Just another one of those things that just doesn't feel real. I've looked up to these people for my whole entire life. I'm gonna be racing in some,
you're racing in IndyCar. You're at the peak. This is what you've been training for. That's what we live for. And if, if you don't enjoy that, I don't really know what to tell you.
Yeah. At what point did you start to think like, I'm good at this and this could be what I do for a living? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
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Tell 'em you heard about it on Get IN. Today, I'm joined by Jacob Abel, a dynamic race car driver who has rapidly ascended the motorsports ladder from karting at the New Castle Motorsports Park to dominating INDY NXT. And now stepping into the IndyCar Series with Dale Coyne Racing, hailing from a background steeped in family run business values, and Indiana racing heritage.
Jacob's story is as much about passion as it is about speed on the track. Uh, I'm excited to get into this conversation. You are the newest rookie when it comes to everything IndyCar. Yes sir. Yeah. First of all, like you, you're gonna race in the IndyCar Series this year.
Yeah, yeah's crazy. Still hard to believe.
I mean, I, I like I've been saying it, I still won't even say that I'm racing in the Indy 500, just because you never know. That event is so unique. So it's all my friends, when I say I'm racing in IndyCar it's like, holy crap, are you gonna be in the Indy 500 this year? It's like, I'm going to be attempting to qualify for the Indy 500.
'cause you never know. Well, he's
35
down to 33. Right, exactly. Or I think it, it's however many show up. You know, back in the day it was 40 or some odd, and the past couple of years it's been kind of right around that 33 number. So it's always interesting. Well, if it gets over it, but
So more than, well, they only run 33.
Yes, exactly. So like 40 people because you can pay the million bucks or whatever it is and try to enter a car. Right. We talked about that with Conor Dreyer & Reinbold. Yes. Like they only run the Indy 500, right? Yeah. Uh, so they show up every year and they gotta find a driver and put the whole thing together.
Yeah. It's crazy. So, so you're, I I love that because you don't wanna assume anything 'cause we know what that does. But you are attempting to qualify to run the Indianapolis 500,
right? I am racing 17 out of 18. I think it's 18 races in IndyCar this year. Yeah. With hopes of racing. 18 out of 18. So you're, but so all the other ones you're guaranteed.
Yeah. Yep. And that's like this new whole new charter system that they introduced is, um, it's super unique. It's, it's a little bit more making it like other sports, um, to where these teams actually have an asset now. And so you have to be a chartered entry basically to enter all of the other races except the Indy 500.
They wanted to preserve the Indy 500 to be that kind of show up and the fastest 33 are in. But all the other races now are a guaranteed entry.
It's not quals. What's the one before that? Yeah, so, well, they have the Indy GPI was there last year, not like qualifying to see. Is it? Or is it all one time where you see Yeah, who makes the field?
Yeah. Okay, so they have
qualifying, then they have bump day is what you're thinking. Bump day. Bump day is where it gets dramatic. Dude, it's a Sunday, right? It's a Sunday before I, I want no part of that Sunday afternoon. I wanna be on my couch watching it happen.
I was there this past year and oh my gosh.
It was like, it was intense,
dude. It's, it's nuts. And you know, last year, I think it was, it was Graham Rahal who got bumped out of it. And this is a, was that last year or two years ago? It might, no, you're right. Two years ago, dude, it was Graham Rahal. It's crazy. It's crazy, right? 'cause these are the, some of the most proven drivers in IndyCar, they're race winners.
You know, they've, they've. Been in this series forever, and those are the ones that are at risk. You know, it shows you that truly anything can happen in this. And it's, yeah, that's, that's why we love it. And especially as a fan, that's why we love it. But it makes you a little nervous as a driver.
Dude, I'm excited.
We're gonna get into all that, but before we dive into everything that's going on now and all the exciting things, I kind of think we need a little bit of background about how we got here. I'll put it out there. Not a born Hoosier. All right. Jacob is from Louisville. Sorry. And you like how I say it? It's not, it's like, what's the capital of Kentucky?
It's like Louisville. Louisville or Louisville, right. It's like Frankfort. Yeah. Big go. Got you. Come on. Just across the border. Grew up down there. But like, I mean, and we talked, kind talked about this a little bit before racing, car racing is not as big in Kentucky. So you grew up on tracks in Indiana
for the most part, right?
Yeah, absolutely. So my first. Well, when I got into all of this was, has all been through my dad. He grew up racing motocross at a really, really high level. Kind of did that all over the country for those
listening at home. That's dirt
bikes. Yeah, dirt
bikes.
He, that's sick. He, he raced dirt bikes. So, yeah, I mean he was, he was really good at that.
He won a lot of amateur national championships, um, you know, was kind of right on the brink of going pro, but it was to a point in his career where he was a little bit burnt out. Uh, and in, in a race later in life, he got hurt really, really bad doing that. So obviously my mom still kind of has that, that.
Taste in her mouth from, from that whole thing. And, uh, not that a race car driver is necessarily the most safe path, but it's, it's a little bit safer than, than motocross racing. And I
mean, like you got the full on set up. Yeah. It's come, it's come such a long way. Like, you know, freaking
dirt bike
lands on your back,
you're kind of
hose
there, right?
So when, later in life my dad got into to car racing, vintage car racing just as a hobby, um, you know, he always had that racing, you know, vein in his body, but once
you become an
adrenaline junkie, that thing doesn't go away. Exactly, exactly. So he did that while I was growing up. So I grew up going to all the tracks with him.
Uh, and that's kind of how I caught the bug really, is just go into the car tracks with him and, and then got into go-kart racing.
So go-kart racing was the beginning, the entry level. Yeah. Like did this start as like, you go to like an eighth grade or like an 8-year-old birthday party and you just smoke everyone on like a go-kart track and then you're like, I need to do this at a legit level.
Kinda, yeah. To be honest, you know, I grew up always having dirt bikes and having, you know, little four-wheelers in the backyard and was always a little bit of a, of a speed junkie and. We had an indoor go-karting track in Louisville, very similar to, you know, the K1 Speed to the Sarah Fisher's that are here in Indie, uh, it was called Bluegrass Indoor Karting at the time.
I think they've changed the name since. But I grew up doing the leagues there, um, and all of that, and was having a really good time with it, you know, every, you know, Wednesday night or whenever I would go over there and was doing pretty well. And we, we decided we wanted to take it to the next level. And there was a, a go-kart track in southern Indiana.
It was a dirt oval go-kart track, actually. Uh, dirt.
Oh. So is this, do you still, what, what kind of karts do you race on that? Probably not those little, like close to the ground ones, right? They're
they're very similar. Yeah. So it's, it's no suspension. No suspension, just kinda getting, getting beat up for sure.
Um, but yeah, that was at, that was in Indiana. It was in Clark County, Indiana at the fair. What, uh, the fairgrounds, what age is that? I think I was 12 when I, when I did
that. And like up until then, were you like playing football and baseball and other thing, like normal, like, I don't wanna say normal sports, but normal
sports?
Yeah. So I, I was, I was a lacrosse player Okay. My, my whole entire life. Um, you know, ever since I was five or six years old. So I, there was a bit of overlap. I did still play lacrosse after I started go-kart racing, but it kind of came to a point where. I would go to a race and miss two games and three practices, and the coach wasn't really super pumped with that.
So yeah. Kind of had to choose a, choose the path. I do,
I do feel like racing or any of these more like, uh, unique boutique kind of sports. Yeah. It's, you can't really be like a football player that also races go-karts. Right, exactly. It's like you got, you gotta be all in on this or you're like taking the
normal sports trajectory for sure.
Exactly. And that's, you, you travel so much and, and you miss out on a lot of things. That's kind of been a big part of my life is you do miss out on, you know, I went to Trinity High School and people in Indiana might be familiar if you might have played them in sports, but I went there in Louisville and it's um, you know, an all guys Catholic school.
