CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Josef Newgarden is the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet. Why don’t you start things off with the off-season, what you’ve been doing, mindset in 2025. What are you looking forward to?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here. Mindset is a good question. Great place to start. I’m glad you asked that. My mindset is really good right now. I feel positive. I feel excited about the year.

I think our team is in a good spot. I think we have all the potential in the world, as always, and that gives me a lot to look forward to. Certainly the Indy 500 is going to be a highlight, as always. We’re all looking forward to that. But really FOX is probably the most pivotal ingredient.

I think they’re going to be transformative for this series and what they’ve done so far has been tremendous and we haven’t even hit the ground running yet. Very excited for what we have to come and can’t wait to really hit the ground, like I said, in St. Pete and see how far we can go.

It is good to be back. It’s been a busy day. Tough day. For me, this is always the hardest day for me. I know no one has any sympathy for that, but you’ve got to get through this grind today, and I feel like when we get through this day, then we can start the season. That’s kind of the carrot at the end of the rope.

Q. How does it feel to be told you’re better looking than Tom Brady?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think Tom disagreed with that.

Q. Alex doesn’t like your book, too.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That was the best part was Alex’s bit. They’ve done a good job. More than a good job. They’ve done a tremendous job. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a partner like FOX that has fully bought in and understands the significance of INDYCAR.

I think it can’t be overstated how appreciative we are of Eric, his entire team. The FOX team is a big group. They’re very innovative. They’re capital intensive when it comes to entertainment and as far as production quality and innovation. They’re not scared to try things.

I think we have needed that for quite a while, and they’re going to help push the sport where it deserves to be. I don’t think we’re — I’ve told this to people a lot, but we’re not hoping and dreaming for INDYCAR to be this thing that it’s never been before.

INDYCAR used to be a household name, and it deserves to be. It’s been this hidden gem for so long now, so I think FOX will take it to new heights and really excited about what they’re doing.

Q. I know as a driver you’ve said in the past that winning an INDYCAR Series championship is a great reward because it’s what you’ve done for an entire season. Probably in some ways more of a complete package of your work, your body of work. But now that you’re also a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, do you find you get mentioned a heck of a more than a two-time INDYCAR Series champion?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You do. I think it’s kind of the nature of our championship. The Indianapolis 500 really transcends anything else. There’s nothing like the Indianapolis 500. You certainly realize that after you win it, to your point. And I felt the magnitude of it, not from the recognition afterwards or how much notoriety there was, but more so like the personal impact. You really feel the weight of the 500 in the moment, when you’re there and winning it.

It’s crazy what it feels like than just being in the race. It already feels like a huge deal when you’re in the race, but when you win it, it just hits differently and you really feel the impact.

To answer the question, winning the championship is certainly a different task than winning Indy. It’s so hard to compare the two. One is a single event that’s a big buildup, it’s a lot of time commitment throughout the month of May. There’s more pressure to win the Indianapolis 500 than anything else, so that’s the key difference there.

Then for the championship you have to be good for so long across so many different types of courses.

They’re both gratifying. I think they both deserve extreme recognition. They’re just different. You can’t put them in the same category.

Q. We asked Alex and Pato about this yesterday, but curious to get your take on what that experience was like going out to LA and filming the spots for that commercial that we saw on Sunday.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was great. I mean, I had an awesome time. I was there for — this is a 45-second spot. I think we filmed for eight hours, and they probably needed more. But we’ve been — my message has been we’ll give you whatever you guys need. If you’re willing to give us everything, we’re going to give you everything. We’re really trying to work as a team.

It felt like the real deal. When you were out there it was like, okay, someone is giving INDYCAR the platform and recognition that it’s probably deserved for a long time.

I don’t say that arrogantly. I believe that for everybody. Everybody in this room, everybody that makes up the INDYCAR Series, they deserve to have a big platform, and it felt like FOX was delivering that. I certainly felt the magnitude when you were in LA.

You saw the spot; it was better than I thought it would be. I remember looking at the script when it was first presented to me and seeing the vision. I thought, oh, that’s funny. Like that’s really well written. It’s a great idea. Like that should be pretty good. Then I saw the actual spot, and I thought, that’s even better than I could have imagined.

Yeah, just feels like the platform that we’ve been missing in a lot of ways.

Q. I know you had a very notorious previous INDYCAR commercial that we sometimes joke about that you filmed a while back. Did you have any nerves going into this knowing that you were probably going to be the first one that was going to come out knowing that maybe that didn’t quite come out the way you were expecting it to before and maybe just seeing a script that you thought was cool, but again, until it comes out you probably don’t quite know what you should expect?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, not really, no. I’ve got to tell you, I felt pretty trustworthy. When we first started interacting, I’ve really liked everybody on the team. It has not been difficult to get used to everyone and start moving forward. I felt very trustworthy in what they were going to put together, even if it wasn’t — even if it’s not a home run, I felt like they were going to put a good piece together and they cared about what they had in front of them, the asset that they had acquired, that they were now needing to protect and grow. I think they understand it.

So trust is probably the number one word there. It’s pretty easy to trust and feel like they’re going to do the right thing. And I don’t think that means we’re going to be perfect. We might make some missteps. That’s normal. I think we should have a little bit of grace if we make some missteps and we probably will.

But I think they’ll try to do the right thing, but if we make a misstep we’ll correct it and moving forward.

Q. Do you get any speaking time in Alex’s spot?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t, no. It was supposed to be something different originally, and when it turned into Alex doing it, it just became more perfect. It made a lot of sense, too. It’s the reigning champ, so he brought the humor to it. It’s going to bring that visibility to Alex.

They’re going to connect, create dots that people can start connecting, which is really good for everybody.

Q. The question is going to be awkward, but for as good as you’ve been in Indy here the last couple years, you’ve just not led a whole lot of laps in this event. You’re actually tied with Conor. 10 guys have led more laps at Indy than you have in this race. Have you thought about how you’d change your approach to the race, or is it still I want to lead every lap and I just haven’t?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You know, it’s a good question.

Q. Just a dumb statistical question.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, it’s a great question. I’d have a simple answer for it. We have figured out how to win the race twice so far. I like our process. I really do. We’ll see if it keeps working. If it doesn’t, we’ll change the formula. But I think we’ve got a good process.

Q. I just wanted to get you to reflect a little bit how 2024 went because obviously there were big highs but also some lows there, as well. What do you feel was maybe behind some of the peaks and troughs, and like you spoke about last year, has there been any recalibration this off-season?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I do think it was a dynamic year is maybe the way to put it. It was a year of great highs, as you said. There was multiple strong points to it. But then there were some tremendous lows. Very volatile and rocky. But I would say transformative, if anything. For me, it was a really good year to go through.

It makes me excited about 2025. It ended up being a really positive year for the way everything transpired, even the waviness of the year. It just put us in a good spot to come out firing in 2025, and I think we can do that.

I don’t have many more adjectives for it. It was just very up and down. So many good things to take from it. Certainly Indy was the biggest highlight, but a lot of positives all around. Even within the negatives, they all turned into positives I thought.

Q. Following on from that, what do you feel like you’ve learned about yourself or learned about the team? Anything in particular?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, lots. We definitely — we’re always growing. I think that’s the goal, is you’ve got to get better every year. Certainly I think even as humans we’re trying to constantly evolve and be better prepared or be in a better spot year after year, and I think that’s true for us, and certainly after a season like 2024, resilience is a word that comes to my mind.

I think we have tons of it, so everybody is rallied together and ready to go.

Q. There’s been a lot of talk about a possible new car for 2027. I’d just like to get your take on what you feel a new formula would ideally consist of?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Less weight is critical. For me that’s the number one point. I’ve expressed that. I think most everyone has expressed that. But certainly the engineering team led by Rich is very strong. They’re doing a great job already.

We certainly know the direction that they’re headed. They’ve given us a lot of time for feedback and opinion.

I think as you look at the car now, it’s developed into a pretty heavy race car. I’d like us to get the weight down. That’s ideal.

Then producing a high-horsepower car, more than we have now, with a stable aero platform, it’s always kind of the ingredients you look to have in this type of series.

Our racing product has been quite good over the last four or five years, so I don’t think we want to disturb that or completely overhaul it, and they’re working on some new ideas how to even improve that.

Indianapolis is probably one of the places that could be mixed up the most where we have a great racing product there but maybe it’s not completely what we want. Having more competition throughout the field and ease of passing throughout the field is something we’re lacking at the moment. You can pass up front between two cars but not five deep.

So improving those type of things is top of mind for the development group and what they’re going to put in front of us for ’27.

Q. You’ve always been known as the king of ovals, but how much work has gone in over the winter to try to become a consistent challenger at the front on road and street courses? Can you take any learnings from Power and McLaughlin?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, ’24 was kind of unfortunate in a lot of ways when you look at the numbers and you study average position, all of these sort of metrics. We’re in just as good of a spot as we’ve always been. There were some outlier events as everybody is aware of in 2024, but when I look at the numbers I go, this is really not different to what it was in years prior.

When we were spreading wins across the board on ovals, road courses and street courses and kind of getting the trifecta, I think that’s still very intact.

I’m not dwelling on that too much. I think we’ve just got to right the ship in some ways from what we saw last year. We just had choppy water, and I think once we find a little clearer water, we’re going to be in a good spot.

I guess that’s what I took from last year, when I really dove into the numbers, that nothing was that far off.

Q. You’ve been working at Penske a couple years back, the team really struggled at Indy to qualify well. Then front row last year all of a sudden. I don’t know how much could be attributed to the joint engineering with Foyt now that Michael Cannon was at Foyt, but now he’s gone to PREMA, and they have such a history of being so competitive. What do you expect to see from them, and do you think it’s going to make a difference from cannon being there?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You know, it’s hard to predict. I think PREMA should be a powerhouse much like a Carlin. I had experience a very short time in Carlin and seeing their transition over to the States and to be a part of INDYCAR, I would expect PREMA to have just as good if not better of a trajectory.

I think they’re both very reputable strong teams. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. Indy is its own thing. It’s hard to assess the Cannon deal. Some of this stuff you would say, well, crossover and they should know this and they should know that and they should just apply. Sometimes it doesn’t work like that. Every case is a little different.

So we’ll see how they perform at Indianapolis. It’s its own beast. But they’ll definitely have a great opportunity to show up and be competitive right away.

If that doesn’t happen, then that’s just the nature of motorsports. I’m sure they’ll find their way at some point. They’re a strong enough team. They’ll have strong drivers, strong engineers. They will get there at some point, and I think they’ll be a great addition.

