Latest / Rusty's Garage / Dario Franchitti (Part 2)

Transcript

Dario Franchitti (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, getting ready for the second lap of my podcast with champion Scottish racer Dario Franchitti.
• 0:26
  If you haven't already, head back to the library and have a listen to part one, which gives you a better sense of where the deep passion for cars and racing came from.
• 0:35
  A funny tale involving his mate, Aussie supercar star James Courtney, and a very special car in the collection that used to be owned by his idol, Jim Clark.
• 0:45
  I begin part two by asking about those four IndyCar crowns, the close-fought nature of them, and if one was perhaps a little more special than the others.
• 0:57
  They're all different.
• 0:59
  I mean, obviously the first one's special.
• 1:01
  The second one I'd gone away to NASCAR.
• 1:04
  And in 2007, my first championship with Andretti.
• 1:11
  08, went to NASCAR, came back in 09.
• 1:13
  And I came back thinking,
• 1:16
  you know, what, am I going to be any good here?
• 1:18
  Can I still compete?
• 1:19
  And I don't want to embarrass myself.
• 1:20
  My main thought, Rusty, was I don't want to embarrass myself.
• 1:24
  You know, my teammate, Scott Dixon, he's just annihilated the field in 2008.
• 1:30
  He had a mad look in his eye, a really mad look at the end of 07 when I beat him to the championship by about that much.
• 1:37
  And, you know, all just were competitive straight away.
• 1:41
  And so that championship was sweet as well.
• 1:44
  But each one's progressively more difficult because you've got to keep the motivation, got to keep the hunger up, you and every member of your team.
• 1:51
  And so the fact that we were able to win those three on the bounce was, yeah, I mean, that was difficult and I'm very proud of it.
• 2:01
  The 11 one.
• 2:04
  It's one of those things.
• 2:05
  It's, you know, the last race, the horrible Vegas race and losing Dan, it's like, yeah, I don't, I don't really think about the 11 one.
• 2:14
  I don't, it's very much like 99 with Montoya, you know, he tied in points.
• 2:17
  He won, rightly so, on a count back.
• 2:20
  I don't, it's, that's kind of out there, but otherwise those, those championships, they were hard fought and,
• 2:31
  You know, when I look at Scott's record now, I'm definitely proud of the fact I was able to go in my advancing years, go toe to toe with him and get those kind of results.
• 2:42
  To win and to drink the milk made at Indianapolis for many people is special, just to chalk it up even once.
• 2:49
  But to do it on multiple occasions, only a handful of people have done that.
• 2:55
  The great races on the planet from Monaco to Le Mans and Indy 500, to do that, Dario, is a huge thing.
• 3:03
  What did that mean?
• 3:06
  Each, again, each one different.
• 3:08
  The first time it was literally, it's happened.
• 3:12
  I can't believe it.
• 3:13
  It's happened.
• 3:14
  I never thought it would happen.
• 3:16
  I thought I'd led the race and I'd been in position, but I just, yeah, it was that shock.
• 3:24
  And it's one of the, it's the only thing I've done in my life.
• 3:27
  The more I did it, the more I wanted it.
• 3:29
  The more success I had, the more I wanted more success there.
• 3:33
  Bizarre place.
• 3:34
  It sucks you in like you can't believe.
• 3:36
  And so that one was, that first one was special because of that.
• 3:42
  The second one, yeah, it was, the second one was pretty,
• 3:49
  I was going to say dominant, the car was a flying machine.
• 3:51
  It was so fast.
• 3:53
  That 2010 car, we could drive away at will.
• 3:56
  And all the cars were essentially the same on the outside, but the guys had done, I don't know what they'd done to it, but it was so quick.
• 4:01
  It was a twitchy thing to drive, but mighty fast.
• 4:06
  And then 2012 was,
• 4:09
  2012 to come from the back and spun in the pit lane, early in the race and having to come back through the field and that dice with Scott towards the end and then Sato and I getting together, that was very special.
• 4:21
  And that was, the 12 race was really a celebration of Dan, of Dan's life and to win that one.
• 4:30
  Yeah, that was,
• 4:32
  That was a cracker.
• 4:32
  And to do it in that manner, I was shaking with the adrenaline from that whole Sato exchange on the last laps there.
• 4:40
  Sum it up for people that, you know, sometimes when you're a purist and you love it, and to talk to anyone about racing on an oval that's a purist, they soak up everything from...
• 4:52
  stagger to strategy to you you name it but sometimes outsiders looking in go they're just racing around in circles it's not really that that exciting the speeds are phenomenal and and i heard you once recount
• 5:05
  little things that you do with the car on some of these oval.