We have huge football games. We're super passionate about that. It's, I miss out on a lot of that. So like
Friday nights you're not in the student like the cheer block or whatever, like you're on the road to riggin. Right. I'm in Georgia Castle or New Castle. Castle. Right. Or, you know,
south Bend or something like that.
Yeah. So that's kind of how I got started in the Go-Karting, uh, world. And then I quickly transitioned into, to road, road racing go-karts on, on asphalt, on pavement. Okay. And that started out here at Newcastle.
Okay. So you're doing that dirt oval track and you're like, okay, I still like this. Like, let's, let's get a little bit more serious.
At what point during that career, like that, uh, those early years mm-hmm. Did you start to think like, I'm good at this and this could be what I do for a living?
Yeah. I mean, that honestly didn't come to way later. I'm still in disbelief that this is, you know, what I do and, and that I don't have to, you know, go to a job every day and, and all of that.
But yeah, you know, I, I think probably. Once you get into car racing and once you kind of start to see how it funnels into the best kind of float to the top a little bit, um, you know, I've been super fortunate with the opportunities. So you,
you win some, like some
milestone races along the way. Yeah, I think probably the biggest one was, well I did win my first go-kart race.
The, the the little 12-year-old, um, in Clark County, Indiana. Isn't
that crazy? It's like how different your life could have been if you got second in that. Yeah.
Right. And you're like, ah, whatever.
Exactly. It's just
trophy as tall as the table. Let's go back
and play lacrosse, dad. Like, I don't
wanna do this if I'm gonna get second.
Right. Well, the biggest problem with lacrosse is I, I never grew so I was always tiny, so I got kind of my ass kicked a little bit. Yeah. Growing up and, and all of that. So this, this go-karting thing that, you know, size didn't really matter, was, was a cool thing. I won that race the biggest. Win for me would've been my first professional win.
That's going a little bit down the road in F3 racing in, uh, Road Atlanta in 2019. Wait, F3? Yeah. Formula three. It was when there was F3 in America. So everyone's obviously familiar with the F3, F2 F1 ladder.
Yeah. And people will remember that, like Conor Daly went through F3, but he moved to Europe.
Yep. So like, he was 18, move over there and you're trying to make those, so there was an F3
America? Yes. So I actually got started in F4 in America, um, when they started this whole kind of bringing that series over here as, as very much an entry level series. Is that like a professional series though?
Yeah, I, I think kind of once you get to car racing in the junior open-wheel ladder, it is all considered professional. Um, say that
again. Junior open-wheel? Yeah. Junior ladder. Junior
open-wheel. Ladder. That's a, it's a pretty common term in racing. Okay. It's just the. It's the minor leagues essentially. Got you.
It's so
you're like, you know, you that, and that's not even like the Indianapolis Indians who are aaa. This is like you're playing for the South Bend Cubs single A. Exactly. Okay. Exactly.
Or honestly, what I compare it to a lot is I'm playing high school football and then I'm playing college football, and then it's, then it's the NFL.
So I think, you know, once you get to like the F3 Indy Lights kind of level, that's when you're sort of a, you know, a college athlete, a college football player, and you're right on the brink of, of making it.
And do you own your own car at that point? Like how does that, like how does someone fund
Yeah.
This, yeah. So that's a, a very unique part about my personal journey is we have a racing team called ABEL Motorsports. Um, and that's what started through my dad when he was doing his vintage car racing. That is a very much a, a do it yourself thing. You know, you, you kind of get some friends and, and everything and load up a trailer and go to the racetrack.
But it obviously gets a lot more serious when you get to the professional side of things and. My dad kind of viewed that as an opportunity. 'cause when you're first starting in racing, regardless is it's kind of self-funded. Yeah. At least up until a point it gets, it gets ridiculous. Yeah.
Like, you know, dads and their sons or daughters are just like loading up a go-kart in a truck and a trailer and heading out.
Right. And like maybe the local pizza joint slaps a sticker on it for 50 bucks. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. Red Bulls not giving you a call when you're 10 years old saying, we're gonna pay for your whole entire racing career. Like, you're done, you're taken care of. So my, but wouldn't that be cool? Yeah, that would be nice.
Yeah. I would not, not, not saying that wouldn't be awesome, but, um, when I was getting into it. Uh, my dad kind of saw that as a bit of a business opportunity. He's an entrepreneur. He's, you know, had businesses throughout his whole entire life and he didn't want to just write a check and say, see you later.
Go race for, you know, team X out there. Um, we're gonna, we're gonna do this ourselves. We're gonna go buy the car and we're gonna go acquire these assets. And so that, you know, when you're racing, we can also bring in another driver and say, Hey, you know, this guy can drive for us. We're gonna run two cars.
We're gonna run Jacob, and then we're gonna also run another guy who's gonna be, you know, paying us money and helping offset all of our costs and making it a lot more doable for us as well as, you know. You spend this money and you actually own the car now, and that's something you can sell. And, and same with all the trailers and all the other assets there.
Yeah. Also,
but if you wreck it, then you're also on line to fix it. Exactly,
exactly. I think you're kind of on the line either way. They, the teams are protect themselves there. Oh yeah.
Okay. So you guys, so you have able racing Yeah, we are able motorsports, yep. ABEL Motorsports. Okay, nice. So, which is like, I, I mean, and I think that your dad's like, uh, or your family has like a family business of in construction.
Yes. You guys have done, uh, a good job and you have like the entrepreneurship bones, which I love. Absolutely. And like we could do a whole second episode on that, but, so you're, you're racing, you're making it up through this, you're going through the F4 America series. Mm-hmm. Get to the F3. That's like college football kind of.
Yeah. That's, that's, and like, what is the, the milestone race there that you're like, okay, great. I get to take
another step forward. Right. I'd say the biggest thing was. Those wins in F3 Americas. I think when we showed up that year, I wasn't even really planning on racing that series in America.
There's, how old are
you this
morning? 17 or 18? I'm honestly to the whole entire thing. I'm actually relatively late, which is, which is crazy. Uh, really? Yeah. You know, starting go-karts at 12. You know, most people start it when they're. Five years old or something like that. So yeah, I'm, I'm relatively late to it.
Um, but yeah, I think that would be the biggest thing would, would be those wins in F3, those wins in, in Formula Regional. And, and that kind of proved myself. And then I also did a lot of GT three racing, which is, what does that mean? So that's sports car stuff, you know, Ferrari and Lamborghinis and Porsches.
That's, wait,
you're, you're 16, 17 years old and someone lets you behind the wheel of their Ferrari. Yeah,
well, it was ac it was actually an Acura. An Acura NSX. So they're kind of super car. Um, but yeah, I was racing those, uh, for a while
there. It sounds
way,
no offense to Acura. Acura, right. But it sounded way cooler.
When you're like Ferrari and Lamborghini, you're like, but it's an Acura. The coolest part is that, oh, shh, that thing's pretty
sick. The coolest part is that we're in an Acura beating the Lamborghinis and then the Ferrari. So like, who's Acura? Like, who gave you this thing? So I, I've had a really close relationship with.
Honda, um, throughout my whole entire career, I was actually a, a junior factory driver through them. So that's another, uh, the whole racing landscape. You know, you could talk for five hours on trying to explain the whole entire thing. Yeah. Because we haven't even touched the whole NASCAR side of the world yet.
But yeah, that's, that's another option is, is to go the sports car route and it's on road courses and all of that. It's, it's heavily manufacturer supported.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Like they want, you know, they win the race and they're like, right now buy more. Well, well, because you can actually
see the Acura product on the track.
You know, an IndyCar doesn't necessarily look like a Honda at all. So I think that's, that's one of, one of their big things,
but yeah. And it's like you see their logo cross in the finish side and the Right. You like that. You like the NSX go by the MDX. Yeah. And take your kids to soccer practice that.
