Thunder win Game 2 vs. Spurs, Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, & Josef Newgarden join from Indy 500

Live from the Indianapolis motor speedway, it's a show it's getting ready for the 110th running of the Indy 500. Back to back years for first things first at the Indy 500. You know who's also going back to back. My guy who's joining us in a little over an hour. Alex Palo here. Your guy, Pato War. Pato War. I think he could take it. Sorry. Joseph Nugarn, member of the 2 crew. Moments away from Nugarn. I'm very excited. Got some Nugarn 2 crew merch. Also I would like to congratulate early congratulations to Chris Prisard who did not bring his blanket to the Indy 500. I got my nice coat. Last year you had a checkered flag blanket. Well, it was chilly out here. I mean, I got it. I got it warmed and you want to be cool. I want to be warm. Speaking of wanting to be ours, I feel like because we have this studio audience, we have some drivers behind us. Wild is being very professional broadcaster right now. Understated live for the... We're at the damn Indy 500. I listened to it back last year and I forgot I used microphones. I'm just screaming to the people at home. You're overcorrect. You're deciding to be. Let loose. Let the tie ground as always. This crew is a little nervous that with this wind, the hairpiece is going to... The hairpiece goes from... If you see me leave, the hairpiece is on the track. It's on the board. First hour, first things first, two hours show today. Three hours show tomorrow. Today, two crew, two time champion and my guy Joseph Newgarden joins the show in about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Bruce Guy, friend of the show, his second time on the show, got an award. That's right. Will join us. And finally, the reigning Indy 500 champion. All I do is pick winners. It's about his eighth time on the show. Yeah. So he'll start in the pole position. Yeah. Because he's the best. And he's going to win again. Quite fast. It's kind of weird. We're going to be interviewing all these awesome drivers. And the main question I have is like, hey, just shooting for second, right? Because Alex is going to win it. Also, are you... You're a bit of a gambling man. Oh, I've already placed a lot of bets. Across the board or just a lot on below? A lot on below to win and then a lot of different horse racing style trifectas. Who's going to come in second and third? Basically, everyone who's coming on the show, I'm betting to finish second or third at places. I have a lot of chips on the roulette wheel. OK. But all of them involve Alex below winning this race. I like it. Wow. Very exciting. A little basketball and then talk to New Guard. It's almost standing by two crew. I got some... Wait, do you see my two crew merch I got? It's great. I call it a glimpse. It's great. I'll tell you that. We're starting an OKC game two. Drew and I at the airport restaurant. SGA at 30. Wemby at 21. I had some of Bruce Fry's. Oh, you did. Darren Fox didn't play Dylan Harper. Jaylen Williams both left the game with hamstrings. Hamstrings cannot get healed across the world nowadays. Ceres now tied. What was your number one takeaway from this game, bro? Well, I had two. All right. But one that I'll highlight first was Isaiah Hardenstein. Shout out to him. He did a great job defending Wemby. SGA disagrees. Well, watch that. I saw SGA say that. I think he was understanding Wemby's going to come out with a vengeance next. I really think that's what he meant. But the level of physicality that they let Hardenstein get away with was unbelievable. They're not. I can't see them doing that in San Antonio. And so that'll affect the game. But last night, he did a great job. Also had like eight offensive rebounds himself. So he did an excellent job. Hardenstein. But the main thing you mentioned it while the injuries and you guys know, I'm very confident in San Antonio being better than Oklahoma City. However, if Dylan Harper injured his hamstring, as you said, if he can't come back and De'Aaron Fox can't come back, that is a lot to put on Stifine Castle. As you see, he's playing great outside of the 20 turnovers. He has in the two games. And I'm giving him a little grace against most teams. I think it would be fine against Oklahoma City with the way they come at you with all those defenders on the perimeter. It's that could change the entire stretch and playoff history. I mean, he's been all how much grace you want to give him. I like, well, but I think he's played well. Yeah. Otherwise, I mean, he's had average of 21 points, nine and a half assists. Yeah. And he's the. So I don't. And oddly, the turnovers haven't killed him like they won. They won. They were in it in game two. So I, where of a sip? I think this series is going to be tied. Obviously it's tied after two games. I think it's going to be tied after four games. I think it's going to be tied after six games. I think this is going to be a seven game more. That's what I said at the beginning when I picked Oklahoma City. I still think that I also, one of the reasons I think it's so, even though we can maybe brew and I in particular can maybe go a little too far on it. Sometimes in leaning into the historical precedent for stuff is because it allows you to watch some of these games and not be as surprised as it seems. Some of the younger fans are by. Oh, wait, the Thunder's plan is to beat the hell out of Victor women. Yeah. Yes. And guess what? That is what everyone's plan with every super human size NBA player has always been. Shaq dealt with it. Wilt dealt with it in a different way. Like the honestly a super human Jordan dealt with it. Michael Jordan. The Jordan rules with the pistol. Right. So LeBron in a different way as far as like the way to deal with a guy who has just such a physical edge. And I think Shaq is the best contemporary example is we're going to fall in 30 times a game and we don't think you're going to call it. And you maybe you don't like it. And I have been very critical of some of the thunder flopping stuff that goes hand in hand with how physical they are defensively. It feels extra unfair. But that is a smart strategy and it is not unique to Victor. It is. It is a compliment to Victor that that's what they're going to have to do. The other point of part of last night that I think the history leans on is the injuries. Nobody obviously. None of us want injuries to happen. But the inevitability of the two month absolute marathon to a championship. You losing different guys along the way and trying to be able to sustain it is why winning a championship so special. It's why going back to back is so hard. It's why having sustained runs of excellence makes you the all time all time greats. And so I I feel badly for the players when they miss time. But I don't that is part of what makes being the last team standing so special. And now we're going to get to because Jay you didn't mention or maybe you did mention it. Jalen Williams for the Thunder re-injured his hamstring. We're going to see how these teams can sustain it. And it's also why and now obviously they're on the easier side of the draw. It's really good if you're the New York Knicks finish series early get rest because if both teams fully healthy equal rest week between games. The Knicks would have no shot of beating the Thunder or the Spurs in a seven game series. But that's not how the playoffs work. And if it is that it's a seven game war that I think leans Thunder brew things lean Spurs and the Knicks have had a week off leading into it. And the other team comes in not fully whole. That's a way you can win a championship. I think clearly the Thunder are more equipped to withstand the loss of Jalen Williams. A.J. Mitchell holding his thigh yesterday looks like he's fine. That's huge for them. But bringing in Mitchell and Jarrett McCain who's shooting 47% from three in the playoffs. They can survive without Jalen Williams. I'm not sure if the Spurs can survive without Dylan Harper and Deere Fox. You think they could survive without one of them. Right. Yes. That Fox comes back full strength and I think the hope of your Spurs fan is that Fox was sitting out game to because they had already got game one. Give him a few more days. You don't expect to see Harper right. I wouldn't think it's a way to hamstring. I certainly hope to but I wouldn't expect it. OK. Coming up now. Game three in San Antonio tomorrow night coming up right now. Oh this is a real treat. Two time Indy 500 champ. My guy founding member of the two crew. Joseph Nord New Garden Joseph. I was like if we've got New Garden coming on the show. I went we went into the we went to the shop. Got this true crew two crew gear. I'll be wearing I'm like can I wear this on the show. I was like no you should still wear your normal outfit. Joseph you don't know how excited he is to see you. Well he got his shirt real crazy. I'm thrilled. I don't know if I can. Oh can you hear me. Yeah. Yeah. We got. Yeah. We're back. My guy. Thank you. Thank you sir. Welcome. Welcome back customer. Joseph you probably think this is your first time meeting Kevin Wilde. No that's not true. No I said he probably thinks he doesn't remember when you met. That's a little too. I heard my deal. A couple years ago you had a brief conversation with him in a hallway. Yeah. At our office that he brings up to this day. I remember this. Okay. I vaguely remember this vaguely. I remember like it was yesterday. Thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure. How I want to ask you about last year's race. Yeah. So you're trying to become the first guy ever to win three in a row. You get you know unlucky. I'll call it where you have to start in the last the back of the pack. And then all of a sudden it's like oh my God. He might do it like that. You had a real you had gotten I think as high as fifth or sixth in the race. Fuel pump issue and it kills your day in a weird way. Did that experience while I'm sure incredibly frustrating. Give you even more confidence about how much success you have had and can continue to have at this very race track. Yeah. It's amazing. Hopefully I sound okay here. I'm trying to understand the feedback of my my headphones here. Sounds great. This place is I love it. I love sports. You know I live for the big moments and it does not get bigger in motorsports than the Indianapolis 500. You guys you guys know you've seen this crowd and that's what makes it so tough. It's the pressure of it. We call it a Super Bowl our Super Bowl and it essentially is but the tough thing about in the difference between the NFL Super Bowl and the Super Bowl is that if you have something happened to us like it did last year you have a part failure that's out of your control. You don't get to just go back out and try again the next quarter or you know have a better second half. I mean if it takes you out you're done and that's it. You can be the best driver in the day. Give me the best team and you can have something outside of your control rip it away. So it's a very tough race to get right. But I have high confidence in driving around here and in my team and you have to I mean you got to walk out and be ready for the challenge and embrace it. You got to embrace the pressure and it's my favorite part. Honestly I mean it for me it is a huge honor to be out there. And I love doing it. Love trying to get it right. You obviously won it in twenty three and twenty four going for the three Pete last year. Alex Pelo gets that and he's on a roll. Is there a what's the rivalry like now between you two guys and how will that come out to play in on Sunday. I kind of like what they're doing to him right now. They're building him up so high. I don't think they can build him higher right now. I mean he can only go down. So you know like no one needs to talk about us. I mean we've been good. I think we're going to be good here. But you know we'll just I'm happy to not be you know in the conversation we'll just we'll sneak attack