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IndyCar: Laguna Seca Qualifying Results + Race Preview (Podcast 338.1) · The Central Indiana Sports Report

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: What you are listening to now is the Central Indian, a sports report podcast number three hundred and thirty eight point one.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: Our Laguna Saka qualifying round up and our race preview for Sunday with Elijah Pope.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Elijah and I will be back Sunday evening, probably with some other guests to recap and react to the Indian car race at Laguna Saka and midweek.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Join Elijah and myself for the Indian Code report.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the central Indiana Sports Report with your host, Greg Mangales.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome, Indie Car fans to the central Indiana Sports Report and our qualifying recap for Laguna Sake and our race preview here with Elijah Poe.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome, Elijah.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thank you for having me, Greg.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I always love seeing any car run on Laguna Saker.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's such a such a great track and gives any car fans some of the best scenes.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they can see all year and excited to see this race tomorrow with Alex Blowstart on pull for the fifth time this season.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if you look at the first few rows, if you went back to the beginning of the season, you'd say those are going to be the drivers contending for the championship.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: So to have Alex Polo Patto award Colton heard a Joseph New Garden the first four, shouldn't surprise anybody.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, really great result, specifically for team Penske as a whole, having Joseph New Garden up in fourth places.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's his best starting position all the way back and we got to go all the way back until Saint Pete.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So first race of the season, this is his best start.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we'll power right behind him.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's that's big for team Penske to have maybe somewhat of a rebound, but man, knowing their luck,
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're probably both collide first lap tomorrow.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, kidding.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had no idea it had been since the first race of the season.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's crazy.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's new garden just been on the struggle bus as a whole.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I definitely needed this fourth place result.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to see it now on an oval is promising for team Pinsky as a whole.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: All right.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to go over the qualifying results.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Elijah, feel free to jump in at any time.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: First row, Alex, Polo and Patoa, Ward, not a surprise.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: What might have been a surprise is how much faster below was than everybody else?
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, almost three full tents up on Patto and five tents on Colton, Hurda.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is just so good around Laguna Saka for his fifth pool of twenty twenty five here.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just incredible and he is just so strong around this course as one here before.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's finished outside of the podium in that Ganesi car as well in his career there.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just incredible the things he's doing and he's so rapid and you know, there's quite a jump off from
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: from a herd at the new garden almost seven tenths.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that shows you how fast a warden herner are as well.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Looks like a three person race, but we're hearing a lot from drivers that they expect this to be a strategy race.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'll talk more about that when we preview the race coming up.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Road to Colton heard it in Joseph new garden as you mentioned.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: Road three will power and David Maluca's great result for the
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, very good result.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it just shows how strong David Maluca says as a whole, if they get that AJ Fort racing card to the fast six, it is very impressive.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: With St.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: T. No starting down in twenty, it just shows you how quick and how much pace he is able to pull out of that car.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And arrow McLaren have two in the top seven, Christian Loongard will start in the inside of Rhone four and right in to the inside of Graham Ray Hall, another great result.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, really great result for our LL yet again.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's coming off a really strong finish at Toronto and it'd be great to see all LL be able to compete again this weekend and with how close they are in the point standings and towards the end of the season, they're going to need any result they can get.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Two of the three in the top nine, we'll talk about Devlin, Defranchesco, I'm sure.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: A Louis Foster is starting ninth inside of Marcus Erickson.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Good result for Meyer Shank there as well, because the sixth row is Christian Rasmussen and Felix Rosenquist, so two of the Meyer Shank cars in the top twelve.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and Rosenquist was tracking on looking like he was going to make that fast six as well, but on one of his laps had a little incident in spawn and cause a yellow and in an indie car that forces your lap time to be deleted.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Which is unfortunate for Rosenquist because he has a great looking car this week for the grateful dead, the tie-dye scheme.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But regardless, he'll be super strong in the race just like he always is and this myrshank team is just really hitting their stride.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And his spin caused Christian Rasmussen to dump out of his run.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: So Rasmussen will start eleventh and Rosenquist twelve.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: Nice result for the carpenter team with Rasmussen who's been really good this year.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he has been, you know, it's a second year in Indie car.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's still really, really young.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's had really great moments over the course of the whole season.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But let's just see tomorrow if he's able to keep his nose clean.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's obviously very racy, pretty much everywhere the series goes.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if he's able to get that consistency down, he'll be a well-established driver in the series.