Bingo. Got one outside right now. Do you really? Exactly. Yep. How did I know? Come on. I know. Come on. Alright, so you're, you're rolling through that. Um, and at what point do you decide I'm gonna do racing, but I'm also, I. I don't know. I wanna go to college too. I don't wanna get that experience because we, again, you, you, I think you mentioned it earlier, not very common.
Like if you're gonna go the professional driver route, don't go to college. You're wasting your time. Like you might as well just continue to go, but you decided to go
to
Butler. Go dogs. Yeah, go dogs. A lot of drivers don't even go to like regular high school. They'll do something online just because of how much you travel and all of that.
So that was pretty difficult in itself. So I have an older brother, an older sister, uh, they both went to college and, and graduated and, and did all that. And you know, they both said it's the, it's the best four years of your life. It's an experience you never wanna miss out on. Um, you know. And I think also in the back of my mind, in case the whole racing thing didn't work out, I wanna have that experience a little bit.
And then also I think it's, it's helped me, um, on the racing side of things a lot. I went to school for marketing. It's, I think, made me gain a little bit more respect in big business meetings. 'cause in racing you're in meetings with tons of C-level executives from huge companies all the time just in terms of sponsorship and all of that.
And I do think I get a little bit more respect having that a little bit of a business background. I can kind of understand, um, the way that they're talking about a little bit. So I did wanna do that. Um, unfortunately right after I went to college my freshman year, halfway through Covid happened. So that kind of took away half of it because it's half of it was the, the social elements, meeting all the people, having the experience and, and making those connections.
And then, you know, COVID came along and kind of. Took us all away from each other a little bit. So with that, I switched to part-time, um, throughout my second year and, and the rest of kind of my, my college career. Did you end up graduating? Not yet. I'm still gonna work on that one day. But are you still, uh, are you gonna go back and finish it at Butler?
I'd like to. Um, you know, Butler's such a good school and it's such a, you know, prestigious university around Indianapolis. Everybody recognizes it. Um, so I'd love to, to graduate from there. All
right. Administration at Butler, when Jacob gets to run in the Indy 500, and when he wins the Indy 500, you might need to give him an honorary doctorate.
That'd be awesome. That I the honorary doctorate, right. For, for being a rookie and winning the Indy 500. For sure. We're putting that out there. I'm gonna toss that up to Butler and you guys do with it what you want. Perfect. Um, okay. So you ended up switching to part-time. When did the racing career really start to accelerate a That's a good one.
That is, come a good one. Come on. There we go. Um,
I'd say in the last couple of years here, uh, honestly, it's. Moving into to Indie Next Indy Lights. Um, okay, so and so for people that don't understand, so we go from F3. Yeah. Doing well there. And give us the ladder, the European ladder's. Very simple, right?
'cause it's F4, F3, F2, F1, um, America, they've kind of switched and swapped the names, but they basically have, uh, a ladder that runs parallel. It's us. F2000 is the first step. That's your F4. And then I think it's USF Pro 2000 now is the second one. And then you have INDY NXT, and then IndyCar.
So INDY NXT is basically the AAA baseball. That's the, you're right on the brink of it. And that's where I've spent the last three years of my career kind of. Really showing those results and, and showing that I do belong in, in the IndyCar series.
Okay. And you Yeah, I remember, uh, our good friend Evan, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about that.
Yep. Evan runs with me every Thursday morning and I'm gonna come to one of
those one day. Yes. One day. All right,
we'll hold you to that. One day he's getting the college degree and he is gonna come to a track Thursday. Love it. You heard it here. Love it. Uh, but Evan, I remember was talking about you got your race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in INDY NXT, that's on the, the Saturday before the 500 or when is it?
So they
used to do the Freedom 100 and that was the Saturday, right? Or the Friday right before, yes, it was on Carb day, but that they took that away. I think the last year, that was 2021. So like right before I joined the series. But we do still race there. We race on the road course every year at least once, usually two or maybe even three times.
So it's, it's cool because all the way going up through the ranks, I mean, USF2000 also races at. IMS. So you get to spend a lot of time there, but not on the oval. Not on the oval. So I've never driven the oval. I've, so the oval is only for the race. Yeah. They try and keep it like very sacred like that, not letting you know all these different cars on it.
Tons of different cars go on the road. Course, you know, they have, you know, school cars, all sorts of different things go on the road course, but they like to keep the oval very, you know, prestigious and it's like
you gotta earn your way high. Exactly.
It's like, it's like any other major stadium in the world.
Churchill Downs or I don't know, name any professional sporting event that that happens. Yeah. They're not
just letting like Joe Blow hop in and Right. You know, swing at Yankee Stadium. Exactly.
Exactly. But yeah, so we've gotten to race there a lot and it's been, uh, it's been pretty cool getting to spend a lot of time at, at that place.
It's insane.
So you were, I remember Evan telling me that you were racing indie next at IMS on the road course. Yeah. What kind of results do you have to post in Indie next to and to even get the option Yeah. To maybe like interview or how do you end up getting called up to a.
Like into IndyCar Yeah, it's tough.
It's a, it's a pretty interesting situation. It's very much not like any other sport this last year in Indy. Next in short, you have to win races. At the very least you have to win races or else they're not really gonna look at you, um, at all. Um, but back in 2023, I had some really good results. I, I was able to get a test with Dale Coyne racing at the end of 2023.
Um, what does the test mean? Like a legitimate driving test? So that's, yeah. Well it's, it's another one of those kind of words. It's basically like practice. So we never get to go out on track. We never get to, you know, practice essentially because it's not like we all have race tracks in our backyard. Like we have basketball hoops or something like that.
You can't go out and put up a thousand shots. Um, 'cause it's very expensive to get on track and they've regulated it all. So you'll only get, you know, three or four practice days per year. And that's what we call test days because they use these days to test different things on the car. Uh, all the engineers do tons of research and, and.
Try and prepare for these tests so that you have items that you actually go through and test. So that's why it's, that's why we call 'em tests. Wow. So you got a test
with Dale
Coin? Yeah, so I got a test with Dale Coyne Racing. That was my first time driving an IndyCar that, that's 23. That's at the end of 2023.
I think we always kind of knew that I was going to go back and race in INDY NXT because. Like I said, you do have to prove yourself. And I hadn't won a race yet. By the end of 2023, I'd finished on the podium a bunch of times I'd gotten polls, but I hadn't actually gone out and even won a race. You know, it was extremely frustrating year because we knocked on the door a hundred times, but never, never got in.
Um, like how'd
you finish in, like is there like a champ, like a standings or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. So I was third the whole entire season. And then, you know, last couple races, of course, you know, you crash or something breaks on the car and I think I ended up dropping to like fifth and that was still good enough to win in 23.
In 23. Okay. Yep. And then going into last year, you know, we knew we really wanted to, to make a good old good run at the championship and we felt like that was something that we were capable of and prepared for. You know, we had experience in the series. And are you
still like, is this able motorsport?
Yeah.
That's pretty sick. Well, and that's been the biggest thing about that is like this team has been growing kind of alongside me. So it's been a, you know. There's some really, really good teams in Indy Lights and in the ladder series. So it's, you have Andretti Auto Sport, you have HMD Unco, who Conor drives for very, very proven team.
So we've kind of broken in there and had to make a name for ourselves. And I was a rookie driver my first year and the team was a rookie team. So it's been super, super rewarding to share that with, you know, my whole entire family and the family that's at Abel Motorsports because it's been the same core group of people throughout the past few years.
So that's been a really, really rewarding experience as well.
Dang. Okay, so. You get a test, but you know that you're gonna go back to INDY NXT. Yep. You race the 2024 season and how does that go?
That went really well. So, you know, we came right outta the gates, going to St. Pete. It's a race we should have won the year before I led like 33 out of 35 laps or something.