But Indy, we could talk about that forever. It’s its own thing. So we’ll see how they hit the ground running. But I think more than anything they’re going to add a great dynamic to the mix. It’s another strong team. It’s international, which I think is great.

It’s one of the things I love with INDYCAR. I don’t really think of INDYCAR just as domestic product. I think of it as the collection of the best people from around the world, whether that’s engineers or the team talent or the drivers.

I love seeing an influx of more global talent, and PREMA adds to that in a great way, so I think it’s only positive across the board for the INDYCAR Series.

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

CALLUM ILOTT, driver of the NO. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

MODERATOR: As mentioned, Callum Ilott joins us now, driver of the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, beginning his fifth year associated with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, clearly his first with a brand new PREMA race team in 2025 as you can see right there, fresh off the huge launch, a successful launch Friday down in Concord, North Carolina —

CALLUM ILOTT: Thank you for coming.

Q. It was great. You guys knocked it out of the park for sure. Obviously there’s some momentum with the team. How do you keep this going with the first race coming up in a couple months?

CALLUM ILOTT: We’ve obviously got some testing coming up. Still a bit fluid with the plan. But it’s a lot of work. It’s not easy for the whole crew. Yeah, it’s definitely a lot more work starting from scratch than all the other teams have from the end of last season.

But it’s part of it. It’s what we’ve committed to. Yeah, I’m really happy with how it’s going. The launch was amazing. Cars look great.

Hopefully they’re as fast as they look, but we’ll find out soon.

Q. There’s a lot of drivers in the paddock that know all about PREMA or have been with Prema. If not, they’ve seen them on TV. They know the championships over four decades. The numbers go on and on and on. Do you feel there’s a buzz with the team and the drivers in the paddock, curious about how this is going to work out?

CALLUM ILOTT: I think there’s a lot of people curious. A lot of people know PREMA’S history, and if you don’t, they are the most successful junior formula team that there is, and they’ve won in almost everything they’ve competed in. So to bring them to INDYCAR and have them here is amazing.

But INDYCAR is another ballgame. We’re going to have to work hard. It’s not going to be easy, and especially not with everyone else having the same car for 10 plus years. We’re going to have a steep learning curve.

But we’ve done all the right things so far and pushing like crazy to have everything we need and more for the first races.

Q. You’ve talked a little bit about just the struggle that you guys will have to get up to speed with this team that’s got a lot of folks that have INDYCAR experience, yourself included, but still joining a field that includes tons of teams that have been in the sport for lots of years if not decades. How different is this compared to what you joined at the end of the 2021 season at JHR (Juncos Hollinger Racing), a team that had been in INDYCAR before but still was joining late in the year and hadn’t been in the sport for a couple years?

CALLUM ILOTT: Yeah, it’s a completely different situation because even with JHR we were very fortunate with the Carlin merger but a lot of what we’d had had been from previous Indy 500s and had been built up. So there was quite a good storage facility of stuff.

With us, it is kind of everything we need we have to find or build and start from scratch. It’s quite an odd thing, especially for some of the people within the team that have been in other INDYCAR teams to kind of go, um, where do we get this? We’re going to have to order it; going to have to wait a little bit.

But for anyone who’s seen PREMA in Europe and then what we’ve created in Fishers — I say “we” like I built it. No, they did an amazing job, and in such a short amount of time. It is an incredible facility, and at the moment for two cars, it’s really impressive.

But that is one thing. On track is another. We’re just keeping our heads down. Where we start is where we start, and then we’ve got to build from there.

There’s not really any pressure. It’s more work with what we’ve got, and yeah, like I said, it’s very different. It’s very new. It’s been a long time since anyone has joined INDYCAR this way, and especially from Europe, and I think, not to put words in people’s mouths, but we’ve almost had to help create a starting point for bringing new teams into INDYCAR because it’s a bit of a — normally you do it with a partnership or something like that where someone has done it, where this is a bit more hands-on from the beginning.

Q. I know you are talking with the mindset of being patient, knowing that you’ve got to start somewhere and see where you guys are in St. Pete and work from there. But how much are you champing at the bit to get in a race car and know what the car is like and what you guys have, having launched this team and been signed to the team for several months and still not yet been in a race car?

CALLUM ILOTT: I’m not frustrated because there’s an element of you want to jump in the car and get going, but also you want to have everything ready and options to test and try. I think for me it’s very important for the team to be ready and then we go from there, so that’s been the focus on the team side.

I’m sure for Robert, who’s driven the INDYCAR once before but a long time since then, I’m sure he’ll be really wanting to get the experience of it and the oval side of things.

But yeah, I’ve got the Daytona 24 Hours and then afterwards full on with INDYCAR. So I’ll be ready to go no matter what. But it’s a team effort. I’m sure the engineers are as wanting if not more than I am to get going.

But yeah, we don’t have a lot of time. We don’t have a lot of days and we have to hit the road.

Q. Is it too early to even say what a successful season is like for this team? As you’re going into it, what kind of benchmarks, if any, are you setting for you or the team itself?

CALLUM ILOTT: I think that’s a question I’d like to answer probably after the first two, three races, see where we start and then where we go from there, because the street courses could be one way, road courses another way, and then the ovals is a another question.

Until I’ve done one of each, I think then I’ll be able to kind of set the tone for that. But end of the season, yeah, I don’t see a reason why we can’t be pretty competitive.

But at the beginning, I mean, we could be great, could be not. Whatever it is, it is. But we’ve got some amazing people, good partners, and yeah, pretty excited.

Q. Speaking of amazing people, what’s it like working with Michael Cannon? He’s a little bit of a mad scientist when it comes to INDYCAR engineering.

CALLUM ILOTT: INDYCAR’s own Einstein, right? Yeah, he’s great. Obviously it’s limited so far. We’ve only done some simulator stuff, and that was establishing the foundations of the team and just getting things going. Haven’t seen the full creation as of yet.

But yeah, he’s been working hard with the team. Let’s see where it goes, and I’ll answer that again later on. But right now it’s a good start, but everyone’s head is down at the moment.

Q. You’ve driven INDYCARs a lot but your teammate hasn’t. What’s going to be the biggest eye-opener for him?

CALLUM ILOTT: I think aside from the obvious part, the ovals, it’s going to be the length of the races, kind of the strategy, the fuel saving.

He’s probably had experience of all those things but not in the same way. With World Endurance Championship, which we both just came from, there is fuel saving, the races are long, but it’s less intense. The fuel saving is less important a bit more automated.

So coming here, it’s just full attack

.

And then beyond that, I think the fast-paced nature of the weekend, the season. Once it starts, it doesn’t stop. I think you kind of realize those things by mid-season.

But he’s ready. He doesn’t know what he’s ready for yet, but he’s one of those guys you just take, put in and drive and he’ll be fine.

Q. You’re working with Steve Barker again. Is that a nice transition, going to a new team but a bit of a familiar face who you’ve worked with on the engineering side before?

CALLUM ILOTT: Yeah, it was a bit of a shock. I arrived back January 6 on the Monday, and I was like, oh, hello, welcome back. Okay, fine, good to have you.

He was awesome to work with, and yeah, to have him in PREMA, another familiar face who’s been in INDYCAR. The team, a lot of them I’ve worked with in Europe.

There is people I’ve seen around the INDYCAR paddock, there’s people I’ve seen around the WEC paddock, and one or two been around the Formula 1 paddock.

So it’s a mix of people I have either worked with, seen, and yeah, Steve is just the cherry on top for that. It’s perfect. I love the atmosphere right now.

Again, the season is going to be intense, but to start it off like I have, I’m very happy.

Q. The melding of all the different European racing, U.S. racing, when Carlin came over here, which Steve was obviously a part of, they basically brought a European team over here; whereas you guys are doing it kind of a meld of American and U.S. Is it interesting to watch the culture of the two different ways of racing meld together?

CALLUM ILOTT: It’s definitely very interesting because there’s a certain way of doing things in INDYCAR, which is hard to explain but it’s just done that way. A lot of the Europeans, especially clever young engineers coming over are like, what about this? What about that? You’re like, it doesn’t quite work like that. It’s a bit different.

But they’re great. They have a really amazing analytical side of things, which is not to say you haven’t had in INDYCAR, but it’s refreshing to see the intensity of it. Then the experience that Mike Cannon or Steve has in INDYCAR of doing it in that way.

I think there’s going to be a good blend, but I don’t know in which way it’s going to settle, if you know what I mean. But it is refreshing.

Also on the mechanic side, it’s nice to see a lot of young Italian, French people coming over and enjoying the lifestyle. The cold is a bit of a shock to them, but they’ve got their coffee and they’re happy. But their own coffee, not your coffee. No offense.

Q. They know where the best Italian restaurant is in Fishers?

CALLUM ILOTT: They’ve found a really great Indian and a good Mexican, as well. So they’re experiencing culture.

Q. I just want to know, your very first thoughts when they asked you to drive for PREMA seeing as they were going to be a brand new team in INDYCAR.

CALLUM ILOTT: I was in touch with René, who was my contact for all the years I was in Europe, big boss, and I’d been asking him, so are you going to be doing INDYCAR?

I knew end of 2023 that they were going to be doing this, and he’s like, shh, not yet. I’m like, okay, we should be in contact. He’s like, definitely, definitely. Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then I was very close to continuing in European WEC, and then suddenly for no reason, he’s like, yeah, let’s do it. I’m like, if you could have told me a couple of weeks in advance that would have been great.

But yeah, once — it was a project that I was very interested in and wanted to be a part of because I knew the way that they were going to do it and are going to do it is hopefully going to be another level.

But it will take time. I’m super excited to be a part of it. So as soon as we got the ball rolling it was pretty easy. Just had to wait a bit. Had to wait for the factory to be ready because we were running out of a small shop the end of last season. That’s where I did the C fit. And we’ll be ready to go hopefully.

Q. Looking at the schedule, is there a certain track you look forward to going to this year that you think fits your driving style?

CALLUM ILOTT: I’ve always been a road course guy. I think Prema is also naturally a road course team. It’s going to be interesting how the INDY 500 is just because of so many unknowns with PREMA going in there. But I’ve felt like every year I’ve been to the 500 I’ve improved and improved.

Beyond that, I’m looking forward to Long Beach. That’s one that I’ve always thought I could have been better at. So there’s room for improvement for me.

Q. Can you just expand a little bit on your mindset through last year? Obviously you said that Prema was kind of in the background and you were maybe waiting for a call. But was the priority always to be back in INDYCAR, back in single seaters, or were you having offers for some top teams in WEC, for instance, for your services?

CALLUM ILOTT: It was a bit of a mix. I wanted to leave it open. I was enjoying my time in WEC, and that was leading to a couple of things and I was very happy in the situation I was in.

