where we kind of started at the end of last year. And it's very quick to get on this up. bit to catch up where you're like maybe

one-tenth off the average of the pack or whatever, of course, there's always the couple that are super quick and for some reason, you're going to put them out a little bit as an anomaly in that sense. Penske and all the short obols, yeah. Yes, yes. But that last little bit is the hardest one and getting that consistently.

And I think, yeah, I think we can do it. Obviously, the standard package itself, when everything's going right, it's a top 12 car like even even on the short ovals iowa and gateway the speed wasn't bad in the races of course qualis we need to improve a little bit uh but i think like with the development that we'll have and the time obviously the second car helps but it's too late by that point because all the development's been done over the winter but i think like after every weekend we go damn if we if we'd have done that earlier if we'd have known this we could have approached it a bit

differently. And I think that that is already signs that it's going to improve. And obviously knowing Ricardo and his motivation, number one, he's super motivated. With a bit of English F1 European direction, I can help

him to show him the path and the light. And with Brad as well, Brad's super motivated as well to kind of shape us into what is going to be hopefully a very good team. And at the moment, I think we have the tools for it. there's great guys.

But it's a problem now that, you know, as we're trying to build with the second car, we have what's necessary for one car. But if you ask us now to put together two cars, it's like, well, where are the people? Where do we get the people from? Because everyone's like on the limit with the people. So that's the only struggle, I think, with time and that is going to be good. But we need to get the people and you won't find out until like October, I think. It seems like a little bit of a surprise.

you know, your hot young rookie coming in and you're doing well and then you re-up with Yuncos and were, you know, were some of the big dogs after you? I mean, I feel like some people have expected to see Kalamilat, you know, maybe Chip Ganesi, Penske, you know, one of those things. I mean, what was that process like for you? Were you just always in with Yonkos or were there, was there some big dogs coming? I had some chats. Definitely had some chats.

but it was a complicated one because from the beginning I was always more kind of inclined with Huncos to step it up and to work as a team on that side and to be honest I'd agree to that and I'm kind of more of a man in my word and it's in a certain way it's a favorable situation to me in a few ways but also in the way that I can develop without pressure and it's kind of a team that I can create myself. So they need a guy to rally around too. Like when a team has a guy to rally around, that's big. Yeah. Yeah, there's that. There's, there's, uh, yeah, for the guys, I think that was, that was good. They, they obviously enjoy working, um, consistently with a guy. Uh, but, but, but I think it's, it's a hard one because there's,

there's two parts of this where you're like, uh, what if, if I was, um, in another position, maybe I could be, you know, winning the championship or whatever. And that's a hard one from a guy who wants to win and all of that sort of stuff. But in the long run, I think if I can achieve what I want to with this team, you know, even if I want to take a job as a team principal, that kind of mentality of like developing something and helping something from the ground up would be even better. I don't know.

It's one of those two, but I'm kind of content. either way. But yes, in some ways it's frustrating when it's not going well and you go, ah, you know, it would have been easy if I got in there. But then, for example, if I'd gone in a good team and we'll say team A and I win, it would have been because, ah, Callum jumped to there and got to show, you know, his true potential in that environment. If I win where I am, it's because we developed it and we worked hard and we got it all done. And that's, that's a reward for me. And yes, it's favorable in some ways to stay where I am. So I'm, it's a tough one, but it's good to work with the guys you've got. And at the end of the day, I'm here for a

long career, not a short, good one like some of us. I think teams definitely do take notice of that. You're right. Certainly in IndyCar, like, I think when you start out with a smaller team, when you start, like teams know, kind of what, where everyone's at. You know what I mean? We kind of know, you know, what people are dealing with budget wise, what they've got resource wise. and it's like, you know, when everyone, when you do well in that car, it's obviously very well respected because it's the one car team, right? It's the same with like David Maluccas right now who's getting a lot of talk about like, I mean, he's on the podium with coin. And like, I was on the podium with coin my rookie year too. And it was like, oh, wow, like that's like we kind of understand how tough that might be.

