On to the rest of the IndyCar Season with Team Penske’s Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden. Also, Robert Shwartzman, Devlin De Francesco and Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance and Motorsports, General Motors

Roger Penske:
This is Roger Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy, sponsored by Penske Truck Rental.

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 Ass Indy. Welcome to 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. With the 109th Indianapolis 500 completed, it's on to the rest of the season in the battle for the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series Championship. After a weekend off, the teams and drivers head to Worldwide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois for Sunday night's Bomberito Automotive Group 500. It will be the first IndyCar Series race on a Sunday night televised in prime time on a major network as Fox Sports has cleared its highly viewed Sunday night entertainment lineup for the stars of IndyCar. The Fox Telecast begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, June 15th. It will be the first IndyCar Series race televised by a major network in primetime since Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, June 6, 2020, on NBC. That race was held during the COVID-19 shutdown, and no spectators were allowed to attend the event. It was also the first race of the 2020 IndyCar Series season after all previous races were canceled because of the nationwide COVID shutdown. This time, it's different though. Fox Sports and IndyCar agreed to move the race from its original Sunday afternoon time slot to Sunday night. It will be the highlight of a racing day that includes the NASCAR Cup Series race at Mexico City on Amazon Prime in the afternoon. The Formula One Grand Prix of Canada on ABC ESPN, also on Sunday afternoon, with IndyCar in prime time on Fox. The May 25th, 109th Indianapolis 500 on Fox was the most watched Indy 500 telecast in 17 years, as 7.01 million viewers tuned in, including a peak audience of 8.5 million from 4.15 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. when Alex Pillow won his first Indy 500. Our first guest started this year's Indy 500 on the pole. It's rookie driver, Robert Schwartzman of Prima Racing, who had a wild day in his first Indy 500 and dropped out after crashing in Pit Lane on lap 87. Here is my exclusive interview with Schwartzman for Pit Pass Indy. The poll winner of the 109th Indianapolis 500 has joined us now. Hey, you led laps in the Indianapolis 500. Had a pretty good race going there for a while until it ended. How disappointing was it to be on such a high and then have it end the way it did?

Robert Shwartzman: Well, as I said before, I knew that Indy is going to be a hectic race and anything can happen. Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to finish the race for a brake failure that we found out. I mean, it's also something that we could have known because from what my mechanics have explained, it's not the first time this happens. We've seen that. It was actually a new part. but unfortunately it was not working well. I'm very happy first of all that all the guys in the team are all safe and you know because the impact was quite quite strong and luckily at the first part of the impact there was nobody there so I'm like I hit the wall first of all and then you know as my side bot I touched the guys in the team. So that's the first thing that's very good. Obviously the beginning of the race was good. We started from pole, was awesome, like the helicopters, the whole situation there was really nice. Then at the beginning I took it a bit easy because I didn't want to lead. I wanted to, you know, the strategy was a bit to take it easy, conservative, maybe to do a bit of fuel save. So I dropped to P4, then stick behind Felix. And then we had a really slow first pit stop, which brought us to P21. And from then on, moment on, I just tried to get back to the top. And yeah, I arrived to P13 at that stage before we had the incident. But overall, the car felt good. And the pace was quite good as well. Yeah, that stage where actually I was in front of Markus Eriksson. So knowing where he ended up at the end, I think we could have still had a chance. But yeah, this is racing, this is life. You know, it's Indy 500, it happens. We'll just get stronger and that's it, just improve our issues we had and keep going forward.

Bruce Martin: How much did your heart sink when you realized you had hit a crewman?

Robert Shwartzman: I mean, I got really scared because it was such a quick moment that I was coming in, I was really going really fast, and then as soon as I touched the brakes, both front wheels locked because I had no rear brakes, so obviously all the weight of the car went on the front wheels, plus they were used. So by the inertia, I was just going to the wall. It happened so quickly, and then yeah, when I hit the wall, I broke my steering rack. And then I saw guys jumping in the car and falling down and I was like, oh my God, what's going on? And I was like, oh, but then I saw them standing up and I was like, okay, hopefully they're all good, all fine. And then obviously at the moment when I jumped out of the car, I just saw them and it's like, you guys okay? They obviously had some hits, so they hit the ground and they were having a bit of bumps, but I was happy that everybody was on their feet. And that was the most important part.