But with INDYCAR, it’s a very tough championship, as you can see with a couple of drivers, to maintain and stay in. I felt like this was the perfect way to get back in with a team that I think shows so much promise in the future.

And yeah, as soon as our sit-down meeting came it was like, okay, I think this is what I have to do, and let’s make it work from here.

Q. What sort of weight do you feel is on you as kind of the experienced driver in the lineup in helping to build this team up? Are there any skills you feel you’ve learned during your time at JHR that you maybe could transfer to this opportunity?

CALLUM ILOTT: I think the thing I’ve learnt from my previous endeavors was to be patient. With Prema we’re going to have to be patient. You never know at which point it kind of clicks and the results start coming.

That’s one of the kind of founding points that I want to take through the season, is just to not push anyone too far, work and work and work, but what we have is what we’ve got.

And beyond that, obviously being the kind of veteran driver in the team, although I’m still young and not many seasons in INDYCAR, but with two different teams, is to take that and to expand within the team, keep everyone positive, and yeah, move forward.

It’s not simple but just keeping it simple is important.

Q. Will Buxton is going to be joining FOX Sports. How much does it mean for you to have someone from obviously the same country to be a part of the full-time INDYCAR season with you?

CALLUM ILOTT: For me obviously being from the same country, it’s nice and helpful. But no, I’ve known Will for a while. I’ve seen a lot of his stuff, even before the Formula 1 times. He is amazing, very enthusiastic. Amazing vocabulary, as well, so he’s like an amazing encyclopedia of words that I learn every time I chat to him. I think he’s great for the booth. James (Hinchcliffe) and Townsend (Bell) also do an amazing job, so I think he fits that group very well.

I’m hoping that he builds and takes the series forward. He’s been through a lot of championships which have grown and engages with a very young audience. I really enjoy hearing him talk, and I think he can only add a lot of positivity to everything that is INDYCAR.

Q. Of course Michael Cannon coming to the team, you’ve had pretty decent runs at the Indy 500. With Prema being a new team, how much optimism and what’s the thoughts going into the Indy 500, even though it’s a couple months away?

CALLUM ILOTT: Yeah, it could be good. Again, it’s still a bit unknown. We don’t know what we’re going to rock up with. There’s a lot of preparation which is Indy specific which a lot of other teams have started on.

Of course Michael has great experience and is very helpful on that side, but you just never know, and we need to be able to prepare and take time for it.

Who knows at this point. Could be good. I think a lot of people are expecting us to be very good. But remember, that’s with teams that have all the foundation, all the equipment to kind of select and choose from. We’re starting from scratch and building everything from the beginning.

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up with Scott McLaughlin, driving the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, beginning his fifth full season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, coming off a year with three wins and five NTT P1 awards and tying his career best with a third-place finish in the championship.

All that aside, we want to know how fatherhood is treating you.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Great. Yeah, she’s a superstar, little Lucy. Yeah, she started sleeping through the nights, which is good. So we put her down and we’ve got a pretty good rhythm the last three — I’ll probably jinx it now. She goes down at like 9:00 and she wakes up at 8:00 or 7:30.

But I have made the mistake a couple times, and I’ve asked — of waking up in the morning, and I’ve gone, geez, she slept through the night, and Karly goes, no, she didn’t. So that’s the drama.

But yeah, my wife, she’s amazing. She knows it’s important. I’ve got to keep training her, keep going, and that’s the best part about it, is finding how we’ve both adapted to it.

Q. Moms are amazing.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, she’s killed it. I was there for the whole thing, too. It was incredible. I cut the cord, got in there. It was awesome. I’d do it again. 40-hour labor she went through. It was crazy. Oh, man, she’s an absolute trooper. Love her. Shout out Karly.

Q. Since you’re a big football fan, do you think Bryce Young is panning out better now that he’s returned at quarterback?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: 100 percent. The question is going to be is he better than CJ Stroud. Texans are in the playoff absolutely, but I thought Bryce and his throwing, he’s been really good lately.

Q. His upside is probably better than —

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m just glad we’re sorted in that regard because we’re not going to make an emergency QB situation kind of like the Vikings are looking at, or Jets.

Q. Having the same gang back together, three of you push each other pretty good. Sometimes you get along great, other times you may get a little ruffled with each other. But having that consistency at Team Penske, I guess that’s one of the hallmarks of the operation. How important is that?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Well, it’s very important to set foundations, and obviously we’ve worked together this is my fifth year full time with these guys. We’ve had our ups and downs for sure, but I think that’s just normal for guys that are really competing at the highest level, and I feel like we’ve all got a chance to win a race week in, week out.

But it’s certainly brought out the best in me. They’re the best teammates I’ve ever had in that regard.

But yeah, you’d be surprised how good we work — for how competitive it is behind closed doors like in the truck and stuff, we’re very open book and everyone sees everything, and I think that’s why we see ourselves pushing each other even harder.

Q. There’s a lot said the last year, particularly down the stretch, about Will being in the title hunt, being second a lot of the time to Alex Palou who eventually won the championship, and you kind of quietly maybe to some extent overtook him in the standings over the last couple weeks of the year. You had the second season in a row where you’re the top Team Penske driver in the championship. What kind of pride do you take in if you don’t win a championship that year to still be the best among your teammates across a 17-race season?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s been a goal of mine even before I was at Team Penske. For me, I always want to beat my teammates because you don’t want to be — you have all the equal machinery, and that’s just a common ground for any race driver.

But at the same time, it was a bummer for Will. I shouldn’t have probably passed him at the end. He had a pretty — misfortune in the last few races. But that is the sport we’re in.

But yeah, I was really proud of our stretch, our homerun, run to home I guess you could in the last couple years have been great. I’ve just got to get off to a better start, and I know that. But I’ve got all the ingredients that I need to not only be the best Penske driver again but also potentially take that next step, which everyone knows is what I want.

Yeah, working really hard in the off-season, but surprisingly having the baby and stuff, it’s been great to get away from it all, as well, and just focus on something other than racing for once.

Q. I think I remember you told us coming into last year that you really truly felt like you could come out and win this championship, and you got fairly close. But coming in winning now two oval races in the back half of last year, something that you hadn’t done yet. Do you feel in any way even more prepared having gone through last year? Do you feel like you really know maybe even more what it takes as you kind of plot out your goals and how you approach the 2025 campaign?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think every year for me is such a learning deal, particularly from where I started in late 2020 to like now I’m a completely different race driver.

The mindset needs to change compared to other championships that I’ve been in, as well, because things can just turn on their head so quickly in INDYCAR.

I thought I had the ingredients to win last year, and I still think I did. I just hadn’t won an oval yet. We were close. But now having won the oval, obviously that’s given me a lot of confidence.

But I’d be lying to say that I feel any different to last year. I certainly feel like I’m in the same boat. It’s just a matter of circumstances and me putting myself in different positions, and hopefully sometimes you’ve just got to have a little bit of lady luck, as well. It’s jut got to go your way.

I don’t think that has been kind to us, but it’s been kind in other places. We’ll keep working, but I’m as confident as ever for sure.

Q. As you reflected on last year, are there ways that you feel like you could improve or the team could improve or maybe what are the missing pieces to put a championship program together?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I look back at two races, probably Toronto. Obviously that was a teammate drama. But that was a race where I was probably in my head that I was just going to finish where I finished, but it didn’t happen, and that hurt.

Then Laguna, where I made a move on Will which didn’t need to happen, whether it was Will or whether it was Kyle Kirkwood. That was a move that I probably didn’t need to make at that point, and I cost myself a ton of points for what I was ultimately going to gain if I made the move come off.

That was a big learning after that race, and I think from that race onwards, that’s why I was probably most bummed about the Toronto incident, because I felt like I was in a spot where I had set up everything to be in a good position and just be satisfied with where I was finishing.

But yeah, you always learn, and I think that’s what I can do better, is maybe just accepting the position I’m in and taking the points.

Q. You’ve arguably been improving each year you’ve been here, and that shows on the results. It looks somewhat similar to your time in Supercars where you got better each year, each year, and then that ended with three seasons in a row in the championship. Does that feel similar to you, and do you feel like you’re on that cusp now?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. It’s funny you brought it up because I’ve said that to Ben, my engineer, a couple of times. I feel like I am in exactly the same position when I signed on with Penske in 2017 for Supercars back then. I feel like I’ve done a lot of my learning.

I think in 2016, as well, in Supercars I finished third in the championship and had a couple race wins, and I really felt like I could have that next step. And ultimately I didn’t win that championship, I lost it on the last race, but I put myself in a really good spot.

I feel like I’m in that same mindset here. I feel like I’ve lost all my habits that I had in touring cars. I feel very — with my fitness and all that stuff, my neck and stuff that is outside of the car, I feel very comfortable with.

I also know a lot of faces in here. I know what this day is all about. I know what airports to fly into. It’s just like so many different things that you come to a new place that you forget how easy it is.

But I feel a lot more comfortable now.

Q. We were talking in Nashville and you said your 3 team, you kind of felt like you were the Buffalo Bills of INDYCAR. A rowdy fan base, Thirsty 3s; haven’t won the big one yet. Do you feel in ’25 you’re going to shed this moniker and this is almost a championship-or-bust type season?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, because the Bills are going to win the Super Bowl. That’s my pick. I love Josh Allen, man.

Yeah, I feel good. Everyone knows I have fun and muck around and whatever, but I’m pretty serious obviously at the same time. But that’s just how I go about my racing.

I think we certainly feel like we’re on the cusp of something really cool, but at the same time what I talked to Bruce about, I’ve got two amazing race drivers as teammates with exactly the same opportunities, so it’s about me trying to find the most out of myself as much as anything.

Yeah, I’ve learnt sort of things and bits and pieces that I need to learn from, but I’m going to have to evolve throughout the season like we all do to be there at the end.

Q. Have you studied the path to maybe win this championship? Alex won, five wins, won a championship; he wins twice last year. Will talked about maybe going back. He was maybe a little aggressive last year and wanted to go back to how he won the championship. Have you guys studied what’s the right method, the right path to win this championship?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think you’ve just got to do it your own way. As much as you can plan and think about what you can do and what you can’t, we all know the right path is just consistent results. With a few wins along the way. I think you need to win a couple wins. I think you need to win a couple times for sure. But consistency is key, and we all know that.

But you’ve got to eliminate those big bad results, and we had a few of them last year which really hurt.

Yeah, I’d probably say three. Detroit, where I crashed out by myself, and then Laguna and Toronto. Regardless, Toronto, whatever, like I still crashed out and it cost us a lot of points, where Palou and Dixon were just from the back to the front and just cruised.