• 5:09
  So, for example, is it true that you would slightly turn the wheel to the right to straighten the car up when you come off the banking and things like that?
• 5:18
  Is that true?
• 5:18
  Just describe what they're like to drive.
• 5:21
  I think the best sort of way I could describe an oval is...
• 5:26
  If you imagine, go to a road course, first of all, there's a lot of compromise involved.
• 5:30
  Some corners are 150 miles an hour, some corners are 50 miles an hour left, right.
• 5:34
  You're braking, you're accelerating, you're doing all different things.
• 5:38
  On an oval, especially in Indianapolis,
• 5:41
  you're on the tightest of tight ropes.
• 5:42
  You're running in a speed range of probably 25 miles an hour.
• 5:47
  And because that tight rope is so tight, everything is set up to perfection on that.
• 5:52
  The slightest gust of wind, the slightest change in temperature,
• 5:56
  The slightest mistake by you and positioning the car can have massive, massive consequences.
• 6:02
  You are just constantly teetering on the edge of disaster.
• 6:08
  If a car is handling well at Indy, you'll come down to turn one, somewhere in the region of 240 miles an hour, and you'll just start to back the car in a little bit, just fight, just playing with the rear end until it settles into the banking and add a little bit of lock.
• 6:25
  and then just sort of control it all the way out of the corner.
• 6:30
  And as the wind direction changes, that the feeling each corner completely changes again, the track sort of almost changes shape.
• 6:37
  One corner becomes tighter, one corner becomes easier.
• 6:42
  It's crazy.
• 6:43
  And you think it's four corners.
• 6:45
  They're all left-handers.
• 6:46
  It can't be that difficult.
• 6:49
  I've never driven a track that is so difficult.
• 6:52
  It frustrated me, I adored it, but my God, did it frustrate me as well.
• 6:56
  And you have a term that you guys sometimes refer to with the engineers about, is it driver flat?
• 7:01
  Where you have to convince yourself at times, don't you, to mash that throttle, to back yourself into the, now mash it to the bulkhead, don't you?
• 7:10
  Oh, absolutely.
• 7:11
  Driver flat is when you're like, yeah, it was flat.
• 7:13
  And then the engineer looks at the data, goes, no, you were actually at 92% throttle.
• 7:20
  I felt I was flat.
• 7:22
  You're like, no, no.
• 7:24
  And yeah, the engineers generally bring you back down to earth.
• 7:27
  It's, yeah, sometimes you've got to convince yourself to really, to maximize what you're doing there.
• 7:35
  And it's not, again, it's not an easy thing.
• 7:37
  Probably, I think bike riders could relate more to it because the margin for error is so tiny.
• 7:43
  You make a mistake, there's no runoff.
• 7:45
  You know, it's not like a modern F1 track where you can go and have another go.
• 7:50
  it hurts.
• 7:51
  And so you've got to get it right.
• 7:53
  You've got to get right up to the limit.
• 7:55
  If you do go over it, you better catch it quickly.
• 7:58
  Rivalries are a reality in motor racing, and I think you guys get on a lot better now.
• 8:03
  There's no two ways about that.
• 8:04
  But Aussies will be interested in the battle with, or battles with willpower.
• 8:08
  I think you jokingly remind him nowadays, don't you, that he won the title after you left or something along those lines.
• 8:13
  Don't you stir him about that.
• 8:15
  But it was a great, it really was, mate, a great mental battle in the midst of everything else that unfolded on the track, wasn't it?
• 8:22
  Yeah, it was...
• 8:26
  It was a great, it was great.
• 8:28
  It was a great rivalry.
• 8:30
  It was bloody hard.
• 8:33
  You know, the first time I remember watching Will was when the split happened and the Champ Car boys were down in surfers and there was this guy that was just, he was on pole by three days.
• 8:43
  And then he'd spit it in the wall.
• 8:45
  And I thought, if this guy can be tamed,
• 8:49
  he's going to be mighty.
• 8:50
  And then Elio had his issues in the US with the tax guy and Will got his Penske deal.
• 8:57
  And he's just, he was so quick.
• 9:02
  He is, he's so quick that, you know, we found, I found each week I had a guy that,
• 9:11
  I knew I was battling with.
• 9:13
  And if I could get ahead of him on qualifying on a road or street course, it meant a lot.
• 9:19
  It was something to be pleased with.
• 9:23
  You know, the ovals, he wasn't quite so strong at that time.
• 9:26
  He's obviously since gone and won himself at Indianapolis 500.
• 9:29
  And I was able to go and congratulate him on that and give him a hug in victory circle.
• 9:35
  But him and I were two completely different personalities, but...