Bruce Martin: Well, Robert Schwartzman, you certainly gained a lot of new fans and friends during the month of May. Good luck the rest of the season. We'll catch up with you later. Thank you for joining us on Hit Pass Indy. Thank you. Our next guest was the first driver to cross the finish line at the checkered flag, but he was not the winning driver. It's Devlin DeFrancesco of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. DeFrancesco and rookie teammate Louis Foster were the final two drivers on the lead lap and were running just ahead of race winner Alex Pillow. Because they were running ahead of the actual leader and by being on the lead lap, they did not have to move over and did not impede the battle between Pillow and the rest of the field. DeFrancesco finished the race 11th and Foster 12th, the last two drivers on the lead lap. Here is my exclusive interview with DeFrancesco for Pit Pass Indy. Devlin DeFrancesco, Rayhall Waterman Lanigan Racing has joined us. Devlin, you had a really good Indianapolis 500. How do you assess the way your race went?

Devlin DeFrancesco: You know, we executed really well. The boys executed unbelievably on pit lane. You know, for us to be P1 on pit lane, I think is huge. And it shows all the work being put in is starting to come out and pay dividends. You know, we had a flawless day. You know, the car was very strong and we really nailed it on carb day and we made it incrementally better all month. Part of me hurts a little bit because I think it kind of got away because we genuinely had a shot to win with our car and our package. The strategy didn't quite go our way. Reflecting on it, taking one of those yellows on 102 or 109 would have completely changed the day for us. Reflecting on the things that didn't go right and continuing the positives on for the rest of the season.

Bruce Martin: Also, you had a rather spirited battle there with your teammate, Louis Foster, for the last 15, 16 laps. You were both fighting hard to stay on the lead lap. How cool was it? How much fun was it having that little race where the two of you were going back and forth, trading the lead? Not the lead, but the position.

Devlin DeFrancesco: Yeah, it was enjoyable, it was fun racing around Louis. Coming to the white, I think he was going to do me, so it would have been important for me to get him back, but I think we were generally the stronger of the two all day, if you look at the traffic running. But it was a fun, close race. You know, I understand why people weren't, some people weren't happy about it, but you know, we didn't break any rules and did as instructed to, you know, because if a yellow came out, we would have been right back in the fight.

Bruce Martin: That's a very good point that I was going to bring up next. There are some people who don't understand the IndyCar rules, think you guys should have moved over, but it's, you have as much right to stay on the lead lap as the two drivers fighting it out for the victory do. You were running faster than they were. And also you helped aid in some ways Alex Palou because he was able to draft off the two of you. So, in a little bit, how do you explain how all that worked out?

Devlin DeFrancesco: Well, I think re-watching it through, right, I think it affected Erickson the same way it affected Palou. You know, both had a shot to win and Palou came out on top. But we did as instructed. We had to keep working with Louis to maintain ourselves on the lead lap. If Yellow came out, we would have been in the fight to recoup for what we missed out on on those Yellows that happened earlier on.

Bruce Martin: It was the same scenarios happened in 2021 with Elio Castroneves and Alex Pillow. At that time, the drivers on the tail end of the lead lap were Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott McLaughlin, and James Hinchcliffe. Having covered that race, I don't remember anybody bringing that up as why didn't those guys move out of the way?

Devlin DeFrancesco: Yeah. It's tough to say, right? I don't know why it's created such chaos and such a harsh reaction from people, but I was there to do what I had to do at the time and that's what I did.

Bruce Martin: Well, but that's also something we can be very proud of because you raced hard, you raced fair, you raced clean. the winner of the race is still the winner of the race and you guys had a completed all 200 laps and had a good finish at the Indianapolis 500. So how big a boost does that give you for the rest of the season?

