IndyCar is “California Dreaming” with Alex Palou, Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin. Also, new Team Penske President Jonathan Diuguid

Bruce Martin:
IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans an insider's view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek, and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to this special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental as we continue our fifth season of giving IndyCar fans an inside look at the most exciting form of racing on the planet, the NTT IndyCar Series. And a big thanks to Penske Truck Rental for helping bring you the inside stories of IndyCar from the paddock to the racetrack to the highways and streets of America. IndyCar is California Dreaming this weekend on the Central California coast, the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, for this weekend's Java House Grand Prix of Monterey. IndyCar's biggest names will battle on one of the most picturesque and iconic road courses in the world, WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca. Pit Pass Indy is there as Alex Palou continues his quest for a third straight NTT IndyCar Series championship, which would be his fourth overall. Palou, however, lost 30 points off his lead in the July 20th Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, but still has a 99-point cushion over Arrow McLaren's Pato Award heading to Monterey. There are just four races remaining in the IndyCar Series season. The maximum points available if the winning driver wins the pole and leads the most laps is 54, so Palou remains nearly two races ahead of Award. Pillow heads to Monterey full of confidence that he remains in control of the championship, but is taking nothing for granted, as he tells me in this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Hello, Alex. Hello, Bruce. All right, I know you're going to tell me, well, it's mathematically possible for someone else to win the championship. I'm not going to buy into that. Your lead's pretty big. I'm going to already say, unless you get kidnapped, you're going to win another championship. So I'm going to patent the win 10 for the number 10 for you to be able to do this year. Can you get three wins in the last five races to become the first 10-time winner? since AJ Foyt and Al Unser?

Alex Palou: I think we can, yes. It's very, very tough. Also, considering the races that we have left, probably it's not the best of our races. But yeah, we can make it happen, especially being in a season that we are this year, like feeling so good with the car, such good speed. So I think we can make it. It's not what I have in mind. I mean, obviously I have it in mind, but it's not the only thing I have in mind or the first thing I have in mind. We take it race by race all year, and hopefully we can win this weekend to be closer.

Bruce Martin: When you have such a great season, do you start to look for different things and different goals to motivate yourself?

Alex Palou: No, never. I mean, for me, it's easy to stay motivated. For me, it's all about going to different racetracks, needing different stuff. Like, I need a completely different driver skill this weekend than last weekend in Iowa. And we need to evolve with the setup and my driving to try and beat our competitors. So I don't… I don't need an extra motivation. For me, when I start a season, I don't look at the long-term goal. I always take very short-term goals, and it's every single weekend.

Bruce Martin: Next race coming up is going to be Monterey. How do you like that course?

Alex Palou: I love it.

Bruce Martin: And how important would it be for you to get a victory there?

Alex Palou: It's my favorite place of the season. I go there and I love the atmosphere there. I love the weather. I love everything about Monterey. I love the memories that I have there. And we have such a good car. Hopefully we can fight for the win there. I think we got two wins there. We won a championship there, or we celebrated a championship win there, which was pretty awesome. So hopefully we can go there and fight for the win.

Bruce Martin: And finally, you won on a short oval. The last two races of the season are going to be on short ovals. So now you got to feel like you're the driver to beat on short ovals now, too.

Alex Palou: Well, I think that we are capable of, but I would say there's other cars and drivers that are favorite, like Joseph and Pato, they've been always up there. They are very tough to beat, but we're getting closer. So, hey, we're working hard to try and get to Milwaukee and see if we can do the same as Iowa.

Bruce Martin: Alex Polo, I have a feeling we're going to be talking after another race win sometime here soon, but good luck the rest of the way and thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

Alex Palou: I hope so. Thank you.

Bruce Martin: Alexander Rossi of ECR is from Nevada City, California in the Sierra Nevada region of the Golden State. Laguna Seca in Monterey is a special place for Rossi for many reasons, as it sparked his interest in racing as a small child. Rossi tells us more in this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Alexander Rossi has joined us now. Alex, we're going to be heading to one of your favorite tracks, Monterey. In many ways, isn't that where the racing bug got you when you were a kid?