That hurts. But yeah, we can all learn from that and get better.

Q. All three of you guys talked about last year from Team Penske how much work you’ve done in the off-season and you were looking at maybe the short track oval program and the whole oval program, and we saw the results of that. I just wondered whether during this off-season if there’s been something that you’ve been targeting as a team, whether it be road course or oval again, to keep that improvement and momentum going?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think the 10 car, Alex has been really quick on road courses over the last few years, so I think ultimately maybe trying to find a little bit of speed. I think our race pace is really strong, but our overall outright pace, places like Mid-Ohio or whatnot, need to improve a little bit.

But yeah, we had a pretty solid year pace-wise on all tracks, but definitely room for improvement. I’d probably say street circuit wise I’m highlighting Long Beach. I don’t think typically I’ve been that strong there as other street tracks that I go to, so I’m circling that a little bit on the simulator.

And then yeah, obviously just continuing our work that we’ve done on short and superspeedways.

Q. Then looking at a place not too far from where you are right now and the fact that Penske took the clean sweet at Indianapolis last May and you took your first pole position for the Indy 500, that was obviously a very special moment. Going into this May, does that mindset become, we need to do the same thing again, more of the same? Does that linger in your mind, or is it clean slate, move on, new year type deal?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: A bit of both. I think we’ve got to continue to evolve and get better because everyone saw what we had last year, and they’re going to be chasing that deficit, as well, particularly in qualifying.

But I think for me mentally as a driver, it was nice to run at the front at the 500 and lead laps and stuff that I haven’t done before that put me — I think it puts me in a really nice headspace going into it knowing what that feels like and the position I need to be in.

We had a mechanical sort of issue throughout the race last year with the clutch that really honestly hurt us a lot and took us out of that lead group, or at least those first few positions.

So knowing that mistake, fingers crossed, won’t happen again, and we can know that we can race pretty aggressively at the front and I know what I need to do from a timing perspective.

Yeah, driving perspective, not going to try and change too much, but we definitely have to evolve as a team to get better because everyone is going to be chasing.

Q. You had Simon on board, as well, so that played a part for you personally, as well.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yep.

Q. One final thing. Obviously you’re teamed up in a couple of weeks’ time with an ex competitor, SVG. How does it feel to be in the same team as a former rival?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s funny, it’s weird, actually. We certainly — especially over here now, we go out for dinners and have beers and whatnot and hang out a little bit more than we probably did in the past.

But not that we didn’t like each other beforehand, it was just awkward, and now we’re sort of friends and teammates and excited for Daytona. I head to Daytona for The Roar, and then the 24. It’s such a good start to the year, and I think we’ve got a really good car and a good team lineup.

Connor Zilisch is a superstar over here now, and then Ben Keating is probably the best bronze you can have. We’ve got a good shot, but it all depends on BOP and all that sort of stuff. I have full confidence in GM and Corvette that we can come with a really good package and give these European manufacturers a good go in our land.

Q. Scott, looking at the performance you put on at Indianapolis last year, taking the pole, leading that Team Penske front row lockout, as well as were it not for the penalty at St. Pete, let’s say, the championship could have been firmly in your grasp. Looking at 2025, what would it mean more to be, Scott McLaughlin, Indy 500 winner, or Scott McLaughlin, INDYCAR Series champion?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’ve always said the Indy 500 for me because — it’s similar to how I felt in Australia. It’s not a disrespect not championship itself, but everything needs to go perfect on that one day. You have to have a perfect race and make it happen, and ultimately that’s what happened to us when we won Bathurst and then we won the championship.

But the 500 — the championship itself, you can have a bad race and come back and there’s a lot of things that can happen. Your competitors can have moments throughout the season, whatever, and look, that would be an amazing objective, as well.

But for me, the 500 one, the history of it, but also it’s just an amazing race, and yeah, that’s certainly what I dream about the most.

Q. From the Team Penske perspective, assuming the current trend continues, has the team identified anything that you as drivers individually need to do or on a team level to do to make even a budge toward the immovable object that Alex Palou has been over the last two years?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think ultimately we were as fast if not faster than him. It was just about putting together the year that he had. As we know, he’s like a professor with half the stuff that he does. He’s very good and very consistent and have a huge amount of respect for the boy.

But we’re not overthinking it. I think there’s also plenty of other drivers that are super good. I think Colton Herta had an amazing year last year. Without a couple of incidents he was going to be right there, as well. This INDYCAR racing is going to be so many world class drivers up the front every year, and we know that.

It’s just a matter of focusing on ourselves and what we can improve. That’s all we can control, and hopefully what we’ve done is enough.

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CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

CONOR DALY, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

MODERATOR: Conor Daly joins us, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, beginning his 12th year being associated in the NTT INDYCAR Series, back as a full-time driver, 115 career starts to his credit with many more to come in 2025.

What’s it been like so far, content day 2025?

CONOR DALY: Well, honestly, it’s nice to be back. I think a lot of drivers are like, oh, this is tough. But you don’t realize how much you miss it until you don’t have an opportunity to do it.

I think it’s important to appreciate it, and it’s cool to be here. It is a long day, but it’s cool to be here and just chat with everyone.

Q. Just getting to know the team again; any changes that you’ve noticed on the outset?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, obviously there’s a couple little personnel movements, and we have different suit colors, so that’s new. But yeah, it’s just been a lot of working on putting the best possible organization together as a group. We want to be successful together. We want to focus on actually preparing now instead of just jumping in and going.

With preparation comes much more success we hope and believe, so yeah, it should be fun.

Q. Of the handful of times that you’ve had a full-time situation in your career with one specific team and not those years bouncing back and forth between Carlin and ECR, how does it compare to those years being with this one group for a full year?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, honestly it definitely feels a little different only because of kind of — we got a taste of it last year. It’s almost like I got a little pregame ceremony or something like that. It all happened so fast, though, and it was so much fun.

Now it’s like, oh, we can — I can make a new seat, my first new seat since 2020, which is ridiculous. My seat has been painful to be in for the last however many years. But guess what, it costs money to make a seat, and none of these teams that I’m going to jump in for one race are going to spend money to get me a seat.

I can do something like that, which is very helpful. I can have my own steering wheel grips. That’s very nice. All those small things are — again, all of the people that are winning and contending, you have to have all those things because this is the most competitive championship right now, and it’s like, everything has to be perfect. Everything has to be right.

It’s just doing all those things feels right. And just getting a little desk in the office. I’m going to get my own desk in the engineering office. I want to have a computer so I can finally be fully integrated in the team systems. All of those things are what you are supposed to do as a racing driver at the highest level.

That’s going to be nice to be a part of. I get to work with my engineer that I’ve worked with for however many races we did last year, and I think he’s a really good young guy, and that team over there is a good group of people.

It’s just all the things that you want to have as you move forward, and yeah, we just kind of see how it plays out really.

Q. How would you describe the mentality difference of going through your day-to-day life say last year or at other times in your career where you were — maybe you only knew you were doing the 500 that year but you were wanting to be around for other opportunities? The year that you ran for MSR and RLL, things like that, versus this year it seems like you, I imagine, probably have a lot of pressure on yourself because you have this great opportunity, you want to perform really well, but I imagine there’s a different mindset or mentality that you’re living with. Can you put that into context?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, I don’t think I really need to change my mindset because I think we’ve seen recently in this INDYCAR world that, yeah, probably good to just live it one weekend at a time. You never really know what’s going to happen, and we’ve seen people just kicked out. I’ve been kicked out.

It’s just something that you have to be ready to give everything you’ve got, every single weekend, because everyone’s attention span is very short, and you’re only as good as your last lap that you’ve done.

No one is willing to wait around it seems anymore. There’s I think drivers on the out side looking in right now that shouldn’t be because there’s — it’s like, well, some of the things didn’t go great, you’re gone. It’s something that you just have to be aggressive with yourself. You have to be aggressive with the way you attack every weekend.

Honestly, I’m super lucky to just be here anyway. Just going to try to enjoy that.

Still crazy we only get like one test day before St. Petersburg. That’s kind of a bit wild. But that’s going to be the most important day of the last eight months. So use that test day at Sebring the best we can to make sure when we roll out at St. Pete we’re ready to go.

Q. Would you say that feeling that I have to take this one race at a time and do my very best because I never know when my last race is going to be, is that something you’ve always had in your career? Was that maybe really solidified to you when you had the shock of losing your seat mid-season a couple years ago?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, I think I guess just don’t mind it being like that because it does — I put a lot of pressure on myself, which I’m working on relieving that a little bit and just kind of doing what I know how to do, which is be a race car driver and be competitive.

But yeah, this sport will put you through every mental and physical battle you will ever know. I feel like I’ve experienced most of those.

But yeah, I’m super thankful to be here with Ricardo and Brad, who they want to be a successful race team. They’re trying everything they can to be competitive, to use the resources that they’ve got. We’ve got to find the resources, as well, to compete. We want to be able to make sure we find as much as we can because other people are doing that, as well.

That’s what happens when you’re competing at the top.

Q. When you look back at Milwaukee and your podium finish there, how much of a moment was that that’s really helped you get this spot that you’re in this season?

CONOR DALY: I think it’s the only reason why I’m here, honestly. That’s it. It’s a results-based industry. It’s an industry that — we showed a lot of other speed in other places, but even the 10th place in Nashville that I thought was one of our best races in a long time, we qualified sixth, finished 10th, that’s not really what matters.

You’ve got to get trophies. You’ve got to be up front. You’ve got to be doing stuff that makes people take a second look, take a third look even

.

Even still, there was times where — thankfully that I’m there, our engineering group, they’re like, Portland we were pretty fast too but no one will know because we got wrecked and we missed a session.

But in the race I think they were actually more impressed than they thought, because everyone thinks I’m just an oval guy. So it was just nice to at least show them that, too, because we’re going at this for the whole thing. We want to go at this every weekend and try to get podiums every weekend.

Yeah, it’s nice to be in the position we’re in, I think

.

Q. Also you’re one of the most recent INDYCAR drivers that have stepped outside their comfort zone and tried the Daytona 500. Helio is doing it this year. He’s picked a year where there’s a lot more entries than normal. How difficult is it going to be for him to get into that field just because there’s only a couple of spots that you can get into the race with?

CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, they made a rule for him that he’s going to make it no matter what. That was nice. I definitely wouldn’t have got that.

But honestly, I’m super pumped to see how Helio likes it. I actually talked to him a little bit about it before because I started hearing rumblings about it. I know Justin Marks. That guy is awesome. I’ve talked to him multiple times about how much excitement he’s got for the Indy 500 and stuff like that.

