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The Motorsport Brief: The Biggest Race in the World with James Hinchcliffe · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Wednesday, the 24th of May, 2023.
• 0:10
  We are just days out from one of the biggest weekends on the annual motorsport calendar.
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  On one side of the pond, the Monaco Grand Prix, the jewel in the F1 crown.
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  On the other, the Indianapolis 500, the greatest spectacle in racing.
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  And today, we're going to take you for a special Indy preview.
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  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for another edition of our new offering at Rusty's Garage, a short cast, a quick fix around news, events, things happening in the world of motorsport.
• 0:42
  Today's guest has walked it and can talk it, doing a super job for NBC alongside expat Aussie commentator and a good friend of ours in Lee Diffie and another former racer in Townsend Bell.
• 0:55
  Now,
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  Many of you will remember Hinch from calling the IndyCar race on the Gold Coast over a decade ago.
• 1:02
  And he showed Aussie audiences back then that he was just as talented behind the mic and in broadcasting as he is in the cockpit of an IndyCar.
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  For reference for you, six wins, 18 podiums from his 161 starts in the sport.
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  And there are some big teams on the James Hinchcliffe CV, including Newman Haas and Andretti Autosport.
• 1:24
  He's done some work on F1 recently as well in Miami and has his own excellent podcast, which you should check out with Alexander Rossi called Off Track.
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  He is on the line.
• 1:34
  James, welcome.
• 1:35
  Thank you so much for the intro.
• 1:37
  I feel like I owe you money now or something after that one.
• 1:41
  Hey, hard to know where to start.
• 1:44
  This week, as always, has delivered some incredible theatre, hasn't it?
• 1:49
  Can we begin with pole position?
• 1:51
  What was it?
• 1:52
  Second closest margin in terms of speed between the top two qualifiers in Indy 500 history, 0.006 of a mile an hour, and the only time it was closer, if I'm right, is between you and Ryan Briscoe in 2012.
• 2:07
  Yeah, yeah, still better about that one, but...
• 2:10
  It's I was on the losing end of that one.
• 2:13
  But but yeah, no, I just it just highlights how incredibly competitive it is right now.
• 2:18
  You know, it's second closest difference between first and second.
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  I think it's the tightest front row that we've had, the closest field that we've had, the fastest field that we've had, the fastest pole position speed that we've had.
• 2:28
  So it's really been a pretty exciting qualifying weekend.
• 2:32
  Amazing.
• 2:33
  Third consecutive Indy 500 poll for Chip Ganassi Racing, a first for Alex Pillow.
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  On paper, are the Ganassi cars the favourites?
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  And it's very hard to use that word, James, favourite for a race like this, isn't it?
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  It really is just, you know, with a 500-mile race, there's so much that can happen.
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  We've got more, you know, more cars on track and more competitors than we do at any other event.
• 2:58
  And so that just throws that many more variables into the mix.
• 3:01
  And Ganassi have certainly had the cars to beat on race day the last few years.
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  You have to give the Chevy teams credit because qualifying has really been a Honda affair the last three seasons with way more Hondas in the top 12.
• 3:14
  and qualifying than Chevrolet's.
• 3:17
  But this year, when we put up the boost for Fast Friday, it really seemed like the tide had turned.
• 3:22
  I think in race trim, the engines are pretty close, and so you kind of have to default back to the teams.
• 3:26
  And so it does still look like it's Ganassi's race to lose in a lot of ways because they are so fast.
• 3:33
  They have four incredibly capable drivers.
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  Everyone on the team has either won a championship or a 500, and you've got to think they've got a good shot at it.
• 3:42
  Dixie, Scott Dixon, what is he now?
• 3:44
  42.
• 3:45
  For me, he still has so much that he has to offer against the younger competitors, but it has been a while since the six-time series champion got to drink that winner's milk at Indy.
• 3:59
  You know, is this the year that he can add another 500 to that incredible trophy cabinet of his?
• 4:04
  I mean, every year I say yes.
• 4:06
  I mean, every year I go into Indy expecting Scott Dixon to win it because he's just too good to only have one.
• 4:12
  I say only.
• 4:13
  Most drivers would give their left arm to have just the one.
• 4:16
  But when you look at what Scott's accomplished across his career with the championships, the race wins, everything, and I think more than the time from the last win,
• 4:26
  It's how many close calls he's had that probably really sit with him.