Alexander Rossi: Yeah, I mean, that was my very first event I went to as a kid. I was three years old. I don't remember it, but yeah, I was three years old. It was the kart race. Zanardi passed Hurta.

Bruce Martin: That's a great first race.

Alexander Rossi: That was my first race, yeah. And then my dad and I went kind of every year after that for almost a decade.

Bruce Martin: How much do you feel like you're at home every time you race out there? Even though you live in Indianapolis now, you'll always be a Californian.

Alexander Rossi: Yeah, it is. I mean, it's my true home race. I have a lot of family support that comes and, you know, my hometown's only kind of three, three and a half hours from there. So it feels like home.

Bruce Martin: But it's also a very challenging course, and no, it's difficult to pass there. So does that make qualifying very important at Monterey?

Alexander Rossi: I mean, where isn't it important these days, you know? I mean, even at Iowa, we felt it was super critical. So yeah, qualifying is seemingly becoming the most important session of the weekend. And yeah, Laguna is no exception.

Bruce Martin: And as a Californian, you have to take a lot of pride in the fact that that state pretty much has it all from the beaches to the mountains, to the desert, to the forest, to just everywhere. And Monterey is one of the most unique parts of the state.

Alexander Rossi: So what do you think of the whole Monterey area? Oh, I love it. I think it's one of the best places in the nation, actually. Carmel is such an amazing city and community. And the fact that we get to go drive race cars there is pretty awesome.

Bruce Martin: And how do you explain to Hoosiers, people from Indiana, just the majesty of Big Sur? It really is something you have to see. Yeah.

Alexander Rossi: Yeah. I don't know that I've ever had a Hoosier that argued the fact that Big Sur is pretty cool. So I don't know that I've had to explain it. They didn't throw out Lafayette? No. No. I think everyone knows it's pretty exceptional. And that whole Highway 1 area of California is a bucket list trip and place for people to go.

Bruce Martin: Speaking of bucket list trips, they have bucket list restaurants. What's some of your favorites?

Alexander Rossi: Casanova, I would say, is top of my list, and Carmel.

Bruce Martin: That's definitely pretty good. Hey, after Monterey, it's going to be a week off, and then Portland. That's a pretty unique road course in many ways. How do you like that course?

Alexander Rossi: I don't know that I like it all that much. But hey, we're still going, so I better learn to like it.

Bruce Martin: You're still going. How would you assess the season with ECR?

Alexander Rossi: Yeah, it's been difficult the past, I would say, five weeks. We've had quite a few mechanical issues. But generally, I think the pace of the car has been pretty good. And we'll just keep working away at it for the last five races of the year.

Bruce Martin: And do you like the dynamic working with Ed Carpenter? Because he seems to be a true driver's owner because he's a driver himself.

Alexander Rossi: Yeah, I mean, I love driving for ECR. I love working with Ed. You know, he's someone that I have a huge amount of respect for and have known for quite some time. And we're just going to continue to get stronger as time goes on.

Bruce Martin: And also some big plans were announced with that new shop that he plans on building in Westfield, Indiana. So it really shows how committed the team is to becoming a true IndyCar power.

Alexander Rossi: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's always been part of the vision and the plan since this past offseason when that new ownership group was announced. And this is just step one of many of what's going to be a very exciting future.

Bruce Martin: Well, Alexander Rossi, good luck in that future. We'll catch up later. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy. Thank you so much. We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

Scott McLaughlin: Hi, I'm Scott McLaughlin, driver of the number three team Penske Chevy, and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Bruce Martin: Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy. Scott McLaughlin is hoping to catch a break before the end of the 2025 IndyCar Series season. The Team Penske star had hopes of contending for a championship in 2025, but the entire team has struggled with a streak of bad luck. That includes McLaughlin's crash after three laps at Toronto when the right wheel nut flew off, sending McLaughlin's number three Chevrolet crashing into the wall on the street course. Prior to that, however, I caught up with McLaughlin earlier in the weekend for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Our old buddy Scott McLaughlin has joined us. Scott, we're up here in Toronto. We're getting ready for a trip to Monterey, California next week. You had a really great first race at Iowa. Came all the way from the back to fourth place. Didn't get to complete the first green flag lap on Sunday. How disappointed were you that what was so promising, what you did on Saturday, ended so soon on Sunday?

