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The Motorsport Brief: Indy 500 preview with NBC commentator Townsend Bell · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to a special bonus edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:07
  It's Friday the 24th of May 2024.
• 0:10
  One of the dual events of the season.
• 0:12
  The Indy 500 is just around the corner.
• 0:15
  We're about to preview it with a driver who's walked it and now talks it for NBC.
• 0:22
  G'day everybody, Rusty here.
• 0:23
  Welcome to another ep of the Garage Shortcast.
• 0:26
  Thanks especially to my buddy Lee Diffie who has helped organise this one.
• 0:30
  Townsend Bell is kindly standing by in Indianapolis during the busy month of May schedule for the NBC broadcast team.
• 0:38
  Don't forget the latest feature ep of Rusty's Garage out now with former RPM reporter Alison Droher from 10 Motorsport, back when the network was the home of the sport.
• 0:47
  With everything from MotoGP, World Rally, and of course played an important role in that meteoric rise of supercars in the early 2000s.
• 0:57
  Triple M funny man Doug Mulray to showing Neil Crompton her map of target Tasmania learning to navigate in rallies marrying into the Bates rally family and the commitment to help her son chase the supercars dream.
• 1:10
  Zach Bates made a big impression in Toyota 86 and is now a winner in Super 2 as well.
• 1:16
  Nice to walk down memory lane in that two part feature episode and hear that Alison is healthy too.
• 1:22
  Right this is a bit of a spotter's guide on some in the impressive.
• 1:26
  Indy 500 field this year, especially those from this corner of the world.
• 1:31
  I'm told that Townsend doesn't take a pen with him into the broadcast booth, but his insights, and I've no doubt it'll be the same in this pod, are fantastic.
• 1:40
  James Hinchcliffe, who joined us for the preview last year, will be alongside Townsend for the call.
• 1:45
  To be honest, I do not know how I have survived the past couple of months with the ribbing from Ricky Carmichael while the US Supercross was on.
• 1:53
  The IndyCar broadcast team have stirred me a bit too, led by the ringleader Diffie, who you will be with on Sunday.
• 2:00
  G'day Townsend, welcome to the pod.
• 2:02
  Thanks, I need to buckle up, I'm not sure what to expect.
• 2:06
  He is good fun, isn't he?
• 2:07
  We'll get to him in a little moment.
• 2:08
  Let's start at the top.
• 2:09
  Every year, for different reasons, this race seems to be special.
• 2:14
  Give our listeners a sense of what you've observed over the month of May and why...
• 2:18
  This one, in your opinion, may be memorable because IndyCar is just so damn competitive right now, isn't it?
• 2:25
  Yeah.
• 2:25
  I mean, frankly, it always has been.
• 2:27
  It just continues to get refined each and every year.
• 2:31
  It seems like the...
• 2:33
  The B teams are a little better.
• 2:35
  The C teams are not far off.
• 2:38
  And I think the consistency of the chassis engine tire combination allows for closer competition over time, right?
• 2:47
  The basic rules of the curve would suggest that the longer time goes on, it's going to get a chance for people to catch up to the Penske's.
• 2:57
  And I really think that's the
• 2:58
  The story off the top is first time since 1988 that Team Penske has, you know, locked it down on the front row.
• 3:07
  And convincingly, they did it in pretty dominant fashion, not only having fast cars down the straights, incredible handling in the corners for four laps of consistency.
• 3:18
  And then the really hard part, I think, is building three very, very
• 3:24
  competitive consistent cars across the board there's not one down in 20th they're all three just right there in the same you know in the in the same tenth of a mile an hour seemingly seemingly it probably looks like advantage chevy right now but knowing this race like you do are those with honda power still a good chance despite how the grid reads
• 3:47
  Yeah, I think at the higher boost level, at the 1.5 bar on qualifying weekend, Chevy did seem to have an advantage.
