Road America winner Alex Palou. Also, Christian Rasmussen and Nolan Siegel

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 PitPass Indies is to give racing fans and insiders a 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 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. It was a very hot weekend at America's National Park of Speed, Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the June 22nd Xpel Grand Prix at Road America. The beautiful 4.014-mile, 14-turn road course is a favorite of IndyCar competitors and the spectators, and Sunday's race showcased why it is so popular. There were 348 on-track passes, including 345 for position, 96 passes in the top 10, and 29 passes in the top 5. All those numbers were second all-time among IndyCar Series races at Road America. There were 11 lead changes among 9 different drivers, but in the end, it was Alex Palou who returned to Victory Lane for the 6th time in 9 races this season. Palou expanded his lead to 93 points over Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood with the victory in a race of varying fuel and tire strategies as the season passed its halfway point with eight races remaining on the 17 race schedule. Palou's win continued a historic storyline this season in the series. Palou has six wins and Kyle Kirkwood three victories and are the only victorious drivers in 2025. The last time two drivers dominated the first half of an IndyCar Series season came in 1980, when Bobby Unser and Johnny Rutherford were the only winners through nine races. Palou is normally one of the most level-headed drivers in IndyCar, but he admitted after winning his sixth race of the season in Sunday's Expel Grand Prix at Road America, if Chip Ganassi Racing Team Manager Barry Wanzer's strategy was going to work. Two of the three Chip Ganassi racing drivers were using a fuel-saving strategy, including Scott Dixon and Palou. Dixon, however, was two laps short of making it to the finish because Palou's final pit stop was two laps after Dixon took fuel on lap 38 of the 55-lap race. The maximum laps a car could run on the 4.014 mile 14 turn road America road course is 15 laps, unless there is a caution period, which would allow this fuel strategy to work as stars run at reduced speeds and save fuel. Palou pitted on lap 40 and made it to the distance, taking the checkered flag on lap 55 for his 17th career IndyCar victory. Palou explains how he did it as he joins me for this exclusive PitPass Indy interview. So my first question to our next guest is where have you been the last couple of weeks?

Alex Palou: I was trying, I've been trying, I can tell you that. I mean, we were quite good position in Detroit until we got involved in an accident. And then in St. Louis, yeah, I was missing. But it was tough, man. It's tough to be up here. I'm just happy that we get to do this often this year.

Bruce Martin: Well, obviously, our guest is the winner of the Xpel Grand Prix at Road America. It's Alex Below. Alex, it's your first victory since winning the 109th Indianapolis 500 on May 25th, which doesn't seem that long ago. It's only been three weeks. Got to ask you, though, the last time you won an IndyCar race, you went to an NBA playoff game with the winner's wreath wearing a Tyrese Elliburton jersey. There's a big game tonight in Oklahoma City. Are you going to catch that and try to get the Pacers to win their first NBA championship? I doubt that the fans are going to cheer you there, though.

Alex Palou: Yeah, I know. I don't think that it's a good idea to go there. I don't think that we can even make it on time, but it would have been fun. Honestly, I'll be cheering for sure. I'll be watching the game and hopefully we'll get the win. It would be huge for that team, but I think for all the fans that we're cheering for them. So yeah, not planning to go.

Bruce Martin: It looked like a really tough race at Road America because of the heat, because of the aggressiveness. Just how much did you really have? And also the strategy was, there were three different strategies going on in this race. How intriguing of a race was this for you?

Alex Palou: It was tough, as you say, man. There was a lot going on. It was not like normally you have one strategy or you have max two, where you have like a group of cars doing one strategy, but there was like multiple strategies. So you had to, just push and overtake every single car that you could, and you just had to keep your head down to try and be up front at the end. But yeah, man, I'm super happy that we ended up here on the right strategy. It was one of those days that even with a faster car, you could have ended up like 15th and be like, oh, if we didn't get that yellow. But honestly, everything worked great for us at the end.

Bruce Martin: Do you think the heat was part of the reason why we saw a little bit of tempers flaring out there between a few drivers? We also saw some paybacks here and there. We saw Will Power getting knocked off the track by Kyle Kirkwood. Yeah, I mean, it seemed to be really interesting in that regard.