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, I was super excited for Sunday. I thought we could have done, we could have really competed for the win there, honestly. We would have been able to rip the top better than most and the hotter temperatures probably going to suit my car even better. you know, that day. But, you know, obviously you don't know until you try. And I went out there, and Dev just lost his car, and I had nowhere to go. So, frustrating. But, you know, I was more gutted just for the fun of it. Because I was actually, I had a lot of fun on Saturday, and I was excited to do the same on Sunday.

Bruce Martin: What I'm leaning up to is the fact that between yourself and Will Power and Josef Newgarden, the team really bounced back well, but it just seems like you guys can't catch a break.

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, I really do believe that. I feel like we had really good momentum after that week. I'm really excited for the next five races. I think there's a chance for us to learn a lot for next year. And, yeah, try and turn things around. But, you know, there's no lack of pace for us right now. I feel like we've really found a few things here in the last little couple of weeks. It just hasn't transitioned into results. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter now. Like, we've just got to try and get a direction for next year, which I think we're getting. And, yeah, that's the main thing.

Bruce Martin: But because of that, you have to almost feel like, when is this going to turn around? You've turned it around in ways during races, but it just seems that whatever break is necessary or whatever advantage is necessary to win is missing.

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, it'll turn around when it needs to. I mean, there's a reason. Everything happens for a reason. There's a reason why we're going through this right now, and we'll figure it out.

Bruce Martin: Going to Monterey, that's a great course. A lot of people have fun out there. Your favorite track. What is it you like most about the… I just sing at Monterey.

Scott McLaughlin: I just love the speed of it, and the blind crests, and the corners, and the undulations, and it's a really tough circuit to get right, so I really enjoy that.

Bruce Martin: Now with the new management in place at Team Penske, how much have you seen things change and how much do you see that things are smoothing out and that you have a great future ahead of you?

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, no, I think there's a really overjuvenized workforce, you know, I feel like we're all chasing that same goal. There's a lot of positive vibes. And I think it's a bit of a refresh for the team. And not that it was needed, but it's kind of come at a good time. And I don't see it as a bad thing for the future. I'm really excited for what we've got ahead. After Monterey, it's Portland. How do you like that track? I like that track. I've won there before. I feel like we've always been there fast as well. Yeah, no, I think we're going to be just fine there, and we've learned a lot here in the last little bit on the Sim. I think he's going to ready boat really well there.

Bruce Martin: And then you end the season on two short ovals. After what you did at Iowa, and the way Penske seems to do pretty well on ovals, you have to feel pretty confident about that.

Scott McLaughlin: How confident are you? Very confident. I mean, we won that race last year and it started at a similar time, so I'm excited about that. I think we're going to be in a really good spot. Yeah, yeah, we'll see where we're at.

Bruce Martin: And finally, you're teammates with Will Power. We don't know whether Will's going to be with Team Penske next year or not. So how do you not get interested in what he may do or not do for next year?

Scott McLaughlin: You know, from a personal perspective, I'd love to keep working with Will. I enjoy working with him and I feel like I've That's probably my preference at this point, if you had to ask me. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's a business and Roger needs to make the right decision for his team moving forward. Yeah, so I'm just thankful I've got a multi-year deal and I'm ready to go for the future.

Bruce Martin: If you break in a new driver, such as a David Nalukas, how long does that take for chemistry to form?

Scott McLaughlin: Let's worry about that when it happens. Hey, jeez.

Bruce Martin: Well, I'm sure you're ready for a reset. But Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, good luck in the rest of the races this season. We'll catch up with you later before the end of the year. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy. Thanks, Bruce. Cheers, man. Colton Hurdo of Andretti Global has continued the family tradition of success at Monterey. Colton has two wins, two poles, and three podium finishes in five races on the Incredible Road Course. His father, Brian, also has two wins, two poles, and three podiums at Laguna Seca. Hurdo hopes to add to those numbers as he tells me in this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Colton Herda, part of the house of Herda at Monterey. You gotta really be looking forward to returning to Monterey because that's one of your best tracks and it's one of the best tracks for the Herda family.