Devlin DeFrancesco: You know, as I said, I definitely feel momentum behind me, especially. You know, from running strong at the GP to running good at the 500, the pit lane performances of our group is improving week in, week out. And, you know, the general chemistry of especially everyone on the 30 is We're closely knit together. We had some real tough weekends, not because of pace or anything, just because of how things shook out. Our main focus is execution. We're going to generally have strong finishes like we did at the 500. The 500 was… you know, a big missed opportunity for us and we finished 11. You know, when things may go our way and we execute as well as we did, who's disabled won't be fighting at the front, you know, in the top five.

Bruce Martin: Finally, I gotta ask you a Detroit question. When you're at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix and you look across the Detroit River and you see Windsor, Canada, do you sit there and go, that's my homeland?

Devlin DeFrancesco: You know, someone asked me this question over there and I have a lot of home places now, effectively, right? Indy's become a new home for me. I've grown up in Florida, so every time when I go to St. Pete, it feels like home, but Canada's where I'm born, where I'm from. I'm proud to be Canadian, so yeah, I have a lot of family friends coming to this event, so I'm looking forward to it.

Bruce Martin: Well, Devlin DeFrancesco, you're moving on up here in IndyCar. Good luck the rest of the 2025 season, and thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy. I appreciate it. 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. When it comes to racing on the short ovals on the IndyCar schedule, Team Penske is loaded. That includes our next guest, Will Power, who has four poles and one win at the 1.25 mile short oval located in the shadows of the famed Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Power was the only Team Penske driver that finished the Indy 500 when he was 16th on May 25th. He rebounded the following week in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with a 4th place finish. The next two venues on the IndyCar Series schedule are among Power's favorites, including Worldwide Technology Raceway on June 15th and Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on June 22nd. Power is the defending winner at Road America. Here is my exclusive interview with Power for PitPass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Realm. Joining us now is Will Power. Will, the Indianapolis 500 is completed. Now it's off to the rest of the season. So what's your outlook? We're going to get a weekend off next weekend, and then it's going to be Gateway on a Sunday night, primetime on Fox, and then off to one of your favorite tracks, Road America, where you're the defending race winner.

Will Power: Yeah, looking forward to this stretch, obviously here in Detroit. It's a big race for us, trying to get a win for Chevy. You know, I think we're all a bit disappointed with the Indy 500. But yeah, it's still not halfway, I don't think, in the season, so got to keep rolling.

Bruce Martin: You've been the winner of the Indianapolis 500 before. You've done the trips to New York. You've done all of that. Does the driver that comes into the next race at Detroit, are they usually fatigued from the whole week before?

Will Power: It depends on the person, but I wasn't. I was actually ready and had a good race. I was still focusing on the championship. I was through a lot of media, but it wasn't terrible for me. We got in, I think Wednesday or something, and had a good night's sleep and was ready to go.

Bruce Martin: As far though as Gateway at night, Sunday night race, it's going to be on network TV, prime time. That's pretty big for IndyCar.

Will Power: Yeah, it is big and I really hope we can put on a great show for them. Yeah, I look forward to seeing the numbers there.

Bruce Martin: Speaking of numbers, 7.01 million people watched the 109th Indianapolis 500 with a peak of 8.5 million at the end. That's huge, that's a 40% increase over last year. Largest TV rating in 17 years. How excited are you to see that Fox's promotion, IndyCar's efforts are paying off?

Will Power: It was amazing. I mean, I knew it was going to be a big rating. I just knew. It sold out crowd. All the promotion Fox had done and IndyCar had done. We're lucky, man. I'm glad we have Fox as a partner and it's just, yeah, looking better than ever.

Bruce Martin: Like I said, usually the Indianapolis 500 is a turning point of the season because so much effort goes into that. Now it's going to be a relentless part of the schedule, race after race after race after race. So how big a challenge is that?

