Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio speed Racer. So the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: audience love sorry about him to do with the auto industry,
Speaker 1: from evies and stuff d having cars to really cool
Speaker 1: things like supercars, collectibles, innovation, competition, racing and more just
Speaker 1: fast cars. All right, So today we're talking about the
Speaker 1: business of racing of the perfect duo to do that
Speaker 1: with Indiecar Champion Joseph new Garden joining us in our
Speaker 1: interactive Broker students, So welcome to you. Also, of course
Speaker 1: with us is our auto columness for Bloomberg Pursuits, Hannah Elliott,
Speaker 1: who actually brought us Joseph. I try to bring you
Speaker 1: the best at the weekend of two times Indie champion,
Speaker 1: like Hannah. Yeah. Anyway, alright, so first of all, congratulations, welcome,
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. So, what's the state of racing right now? Well,
Speaker 1: we're here to just just distract everybody, know, with all
Speaker 1: the chaos that's going on right now, we want you
Speaker 1: to just think about racing and good things. Um. But
Speaker 1: the yeah, the state of racing is good, you know.
Speaker 1: We um We're still going forward I think Indie Car
Speaker 1: is an exciting time for us. We're kind of growing. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we've gone through some swings over the last
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years with just the series, the identity of it,
Speaker 1: the popularity and uh, ever since I joined back in
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, we've just had this nice steady uptick
Speaker 1: and growth and and I feel like we have a
Speaker 1: lot more momentum on our side now with Roger Penskey
Speaker 1: acquiring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indie Car Series,
Speaker 1: so we feel like the direction of where that the
Speaker 1: series can go, and really the growth potential is is
Speaker 1: pretty enormous right now. All right, I don't know why
Speaker 1: he's been so serious. What's it like to race? It's awesome,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, No, I I love it. I grew up.
Speaker 1: I'm from Nashville, Tennessee, and I played stick and ball
Speaker 1: sports like most you know, suburban American kids. Baseball was
Speaker 1: kind of my sport as as as a young guy.
Speaker 1: And uh, I always loved racing. I love cars that
Speaker 1: went fasts the first thing you raced. So I raced
Speaker 1: just go karts, traditional like hundred cc carts and um,
Speaker 1: you know, they go like sixty miles superload to the ground,
Speaker 1: and there was nothing like that around Nashville, Tennessee. So
Speaker 1: my dad actually had to take me. Uh we we
Speaker 1: did this round trip three and miles up, three and
Speaker 1: miles back to Indianapolis. It was the closest carting track
Speaker 1: to to Nashville, and we did that. We went up there,
Speaker 1: figured out how carting worked, and then tried to get
Speaker 1: into cars. And then you kind of just learned how
Speaker 1: the you know, the series form up, and then how
Speaker 1: to maybe one day try and pursue a career in
Speaker 1: motorsports and what I'm so curious what separates a champion
Speaker 1: from someone who's really good? And I mean, when you
Speaker 1: were driving these cards, did you know from an early
Speaker 1: age I'm really good? Did that come later? It came later?
Speaker 1: You know, when I was a kid and i'd watch
Speaker 1: indie cars on TV, especially around street circuits, which is
Speaker 1: a track type that we run on. I'd watch these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, handle these seven hundred fifty horsepower super fast
Speaker 1: cars in between you know, twenty foot of walls like
Speaker 1: that's that's you know, the track was the walls basically
Speaker 1: lined the track super tight. And I had no idea
Speaker 1: how they'd be driving these things at two a mile
Speaker 1: miles per hour in the street courses. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: there's there's just no way. It looks so dangerous, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're like it's like riding a raging bull.