Alex Palou: For sure, for sure. It was interesting. I was lucky enough that I got those positions twice. I was right behind those and I was able to get those positions for me. But yeah, honestly, there was a lot going on, as you say. Maybe the heat and also getting towards the last… I would say 40% of the season as well, like everybody's just pushing that 1% more and for some people it's just creating issues on track. But yeah, hopefully it was a great race to watch. It was a fun race to be at, lots of overtakings and different strategies as we said, but yeah, it was good.

Bruce Martin: How important was it to get the points back in a positive direction after losing some of your points lead that you had after the Indianapolis 500? After that race, you were up 115. It got down to 73 after gateway. Now you've moved it back into the nineties. So how important is it to get the points heading back in a positive direction?

Alex Palou: Yeah, I mean, it's important. You're always concerned, you don't want to lose any single point, but at the same time I think we were a bit unlucky at Detroit. That got us a huge amount of points down. And then St. Louis, we just… didn't really have the pace and it wasn't a great day for us. But yeah, it feels amazing to get back on victory lane, to get back on positive incrementing points as well, but it's still very early on. We see that in two races you can go from 115 or 120 to like 75. So yeah, there's a lot to be done here in this championship and hopefully we're on the right end.

Bruce Martin: We're going to head into the 4th of July holiday with only two drivers having one race as an IndyCar. Are we going to see a third winner this year?

Alex Palou: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Honestly, I know that everybody just wants a different winner. Look, it's fun for us, and whenever we get the opportunity, we have to go for it. So we're just trying to do our best. But for sure, there's going to be a different winner very soon.

Bruce Martin: You were also sponsored by solo cup for this race. Very popular promotion. I know the fans liked it. A lot of the media liked it. Different look for you. It's all bright red and white and also solo cup means party. So coming to a place like road America, Elkhart lake, where people come up here for the weekend, how cool was it to be able to put on a win where there's probably solo cups all over the.

Alex Palou: Yes, I mean yesterday, after qualifying, sorry, we went around on the campsite and gave some Solo Cups to people, but they already had some, so it was good. I think it's probably one of the best weekends that we have in IndyCar with lots of families and friends just having a great weekend watching racing and it felt great to represent a lot of them and a lot of fun times and yeah, glad that Solo Cup was sponsoring us this weekend.

Bruce Martin: Would you like to have him back on the car?

Alex Palou: Absolutely. Yeah, of course.

Bruce Martin: And also just the symmetry that happened in 2020, you and Felix Rosenquist were fighting for the victory. That was his only IndyCar victory was he defeated you that day. Now at the end of this race, it was you and Felix Rosenquist on the final laps going for the victory. How cool was that to share that with Felix?

Alex Palou: Oh, it was cool. I think he's been trying and pushing a lot this year. We were able to share lots of meetings together this year and he's an amazing driver. But yeah, I was obviously a bit concerned. He had the tyre advantage and the fuel advantage on us at the end. He was closing on that gap very quickly and I just wanted the race to end.

Bruce Martin: Now the only way to make this a perfect day would be Alex Villo victory to begin and Indiana Pacers NBA championship. So how soon do you start thinking about getting somewhere to watch game seven and see who wins the NBA championship?

Alex Palou: As soon as we're done with the media, I think it's starting at seven Eastern, right? So it's coming up or eight. So it's coming up pretty, pretty, pretty quick. So as soon as I get out of the media, I'll get a shower and I'll watch a game for sure.

Bruce Martin: I'm going to help you in that regard by getting out of the way right now. But Alex Pillow, congratulations on your sixth victory. Thank you. You just keep racking them up here during the season. But we'll see you at Mid-Ohio. Thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

Alex Palou: Thank you, Bruce.