right there. He's like the evil Empire now you knock him out right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Look he's excellent. He's certainly one of the best we've seen in our sport. Very consistent. I mean this guy is just you know you point him and he he goes right where you set the target at. So you got to give him a lot of respect. Also it's a team sport. People don't understand in racing you know from the outside it looks like it's just the driver. Is he fast. Is he not fast. It's so much more than that. And what they've got going on right now is Alex and his team with with Chip and Asi racing. They're just they're in a good window right now. They're clicking perfectly. They're making great cars. They're making almost perfect decisions every single race which is very tough to do and they're executing on it. So you know I still bet I bet up for us and Team Penske you know if I'm going to show up to this track I know what my team is capable of. And it's about positioning this race more than ever. You got to give yourself an opportunity to win it. Sounds like a simple statement but it's kind of a journey to get to the end and then you got to be in the right position at the right time just to have a shot to maybe win it. So that's really the challenge of this race. And then when if you get yourself in that position where you go OK we're in the conversation here with 510 laps to go and we're in position then you got to close the deal. And that's the second part of the equation that you got to get right. Did you you were in a bit of a winning drought last year. Well getting close getting close a few like unlucky wrecks and then you win the final race in Nashville. You came back you won a race already this year season still early. Was that momentum from the final race last year to carry that into this year. Can you carry that into this race. It was a we had a bizarre 2025. You know we had a tough event here for the Indianapolis 500. You know we got kind of shattered with you know we were going for the three feet. I really I thought we had a great opportunity. I think we were on track to be there in the finish and fight for it. And then the rest of the year the only way I can describe this to people was like every time I walked around a corner was like someone was ready to hit me with a bat. It was just like I didn't know what else happened. Sometimes it wasn't your fault. See I'm on it. It was crazy. It was a tough year. So you know we got to the finale there last year in Nashville and we ended up winning a race finally and I was completely numb to it. Like I almost didn't care that we won the race. I was more elated that the season was over. I was like thank goodness this year is over with. It was just that bad and miserable. But it was rewarding for the team. You know this is a lot of effort that goes into it. So to reward them with a with a win was big. Momentum is a thing. It's in all sports. It's certainly a part of our sport too. But I don't know that we needed that. I mean for us to have a reset and to restart the year and go look we closed the book on 25. Let's go to 26. I think that was a bigger deal for us than anything. I want to talk about the way you won the two and the 500s. Before I do that I have to tell you what I was thinking while you were explaining that. The Chiefs are going to be so back. He just explained it. Going for a three Pete believe you're going to do it. The emotional devastation of we were so close to doing something no one's ever done. And it led to an off year where it felt like anything could go wrong would go wrong. So what happened in Kansas City New Year this year for them New Year I'm so they are so back. You're back. Listen I'm Polo guy but you're these two crew guy but you're back as well. That's very exciting. Sorry. That's just what I was thinking about. I was like you guys doing the same thing. Nobody's ever three P. Did nobody's ever three P. I love the energy though. I'm a Chiefs guy. Yeah. How could you not be your greatness respect greatness. I do. I really do. I was a Patriots guy too. I mean I don't have like one allegiance. So I was I mean. Patriots were awesome. I just don't know how I don't know how you can't appreciate Tom Brady. I mean he's just amazing. The whole team too. So we talk about the mixed rate of move on. Yeah. I got my. But I want to talk about the way you won your two N. D. 500. Yeah. 2023 was the pit lane overtake right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Which they made a legal now. You're not allowed to do. So the UZ stave off Erickson who's a champion doing that and then they literally changed the rules to be like you can't do that anymore. Is that kind of high on your personal resume of I did such a sick move that they were like not allowed to do it. I got it. Both 500. I'm so proud of. Yeah. I knew that look we all knew the situation and this this is what it turns into. It's exactly what I was explaining to you. You have to put yourself in position where you're in conversation. You're just that top two or three cars are the only ones that are going to really have an opportunity in a shootout. Okay. And it's really between the top two. So if you get yourself there then it's about winning the duel. Then it turns into OK who's going to get it right. And I knew for sure you could as most drivers do that if you if you do the right move off the final corner you probably hold someone to the line. And probably the best way to do it is just to break the draft going most aggressive to the left. I get no one like that. I actually like the rule change. I think it's a good thing from a safety standpoint but it was allowed back then. So I did it. And then the year afterwards when you overtake Pato right. You win it last lap almost last corner outside move. It's like just the coolest way you can win the race. You know I mean you take any win any way it comes but if you're going to dream it up. I mean 24 for me was you can't it cannot get better than that. It was so cool. All right. Well I look I want to take it back to the football because I saw some footage of you. Now this is old. This is 11 years ago. You at the NFL combine. I don't know if you remember that. Yeah. Now did you ever play football. I didn't know. You've been a great athlete in a lot of different sports. Well I was a baseball basketball player. I stopped playing when I was 15 because then I was racing carts and I didn't want to do anything after that. I wish I actually took myself a little more serious like you see I'm tripping here on this 40. What was that about a 4 2 4 3. I wish I wish you know what I'm not joking you. I think I could put up a 4 4 7 4 6 5. That's not bad. You're a legit natural athlete though. Like I think I could if I would have applied myself to various sports I think I could have been OK. It's hard to say. You know I don't want to put myself up on you know some position that I shouldn't be on but but I always enjoyed athletics. I enjoyed sports. If I wasn't racing cars that I'd have to compete in something. I just respected so much and it's what it's what gets me going. The only thing that's a little different to our sport where a team sport as I was explaining to you but that team camaraderie the way you interact with everyone it's a little different than something like football. You know football you really get that like you are with your team. You're going into battle together. I still have that in racing but it's not quite the same as sticking ball probably more like baseball kind of an individual teams sport. Like I actually think that's a very good comparison. I was it's much it's much more like that than a football. Joseph I was watching their YouTube video about qualifying and Luke Mason was a graphic as race engineer and Joseph's work wife. Yeah. You guys are just like tell me about your team and your engineer. They're just the best. You know it's and this this comes back to the sports discussion. It's why I love sports. I show up because I want to win with my team. I really do. I mean you know driving you know it's just you inside the cockpit but we're all working on this thing and it gives me so much joy when we win a race and someone there's a you know what you know people don't realize too there's a lot of races I win that it had nothing really to do with me. You sometimes we have an excellent pit stop at the right time or we make a strategy call that was just a perfect call and we end up winning the race and I don't care who makes the winning play when you're part of a team you just want to see someone make that winning play because we all win together. But Luke Mason's my engineer. He's definitely described as my work wife. He texts with my my actual wife more than he does. So they know each other my real wife my work wife they're cool with it but we spend a lot of time together a lot of time and that relationship is so critical. I mean I guess in the NFL it'd be like it'd be like the quarterback being aligned with his offensive coordinator. You know that relationship is so critical. I mean they're they're gaming everything out and look the offensive offensive coordinator is going to lean on their quarterback to and go look you got to you got to run the show. You're going to see something that I can't but they're constantly working on what's the strategy. What do we need to go on how's the game shifting. What are we looking at now the second quarter versus the first quarter or second half versus first half. And that's that's our relationship and it's got to be super tight and correct. I mean basically now it's just the enunciation and the way that I speak to him. He can tell where we're at with the race car. I mean that's the type of level that you get to with these people. I'm telling you win number three. You got to get on board. Well I did like that he said he's chief's fan. I also like the excellence. I got to tell you I'm a little KW has been such so almost protective of you like you're a guy. That's right. To crew. Yeah. Get ready. Starting at where we starting. Oh 23rd the scenic route you tweeted. No matter. It's a fun way to the front. Indy Karchippen from 2008 Scott Dixon joins the show. Thank you Joseph. Best of luck. Thank you guys. Thank you man. Welcome back to First Things First Live from the Indianapolis 500. Joining us now which is 24th Indy 500. 