Colton Herta: Yeah, I love going there. I think it's a lot of fun. It's a great place, great atmosphere. And for me, it's one of maybe the best tracks in the world. I really enjoy just driving around that place. It's a thrill.

Bruce Martin: And coming at this stage of the season, the team's shown a lot of improvement in some ways, but you have to feel like it's a great chance to get into victory lane. You know how well you do at Monterey.

Colton Herta: But I look at it like a lot of the races at the end of the year, we've had success. Portland, we've definitely had one pole. I feel like I might have had two poles. And we've always raced well there. And I think there's a lot of opportunity for us at the end of this year.

Bruce Martin: And so far, how would you assess the way your season has gone? You've shown speed, have had some problems finishing races. But what do you see as being the biggest issue with the season?

Colton Herta: Oh, we haven't had problems finishing races. We just had the tire fail at Iowa, but everything else has been. Been fine. Um, you know, I think we just execution sometimes hasn't been great this year. And, you know, I think we can be really, um, really strong in that area sometimes and weaken it and others. So, you know, I think, uh, you just need to be together as a unit this weekend and, and for the rest of the year and we can have good results.

Bruce Martin: And finally wrapping up with Portland and then two short ovals, you. have done pretty well at both. Well you did, you won at Nashville. Yeah. So you got to feel really good about the races at the end of the year.

Colton Herta: Yeah. Yeah. You look at it, you know, Laguna, like we've won at Milwaukee. We finished on the podium, Nashville. We've won at Portland. We've been really fast at, um, I don't think I've ever finished on the podium there, but you know, I'm, I'm really excited about the wrap up of this year because it can be very strong for us.

Bruce Martin: Well, Colton Verna, good luck, especially when we get to Monterey and the races thereafter. Thank you for joining us today on pit pass, Cindy. Thank you. We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

Will Power: This is Will Power of Team Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Bruce Martin: Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy. Let's get to know Jonathan Duguid, the new president, IndyCar and sports cars for Team Penske. He replaces Tim Sendrick, the longtime Team Penske president. Duguid was named the new role on July 4th. Here's my exclusive interview with Duguid for Pit Pass Indy. Jonah is now on Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske. Truck rental is the new president of Team Penske for IndyCar and IMSA, Jonathan Duguid. Jonathan, we've talked to you in the past, and I know a little bit about your track record, how you got here, started, you came from NC State, North Carolina State.

Jonathan Diuguid: Yep. When you joined Team Penske, though, which is, which is better than Duke. Let me just stop you there. You know, we, we control the, the triangle there and, and have a sports powerhouses and Duke, UNC and Carolina, but

Bruce Martin: Well, depending on when I'm around your Duke fan, David Hovis, I have to watch what I say, but I kind of tend to agree with you on that one. But I got to ask you, when you join Team Penske, I bet team president was probably not the goal.

Jonathan Diuguid: No, no, clearly not. I was just, uh, I was trying to figure out, you know, how to, how to move into the world and make a living. And somebody told me I can make a living, uh, working on race cars and going to the racetrack. And I've been lucky enough to do that for 20 years. So, uh, it didn't turn out bad, uh, no matter where I ended up.

Bruce Martin: There was a lot of big moves that had to be made around the Indianapolis 500. You had a similar situation in 2024 where you had to step in and fill in at the Indianapolis 500. This is a much, much bigger role. You're basically now going to be in charge of two powerhouse organizations in two different forms of racing. So how do you prepare for this and what is your vision and goals?

Jonathan Diuguid: I think I've prepared for it over the course of my career, and obviously the team is built on a very solid, strong foundation from all the people that have been in these roles before me. In general, our team has been successful for over 60 years, and that doesn't happen based off of one specific person. And I think as far as what's my vision for the future, it's still being determined. I'm not naive enough to think I'm going to come in and flip everything upside down on its head and make all the right decisions on day one. So relying on a lot of the people that are here already to give feedback and stick their hand up on where we need to go and what we need to address. And we're working through that process now. We don't have a lot of time, that's probably the best way to describe it. Racing moves quite quickly and we got to start producing results and so that'll be our goal.