But obviously, coin right now, I think, is, they're a very strong team in a lot of different places. but the Gannasi's, the Penskees, the Andretti's, like, they all pay attention to that, right? Because there is always going to be a rotating, you know, a rotating door of people going in and out of teams. And, you know, we see who knows what's going to happen with the 10 car. You know, when is Willpower going to retire at Penske? Does Penske want to run four cars eventually again? You know what I mean? Does Andretti want to run 10 cars?

I don't know. Is McLaren going to run 45 cars? We don't know that. but they will always, I would say, look to the series first. So let's say like young talent in a smaller team, then let's say maybe take a gamble on someone that they don't know. Yeah, no, for sure. But that was a goal to get into IndyCar and to show what I can do.

And, you know, if it takes one year, great. If it takes three years, you know, that's life. So, yeah, I'm just in it for the journey. Well, last time I was with you, first time we ever met actually was, you know, leading up to the 500. We're all kind of hanging by Scotty Max bus. And you were wearing an Indianapolis Colts hat. Yes. I put you on the spot in front of a lot of different people.

And I was like, I was just genuinely curious. Hey, all right, you're coming over. I know a lot of people like Scotty Mac, Jack Harvey, they become big football fans when they get here, American football fans. I was like, you like the Colts? And you were like, sure. Have we leaned more into American football at all? What's the progress like on that on your end? The season hasn't started, has it?

We're getting there. We're into preseason. Exactly. Exactly. So that's more knowledge than I had before. Okay. Okay. What are your, like let's say talking, moving to America,

what are your top three things that you've enjoyed about being in this region of the world? And then top three things that you wish you could adjust. And maybe you don't like. Or just one or two things. Either way. Let's do some positives on your mind. Internet speeds. Internet speeds?

Yeah. I lived in the countryside. I had one megavit for second before this in Italy and in the UK. I love that. Then the accessibility to food doesn't mean if it's good or bad, just the accessibility to it. Yep. And then the big cars.

Tahos. We're too Chevy. Now I like the trucks and stuff. I didn't like them before, but I like them. Sounds stupid. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of like what I had in Europe before. Just everything's exaggerated and slightly different. But the bad things, your roads are shocking.

The food over here. be better. Okay, but where are we eating here? I mean, are you going, I mean, are you going long John Silvers every day or what I mean? What do we do? I'm clearly not fine dining where you are, so I need to find some more places. And then, oh, there's a few I could choose from. Have you had in and out burger yet? Yes. Do you like it? Occasionally. Oh, okay, all right. That was a big question. All right. Yeah. No, in and out, shake shack. There's a shake shack, like, two minutes that way. There you go.

What else we go? I'm next to all these places. Like, I'm just, I'm bang in the middle of food hall. When you say accessibility, is that mean, like, you're talking DoorDash, are you talking those kind of things, or just we have food everywhere? That and the fact that it's everywhere. Like, for example, in the UK, I would probably have to drive 15 minutes. to any fast food place,

like the first one that I'd arrive to. And here I can drive two minutes or I could get on the road and there would be another one and another one. And whether it's one kind or another kind, whereas in the UK, like, there's 10 restaurants in my local town at a push and that's about it.

And then you have to go half an hour wide to see anything else. So that's what, I mean, that's why we're a bunch of fat asses. You just explain in the obesity problem in America right there. There you go. Yeah, unfortunately, yeah. And then you get free refills here as well. Oh, free refills. That's a brilliant thing and a horrible thing at the same time because I feel

so ill after going to a restaurant and ordering like a Coke, for example, and you get three of them by the end of the meal. Yeah, quick 680 calories there, guy. Boom, done. Elite athletes. Exactly. Callum, so what, getting back to a bit of motorsport as well, the path to Formula One, obviously, like, I didn't really know, like, I mean, I knew your name, but I didn't, like, when I left the whole F3 and F2 scene, you left it. You left it behind. It's like, see you guys later. But you can, I mean, you kind of pay attention. And obviously, you had some success there and you were part of the Ferrari program. Um, I don't know whether to word this, like, was it, was it a disappointment for you to have to go this way? Because, like, a lot of Europeans,

I would say, since they don't necessarily respect IndyCar as much as I think they should sometimes, they kind of see it like, oh, well, we had to go IndyCar racing. Or, I mean, everyone wants to be a Formula One. Like, I tried to do it as well. Like, we all love that idea. It's great. But realistically, we also want to make money driving race cars. You know what I mean?