So we go to that race. I finished second, uh, which was good. You kind of take that in the first race. You just want to get outta there with a result and not crash and get the season off on a good, on a good start. And then we kind of got hot a little bit. We went to Barber Motorsports Park, um, swept the whole entire weekend, led every single session, which is pretty rare.
Both practices got pole by like three tenths and then let every lap and won the race. And then from there, wire to wire or maybe Exactly. Where's Barber Motorsports Park? Barbara is in Birmingham, Alabama. Okay. So that's we'll head there early on in the season. And then from there you go straight into the month of May.
And that starts off with the Indy GP. And that's a race that we always. Always race at. And it's honestly a track that we, we struggled at in the past. So it's, it's one of those that we, you know, the car setup wasn't perfect. It maybe didn't suit my driving style. And we show up there and we actually had two races.
It was a double header and we get pulled for both of 'em. So we were the fastest qualifier for both of 'em. And this
is
at IMS? At IMS. And what, what's the two different races? Like, what is, so it's just a, it's just a double header. So it's, it's so it's the same race though? Yep. Same racetrack. So we race, I think it's, I think it was actually like we raced at a Friday night at like 7:00 PM and then we come back the next day and race at noon.
So where usually it's a whole weekend for one race. It's just a, a double header. So. Interesting. So, yeah.
Is that like, is that like, uh. You get out of the car Friday night and you're like, shit,
I
gotta
do that again. Well, it's like, especially when you win. And we had worked really hard and it's a super compressed weekend.
So we usually have practice on a Friday, qualify on a Saturday race on a Sunday. It's very spread out. We have a lot of time to, to digest, debrief things, make everything better. The first day of this event is practice in the morning, qualify right around lunchtime and race all in the same day. So that's what made it, you know, even more special is, is we rolled off the car wasn't great, we were like six or something in the first practice.We figured it out in like the hour that we had before qualifying and it's qualifying for two races. So we got both poles and that was like crazy. That was outta nowhere, especially coming off the, the barber race. So you end up winning both of those. Just one. So I, so I won the first one and then I got second.
Okay. And the second one. So, so, so through three races though. Yeah. A first and two seconds. Yeah. So it's, it was a second, a first, a first and a second. Counting St. Pete, so, oh, yeah. Yeah. It was, it was pretty cool to, to start off that hot, but unfortunately when you start off that hot, the only way to go is is down.
So we went to Detroit after that, had like a fourth, I think, which is fine. Um, and then we get into the meat of the season and how does the scoring work? So it's all points based. So I, there's a specific chart you might be able to pull up, but does sports score
points.
Yes. Okay. So
no matter where you've, you're scoring something.
You're
scoring something. Okay. And that's why it's super important to be consistent and there's, you know, 22 drivers in the field. And it's, it's super important to just be consistent, always be at the front and not, not crashing or not having anything go wrong, to be honest. And
it's like, yeah, if you just, if you just keep yourself in the mix, it's like, you know, you're getting your fifth, sixth, fourth thirds, you know, on the podium.
And then it's like you just gotta
break through and win a couple, right. And you gotta win when you can win. When you have a car that is, you know, capable of winning, you need to maximize that. Just as if you have a car that's capable of finishing. Fifth is maximizing that and not trying to, you know, over extract or go crazy trying to get fourth instead of fifth, and then you crash and finish 22nd.
And so that's probably the biggest thing.
Wow. That's interesting to think about where like, some, some teams are going into the race being like, you know, we're not gonna win it But just want to like. Stay. We want to do the best
that we are in the position to do well. It's so unlike any other sport, right?
Because in any other sport or most of the sports that we all follow, it's a winner and a loser on every, you know, match, on every game, on every, anything like that. So you're, you're going out there knowing that you're either gonna win this game or you're gonna lose this game racing. You know, this year there's gonna be 27 cars every race.
So they say it in Lightning McQueen in cars says it, you know, one winner, however many losers. But it's actually true. You know, it's, there's, there's only one winner on the race weekend and 26 people lose basically. So it's, it's a big mental battle and always staying strong through the times that you're not winning because it is such a rare thing and it's also like, you know, finding your own personal wins.
And what would be a win for your team? You know, I think next year I'm not expecting to go out and win a lot of races, to be honest, just 'cause it's such a competitive series. But I think we need to like. Establish our goals, and if we get a podium, that'd be amazing. Like that is, that is a win for us. So it's just trying to like navigate and, and manage those goals
and, and, and make the Indy 500, right?
Well, exactly. Yeah. And then win that, right? Exactly. I mean when That would be sweet. That'd be pretty sweet. That would be pretty sweet. Big news for my friends over at Hope Plumbing. Now. Hope Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. You heard that right? They are now your one stop shop for home services offering plumbing, hvac, and electrical new name added services, but same, trustworthy, loyal company.
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That's a deal you can't miss out on. Call Hope Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, and start saving today. Now let's get back into the show. I don't know, man. I think that that's the longevity of it, right? It's like, hey, you're a rookie. And there are guys, I mean, who is it? Like Pato? Yeah. Right. It's like, dude, he's been grinding to get one.
Yeah. And like is right there in the mix, but
just like can't get over the home. And we just saw the Super Bowl commercials, right. Of, of Josef Newgarden and Pato, Alex Palou. It was hilarious. We had a bunch of people watching over, coming over to watch the Super Bowl, and my buddy is watching the Josef Newgarden commercial where they're painting him as this like perfect person.
And he's like so beautiful and perfect. And he is playing ping pong with 17 paddles and hitting all the balls blindfolded. My friend just looks over and it's like, oh, oh, jabs fucked. Yeah. Because there's no way to like, dude, look at that like this dude's on the Super Bowl commercial. Well, it's wild that like, and it's just another one of those things that just doesn't feel real.
Right? It's like I've, I've looked up to these people for my whole entire life and it's like, wow, I'm, I'm gonna be racing against him. I'm gonna be fighting against. This person and all these other people, like, isn't that wild to go win race? It's like,
shit. It's like there's football players out there that are like, you get, or like a basketball player, you get in the league and all of a sudden you're at guard.
LeBron, right? Yeah. And you're like, I used to have a poster
of you. Right. That's exactly how it's so dude. That's, but it's awesome. I That's what you've been working for. Well, and that's the thing, and, and it's, and I know it's once we get to the track in St. Pete for the first race, like it's gonna. All come naturally.
And it's, it's just another step. It's just like any other step that I've made in my career. And once I get on the racetrack and around the other people, it's, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. You lock in, you do your thing. Right. Exactly.
Exactly. Um, at what point last year did you know things are going in the right direction and that you might be taking this step to IndyCar this year?
Yeah, I think it'd probably be, you know, midway through the season. It's, it's tough because you want to focus on the job at hand and you want to succeed in INDY NXT and not look too far in the future. Um, but, you know, we started having meetings with teams and owners, you know, midway through last year. I knew that that was gonna be my last year in INDY NXT, um, it was my third season.
I really needed to go out there and prove, um, what I needed to do. So that was the biggest thing is, is just staying focused, staying locked in and, and just trying to, to win every single race. And ultimately we fell a little bit short of the championship. Um, my competitor Louis Foster, he just got unbelievably hot in the middle of the season and it was.
It was basically just us two fighting at the front. So when I wasn't there to beat him, when things weren't going perfectly for me, like no one else seemed like they were either. So it was, it was good. I mean, we ended up kind of getting it back a bit and we won a race down the stretch and got some good results there at the end, which kind of regained my confidence for this next season.
Is he, uh, in, in the car now too?
Yep. How many drivers got called up? So it's two did this year. So it's me and him, which is really good for the series because a lot of the times, you know, it's not a given that anyone from INDY NXT will, will kind of get that opportunity or anything, which is crazy. But,
and does like someone have to be like ousted?
For you to take a spot,
I guess, I mean, technically, like who was sitting in your seat
last year?