• 9:42
  when it came down to it, we both were fully committed.
• 9:44
  And so a lot of times we ended up
• 9:47
  in you're going for the same bit of tarmac and both thinking we had a hundred percent right to be in that bit of tarmac.
• 9:54
  And, you know, from even the last, I think Sonoma, my last podium, we had a bit of a shove during the race and on the podium we were calling each other some choice words as they're playing the, I think it was the Australian Anthem.
• 10:09
  They're playing the Australian Anthem and I was calling them a few names and he was returning the favor.
• 10:16
  But then it's that thing of we lived it, we shared it, we fought tooth and nail.
• 10:25
  And because of that, we've got that shared history and we get on really well now.
• 10:29
  And we've had...
• 10:31
  I remember when he was sort of 14, 15, he was really struggling.
• 10:36
  I made a couple of heart to hearts and I just thought, God, if people could see us now sitting over in these chats about, you know, what all this means and everything.
• 10:44
  And yeah, but that was a, that was a,
• 10:49
  That was a tough time and he was a tough, and is a tough competitor.
• 10:54
  And I love the fact he's still taking it to the kids.
• 10:57
  I'd much prefer if he finishes behind Dixie, Phelis and Marcus, but he's doing a good job there.
• 11:04
  My buddy, Lee Diffie and my colleague can vividly recall
• 11:08
  October 2013 and the crash mate that ended your professional driving career he says it was it was frightening do some of the injuries still give you grief to this day and how have you sort of seven years on how have you kind of compartmentalized it because clearly you had other things that you still wanted to tick off didn't you?
• 11:26
  Yeah, I did.
• 11:27
  You talked about Bathurst.
• 11:30
  And that was one I wanted to do.
• 11:32
  Actually, I wanted to do the GT3 race at Bathurst this year.
• 11:35
  But after seeing some of the shunts, I thought, maybe not.
• 11:39
  But yeah, Bathurst was one.
• 11:41
  The 24 Hours of Le Mans, I had a lovely deal, ready to go on that.
• 11:47
  And so there was things still to do.
• 11:49
  I still, I wanted to win a fourth Indy 500.
• 11:53
  You know, that was foremost in my focus.
• 11:59
  And as far as the injuries, you know, some days are better than others with the head injuries.
• 12:03
  Like some days if I don't hydrate properly, I get a bit forgetful, that kind of stuff.
• 12:11
  I creak and crack a bit in the mornings, but not that bad.
• 12:14
  I mean, I can go running.
• 12:15
  I've got these funky shoes now that I can run.
• 12:18
  I can run a decent pace too for an old guy, but I am so lucky.
• 12:25
  The surgeons I had, the care that I got,
• 12:29
  Just the split second, the way things, the car did its stuff.
• 12:34
  I'm just, I'm really, really lucky that, you know, I get to live a great life.
• 12:40
  I've got, you know, a young family now, two girls, a cracking wife and life's good.
• 12:45
  I'm glad you brought up the Porsche thing because Mark Webber and I get on pretty good.
• 12:49
  And he's the little birdie that told me about the, you know, this yarn, about the fact that you had really good, well-advanced plans to race with Porsche, LMP1 to do Le Mans.
• 13:01
  How close did that whole thing get?
• 13:04
  And I gather from a separate story that you'd been to Vysarch and you had a sense of what the program was like.
• 13:09
  Is that true?
• 13:10
  Yeah, Mark's a great pal of mine.
• 13:13
  It's another one of these,
• 13:17
  I'm not blowing smoke here.
• 13:18
  I love Australia.
• 13:19
  I've got a load of great Australian friends.
• 13:22
  And Mark's right up there.
• 13:24
  He's just one of the good guys.
• 13:25
  I remember when he was an F3 driver and didn't have a pot to piss in.
• 13:29
  And he's exactly the same, no nonsense, no bullshit, just great person that he was back then.
• 13:36
  But yeah, him and I had...
• 13:37
  had discussed me.
• 13:39
  He's like, yeah, it'd be great.
• 13:40
  Do you want to do that?
• 13:41
  Yeah, I'd love to go race for Porsche at Le Mans.
• 13:43
  Who wouldn't?
• 13:44
  He's like, right, well, I'm doing this.
• 13:45
  If you go and talk to this guy...
• 13:48
  And Porsche America were pushing pretty hard too.
• 13:51
  A guy called Steve Janisse, who was sort of heading up PR Porsche America, he was pushing.
• 13:54
  And Wolfgang Haas, who was really in charge of the whole thing, he's a great guy.
• 14:01
  He got caught up in that whole emissions thing, which is a load of crap, but he was a great guy.