And like, we want to make a living doing that. So, like, obviously you were very, very close. And I think people probably don't realize how close you were to being in a Formula One race. whether that was with whatever Ferrari power team, you know, there might have been. But what was that experience like kind of shifting a mindset or kind of accepting, all right, you know what? I'm going to go try to be the best I can be over here. Yeah, there's two things to this.

So there's one is like the F1. So there's like a heartbreak of, you know, not that not happening, which was tough to accept. But obviously I had it kind of two years. First was 2020 into 21 and then 20. into 22. But at that, no wait,

20, yeah, but at that stage, once that was done, it's like, okay, well, what are my options?

What do I see? And so there was the hypercar stuff, but that would have, I'd have to wait an extra year, and it wasn't sure if you'd still get the seat or not. There's formulary, but that wasn't really my cup of tea,

as I say. Otherwise, you were left with, with IndyCar and I was looking at it and what was great was obviously Roman had gone here, Felix had gone previous years before, Marcus as well, and you kind of had a benchmark for like, what do these guys say about it? Because otherwise this is another thing like from Europe, you could read motorsport.com or the race or whatever to give you the information of the results, but you wouldn't really get an idea of someone's personal thing unless you looked in depth.

and seeing Roman and the enthusiasm, we have the same manager, by the way, so I got a lot of understanding and feedback from him and hearing him go, like, you know what, in one year I've enjoyed more than five years of F1. And, okay, that's coming from someone who's done F1 and done it for many, many years. But the attitude changed, and I was like, okay, so there's something that maybe I can enjoy there, because it's an unknown coming from the UK, like all Europe, you look at it and you go, you got the Indy 500, which I would say, like,

two years ago I thought you're all fucking idiots to do this. But, you know, you go and do it and you're like, okay, it's not too bad. Like, it's a different style of racing. Yes, if you crash, it's going to hurt. But, you know, like, we hope that doesn't happen. But it's fun. And there's 350,000 people and all this other stuff. But then looking at it, I think, yeah, if I was born

an American, my appreciation for it would be a lot, lot higher and I would rank it as, you know, close to F1 in its own way if I take out the media side and the glorification of it. But I think for me it was like, okay, well, I want a good career. I know the potential of how good a career can be out here and how nice of a life you can have. And like, for me, that's kind of just starting. And I am like, okay, I appreciate that. yes my journey is slightly different to some it's also good in its own way and to be fair like even for me you know specifically I've had it better than others because of the way I've come in but differently

and harder and then than some as well um but yeah as a as a series yeah it's it's it's incredible but like I said it's got there's a lot of pros like I having 23 22 24 drivers that can win in a in a race weekend, even if sometimes they're a bit slower than others, it's like, that's a tough, tough championship. And I appreciate that a lot. I appreciate the guys. And my enjoyment for the series in its own way is increase and increase, increase as I've got into it and settled into it.

What's your favorite track over here? I'm still more in the road courses. So like I would say, Barber, Road America was great. there was one other that I didn't draw Iowa yeah Iowa was oh really yeah I well here's the thing after the test day I hated it I was like what's the point of this and then I came to the races and yeah because that was my setup too I was like what are you talking about you hated bro yeah yeah but I tried to go away from that and then we ended up coming back to it and for the race it was brilliant there you go quality it was a disaster I don't know how you got pole with that but it was a disaster

just crank some front wing in that sucker, bro, and let her eat. Yeah, no, Iowa was great. I did really enjoy those races there. But, yeah, the road courses are still my favorite. Oval racing in general, though, for you, what do you think of it? I mean, obviously, there's a really interesting, like, mindset. Like, I literally just talked to Daniel Ricardo, like, two weeks ago. We talked about it on our last show, and he's like, man, you guys are crazy, right?