Right. Um, it was, it was a bit of a rotating cast of characters. Uh, Jack Harvey was the one full-time guy. Yeah. Um, at Dale Coyne Racing. I think he might have had an opportunity to maybe go back there. I think he chose to go in a different direction.
He's just, he's with Dreyer & Reinbold is who we were talking about. And so that means he's only in a race once a year. Yep. Yep. So he'll fill a schedule with other things and all of that. But yeah, man, it's a, it's a tough, tough world. It's so unlike any other sport because there's only 27 seats in IndyCar and then, you know, 20 in Formula One.
So it's, and that's kind of where all of us drivers from this junior open-wheel ladder get funneled to as one of those, those series. And it's just, it's crazy. Is there a lot, there's way more talented drivers than there are spots? Is there a lot of pressure like Yeah. I mean, 'cause you, you gotta, you gotta succeed to.
Keep your seat. Right. And I think that's ultimately, right now it's a lot of, a lot of gratitude. I'm just happy to have the opportunity to, to be in this series and get a chance to go out there for, you know, however many weekends this year and, and have a chance to prove myself. That's all I can really ask for.
Yeah. Right. Stage my career.
You get the opportunity. Not that it's, it's, it's slightly different, but it was like, dude, Caitlyn Clark's coming out of Iowa. Yeah. Huge pressure to just like, be the person right now. Like, you gotta be this all star. And it's like, I can't imagine being her one. Right. That's insane.
Right. 22, 23, you're get all this pressure, but it's like, dude, you're in a, in a similar vein, maybe not quite as much pressure, but still a professional sports career. Yeah. Where it's like you have to perform or you are getting ousted and your dream of indie. I don't know if you can go from being like. In any car you get, you don't do well, you get ousted, you gotta go find another seat.
Like there's only 27 of 'em. Yeah. That's insane, dude. Yeah,
it's, it's pretty intense. And, and there are, you know, other avenues I, I kind of can compare it to playing overseas or, or going in Europe and I don't want to kind of put that in a negative light, but the whole sports car side of the world is a extremely pretigious prestigious racing where there's tons of careers and you do see some guys kind of take that path, but, but it's not racing the Indy 500.
No, exactly. And it's, it's not, um, you know, they do have their big races, but it's not the Indy 500, it's not the Super Bowl. It's not the NBA championships and that's, it's
not the biggest sporting event in the world. Exactly.
Yeah. It's crazy
dude. Okay, so tell me about what, like, when does the season kick off and what are you doing to prepare for it?
So that's the thing. It's like we only announced this whole entire thing because that's when we honestly finalized it. We announced it right when we finalized it, and that was probably three weeks ago. You know, I spent most of my off season, our season ended in. First weekend of September last year. So it's been five months of just kind of trying to figure it out, you know, trying to figure out what the plan is for next year, trying to, am I gonna be a race car driver, am I not?
You know, I think it all came together so late that we are kind of scrambling a little bit to, to get all prepared, but at the end of the day we still have some time. It's a lot of just like, what were you doing to stay sharp from September to now? You know, we train a lot. It's a very physical sport, you know, it's not, I'm not gonna say it's football or it's basketball or we're doing anything like that, but dude,
Conor is telling me like, like you imagine holding that 30 pound dumbbell for freaking three hours or whatever.
And yeah, like I said, I went to a, like an all guys high school that is one of the best football teams in the country and you know, we're good at every single sport. So I never try and get into the arguments of racing is so much, you know, more of a sport than anything else. I don't go there, but it is very, very physical, especially IndyCar wear.
You know, you don't have power steering. That's kind of a, a big key word for all of this. F1, nascar. All of those do have power steering. Oh, do they really? Yeah. So it's, they can kind of, they're assisted in their, in their steering. We aren't. So, you know, you have these cars that Yeah. They weigh, you know, 15, 1600 pounds.
But in addition to that, they also have 2000 pounds of downforce. So you're driving, yeah. You're pulling Gs, yeah, this like 4,000 pound car through the high speed corners and you have nothing to help you turn the wheels against all of that grip and stuff. So that's probably the biggest thing. The neck, the body being under those GS is pretty crazy.
Um, how do you train for that? Uh, it's, it's hilarious. I, I train not with many other race car drivers. I train at a gym up in, up in Fishers, it's called I Fast. Um, there's a lot of other Butler athletes and, and people like that train there. But yeah, when we always, we break out all these different kind of neck apparatuses to, to train for that and everybody always, always gives me funny looks.
But yeah, just all sorts of, just neck training is honestly the biggest thing because the seats are so advanced that you're so locked in there. I actually just came from a seat making. Is is where you, you sit in this basically like GL bag and it all forms around you and they move it into. The perfect position so that your body doesn't really move that much
and you can't gain or lose any weight.
Right. Exactly. Exactly. But you st I don't know how, when does IndyCar season run from, from when to when?
Uh, so it's six months. So it's march to the end of August now, so, yes. So you,
for six months, dude, you can't put on any pounds. You can't lose
any weight. Like you gotta stay exactly the same. Right. And that's another big thing too, is, is.
Everything is measured basically in grams, right? It's not pounds, it's, it's grams and ounces. So it's, it's all very, very scientific the way that they do everything, place all the weight on the car, um, and all of that. So, yeah. But like I was saying, that's kind of what I was spending most of my off season training for, is we didn't have, uh, you know, the next race in sight.
We didn't know what we were doing. So I'm in the gym, just training, staying, staying ready for whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. And then, you know, this did all come together and I do feel prepared now, but Who, who's, uh, is there another driver for Dale Coyne? So they haven't announced it yet. Um, it's the 27th seat in IndyCar.
So it is, it is the last one.
Uh, when is that gonna come out?
I don't know. Um, you know, any, any hot leads? Uh, I think everybody has a pretty good idea at this point. It might be announced by the time this comes, you said it's gonna go out in like a month. Okay. Uh, oh, in a month then? Yeah, it should, it should be announced, but I'm still not gonna say anything.
He's not. Oh, I thought we
were. Well, because,
because, I don't know. It could change, right? It could change. I don't wanna be
like, who would be the finalists that people are looking that don't have a seat yet?
I think everybody has kind of looked at, you know, Rinus VeeKay, Linus Lundqvist, guys like that, who have experience and deserve to be in the series.
You know, they've had, um, some, some very good talent and they've had really good results in the series. So I'd love to have a guy like that as my teammate. Like a veteran. Exactly. To give you some
experience or
some like
Exactly. Mentorship. 100%. Uh, I'm, I'm gonna Googling right now. Let's see what the hot takes are.
Yeah. Who is Dale Coyne?
Dale Coyne is a super interesting character. Oh boy. He's an awesome, awesome guy. He's been a sort of a legend, um, in the IndyCar paddock. He was a driver back in the day. I. Um, but then he's, he started this team and run this team ever since I think the late eighties. Even when he was driving, he was, um, he was running the team, so he was doing both at the time.
And, you know, he's had a very successful team throughout the past, you know, 30 some odd years. So yeah, it's cool. Cool dude, for sure. But he's very notorious for not announcing his drivers until, like, the week of the race, so it's, oh wow. Great. Alright,
so here's what Reddit says. We're on Reddit for, uh, our IndyCar.
Okay. Only one seat remains for 2025. Here's the lineup. As it stands. He just asked me who I was cheering for. I said. You and Conor. Bingo. Of course. Right. You gotta, you gotta represent the Indiana boys. Alright. And then someone comments and says, and it will remain open until February 28th, around 8:00 AM And someone's like, why is that?
He said, because, because that's
when first
practices were. Well, he says, because it's the second Dale coin seat. Infamous,
were being filled at the absolute last minute. Yeah. Oh, wow. And I honestly don't know, like, I have good ideas, but until something's signed and done and announced, you really never know.