• 14:07
  And I went to VISAAC, we had a meeting, we sort of, we shook hands, it's like, right,
• 14:13
  I think it was in early 13, I went to visit them.
• 14:16
  It was a case of, right, we can't do 14.
• 14:18
  I said, that's great.
• 14:19
  I want one more shot at 500.
• 14:22
  So we can't do 14, but we'll do 15.
• 14:26
  And I left and obviously the accident happened at the end of 13.
• 14:29
  So that put paid to that, but which was a real shame.
• 14:34
  I'd love to have worked with Mark.
• 14:36
  I'd love to have raced with him.
• 14:38
  I'd love to have raced for Porsche at Le Mans.
• 14:40
  That's one of those big tick items, isn't it?
• 14:42
  Yeah.
• 14:43
  Because I'm a Porsche freak.
• 14:45
  I went in 15 to watch the race there at Le Mans, which is something that people must go and do.
• 14:49
  They must go and experience Le Mans if they haven't.
• 14:51
  And those things, Dario, as you well know, they're like a real-life slot car around there, weren't they?
• 14:56
  They were incredible.
• 14:57
  Yeah, I mean, the technology involved in those cars was just nuts.
• 15:01
  When I, I think I went in 14, and Mark and Wolfgang Hatz said, come and see the car that would have been yours, I think was what Hatz said.
• 15:09
  I was like, oh, come on, man.
• 15:12
  And he showed me the technology involved in that car.
• 15:16
  What a thing.
• 15:17
  Typical Porsche, they just do things right on my desk.
• 15:20
  There we go.
• 15:21
  Love it.
• 15:22
  Legendary car.
• 15:23
  Legendary car.
• 15:24
  Yeah.
• 15:25
  Yeah, which actually lives not far from here.
• 15:28
  And that leads me to the fact that in sort of post-professional life from Goodwood to you name it, you have driven lots of seriously cool, priceless racing machines, haven't you?
• 15:42
  And that must be in some ways, even though it's not professional stuff, whetting the appetite in some way, that's very cool, Daria.
• 15:49
  It's been so much fun when people sort of say, yeah, do you want to drive this?
• 15:55
  Really?
• 15:55
  You're waiting for the, you know, it's like you're like a kid and somebody wants to give you a go at their bicycle, you know, this, yeah, okay.
• 16:03
  And so I've been able to drive amazing cars from all kinds of manufacturers and private, just really cool people that have said, yeah, go and have a blast from sports cars, Indy cars, Formula One cars.
• 16:16
  Some beautiful Ferraris, got to race it again at Goodwood at the end of last year, the AC Cobra and a 250 short wheelbase.
• 16:25
  So that's been cool.
• 16:27
  I'm doing a TV show just now that we're going to talk too much about, but the premise of it is,
• 16:34
  all the mad cars, all the mental cars that you drove, that you loved as kids and stuff.
• 16:41
  So that's been fun to get to drive some fun stuff for that.
• 16:45
  But yeah, as somebody that loves the sport, I'm actually, I'm sitting in my office here, there's a picture of the, I got to drive the GT1 98 around Goodwood, the Alan McNish one, LaValle, that was a bit tasty.
• 16:57
  Very special.
• 17:10
  The winner of the Indianapolis 500, drinks milk in Victory Lane.
• 17:14
  It's a tradition.
• 17:15
  In 1936, Louis Meyer drank some in Victory Lane, because his mother said it would refresh him on a hot day.
• 17:23
  But as Ron Burgundy can attest to, when it's hot, milk was a bad choice.
• 17:28
  You kept a role with Chip's team too, which I think is excellent.
• 17:32
  Just sort of explain a bit of that because on the one hand, people might think, well, as a racer to be on the sidelines, that would have been difficult.
• 17:39
  But the role you've forged there sounds like you're more or less the extra teammate, the insights and the things that you bring and share with your buddies there.
• 17:50
  Yeah, it's sort of a driver role.
• 17:52
  coach, team advisor, that sort of stuff.
• 17:56
  You know, I work heavily with the drivers, both at and away from the track, you know, especially with a rookie like Felix and, you know, Marcus Ericsson coming to the team this year.
• 18:08
  So sort of getting him up to speed with that.
• 18:10
  With Scott, it's more of very occasionally just...
• 18:15
  just sort of gently prodding them in a direction or discussing something with them.
• 18:18
  You don't tell Scott Dixon, five-time champion, hey, Scott, you need to be doing that.
• 18:22
  Yeah.
• 18:24
  I'll sort of say, mate, have you thought about, just that there, what's going on there?
• 18:28
  And we'll have these discussions.
• 18:29
  And if I can make a difference to what Scott's doing,
• 18:33
  I'm so happy.