• 3:56
  But at the 1.3 bar race trim boost, Honda seems very competitive.
• 4:03
  In fact, the car that stood out the most in Monday practice, the two-hour practice,
• 4:09
  was Colton Hurta in a Honda.
• 4:11
  And I think that has less to do with engine performance and more to do with just driver and car setup.
• 4:17
  He was the one that really stood out, especially in the last third of a tire stint.
• 4:23
  He ran 32 laps right out of the gate, and it looked healthy, looked really good.
• 4:27
  Scott McLaughlin's pole run was epic.
• 4:30
  That's without us in this part of the world sounding kind of patriotic about the former Supercars champion.
• 4:36
  He looks Townsend as an athlete as though he has gone to another level.
• 4:40
  He almost seems to have dialed back a little bit of the bus bro stuff.
• 4:44
  He's got good people in his corner.
• 4:46
  Biggest stage, starting in the best spot.
• 4:50
  How does he park this next level of pressure and deliver on Sunday?
• 4:55
  Well, in the same way that he did in qualifying, which is, it's hard for people to realize how pressure packed that is.
• 5:02
  Just the anxiety of hanging it all out there and taking big risks and have to be laser focused.
• 5:10
  I mean, he had 16 perfect corners, Scotty Mack did in qualifying.
• 5:15
  And it helps that he had a great car, but you also have to make the adjustments and work with your engineering to get it there and make all the right decisions.
• 5:23
  And he was just simply the best for those four laps.
• 5:28
  Now, if you look at his Indy 500 record, I think he's been, what, three times in the 500 best finish of, what, 14?
• 5:36
  So, you know, there's some work to do.
• 5:39
  He knows it to get to where you win the Indy 500, right?
• 5:45
  And he's got everything.
• 5:46
  He's got the team.
• 5:47
  Team Penske, always the best on pit lane.
• 5:49
  He's starting up front.
• 5:50
  Where it gets challenging is an untimely yellow.
• 5:54
  Where it gets challenging is a little bobble on pit lane.
• 5:58
  Maybe not one of the teams doing.
• 6:00
  Maybe it's simply another competitor, like we saw last year with Alex Blow and Rina Svike on pit lane.
• 6:07
  If he gets back in the field, that's where the real measure is going to come.
• 6:10
  If he stays up front all day, him and his two Penske teammates are going to be really tough to beat.
• 6:16
  But he did just a terrific job.
• 6:19
  Um, I spent the night, uh, Monday night, I was at an event with Rick Mears, who of course drove the, uh, the yellow submarine, the Pennzoil car, those colors, I think four times, um, uh, at the Indy 500.
• 6:31
  And, uh, it's really cool to see that program, uh, celebrated, uh, in the best possible way on the front row.
• 6:38
  Let's talk a little bit more about Rick.
• 6:40
  I spoke to Will Power yesterday and he said that Rick often reminds him that it's about using the first half to get to the second half and then being there for the final 20 laps.
• 6:50
  That's really sage advice, right?
• 6:51
  But how difficult is that to execute?
• 6:55
  Well, you're asking the wrong guy because I did it 10 times and I never won.
• 7:00
  You know, my best finish was fourth.
• 7:02
  And boy, I can tell you one thing.
• 7:05
  If I had Rick Mears in my corner, you know, 24-7, like the Team Penske boys have enjoyed over the last couple of decades as a coach, as a mentor, as an advisor, as a spotter sometimes, I mean, there's nobody better.
• 7:24
  Grounded common sense, but brilliant advice at the same time that I think is priceless.
• 7:32
  And for somebody like McLaughlin, who comes here with no Oval experience, no IndyCar experience, but just spectacular raw talent.
• 7:42
  If you match spectacular raw talent with world class coaching and guidance like you get from Rick Mears, that's the magic combination.
• 7:51
  And look, I had, you know, SVG as a teammate at Daytona, so I know how talented Shane is.