So that's why I don't wanna say anything. Do you, do you ever get like haters for sure. Like they don't think you deserve it. You do kind of get that. You're always gonna get it. And I, I was expecting that from, from the start. When that announcement came out that we're doing IndyCar, I was expecting to get, you know, a lot, I was expecting 20% or something of, of people to.
To be like, you don't deserve to be there or anything like that. You know, I've obviously been in a very fortunate position of having been running with my family team and that's been successful. That team is gonna keep going now, you know, we already have four signed drivers, four ABEL Motorsports in INDY NXT for, uh, 4, 20, 25.
So it's like, oh dang. It's been very successful there. And also the, you know, the construction side of things. They've supported a lot of my career, but at the end of the day it's, it's been very beneficial actually to the construction side of things. We have an Indianapolis office now. You know, we've gotten a number of, of jobs in Indianapolis purely because of the side of things.
So it's very easy to look at it and say, Jacob Abel, the only reason he's there is 'cause he's sponsored by Abel Construction. 'cause his dad owns the company and he's got money to spend. It's, it's super easy to say that, and I get that, but. I think if it was any other company that had generated, you know, the amount of revenue and, and business and has seen the value as ABEL Construction has, I think it would be a little bit of a different story.
And they aren't even gonna be the only sponsor for this year at all. You know, I think we've had some really, really good talks with, with other companies and other people that are, that are gonna get on board for everything, which is, it's been really cool too. But it's tough. I'm sure Conor talked about it.
It's tough to get people to, to write huge checks for motorsports. It just is, dude,
the business behind the whole thing.
Yeah.
Right. Is hard. It's insane. Uh, I think that a lot of people, we had a whole rant about this with Conor. Sure. I think a lot of people look at it and think like, dude, you're racing an IndyCar.
Like. You got millions, right? You got like, you got a freaking Rolex and millions coming in, right? He's like, yeah, I got like an Acura, MDX from, yeah. Hell yeah. That's on, that's on loan and I love it. Yeah. It's on loan from the, for the team and for the season. I gotta give that thing back and if I go over 30,000 miles, they're gonna charge me extra.
It's
all probably
actually really Right. Accurate. But it's like, okay. So where do you feel like the threshold of, you're a superstar, like where does that t Like you gotta win a, a race, you gotta win Indy 500. Yeah. Like I think that, uh, I mean even, I mean this is the kind of public knowledge. It's like the drivers at the best teams are still not getting a million dollars a year
from
their team.
Right. Some of them are now, which is, are they? Okay. I think, I wouldn't say it's 50%, but some of the people are getting paid good money to put their lives on the line and race cars. But ultimately most of them aren't. Which is, it is pretty crazy. But it's just the nature of it. I mean, we know. Especially being on the team side of things.
I think that's helped me a lot in negotiations and, and all of that is we know how much it costs. We know how much work goes into putting a race car on track. I mean, it costs I think $10 million a year to get a car on track. Yeah. That's not what everyone's paying, but like at cost.
Yeah. For Dale Coyne, right.
What do they pay to enter one race car in the, you said it's 17 races? Yeah, 17. I think I It's seven. Yeah. Right. So
to race one car in 17 races. Yeah. I think a rough number for that and a good number to like benchmark it is it cost the teams $10 million roughly per car, per season. Per season, which is crazy.
So you gotta go out
there and make them more than $10 million in that driver's seat
y. Yeah. Yeah. So look, if you're thinking through like profit and loss, they sell there and a lot of these teams are operating at a loss, unfortunately. That's just kind of how it is. There's a saying in racing that goes, if you wanna make.
A small fortune in racing, you start with a big one because ultimately you end up losing money and yeah, you get a small fortune. They are getting commercial value now, and it's, it's in a lot better place than it was, you know, say five years ago with this charter system. I think a lot of big companies are now coming in and, and partnering with teams.
I think Ed Carpenter Racing, you know, just got a, a partnership with Java House and Splenda and I think, you know, you're gonna see them on, on the cars, and that's what we need. We need these big, huge, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of companies to come into the sport and, and help it out. And I think once everybody sees the series is they do see the value in it.
And I think it's, it's the greatest spectacle in racing. It's the biggest single day sporting event in the world. I mean, you saw how much a Super Bowl halftime commercial costs, you know, for a 32nd commercial it costs like $8 million. Like it's insane. You could sponsor an IndyCar for a full entire season and including the Indy 500 for that money.
And I think that's just something that. As drivers and the series, they need to keep promoting that. And I think they are, and I think it's headed in the right direction.
Yeah. Now that drivers can build more of their personal brand mm-hmm. Their own kind of marketing property. Right. Where it's like, I don't know how that works, but it's like if you're going out and getting sponsored by whoever to appear in a commercial or to post something on your social media, like Right.
That matters. Uh, the biggest value for these companies is always gonna be on that B2B side of things. It's connecting with other businesses and, you know, bringing clients out to the track and showing them what that experience is, giving them pace car rides, giving them rides in the two seater. Um, giving them a a behind the scenes look at everything.
That's where. We have seen the value in going out to, to these companies and, and partners. We've got some pretty excited partners coming on this year, which I'm excited to announce at some point, but I think the biggest way we've been able to sell that has been throughout the experience. It's. Even the richest people in the world can only buy the most expensive ticket at a race.
You know, it's, let's say it's $10,000, let's get crazy for the Indy 500. A lot of those people, they don't, they don't even want that seat. They want, they wanna be behind the scenes, they wanna be behind the ropes, they wanna be in the pits with the team, with the drivers. They wanna be up in the trailers looking through everything and all of that.
And that's the value that we provide is, is really giving them something more than they could go out and just buy on their own. And go out and do on their own.
Yeah. Right. It's like you're getting access. Right. Versus just like a good seat on the home stretch.
Yeah. Well, and then, and then you have a horse in the race too, right?
It's, you have someone and some team to really cheer for that you are a part of, and you've helped make that happen, I think. Yeah. You
get on the podium and you're all over
the car. That's the, I mean, imagine how much more fun it would be to, to cheer for. I don't know, cheering for something that you know and you own.
It's like going to your son's basketball game. You're obviously gonna be more passionate about that than going and looking, you know, watching a, another random like high school basketball game or something like that.
Dude, I love it. I think it's incredible. I'm excited to follow along. Thank you. I'm gay.
So previously I declared Conor my IndyCar favorite driver. But that was because I hadn't really like Right. Got to meet you and said, so now I'm gonna say it's a 50 50 split. Let's go. I am, uh, Jacob and Conor will be who I am cheering for this year, uh, throughout the season. Get started in St. Pete. Yes, sir.
Right.
Every race is gonna be on Fox too, which is a huge deal. They just came in this year, took, took the reins away from NBC. Wow. So every single IndyCar race this season is gonna be on Network Fox, which is Wow. Gonna be a really, really big deal. So, so we gotta watch. Yeah.
Because like, like I feel like Indiana does a really good job of coming out for the Indy 500.
Absolutely. Like that's a no brainer. But now let's watch these like two Indiana guys. Right. Freaking battle it out All season long. 27 drivers. 17 races. 16. Not including the Indy 500. Yes. So we'll be cheering you on, dude. Uh, I'm really pumped. Uh, we are coming down to the end of, uh, the show. Yeah. I have some fun segments if you want to.
Let's do it. Oh, here we go, baby. First. Segment. This is our younger years segment, brought to you by our friends at Orr Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. Jacob, what advice would you give to your 16-year-old self? There we go.
There we
go. I'd say just stick with it, man. Um, buy in a hundred percent to to everything that you're doing and, and give it your all. 'cause you know, you never know when your last chance is gonna be in, in motor sports or in any aspect of your life. And just enjoy it. I think take every opportunity that comes across the table and, and embrace it and go into it fully.
I think that's something that I've prided myself on ever since. Having to, to miss out on a lot of things. You know, I think all throughout high school, missing football games, missing parties, missing everything has made me really, really appreciate the, the opportunities and the things that I've gotten to do with the people that I've got to do 'em with.