Speaker 1: And then there's they're so masterful when I was a
Speaker 1: kid watching the drivers do it, and I never thought
Speaker 1: it was possible, to answer your question, for me to
Speaker 1: be able to be capable of that, and so I
Speaker 1: just got into it for the love of cars, the
Speaker 1: love of racing, the competition, and then quickly you learn
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty good at this, like maybe maybe I'll
Speaker 1: be able to drive cars one day. And then you
Speaker 1: get into cars finally and you're like, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I could possibly get good at this. Was there a
Speaker 1: discussion you had with your parents about this, Um, yes
Speaker 1: and no. I beg to start racing go cards since
Speaker 1: I was like three years old, and it was always
Speaker 1: a no until I was thirteen, So it took. It
Speaker 1: took a lot of convincing to hey, let's actually go
Speaker 1: try and do this. And so to go back to
Speaker 1: what Hannah said, I mean, you understand you're pretty good
Speaker 1: at it, but then there is that, you know, a
Speaker 1: matter of seconds or middle of seconds in some cases
Speaker 1: inches feet that separate you know, a true champion, a
Speaker 1: winner from someone's like, yeah, this is pretty good, but
Speaker 1: what's the difference. Yeah, it's honestly so like once you
Speaker 1: get to the top level and you're like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm pretty good at the sport. I'm lucky
Speaker 1: that I have some talent. It's so much more than
Speaker 1: just being fast or being inherently talented at something. You
Speaker 1: have to have such a complete package at the top
Speaker 1: level of it. Um you really have to be diverse
Speaker 1: in your skill sets and and that a lot of
Speaker 1: what the driver does is he's like the quarterback of
Speaker 1: a football team. You know, he's leading the pack. He's
Speaker 1: kind of directing on everything that we need to do,
Speaker 1: not only just on a race weekend and what decisions
Speaker 1: we make, but also globally, like how are we developing
Speaker 1: the race car, what's gonna make the race car fast?
Speaker 1: And all those decisions really derived from the driver. So
Speaker 1: the driver has to have a really good skill set
Speaker 1: to lead the team and lead the engineers and mechanics
Speaker 1: around the right path. That's that's what makes you good
Speaker 1: at the top. Is it a case though, like with
Speaker 1: any I don't know sport, if you will that the
Speaker 1: more you do it, the better you get, like practice, practice, practice,
Speaker 1: or that's not necessarily the case in racing. No, No,
Speaker 1: it's very true, very true. I think with anything, particularly
Speaker 1: indie car racing. IndyCar racing, amongst all of motor sports,
Speaker 1: is probably the most diverse. So with NASCAR, they're so
Speaker 1: predominantly oval racing. You know, probably the tracks that visit
Speaker 1: are all ovals. For indiecr it's split across four different
Speaker 1: track types. So we race street circuits, like I was
Speaker 1: talking about earlier. We'll just go into a city like
Speaker 1: Long Beach and have a long breeze ground prix. They'll
Speaker 1: set up a temporary street circuit. Then we'll race that
Speaker 1: road courses, which are permanent road course tracks. Then we
Speaker 1: race that big superspeedways like the Indianapolis five two and
Speaker 1: a half mile oval, and then we were raced on
Speaker 1: short ovals which are only just like a mile long,
Speaker 1: but there's a little small baby oval, and they are
Speaker 1: all so completely different that if you're not good at
Speaker 1: all of them, you're never gonna win a championship. So
Speaker 1: the diversity that it that it requires to be good
Speaker 1: in Indy Cars is pretty cool. So tell me why
Speaker 1: Indiecar for you? Why not NASCAR? Why not Formula One?
Speaker 1: Why not Formula Even? I think a lot of what
Speaker 1: I honestly, the diversity, like I was just talking about,
Speaker 1: is what draws me in. Um. I also like the
Speaker 1: parody in our sport with IndyCar right now is next
Speaker 1: level um every I mean, you can be with the
Speaker 1: lowest budget team on the grid, you know, with maybe
Speaker 1: the smallest amount of people, and you can have a
Speaker 1: chance at winning races. I mean truly, you actually can
Speaker 1: compete with the top the top teams. Like you know,
Speaker 1: I get the drive for arguably the most successful team
Speaker 1: in the paddock, Team Penskey, Roger Penskey's team, and they've
Speaker 1: won eighteen Indianapolis five hundreds over the hundred and four
Speaker 1: year history. They're like the winning, They're nearly at race.
Speaker 1: He's had some really well known drivers too for his team.
Speaker 1: You know, your predecessors that an iconic in the racing world.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business, We Carl Master along with
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and in our interactive Broker Studio. Right now,
Speaker 1: we've got IndyCar Champion Joseph Newgarden, along with our auto
Speaker 1: time champion to time champion, along with our auto expert.