Bruce Martin: 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. Nolan Siegel of Arrow McLaren had a comeback week. It began with some hot tempers in the Bomarito Automotive Group 500 at Worldwide Technology Raceway on June 15th when he was angry with some moves on the racetrack involving Team Penske. The 20-year-old seagull unleashed some strong comments over the team's radio communications that were picked up on the television broadcast and by fans and media members who scanned team's radio channels during IndyCar contest. Errol McLaren took quick action, reprimanding Siegel and issuing a statement against his comments. Quote, the language expressed over our radio during this past race weekend does not reflect who we are as a team. The statement said, we do not condone that behavior. We have addressed it directly with Nolan and he is taking responsibility for his actions. I had a chance to talk to Siegel about it last Friday at Road America for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Nolan, we're here at Road America. I guess I may as well start off by saying it's been a little bit of an interesting week for you. So reflecting back on what happened at Gateway all the way to here, how would you describe everything that happened and how you're working through it?

Nolan Siegel: Yeah, I think there was a lot that happened at Gateway. I… Oh, sorry. I made a mistake. I realize that. It's not a proud moment for me. Not something that I, you know, intentionally did or thought about. It was kind of a heat of the moment thing. I let the frustration get to me when I shouldn't have and that's that. I feel like I've made it right. I've done everything possible to make it right with the people that… that matter for sure and looking forward to getting here to Road America, one of my favorite races, and moving on and having a good weekend and getting back into it.

Bruce Martin: Do you think one of the things that makes IndyCar and auto racing in general unique is the fact that the radio communication becomes public. In any other professional sport, we have trash talking. We have guys talking trash not only to the opponent, but also to their own teammates. We don't hear that because it's on the field of battle. But at auto racing, we hear it because through the scanner or from eavesdropping on the radio. Do you think that that's one of the things that makes IndyCar and auto racing unique is the fans can be a little more involved, but yet that's an incident where You know, you're eavesdropping into something that may not have been that big a deal if it was an NFL game or an NBA game.

Nolan Siegel: Yeah, I think any professional sport is extremely high pressure and high pressure, you know, sometimes people say things they don't mean and, you know, say things in the heat of the moment that they probably wouldn't say after things have cooled down. And yeah, like you said, most of the time, any other sport, you don't hear that. But I know for a fact that it happens. Here, I think it's really cool that fans can listen in and fans can be a part of the action like that. And I think it gives them a perspective that they wouldn't have in any other sport and really makes them feel involved. And I think that's a really positive thing. At the same time, it's something that all of us have to remember and something that I didn't remember in that moment. And it's something that we have to be conscious of sometimes. So it's all a learning experience for me.

Bruce Martin: When Tony Cannon talked to you, was it fatherly advice or did he bring some heat?

Nolan Siegel: Which time? I've had a lot of conversations. I've gotten lots of advice from lots of people. The reality is I don't need any of that advice. I know exactly what I did wrong, and I know that I'm not going to do it again. But no, certainly some conversations that I don't think were pleasant for any of us but needed to happen, and it's the consequence of my own actions. So I'm paying the price.

Bruce Martin: We're doing this interview at Road America a year ago. About this time, you were finding out that you were getting in an Indy car, because at that point, you were going to drive in the Indy next race. The June Coast Hollinger Indy car ride opened up, and you got your first crack at it. So looking back at it, how far do you think you've come in that year's time?

Nolan Siegel: I think I've come a long way. I think, you know, being in a stable environment now is very different from last year, driving for a bunch of different teams and sports cars and IndyNext and IndyCar. I'm looking forward to doing this race again. This has been one of the ones that I've been really kind of waiting to come back to because last year, it's one of my favorite tracks. It's probably my favorite road course, and it's a fun event. It's a place I feel like I've been strong in a lot of different series, and I think there's a lot of potential here.

Bruce Martin: Well, Nolan Siegel, being a young driver such as yourself, there's a lot of learning. It's been a learning experience. I guess you could count this past week as a learning experience. Absolutely. But good luck as we head to mid-Ohio, and thank you for joining us on Pit Pass In. Thank you very much. Siegel apparently learned his lessons well as he started 13th and finished 8th at Road America. Christian Rasmussen arrived at Road America after one of the best races of his career at Worldwide Technology Raceway. Rasmussen started 25th in that race and sliced his way through the field to finish third, an improvement of 22 positions. In that race, he had 62 on-track passes, the most of any driver in the race. Rasmussen tells me how he did it before this week's Road America race in this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Joining us now is Christian Rasmussen. Christian, you're coming off what was an outstanding race at Gateway. Drove up all the way from 25th all the way to third place. Passed the most drivers in the field, I believe with 62. How did you do it?