Will Power: I don't mind the continual grind. I actually like that, you know, getting a rhythm, keep rolling. But we have a week off next week, right? Yeah, I didn't realize that. I thought it was just back-to-back, but yeah. Now I'm definitely ready to go with this back-to-back stuff.

Bruce Martin: I sat near your table at the Indianapolis 500 victory celebration. They showed… Tabernaldi's piece on you and your wife Liz and her battle with her health issue. Everybody saw that. It was very emotional. Was that the first time you saw it? And if so, what was your reaction to that? And also just the general outpouring of love that everybody gave you to after that aired?

Will Power: Yeah, it was amazing, man. It was emotional. It was the first time I saw it. And, you know, the standing ovation at the end of it, I just Yeah, it gave me… I had to hold back the tears, man. That was pretty strong.

Bruce Martin: But you're also pretty strong at these racetracks coming up, including Road America. How excited are you to go back there and maybe win it back-to-back?

Will Power: That would be nice. That would be nice. I mean, one weekend at a time at the moment. Not even thinking that far forward.

Bruce Martin: And our final question with willpower of Team Penske, the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix is in our rearview mirror. I have to ask you, have you ever had a Lafayette Coney Island, or would that not work on your diet? What? What is it? You've never had a Coney Island hot dog? No, I have not. Well, that pretty much answers that question. But where do you like to go to when you're in Detroit?

Will Power: Shinola Hotel's nice. That park restaurant, you know, the park restaurant, that's really nice. Went there last night. I love Detroit, man. It's a cool city. Very cool.

Bruce Martin: It's an important race for Roger Penske, Bud Denker, the Penske Corporation. But hey, enjoy the off weekend and good luck at the races coming up here at Gateway and Road America. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Will Power: Thanks, Bruce. Look forward to the next 10 times as well.

Bruce Martin: One of Power's teammates at Team Penske is Scott McLaughlin, who won the pole and finished second in last year's Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Worldwide Technology Raceway. I caught up with McLaughlin prior to the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Hey Bruce, how are you? Good, how are you? Good. Our buddy has dropped back in. It's Scott McLaughlin. Scott, I caught up with you on the red carpet the night after the Indianapolis 500, so we don't have to revisit your month of May at Indy. Instead, we turn the page, move on to the rest of the season. Yes. Some good tracks coming up for Team Penske, some good tracks coming up for you. So the fact that there's a race immediately after the Indy 500, it helps you put that in your rearview mirror. How important is that?

Scott McLaughlin: No, I think it's important for anyone that has a bad race. Obviously, I had a terrible race weekend at the 500. So for me to just get back on the horse straight away, that's a huge thing. So that's the great thing about being here. And obviously, being a Chevy driver in Detroit is a cool thing as well. So yeah, we've got a lot of motivation to make sure we hit the nail on the head. And I hope you have a great weekend.

Bruce Martin: And the beautiful thing is after Detroit off weekend, I'm sure you, your wife, Carly, your daughter, Lucy are really looking forward to dad being home in Charlotte and hanging out for a weekend.

Scott McLaughlin: I think I haven't been home for a weekend in about eight or nine weeks. So, uh, really excited to get home. Um, Might even go for a beer, you just never know. But we'll hang out. For me, first and foremost, I'm a family guy, and I love my family dearly. And the racing for me is what I do for a job. So yeah, get home, relax, refresh, and get ready for a big second half of the year.

Bruce Martin: I have a sneaky suspicion you're going to be on the golf course a time or two.

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, if I'm allowed, yes.

Bruce Martin: After the off weekend, off to Gateway. Yep. Fox is going to put that race on prime time Sunday night. Madren at work.

Scott McLaughlin: That's got to be huge news. A huge news. I think it's anytime you can get an oval at night too. I think the cars look spectacular. And yeah, super, super excited for everyone involved. Look, we just got to thank Fox. They're a great broadcast partner that I want to see the best for our ratings. We just come out of a massive ratings hit at Indy where we surpassed the Daytona 500. There's only one way out from here and I'm really proud to be a part of IndyCar right now with Fox.