I think it’s going to be cool and I’m going to be cheering for him. That’s our guy. Helio is our guy.

It’s tough, though. I’m glad they have a practice session now, which before was something that I did not have. We were in very different scenarios when it comes to the situation, but I think it’s cool.

Just great to have motorsports crossover. I don’t know why we don’t have more. I think it’s huge for just the general racing community.

Q. Also because you’re involved business-wise with Dirty Mo Media, you get a little more interest in a broader aspect of motorsports because of who owns that company and how well they place their podcasts. How much has that really helped benefit you?

CONOR DALY: Well, the fact that Dale Jr. is on your side is cool. He’s a great guy. He’s been very supportive of us, and they love INDYCAR. There’s a reason why we’re there as an INDYCAR podcast. They see how exciting INDYCAR is. They see that it’s probably an under-utilized asset right now and they want to help the growth process.

So we’re going to keep trying to put stuff out there, keep getting our racing out to more and more people, and Dale is a great boss, and he loves racing of all kinds, just like I think a lot of us. We can watch all kinds of forms of racing on Saturdays and Sundays. Dale is one of those guys that loves all that stuff.

Q. (Indiscernible).

CONOR DALY: All of them but two, so I don’t know how many. No Ganassi and no Penske.

Q. As a driver, you’ve had to really put on the business hat. You’ve been really determined to stay in INDYCAR racing. You went to Vegas and then landed the Bitcoin sponsor and then Polkadot. It seems like you’ve done that pretty much on your own. You must have a sense of the whole picture now of what it takes to fund a team for a ride. I’ve heard that the costs are now maybe eight to ten million for a car ride instead of five to six million, and that can’t all be the hybrid cost. Do you know what’s contributed to raising that up so high in the last couple years?

CONOR DALY: The more money you spend, the faster you go. It’s as simple as that. That’s honestly the equation of it. If you can spend extra day at the wind tunnel, an extra day on the shaker rig, get more damper development work, that’s what it is. This is extremely competitive, and if you’re not doing everything, someone else is.

That’s the difficult part. And yeah, when I was a rookie in INDYCAR with ECR, we were happy to have like a $1 million sponsor. Like sweet. I wasn’t making any money, but we had a shot at it.

But now if you want to compete, you’ve got to do a lot of work and it is — it’s actually my least favorite part of the business is the business side. I focus — I spend 98.9 percent of my time probably on the business side for most of what’s going on, and the peacefulness of that 1.2 percent that I can actually just be like, oh, cool, driving, that’s great.

But thankfully once it’s all locked in and once we’re in the position we’re in now I can shift more of that focus to being a driver and my manager and the team at JHR to kind of take care of all the rest of the stuff.

But it is just stressful. I wish it wasn’t the way it was, but for someone like myself, I have to create opportunities for myself. Like I obviously know that. There are drivers that have plenty more trophies than me that don’t have to worry about that, which is justifiable, so I just have to work on getting more trophies, and then it’ll be easier. That’s up to me, and that’s the team and us as a group. So hopefully it becomes easier.

Q. What did you think of FOX’s commercial featuring the racing Greek God?

CONOR DALY: Well, look, I think that Josef commercial I think put a smile on everyone’s face. Got to make stars, right? Josef is a star, and some people hate him now, which is funny, but boy, is that a huge deal for us.

But it’s also cool to see. If you make something cool, it will go very far because everyone thinks it’s cool. So sometimes when we see things and we’ve seen ads or this, that and whatever, it’s like, well, that was cool if you really love INDYCAR, but it wouldn’t appeal to maybe someone who didn’t like INDYCAR.

But this was just like — it shouted at your face, like hey, whatever is going on here is sweet. I thought it hit everything exactly how it needed to. Fastest racing on earth right at the end. It was like burned into my brain. I was like, I need to see what’s going on here. I know what’s going on here, but it makes you ask the question of I’d like to see that again or I’d like to know what else is going on here. It gave you a plot twist. Alex Palou, who’s that guy? Why does this kid hate it?

There was something that I think appealed to just an audience, and it was 45 seconds or whatever it was. Very, very excited about what the future is looking like there for sure.

Q. This is content day. We have no mohawk. We have no shenanigans. Is there anything happening in the back alleys of this convention center?

CONOR DALY: Not that I’ve seen yet. It might be too early. It’s still before noon, so I don’t know if anyone has had enough coffee. Will Power, I said his hair looked like he had dad hair, and he’s like, oh, no, really? So he was upset about that because he had to put on a hat.

But Will also, it’s weird seeing Will in a white and red suit. I’m like, is that Josef but different? It’s not the black and red Verizon — I’m like, this is kind of wild. A lot of different costumes out there everyone has got on, so it’s a fun day.

And Robert Shwartzman who I have never met before, he’s like, I thought half the day has already been gone by and it’s 10:00 a.m. I’m like, welcome to the big show, brother. This is what it’s all about.

Q. What is dad hair?

CONOR DALY: I don’t know, it’s dad hair. Nathan knows. He’s a dad now. A little tired maybe, doing some work, maybe didn’t pay as much attention to it as normal. It’s not a bad thing.

Q. I want to ask you about the evolution of the team, Brad and Ricardo, if you can tell us a little bit about that.

CONOR DALY: Yeah, so Brad has been super supportive of us as a group, and then Ricardo, I mean, Ricardo is like — that guy would die for this team. That guy loves what he’s doing. He wants this group to be successful as much as possible.

Bringing in Dave O’Neill, too, Dave O’Neill is very experienced. He’s a great guy. David Brown, as well, who I’ve met, who I believe was my dad’s mechanic in Formula 1 in 1982 at Williams, which is crazy. I don’t know if that’s a confirmed fact, but I’m sure that makes them feel experienced.

But yeah, it’s a good group, and there’s a lot of young guys there, too, that I think are extremely, extremely talented mechanics and chief mechanics. The youth and the energy in that team is really, really strong.

It just feels like a great growing environment and a team that obviously — it takes a while to find success in this sport. Like any new team that’s come in, it takes you some time. We’re working our way there, and I’m excited to be a part of the journey.

We’ve got to get them — let’s try to win the Indy 500 this year together. That would be a great start. Then go from there.

Q. Talking about the young talent, did you meet Leandro when he was a kid? Last year I spoke with him and he’s arming all the strategies. What do you think about this growing even in the family?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, Leandro Juncos was a child when I met him at first. I held him like a baby when we won the 2010 championship, and now he’s on my pit stand. That makes me feel old, actually, if we’re talking about elderliness.

But the kid is smart. He’s grown up around racing his whole life, which is cool, and to have Ricardo be able to have his son in the team, that’s got to be a proud moment as a dad, as well.

Q. Everything is on the internet is real, then you are a very wealthy driver who came with budget. Can you explain to me what happened with your Subaru?

CONOR DALY: Well, it’s still in my garage, so it’s a car that I will never sell. I love Chevrolet, though. I’m a Team Chevy guy, obviously. But yeah, it’s been a long journey with my blue car in the garage, and it’s got some flat spotted tires currently, but it will never be sold. It’s an endless pit of money that never returns, but it’s been fun. It’s been fun.

Q. You’ve mentioned a lot how you want to shed the oval specialist tag and that you’re also a road course driver. How important is that for this season, to jump out of the gates in the first five races on road courses just as a reminder that I’m an all-around driver here?

CONOR DALY: I mean, super important. St. Pete is a race that my rookie year we were close to winning that race. We were in the top 3 until we had a piece of Carlos Muñoz’s front wing side pod and we overheated.

We’ve had strong runs at St. Pete. I love St. Pete. But I’ve had a lot of weird stuff happen to me, as well. And Barber is a place that I don’t really enjoy, but Thermal was a place that I got to test at. That was cool. I don’t know how good the racing is going to be there. But the Indy GP is a circuit that obviously I know very well, have had some pretty reasonable speed there before.

There’s a lot of tracks at the beginning that I’m actually very excited for. I love Long Beach. So yeah, it’s important to start strong. It’s important to start with a lot of points on the board and just a bit of — probably a bit of reassurance for sure for myself.

But we get a test day at Sebring, which could be super helpful, and yeah, we’re trying to wait to see how much simulator time we get, as well. Simulator time is going to be important with the Chevy folks, and just get ready. The team was quick at St. Pete last year with Romain. Obviously we didn’t have the hybrid there last year, so it will be a little bit different this year, but should be fun. I’m excited for it.

Q. In a previous life did you compete against PREMA?

CONOR DALY: Probably, yeah. I knew of them. They were the team that was the team in F3. I was doing GP3 and then F3 Euro Series was still a thing. PREMA wasn’t in GP3 when I was doing it, but for sure knew of them and you can pick their cars out from a mile away.

Q. Also the lineage of drivers that are in INDYCAR that have had Prema backgrounds is impressive.

CONOR DALY: Oh, yeah.

Q. How well do you think they’ll be first year out of the box?

CONOR DALY: That’s a great question. Honestly from what they’ve put into it so far, if you just do the math, they brought in a lot of good people, a lot of smart people. They did a really cool YouTube announcement which was very high level.

So there definitely seems to be no shortage of funding over there, which is the most important thing, like we talked about. Good for them, man. If you want to get in and swim with the sharks, just jump in, go for it. It’s cool, and I’m excited to see how they do.

Obviously Callum (Illott), we know he’s a good driver. I like Callum a lot. Yeah, I’m glad he’s back, too.

CONOR DALY, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

MODERATOR: Conor Daly joins us, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, beginning his 12th year being associated in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, back as a full-time driver, 115 career starts to his credit with many more to come in 2025.

What’s it been like so far, content day 2025?

CONOR DALY: Well, honestly, it’s nice to be back. I think a lot of drivers are like, oh, this is tough. But you don’t realize how much you miss it until you don’t have an opportunity to do it.

I think it’s important to appreciate it, and it’s cool to be here. It is a long day, but it’s cool to be here and just chat with everyone.

Q. Just getting to know the team again; any changes that you’ve noticed on the outset?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, obviously there’s a couple little personnel movements, and we have different suit colors, so that’s new. But yeah, it’s just been a lot of working on putting the best possible organization together as a group. We want to be successful together. We want to focus on actually preparing now instead of just jumping in and going.

With preparation comes much more success we hope and believe, so yeah, it should be fun.

Q. Of the handful of times that you’ve had a full-time situation in your career with one specific team and not those years bouncing back and forth between Carlin and ECR, how does it compare to those years being with this one group for a full year?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, honestly it definitely feels a little different only because of kind of — we got a taste of it last year. It’s almost like I got a little pregame ceremony or something like that. It all happened so fast, though, and it was so much fun.