Christian Rasmussen: The high side. The high side worked so well for us all race long. And I just kept using that. And even like the passes I would get on the inside was still because I could stay close using the outside in the corners. So yeah, really strong weekend for us. Man, I thought we almost had a race win on our hands at one point. Yeah, getting sent to the back, having to take emergency service there in the middle of the race, that kind of put us back a little bit. But yeah, we had an awesome car underneath us and really put it to good use.

Bruce Martin: How were you able to get the car to work so well on the high side, where we saw some others get up there and immediately brush the wall, we saw Will Power have that happen, and we saw Louis Foster trigger a horrific wreck from getting up on the high side, but you were able to make it work.

Christian Rasmussen: Yeah, we were. I think the start of the race, I just got tired of getting stuck trying to follow people closely, using the optimal race line. And I think that's really what short oval racing is all about. It's almost doing the opposite of what the car ahead is doing. So I started doing that, kind of tuned the car through the stops with the wing and just kind of got it into a place where I really liked it. And yeah, I just kept working that high side.

Bruce Martin: And the funny thing is last year you didn't really get a chance to run many oval races because you were sharing the car with Ed. So just to be able to go out there and do that, how much do you, does that really boost your confidence to be overall very good in this series?

Christian Rasmussen: Yeah, for sure. We're definitely moving forward. And I think, really, it's three good weekends in a row. We had a strong day at the 500. We had a good weekend at Detroit going before our engine failure as well. Probably another top 10 in the running there. And then, obviously, getting a podium here. So I think everything is just moving in the right direction. We have great momentum on the 21 car. And yeah, looking forward for another, hopefully, great weekend this weekend at Road America.

Bruce Martin: We're at Road America. By the time this interview airs, the race will have already happened. You're going to get a weekend off and that's going to be the start of a very busy part of the schedule with Mid-Ohio, Iowa Doubleheader, Toronto, Laguna Seca. So is there anything that you learned at Gateway that can help you with Iowa?

Christian Rasmussen: Yeah, Iowa might be a little bit different with the packages that IndyCar brings there. So we don't really know what it's going to be like. But yeah, I'm excited. Obviously, I know that Our car works. Our oval package is good, so I'm excited for the ovals. I've been good at Iowa in the past. I won there in IndyNext in 2023. And yeah, I just love short oval racing in general. So I'm excited for a little more oval-heavy schedule here towards the end. But I still think that our overall package on both the road and street circuits are getting better and better.

Bruce Martin: But before that, it's going to be Mid-Ohio. How do you like that course?

Christian Rasmussen: I like that place a lot. I think that was my best finish last year overall of the year. So I'm excited. I've always loved Mid-Ohio. It's such a driver's trick. And yeah, so I'm excited for that one as well.

Bruce Martin: And finally, what did Ed tell you after that great weekend at Gateway?

Christian Rasmussen: Good job.

Bruce Martin: Well, Ed can be a man of few words.

Christian Rasmussen: He's a man of few words for sure, but no, everyone in the team was obviously super happy. I'm super happy to give the 21 crew a podium. They haven't had one in a while, so you can definitely see that on their faces and enthusiasm this weekend. So I'm excited for the rest of the year.

Bruce Martin: Well, Christian Rasmussen, it was a heck of a drive, heck of an effort. Keep it up, and good luck the rest of the season. We'll catch up with you some more later in the year, and thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

Christian Rasmussen: Thank you.

Bruce Martin: 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: And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental. We want to thank our guests, Expel Grand Prix at Road America winner Alex Fallot of Chip Ganassi Racing, Nolan Siegel of Arrow McLaren, and Christian Rasmussen of ECR 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. We have many more interviews from this past weekend at Road America, as the series looks ahead to a key stretch of racing, beginning with the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on July 6th. We will feature those interviews in a special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental later this week. 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.