Bruce Martin: And of course your team owner Roger Penske not only wants you to produce results, he expects it. And to live up to that type of obligation, how do you do that?

Jonathan Diuguid: Um, I think everybody here in the garage has a similar level of obligation. I think, um, you know, we're, we're probably provided the best opportunity to succeed. And so. It it's really about focusing on what, on what the goals are and our goals are to have quick cars and good solid execution every single weekend. And so that's, that's what we focus on. And when we don't do that, um, on Monday and Tuesday, we sit down and talk about why we didn't achieve those goals and either what we need to do or how we need to address the mistakes that. the team made collectively because it takes everybody in the entire organization to win an IndyCar Series and the sports car championships that we participate in. So, you know, it's kind of a holistic approach of how do we get better together.

Bruce Martin: There's still more than a month left in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. But after the way things have gone in 2025, how badly does this team need a reset, a fresh start, a turning the page?

Jonathan Diuguid: I don't think it's necessarily a reset or a fresh start. I think even when we've had eight or nine win seasons and been fighting for championships and won any 500s, we go to the next race with the same desire and everything to win again. I think the desire is strong regardless of our past relationships. That being said, we're all extremely competitive people and we come to the racetrack to win. Winning helps a lot, but in general, the team morale is quite good. You know, we had a strong showing qualifying day with Will getting into the fast six and have had good, strong practice sessions and the race pace looks really good. So we're excited about tomorrow here in Toronto and seeing if we can put the cars in victory lane.

Bruce Martin: So you started your racing career as an engineer. Now you're in a position where you have to manage people. That's pretty vastly different. How big a challenge is that?

Jonathan Diuguid: Is it? Engineers run the world, right? Engineers manage everybody. I thought that's how it worked. No, I think, you know, working in a team environment, people obviously hold different roles, whether it's engineer or technician or mechanic or truck driver. And we all work together. Yes, there needs to be a clear direction. But I think, you know, throughout my career and especially in the past 10 years, whether it's race engineering where you're managing a car and a crew of 15 people or, you know, a sports car program where you're managing 50, and then now with our global Porsche-Penske Motorsport program, it's a little bit over 100 people. It's all kind of scalable, and you can apply the same process and everything. And like you mentioned, my engineering background is a very process-driven background, and I'm supported by a lot of people that have a similar approach, you know, from working with them for over two decades.

Bruce Martin: I'm sure now you hear a lot more from Roger Penske. Just how much has the communication increased between him and you?

Jonathan Diuguid: I've been in the fortunate position to work with R.P. at the racetrack from pretty much day one in 2005 until he stepped away from the timing stand, I think, which was in 2017 or so when the Acura program started. I've had a very close and open relationship with him, both in a competitive environment and now in a team management environment. I think I just got off the phone with him about 15 minutes ago, giving him an update on qualifying, and he's extremely engaged in our sports car program too as well. I think in general, you know, RP takes the approach of entrusting and empowering people to make the decisions and that's the structure we're going to have here in the IndyCar program too as well, so it's going to be up to people like myself and Travis and a lot of the other people that are tenured here at the team to make all the right decisions and put us in victory lane because that's his expectation, but he's going to leave us to it to execute.

Bruce Martin: Have you had any of those very early in the morning phone calls yet?

Jonathan Diuguid: Well, it depends on what part of the world you're in, I guess. I think we're all driven. I'm not going to say we work 24 hours a day, but seven days a week isn't out of the norm. And I think, like we said, racing is quite a fast-moving environment. And you mentioned there's only one month left, but there's five races in that one month. So we've got to be able to move quickly and react quickly. So it's an open dialogue across the entire team, RP included.

Bruce Martin: For a team that's won more races than any other race team in history, it would be hard to imagine how great the next victory will be. Will it be a celebration or will it be a relief?