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Armstrong and Rasmussen starting right next to each other.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Those are two guys to keep an eye out for for sure.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's great to see so much youth talent, especially with Louis Foster right ahead of them.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: See really young drivers start to challenge some of the veteran drivers in the series.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: And both Danes and the top eleven.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: So there is a chance that we will have a Dane and Ro seven is Scott McLaughlin and Kiffin Simpson from two power teams.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not a horrible result for both cars.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, just barely missing out on the fast, fast, twelve.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, but regardless, that'd be pretty happy with how things ended.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would bet.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Kiffin Simpson coming off a great weekend at Toronto with his first podium in the series.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Seeing that fourteenth isn't probably where he wants to be starting, but you know, some good good chance for points on the line tomorrow.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of good drivers behind them.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's go through it.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Bro eight is Marcus Ayrixon and Nolan Seagull.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: Row nine, Reena's VK and Kyle Kirkwood.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: Weird run for Kirkwood again.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Two weeks in a row, they kind of messed up on the strategy.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a shame because he is a really, really quick driver.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the past few weeks, it just feels like he can't get anything to go his way.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, he was obviously in that quote on quote, I mean, we can kind of call it a championship battle with below about a month ago, but it seems like everything's pretty much over for Kirkwood.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty much over everybody, but Kirkwood as a whole is probably a shoe end to be over, starting down an eighteen tomorrow isn't great for him.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: Petos really probably the only one thinking I can catch him, and even that's probably not true.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Rotten has a couple of good drivers, got Dixon, and St.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: No Furucci.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it surprised that C Scott Dixon so far down in there, but he was in that group one qualifying group, who just really had a lot of strong drivers in it.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that seems to be a trend with Andy Carr.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: You'd get these two groups for qualifying.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the groups is really, really, really good.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the other group is just pretty solid.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just on unfortunate the way things fell for him.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: It does seem like that for sure.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, Dick's on starting at the back and they're saying it's going to be a strategy race.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you can buy out for that guy for sure.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: would not be surprised.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: Row eleven Jacob Abel and Alexander Rossi.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: Row twelve is Connor Daley and Calamilot who look really fast.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: I thought for sure during the morning.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: I thought for sure during Friday's practice that Calamilot was going to be at least in the top twelve.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then row thirteen is Robert Schwartzman, Stingray Rob, and then by himself on the final row devil and
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: Elijah, I don't, I really don't want to pick on a guy, but when your teammates are both in the top nine and your thirty a hand, you had a fast car on top of it.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's not good.
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'd be interested to see if if they don't come out and say if anything is wrong with that car mechanically or technically wise because looking at the time sheet here, you know, his fastest lap is five seconds slower.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right, but he was on a really fast lap when he spun and
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like he was on a lap that was going to take him to number one.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's how good the Ray Hall cars were and then he was never able to get back out there.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And again, he didn't do himself.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It really is unfortunate.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, we hate to be picking on somebody, but we're really not, you know, he's just not having the results needed, especially when you've got a rookie Louis Foster and Graham Ray Hall up in eight and ninth.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that is a substantial drop off to be starting last, because that car obviously has had pace for, you know, the past couple weekends now, they were really strong at Toronto as well.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Devlin Defrancisco was just pretty much nowhere.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It'd be really hard for me to see him in the seat next year.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know he has a contract, but you know at some point our LL is going to want to see results over anything else.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: And there are a couple of guys waiting in the wings who we know everybody in the paddock likes, like poor share.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I would I would be hoping for some really good results in these last few races if I were Devlin Defrancisco.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: You need to save that seat for sure.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's going to need some good results in, you know, it's a shame.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to pick up good results starting down in twice.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe he can maybe climb up to fifteen.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that would be an excellent day for him.
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, with the drivers ahead of them, too, it's going to be an uphill battle for sure.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, like we said, it is going to be a bit of a strategy race.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think they're going to be three or four different strategies.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're saying tiger tires will not last on this track.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it'll be it'll
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: It may come down to taking a couple of more pit stops rather than fewer taking advantage of yellows things like that.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: That said, would you still take Alex blow against the field?
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's just so good around Laguna Saka, almost every single year.