• 4:29
  I think it's three second places, and that's not even including the last two years where, I mean, he really had the car to beat.
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  And one year got cut out by a yellow.
• 4:38
  Last year got cut out by speeding in pit lane on the final stop.
• 4:41
  Just heartbreaking stuff.
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  So I think, I mean...
• 4:46
  I think he would give two of his championships back to get another 500, but I'm with you.
• 4:52
  He still has a lot of racing in him, and he is still very capable of winning this race and any other race on the calendar.
• 4:58
  What about Team Penske's chances?
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  And in a minute, we'll drill down on a couple of their drivers that are well-known to Aussie audiences.
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  In broad terms, it kind of feels like as an outfit, they didn't have the outright speed in qualifying, but they seem to have showed up with good race cars, with good race pace.
• 5:15
  Is that a fair observation?
• 5:17
  Yeah, I think that's spot on.
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  You know, it looked very positive throughout practice week.
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  The cars look very comfortable in race trim.
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  And I think with the step up that we saw from Chevy and qualifying boost from the engines, we were expecting them to be more of a factor over qualifying weekend.
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  Only one Penske in the top 12, even though there were eight Chevys.
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  That tells you something.
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  It tells you they're missing a little something when it comes to pure pace.
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  And you don't win the race on qualifying pace, certainly.
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  So they have a lot to race for still.
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  But in a bit of a track position race sometimes, you make your race a little more difficult for yourself when you're starting in the teens.
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  That said, from a strategy standpoint, there's probably no better crew than the Penske organization.
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  They're so good at splitting strategies.
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  Sometimes they have to sacrifice a car to make sure they cover all the bases, which I love the commitment to doing that.
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  You're sort of putting one driver out on an island
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  chances are it's not going to work out.
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  But if one thing falls this way, you're laughing.
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  It's a big risk, but you're there for the team.
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  You know, those drivers know they drive not for themselves.
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  They drive for Team Penske and they drive for Roger.
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  And that's why he's got 15 baby Borgs lined up in his office in Michigan.
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  So Scott McLaughlin is someone that Aussies and Kiwis are very proud of.
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  Before he went to America, I mean, obviously a Bathurst winner and a multiple supercars champion.
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  We think that transition he's made to IndyCar and the impression that he's made is super impressive.
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  It feels like, James, his completeness as a racer, what he is bringing to this edition of the 500 is another level again.
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  From the work that he's done with Rick Mears and the guys around him, this is, as you would hope and expect, arguably his best chance to for now, isn't it?
• 7:09
  No doubt.
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  You know, I mean, Scott's Scott's transition over to Indy cars and the rate at which he picked up the craft, the subtleties and, you know, the nuance and learning the different types of circuits from the road courses to the street circuits to the short ovals to the super speedway.
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  I mean, meteoric.
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  It's it is one of the most impressive, you know, second careers in motorsports I've ever seen.
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  And, you know, you look at his performances in Texas last year and, you know, at the 500 until his incident last season, he's definitely got what it takes.
• 7:44
  He's surrounded by some of the best people in the business.
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  And I love that only a few years into kind of being surrounded in this world, his passion for this race in particular is...
• 7:53
  it's unrivaled you know it's incredible to see how much he's really adopted uh his his love for racing over here and his passion for this race and yeah he is fully committed like you say his work ethic is great i said he's got great people around him he's got a great shot at it what about willpower uh quick on monday after qualifying um when he won in 2018 aussie celebrated immensely what about his chances for the 500 this year
• 8:17
  Yeah, I mean, highest starting Penske car, so that's a good start right off the bat.
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  And, you know, you look at what will...
• 8:25
  did in terms of how he applied his approach to the championship last year that ultimately you know won him another title that's exactly the kind of approach you almost need to have in the 500 you kind of have to know there's going to be stints where maybe it doesn't go your way but just minimize the damage and then stints when your car strong and the situations are following your way really pounce and take advantage of it.
• 8:47
  And that's what led him to a championship last year.
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  And that's what's so key in these long races.
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  You know, we're used to races where it's two, maybe three pit stops.
• 8:55
  That's the debate.
• 8:56
  You could have six, seven pit stops in the 500.
• 8:59
  There's just so much more time for things to go wrong, but so much time for things to rebound and come back your way if it's sort of ebbing and flowing the wrong way at a giving time.