Jonathan Diuguid: We celebrate every victory, Bruce. So I think we don't take any of this stuff for granted. And years like this year make us value it even more when we are successful together. And the bottom line is we are going to be successful because we've got everybody that's pushing pushing all in the right direction. We have one clear goal in mind and we're going to do it together and make it happen and celebrate any victory like the last one.

Bruce Martin: You've got one driver whose contract ends at the end of this season. How deeply involved will you be in that decision?

Jonathan Diuguid: You know, I think it's part of any team's discussion on who their drivers are, who their employees are, engineers and things like that. And there's a process that we'll all work through. And in the end, the decision will get made. How we arrive there is kind of the team's prerogative. But, you know, Will's doing a great job right now. He's obviously Our highest team car on the points. He had a good, strong performance here today. So he's doing everything we need to do. We'll just need to look at it from a team perspective and see how we want to move forward. But no comment from myself or anybody else, because Will's focusing on race results, and he's doing a good job right now.

Bruce Martin: As an engineer, you've seen the struggles this team has had on street and road courses in the FAST 6 qualifying. Have you been able to determine what some of the issues may be on why all three can't necessarily have success on the same day?

Jonathan Diuguid: I think it's, it's very small margins. Um, you know, I think in, in qualifying one group too, it was a little bit over a 10th and a half from first to six. And, you know, there's multiple cars missing to transfer by half a 10th. So, uh, the field is extremely competitive right now. It comes down to. maximizing the peak of your tires to traffic, to driving details, to the setup of the car. You have to get all those things correct to even have a chance. That's something that we're working. Like I said, Will did a really good job there. Joseph was quickest on blacks. Just couldn't put it together when we put the green alternate tires on there. We'll just have to go back and do a little bit more homework.

Bruce Martin: You mentioned a name earlier, somebody who's going to be very important in helping you with the new regime at Team Penske. That's Travis Law. So just how big of a role is it and how big of an asset will he be to you as team president?

Jonathan Diuguid: Yeah, I mean, Travis is a huge asset, obviously. We come from very different backgrounds, but arrived at the team around the same time. I can trust Travis completely. I trust his thought process. I trust his approach. I'm going to rely on him quite heavily to get us in a spot where we need to be, along with many others. Matt Johnson, Dave Faustino, Ben Bretzman, Luke, and Robbie Atkinson. There's a bunch of guys that are quite strong in the team and the organization. And we're all dedicated to making it correctly. But Travis is in a very clear leadership role there. And he's done an amazing job on the Porsche Penske program and has been pivotal in putting that global effort together. And together, we've learned a lot on how to go racing and putting some processes and things in place that should help us across the board.

Bruce Martin: How is your personality and leadership different than your predecessor, Tim Sindrick?

Jonathan Diuguid: I'm not going to really make any comparisons. You know, Tim was critical of my career progression and gave me all the opportunities that I have within the team. And, you know, I think I said before, I never really went up and asked, you know, Tim or RP for opportunities. They always presented them and challenged me throughout my entire 20-year career. And so I think Tim is and was an amazing leader for our organization over his 25 years. And the track record speaks for itself. The wins and the championships that this team brought in during that period of time is amazing. And I definitely look up towards Tim and shape a lot of my approach on how he approached it, too, as well, because it's been successful. And yeah, he's definitely a mentor of my career.

Bruce Martin: And a longtime Team Penske employee, Kyle Moyer, landed on his feet as director of competition at Arrow McLaren. You guys all worked together. How happy did you feel to see him be able to bounce back as quick as he did?

Jonathan Diuguid: Yeah, Kyle's a great guy, and obviously, you know, the IndyCar paddock is quite a small, tight-knit group, and, you know, I was talking to Kyle on Friday, and, you know, he's doing well, and he's an Indiana native, and so he got to go home a little bit there, and, you know, he's going to be a big asset to that team, and I look forward to seeing him around the paddock, and also outside of the paddock, too, as well, but, you know, really excited for the opportunity he has there.

Bruce Martin: And also, if you could just give a quick recap of your career. I know that you're a graduate of North Carolina State, but if you could describe how you got into racing and just recap some of the highlights of your career.