2008 winner and newly knighted. Yeah. Scott Dixon. Yeah. Sir Scott. Sir. Yeah. Do we call you sir Scott Dixon. And can you tell us the story because I was like hey Scott Dixon is a knight. Yeah. So before we talk about Indy let's let's hear about him and the swords and our producers like yeah we can't find video of him in the swords. What's how did you come a night. I should have brought the swords with me. Yeah. Yes. No. So yeah I was totally unexpected but I was in the New Year's Honours List by the King. I actually haven't done the ceremony yet. So I think you can do the ceremony in New Zealand or in England at the you know the castle or Windsor Castle. Will do it. Yeah I'm trying to figure out if I do it in New Zealand. I'd kind of like to do it back home you know because that's where the honour is. Yes. But obviously I think there would be nothing quite like doing it at Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace. So yeah. What was your feeling. I mean like you said you weren't expecting it. They kind of just reached out to you. What did you've accomplished many great things that we'll get into. But what did it feel like when you found out you're going to be a knight. Well I thought it was spam. You get an email and basically they are just asking you know if you get this honour will you accept it. You kind of got to go through this kind of vetting kind of portion of it and then you don't really actually know there's like an embargo put on it with about two weeks out where you have to do a bunch of media hits locally in New Zealand and that's kind of when you know you get it. But nobody else knows my wife knew very few people in my family but nobody knows. None of the other knights. New years on none of the other knights. Exactly. Even when you go through that period you're kind of asking like who else is getting it this year. That's so cool. But yeah crazy. Not something I ever expected. Motor racing is big in New Zealand. It's a very big sport. You've probably got you know rugby is probably our largest. You've got sailing and then cricket crickets you know the second largest sport in the world. And then racing. Motor racing has always been huge for New Zealand. It's only a small country five million people. But no it was cool. It was cool to see motor racing get the recognition it should. It's also a nice one up to have on Stephen Adams. Yeah. He's all over. You're flying in New Zealand. Stephen Adams doing all the ads. He's all over the billboard. He's like he's just Stephen Adams. Not Sir Stephen Adams. Not yet. Not yet. You know maybe maybe I can help him out there. You won this race in 2008. You also have won the championship of the series six times. You won I think four championship series before you went to IndyCar like the series you were on before. But you you've won championships all over. There isn't certainly an argument to be made that you're the greatest IndyCar driver of all time. At this race you have I don't know if you know how many records you have. Most laps ever led is you. Most races ever led is you. You're going to pass Al Unser Jr. or Al Unser senior pardon me for most miles raced in this race. You know God willing in this race this coming Sunday. Yet you've won it the one time and dominated the sport for 20 years. Does that speak to a little bit of the randomness of this specific race or their moments you look back to and like I could have four of these things. Like how do you how do those two facts come together. I think what it clearly shows is that I'm not very good at leading the right lap. You know 677 laps led here which is insane. You know I think there's even crazier stats maybe for the four time winners that have led very few laps around here. So for me this place owes me nothing man. It's a privilege to be here. I love being here. I love competing on the you know in the world's largest race biggest race in the world. It just you know hasn't worked out a couple of times. I think I finished second here five or six times which those are definitely hard to swallow and some of them have finished on the caution. You can even race it you know that it just wasn't you know just finished the way it did. So no I'm proud of what we've achieved but man I'm hungry for that second one maybe this weekend. That might be. I don't know how much we talk in other sports so much about legacy and who's the goat in these things. I don't know how much you care about that but B I do wonder if you feel like given the fact you're a six time overall champion with three second places and seven more thirds. You have 13 some seasons of either winning the season long championship or coming close that if you got a second Indy 500 and you had an insane gap between the victories that that would maybe stamp you as the greatest Indy car driver ever. Yeah trust me I don't really focus on those things. You know unfortunately the things that keep me up at night are the other losses. You know that's all I really ever think about is the ones that kind of got away which is you know definitely big for fueling the fire and wanting to come back and wanting to come back for more. But no you know like it's it's it's motor racing it's an unfortunate sport where you actually lose a lot more than you win. We've had our ups and downs we've had huge accomplishments we you know we could tie if we win the championship this year we could tie you know AJ Foy for you know the most victories we're chasing down. Hopefully the most victories for race wins you know at 59 you know AJ is the only one you know ahead of us so. No I don't know for me it's just about this weekend it's about trying to win this weekend if we can't win this weekend we're moving on to Detroit in a week's time and trying to win that one as well but how cool is it man. I'm a race car driver I get to do one of the best jobs in the world and I've been doing it for a long time and you know hopefully that continues for a while more. Well since you last won here in 08 how much has the sport changed. Imagine a great deal. Yeah big time I think the popularity is kind of it's been interesting it's it's kind of you know gone up and down a little bit I think throughout the years I think right now with the partnership with Fox they've done a tremendous job of pumping it up you know getting where it needs to be the TV numbers are you know going through the roof from what we had previously seen you know I think IndyCar was much bigger than NASCAR you know before the split 95 you know so it's taken a time to really kind of sort itself out see where it needs to be chase the markets that really work well you know we're going to have you know a race in Washington DC this year like it's insane you know some of the races that we're doing now the new one that we had also earlier in the year in Arlington which was you know Dallas Cowboys and the Rangers you know it was fantastic so it's definitely in a great spot it's getting the recognition that I think IndyCar really deserves. The track hasn't really changed in your 23 times that you've run it how have you changed what have you learned did you learn things last year did you learn things in race number 23 that you didn't know in race number 22? For sure I think you're constantly learning like even tomorrow when we're back on track you're going to be learning something different you know I think what's really interesting about motor racing the goals might be similar over year but honestly how you achieve it and how you get there are very different you know even the weather conditions on Sunday could drastically change you know what you need to do how you need to prep how you need to focus and what you need to focus on strategy wise and how the race is going to play out so that's what actually for me keeps it so fresh is that you're never chasing the same thing yes you're chasing wins and championship and you know in Indianapolis 500 win but how you achieve it is very different each year. This year we had your teammate Alex Palo on and I asked him a similar question that I was asking you about the greatest drivers the people he's trying to chase down and he just before I could even finish the question said Scott Dixon's the greatest driver ever as you watch him have this brilliant I can't even call it start to a career because he's been doing it long enough just brilliant career but still so young what do you attribute his unique level of success to and how far do you think he can continue it. Yeah it's been exceptional you know I think to watch you know I think his progression you know even before he was at our team you know how quick he was out of the gate you know I think what what makes Alex so good is that he's just he's so well rounded you know there's no kind of weakness to him and I think you can see that whether it's in qualifying race strategy to fuel saving to looking after the tyres he is very he's a very smart person he's very intense and he's a he's a quick study he studies a lot you know it's it's all about the game of trying to you know get the most out of it and and you know I think he's with a great team you know Chip Ganassi and all of his people that work at at CGR are very good at being open book and trying to make you learn and trying to better yourself you know I remember walking through the doors at CGR in 2002 and all anybody ever spoke about was winning you know and it's so infectious and that's what makes this team so good but Alex is he's on a roll right now and trust me there'll be 32 others trying to stop him this weekend but Kudos to a man he's been crushing it and and it's it's great to see just what he has achieved. Before you go Scott I'm gonna put you on the spot taking yourself out who do who is on your Mount Rushmore of IndyCar drivers. Oh that's a tough one you know it's hard to you know overlook AJ Foyt to you know Mario and Dritty you know the answers they're listed you know Rick Mears especially at this place you know teammates I've had with Dan Weldon and Daria Frankeity and you know TK Alex Pallew right now we need a very large what about you you guys what who's your picks for the race come on I mean I I'm gonna you're sitting right here I picked you last year sorry I was a year early I think Alex is pretty hard to stop and the what you guys are able to do as a team combined with he's on the pole like I think that I think he's probably the smart bet I also think that there is not just because you're sitting here no no come on man no but you give any more motivation I wanted to know but I did want to it leads well to the last question I had which is a couple of the records you have that I didn't mention was eight straight years and that's active of finishing the race I know last year you didn't get to run the full 500 miles but you finished the race prior to last year seven straight years of running the full 500 miles which to me speaks to the experience and an ability to make sure you're staying out of the you know the potential perilousness early which gives you a chance late how much of that this last decade is skill and guile and expertise and how much of it is maybe a little luck involved there because that's remarkable given that it does feel like some of this race is randomness of the guy in front of me screwed up and I got wrecked yeah it's it's it's you know I think there's so many things out of your control and that is what is so tough at this race and you know there's the old saying that you know she picks the winner for sure you know there's different scenarios whether it's a late race caution at least now you know I think through the changes that they've done you can at least race those laps out you know what was it two three years ago we had just an out lap and everybody was on it to try and decide the winner so no you got to you know as I've said many times you've got to have the perfect race and then that will give you only a shot at trying to win it so unfortunately there's probably going to be five to ten of those people that have that that chance because they've run the perfect race and they can fight at the end you know I just hope we're going to be in that situation but I think this is this is going to be a dogfight this one it's going to be down to the last minute you know last lap you know maybe the last straight here so yeah so you got Palu you get who'd you have you have me last year I'm thinking Pato this year okay that's a good one that's a good bit I'll take you Scott nobody picked me no I've got you now our final guest today is Stingray Rob KW's gonna pick him Stingray Rob starting in the back Stinger if he's charming I'm like Stinger you got a shot man let's go Scott best of luck thank you so much more first things first live I gotta tell you LAO might get his head up yeah he's won four times for sure he's something strong thank you Scott we'll see you welcome to first things first live from the Indianapolis 500 joining us now friend of the show four-time Indy 500 champion and a great dancer it's LAO Castronevus LAO welcome to the show thank you I like the little great dancer you know I went back and watch her you're crazy right oh yeah let me tell you I asked a lot of my friends hey did you watch me dancing they're like no so you didn't I watched her dancing not you I said okay you're my friend you're my friend you're all the all the factoids that that are in the you know the info packets on he was like hey he's the oldest driver he doesn't like that one he's not only 51 LAO they're like 51 and 14 days like and don't forget the two weeks a belated happy birthday I couldn't believe it it's like oh the strivers like alright and you just mentioned the