• 18:34
  I'm delighted with it.
• 18:35
  And I love that part of it.
• 18:37
  But then it's also working, making sure the teams are working together, the drivers are working together, the engineers watching what's going on there, an extra set of eyes and ears.
• 18:47
  you know, talking to, it can be anything.
• 18:50
  Basically the remit for the job is whatever Chip wants and whatever we need to do to win more races.
• 18:56
  That's it.
• 18:57
  And I love it.
• 18:59
  It's a great job and to do it with the people that I got to go racing with makes it special.
• 19:06
  To still be in the trenches somewhat with Scott,
• 19:09
  is really cool.
• 19:11
  He's a, I mean, as you know, he's a great driver, but he's a very special person too.
• 19:16
  And I love, I love getting to go race.
• 19:18
  And when he won the championship a couple of years back again, his fifth,
• 19:22
  I think I was as happy as anybody there.
• 19:24
  It was brilliant to see.
• 19:26
  Now it's time to get him another couple of 500 wins.
• 19:29
  Absolutely.
• 19:30
  He may or may not have given me a little bit of intel for the chat.
• 19:34
  Two questions that have come via Scott Dixon.
• 19:36
  Firstly, did you chop up a bike of Tony Kanaan, some sort of priceless special bike of his?
• 19:43
  What happened there?
• 19:44
  Was it a triathlon bike or something knowing TK was it?
• 19:46
  What did you do?
• 19:47
  Okay, so it was one of those Andretti green years with Dan, Tony, Brian, myself.
• 19:51
  We were all up to pranks all the time.
• 19:53
  And it was my birthday.
• 19:55
  And we were at the Speedway, it was practice.
• 19:58
  And of course, I'm doing an interview and they come running up with a cake and in the face.
• 20:02
  And it's got the metal dish around it.
• 20:04
  So it's cut on my nose open and I'm bleeding.
• 20:06
  And oh God, thanks guys.
• 20:08
  Anyway, the next day, I know Tony's on the same show.
• 20:13
  And it was in the press room at the Speedway and it's got this glass kind of office that they do it in.
• 20:18
  So I knew he'd got this new bike.
• 20:20
  And it was, you know, carbon bikes were fairly new at the time and pretty expensive.
• 20:23
  So I knew he'd got this new bike.
• 20:26
  So I went to his motorhome, took the bike, went into the garage, said to my crew chief, got a hacksaw.
• 20:31
  So I've gone up to the, I've got the bike in one hand, hacksaw in the other.
• 20:35
  I've gone into the press room, wheeled the bike through the press room.
• 20:38
  Tony's sitting there, much like this set up now.
• 20:41
  I've walked in and he's gone, and he's doing this kind of look.
• 20:45
  And I've lifted the bike up and he's gone,
• 20:48
  And he's not on air yet, so he's gone.
• 20:49
  And they've done the old, okay, go live in five, four.
• 20:54
  And I've gone, I pulled the hacksaw out.
• 20:58
  And I've just started going, through the top tube of this bike.
• 21:02
  I tell you, it's a really satisfying noise when you take a hacksaw to carbon fiber.
• 21:06
  And I've gone through it and it's gone through the rear brake and the rear gears, the cables, it's ping, ping.
• 21:13
  I'm like, and I hacksawed it in half.
• 21:15
  He didn't speak to me for three days.
• 21:18
  Total sense of humour failure.
• 21:20
  The only way he would speak to me was when I eventually agreed to buy him a new bike.
• 21:25
  So I said, right, I will buy you a new bike, but I want half of the bike on my wall, and you can have half on your wall.
• 21:31
  I still haven't had the bike.
• 21:32
  I love it.
• 21:34
  I love it.
• 21:36
  A more serious one involving you and Scott, and he reminded me of it, of course, is Taco Bell, mate, and, you know, the pair of you.
• 21:45
  What...
• 21:47
  How scary was that day?
• 21:49
  Just tell us about that.
• 21:52
  The scariest part of that was the phone call from Chip the next morning.
• 21:56
  Was it?
• 21:57
  Seriously.
• 21:58
  You know, you often wonder, I've often wondered, I don't know if everybody else does, what happens when somebody points a gun at you?
• 22:04
  How are you going to react?
• 22:04
  How are you going to react?
• 22:07
  So the story goes, we were at the Speedway.
• 22:09
  Scott had just put it on pole for the 500.
• 22:12
  My wife was there.
• 22:15
  So I'm trying to think who was it.
• 22:16
  So Ellie was there, my wife, Emma, and I think Poppy, Scott's oldest daughter.
• 22:23
  And Scott's doing all the press stuff afterwards and it's getting late and the girls are hungry.