Speaker 1: The person we go to when we talk about really
Speaker 1: supercars and all fun things in the car industry is
Speaker 1: of course Hannah Elliott, who writes for Bloomberg Pursuits. So,
Speaker 1: and I want to toss it over to you. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to be here. I'm so excited to have
Speaker 1: you here, Joseph, because auto racing is fascinating and we've
Speaker 1: seen some new changes with IndyCar, especially these new errow screens.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about them? What
Speaker 1: they do? These are not the halos that we've see
Speaker 1: in Formula One. They're separate and different. So how do
Speaker 1: you feel about them? What are they pro con Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so for like the average viewer, just to
Speaker 1: give a you know, a digestible, so I used to
Speaker 1: I'll start off average viewer. No, No, it's good. It
Speaker 1: used to be funny for me because like when people
Speaker 1: ask me what I do, I used to be so
Speaker 1: hesitant to say I drive race cars because it's such
Speaker 1: a it sounds like what it's six year old kids,
Speaker 1: which is kind of awesome. It's hard to explain it,
Speaker 1: but now I'm like, I'm trying to embrace it so
Speaker 1: much more because for me, it's like being an astronaut. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such like a wall thing. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like not many people fly rockets into space and
Speaker 1: that's kind of like what our jobs all about. So
Speaker 1: to answer the question, yet, an indiecr it's like a
Speaker 1: jet fighter plane, but we just raced them on the
Speaker 1: ground and so it looks like a jet fighter plane
Speaker 1: with inverted wings. It it goes fast on the road.
Speaker 1: And um, typically open will cars have always been open
Speaker 1: cockpit as well, so it's exposed helmet for the driver
Speaker 1: and the wheels and tires are exposed. But that exposed
Speaker 1: helmet kind of like riding a you know, a fast
Speaker 1: motor GP bike or something. That's been the last big
Speaker 1: safety advancement is well, where can we make the driver's
Speaker 1: safer and and head protection has been the thing that
Speaker 1: we've needed to do. So now we're putting a screen
Speaker 1: on the car. And too, to your question, it's it's
Speaker 1: very similar to Formula one. Formula one just did a halo,
Speaker 1: so so just a structured piece on top of um,
Speaker 1: on top of the cockpit, but on for the IndyCar,
Speaker 1: the aeroscreen is both a structured piece and a windscreen,
Speaker 1: so it's a fully integrated canopy which looks like a
Speaker 1: fighter jet now and I actually think the cars look
Speaker 1: more like fighter jets than did before. Um. It's the
Speaker 1: biggest safety advancement in motorsports in my opinion in the
Speaker 1: last probably twenty five years. Game changer, total game changer.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, any the fatalities that we've had
Speaker 1: in the sport over the last twenty years, UM, this
Speaker 1: sort of device is really what would have helped in
Speaker 1: those situations. And and we've been trying to create something
Speaker 1: like this for a while, so it's it's inevitable. A
Speaker 1: lot of people were against it because of the style
Speaker 1: of it, but it's inevitably had to come. Does that
Speaker 1: change how you drive? Sorry, yeah, definitely. So the weight
Speaker 1: distribution of the car is totally different. It's a lot heavier,
Speaker 1: you know, it's about sixty pounds for the device moves
Speaker 1: the weight distribution forward. Yeah, it's a lot. The weight
Speaker 1: distribution moves forward about one and a half percent. So
Speaker 1: because of that, just mechanically, the car drives quite a
Speaker 1: bit different dynamically, it's still different. Uh well, let's end
Speaker 1: sort of where we began, or start to wrap up
Speaker 1: where he began, which is a lot of changes to
Speaker 1: the circuit, especially the ownership, the investment from Mr Penskey.
Speaker 1: What is change. You've got new sponsors coming, I mean
Speaker 1: there there, it feels like there's a lot of sort
Speaker 1: of winded near sales to use another form transportation. So
Speaker 1: the Penskey group, you know, obviously they're gonna take some
Speaker 1: time to get their hands around everything, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of it's going right into the speedway to
Speaker 1: start with. You know, the Indianapolis five are Holy Grail.