• 7:59
  And I know how much McLaughlin competed and beat SVG for a few years there.
• 8:07
  So there was no question that McLaughlin just needed the time to gain the experience.
• 8:12
  I still don't know if he would say he's 100% there on his Oval Apprenticeship.
• 8:19
  I know he's still learning a bit, but he's so committed to it.
• 8:22
  And it wouldn't surprise me at all if he pulls it off on Sunday.
• 8:26
  A thought on willpower.
• 8:27
  He's middle of the front row.
• 8:30
  When I finished the podcast with him yesterday and we'd stopped recording, I
• 8:33
  I had a bit of a longer chat with him and I got a sense of just how mentally strong he is right now.
• 8:39
  He drank the winner's milk in 2018.
• 8:43
  It's difficult to predict as we sit here and talk now, but what chance of him doing that again on Monday morning our time?
• 8:50
  Again, totally possible.
• 8:52
  He's done it now.
• 8:53
  He knows.
• 8:54
  It took him what probably...
• 8:57
  four to five years to really get comfortable on ovals and love ovals.
• 9:02
  I think McLaughlin has been quicker to get to that point than Will was early on in his, his IndyCar oval career.
• 9:09
  Um, but yeah, I mean, well, there's, you know, mentally strong, but it starts with being mental.
• 9:14
  I mean, the guy is just an absolute savage of like focus and obsession and drive, uh, to make it happen.
• 9:23
  Um,
• 9:25
  And I've seen a willpower this year that seems content to take what he's given on the racetrack.
• 9:30
  And, you know, if it's a third place is the best that's on offer.
• 9:35
  That's all he's going for.
• 9:36
  He's not pushing for more.
• 9:37
  He seems kind of chill, too, if that makes sense.
• 9:39
  It's like he's got the intensity on the racetrack, but everything seems kind of chill off the track.
• 9:45
  And I think that's a really good sign for him.
• 9:47
  The headlines in the lead up, obviously, have been around the whole push to pass thing, right?
• 9:51
  They seem to have parked a bit of that to be eyes forward.
• 9:55
  Obviously, there's some people that have been benched within the team.
• 9:57
  Has that whole thing sort of simmered now or are there still some rivals that are a bit uneasy about all that?
• 10:03
  I'm not sure anybody has really come to grips with the explanation.
• 10:09
  The competitor is a lot of eye-rolling.
• 10:11
  I mean, it's a fantastic story, and it's just hard to line everything up.
• 10:18
  It sort of just doesn't still make a lot of sense.
• 10:21
  But I think from our standpoint, we're beyond that as a broadcaster.
• 10:33
  You know, they're the team to beat, especially in Indianapolis.
• 10:35
  They're going for their 20th win, which is insane.
• 10:40
  And, you know, they're off to the best start they've had since 1988.
• 10:45
  So despite all of those challenges, they still reminded all of us that their process, their approach is ruthlessly successful.
• 10:55
  A quick break here on Rusty's Garage.
• 10:57
  More from Townsend Bell in just a few moments.
• 11:02
  This is the Motorsport Brief.
• 11:04
  Gripping chat this one with former racer turned NBC commentator Townsend Bell in Indianapolis ahead of Monday's Indy 500.
• 11:12
  That's Monday, our time.
• 11:13
  Let's get back to the convo now.
• 11:16
  Keeping the kind of preview that we're doing here in this part of the world, let's talk Scott Dixon.
• 11:21
  I would love to know the secret to his longevity.
• 11:23
  I think we all would rather.
• 11:26
  Long Beach just showed how savvy he was toward the end of that one there.
• 11:29
  It's been a while since he's drunk that winner's milk though, hey?
• 11:32
  Yeah, it has.
• 11:34
  But you go back, what, two years ago, he was the car to beat.
• 11:38
  He had that pit speed violation, which was a killer.
• 11:40
  But the team was there.
• 11:42
  The setup was there.