youngest driver to win back to back so why don't you guys put that well back I guess it's old news at this but I you know it's funny on that note you it's not only back to back you won your first two Indy 500s ever that's right and then your third you almost won to become the first person ever to three p you went first first second in your first three Indy 500s so we're going back to you know a slightly younger LAO Castronevus did you honestly did you think I don't know everybody thinks this race yeah this is when I know right yeah everybody talks about what a what a minefield this race it seems pretty easy to me well I guess the time everything was happening you know I was right driving for team penskey as well and they won 19 you know these days but for me the the tools that they gave me the opportunity that I just took advantage of it in fact that through the third one that was supposed to win they'll finish second I had the best car like by far anybody and I end up finishing second place so that's why sometimes I say this place is not about just having a perfect car or everything like that the place picks who is going to be the winner because I also had a situation in my second win that I was I was going to be a lap down and what happened I took a gamble and won the race so all of this it just this place is magical this place is the day when you come over here the day 350,000 people screaming and with the energy it's absolutely incredible and it's true I mean sometimes people say I just just admit I said no it is the way I see it that's the way I feel it and but now I feel great I feel great because I have a same group on the Cliffs Machine car for this year we're looking good looking strong and yeah I'm I'm I can't wait buddy. We we joked about the age but if you do win it on Sunday at 51, Unster's got the record right now 47 right what would that mean to you though to win it at 51 years old? And it's your fifth one. Yeah fifth which is unprecedented yeah both of those. It means that I gotta teach those kids how to win a race you know I gotta say it means it means a lot it's obviously oh joke aside the age is just a number to be honest these days I mean we all feel so much stronger with technology the food how you take care of yourself you know you see a lot of the players not only tennis basketball they're they're going super far than what used to be in the past right for in my case I can even push the limit because I'm not the one pushing the car you know the cars they weren't riding the car so I feel that when you come to a place like this that it's not only it being brave it's more about to being you know calculated risk and when you put those experiences together you know when you when you want to put the car in the position to win you know and that's what I keep telling my crew right now I said guys I don't want to be the fastest pit stop every time you go out there but but I want to be consistent because that's what gonna everybody's gonna make mistake including us but let's make this mistake not be a huge mistake or let's try to make it early so that you can recoup towards to the end because the end it's where is it where is it? It's a savvy veteran it's a savvy veteran move last year when we had you on the show same spot we talked about how your experience and everything and you said I'm still learning is there and you came in 10th last year right is there anything specific that you learned last year that you applied at this year's race? Yeah last year we had the hybrid right so I I did make some mistakes of my own in fact sometimes when you're gonna because you have two areas that you can regen and deploy right and I'm not sure if the fans understand that but when you're out there right there you can actually use that to to gain a little extra horsepower and put yourself in a better position sometimes on the heat of the moment you see the guy back or you're getting close to the guy so instead of pressing the right button I pressed the wrong button I was like oh man that's not good so this year familiarizing with with this the tools that I have it's much better also make some very small mistakes on the strategy that we were supposed to be much better so all of that it was a big learning curve right and this year I feel so good with the car and and that's what I keep telling the guys let's not miss this opportunity because when you have a car a good balance like that it's not very it's not very often you do that even for me that I have experience you gotta take advantage so let's be sharp raise your sharp make sure that we understand every little bit pay attention if you have a questions raise your hand do not let anything pass by because it's too good to be true so let's go back to your fourth victory 2021 it also I believe is the record fastest Daytona 500 winner ever was you that race it also I'm sorry I'm sorry I apologize fastest any 500 winner ever was you that race it no because I did the Daytona one three straight 24 hours of Daytona either the next year starting that's right around the same time that's right we need to talk about that in a bit but it also was a very interesting finish to the race because you guys all of a sudden when you're coming down the final stretch there's lap traffic all over the place correct can you take us through your feelings they'll call it the final two laps of that race when you know I'm I'm winning this is maybe it's in your brain this would tie the record I've got control of it and then you realize I'm gonna have these guys that I'm gonna have to navigate maybe even use to my advantage so the entire race I had control I knew what I need to do I was saving fuel I was kind of like playing a little bit of a just waiting I didn't want to lead because I didn't want to show my hands to everyone else my goal was actually to pass on the last lap I was waiting for the last lap to pass however one of the situations that when I was actually me and Alex together I noticed there was a car in front of him and that's when his car was becoming a little bit faster so I'm like whoa wait a minute until that point I had the control now I lost a little bit of the control so I realized that car came to the pits we back again to the game so I realized there was a difference so when it came two laps to go I saw traffic in front of me and then I said you know what this is my time to make a move because now I'm gonna be faster than that and that's exactly how so he was never he wouldn't have a chance one thing that I actually caught me a little bit surprised I thought it would take a little longer to catch the traffic but we ended up catching them on the in the actually turn three I'm like whoa whoa whoa okay okay we got too fast here but but I knew exactly what I have to do and as soon as I finished turn four I saw the finish line I'm like yeah today's the day let's celebrate you you alio four time runner-up in the indie series would you trade one of your indy indy 500 absolutely absolutely not there's no way I mean look people asking me what did it change in your life when you win the indy 500 right my name they don't introduce me anymore my name they introduce the indy 500 champion so just for that I would not trade trade my my second win of anything else for this race quickly switch gears what do you think about brazil and the world cup well we we got name are right yeah I don't know how much I how how I mean it's nice that he's an icon I don't know if he's still some people it's like super happy some people like come on it but look it the way I see it it's energy I think it's great that the energy is back because we have someone that it's been to the world cup doesn't matter he's a talent guy no question about it if his condition is going to be good or not that's like a different different conversation but I do believe for the group we are not the strongest right now that's my opinion and that's what I'll be hearing the experts talking about but having him just there it could be a way of you know getting a little extra boost a little spark for the team so that hopefully we can make it happen also good camaraderie he likes playing cards hanging out with the guys a long time between I don't think that's a what what do you mean playing cards deep into the night is it was good enough for Michael Jordan it's not good enough so listen we started off joking you know joking or poking fun at the graphics saying you could be the oldest driver to win the race but here's what's definitely true you had a hall of fame resume a decade ago you won your record tying fourth indy 505 years ago yet not only are you still here and still contending but and this is where my head was before you just a few years ago completed a three-peat of the 24 hours at Daytona you just a couple years ago went back to back at the petite lamans correct like that's right so what that speaks to me is you just bleep in love racing in every different form can you is do you consider yourself before you consider yourself anything else just a race car driver and that no matter how old you get you're going to be a racing cars in some series in some format can you can conceptualize a life post racing I think I am a lay bloomer you know everything's happening a little late in my career well look when I was driving for team pens keep for 21 years I was specialized just to the indy car and Roger was never a big fan of his drivers going to other cars you know so which is I agree if you hire to do something you got to go and drive that car so in my case now that I'm have opportunity to go to different series go to different cars and become a better driver because you're only going to be a better driver if you're trying different areas if you try different cars so well last year when I had the opportunity to do the Daytona 500 man that was fantastic you know unfortunately they're not they don't allow you to practice so I went right away like man this is crazy I was looking around there and cars all over the place I'm like all right take it easy but but you know but I love it because it's something that yes it's in your DNA I enjoy very much to be around racing because that's what I've been doing my entire life but when you have that experience and opportunity actually to learn and be better why not right so doesn't matter but that's what I said age is obviously something that you you got to consider but man I like to be in shape I like to uh to obviously when a drive driver is not thinking about I'm tired or not so that's why when you come in the car is so hard it is still so stiff so I never lost any focus all these years that I'm being doing one off thinking about next year it's I'm gonna come back did you say the steering is so stiff so heavy so what do you explain for the audience who most of them probably hasn't driven we don't have a power steering wheel like your car no every ordinary car so and most of the race cars it's like that I think the only one is in the car that doesn't have or spring cars they don't have a power steering wheel so when you come to the corners all those front wings and the rear wing that you have in the car it's pushes down the car creating that we're talking about two to three thousand pounds of downforce translated to the steering wheel so when you turn man it's like you're really making this force obviously here in the oval the oldest suspension the steering of the car is all crooked like this so they when you're actually straight away you're turning right so to hold the car but when you turn left it helps now when you're going to street course road course man it's it's a heaviest this is super heavy so for me always thinking about that because when you're talking about two and a half hours to three hours racing plus your mind is so focused every lap you're hitting the same spot if you go a little bit wide it can be it can be at the end of the day that that's really interesting about the the toughness of the steering yeah so you're starting in the fifth row 14th position