• 22:26
  I'm starving.
• 22:27
  So I phoned him and I go, right, Dix, what's going on?
• 22:30
  He goes, I'll be there in half an hour, mate.
• 22:33
  Find out where we can go for dinner.
• 22:34
  I don't care.
• 22:36
  So I went, looked at the usual restaurants in India.
• 22:38
  They're all shut.
• 22:38
  It's Sunday.
• 22:40
  It's like, oh.
• 22:41
  So he comes back to the bus and said, Dix, everything's shut.
• 22:44
  What do you want to do?
• 22:45
  He goes, ah, my Taco Bell.
• 22:48
  Dixie says his last meal would be Taco Bell.
• 22:50
  So he's like, yeah, Taco Bell.
• 22:52
  I'm like, really?
• 22:53
  Okay, right.
• 22:55
  So we get in the, it was an Acura MDX, his company car.
• 22:59
  And Poppy says, Daddy, I'll come with you.
• 23:02
  And Scott's like, no, no, just you stay there, darling.
• 23:04
  So we get in the car and we drive off and we're talking, we're talking about the day and the laps and what we need to do for the next day.
• 23:11
  Just, you know, we're in work mode because it's the month of May and we're never not in work mode.
• 23:17
  And we drive the mile to the Taco Bell and we pull in and it's the left-hand drive car, I'm in the passenger seat, Scott's there.
• 23:28
  And we're sitting there talking about the same stuff and we pull up to the board and the person goes, good evening Taco Bell, what would you like?
• 23:38
  And just at that, I see Scott flinch.
• 23:43
  I thought, what the hell is he doing?
• 23:44
  I look over and I thought, my first thought was, can I, you arsehole?
• 23:51
  And I look, and this guy's not Tony Kanaan, and there's a gun.
• 23:55
  And he's pointing it at Scott's head, and then he'd point it at me, and then some guy starts banging on my window.
• 24:01
  He didn't have a gun.
• 24:02
  I was okay with him pointing at Scott.
• 24:04
  I was a little more nervous when he would point it at me.
• 24:07
  And the guy's going, give me your wallets and your phones.
• 24:09
  Give me your wallets and your phones.
• 24:10
  And this is the point.
• 24:11
  It's like, okay, what?
• 24:13
  Afterwards, it's like, what happened?
• 24:15
  So Scott's like, mate,
• 24:18
  I haven't got my wallet with me.
• 24:19
  And I'm like, I haven't, I haven't got, no, I haven't got my wallet.
• 24:23
  This poor guy's built up the courage to rob some people and he's robbed a Kiwi and a Scotsman.
• 24:28
  He's getting nothing, is he?
• 24:29
  I mean, so, the guy's going, give me your wallet and your phone, you've got to have something.
• 24:34
  I was like, mate, we haven't.
• 24:37
  And then he looks in the centre console and there's Emma's wallet.
• 24:41
  So he goes, there you go.
• 24:43
  You can have that.
• 24:44
  And at that, a car's pulled up behind and he's ran off.
• 24:48
  The immediate reaction, we looked at each other and went, pfft, I literally started laughing.
• 24:55
  It was only about two days later, I suddenly thought, that was pretty serious.
• 25:02
  The next day I could tell Scotty was a wee bit freaked out.
• 25:05
  It took me longer, because I've probably got, I've got not as good imagination as Scotty, but it took me a bit longer, but we eventually sort of thought, it was quite serious.
• 25:16
  20 minutes later, Scott and I are out in the parking lot waiting on the police showing up.
• 25:21
  And I'm Googling the price of a Chanel wallet because he's trying to tell me it cost $200.
• 25:26
  I think because Emma told him it cost $200 and it didn't cost $200.
• 25:32
  Yeah, exactly.
• 25:34
  So he got fleeced on that one.
• 25:36
  And then of course the police show up and they take one look at Scott, one look at me, and then more police cars arrive and more police cars arrive.
• 25:45
  And they caught the guys and we went back to the bus.
• 25:49
  We got free Taco Bell, we had a lovely bottle of red and some Taco Bell and that was it.
• 25:57
  The end of the stag until the next morning when Chip called and basically said,
• 26:01
  Let me get this right.
• 26:03
  I think it was something like you two assholes went to Taco Bell.
• 26:08
  I'm like, yeah.
• 26:12
  I'm not going to tell you the rest of the conversation.
• 26:15
  I think he was more upset that his number one athlete, I'm blaming Scott here, his number one athlete, Scott Dixon went to Taco Bell.
• 26:26
  So yeah.
• 26:27
  And then of course all hell breaks loose and the press found out.