• 9:07
  So I think Will's, you know, experience and maturity, having won this race, having two championships.
• 9:12
  Yeah.
• 9:13
  Puts him in a great spot.
• 9:14
  Tony Kanaan.
• 9:16
  Aussies would say a swan song, the kind of farewell appearance, a guy who's much loved in that sport, in that paddock.
• 9:23
  I think even Steve Horn, who was a significant player in the early part of his career and has worked with supercars in recent time, is actually trackside there at Indy for his final race.
• 9:33
  He was quickest in final practice before qualifying.
• 9:36
  What about Tony's chances?
• 9:37
  And even more broadly, James Arrow McLaren.
• 9:40
  Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, Tony winning this race would be such a storybook ending.
• 9:44
  And I say ending lightly.
• 9:45
  We're not entirely sure he's actually retiring because he's tried this one two or three times before.
• 9:50
  So I'll believe it when he's not on the grid next year.
• 9:53
  But but no, I mean, he's he's such a he's such a fan favorite here at the Speedway.
• 9:58
  His win in 13 was, you know, one of the most popular, I think, in history.
• 10:02
  And for him to go on top would quite literally be the best mic drop moment you could possibly have.
• 10:09
  And because of the way that McLaren has showed up this month, he has a great chance.
• 10:14
  They had all four of their cars in the top 10 in qualifying, which is massively impressive with how competitive the field is.
• 10:20
  And another organization that's just loaded with talent behind the wheel, behind the wall, on the engineering stand, whatever.
• 10:27
  And they came so close last year.
• 10:29
  They were second and fourth in this race last year.
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  And the drivers that came third and fifth are now also on that team.
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  So it's a pretty stacked cast over there.
• 10:37
  And this could be the year you really see a breakout from that group.
• 10:44
  We talked about the gripping nature of this whole week and more at the beginning of the podcast.
• 10:51
  Before we even get to the race, Graham Rahal gets bumped by his own teammate.
• 10:56
  That was gut-wrenching to watch, but it was unbelievable television.
• 11:00
  You were drawn to it.
• 11:02
  parties involved kind of handled it so professionally and then fate has kind of intervened to to give graham a start by the looks of it yeah i mean you'd think we wrote the script i mean it's theater it's it's uh it's incredible what this place does you know to watch graham go through that anguish and not just not just he got bumped the way he got bumped by a teammate who was going out for back-to-back runs those never go quicker than
• 11:27
  Jack got him by going faster on his fourth lap than his third.
• 11:31
  That hadn't happened all month.
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  Not one driver did a faster fourth lap than a third lap without some massive obvious mistake.
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  And it defied physics.
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  It literally did.
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  And it left everybody a bit dumbfounded.
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  But, man, did it make for great TV.
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  And I, you know, I fell for Graham.
• 11:48
  I've been there.
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  I've been in that position and it's, it's just so tough.
• 11:51
  You feel like the whole weight of the world on your shoulders and everything's just sort of collapsing in around you and you fast forward 24 hours and he's in this bizarre situation where, you know, Stefan Wilson getting hurt opens up a seat and, you know, first and foremost, we just wish Stefan a speedy recovery.
• 12:08
  That's number one.
• 12:09
  I agree.
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  But it, yeah, it opens up this bizarre situation.
• 12:13
  Look, drivers have switched teams in the 500 for this very reason in the past.
• 12:16
  What makes it so weird is the Honda to Chevrolet jump.
• 12:21
  That's a logistical hurdle, I think, to say the least.
• 12:25
  And I'm impressed as much as I am shocked they got it done.
• 12:28
  But ultimately, it's going to be great to have Graham in the race.
• 12:30
  I agree.
• 12:31
  The crash for Stefan Wilson was a reminder of how brutal the place can be.
• 12:35
  And I think you even on your own Instagram reminded everybody of, you know, even in a personal sense for you, how tough Indy can be at times.
• 12:45
  It's a place that generates all these other stories along the way.
• 12:49
  I mean, we've seen Fernando Alonso make a huge impression on his first appearance and then miss out, you know, in bringing a Formula One driver back into the...
• 12:59
  to the 500.
• 13:00
  Everyone is excited about Kyle Larson coming in 2024.
• 13:05
  It seems on paper like this guy will be another from the get-go to really make an impression of the 500.