Bruce Martin: When you saw that 7.01 million viewers watched the Indianapolis 500, it peaked at 8.5 million. Did your eyes pop when you saw those numbers?

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, because 8.5 million people saw me make a massive mistake. But outside of that, oh, I'm not joking. Outside of that, it's an amazing number. Our race events and our sponsorships and everything is targeted on audience and targeted on who we're attracting. I just, the amount of people that I've seen at races this year, every attendance figure for every track that we've gone to is high, and more than it was last year. So, we're going to the moon, and that's what I'm really excited about.

Bruce Martin: After Gateway, Road America, every driver loves racing at Road America, and most every fan loves going to Road America. How do you look at that race? That ought to be a pretty good track for you.

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah, no, a great track for me. You know, it's coming off my first podium there last year. You know, haven't probably been as quick as I want to be there in the past, but we've been right there or thereabouts. So excited to get back to, you know, what do they call that? That's like the tempo or speed or something like that. America's National Park of Speed. That's it. That's it. That's it. So, um, yeah, I can't wait to get back there. It's a beautiful place. So many campers, and I betcha their attendance is gonna be huge this year, too.

Bruce Martin: We're not even at the halfway point of the season yet, so, mathematically, Alex Bloh could still be caught. Yeah. But on the role that he's on, it's going to be difficult.

Scott McLaughlin: Yeah.

Bruce Martin: When you see what he's doing right now, how amazed are you that he is just, he hasn't missed a beat all year.

Scott McLaughlin: Oh, I'm not amazed. I think he is, he's just doing him and he's doing it. Not that I'm saying that I'm not taking anything away what he's doing, but. Alex is an amazing race car driver, and he's doing amazing things, and we all expected this, but the dominance has been impressive. But there's only one way where we can get back on this. It's not focused on what he's doing. It's focused on what we can control and execute in the way we want to, and hopefully that's enough here a little bit. But yeah, no detriment to what he does and how he rolls around. It's just a matter of us working hard and make sure we're where we're about.

Bruce Martin: What are you shooting these days on the golf course?

Scott McLaughlin: Well, I got a six handicap now. I shot a 77 at an Indy, so not too bad.

Bruce Martin: I think I shoot a 77 on the front nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, hey, Scott McLaughlin, enjoy the weekend off coming up. I know that everybody's looking forward to that. Right. We'll catch up with you at Gateway and at Road America. Thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental. Thank you, Bruce. The final driver, Team Penske, is two-time IndyCar Series champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden. The driver from Hendersonville, Tennessee, had high hopes entering the month of May at the Indianapolis 500, but it turned out to be a month he would like to forget. New Garden's No. 2 Chevrolet, along with Power's No. 12 Chevrolet, were not allowed to compete in the Fast 12 qualifications for the Indy 500 because of modifications to the rear attenuator. The following day, they were penalized for the infractions and moved to the back of the 33-car starting lineup. Starting last, Newgarden raced his way up to sixth place before fuel pressure failure ended his race after 135 laps. Newgarden finished 22nd. The usually talkative driver didn't have much to say when I caught up with him for this exclusive interview for Pit Pass Indy. An old buddy has dropped back in. It's Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. Joseph wasn't a very good Indianapolis 500 from the team standpoint, but the good news is… You get to turn the page now, and it's on to the rest of the season, beginning at Detroit, on to a couple of your best tracks, Gateway and Road America. So how excited are you to be able to turn the page now and get on with the rest of the season?

Josef Newgarden: Yeah, I'm ready. I'm excited to be here and, you know, go again, as we say.

Bruce Martin: The prizes that remain out there, there's a lot of race wins you can go for, and you can also get the team recharged. So how focused are you to be able to get back on the winning track?

Josef Newgarden: Yeah, I think everybody's ready to just, you know, get back and do our job like always, you know, give our best effort and let's see what we can put together.