Now it’s like, oh, we can — I can make a new seat, my first new seat since 2020, which is ridiculous. My seat has been painful to be in for the last however many years. But guess what, it costs money to make a seat, and none of these teams that I’m going to jump in for one race are going to spend money to get me a seat.

I can do something like that, which is very helpful. I can have my own steering wheel grips. That’s very nice. All those small things are — again, all of the people that are winning and contending, you have to have all those things because this is the most competitive championship right now, and it’s like, everything has to be perfect. Everything has to be right.

It’s just doing all those things feels right. And just getting a little desk in the office. I’m going to get my own desk in the engineering office. I want to have a computer so I can finally be fully integrated in the team systems. All of those things are what you are supposed to do as a racing driver at the highest level.

That’s going to be nice to be a part of. I get to work with my engineer that I’ve worked with for however many races we did last year, and I think he’s a really good young guy, and that team over there is a good group of people.

It’s just all the things that you want to have as you move forward, and yeah, we just kind of see how it plays out really.

Q. How would you describe the mentality difference of going through your day-to-day life say last year or at other times in your career where you were — maybe you only knew you were doing the 500 that year but you were wanting to be around for other opportunities? The year that you ran for MSR and RLL, things like that, versus this year it seems like you, I imagine, probably have a lot of pressure on yourself because you have this great opportunity, you want to perform really well, but I imagine there’s a different mindset or mentality that you’re living with. Can you put that into context?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, I don’t think I really need to change my mindset because I think we’ve seen recently in this INDYCAR world that, yeah, probably good to just live it one weekend at a time. You never really know what’s going to happen, and we’ve seen people just kicked out. I’ve been kicked out.

It’s just something that you have to be ready to give everything you’ve got, every single weekend, because everyone’s attention span is very short, and you’re only as good as your last lap that you’ve done.

No one is willing to wait around it seems anymore. There’s I think drivers on the out side looking in right now that shouldn’t be because there’s — it’s like, well, some of the things didn’t go great, you’re gone. It’s something that you just have to be aggressive with yourself. You have to be aggressive with the way you attack every weekend.

Honestly, I’m super lucky to just be here anyway. Just going to try to enjoy that.

Still crazy we only get like one test day before St. Petersburg. That’s kind of a bit wild. But that’s going to be the most important day of the last eight months. So use that test day at Sebring the best we can to make sure when we roll out at St. Pete we’re ready to go.

Q. Would you say that feeling that I have to take this one race at a time and do my very best because I never know when my last race is going to be, is that something you’ve always had in your career? Was that maybe really solidified to you when you had the shock of losing your seat mid-season a couple years ago?

CONOR DALY: Honestly, I think I guess just don’t mind it being like that because it does — I put a lot of pressure on myself, which I’m working on relieving that a little bit and just kind of doing what I know how to do, which is be a race car driver and be competitive.

But yeah, this sport will put you through every mental and physical battle you will ever know. I feel like I’ve experienced most of those.

But yeah, I’m super thankful to be here with Ricardo and Brad, who they want to be a successful race team. They’re trying everything they can to be competitive, to use the resources that they’ve got. We’ve got to find the resources, as well, to compete. We want to be able to make sure we find as much as we can because other people are doing that, as well.

That’s what happens when you’re competing at the top.

Q. When you look back at Milwaukee and your podium finish there, how much of a moment was that that’s really helped you get this spot that you’re in this season?

CONOR DALY: I think it’s the only reason why I’m here, honestly. That’s it. It’s a results-based industry. It’s an industry that — we showed a lot of other speed in other places, but even the 10th place in Nashville that I thought was one of our best races in a long time, we qualified sixth, finished 10th, that’s not really what matters.

You’ve got to get trophies. You’ve got to be up front. You’ve got to be doing stuff that makes people take a second look, take a third look even

.

Even still, there was times where — thankfully that I’m there, our engineering group, they’re like, Portland we were pretty fast too but no one will know because we got wrecked and we missed a session.

But in the race I think they were actually more impressed than they thought, because everyone thinks I’m just an oval guy. So it was just nice to at least show them that, too, because we’re going at this for the whole thing. We want to go at this every weekend and try to get podiums every weekend.

Yeah, it’s nice to be in the position we’re in, I think

.

Q. Also you’re one of the most recent INDYCAR drivers that have stepped outside their comfort zone and tried the Daytona 500. Helio is doing it this year. He’s picked a year where there’s a lot more entries than normal. How difficult is it going to be for him to get into that field just because there’s only a couple of spots that you can get into the race with?

CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, they made a rule for him that he’s going to make it no matter what. That was nice. I definitely wouldn’t have got that.

But honestly, I’m super pumped to see how Helio likes it. I actually talked to him a little bit about it before because I started hearing rumblings about it. I know Justin Marks. That guy is awesome. I’ve talked to him multiple times about how much excitement he’s got for the Indy 500 and stuff like that.

I think it’s going to be cool and I’m going to be cheering for him. That’s our guy. Helio is our guy.

It’s tough, though. I’m glad they have a practice session now, which before was something that I did not have. We were in very different scenarios when it comes to the situation, but I think it’s cool.

Just great to have motorsports crossover. I don’t know why we don’t have more. I think it’s huge for just the general racing community.

Q. Also because you’re involved business-wise with Dirty Mo Media, you get a little more interest in a broader aspect of motorsports because of who owns that company and how well they place their podcasts. How much has that really helped benefit you?

CONOR DALY: Well, the fact that Dale Jr. is on your side is cool. He’s a great guy. He’s been very supportive of us, and they love INDYCAR. There’s a reason why we’re there as an INDYCAR podcast. They see how exciting INDYCAR is. They see that it’s probably an under-utilized asset right now and they want to help the growth process.

So we’re going to keep trying to put stuff out there, keep getting our racing out to more and more people, and Dale is a great boss, and he loves racing of all kinds, just like I think a lot of us. We can watch all kinds of forms of racing on Saturdays and Sundays. Dale is one of those guys that loves all that stuff.

Q. (Indiscernible).

CONOR DALY: All of them but two, so I don’t know how many. No Ganassi and no Penske.

Q. As a driver, you’ve had to really put on the business hat. You’ve been really determined to stay in INDYCAR racing. You went to Vegas and then landed the Bitcoin sponsor and then Polkadot. It seems like you’ve done that pretty much on your own. You must have a sense of the whole picture now of what it takes to fund a team for a ride. I’ve heard that the costs are now maybe eight to ten million for a car ride instead of five to six million, and that can’t all be the hybrid cost. Do you know what’s contributed to raising that up so high in the last couple years?

CONOR DALY: The more money you spend, the faster you go. It’s as simple as that. That’s honestly the equation of it. If you can spend extra day at the wind tunnel, an extra day on the shaker rig, get more damper development work, that’s what it is. This is extremely competitive, and if you’re not doing everything, someone else is.

That’s the difficult part. And yeah, when I was a rookie in INDYCAR with ECR, we were happy to have like a $1 million sponsor. Like sweet. I wasn’t making any money, but we had a shot at it.

But now if you want to compete, you’ve got to do a lot of work and it is — it’s actually my least favorite part of the business is the business side. I focus — I spend 98.9 percent of my time probably on the business side for most of what’s going on, and the peacefulness of that 1.2 percent that I can actually just be like, oh, cool, driving, that’s great.

But thankfully once it’s all locked in and once we’re in the position we’re in now I can shift more of that focus to being a driver and my manager and the team at JHR to kind of take care of all the rest of the stuff.

But it is just stressful. I wish it wasn’t the way it was, but for someone like myself, I have to create opportunities for myself. Like I obviously know that. There are drivers that have plenty more trophies than me that don’t have to worry about that, which is justifiable, so I just have to work on getting more trophies, and then it’ll be easier. That’s up to me, and that’s the team and us as a group. So hopefully it becomes easier.

Q. What did you think of FOX’s commercial featuring the racing Greek God?

CONOR DALY: Well, look, I think that Josef commercial I think put a smile on everyone’s face. Got to make stars, right? Josef is a star, and some people hate him now, which is funny, but boy, is that a huge deal for us.

But it’s also cool to see. If you make something cool, it will go very far because everyone thinks it’s cool. So sometimes when we see things and we’ve seen ads or this, that and whatever, it’s like, well, that was cool if you really love INDYCAR, but it wouldn’t appeal to maybe someone who didn’t like INDYCAR.

But this was just like — it shouted at your face, like hey, whatever is going on here is sweet. I thought it hit everything exactly how it needed to. Fastest racing on earth right at the end. It was like burned into my brain. I was like, I need to see what’s going on here. I know what’s going on here, but it makes you ask the question of I’d like to see that again or I’d like to know what else is going on here. It gave you a plot twist. Alex Palou, who’s that guy? Why does this kid hate it?

There was something that I think appealed to just an audience, and it was 45 seconds or whatever it was. Very, very excited about what the future is looking like there for sure.

Q. This is content day. We have no mohawk. We have no shenanigans. Is there anything happening in the back alleys of this convention center?

CONOR DALY: Not that I’ve seen yet. It might be too early. It’s still before noon, so I don’t know if anyone has had enough coffee. Will Power, I said his hair looked like he had dad hair, and he’s like, oh, no, really? So he was upset about that because he had to put on a hat.

But Will also, it’s weird seeing Will in a white and red suit. I’m like, is that Josef but different? It’s not the black and red Verizon — I’m like, this is kind of wild. A lot of different costumes out there everyone has got on, so it’s a fun day.

And Robert Shwartzman who I have never met before, he’s like, I thought half the day has already been gone by and it’s 10:00 a.m. I’m like, welcome to the big show, brother. This is what it’s all about.

Q. What is dad hair?

CONOR DALY: I don’t know, it’s dad hair. Nathan knows. He’s a dad now. A little tired maybe, doing some work, maybe didn’t pay as much attention to it as normal. It’s not a bad thing.

Q. I want to ask you about the evolution of the team, Brad and Ricardo, if you can tell us a little bit about that.

CONOR DALY: Yeah, so Brad has been super supportive of us as a group, and then Ricardo, I mean, Ricardo is like — that guy would die for this team. That guy loves what he’s doing. He wants this group to be successful as much as possible.

Bringing in Dave O’Neill, too, Dave O’Neill is very experienced. He’s a great guy. David Brown, as well, who I’ve met, who I believe was my dad’s mechanic in Formula 1 in 1982 at Williams, which is crazy. I don’t know if that’s a confirmed fact, but I’m sure that makes them feel experienced.