• 26:32
  Yeah.
• 26:33
  You're lucky, mate.
• 26:34
  You're lucky.
• 26:35
  Yeah, very lucky.
• 26:36
  Actually all seriousness, very, very lucky.
• 26:39
  We'll get to the final part of what you're doing now and a couple of cool cars in the collection here, but I just want to touch on what you have been doing, as you said before on Instagram, sharing some of the unbelievable cars and the backstories on them from your career.
• 26:53
  Firstly, how you feel about the NASCAR chapter, because a lot of people love NASCAR, but they are diametrically different to sort of anything, and it was just a part for you that, you know,
• 27:04
  that didn't go anywhere like you would hope from the moment you set foot in the car, is that right?
• 27:10
  Yeah, it was an odd decision looking back on it.
• 27:15
  I just, I wanted a new challenge.
• 27:16
  I've been doing IndyCar for a long time and I thought I wanted a new challenge.
• 27:22
  I, driving the cars, it was a completely different challenge.
• 27:26
  Anything I'd learned
• 27:28
  racing single-seaters, DTM cars, sports cars, none of it translated over.
• 27:33
  In fact, it was actually a detriment to those cars.
• 27:36
  And yeah, there's lots of excuses.
• 27:39
  The team wasn't great and all that.
• 27:40
  And I was sort of struggling to learn.
• 27:45
  The long and short of it was,
• 27:47
  I needed a lot longer to learn.
• 27:49
  We needed a lot better cars too.
• 27:53
  But it didn't work out.
• 27:55
  It was sort of, I did it for, I think eight months.
• 28:00
  I had some decent success in the nationwide Xfinity series, but I didn't set my pulse racing, didn't take my breath away like an Indy car did.
• 28:11
  And it was not, it taught me a lot.
• 28:16
  It taught me a lot as a driver.
• 28:17
  I think I became a better driver because of that experience.
• 28:20
  I certainly became a lot mentally stronger.
• 28:24
  And would I do it again?
• 28:25
  I don't know.
• 28:26
  It was a tough one.
• 28:28
  I think some of the success that came afterwards in IndyCar was due to what I went through in NASCAR.
• 28:34
  But, man, it was weird.
• 28:35
  Electrification is a big part of the future of our whole world, our whole automotive landscape, and purists might struggle a little with Formula E, but it's now cemented, Dario, in the motorsport landscape.
• 28:49
  You've driven the cars, you commentate the TV coverage now.
• 28:52
  As someone who has a pure passion for the game, what is it that you love about it and you've enjoyed so much?
• 28:58
  I've been there since day one, Rusty.
• 28:59
  I mean, and as you say, I'm a purist.
• 29:02
  I mean, three volumes of Phil Hill there.
• 29:06
  Amazing.
• 29:07
  There's some light reading for you.
• 29:08
  When I did it, it was
• 29:17
  I was just, I was looking for something to do.
• 29:19
  You know, at the start, after my accident, the guys had said, hey, would you like to come and commentate?
• 29:23
  I'd spoken to them about driving it, but I was doing IndyCar, so that wasn't going to be an option.
• 29:27
  The accident happened, they asked me to come and commentate.
• 29:29
  I thought, why not?
• 29:30
  And it's, at the start, it wasn't any sort of great eco warrior stuff.
• 29:37
  I just, I thought, we'll see what it's like.
• 29:39
  It was great racing.
• 29:41
  It is great racing.
• 29:42
  I think it's a wonderful addition to the racing world.
• 29:46
  I think it's completely out there.
• 29:48
  So different.
• 29:49
  It's brought new fans into the sport as well, which has really been terrific.
• 29:53
  It's not for everybody.
• 29:55
  The manufacturers absolutely love it.
• 29:58
  Look at the names involved.
• 29:59
  But as I say, I think it's a great addition to the racing landscape.
• 30:06
  I'm one of these people, I love all types of racing.
• 30:07
  So it's not gonna take over from IndyCar.
• 30:12
  Certainly anytime soon, I don't think it's gonna take over from F1.
• 30:14
  And we've got sports cars, but all these different great branches, V8 super cars.
• 30:20
  But it definitely is filling a niche and it's been bloody successful.
• 30:27
  I thought at the start, I honestly thought, what is this?
• 30:29
  This is just not, when I went to the first race in China, I give it sort of six weeks.
• 30:35
  And I was completely wrong.
• 30:36
  And they've done a cracking job with it.
• 30:38
  And it's, as I say, it's gone from kind of being a bit of a laughingstock with some people to bloody serious championship that's...
• 30:46
  Yeah, that definitely does a good job.
• 30:50
  Some cool drivers and some very good manufacturers involved, as you say.