Speaker 1: It the super Bowl of our year in the championship
Speaker 1: for the month of May. Um, Roger really wants to
Speaker 1: improve the fan experience. So one of the cool things
Speaker 1: is Verizon is going to be putting five G in
Speaker 1: that entire race track, and it's gonna be the first
Speaker 1: facility to have full five G capability by the time
Speaker 1: we get to May. So it's a really really cool
Speaker 1: thing that they're putting in. Everyone in the crowd is
Speaker 1: gonna be able to have access to that they're putting
Speaker 1: in more screens. Uh, they're they're renovating every bathroom in
Speaker 1: the facility. They're creating new walkways for people, just little
Speaker 1: things that you want to think about, but that go
Speaker 1: directly to the fan. So Roger's done a great job
Speaker 1: of that for the Speedway and then the series itself.
Speaker 1: You know, I think we're just trying to figure out
Speaker 1: the best way to move forward continually with audiences. You know,
Speaker 1: it's such a moving landscape right now with digital media
Speaker 1: and how people consume things. So with our partner NBC,
Speaker 1: I think we've got a good foothold on you know,
Speaker 1: where do we want to go five or ten years
Speaker 1: from now? You know, I want to ask, and actually
Speaker 1: this is a hand of question, so I have to
Speaker 1: give her credit for it. Like, you know, what do
Speaker 1: you eat on race day? Like? Do you have anything quirks?
Speaker 1: Like you know our traditions that you do? Um now,
Speaker 1: think nothing crazy. I think you just want to stay
Speaker 1: away from anything new. So here's the weirdest thing, Like
Speaker 1: I need The only thing I like to have before
Speaker 1: a race is a nap. So I used to get
Speaker 1: so tired before races, and I was really concerned because
Speaker 1: I'm like, thirty minutes before the race is gonna start,
Speaker 1: I'm like definitely tired. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm
Speaker 1: not alert. I can't drive this race. The races that
Speaker 1: I'm most tired are the races I perform my best.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what that means. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that means I'm like focused or or something. I
Speaker 1: have no idea, but I'm super happy when I'm tired
Speaker 1: now before a race. It means I'm gonna do good.
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly Carroll Master here with you in New York
Speaker 1: City alongside Joseph Newgarden, two time IndyCar champion, and Hannah Elliott,
Speaker 1: auto columnist for Bloomberg. Canam okay, So, Joseph, I gotta
Speaker 1: know your twenty nine right under thirty. You're a young guy. Um.
Speaker 1: Everyone saying young people don't care about dry having anymore
Speaker 1: about driving cars. Is driving going away? Man? That's the
Speaker 1: million dollar question, you know, Like, I don't know who's
Speaker 1: tuning in right now, but everyone wants to know a
Speaker 1: lot of people are banking on it, you know. There
Speaker 1: there it's a great question. I think to some degree, yes,
Speaker 1: I think there will be options in the future. What's
Speaker 1: the runway to get there? You know, I think we're
Speaker 1: pretty far out still, to be honest with you, I
Speaker 1: mean I think at least five ten years out before
Speaker 1: you start getting evis um to be super prevalent. I'll
Speaker 1: say this, I don't think race car driving is going away.
Speaker 1: You cannot take out the human element of racing. I
Speaker 1: mean I I personally, but you could remotely. But do
Speaker 1: you want to see a robot race? I don't video
Speaker 1: game people watch video games, and but you have to
Speaker 1: see a human playing it, right, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: watch the computer play each other. So I don't think.
Speaker 1: I think there's always a place for human performance within
Speaker 1: driving and racing. Uh as far as every day on
Speaker 1: the road, I definitely think there'll be a shift. When's
Speaker 1: that shift? Everyone wants to know, and I will say, well,
Speaker 1: I will just say, like, even like we've been some
Speaker 1: some highlights of your winds and things like that, like
Speaker 1: that moment where you jump out of the car and
Speaker 1: like your team is there, like that sport, you know,
Speaker 1: like and I don't think you can really machinize that.
Speaker 1: That's under worn. Okay, So what's your daily driver? Oh?
Speaker 1: My I drive a Tahoe. I'm you know, you can
Speaker 1: do anything. That's my daily driver that checks out a drive.
Speaker 1: I have, yes, And did you like it? Just quickly? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did. It was very large screen, large screen in
Speaker 1: the center, very interesting, you know, like a massive like
Speaker 1: three iPads and one sitting there. That's good. They do
Speaker 1: a good job. Good luck on your next race. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys, all right. Season starts at mid March. Joseph Newgarden,
Speaker 1: two time IndyCar champion. Hannah Elliott, auto columnist for Hamberg News,