• 13:12
  Yeah, I mean, you can go through the list of drivers lately that we've had that have come over and done that.
• 13:17
  Obviously, Fernando was a huge one.
• 13:20
  Jimmy Johnson coming, and after saying he wasn't going to do ovals,
• 13:24
  no, you know what?
• 13:25
  This looks like too much fun.
• 13:26
  I want to do it.
• 13:28
  I'm in.
• 13:28
  Yeah, exactly.
• 13:29
  And performing incredibly well on the ovals in an IndyCar.
• 13:33
  And, you know, Larson is obviously just an incredibly talented driver.
• 13:37
  Everything, he jumps in, he wins.
• 13:39
  And it's created a lot of buzz, certainly.
• 13:41
  I'm almost a little disappointed they announced it so early because we got so excited.
• 13:45
  Yeah, but he's not there this year.
• 13:46
  Yeah, hang on.
• 13:47
  We still got to wait a year.
• 13:49
  Um, but what's, what's cool about India is it does give you so much time to prepare.
• 13:53
  Even if you sign the deal on May 1st, you know, you have a week of practice.
• 13:57
  It's, you know, 40 something, almost 50 hours of practice where most race weekends you get 90 minutes.
• 14:03
  Um,
• 14:03
  So it's usually one that drivers can get up to speed with quickly with Larson announcing it so early.
• 14:09
  He's got a full over a full year to prepare.
• 14:12
  I'm sure he'll get some testing in.
• 14:13
  He'll be in the simulator.
• 14:15
  And then once we get to Indy, he'll already be more prepared than most drivers are when you get there.
• 14:20
  And then you still get those 40 something hours of practice.
• 14:22
  So I look at what Jimmy did behind the wheel.
• 14:24
  I look at what Kurt Busch did when he came over from NASCAR and was with a competitive team.
• 14:30
  Kyle Larson has a legitimately good shot as of today at winning the 2024 Indy 500.
• 14:36
  Final one.
• 14:37
  It's a difficult thing to simply say who wins in this race.
• 14:41
  It is like Bathurst because so much can happen over the length of that race.
• 14:46
  Can we maybe get an insight from you on who appears to be the most kind of complete driver coming in?
• 14:52
  And maybe the team that strategically and what they bring to the table is one that we should be keeping a very close eye on come Sunday or Monday morning for Aussie and Kiwi audiences.
• 15:03
  So I wish that we had had this conversation after the open test in April.
• 15:08
  So, you know, we, we all came out for a test April 20 somethingth and, you know, three weeks before we unloaded for practice week here at Indy.
• 15:17
  And I looked at, you know, uh, Lee, who I, I called that session with as six hours or eight and a half hour session.
• 15:24
  It was a marathon session.
• 15:25
  We watched the whole thing.
• 15:27
  And, and I looked at him and we kind of looked at each other and we said, man, man,
• 15:31
  Alex Polo looks really good.
• 15:33
  And so it seems like I said, I wish we'd had that conversation then.
• 15:36
  So it doesn't just look like I'm picking the pole setter.
• 15:38
  And I would have looked really smart when he got pole.
• 15:40
  But honestly, he's been outstanding.
• 15:44
  He just looks incredibly comfortable.
• 15:46
  We know how capable that team is and how fast their cars have been.
• 15:50
  Again, it's no one's race to lose because Indy picks its winners.
• 15:54
  But up to this point, you know, he won the GP.
• 15:57
  He won the pole.
• 15:59
  He's on track for the hat trick, which has only happened once before, you know, the May hat trick.
• 16:05
  I'm not a betting guy, but it's looking really good for Alex Plo at the moment.
• 16:09
  Like Bathurst, long day.
• 16:11
  Any commentary box rituals?
• 16:12
  How do you keep our buddy Lee Diffie under control?
• 16:14
  Is there go-to chocolate or coffee to get you through?
• 16:17
  Well, first of all, nobody keeps Diff under control.
• 16:19
  He runs his own program, and that's why we love him.
• 16:22
  And, yeah, I mean, he is very adamant that we have little bite-sized Kit Kats in there.
• 16:27
  That's kind of his go-to.
• 16:29
  So we ran out during practice week, and he was very cross with our stage manager.
• 16:33
  So we're all stocked up.
• 16:33
  We're all stocked up.
• 16:35
  For for race day.