Bruce Martin: I also know you're looking forward to next weekend. It's an off weekend. We haven't had one of those in a while. Everybody talks about how season starts, big gaps in the schedule. Then all of a sudden, once you start getting to April, it starts to be relentless.

Josef Newgarden: How do you keep up with the pace? It'd be nice to have a weekend off, you know, right after Indy. I think for the teams, they would like that. I mean, maybe in the future they'll consider, you know, doing a week off and then coming to Detroit here.

Bruce Martin: As a competitor, though, how much do you really need that? Because we can tell everybody that comes to Detroit's usually pretty fatigued.

Josef Newgarden: Yeah, I think it's more the team than anything. I mean, for us, they're kinder on us as drivers, so it's really the team you notice it on.

Bruce Martin: At the Indianapolis 500, it was a fuel pressure issue. Did the team ever discover what caused that?

Josef Newgarden: I'm not sure of the detail. It's a team question.

Bruce Martin: But how heart-wrenching was that for you because you had a very fast car?

Josef Newgarden: Yeah, tough to not be in the fight. You know, that's all you want sometimes is just to be in the fight.

Bruce Martin: Well, I know you're a fighter. So Josef Newgarden, I'm gonna let you go punch a few bags, do your workout, do some Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, but anyway, we'll catch up with you at Gateway. Oh, before you go though, the TV rating. 7.01 million viewers saw the Indianapolis 500, largest television audience for Indy in 17 years, bigger than the Daytona 500. How excited were you to see that as a competitor and see that the Fox is taking the series and delivering on their promise of increasing the viewership?

Josef Newgarden: Yeah, unreal. Fox has done absolutely tremendous. They've really done a great job.

Bruce Martin: And we can owe it all to you for those Josef Newgarden commercials.

Josef Newgarden: I'm not sure.

Bruce Martin: Josef Newgarden, get some rest. Thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy. Thanks, Bruce. Perhaps New Garden's fortunes look brighter as he heads to Gateway, where he is the defending winner and has five wins at Worldwide Technology Raceway, including four in the last five years. We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

SPEAKER_04: 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. We wrap up today's show with the man who leads Chevrolet's racing efforts. It's Jim Campbell, the Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports for General Motors. Campbell oversees GM's racing efforts in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, and other racing series the brand competes in. I caught up with Campbell for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview before the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. It's always an honor to be joined by our next guest. It's the Vice President, Performance and Motorsports for General Motors, Jim Campbell. Jim, this past weekend was another great Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. I know that's very important to the company and to you and to IndyCar. When you see that you're able to take over the streets of downtown Detroit and deliver a show-stopping event, how important is that to spread the news about Chevrolet, General Motors, and racing?

Jim Campbell: Yeah, well it's always an honor to have the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix here in our city, in the streets of Detroit. We love the track, every year it gets a little bit better. And when we re-entered IndyCar in 2012, one of the things we said to the series is, we really need to have an event in Detroit. This is the Motor City, we're so proud to be in IndyCar, and we really wanted to have great racing here in the city of Detroit. To the serious credit, they brought the racing here and world-class drivers, especially coming right off of Indy, the momentum of Indy, and to come right back and jump on a street course. We couldn't be prouder to be part of the event, and it's always exciting every time we have the race here.

Bruce Martin: Speaking of the momentum of Indy, sellout crowd, grandstand sellout, 350,000 fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. First time since the 100th running in 2016 that it was a complete grandstand sellout. But hey, there's even bigger news. Fox Sports, in their first year as the TV partner of IndyCar, 7.01 million viewers saw the Indianapolis 500. For an average audience, it peaked at 8.5 million. From Chevrolet's standpoint, how important is that for the Indianapolis 500, for IndyCar, and for your involvement in the series?