Jonathan Diuguid: Yeah, obviously I went to NC State as a mechanical engineer there. And North Carolina is a motor racing state. It's heavily invested in NASCAR. And so the universities have partnerships with a lot of different places. And I was able to forge a partnership with John Maloney at Penske Technology Group and kind of get my foot in the door. And I honestly did an open interview for the sports car team and moved to Pennsylvania for two years and worked my way up from there. In general, it's been a lot of hard work, but it's been extremely rewarding and an exciting career. And, you know, like I said before, I've had every single opportunity I could have dreamed of within this organization. And to be able to be in a position that we are now is also extremely rewarding. But I understand the expectation. The expectation is to win. And so that's my focus.

Bruce Martin: So when you were at NC State, did you want to go into NASCAR when you joined Team Penske, or were you interested in sports cars?

Jonathan Diuguid: I was interested in sports cars. I didn't really necessarily come up from a racing background. You know, my family is not a racing family. I focused on on racing in any university, whether it was Legends Car Racing or Formula SAE or, you know, all the sort of showroom stock racing junior formulas that are available in North Carolina. And the opportunity came up with Penske. You know, a lot of the people that I went to school with are now, you know, crew chiefs and technical directors. And that era of NC State, you know, fostered a lot of good guys. I think, you know, my good friend from college, Luke Lambert, is Carson Hosevar's crew chief and Justin Alexander's. technical director of something at RCR. And so there's a lot of people from that era of when I went to NC State that have been quite successful in motorsport. And it was just the opportunity. And I found something that I was passionate about. And I tell people all the time, I haven't really had a job for the past 20 years. I've been able to go and have fun every day.

Bruce Martin: And also, you've had a lot of success at the Indianapolis 500. Your driver last year in a fill-in roll, Josef Newgarden, won the 108th Indianapolis 500. If you could recap some of the winning teams, the success you've had in IndyCar.

Jonathan Diuguid: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't, you know, last year in 2024 with Joseph, that was kind of, I called it payback because Joseph got to come rock up to the Daytona 24 hours in a third driver role there and leave with a Rolex. And I kind of got to rock up to the speedway with an already fast race car and just execute a race strategy. And he put in the effort there on the last lap to capture the win. Um, you know, beyond that, we've had plenty of opportunities and it was ALMS back in the day with the RS Spyder and three championships and 20 plus wins. And, and, and then through the IndyCar period with, with Ryan Briscoe and then Elio, um, captured a lot of poles and some wins with Elio. Didn't, didn't capture an Indy 500. I think we had two or three second place finishes, which were, you know, gutting and difficult. Um, and then we had the Acura sports car program and had to two consecutive championships there with a bunch of wins and got Elio kind of his first championship with the team, which was really rewarding for me after working with him for so many years. And then one year with Scott to kind of, you know, drop him in the deep end of IndyCar. He brought home the Rookie of the Year that year and, you know, the rest is history and he's competitive here now. And then the last four years of my life have been the Porsche-Penske Motorsport Program, which I think last year was, Probably the most successful year of my career with a number of championships that that group brought home and wins and stuff as well. And so we're trying to continue that success across the entire Team Penske organization.

Bruce Martin: Well, Jonathan Dugard, you've certainly climbed the ranks in motorsports, and now you're at the pinnacles, president of Team Penske. Good luck in your new role, being in charge of the IndyCar and IMSA teams. You'll be hearing from us a lot. Thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental. No problem.

Jonathan Diuguid: Thanks, Bruce.

Bruce Martin: We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

Josef Newgarden: Hey everyone, this is two-time Indy 500 winner, Josef Newgarden, and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Bruce Martin: And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental. We want to thank our guests, IndyCar Series points leader, Alex Pillow of Chip Gamassi Racing, Alexander Rossi of ECR, Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, Colton Hurd of Andretti Global, and Team Penske president for IndyCar and sports cars, Jonathan Duguid, for joining us on today's episode of Pit Pass Indy. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental, your path to Victory Lane and IndyCar. On the highways, the raceways, and every pit stop in between, Penske Truck Rental keeps you moving forward. Gain ground with Penske. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me on X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. It's been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Sean Rule Hoffman and Nathan Corson. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.