what is your strategy out of the gate from that position so restarts restart and restarts going to be extremely important this year for several things it's hard to pass now when you go into you know the whole scenario getting drafted everybody together and three wide you want to make sure you you you have yourself clear plus there is a lot of young guys that take a lot of risk and the problem with that it's not about taking a risk the problem is unnecessary risk you know sometimes it's like first lap third or whatever 15 laps into the race and they they decided to make some move that you're like dude it's 200 laps man relax you know that move you gotta do like 10 laps to go not on the 15th and then no sort of put you in a position that um it can it can end your race and he's right that's it right so you need to uh uh and that's one thing for me when I do one off I don't know much of those competitors because I don't race with them during the season so I need to watch it understand I you know the aggressiveness of each one but hopefully um they'll be smart enough to understand that when you have someone more experienced take a take a lead or understand or follow until if you're comfortable make a pass or not but that's what that's the only thing it's kind of sometimes outside of my control just excellent elliol best of luck yes uh thank you again it's great seeing you great to see you and I guess what guys what I have a new pick for the indian four first things first live from the indian 500 after the break oh we're pounding the desks we're live from the indian apple is 500 second hour of first things first first hour a home run checkered flag basically it's great aside from your lack of tank integrity I'll be honest with you guys I'm just picking he's everybody who comes out here he's picking the wind so he's gonna I don't know how he's gonna pick you guys no no no you don't pick this is this is a challenge I just know today a panel award is coming up on the show friend of the show Alex Palo is going to join us in a few minutes but right now and dready global teammates Marcus Erickson and Kyle Kirkwood back on the show welcome fellas it's a pleasure to have you um gonna start off with a question that we talked about how we've had so many drivers on and we were here last year what is the balance for you on a strategy um your right mental mindset and just being fortunate we've heard a lot of like you know what if you do everything right you also need just like lady luck to kind of like bless you this day right how do you balance all that out in your brain I'll let you take that that was a lot of questions I think the thing for me is like you got to put in the work and do the the things to put yourself in a position to be fortunate to win right like you got to put yourself there and it's not only us right you have a team behind you you're gonna be perfect on pit lane you're gonna be perfect on your restarts on all the things that goes on over those 200 laps you got to be perfect to win this race and it's yeah sometimes you need to be luck to push yourself to that final first position but it's it's a lot of things that goes into it it's the hardest race in the world to win and that's why everyone comes out there is why everyone wants to win this race and Kyle I'll ask maybe a simpler question but I don't know how does team racing work and I know that's like because you you want to win right you want to win but then you guys also have like these sub goals of helping making sure your team does well how effect like how in action does that work you know that's uh it's a it's a tricky subject right I mean of course we're competitors right we want to beat each other but not more than the competition that's the way that you kind of have to look at it right we want to help each other out as much as possible but when it comes down to it if if we're one two going coming in to turn four we're not going to let each other try and win you know like that's that's kind of the the mindset that you have you help each other all the way to a certain extent and then you then you hope that that just brings the team and elevates the whole team and then allow you your your drivers to fight for the win at the end that's that's probably the best position to be in but it is a little bit of a tricky thing right because you're you're allowed to race your teammates but if you take your teammate out to crash oh it's the absolute worst thing you could possibly do right so it's a it's a finicky thing that you got to manage as a racing driver Marcus when you won this race in 2022 like how did that change your life uh yeah I mean it's hard to take in first of all you know it took me a long time to sort of realize that I actually won the race like it was just something you work all your life towards like from being eight years old and starting with go-karts like dreaming about just participating in this race but then seeing yourself drinking that milk and celebrating on the podium it's just something that when it happened for me it was like wait did I actually do this it's like it's real but it's yeah it's definitely put you know it puts your name on that list of winners and it's always gonna be there and then you know whatever you do before or after in your career you're always gonna be a 500 champion so that's it's done a lot and also for my confidence every time I come back here I know that I have won this race I know how to win this race and that really helps me be strong in in the month of May but I've been second twice after that and that's the things you think more about those times than the day you won actually so I just want to follow up with you quickly Marcus on the time you won because if people don't remember the details of the race it's very unique with six seven laps left you're up a ton by IndyCar standards you're up I think three seconds on the field Jimmy Johnson Rex my teammate right your teammate Rex and all of a sudden you're gonna have a red flag it's red flag and it's gonna be a real race to the finish what you end up winning so it you know I guess all is well but in 12 but what are your emotions from the moment right before you hear the red flags coming through the moment of the restart and like honestly in the are you how much of your brain is like oh my god I had this thing won and now it's going to be you know potentially stolen from me yeah I mean it was tough because I was like you said I had a gap that was big enough that that race was done you know I was just counting down the laps just wishing nothing's gonna happen and then this happens and then you're like oh my god and then you see it's your teammate and Jimmy you know it's like the nicest guy you ever meet and then like in that moment I just yeah it was very tough very tough if I had not won that race I don't know if you know we could have continued to be friends I don't know that was tough but yeah now after the fact you know it's it's fantastic that it happened because it showed like the the finish of that race was fantastic me and Pat of battling it out there on the last lap and the way I won it was just made it extra special but of course if I'd lost that race because of that red flag that would have been a tough one to swallow but yeah that's just how this race works out right then the year after it was also leading last lap they pulled a red flag out of out of nowhere and Joseph got me on the last lap so it's just this race you can never ever be sure until you take that checkered flag because anything can happen Kyle can I ask you about sort of your mental state during the race we've been watching like the NBA playoffs right we've in one of our talking points has been like oh when Minyama plays better when he's angry or feels slighted and then we'll watch other guys for like oh this guy actually plays better when he's relaxed and kind of like jovial what is your mental attitude when you're locked in how can you are you angry are you happy are you relaxed I try to be relaxed as much as possible I think most racing drivers do right we're in a very risky sport it's better to just be as relaxed and locked in as possible but how does that not feel like I'm relaxed on the you know what I mean how do you balance being relaxed and locked in because I think a lot of times those feel in conflict you know I think I consider relaxed locked in in a way because when I'm focused and nothing from the outside is able to like pull me away from or any distractions right where you just locked in you're focused in on what you have to do in the race you're focused on the strategy you're focused on the cars that are around you and you feel like you're just like in this in this smooth state that's the relaxed mode that I'm talking about it's not yeah hanging out on the couch relaxed right it's like more relaxed like things are clicking you know that's that's probably the best state to be in although I'd have to say when I'm angry I do pass a lot more cars but I typically take a lot more risk in doing so which is this place there is some risk for for reward here but it's it's an endurance race it's 500 miles here you got five or six stops to get it done it's about three hours so you can't you can't win the race in the first corner so you got to be somewhat smooth and relaxed and precision based to really win this race speaking of demeanor and mindset all that mark is when you won in 2022 they gave you the nickname the dragon do you embrace that and what does that kind of you like that nickname I don't know about the dragon the dragon yeah the dragon was like my move I think finishing off that race he was swerving back and forth and yeah I don't know I don't know if that's my nickname really but yeah I've never heard that actually it's a new thing I like it they made this yeah from that swerving that you see there you know that was the dragon I don't know really is it a dragon going swerving yeah so we I'll explain we do that on purpose right especially in the closing last because you're kind of breaking the toe and you're making cars scrub some speed while they're in the toe the fastest way to go to straight lines obviously in a straight line so by going back and forth it kind of kills some of the speed from the car behind makes it makes it tougher for them so maybe so it sounds like you don't embrace it don't call them the dragon um Kyle you your first three years on circuit yet I think two wins and I think you have four wins in the last 15 months sounds about right they're about um is that better car more experience things something clicked like or natural progression of an athlete I what do you what do you attribute it a bit of a bit of everything right I think things are clicking I feel like I'm driving better I feel like our cars have gotten better um with Andretti glow better teammates yeah better better teammates you know uh yeah um which is true it's true they pushed me along right um but there's there's been a handful of things right I think in in our first uh first two years the first year I won two races with the team the next year we didn't win any but we had like five opportunities to win five really good shots at it and since then it's kind of just build it or built and accelerated and um yeah we're we're uh we're moving along pretty good we're leading the championship earlier this season right against Alex Palo who's been the obvious guy that's that's been really tough to beat in this series and and uh we've been giving him a good fight for it um all season long and hopefully we can continue that trade as as we move on to the further races all right speaking of Palo all right is he in your sights are you aware of where he is at all times are you aware of specific drivers if they're in front of you next to you behind you or are you just sort of running your race you try and run your race right but you also have to look sometimes at championship and you got to understand how each driver drives you know just like in basketball or football