There's a lot of this, like, you guys are crazy type thing. But, like, I think the ovals, the ovals are quite. enjoyable if you know if you have just a little bit on someone else or a little bit on other cars there it's so much i would say not necessarily easier but you feel like you're able to race your way forward more so than on a road course sometimes you're just stuck like it doesn't matter if you have the best car or the worst car i mean you're just kind of sitting there in some in some ways yeah no no i say like i were 100 percent i was like completely comfortable with the pace difference, the overtaking and, you know, even going almost three wide with people,

like the risk, there wasn't any risk in my head. It's just like, okay, let's send it and see, you know, you're bouncing around, bumping around. Gateway was similar in a certain way, but just harder to overtake. So you would kind of try and do it in one and two. Otherwise, you were just careful. And I've learned now how to understand where I've got to be careful and where not, because before you didn't really understand how everyone was lifting and getting the rhythm and all of that. The stupid Europeans not understanding the able racing. But the speedway stuff still, like I have to get my head around it because for me it was like a game of chicken. You know, you go into the corner like take Indy, for example.

You would toe up, they'd cover the inside and then you'd be forced half a car in front on the outside. and it's just whoever lifts later. And you know, you kind of want to put the pressure, but you know if you close off and they don't back off, you're both in the wall and you're probably going to be the one worse off. You know, if you don't give them enough space and they have a little wiggle, you're in the wall. You've got to have full trust of the guy on the inside of you

and you've got to have full concentration on where you're going without looking in your mirrors and, you know, trusting the spotter and everything. and that one for me is quite a bit of a mentality change because I you know when you go for a move on a road course you send it down the outside you hope the fuck doesn't hit you and you get on with life there you're like you're praying to God that when you're side by side that nothing's nothing's going wrong and I'm sure that when you get to your experience on that you can just put the car there and know that if if uh If the guy is good, nothing's going to happen. But for me, not knowing who I'm around and who does what, I was like, man, I wouldn't trust myself in that position. So why would I trust this fucker? So in your situation when it comes to indie and the 500,

like it seems like it's almost, I mean, it seems like almost like not enjoyable in a way because you just haven't had the experience there yet. You're kind of on pins and needles a little bit, where someone like, you know, Connor and a lot of other guys in the series have had a bunch of experience there. Is that kind of how it feels for you? Are you still psyched about the 500 because of everything around it? Or are you just kind of like, man, this is rough? I mean, the show, the show is amazing, like nothing compares to that. The racing itself, it's more that it's just

a different, it's a completely different style. Imagine like every time you want to come forward, or even every time you're getting overtaken, you're like, oh, fuck, if this goes, wrong, this goes wrong, but without necessarily saying that, you're just like a subconscious thought. Yeah, you've got to be aware. And I mean, at the end of the day, I hit the wall and broke my hand and that was a consequence of having a little mistake there, a little wiggle and you're gone. So it's not to say it's like, because it's still a thrill. That's still a thrill, you know, knowing that you're going to be on the edge of shunting. It's just, I didn't enjoy that kind of racing at indie as much because I think like we were having this discussion on the emails

between the drivers after last weekend but maybe it's that we're not running enough downforce and the slip stream effect is not big enough but really like when I when I watch like 2016 days maybe with the area kit everyone was so close you could get such a draft and probably be ahead by the corner and that kind of racing uh I would say was slightly easier but also a lot more difficult in its own way. But this right now, it's like, I don't know if Conner's the same, but to do an overtake, if you're third in line, to do an overtake, it's not happening. You're, you're side by side and you've got to hope that that guy lifts out. Yeah, it's tough for sure. Right now, like a lot of the drivers we've been talking about, okay, how do we like gateway,

for example, the most recent discussion, we've been like, all right, you know, how do we make the racing better here? Most of the drivers, if not all, we're like, we need more downforce. And I think it's the same at Indy. We still need more downforce, the ability to close up better, the ability to the tow the car in front of you better. Just, just, we need to make the racing better. And there was a lot of us for a long time who were like, oh, we need less down force because either we're going to race too close or it's going to be, you know, too dangerous or whatever. It's like, I'm sorry, but no, like their cars are really safe now. And like, you mentioned crashing though as well, Calum. I crashed my rookie year at Indy as well. But it's kind of, it's part of the game, right?