• 11:43
  Unfortunately for Scott, you know, this last weekend in qualifying, I talked with this team owner, Chip Ganassi, about this, that...
• 11:50
  The advantage that Scott would normally have when, say, the engine performance wasn't all there with Chevy is, you know, tough conditions.
• 11:58
  Like, had it been super hot, had it been windy, you know, where Scott could use his sort of veteran's advantage with all that experience and work the controls in difficult conditions to sort of out-qualify where they should have been.
• 12:10
  It was just simply perfect conditions, no wind.
• 12:14
  And there really...
• 12:17
  Scott's hands were kind of tied in that situation.
• 12:19
  The race is different, though.
• 12:20
  The race allows Scott to do Scott things, which is out-smart, out-strategize, and out-technique the competition on a lot of fronts.
• 12:30
  I couldn't help myself.
• 12:31
  After the Long Beach Grand Prix, our broadcast booth is up atop the front straightaway, and after our broadcast,
• 12:38
  NBC show was over I had to go down to victory lane and just like congratulate him because here I am I've raced in the car since 2016 I used to race in the lights against Scott Dixon and you know I'm out of it for eight years now and the guy's still going and he's still winning and he's still you know confusing the hell out of everybody and I just think that's so cool I mean he's our uh he's the Tom Brady of this sport by far right he's uh you know in his 40s now and killing it
• 13:08
  He deserves more recognition in this part of the world, in New Zealand especially.
• 13:11
  Just a couple of points if we could... Well, how's that possible?
• 13:14
  How could he not have enough recognition?
• 13:16
  Who else are you rooting for now?
• 13:18
  I mean, I'm from rugby.
• 13:21
  I'm with you.
• 13:21
  I'm with you.
• 13:22
  I'm totally with you.
• 13:23
  There are times where I think, you know, from a sports person of the year or that style of award townsend, that he should be recognized more for what he's done in this part of the world, I think, and remind the...
• 13:34
  the Kiwi population certainly of that.
• 13:37
  Quickly, the other Kiwi in the Ganassi family, Marcus Armstrong, he's made the relatively recent move from Europe and Formula 2, a bit of observations about him.
• 13:46
  And then Tom Blomquist as well with Meyershank Racing.
• 13:49
  He's a guy that's had, as you know, success at the Daytona 24-hour.
• 13:52
  He was raised in Auckland and so on, but also relatively new still to IndyCar and the Brickyard.
• 13:58
  Yeah.
• 13:59
  So Marcus is, you know, he's in his first oval race,
• 14:05
  He's taken it all in.
• 14:08
  He's been steady, right?
• 14:09
  Marcus has, I think, done a really good job to get all the laps on offer, study his teammates.
• 14:19
  He's been quick.
• 14:21
  But he hasn't been better than Pillow or Dixon in a definitive way yet.
• 14:26
  And that's the question, is will there be this kind of breakthrough where –
• 14:32
  you know, Armstrong is the man on a weekend above his teammates, like unquestionably.
• 14:39
  He like, you know, maybe he'll have a circumstance where he finishes ahead of him.
• 14:42
  But in terms of the total performance, can he go from, you know, apprentice to master?
• 14:48
  Can he go from student to, you know, show in the field how it's done?
• 14:53
  I don't know yet.
• 14:57
  He's on the path.
• 14:58
  I just don't know how far he'll get there.
• 15:01
  with Tom Blomquist, I mean, a proven top talent in IMSA sports car racing, sports cars all over the world.
• 15:11
  If you go back, I think, to the...
• 15:13
  what was it, the 2014 Euro F3 standings?
• 15:18
  I think that's the season, right?
• 15:20
  You've got Verstappen, you've got Ocon, you've got Blumquist, you've got a bunch of other people.
• 15:24
  I think Ferrucci was out there.
• 15:26
  I mean, if you look at how Tom did that season, you know that he's an electric talent.