you kind of know what what people's plays are and you got to expect those things like to come from them and for us that's kind of driving styles and and racing um what racing moves you make right um so you you treat every driver a little bit differently and then that also plays a role in the championship hunt as well um so in some ways you always got that that moment in the back of your head that you're focused on which driver it is um but you also have to have the demeanor of we just need to win this race you had a little bit of both and and Marcus you mentioned you know coming in second couple times after your win when you're going for back to back we had just had Joseph on about an hour ago I mean I'm not trying to stir up controversy but now I think you can say he cheated like he did something that's not illegal like that's all right oh we're getting controversial over I mean it's called strategy I mean he's a big he's a big new garden guy it's called strategy is it legal now I don't think it's legal now but um in seriousness like no comment no you guys could say stuff but we can't um how you hear in sports all the time Tom Brady talks about it like he you know his three Super Bowl losses hang on in more than the seven Super Bowl wins something like that like how how long does it take you to get over being that close to going back to back or is it something that you move on from but you never fully get over yeah no I mean it's always with you to some extent I think that 23 was tough because it felt like it was taken away from me because I had that race sort of won until they changed the rules on the fly which was tough to to accept then still is but still you know it is what it is like you can't do anything about it last year was almost tougher because I felt like you know you're dwelling your head what you could have done different right like when Alex got me there I would tend to go like what should I've done I've played it in my head a million times so you know in some extent that's tougher to to to go away from but at the same time you learn from it right you're gonna be better you're gonna be stronger from it and I feel like I'm a stronger driver from those experiences going into this mate with Alex last year though that was kind of shocking that he did it when he did it right like I guess a few I mean he did surprise me for sure and he called me by surprise but still you know as a driver you played it in your head right like you think about what could I've done different how should I play that if I got another chance to do it you know and you try and learn from it like I said you know I watched it again you study a lot like me and Kyle and every driver you study the playbook so I've studied that race a lot after last thing last night actually I watched it back and sort of looked at different things throughout the race but also in the end of the race to learn from it so I can be better this time around so so Kyle you have said recently you're not focused on the championship points you're focused on winning each race your second though behind Palo in the points how much would it mean though to dethrone him and how much is that on your mind you know it's not really it's on our mind of course and it's more on our mind or outside of this race because this is a championship in itself right we work just as hard through the off season in season for this one event than we do for the 17 others there's a lot of focus that goes into this one and a lot of drivers will come up here especially like if you speak to Scott Dixon who's won seven championships and won 500 he'll give up a few of his championships for another 500 that's how much this race means for for us so in many ways this this this one we forget about points for who cares about the championship at the time we're here to win this race and then once Monday comes around after after after the race weekend we'll start to focus on championship points once again but that that's the mindset you gotta have for this race if you want to win because if you if I fall in the position where it's like oh Palo's out of the race you know we can take a top five here it'll be all good I'll regret that for the rest of my life if I had a chance to win you know so um our mindsets win winner go home heck yeah dude it's true do we have 90 seconds yeah good it is that different though in other like the like you said the 17 other races is there an element of weighing within a race all right I could you know I have a 20 chance to maybe go win this race but that adds a 20 chance that I you know don't finish because if I want to go for it on fuel or things like that and I want to lock up a good finish for the season long championship competition like when outside of the ND 500 how much does when giving yourself the best chance to win an individual race weigh against the best chance to win the season long points title I mean it depends a bit how your season is going I think for Kyle obviously he's in the hunt now so he's gonna have to weigh those risk versus reward and you know he's obviously for me I've had a couple of DNFs here lately so I've lost some points for me maybe I'll take a bit more risk to try and get that win and you know get that big result so I think it sort of depends on that but coming back to what Kyle said you know this is the race this is the Super Bowl this is the race you gotta go you know the winner takes it all here the two times I've in a second it's like yeah good job man see you next year nothing the winner takes it all here and there's nothing else that you think about when you race here on Sunday yeah all right fellas thank you so much we appreciate it it's a pleasure coming up next oh friend of the show Indy car champion defending Indy car champion Alex Palo joins us who indeed presents hires you can't afford to get wrong like a warehouse operations manager uh wherever the fort lifts I sold them they were too expensive I got a great deal on these scooters though you expect us to move a two-ton pallet on a scooter it'll be fun just think of the core strength you'll build this is a job for sponsored jobs this is what happens when you don't sponsor your job on indeed so the next time you need someone to get the job done right get matched with quality candidates with an indeed sponsored job visit indeed.com slash next hire and sponsor your job today joining us now is friend of the show Alex Palo we put a little highlight video of his cast appearances uh check it out is four-time Indy car champion Indy 500 winner uh Alex Palo celebrated with the Astro Cup for winning the season he did come in second to Joseph Newgarden who I'm just saying one I'm saying one I don't like that introduction but thank you so much good to see you champ good a great teammate I feel like you guys could learn something from that great absolutely a great teammate I picked you I bet on you I rupped you and now I bet on you five to one made a lot of money I think you made more but okay I'm ready to say Palo guy no you're not it not a palo yeah he got it he's going for wins man he's the champ I'm wearing the wreath you got the sick bruce declared I'm a paddle guy from now on well look Alex here's the deal you Nick has hogged you he has to do that that's part of his job but I know I know he's pushing for me with the ninth big on Nick rides NFL mock draft 4.0 the Kansas City Chiefs select Ruben Bain Jr you know what I would do I would have my teammates have like here's the plan you park in front of the you want to try this one since it's already open in I don't want to try your gross milk I'm going to drink my own milk layer of cream on top of what buddy we're not working here we go it's not so funny because it's a cream I can't see that cream I can't see that there was a layer of cream yeah I know he told you to have a guy who might go down as the greatest ever to be a friend of the show was really really awesome thank you friend of the show wow it's below us here welcome back again brother good to see you guys I'm great how do you feel about defending your title here I feel great but I feel better that you guys are here on track it's awesome normally we do it on video and it's not the same I like that you guys are here well so last what's the difference between how you felt going in the last year's race where there was a growing monkey on your back of when all these championships best driver in the world can't win on an oval much less win here to since then went on a bunch of ovals win this race and now you're in the poll it feels uh it feels different in that way that I know that I can win on an oval like before I always thought I could win but until you don't do it on track for the for real you don't realize that you can do it right so um yeah I just feel a lot more confident with myself with the team that we have we're starting on poll as well but at the same time this race is a whole different animal like it's not only about having a good car and having confidence and being good at it like it's 500 miles you need reliability you need speed you need a little bit of luck here and there you need great pit stops great strategy and a little bit of luck like that's that's I think the track chooses a little bit the winner you are I mean we've been talking to several racers today before you and I mean right now you are just on the top and they're all talking about you you're stacking up wins in the 500s as well as championship series to surpass AJ Foy and one or the other Indy 500 wins or championship points championships which one would you rather have both are pretty sweet can we do both at the same time or not you're on pace I don't know I feel like I mean he won seven Indy car championships and four Indy 500s like that both numbers are insane I if we can get close to any either or well you're close to the seven yeah we're four like we're not four well you're four you're leading right now four is the second most like you're tied no Scott 36 yeah got a six and then there's a few other guys with yeah and I like let's stay on the championships thing for a second because the first time we ever talked I we asked you about you know the greatest drivers ever and you I think being a good teammate also being honest Scott is arguably the greatest driver certainly one of for sure um how much of your and I know you had successful for you were teammates with him but as you are now really just chasing kind of ghosts and chasing greatness how much have you been able to learn from Scott and his legendary career oh everything like I would not be here without him as a teammate like I have been able to learn and get so much info from him like how he works how he prepares the car how he thinks about the race how he saves tires fuel blah blah blah when you are able to be surrounded with one of the best if not the best in the car drivers ever you can learn so much if you ask questions and stuff so I've always been super curious about how he does stuff I still do to this day like he's still um he's still in IndyCar he's still my teammate and he's still battling uh really really hard so I still try and get as much info as I can from him because I know it's a one of opportunity you won the poll we ran it in the show you were so excited about winning the poll yeah and it might take away from watching the video of you like freaking out was obviously you were happy to get the poll but it's almost like you were happy for the entire team oh yeah can you tell me about like what it meant to your team to win the poll well there's two things there for that celebration the first one is that we did not expect that we did not know we did not think that we had the car to battle for poll we were like oh maybe it's like in between fifth and tenth depending on if we have a good run or not and then suddenly we're fighting for the poll which is a big deal but then my team my crew has been working on these cars so much like they have put so much effort and like making sure it's like all the um everything