But yeah, it’s a good group, and there’s a lot of young guys there, too, that I think are extremely, extremely talented mechanics and chief mechanics. The youth and the energy in that team is really, really strong.

It just feels like a great growing environment and a team that obviously — it takes a while to find success in this sport. Like any new team that’s come in, it takes you some time. We’re working our way there, and I’m excited to be a part of the journey.

We’ve got to get them — let’s try to win the Indy 500 this year together. That would be a great start. Then go from there.

Q. Talking about the young talent, did you meet Leandro when he was a kid? Last year I spoke with him and he’s arming all the strategies. What do you think about this growing even in the family?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, Leandro Juncos was a child when I met him at first. I held him like a baby when we won the 2010 championship, and now he’s on my pit stand. That makes me feel old, actually, if we’re talking about elderliness.

But the kid is smart. He’s grown up around racing his whole life, which is cool, and to have Ricardo be able to have his son in the team, that’s got to be a proud moment as a dad, as well.

Q. Everything is on the internet is real, then you are a very wealthy driver who came with budget. Can you explain to me what happened with your Subaru?

CONOR DALY: Well, it’s still in my garage, so it’s a car that I will never sell. I love Chevrolet, though. I’m a Team Chevy guy, obviously. But yeah, it’s been a long journey with my blue car in the garage, and it’s got some flat spotted tires currently, but it will never be sold. It’s an endless pit of money that never returns, but it’s been fun. It’s been fun.

Q. You’ve mentioned a lot how you want to shed the oval specialist tag and that you’re also a road course driver. How important is that for this season, to jump out of the gates in the first five races on road courses just as a reminder that I’m an all-around driver here?

CONOR DALY: I mean, super important. St. Pete is a race that my rookie year we were close to winning that race. We were in the top 3 until we had a piece of Carlos Muñoz’s front wing side pod and we overheated.

We’ve had strong runs at St. Pete. I love St. Pete. But I’ve had a lot of weird stuff happen to me, as well. And Barber is a place that I don’t really enjoy, but Thermal was a place that I got to test at. That was cool. I don’t know how good the racing is going to be there. But the Indy GP is a circuit that obviously I know very well, have had some pretty reasonable speed there before.

There’s a lot of tracks at the beginning that I’m actually very excited for. I love Long Beach. So yeah, it’s important to start strong. It’s important to start with a lot of points on the board and just a bit of — probably a bit of reassurance for sure for myself.

But we get a test day at Sebring, which could be super helpful, and yeah, we’re trying to wait to see how much simulator time we get, as well. Simulator time is going to be important with the Chevy folks, and just get ready. The team was quick at St. Pete last year with Romain. Obviously we didn’t have the hybrid there last year, so it will be a little bit different this year, but should be fun. I’m excited for it.

Q. In a previous life did you compete against PREMA?

CONOR DALY: Probably, yeah. I knew of them. They were the team that was the team in F3. I was doing GP3 and then F3 Euro Series was still a thing. PREMA wasn’t in GP3 when I was doing it, but for sure knew of them and you can pick their cars out from a mile away.

Q. Also the lineage of drivers that are in INDYCAR that have had Prema backgrounds is impressive.

CONOR DALY: Oh, yeah.

Q. How well do you think they’ll be first year out of the box?

CONOR DALY: That’s a great question. Honestly from what they’ve put into it so far, if you just do the math, they brought in a lot of good people, a lot of smart people. They did a really cool YouTube announcement which was very high level.

So there definitely seems to be no shortage of funding over there, which is the most important thing, like we talked about. Good for them, man. If you want to get in and swim with the sharks, just jump in, go for it. It’s cool, and I’m excited to see how they do.

Obviously Callum (Illott), we know he’s a good driver. I like Callum a lot. Yeah, I’m glad he’s back, too.

About General Motors

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CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Continuing this morning, now with Christian Rasmussen, driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, beginning his second season in the series, had a top 10 at Mid-Ohio his rookie year after winning the INDY NXT by Firestone Championship the year before that. Back full time, new firesuit, clearly some other accoutrement as well. Are you looking forward to 2025?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I am. A lot of cool things are happening within the ECR organization, so it’s super cool to have been a part of during the winter and seeing the change kind of happen.

I think we have a super exciting year ahead of us.

Q. What are some of the changes just off the top of your head?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: You know, just all the stuff that we’ve been able to do with the extra funding that we haven’t been able to do previously. Yeah, just more opportunity for us, so it’ll be interesting to see if that amounts into lifetime. Obviously we hope that’s the case.

Q. A lot of newness obviously for you last year. That’s in the rear view mirror. Are you more comfortable heading into year two?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: For sure. I think just having a year under your belt is a huge change. Instead of going into St. Pete with no INDYCAR experience, I have a year under my belt, and I felt like towards the end of the year, I think that things just started to click. The results were kind of reflecting that, as well.

We’ll just try and start where we left off and then see where we can go.

Q. Obviously at the end of last season you had some pressure on you to keep that car in the leader’s circle. How did you deal with that? Is that something you felt on a week-to-week basis?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I mean, in racing there’s always pressure. I’ve been very used to that my whole career. Coming up through the ladder system, it’s very much been either I win this year or there’s a good chance I won’t race the next year.

I’ve kind of been exposed to that pressure through my whole career, and I think I kind of just leaned on that experience from previously to kind of get through it.

For me, I try to do the same thing every weekend. I focus on that weekend. I try to do the best job I can on that particular weekend and then see where we end up, kind of a deal. It’s not really a big difference weekend to weekend.

Q. Now that Abel has gotten a ride with Dale Coyne Racing, the number of drivers coming from INDY NXT keeps growing in INDYCAR, which is what that series was created to do. To see you being an INDY NXT champion, how do you feel about how that has taken hold and become a viable path into INDYCAR?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think it’s awesome to see, and like you say yourself, that’s what that series was created to do. It’s good to be a product of the ladder system to show that it works because I would not be in INDYCAR today or last year without that. It’s that simple.

It’s good to see. It’s a great training ground for young people like myself to get ready to INDYCAR. It’s the only open wheel junior category where you do ovals. I think ovals is a huge — I know ovals is a huge part of being fast in INDYCAR. You need to be able to do that. Yeah, it’s a good training ground.

Q. Obviously this is going to be your first full season in the series. Looking back at the end of last year, how useful was it to get those additional oval races for bringing that momentum into this year, and what did you learn from that?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, I think it was super good. It was a good opportunity for me to practice and get a feel for what the ovals outside of the 500 feels like because the 500 is kind of a different beast compared to all the other speedways.

Yeah, it was good. It was good to kind of figure out what I need to do better, what I did well, and then kind of take that experience into 2025 so that we can be even better.

Q. Looking at the overall season last year, how would you reflect on your rookie season versus what you expected in the series?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, I mean, always expecting more. I think the season was a little bit up and down. We had pretty good pace on multiple locations but never really had many results to show for it.

This year it’s focusing on transferring that speed into results, as well, is the main goal.

Q. Obviously looking ahead to the season, the team have gone through a lot of changes, whether that be on your team or the investments. What feels different in the team compared to last season considering all of these changes that have happened?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think there’s a lot of hope within the team. I think a lot of the team members are really believing in what we’re doing, that it’ll make a difference. There’s good spirit within the team.

Again, it’s cool to be a part of. Excited to get started, get back in the race car and see where we can go because I think I also personally think that ECR is on the rise for sure.

Q. I want to look forward to 2025 a bit more than looking back on 2024. First of all, when Ed Carpenter Racing announced their lineup for this year and that you were going full time, they specified yourself and Alexander had signed multiyear deals. Does that knowledge that you have yourself, locked into a team for at least the near future, change how you approach the season at all?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: No, it doesn’t. I also said previously, I go into every race weekend trying to do the best possible job that I can. It’s nice to know in the back of your mind that there’s some sort of security going forward, but it’s racing. Everything can happen. You’re never 100 percent secure. You always have to perform to stay. That’s kind of the mindset that I’m going in with. Again, doing the best job on each weekend that I can and see where we end up.

Q. We’ve talked a lot about how much time you put in on the ovals and those last three races of last season. I think you only ended up missing Iowa and Gateway —

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Correct.

Q. Do you feel that that was sufficient practice to prepare yourself for this full time season? You clearly had things locked down at Indianapolis last year. Is there anything you still feel you really need to get on top of on the ovals side?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I’ve always felt fairly comfortable around the oval, whether if that was USF2000, Indy Pro or INDY NXT, and surprisingly, as well, in INDYCAR. I felt pretty comfortable right away.

No, you’re always building as a race car driver. You’re always trying to get better. I think overall I was in a decent spot. I was comfortable and we were decently quick, as well, so I think we’re just going to focus on getting the car out, getting the cars as fast as we can, and that’s pretty much it. Go for some cool passes.

Q. When 2025 comes to an end, what does a successful year for Christian Rasmussen look like?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I obviously want to do better than I did last year, and I think the expectations from the team is definitely higher with how much has been invested. It’s hard to kind of set a number of it, but eventually obviously the goal is to compete for wins, podiums, and frequent top 10s. I think if we can get a little bit of that, I think it’ll be a successful year.

Q. Obviously Splenda is a normal brand in a lot of kinds of racing, but it will be very interesting, the reflectors of this brand inside the car. How do you think about this new kind of sponsors on INDYCAR events?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: I think it’s super cool that we get more consumer brands into INDYCAR. I think it’s super important for the sport, as well, that people that are looking at the cars are seeing brands that they know. I think if you look on a lot of the cars, you’ll see brands that not really many people know about.

It’s cool to be representing a brand like Splenda that are that recognizable, and I think it’s good for the sport, as well.

Q. You will have an internal fight with Alex, with a lot of experience racing, but you will try to be in the Fast Six, Fast 12 every race I suppose.

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yes. We are definitely trying to get more into the Fast 12 and Fast Six. I’m not sure if I understood that question. But I think the teammate you mentioned, Rossi, obviously he has a lot of experience, so he’ll be a good benchmark for me to lean on and learn from.

Yeah, excited to work with him.

Q. The first thing you need to do as a driver is win over your teammate.

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, that’s the first guy you want to beat for sure.

Q. Just touching up on Rossi being your teammate, you have a veteran and Indy 500 winner alongside you. How has he been valuable in your transition from the junior category until now, and do you think you’ll have this continuous season learning from him, as well?

CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN: Yeah, I mean, I hope so. He’s going into his, what, ninth season of INDYCAR, and I’m only going into my second. To say that I have nothing to learn from him would definitely be a lie.