Jim Campbell: Well, it's huge. I mean, certainly we look at every race weekend. How do we compete on the track? But then we look at how was the event. exposed to fans around the world, and Fox Sports did an amazing job. And it didn't happen in one day, it was a result of an immense amount of planning, great storylines, great coverage, and also the excitement on the track. It's just a combination. It was really, in some ways, a team effort between Fox Sports and the IndyCar. as well as all the race teams. So it's so exciting to see that kind of momentum and TV ratings. And then also, which is a little bit harder to read, is all the social media activity was immense. And so all that together creates energy and focus and enthusiasm for IndyCar racing. Of course, we love it. The racing on the tracks, wheel-to-wheel, the competition's so intense, and they delivered a massive win on the ratings.

Bruce Martin: And Fox is going to deliver another opportunity for IndyCar by putting the Bomarito Automotive Group 500 Worldwide Technology Raceway near St. Louis in prime time on a Sunday night. When you think of Fox's television entertainment lineup on Sunday night, that's one of their most watched nights of the year to forego that and put IndyCar in in that time slot. That's a pretty big opportunity. How excited are you all over those prospects?

Jim Campbell: Yeah, to have a prime spot like that on Sunday night, it's absolutely amazing. By the way, years and years ago, I used to live in St. Louis. I went to school there. I love that area. That track is so much action on that track. So to have Fox create a prime spot on Sunday evening is absolutely incredible. We love it.

Bruce Martin: And then finally, From Chevrolet's standpoint, one of your major teams had an issue at the Indianapolis 500. A lot of people that we worked with, Tim Sendrick, Ron Rzewski, Kyle Moyer, they were all friends of ours, but Mr. Penske made the decision that he cannot afford to have anything like that tarnish the reputation of the Penske Corporation. You're a key partner of Team Penske and of IndyCar. What were your thoughts on just how important it was to make that move and go on?

Jim Campbell: Well, I would say that Roger and Bud evaluated the circumstances, made a very difficult decision, and they announced it before the Any 500. I think it surprised a lot of people that those veterans we're going to go different directions for the organization. So what I would say is, you know, we had a lot of success over a long period of time with them, but I think, you know, Roger made a tough decision. And what's interesting is that there's so many talented people in his organization that they're going to have an opportunity now to kind of show, you know, their technical leadership and their ability to lead groups of people. going forward. So we love IndyCar racing. We love the Annapolis 500. I love our race here in Detroit. And we want what's best for the sport always. And so we always look forward and move forward.

Bruce Martin: And now the most important question. Alex Below has won five of the first six races. Honda has won all six races. How does Chevrolet catch up and start beating Honda and Alex Below? You've got more than half the season to start putting up some numbers now for Chevrolet and close the gap and maybe even go ahead of them.

Jim Campbell: One of the things that has always, I think, critical to a race series is you have competition amongst the drivers and the teams, but also the manufacturer competition is another key storyline. And we have an incredible competition with Honda in the showrooms and then with HRC on the track. And so every year it's an absolute battle. So we've got a few races down. There's many, many to go. Our focus is to help our teams and drivers get the performance they need on the track. and get some great results on the podium, get some points on the board, and get some wins. What I'll say is interesting is that the Indy 500 Banquet, regardless of the driver and manufacturer that they represented, everyone is trying to figure out what Alex is doing and how to get ahead of him. So it was the Chevy drivers as well as the Honda drivers trying to figure out how to get ahead of Alex, and he's a super talented individual. One thing I would just say is that the Indy 500, we want a Chevy driver to win always, but whoever wins that race, you do have to have a lot of respect for them, and we certainly do.

Bruce Martin: Well, Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance and Motorsports at General Motors. Good luck the rest of the way in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. And thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Jim Campbell: Thank you.

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, Team Penske drivers Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, and Josef Newgarden, Gray Hall Letterman Lanigan driver Devlin DeFrancesco, Indy 500 pole winner Robert Schwartzman of Prima Racing, and Jim Campbell, the Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports for General Motors, for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental, your path to victory lane in 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 at X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. And we will have a special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy with more interviews later this week, so be sure to listen for that one. This has 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 Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.