• 30:53
  Yeah, crazy.
• 30:54
  Yeah.
• 30:55
  Tell me about a couple of the cars in the – I have a mate who has a wakeboarding boat.
• 31:01
  I'm often winding him up that he has an internet shopping addiction for his love of wakeboarding.
• 31:07
  You clearly have a love of cars and tugging a few away.
• 31:10
  You've mentioned about the team called Green Entry.
• 31:12
  We've learned in this podcast about Jimmy Clark's Cortina.
• 31:16
  What about a couple of the other cars in, and they don't have to be racing ones, that when you open the garage, you go, man, I can't wait to go for a run in that thing.
• 31:24
  It's been a while.
• 31:25
  Um...
• 31:28
  there was a point there was a lot of 911s in there, like a lot, ridiculous amount.
• 31:33
  But I've kind of, I've kept the sort of the real, the ones I really adore my dad's one.
• 31:38
  I've got an old 73, super duper hot rod.
• 31:42
  I've got another one coming, which I'm not gonna talk about just yet, but that's gonna be really cool.
• 31:47
  Have you got a Carrera that you took the, mucked around with the exhaust on, I think too?
• 31:51
  Is, or have you still got that?
• 31:52
  I have a Carrera GT, yeah, that, and all these things that I've,
• 31:57
  All these things that I bought, I bought them because I loved them.
• 31:59
  Excellent.
• 32:00
  People say, oh, that's been a great investment.
• 32:01
  It's only an investment if you sell it.
• 32:03
  And I don't plan on selling any of them.
• 32:05
  The Crouch ETs is one I, I love it.
• 32:09
  That would be the last car out of the garage.
• 32:10
  Yeah.
• 32:12
  It's red, like most of them.
• 32:13
  Yeah.
• 32:14
  I drove it to Le Mans in 2014.
• 32:18
  That was a great trip, great trip.
• 32:20
  With Marino and I drove down.
• 32:23
  I've got, I had an F40 for
• 32:27
  21 years.
• 32:28
  Amazing.
• 32:29
  Yeah, that was...
• 32:30
  I bought that with one of my first paychecks from Barry Green.
• 32:36
  Yeah, that was good.
• 32:37
  And, you know, the pace cars from Indianapolis, those are...
• 32:41
  Those sit in the garage.
• 32:45
  What else?
• 32:46
  Oh, my sort of, I guess the dual is Daytona Spyder.
• 32:51
  I've got a Ferrari Daytona Spyder, 1972.
• 32:52
  It's just one of the 19, what they call the Eurocars.
• 32:57
  Beautiful.
• 32:58
  I love that car.
• 32:59
  Final one.
• 32:59
  The race car that you go to sleep and dream of.
• 33:02
  The one either from a great race, the one that just, you know, you have the fondest memories of.
• 33:07
  Is it the cool green car that you've kept?
• 33:09
  Is it another one?
• 33:10
  What's the one from your entire career that you love?
• 33:16
  If there was only one.
• 33:20
  It's either that 99 car.
• 33:23
  I'm gonna pick three.
• 33:25
  Yep.
• 33:26
  I think I can only, the 99 car, my 2010 Indy 500 winner, and my 1995 or 96 DTM car.
• 33:39
  Very cool.
• 33:40
  That would be my, that would be my,
• 33:45
  Yeah, the dream.
• 33:46
  I'd love to find out where that DTM car is, actually, because that would be a fun one to have.
• 33:50
  You've been very generous with your time, mate.
• 33:52
  Thank you so much.
• 33:53
  I love the fact, Crusher reminded me for this, that you've kept so many bits of memorabilia from your entire...
• 34:01
  I think that's super cool.
• 34:02
  You've got some great close mates that aren't even necessarily motor racing related that have come and, you know, regularly been with you at some significant moments during your time.
• 34:12
  Congrats on every bit of success that you've had.
• 34:15
  You've chalked up some amazing things.
• 34:17
  And I want to leave you with a funny little story, and it harks back to the Gold Coast.
• 34:21
  It harks back to Champ Car.
• 34:23
  A colleague of mine, Billy Woods, who's a television host in Australia,
• 34:28
  went to interview you at one stage and I think he used something along the lines of he said so let me get this straight you're a Scotsman with an Italian heritage so that means you speak with your hands but you never take them out of your pockets.
• 34:44
  Billy nailed it in one.
• 34:46
  Mate that's great thank you so much beautiful.
• 34:50
  Thanks Wesley.
• 34:55
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 35:00
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 35:03
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 35:06
  I'm Greg Rust.
• 35:07
  Enjoy the drive, but drive safely.
• 35:13
  Listener.