• 16:37
  But but no, honestly, he I love working with that guy, man.
• 16:40
  He he is so good at what he does.
• 16:42
  And he's got some really cool things that throughout the month he'll always do and make sure he checks off his list.
• 16:48
  And, you know, come race day.
• 16:51
  it's really just understanding the significance of what we're doing that day.
• 16:55
  It's the biggest race in the world.
• 16:56
  It's the largest single day sporting event on earth.
• 16:59
  And we are a part of a small group that's lucky enough to tell that story to the entire world.
• 17:05
  And I love that he brings that passion to it.
• 17:07
  You know, it's, it's this, it's like the passion you had as a driver trying to, trying to race in it.
• 17:12
  I now have that.
• 17:13
  Cause I, I get that energy off him bringing it to the broadcast.
• 17:17
  So we, uh,
• 17:18
  We're really looking forward to it, and hopefully we don't get through too many Kit Kats.
• 17:23
  Awesome stuff, mate.
• 17:24
  I love the fact that there are Kit Kats in there.
• 17:25
  Aussies can watch the race live on Stansport.
• 17:29
  Kiwis can see it, of course, on Sky.
• 17:31
  Have a fantastic call, James, for the 107th running of the Indy 500.
• 17:36
  Thank you very, very much for coming on the podcast to talk about it today.
• 17:39
  Yeah, thanks so much.
• 17:40
  I really appreciate it, guys.
• 17:42
  How good was James?
• 17:44
  And he said to us as we wrap that up there that we can chat with him again next year.
• 17:48
  We would love to do that and have a longer catch-up with him, perhaps, here on Rusty's Garage.
• 17:53
  Before we go, quick congratulations to Will Brown.
• 17:56
  He was on the short cast last week after a difficult round of TCR at Phillip Island.
• 18:01
  He totally bounced back in Tasmania for an ecstatic win in the supercars for Betty Clamenco and Erebus.
• 18:09
  Are the Fords okay?
• 18:11
  We thought we needed to wait until at least the next round of supercars in Darwin before we had enough events in the pocket to kind of talk about parity in Gen 3, that we'd visited enough different tracks, enough different events, that we could look back and see how things between the two marks really were.
• 18:29
  The stats?
• 18:30
  probably don't look good in the GM versus Ford argument.
• 18:33
  They are very much in GM's favour, based purely on numbers.
• 18:37
  Some would say those stats don't lie.
• 18:40
  Others feel like the Ford teams maybe need to do a better job to be more complete.
• 18:44
  Now, Walkinshaw have been close,
• 18:46
  And DJR looked like they unlocked something there in Tasmania.
• 18:51
  So is this a subject perhaps that you'd like us to pursue in a future Rusty's Garage shortcast?
• 18:57
  Let us know.
• 18:58
  Congratulations to Shane Van Gisberg, and he is off.
• 19:02
  to try NASCAR.
• 19:03
  How good with the track house team that have run Kimi Raikkonen in recent time.
• 19:08
  Now, he will go over at the end of June.
• 19:10
  He'll take in the Nashville event, get a sense of things.
• 19:13
  And then a week later, he will be racing on the streets of Chicago.
• 19:18
  And I reckon he will surprise the NASCAR fraternity.
• 19:21
  Many of you feel like on a
• 19:23
  Speed Cafe listener and viewer and reader poll that he is on for a top 10 finish.
• 19:29
  Wouldn't that be a cool story if he could do that?
• 19:32
  Finally, a big thank you to all of you who listened to our podcast at the weekend.
• 19:39
  I was very fortunate to pick up the Best Feature Journalist Award from the team at Motorsport New Zealand, predominantly for the body of work that is in Rusty's Garage.
• 19:49
  I won a similar award with Motorsport Australia in 2018.
• 19:52
  And as far as we can tell, this is either a first, at the very least, it's incredibly rare to win this gong on both sides of the ditch.
• 20:01
  And that is down largely to you good people who listen to,
• 20:04
  to my producer, Tom Dullard, to Link Kelly, who does a wonderful job with the editing as well.
• 20:09
  I'm very proud of this podcast.
• 20:11
  You don't do it for awards like this, but to pick them up every once in a while just shows how much it means within the sport generally and the mark that it makes within the sport.
• 20:22
  That is it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 20:25
  We will catch you next week, everyone.
• 20:26
  Bye for now.