• 15:36
  I know Tom reasonably well, spent some time with him, and I know that he was reluctant about showing up in Indianapolis.
• 15:43
  It was not something that I think he would have automatically signed up for.
• 15:47
  I think he wanted to race Indy cars, but he's more like Will Power was.
• 15:51
  when he was a rookie, pretty intimidated, not totally sure about, you know, is this really a good idea?
• 15:57
  This insanity of two hundred and thirty five miles an hour around an oval that changed.
• 16:04
  It felt like on last weekend on Saturday, I guess he would have qualified when he got out of the car and he just cracked the biggest smile that that I hadn't seen yet.
• 16:14
  It was sort of like this release of tension, like,
• 16:18
  This might be a bad idea, but I'm freaking loving it.
• 16:22
  You know, that was the face that I saw on Blumquist.
• 16:25
  And that's a pretty important transition.
• 16:27
  So I think, you know, still a lot to learn.
• 16:30
  Again, first oval race.
• 16:31
  But, you know, he's shown us in sports cars that he can beat anybody once he settles in.
• 16:37
  And I'm really excited for Tom to see what the second half of his rookie year looks like.
• 16:42
  I still think he's got to...
• 16:43
  He's got to get to that second half.
• 16:45
  He just needs to finish the Indy 500 and give himself a chance to get to Detroit, Road America, those places, especially Road America.
• 16:53
  Yeah, definitely.
• 16:54
  That's a great little story.
• 16:55
  Thank you for sharing that with us.
• 16:56
  Few of us have high hopes for Kyle Larson, right?
• 16:59
  NASCAR champion.
• 17:00
  We have seen him down under midgets, sprint cars, and so on.
• 17:05
  Debut at one of the biggest places in world motor racing.
• 17:09
  He's on the second row.
• 17:11
  What are your impressions so far?
• 17:13
  It just looks like Kyle Larson.
• 17:16
  I mean, you hear the cliche all the time was born to do this.
• 17:19
  Kyle Larson is just there is so much natural ability in that kid.
• 17:25
  I mean, he's unbelievable.
• 17:26
  He's only 31 years old.
• 17:29
  And what I've said on the broadcast is that you have to remember that Kyle Larson has more racing experience by like three or four X than anybody in the field.
• 17:39
  Right.
• 17:39
  This guy has done more car races
• 17:41
  probably triple than Scott Dixon has in his career.
• 17:45
  And Marcus, excuse me, Kyle is only 31 years old.
• 17:48
  I mean, this guy races all the time, sprint cars, you know, short track, late models, whatever, NASCAR, Xfinity, trucks.
• 17:58
  And most of his races are ovals.
• 18:01
  So he, from an experience standpoint, it's not even close.
• 18:05
  He just has no Indy car experience.
• 18:08
  But it didn't take him long to get real comfortable.
• 18:11
  The only difference is he's not fully dialed in probably on the controls, although he learned a lot, I think, in the two-hour practice on Monday.
• 18:20
  But he's easily the best rookie I think we've ever seen.
• 18:25
  Second last question for you.
• 18:27
  I would love to give our listeners...
• 18:29
  to tap into the driver's brain here for a little moment.
• 18:32
  What is a good car like on that afternoon at Indy?
• 18:36
  200 laps, 500 mile, 800 kilometers.
• 18:38
  And what's an evil car like?
• 18:40
  And how do you deal with that?
• 18:41
  Yeah, a good car is in the lead is blissful, right?
• 18:46
  In front of the Indy 500, your race car is meeting clean air, which is what it was designed around.
• 18:52
  You know, I think a lot of people forget that.
• 18:54
  These cars, like a Formula One car, they are designed as if the world is always going to be perfect.
• 19:02
  A good car in traffic is really the result of what you do.