fits perfectly that everything runs as free as they can just to get more speed it's all about how good can the team prepare the car and then how much am I willing to go trimming on on like how much am I willing to race the car to get speed so for me to to show everyone that my team did the best job was was just incredible and to have them around me to celebrate what does that mean how far you're willing to race the car so here at the speedway we on qualifying if everything is good you you're going flat out um for the four laps in qualifying so how you get more speed is by trimming by getting down for us out and drag out but normally you get a lot more down for us out which is basically the grip that we have like how much speed you can roll into the corner without sliding and crashing um and losing drag so you can be faster on the straight line so um there's a point where you're going flat out and to get more speed you're like okay let's trim let's get down for us out but you're risking that you can crash the car so once you are very confident with the car you start trimming and trimming until you're the fastest or something else happens I mentioned that we've talked to several drivers and they're talking about you being on top since you've become that guy do you notice a difference in the way guys other drivers look at you is it difference is it fear is it dislike or anything like that I would say they don't like me for sure like they don't um I think and I understand they want somebody else to win they want themselves or someone else but not me but um I I think that's a really cool part of sport like you never won the person or the team that is winning to win again um so I never thought I would be in this position so I love it we had uh Joseph Nugorn on earlier and he said that you and your team were making a lot of good decisions as you've become a better driver do you feel like you're making better decisions or fewer bad decisions ah that's a good one probably both at the same time like I think making like not making mistakes yeah it's it's it's big like it's super easy to make a mistake it's super easy to to make an overtake and make a bad overtake or do a setup decision that it doesn't work so I feel my team doesn't really make a lot of mistakes we make fewer mistakes but it's because we have so much my team my engineers my mechanics they have so much experience that it it just translates into fewer mistakes but then they make really good calls as well like they make very good decisions for this race specifically do you think you gain more knowledge from your win or from your close calls like we just had leo on yeah he got you at the wire in 2021 you had a few other close calls I know you had the one where you got wrecked on pit road that was that's bad luck but do you when you're out there getting ready to go out there Sunday are you drawing more from the success or the near misses no always from the mistakes or the near misses because you review that in your head so much like you are like man what if I just did that different decision what if I passed leo a lot before or a lap after like you always reveal a lot more when you do a mistake or when you miss something than when you uh when you have success so I learned a lot from last year but at the same time I think the Indy 500 kind of teaches you and shows you different stuff every single year we see this in a lot of sports you hear champions say about their regular season whether it's when the Patriots had the run the Chiefs had their run had yeah it was a long time ago Chiefs run oh they didn't make the playoffs it's hard to go three p's teams that get used to win it part of the winning mentality is like we go out we expect to win and we behave like we expect to when you are now you know on this course on the other courses you just want 11 of the last 23 we expect you to it's a tiger versus a field like we yeah we expect you to win do you expect to win not at all no no no we just put as much work as we can as as much effort as we can to be as prepared as we can but it's so tough to win and I feel it's a little bit tougher to win against 27 or 32 other drivers than a team that it's going against only one it's crazy though because it's this is the ultimate compliment you don't make it look tough anymore we just like hey there's a there's I know it's great there's another race and like we will promote the race on Friday and then on Monday like pull up we hit we got yourself one or what happened like well that I mean this brings up a great point your answer was very humble I think it was sincere but it was very humble when you are winning at such a rate as you are how do you keep from getting a question bro you know too cocky or overconfident or thinking it's going to be easy because I guess because I've been racing since I was five and I've been through very tough times very tough times where you don't win in one year in go-karts or even in my junior career like I know that it takes a great team around you and your mindset and and yourself to be a hundred percent in order to win that I know it could end tomorrow and I'm I'm just trying to enjoy as much as I can while this wave is is going I don't know if it's going to end tomorrow or in two years but I know at some point it's going to end so yeah I'm just trying to enjoy as much as I can and I know that if you put me on another car or another surrounded by another team of mechanics or engineers I would not be doing what I'm doing so that so that last part I find really fascinating because what you were saying it's harder when there's a field of 30 that's as opposed to a one-on-one or a team versus team competition that is where the tiger versus the field comes up like you're a little young but in the early 2000s it was tiger against 70 other golfers and the betting odds were like well it's basically 50-50 him or everybody else but he didn't have a team I mean he has a caddy like it's it's really truly one-on-one when you were describing your excitement about winning the poll am I right in that qualifying a disproportion amount of the credit goes to everyone other than the driver because it's about the quality of the car 100 and then the the race they obviously have a huge say in it but that's where your skill can really shine is on race day but get everything leading up to race day including qualifying is a team win 100 100 but it's like any other sport like even on on football like if you don't have a good defense team you that's it you don't you cannot move you you cannot throw the ball wherever you want like I feel it's uh the team is so important so important we've run a few of your highlights when you're overtaking guys to take the lead you're starting on the poll what is the difference mentally on being chased versus being the guy who is trying to chase I feel like here at the 500 it's so long the race I mean 500 miles we know at some point we're going to be 15th or 20th because of how everything shakes up so we're gonna try and get a clean start obviously and then start just opening or stretching a little bit the race with with the top five let's say and we want to stay there but at some point we know with a shake up on strategy we're gonna start going backwards and we will have to move up front so yeah but do you like that like when you're when you're 15th it's like oh now it's go time overtake time I prefer when I'm like you know p2p3 and you're controlling it's like okay I'm good here I don't need to do a lot of work let's say like I'm good when you're 15 it's like man Alex you either start driving or we're gonna stay 15th or 16th all right speaking of people or teams expected to win I am expecting Spain to win the world cup that's my pick I think it's a good team yeah yeah I think we have a great team yeah he's got France I'm a brazil guy yeah I'm just the heritage of it of course I'm worried about you maul a little bit a little bit a little hamstring just real quick before he goes because oh no with this work this didn't work and this might be bad luck you've done a lot for the show a lot for the show it's you're the greatest indie car driver in the world and you're a dear friend of the show I want to do something for Alex okay because I believe in visualization okay me too see something I knew you did I knew you too so instead of just imagining Monday or Tuesday when we have the indie 500 winner in studio yes chugging milk with us okay wait I'm not gonna drink milk you know I'm gonna let you you don't have to it's bad luck for you yeah bad luck for you before the race yes but this is what you're gonna see in New York City Tuesday I'm gonna do it and again you gotta do it better you're gonna do it again it's gotta be better there's no cream is it good that's just regular milk we're ready percent milk yeah oh he's going for it he's going for okay that's a good one that's a very good one that was a good one yes yeah it was a good one much better that was very good much better I mean messed up your suit but why are you close? it's gonna be on your foot you're gonna be dripping down your beard everything it looked great it's in my beard it was a great interview Palo Best of luck it's a pleasure great Alex Palo I try to defend his indie title coming up next oh bruise guy we didn't even get to that yeah oh yeah I know declared himself a pato guy I might be back I might be back that's a luck out first things first is back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway we're getting ready for the 110th running of the Indy 500 this Sunday joining us now friend of the show second time on the show bruise guy Palo Ward right it's a great day back my man yeah he's bruise guy my pick he's he's your pick he's been singing your praises the entire show to the other drivers as well they might be a little mad at you they might be a little mad at you they're like okay thanks I said palo's my guy bro do you want to kick us off with the questions well look I mean I'm excited about seeing you out there on Sunday how do you look for the last five times you've been here you finished in the top five is that do you look at that more as confidence that you can finally win it or disappointment that you've been so close but haven't been able to get over the hump oh man um every time it's a new story here you know every every single one is different and um I'm just I'm so grateful just to be a part of it right and I've had I feel like such um people can say maybe it's bad luck and bad timing sometimes but I think it's you know it's actually been a showing that this place likes me you know it's given me so much already and the winners have always talked about the the indie magic right what it what it feels like and I've always said I have felt this magic and I haven't even won before so I don't even know what it feels like to I can't even imagine but um I love this place I genuinely I I look forward to this time of the year every single year I come down the tunnel every single time get goosebumps and it's probably because of the emotions that this place or the emotions that are correlated to this to this place and this experience at the indie 500 which is probably why I feel a certain way but um I think it's been a combination of execution of just of being there being patient um learning what I need from the car in order to to get it there into a fighting position and you know I don't think it's going to be any different this year I know I'm going to be in the fight I know I'm going to be able to uh to challenge and um a bit of a different story I would say this year with first time that I that I don't use the car that I've raced here every single year with you know with the accident that I had on Monday and yes how does that impact it um it's a new car it's different um but it's this car that I'm racing with um she's been good to me she's been very good to me I've won with her before and um it's it's behaved well um so I'm not worried at all you're almost you almost talk about it