• 10:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I will say that strategy should be interesting because this is the first time Indie cars had the hybrid in their cars at Laguna Saka.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be interesting to see our race pace kind of evolves and how tires are going to last.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: If there's a crew that no strategy knows how to get Alex Plo win, it's that number ten crew and I would be pretty surprised to not see him in victory lane.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think he'll probably be able to overcome any strategy like he did a couple of weeks ago when he won.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: He was on the wrong strategy and still found a way to win and that's probably what we're looking at even if he is on the wrong strategy.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Although Paddo's awfully fast and his race cars have been faster than his qualifying cars most races.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Paddo and Polo really, really battle for those first opening stints of laps if there's not a caution.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even if there is a caution, you know, I'd love to see a restart between those two even more just because I know it would be so fierce.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Both are a really aggressive drivers, but also both are very, very smart.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: with where they place their car.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's nothing more a fans want to see than a great battle at the first place.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And having pillow and a ward up top, you know, kind of brings me back to thermal when they fought earlier in the season.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's awesome.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I would love to see a ward be able to hang around pillow for this race.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: You haven't below a ward heard a new garden your top four and then power and then going down the field and looking at some of the drivers mid pack.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: My one prediction is that this is going to be a fun race.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would tend to agree and I would also be very surprised if there were not a lot of costumes.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, five costumes last year and I think eight the year before.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, this standing gravel, if you're going off, it's going to ruin your race and it's going to bring out a caution, which makes Laguna Saca so fun to watch because the strategy and the costumes, they're always in place.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it should be a chaotic one tomorrow and seeing that top five is something every Indian car fan would love to see.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Or I'm going to have you pick your dark horse, and I would say you're not allowed to pick Scott Dixon, but you are allowed to pick.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: From back in the back, there are a lot of options who you expect to come forward.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Who would you pick a driver or two Elijah?
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, a dark horse, even though he is starting inside the top ten, it's going to be interesting to see what Chris and Lumgar can do from that seventh place starting position.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so do I, um, obviously he's got patto to go off of as well.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Aaron McLaren can work both strategies to see what works best between them.
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's been so strong all season just hasn't come up with a win, obviously, but not a lot of drivers have in twenty five.
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: And down in lower in the pack, it look you got.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Starting at Thirteenth, McGlocklin from Penske Simpson from Genassi, Erickson from Andretti, you got Kirkwood who has been one of the best drivers all year.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: The legends got Dixon, Santino Farucci, Alexander Rossi, who are a driver or two of those who you expect to see come forward.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I like Alexander Rossi.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had an unfortunate accident yesterday in practice, which might have ruined some confidence for today, but he's statistically been pretty strong around Laguna Saka.
• 14:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's car is the title sponsor of the race for Java House coffee.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe a little title sponsor momentum, because he's obviously going to want a good result with how much money they spent to sponsor that race.
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is a really big race on Sunday for Team Penske isn't it Elijah?
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is.
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Team Penske's been waiting for that result all season.
• 14:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It just hasn't come to them.
• 14:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: They've got obviously New Garden in fourth and power in fifth.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pretty good odds that they're going to be able to challenge for at least a podium.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe for when you never really know, but no matter what, I think both drivers are going to try to keep their nose somewhat clean because as great as a win would be for Team Penske, I think right now they just need results.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: and having a podium and having two drivers in the top five at the end of the day would be a fantastic result for this team.
• 15:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Before we go, Elijah, I just want to point out one thing.
• 15:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: There are twenty seven cars in this field.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: Twenty two of them were in the one-on-nine range in qualifying.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It just shows you how competitive any cars are right now.
• 15:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: It just does.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's unreal.
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: Andy Francesca would have been as well if he had not spun.
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: He and Stingray Rob were in the
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: and below award and heard of where in the one, it's everybody else was in the one-on-one.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just hilarious to see how close any car is right now.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are other racing series that are close, but to have top to bottom, so many drivers within a second, a second and a half over, of course, that is over.
• 15:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think a couple miles long is just something that is just unreal to think of, unreal to see how many drivers are competitive.
• 15:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And as competitive as it has been, Alex Polo and Potto Award have found a way to set themselves apart.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they have.
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And no better than both are in the, I guess you can call it a championship battle, even though statistically Polo can wrap it up next week in Portland.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: But no matter what, these two drivers are the best in the series right now, and any car fans in myself, I'm absolutely thrilled to see Polo in a ward be up top for a mar.
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's what everybody wants.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: And Sunday, of course, is around fourteen of the Indie car season, around fourteen and eighteen.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And at least twelve of the thirteen so far have been great races.
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: So very much looking forward to the Duma Saga, a great track for Indie car racing.
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much to Elijah.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Always appreciate it.
• 16:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: And thank you so much for listening.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Please share this podcast with the Indie car fan in your life to help spread the word about the central Indie in a sports report.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're here talking about Indie Car and we're here talking Central Indian sports every single day.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Central Indian sports report is a product of ITG media and I love Susie.