And it's like, I wonder if you ask 16-year-old, you. In the moment, you're like conflicted. Right? It's like, do I want to go to this race or do I want to go to this school dance or whatever. And it's like, if you tell a 16-year-old, you man, just stay patient. 'cause in seven years yeah. You're gonna be racing in IndyCar.
Right. Do you think 16-year-old you like is like, cool, I'll make the trade?
I don't think he was good enough back then. I don't think he would've believed it, but yeah. But now I think it's, uh, dude, I think I've come a long way since then, so I
mean, clearly. And I, I love your humble man like you're racing in IndyCar.
It's crazy. Yeah. Like you're at the peak.
Yeah.
I mean this is what you've been training for.
Right? Exactly. Brandon,
you said you late to the arrive, like late to the game. Mm-hmm. Starting go-karts at 12. But like, isn't that nuts too? Like 11 years? It's pretty nuts from go-karts to Indy cars in 11 years. A
dirt track in, in the middle of nowhere at Clark County Fairgrounds in Indiana to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in just over 10 years is, is pretty, knock on wood.
Pretty crazy. Yeah. Well, we'll be racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At least for the gp. So Yeah,
you're you're, you're there at least. Yeah, you're right. You're right, you're right. Uh, that's so incredible, man. Like, I'm just pumped up thinking about it and I'm, I have made the official commitment that I'm gonna be following IndyCar.
I can't promise to like, watch every lap of every race. Yeah. But on Sunday, is it usually Sunday you just make it? Yeah. Sunday mornings usually Sunday morning. I'm gonna toss it on. Love it. Why not? Dude, we're
gonna follow the boys. What else are we watching? Yeah. On Sundays, right? No football. Amen. This is so true.
And that's I think honestly why Fox is such a big deal and that's why they've been pushing it. That's why we saw IndyCar Super Bowl commercials, you know, that was huge. And we've never gotten that before. It's, and that's why our schedule is what it is, is because they won't Right. When football ends, we're gonna, our Sundays are IndyCar now.
Yeah. What That starts in three weeks. Yeah, three weeks. So, and then it's gonna run basically all the way right until right until football starts. So. Replace your fantasy football with fantasy IndyCar and, and yes, sports betting. I think the sports betting thing is, is now in, so I'm gonna lay some absolute hammers
on.
Uh, the odds are great, by the way, on, uh, Conor and Jacob to, uh, podium. Bingo. I'm gonna be rolling those all year. Love it. Every race all year long, I'm gonna make a million dollars on it. That's the
fun thing about IndyCar sports betting is all the odds are so positive. It's like the favor will be like plus 300, plus 400 or something.
That's just 'cause it's so unpredictable. And I think that's why it's uh, that's why it's fun. It's why we love it. Heck yeah.
Alright, here we go. We're coming to the lightning round.
Jacob, what is your pre-race ritual? Pre-race ritual is that I don't have a pre-race ritual. Really. That's the same thing. I, I don't, I don't like being, um.
Being superstitious. I think just a little stitious. Just a little si. Just a little stitious. Exactly.
Well, I respect that. It's just like, you just gotta get yourself in the right head space. But like Yeah. You know,
I, I, I hang out, I try and relax as much as possible. 'cause I think the more you're like hyping yourself up, the more you're gonna be antsy, the more you're gonna be likely to make a mistake that I perform the best when I'm as chill and relax as possible.
What's your go-to pump up song? Before you go in into the car. See, and that's one thing that I'm gonna have to get used to is because in Indie Next you just listen to music until you can get in the car. But IndyCar's got so many pre-race things. I don't, from what I understand is that you don't get to like really be locked in right before you go out there.
So I. I'd say it's uh, I'm an EDM fan. I like all EDM music. They just announced today that Alesso is playing the snake pit this year. I would say like any Alesso song, big fan. Big fan of this. Alright, respect
that
dude.
Did you ever play back in the day Mx versus a TV Unleashed? I did on ps. Absolutely. And my go-to song, uh, from that was headstrong.
Yeah. Like, dude, that's a classic. If I was going, like we, me and my buddy Andrew, we would be like riding his four-wheeler and we would like be splitting headphones or playing that song or driving in the car, whatever. Anytime we wanna get jazzed up, anything raised. Yeah. You got it buddy. Let's go to what Driver has been your biggest inspiration?
It's corny to say my dad. That's not corny. The corny reason,
the reason this whole thing started was because of my dad. You know, I grew up going to the race track and, you know, watching him drive and that's what got me, you know, into it and, and really start to fall in love with it. I would kill to see him at the, the dirt bike track back in the day, cutting it up, you know, really doing well winning races.
I think that'd be an awesome experience. But I think probably him, I think it'd be really cool to see him in his heyday. But even in the, the vintage car racing, it was just cool to watch him kind of do his thing.
I love that. Dude, this isn't a question, it was just, I saw on here one you once raced in Stadium Super Trucks.
Yeah.
That's crazy dude. How are those? Yeah, those things are wild. Dunno if you could pull
up a, a picture of 'em, but they're, they're nuts. Um, they're literally. So I became friends with Arie Luyendyk Jr. Uh, he was actually the Bachelor. So he, he races, he races cars. And I remember talking to him before I was getting into it and I was like, dude, what's it like to drive these things?
I don't even know where to start. And he compared it to driving a giant marshmallow. So it's literally, you go down the straightaways and you're just like floating back and forth at like 140 miles an hour. And then let's not forget that you also jump like 20 feet in the air,
which is,
you like ramp shit.
You ramp, yeah. Fully holy ramp
smokes.
Dude, when I, when I started doing that, it was, it was crazy. It was through a sponsor that I had at the time. He wanted to put this whole thing together. He had a lot of drivers that were gonna go do this stadium super truck race in Nashville, in downtown Nashville on the streets.
And he was like very, very last minute, Hey, do you wanna come do this race? I'm like, yeah, but I've got no clue. I don't even know how to take a jump. I, I've never been in the air in anything except a dirt bike when I was a lot younger. And so what he did is he's got this shop down in Kentucky, took out in his parking lot, a few jumps.
And so I'm literally for like three days before the race, I get in one of these trucks, drive it around his parking lot, take it over like four or five jumps for like an hour. And it's like, all right, you're good to go. Let's go to Nashville. So it's like, that was my preparation. Was your mom terrified? Oh my God.
I mean, I don't think she was at that race, which makes sense. But yeah, it, and it's nuts. Dude, that whole series is crazy because it's, it is for the show like that is, that's why they're there, is is for the people. So it's like. All the drivers get together before the races and kind of plan how they wanna do things because they do these like competition cautions that slow everyone down and pack us all up again.
So it's more crazy like the bumping and wrecking of each other. It's not promoted, but it's certainly not prohibited. I think one of the only rules was that if you hit someone hard enough that it breaks your hood and your hood flies off, I think you get like a ten second penalty. But that was basically like one of the only rules.
Other than that, it's like just go for it. Make it interesting for the fans. So is it like wwe? E but for racing? Uh, it's not scripted. Like everyone's, it's not scripted though. Yeah. Everyone's going after each other like hard trying to win and like you, you actually get like a decent amount of prize money if you win the races.
So it's like everyone. Well yeah, because
it's
probably like, it's
entertaining
and people were paying and Wow. I remember those race weekends and there'd be like IndyCar, race weekends. Fans would come up to me and, and tell me like, that's the best show of the weekend. Like, we came here to watch the Indy cars, but we are now stadium Super Truck fans because those things are crazy.
And that is like the most fun thing we've ever seen. 'cause you're going off a straightaway at like a hundred and then jumping like 50 to 60 feet long, at least maybe a hundred feet long, like flying. Were you scared? Dude, I was so nervous. I was like, I, I know how to drive. It also feels like you're gonna flip over every single corner you go to.