like it's a living breathing a kind of and I I don't know what men I'm going to tell you um so this this car she's got a name but I've I've that name will be remained really will remain behind closed doors she wins on Sunday that name's coming out but um just no one else know the name outside of you no my team knows okay my team knows my guys know and my crew chief after the accident how he's like are you okay like you know I'm happy to see you're right it's got a resemblance to an experience to an experience that never that never leads to fail it's always always amazing my crew chief comes with me and he's like hey like you know we're gonna we're gonna be racing with you know xyz and I'll say and he looked excited and um and I don't know I was kind of like damn let's go like let's get it so why didn't you race in her from the beginning it um because we always we all have one car just for the speedway and I've had you know I've had my speedway car that's been with me since 2020 every single year I've done the exact I've raced with the exact same car her name is Lana but Lana is a little bit hurt her crash truck she wasn't gonna be able to you know make it she wasn't gonna be able to make it not because she didn't want to be there but because well someone else ate her lunch so but the cars are from an engineering standpoint they're clones of each other right supposed to be but but that's something no it's it's there are there are cars that regardless of where the setups are if they're identical they will behave differently they will prefer a little bit more of this a little bit more of that and that's what I'm hoping to pepper in tomorrow um this is so I love this you know it's it's I don't know if I can fully capture it so maybe you help me I'll get there halfway and you can explain the rest we've had several drivers on and they talk about this place and the magic of it and the race course needs to pick a winner right and then you talk about your cars that they are physically identical but this one has a different personality than this one yeah there's there's so much almost I don't know if the right word is mysticism about it but real magic about the place there is there is and um it's gotta this place I'm gonna add on to it has a very it's got a way to surprise you all the time no matter how much you think the previous year's gonna you know correlate to the next year it doesn't every year is different every year is is gonna be different and um that is a part of why it makes it so special what makes it so cool it makes it so um it makes you want it makes you want it because it does kind of play hard to get sometimes born in Monterey Mexico Monterey Mexico yes moved to san antonio take me to young pato award how old were you the first time you either thought to yourself or said out loud i'm gonna race at the end 500 one day so my first time to watch it um the Dixie wanted oh okay oh scott 2008 yeah wow and um he's someone that i've looked up to my whole career um and somebody that i still look up to um and i you know i get to race him now and i would say that first experience of me watching on tv was like oh that looks cool but i never really grasped what it was i actually thought it was overrated um until i got here in person 2016 alexander rossi won and it was a it was a sold out event it was my first time at the end 500 by myself um in person and when i heard the crowd and just when i saw how everything just looked so perfect like it's hard to put it into words what that experience was like for me but i kept seeing the cars running around i was like i need to be there like i want to be there i need to be there and um and that is what truly sparked that that desire to like i am racing here one day do you the way you i mean we all know what the end 500 is it's the super bowl and that's what everybody's been saying do you feel pressure because of that or and because you've been so close to winning it does that put pressure on you or or you lose it's a privilege man like i i genuinely i know my boss zack uh and you know tk who used to be a racing driver still behaves like one but he is now our our you know the the head of our team i know they they desperately want to win this just as much as i do and the hunger is there to to do it just along with my engineers and my mechanics and everybody that's been with me um but i don't really see it as pressure i genuinely see it as it is such it is such a special opportunity for us 33 that we get to do it not just this year but have done it multiple years um that's that's what we're here for we're here to to fight we're here to win we're here to compete and i like i see it as in like i cannot wait rather than like ah you know there's all this expectation it's like mate the expectation is going to be there all the time so might as well be in it and do what makes you happy and obviously winning makes me very happy so i love the mentality i was gonna say i love that mindset i i think i'm gonna say about what you were gonna say we've been we've been doing this show together you know for the better part of a decade now this might be the most like ret oh sorry be almost this might be the most like emotionally resonant interview i've ever been a part of like honest to god like i really i sincerely appreciate how open and heartfelt you were about you know this event and what it means to you like i that i'm it really made i i'm not a race car driver i never wanted to be a race car driver but it made me feel the kind of the specialness of this place in a way very confident yeah there's a quiet confidence about you part of it i love this place i love it i genuinely like i cannot wait for something he i think you won him over i think he's gonna pick you down at the end of well we have another show tomorrow with some more drivers i already got you with you're flying up you're flying up the straightaway you're outstanding i appreciate you guys thank you best of luck on sunday we'll be following more first things first stingray rob joining the show next right welcome back to first things first live from the indy 500 joining us now that's been a great show it has i'm joining us now stingray rob stingray thanks for being here we had a nice chat in the commercial break so yeah um well this is our second year at indy and when we first got into indy last year we had to kind of go through the driver's pick we were like i'll be i'll take stingray rob um so your name is stingray obviously named after their corvette do you think have you become a fan favorite it's very easy to gravitate towards you i think at times yeah yeah i think people have cheered me on especially around this place 2024 i got to actually lead some laps around here and i was in the car so i couldn't hear it but what i heard after was when i passed for the lead the crowd kind of erupted so i don't know if it's a fan favorite but i at least got a few cheers out of the crowd it was the i've i've told this story before on the show not to you obviously uh my dad's a fireman and fireman's sons are usually firemen and i think a lot of his friends thought i was going to be a fireman and were kind of disappointed in me i think when i was like nah i mean that's not me your name you were named after a race car or a corvette as a little kid was there ever a point where you were like what if i don't want to be a race car driver or is it the perfect name because you always wanted to be a race car driver it's the latter i mean it's a perfect name because i always want to be a race car driver i remember i was like three years old and i was like i'm going to be a race car driver really you know some kids they they want to be the fireman and then they want to be the policemen and then they want to be a doctor they move through those stages and like i entered the race car driver stage and i'm like still relax yeah how old were you when you first actually because we hear some of these kids are five years old racing go karts like how old were you when you first actually race did rate any racing yeah five i was five years old so that's kind of how i got my start i'm from Idaho originally so go karting racing that you know roads everywhere you look we got running water my software season oh but yeah we got we got started out in Idaho and then we traveled all over the world so from the time i was seven eight years old we were all over the country and then pretty soon we're going spain portugal england france belgium idli all for the sake of go kart racing which everyone thinks like wahoo's family fun center right the right rental cars it's like no we were doing 100 plus miles an hour 100 plus and go car into go kart so wow that's how i got started i was thinking what you said like it was go karts how does that translate um this your fourth time here at in the 500 what have you learned over those last three races that you'll be able to take into the race sunday yeah i i think that the last three years have been pretty contrasting in the results as well as in how the race has gone my 2023 season i barely made it into the top 33 made it through bump day started on the last row and we just didn't have a great car that year so i was hanging on for dear life from like lap 12 i mean we recorded a left front tire halfway through the first stint i was like well all right this will be an interesting day then fast forward 2024 led laps had a chance to win the thing but strategy didn't play out so i've seen both the ends of the field and what it takes to run at each end and then how do you work your way through the crowd and so i think for us starting where we are we're going to have to take some big risks and i think the conditions for the day will be good i think it will race well but it's a stacked field there's no slouches anymore and so i think that the competitive nature is going to be you know how do you make moves but then how do you evolve through those yellow flags to to move forward it's so funny we were we had uh ellio on earlier and he's was talking about like i'm watching for people in the back taking risks yeah because if you're in the back you have to take a shot how how early are you going to start say you know what if i don't do it now there's no point in waiting i think kind of the cutoff is lap 100 i think once you're to lap 100 you're kind of in the end game so to speak you got to start positioning yourself everything prior to that you're kind of just surviving you're just trying to get through maybe make a few moves yeah but the race really doesn't start until lap 101 101 i've got stingray rob but we're stingray it's changing in the team sports people are playing longer and longer but the primes of people's career in the team sports is typically like 25 to 30 is when you're there at their athletic prime you're 24 correct yeah i don't know if that translates to race racing at all but do you think like you're entering your prime as a driver do you still consider yourself as like a very young driver that's learning like where do you see yourself on your career journey i would like to think i'm not my prime yet uh i think that that's still to come hopefully but if you were to ask young stingray when his prime was he'd probably say about 14 winning championships in karting was a lot easier than it is now but you do see like that longevity happen throughout the field guys like scott dixon still finishing up podium still winning races helio that one is fourth not that long ago so i think that you do have a bit of a bigger spread of age for drivers than you would normally see in other sports and maybe that's just the wisdom coming through they know how to engineer a race car more than they know how to like be physically demanding inside the race car play the old man's sport i guess at times and just be wiser than the rest of the guys oh so stingray thanks for taking some time oh we've been big fans of you it's fine and it's finally nice to meet you hey keep your eye out for stingray lap 100 things are gonna be happening