• 19:07
  made it with your engineers and on top of that how you have learned to adjust it with the controls that are available um but i said this to um actually to tom blumquist a few months ago as he was asking me some questions we were in miami at an event and he was asking me a little bit about what to expect and i said it's important that you realize it will never be comfortable racing a car at indy you're just gonna it's just how good can you make it work
• 19:35
  Because it'll always be uncomfortable.
• 19:37
  So just embrace that.
• 19:40
  There's no such thing as like running around four cars back in a tow and feeling like, oh, this just feels amazing.
• 19:46
  It will not feel amazing.
• 19:48
  It'll feel wrong and intimidating and...
• 19:51
  What can you do to make it the least, you know, least uncomfortable as possible?
• 19:58
  Great.
• 19:59
  Great insights there, mate.
• 20:01
  Hey, quickly, eight years on, have you got itchy feet?
• 20:04
  And with a massive, massive day of broadcasting, is there a little secret thing that you guys have, you, Hinch, Diff, to get you through the afternoon?
• 20:14
  When he was calling the Bathurst 1000, he used to sneak out for a bit of racetrack food, Lee Diffie, and his go-to podcast.
• 20:21
  was Dim Sims.
• 20:22
  He loves dimmies.
• 20:23
  So do you have anything like that in the commentary box to get you through the big day?
• 20:29
  Not really.
• 20:30
  Frankly, the Indy 500, we don't need it.
• 20:33
  It's so good.
• 20:34
  Even practice sessions here, we are so...
• 20:37
  uh, mesmerized by, um, uh, the, the skill, the bravery, right?
• 20:42
  It's the riskiest race on the schedule.
• 20:45
  Um, and the speed is sensational and just the atmosphere is, is electric.
• 20:50
  Uh, we'll wake up at four 30 AM on Sunday morning for our police escort.
• 20:55
  And, uh,
• 20:56
  We'll be going on adrenaline all day long.
• 20:59
  So when the green flag drops, and especially when that sweet Aussie tone proclaims, bring the action, you can't help but get excited.
• 21:10
  So yeah, there's some gummy bears and some wasabi peas that might populate the broadcast desk, but no, it's all pure natural adrenaline taking us through.
• 21:21
  His catchphrase has become iconic.
• 21:24
  Have a fantastic call.
• 21:25
  And can we, at some point, if you're up for it, sit down for a feature chat, because you have a fantastic story that I would love to share with our Rusty's Garage audience with all the different things you've done during your racing career and beyond that.
• 21:38
  And thank you very much for talking to us today.
• 21:41
  I'd love to do it.
• 21:41
  As long as we can meet in Surfers Paradise, I'll be there.
• 21:45
  How good is he?
• 21:46
  The 20 minutes just flew by, didn't it?
• 21:48
  And some great takeaways in there for both you and me.
• 21:51
  Catch the NBC call on Stan Sport in Australia.
• 21:54
  The Indy 500 is also on Fox Sports' sister network, Sky Sport, in New Zealand.
• 22:00
  Now, no news in this episode.
• 22:02
  I did, I want to tell you, record a new feature episode while I was in Western Australia last weekend with the two-time Australian Rally Champion.
• 22:10
  rob herridge keep an eye out for notifications on that in the days ahead some very funny yarns in there including thinking he was going to be the next world rally champion when he did his first ever transport to a stage he wasn't even on the competitive at that point doing gravel notes for colin mccray being teammate to possum born and also some success in things like offshore power boating barefoot water skiing and clay target shooting you'll enjoy that
• 22:37
  That is it for this special edition.
• 22:38
  As always, thank you for listening.
• 22:40
  Please rate and review the pod if you get a spare moment.
• 22:42
  We would love your feedback.
• 22:45
  Enjoy one of the best weekends in motorsport.
• 22:49
  MotoGP in Catalonia, Monaco Grand Prix for Formula 1 and the Indy 500.
• 22:54
  Get a coffee and the snacks ready for the marathon this weekend.
• 22:58
  Bye for now.