Oh yeah. I was
gonna say like you're, when you talk about floating, I'm like, nah, I'm cool. Exactly. I'm chilling on that dude. I used to be
stuck to the ground with the most grip possible in these like high performance race cars, and then you're literally in this like off-road truck going around these corners on three wheels.
It's nuts.
Do you ever just have that moment? Sometimes when you're driving you're like, man, how did this, how did I get here?
This is
sick. Absolutely. Like I have that moment sometimes when I'm like, you know, stuff's just like cool and you look around and it's like. What are the life decisions that I had to make to end up right where I am on three wheels coming through a turn.
About to go over a jump a hundred feet?
Yeah.
Yeah. Isn't that wild?
Yeah, it's nuts dude.
Uh, I also saw one other fun fact that we had was is your guilty pleasure food? Skyline Chili? Oh dude. Hell yeah. Oh dude. Love Skyline Chili. I just posted, uh uh, I was down in Cincinnati and I posted pork tenderloins greater than Skyline Chili.
Yeah. All my Cincinnati or Ohio people were all pissed. Yeah. There was like no way Chili's the move. Yeah. And then I just said, oh, you mean Gold Star? And
they're
like,
oh my. They go crazy. Uh, obviously not from Cincinnati, but Louisville had it a ton. Um, it was, my grandpa loved it. My family would always go there altogether.
Eat Skyline Chili Coney dogs. Heck yeah.
Alright. Alright. These are the same three questions I ask everyone who comes on the show. First question, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana
if the world doesn't already know that we have the greatest. Spectacle and greatest sporting event in racing.
I think everybody needs to know that, and I sing those praises all day long that it is the greatest race in the entire world. Formula One, nascar, all of that, like even they will, a lot of those people will mutually agree that the best race in the world, the race that everyone tunes into is the Indy 500.
And like I get in even like arguments with people about that. They're like, there's no way it's the single most, or it's the most people at a single day sporting event in the world. Like all of that. It's obviously the people that haven't been there. Yeah. Because once you go and like we can say it all we want, but until you experience an Indy 500 in person, I think I've been to 10 of them now, it's like impossible to explain dude.
And it's like the, the feedback or the comment to that is usually like, I don't like racing. Yeah. It's like you don't have to No. Like you just have to like fun having fun people watching like I'll say like drinking. Yeah. Music being outside. Yeah. People watching. I say that again. Yeah. 'cause you're gonna see some characters
like it's awesome.
Well, the snake pit is like, it's a whole different world in there. I mean, I've, I've been a couple times, I haven't like actually gone to the snake pit as I'm going to the Indy 500 to go to the snake pit. Maybe in another life I would've been every year, but Yeah. Right. Um, it, it's crazy. I mean it's, those people aren't going to the race.
They don't know what lap it is. No. Like, no one can tell. But then like
even at the end, I feel like a lot of them will even go like, watch the first five laps. Yeah. Watch the last 10 laps. Exactly. And it's like when those cars start zooming by dude, dude. And like when you're right up on the fence, you can't even tell what's going on.
You're like looking on the board and it was like new guard, like that final exchange last year,
dude. Crazy. That 500 last year was the craziest thing. That's one thing. And rain delay. Yeah. And that the fact that everyone came back, it just shows how much this city kind of rallies around that. Amen. And it's, it's so cool.
And I still haven't really realized, 'cause I'm such a big IndyCar fan. I've been to the Indy 500, like I said, the last like 10 years I think. The fact that I'm actually gonna be in it. Like, I'm not gonna be able to watch it this year because I'm gonna be racing and, and it is, is crazy. And like races like that last year were just the coolest thing in the world.
I remember just seeing, hearing the crowd go crazy when, you know, Pato passed him and then Newgarden passed him back. It's just like, that's what we live for. And if, if you don't enjoy that, I mean, I don't, I don't really know what to
tell you. Yeah. If you don't enjoy that, you don't enjoy anything. Right.
Uh, next question. What is a hidden gem
in Indiana? I think Yats is one. I think Long's Bakery, you're familiar with Longs, but I think a truly hidden gem would be the, uh, the coffee shop inside the Athenaeum downtown. It's called Coat Check Coffee. They have. The best homemade biscuits. So you literally, while you're ordering, you see the people in the back like needing the dough and, and making biscuits.
And it makes the best breakfast sandwich like I've had in town. And I'm, I'm a pretty big breakfast sandwich connoisseur. Oh, so it's big breakfast
Sammy Guy. Yeah, exactly.
What, what goes on the, the perfect breakfast sandwich from coat check? I go Sausage, egg, and cheese. I think it's a classic. I think they do some like spicy honey jam or something like that.
So I think, but the showstopper is the biscuit that makes it, that makes it all Heck is the biscuit. I love that dude.
Uh, the Athenaeum, I think there's this whole That's what, that's
what it's also called. Yeah. Right.
So it's in, so it's this whole big thing. I've actually been talking to them about the building is the Athenaeum and it's a non-profit, but it also operates Athenaeum as well as coat check and this, that, and it's, it's this whole big thing, which is super cool.
And I would charge anyone that's out there. That's interesting. It's like, it's that building's actually, not just the Athenaeum. I know. There's so much interesting stuff. Yeah. And the breakfast coffee shop spot. Money. I love that. That's, and no one's ever said that one.
Okay. I appreciate that. There you go.
That's
good. That's good. So that's a true hidden gem and And I always love the specific call out where it's like the breakfast Sammy at coat check coffee. Yeah, absolutely. Heck yeah.
Specifically the biscuits. Anyone can have any sausage and egg and cheese, but the biscuit just makes it go crazy.
Heck yeah.
Final question, man. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. You guys right? To who? Chris? Can
I say that? Does anyone ever say that? No
one's ever said that one before. Well, let's say that I, I, I take that. Thank you.
You guys. You guys are killing it here. I think it's, it's a, it's an awesome thing.
Shedding light onto all of the Hoosiers who are doing big things. And I think it's a, it's a really cool show.
I am like, you talk about being grateful, like I'm eternally grateful. Like I get to sit here and hype up people. That's awesome. Of like other Hoosiers doing crazy cool things in front of a few cameras on a microphone.
Like talk about like dream and I don't have to put my life on the line. Like, come on, call my, this is, this is fun, dude. Well, I'm excited to come out. I mean, I'm wishing you great luck this season. Yeah. Fingers crossed you'll be in the race. Hopefully the 500 dude will be out there, there we do our job.
We'll be there, we do our job. Right. That's the key,
right? Like it's, you gotta stay humble. Grateful, but like also driven, like it's expectedly, like, you know, in your head, you're already. I assume he's like, I'm gonna be racing there. We're gonna do our job and get
there. And that's the thing. And I don't want it to come across as like, that's the goal is just to, to make the race.
Like I want to finish in the top 10. I wanna win the race ultimately one day. You know, that's my goal. I'm not just here to be here, you know, I do want to, to succeed. It's just, I. It is also a possibility. I just have to get that out there and not be, you know, like I said, I'm not superstitious. I'm just a little stitious.
Just a
little superstitious, dude. But either way, like I'm super excited to follow your season this year. Uh, you got a new fan, like, I'm pumped up about it. Dude, this is sick. And I, we'll be out in turn three representing again. Hopefully you're on the track. Awesome. It'll be sick. We'll be rooting for you and thank you for sharing your story.
Uh, thank you for the amazing things you're doing for the sport of IndyCar as well as the City of Indianapolis. Uh, and, uh, we're gonna have to bring you back on after the race. Absolutely. After we win, after do a little debrief. That'll be pretty sweet. Oh, first, first public appearance after he wins the Indy 500.
Okay. We'll come in here like 2:00 AM and we'll do a live stream. Perfect. And it'll be sick, right? All right. Appreciate you Jacob. Thanks, man. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get IN. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.
Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations@sweetwater.com. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle.
Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