I think once you, everyone crashes at Indy at some point. There's two types of drivers. Exactly. The ones that have crashed at Indy and the ones that are going to crash at Indy. Exactly. And like I'll never forget because Rossi for so many years drove around there, never crashed. And then at one year he finally did. And like he's been really good there ever since again.

Like it's one of those things where it's like, look, it'll happen to everyone. It happened to Grojean. It's going to happen to people. But it also, I think then puts it into perspective, okay, it takes a little bit of the question mark of like, what does that feel like out of your mind? You know what I mean? It's like, all right, well, you know, I did it. You might have broken some things, which is a shame. And it, you know, might have prevented you from being at the after party. No big deal. But, you know, we learn these things as drivers and we get to a kind of that level like, all right, I get it now. And like, I guarantee when you go back there next year, you're going to feel a different level of. of comfort and I'm sure the team will kind of understand all right look now this is where we want to be instead of where we were last year you know what I mean yeah no no for sure I mean and there's there's like a when you have a bad day on an oval like I had this on the Friday of Gateway it's so super

uncomfortable you kind of go out and you do one lap two laps and you're like no doesn't feel right and you come back in and with every time that you do that and I think I came in 10 10 times in a session I was just like, no, it doesn't feel right. I'm not, I'm not happy. And everyone gets you a little bit more where you're like, fuck's sake. I just want to feel a little bit of comfort and a little bit of stability from like the rear and predictability. So you can have those kind of days as well. And that is a big wind up for me because it just never, it sometimes it just doesn't get better. Yeah. I mean, what people don't realize right now, I think with these indie cars, we're way more on edge than I think you can see. And to get the balance that you want out of it. You have to sacrifice certain things, whether that's entry stability because you need it to turn at the center. Well, guess what? That sucks on an oval because you want to be able to turn that thing really aggressively on entry. But if the rear is now floating because you're trying to get it to turn at the center, there's so many things that in this current generation that we've kind of moved to with the added weight, with the aeroscreen and stuff like that,

it really puts a lot on the engineers to try to think, all right, how do we create one balance issue that we have to deal with, right? Instead of, oh, it's entry loose and then center understeer and then it's exit loose as well. You know, you're trying to create one balance so you can work on that. But it's challenging. And I promise you right now for drivers all across the board, it is, it's, it's, you want, you want this tiny window of happiness. It's always compromised. Yeah, that's the problem. If you haven't got some area where it's good, you're stuffed.

And when you start the weekend and if it's not good, yeah. Always trust your butt cheeks. Always trust your butt cheeks. I'm learning that. I'm learning that. Always. Callum, I got one more for you. Have you seen the movie Dumb and Dumber?

No. Unfortunately. What? I should have. I was thinking that. I was like, yeah. It's a very, very popular American film. I am blown away.

great comedians, Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, it's a classic. But in that movie, there's a scene where Jim Carrey, he says, I like it a lot. He says, I like it a lot. Now, with your name, all right, I feel like there's some marketing opportunity there. Maybe a T-shirt, maybe a hashtag. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying instead of, I like it a lot, like he says, Yeah, sorry.

I like it. I lot. Okay. I like it. Boom. I like it. I like it. I lot.

Or shirt. I'd rock. Hey, man. I'm just saying. Who does your, your merchandise, Mr. Daly? Oh, well, we have in Indianapolis. Well, we have this dirty moe media merch. But we also have, who does my merch?

I don't know. Oh, wait. The shop. The shop in indie. Yeah. Their drop indie is good. Obvious shirts does mine. I can see him putting out one that says, I like it.

I lot. Is that worth a conversation? It's that. Think on it. Dude, it's all about dominating the merch game. You can make a solid several hundred dollars to doing merch in the car. It's definitely not. Someone told me a story recently, and this will frustrate you like crazy.

But someone told me a story just not two days ago that Jeff Gordon, his check for merch only in the peak of his peak of his. NASCAR career, $50 million. It's just for merch. And so we're doing it wrong. I can promise you that. I know the figures of a certain F1 driver. This is incredible.