But yeah, I’m excited to work more with Alex. We’ve only really worked together on the sim days so far. It’ll be good to get out on the track and really work together, drive alongside each other and kind of see how we will work together.

But he’s been very valuable in the sim so far. He’s had some good feedback. He’s a good guy to lean on. Obviously he’s super fast. He’s won the 500. He has a lot of experience that he brings to the team.

It’ll be a good pair, I think.

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR CONTENT DAYS
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 15, 2025

RYAN HUNTE-REAY, driver of the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Chevrolet, met with the media at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Press Conference Transcript:

MODERATOR: Continuing on this morning, great to be joined by Ryan Hunter-Reay, this year driver of the No. 23, again, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, technically his 18th year associated with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, back of course with Dreyer and Reinbold racing last year after making the top 12 qualifying, the 2014 winner of the Indianapolis 500, as well. We talked to you after the deal was done. Anything new since then to share? I know you’re really looking forward to being back with Dreyer & Reinbold.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, absolutely. We got the deal done. Obviously we had the open test — I’m sorry, the October open test which we did not have last year or the year prior. It was good to get that time with the hybrid and everything else and still a lot of work to do there.

But, right now it’s just been planning phases, going through things with engineers, trying to get the engineering lineup kind of dialed in and sorted and things like that, housekeeping stuff. But I’m looking forward to getting back on track.

Q. Obviously Jack (Harvey) is with you now. Have you guys talked much shop about car setup and what do you like, what don’t you like?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: We have, generally. I think we’re going to do that more probably once we get into February. We’re going to have more physical meetings here in Indy at the shop and things like that. Yeah, still really early days on that side of it.

Q. Even though you may not be in a car every race, are we going to see you at every race?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: You know, I have no idea, honestly. James, when he would say that, you knew he was lying, but then with me, it’s now I have zero idea. I don’t know how much I’ll be around. It all depends. There’s a lot up in the air at the moment.

I’d certainly love to do some — to some extent, some broadcasting work, and I’ve done just a little bit here and there, like we mentioned before on James’ podcast when I was on there, it was Long Beach, Indy, Detroit, I did some pit reporter stuff. I did some booth stuff at Long Beach.

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It comes naturally for me having raced these cars for 20 plus years. Having the freshest perspective on the current car is also something that I can contribute with.

Q. To be a driver, a former driver or a current driver, understanding the ins and outs of strategy and all that, do you think that that is a very big asset in a pit reporter’s role?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Absolutely. There’s so many things that I think our pit reporters do a fantastic job, and they can put things together. Even in the booth, right. But when you have that experience in the car over so many years, you know the little things, the nuances on tire wear and things like when you can see that a car is coming up to a line of traffic at Indy that just goes by a lot of announcers and pit reporters and things like that.

There’s just so many little nuances to it that would stick out to a recent or current racing driver way more.

Q. You’ve had two years with Dreyer & Reinbold doing the 500 with them. How have you seen this team grow, improve, and do you feel like you’ve really got a team around you and potentially a car when we get to May that could compete again for winning this race?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, when I first came in with them in ’22, it was just kind of getting to know each other, and limited running. We only had that one open test last year. We only had the one open test, as well. It was rained out for the most part, and we had a lot of rain during last year’s — the week. I always call it the month, but it was the week of the 500 prior to practice and all of that, so we were limited on practice.

But yeah, I’m tight with the team, really tight, with the team and tight with the crew. It’s a really good environment in that regard.

The biggest challenge we have is coming together basically one time all year. You can practice all you want, talk about hypotheticals in the race and how we’re going to deal with this and that.

Until you get in the race, in a racing environment, racing situation and you have all these people in the stand and all the strategy that’s going on and the spotters and the driver and all that interconnected, to fire on all cylinders that one day when you have all these other teams that have been racing and they’re kind of in their flow, that’s the most difficult part about doing the one-off.

Q. You’ve talked about it a little bit before, but having a guy like Jack who’s done this with a handful of teams the last couple years, from what you know working with him when he was at Meyer Shank Racing and you were at Andretti, what do you imagine you guys can do, and what’s the best part about you guys as a tandem together?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I think the communication is going to be wide open from the beginning. We’re friends, and that helps. Driving-style wise, I think we’re similar. You never really know until you can get into really similarly prepared cars and go out and say hey, this is what I felt, this is what I want, and then see what the other driver says.

But I think working with Jack as a teammate is going to be phenomenal in that way.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is up against it really. When you come to any year when you have such a huge technical change like the hybrid. It’s not really just the hybrid itself, it’s the weight. It’s where the weight has been put in the car, and the workarounds needed in the setup to get that right is huge.

We’re not going to have the time and the resources that the full-time manufacturer partner teams will have. Since I’ve been there in ’22 and now in ’23 — in ’23 we were allocated more and more opportunities from Chevrolet and we greatly appreciate that. They’re a great partner. But it’s just the way it is.

Full-time partner teams are going to get a lot more information, track time, all that stuff. We’ll definitely be trying to play catch-up.

Q. You’re an Indianapolis 500 winner, you’re an INDYCAR champion, so I guess you don’t have anything to prove. I’m sort of interested in the mentality and motivation that keeps you coming back to Indianapolis and having a go at this race year on year.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, it’s Indy. It’s unlike anything else, really. There’s something about it that is a part of who you are. That lives with me. That’s just Indy, and I’ll give almost anything other than my children and my wife to be in that group of top 3 at the end of the race to have a shot at it. That’s really what it comes down to.

Q. Dennis was looking at going full time in 2027 potentially, as soon as then. Obviously you probably wouldn’t be looking for a full-time opportunity, but would it be a project you’d like to be involved in maybe from an advisory side of things?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, certainly. It would be something I’d like to be involved with conceptually if that’s something that comes along. But yeah, it’s a long way down the road. But yeah, I’d be open to that, absolutely.

Q. There’s obviously been a lot of talk about a new car, as well, that’s coming in 2027. What would you sort of be looking at from a prospective new car?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I feel like we have to get back to — the way the cars were in 2012, ’13, ’14, in there, they were absolutely phenomenal. They were lighter, more aero dependant. Then we had this whole experiment with manufacturer aero kits. The cars looked horrible. Didn’t make the racing any better.

Then we got back to an esthetically pleasing car, right, the 2018 car, and that was, again, another car that was good and fun to drive, lighter, very aero dependant, as well.

But then yeah, with all the weight we’ve added to it, it’s become a much different car, a much different open wheel racing car. We need to get back, I think, to that.

Q. Cusick Motorsports has been — being around Don (Cusick), the energy he brings to the team is pretty special, isn’t it?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, working with Don has been an absolute pleasure. Having the Cusick name there, in the program, on the effort, the program, the car, everything, it’s a great fit, and really enjoy working with the whole group. It feels like family.

Q. You can tell he’s caught the bug.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Big time.

Q. Ryan, what are the biggest takeaways that come with you being a driver just only running the Indianapolis 500?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: The biggest takeaways? I don’t know. I don’t feel — like when I get in the car I don’t feel rusty at all. I don’t feel anything like that. Maybe it’s just because it’s a part of who I am. I’ve been doing it for so long I’m working off instinct.

But the takeaway is what I mentioned earlier. It’s trying to get the team and a whole group of personalities teed up and ready for almost what you can’t prepare for. You can do things to prepare to some extent, but once you get into the Indy 500 and you’re going through all these different scenarios with strategy, and now we have a hybrid monitoring all these different channels of data that we really need to stay on top of. Strategies change that way, too.

So it’s trying to get that group of people — no matter how talented they are, you have to get them all together in one day, and like I said, execute completely, 100 percent. They’ve done a great job with it in the past, and hopefully we’ll do it in the future.

Q. Do members of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Cusick Motorsports, do they look around at other teams to see what they’re doing and then gather data for the 500?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: No, no. We work within our own — when you’re looking at different teams, different teams have different damper programs, different shock builds and all that stuff, so you have to be pretty careful with that.

But no, we have our kind of operating range that we work within, and then we have to change a lot of that setup with the hybrid and where the weight has been put in the car.

But no, blinders on, really.

Q. Following up on things about the car, I see that people say that maybe it’s about the downforce, but also you said about the weight of the car. It’s tricky to play with downforce and horsepower, or do you think it’s the little details that we can think about the new car in that aspect of things?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, you’re adding a lot of weight to the car through the aeroscreen, and very, very thankful for the aeroscreen, the side intrusion panels we’ve added over the years after different accidents, different scenarios that caused those upgrades to be needed.

And then we have another one now, and when you look at with the hybrid, yeah, the hybrid being added and where it’s being placed and the weight of it, in order to have similar performance out of the car and the overall grip, you would need to really rework the tire basically.

But it is a very similar tire. It’s not the same. Yeah, it’s just sliding around a lot more. It’s like whipping that rubber band around with a lead weight on the end. If you just keep adding and adding more and more weight to that, at some point that band is going to snap.

That’s kind of where we are kind of on the edge of right now because the handling was a lot different, and that’s according to a lot of drivers that I spoke with.

Q. I just heard you in the podcast mention that the handling of the car changed a lot with the hybrid. Do you think it still has a little room to improve just in setup and little changes in aerodynamic things?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Oh, absolutely, for sure. INDYCAR drivers for years have been to different tracks and we’re like, the racing is going to be terrible, we can’t pass, and then you set a record for passes in the race and all that happens.

But yes, we’re all going to make it way better than it was at the open test in the time that we have in practicing.

However, you are grip limited, so that’s why it was so much more difficult to pass at the open test. I do think that will be a factor moving forward for the race.

We can have a rework on it for sure, and hopefully it will perform way better than expected in that regard.

Q. What’s the latest on the next generation of Hunter-Reay racers? I know for a while you were pretty active with it. Has that increased? Are you trying to steer him toward swimming and golfing, something that might be a little cheaper?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, golf would be great, man. I’m so envious, I see these dads taking their kids golfing, and my kids are like, horrible, it’s so boring.

We’re going karting on Monday but we haven’t been able to get out of the stick-and-ball sports. Each one of the three of them is playing three different sports simultaneously, and all we’re doing, it’s like people ask me what do you do now that you’re not racing? It’s like, I draw the shades and I’m sitting in my bed just watching Lifetime Network.

It’s nonstop all the time. The hand-offs from myself, to that, to this, running all over the place in conjunction with everything else that we’re doing, the investments and rental properties and all that, it’s just nonstop. I hope to get there. I hope to.

But we’re kind of missing the ship because my oldest just turned 12 and he’s actually up to my chin. So he should definitely golf. I wish. Basketball, soccer and football right now. I think we might be at the end of the road of soccer here soon. That’s fine by me.

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.