Which one? Does he drive for Red Bull? It's incredible. Incredible. But yeah, like, yeah, okay, that doesn't surprise me. What year would that have been with Jeff Gordon? Oh, I don't know. It's got to be late 90s, mid-90s.

Yeah, something like that. But that's a lot of money. Actually, no, maybe even early, maybe even like mid-2000s. I'll have to get some research on that. You take it with today's economics, that's probably like 120 mil. Yeah. Yeah, modern economics. Wow. Callum, I appreciate you doing this. I think you're a very humorous individual. And honestly, if you don't follow Callum on the Twitters and the Instagrams, you should because he's got, he's dropping some fire tweets recently and I and I really respect it and keep your personality flying at these people because we need that. We need honest tweets. We need honest Instagrams. We need honesty. That's what this podcast is for. That's why most of everyone at IndyCar hates me. But I will keep doing this

because we're trying to generate some heat for the series. I think they're starting to hate me as well. Maybe it's a common thing. I don't know. Well, no one hates winners. So we just got to We've got to get wins. That's great. Give me four years. I'll be there. Thanks, Callum. See you, buddy.

Thanks, guys. Enjoy. Well, awesome interview there with Callum. I like that guy a lot. He's come out for dinners with me and my friends. My boys, Stephen and Deepu, we definitely have entertained Callum on a couple different nights out in Indianapolis, trying to show him the city. And I respect what that guy's doing.

And I really like that team that he's with. Ricardo Yunkos, a lot of the Carlin guys that I was with over the last couple years, just a great group of people. And as he mentioned, you know, Ricardo has a ton of passion for this sport and being competitive in this sport. And I can see them being a strong two-car team in the future for sure, you know, if not more in the coming years. So really, really cool there. I think one thing that I want to get to as well before, you know, before we wrap everything up, but the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen, I think was very interesting.

We had rain. We had lightning delay, but we had, you know, really, really interesting. Some of my favorite races to watch are the races that start wet and they progressively start drying out. And who's going to have the biggest nuts to go to? to the, you know, slick tires first. And that's, you know, that was fascinating. We had Chase Briscoe go slicks early, you know, paid off for him really well. You had Olmendinger getting wrecked early, but then, you know, it's going all the way to the back and then ends up finishing second. I mean, it's just, I thought it was, it was really cool to see. Obviously, the biggest story of the weekend was Kimmy Reichen. You know, Kimmy was, I think Kimmy was doing a great job. I mean, I'm not going to

lot. There was. Yeah, Twitter seemed to agree. Oh, yeah, Twitter. Yeah, Twitter seemed to agree. And that, that team track house, I mean, oh my gosh, great, great group of people there clearly giving him a shot to run competitively, run a car that's not going to break down, great pit stops out of them as well. It's always tough sometimes to add, you know, to add a car, right? Like adding a car, especially with a new team like trackhouse who've been running two full time, you know, to add a third, it definitely, you know, it definitely sometimes pulls the strings a little bit and you're like, I might, might be tough. But they clearly did it right.

And I was cheering for Kimmy. I'm not going to lie. When he was in the top 10, I was having a great time watching and thinking, you know what, this could be a great day. But sadly, as sometimes happens in NASCAR, got collected and someone else was mess. Yep. Name of the game, baby. What time of the game?

What was, fill me in, because I had, I had to do husband, dad duties on Sunday. And so I was, you know, out of T.J. Max hunting for fall decor and being a good husband. So I was not able to watch a lot of the race, which I enjoyed. My wife's in the kitchen. I did enjoy that. I love going to T.J. Max. We love T.J. Max. Yeah. Oh, it's great. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. I saw some, some post-race Twitter stuff about Chase Elliott, old Clyde, not being too happy about some things. What went down there? Yeah, I tell you what, the Chase Elliott post-race interview was really interesting.

You could tell he was not happy. And what I think happened there is on those double-file restarts, right, it's everyone is just going to fire that sucker into term one. And Watkins Glenn, Watkins Glenn is a tough term one. It's a downhill breaking zone. You're getting into a corner with a little bit of banking. The new surface definitely has a lot of grip. And those cup cars, they can use obviously all the road on exit. And so the overhead shot, I loved because the overhead camera shot, you literally see

the first like three, four, maybe four rows of cars all have their right fronts locked up. Like literally every single tire is locked up. And what's funny about that is, is it means that basically everyone is going to miss the corner, essentially. And that's what happened. But Kyle had to make the move that he did. And he didn't necessarily wreck chase, but all you have to do is stop that momentum. You know, if he's on the inside and you just, you take away his line and he loses that momentum, well, Kyle's got that momentum all the way up the hill, all the way up the hill. And then as soon as Olmendinger got by as well, I mean, race over, right? Kyle, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were the class of the field for sure that day. AJ was fast.

He definitely gave it his best shot. But those two cars were obviously the class of the field. And it was just a fascinating, a fascinating situation to see play out. Because Chase, obviously, very competitive guy, right? And Kyle, both of those guys, I would say, are two of the most talented guys in NASCAR right now for sure. But yeah, one was not. happy with the other. And I could tell, you know, when you get forced out of the way, as a driver who has been forced into not great situations before myself, you are very, very upset. And if it's

for a win as well, that is, that is even more upset. But that's why we love to watch NASCAR post-race interviews. And that's why we love to watch NASCAR racing because they can use them fenders and start moving people out of the way. Yeah. And, you know, a little consolation prize for nine. He's a regular season champ in 2022. So that did happen, lock that up, uh, even without not taking home to victory A Watkins Glen. So not overall and terrible day for nine, even though I'm sure he would have left to taking the check and flag as well. All right, man.

You want to wrap up here with the Ricky Treadway, random E500 driver the week? I know producer Ben's got to go get his mind molded at school because he's still a child. Yes, we do have a random E500 driver the week. We went with the 1954 Indy 500. We went a little bit. You know, last week got a little old.

Now we're going back to, you know, some people who might still be alive. Bill Vukovic, the winner of this race. But we are going to go with a random Indy 500 driver, finisher in the 27th position, Jimmy Daywalt. Jimmy Daywalt is born in Wabash, Indiana, an Indiana man. And again, if I don't know these names, just know that I am trying to learn myself. and some people might... It's the point of the segment.

Exactly, that's the point of the segment. Some, if you think it's crazy that I don't know, well, guess what? There are probably other people who don't know as well. So, Jimmy Daywalt, drove in the AAA USAC Championship car series, racing in 1950, 1953 to 1957, 59,

all kinds of years, finished in the top 10, three times. His best finish was in the 153, Indianapolis 500, where he finished six. and named rookie of the year. That's solid, solid. Poor guy died of cancer.

Poor guy died of cancer at 41. So, yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're like, hey, maybe they're still alive, died of 41. That's all good. He was born. Hey, this is very topical, though. He was born August 28th. That's my birthday. So, hey.

That's coming up this weekend. It's a birthday show. And Jimmy Daywalt, random 8,500 driver, shared the same birthday. Rest of the best of that guy. All right, P, Jimmy. Yes. And now we've, now we know. We've made some progress and we learned a little bit more about any 500 history today.

We did, as we do every week here on Speed Street. Hey, just a quick reminder of a few things, folks. We are on social media at Speed Street Pot on Twitter and Instagram. Be sure to follow us there. Be sure to give us a rating. Give us a review of this show. We love to bump those numbers up. Keep growing in the neighborhood.

Be sure to follow us, subscribe, wherever you get your podcast. And also the day after this goes live on the audio version on the Dirty Mo Media YouTube channel, you can watch us. You can watch Young Callum Islet, our guests interact. The video version is up there on Dirty MoMo Media's YouTube channel as well. So be sure to check that out. Anything else, Connor, before we get out? I don't think so. We got another weekend off this weekend.

And then we're going back out west. So be sure to keep up with how you can watch IndyCar racing for the last two. races of the season. We want to close out the season strong. And there's, I'm sure, going to be some interesting things that happen in the news before the season's over. I'm sure there's going to be interesting things happening all across the board. So I'm excited for the championship fight. I'm excited to have two strong races ourselves, hopefully. And yeah, we'll see what happens. Definitely. It's always wild going out to Portland, two races left. And we will get you set for it next week.

on Speed Street. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo!