¶ Road Trip and Racing at Daytona
Absolutely nothing beats windshield time , a road trip and good conversation in the car . Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy , where we have entertaining conversations about cars and road trips , life lessons and maybe , every now and then , a little advice . I'm your host , dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire . And now buckle up and enjoy the show .
This weekend kicks off the 2024 IMSA Sports Car Championship , with the first round being at the Daytona International Speedway where they'll run the 24 hours of Daytona . It's a sports car race that takes in part of the Speedway and then the road course . This race is a definite test of machine drivers and crew to keep that car running at top speed for 24 hours .
It ends on Saturday and it ends on Sunday . I was able to catch up with young man who's been on the show before , son of John Andretti , and John was a former winner of the 24 hours of Daytona . His son is Jared Andretti , who is back at Daytona again this year . Welcome back to the show , jared .
Thank you guys for having me on again . It's a pleasure to be on .
Yeah , so this week and this weekend you're at a big race at the Daytona International Speedway the 24 hours of Daytona . I know this is not your first time there , but tell my listeners about that experience of racing at 24 hours .
Yeah , it's pretty , pretty ecstatic . It's pretty , it's really cool . I mean you've seen a lot of growth in the sport over the last couple of years . I'm just watching the motorhomes roll in right now to the track . To be honest with you , there's a lot of car car clubs and there's a lot of passionate spectators here . And then just the logistics of the race .
Doing the race on is one thing , but then doing all the logistics around it and all the other things that you have to do to be successful is really difficult . It's hard to get right . It's a day , the race is a day long , not easy to be successful at it .
So , yeah , it's a challenge , momentarily and physically , for both the drivers and the guys in the group .
Yeah , and how many times have you been there ?
This will be my fourth , 24 hour .
Yeah , okay this year , just for my listeners . You're not in the car by yourself for 24 hours . You have some teammates .
That's right . That's right . We have four people in the car , so our three teammates that we share the car with . So , yeah , that's the way we split the time up and that's the way it keeps people as rested as possible during a 24 hour race .
Yeah , so what car are you in this year ?
Yeah , it's a Porsche GT3R , GT3 car 992 , gtd class . Yeah , so it's a new car for us . This weekend first race on it , first race 24 hours in this class . So it's good , it's really exciting for us and we look forward to initial foray with it .
Yeah , tell my listeners about the different classes , because this is a very unique race that there's different cars out there at the same time . Yeah , yeah .
So there's four classes right now in the series . There's the GTP , which are the quickest cars . They're the full prototypes . They are hybrid . You have LMP2 cars , which are prototypes as well , but they are not hybrid standard gas engine that are super quick and those cars are . Those cars is what you would determine that you would see on the road .
And then the GT classes . You know they have GTB Pro and GTB two different classes there . Those are the cars you typically see on the road . So they have , you know , prusa GT3R S and then they have , like BMW , m4 , you know a variety of other cars Mercedes , ferrari , lamborghini .
So all those guys there would be more standard to like what you see racing on the road , and so it's a . It tracks a lot of people . You know , if you like a certain car brand or a certain manufacturer , you can root for those cars . You like certain drivers , you can root for them .
The nice thing about it is there's really four separate races happening simultaneously , so if one race gets boring , you can always just go to the next race and watch the next race and maybe the other race will get exciting again . You can switch your attention back to that . It's really really hard not to find some sort of action on track .
Thanks for sharing that . So your dad was John Andretti . Yes , he is a winner at the 24 hours of Daytona . Any anything he shared with you about that , that victory .
I think the biggest . It was really cool because it was a rookie year and he won it overall on a Porsche 962 . So obviously coming back in a Porsche , which is really special to me . So he won the race in eight 1989 . And it was an interesting year because there was a lot of fog apparently that you got red flagged , I think , for five or six hours .
And so he ended up . Yeah , so he ended up . He said I always worked out really good for him because he had done his last stint for until he had to get back in Right as he got out of that red flag . So he got all the time while it was red flagged to sleep and then , plus the other guys , two double stints . So he goes .
I worked out really great for him . He's like I got like eight hours of sleep , I was fully rested and then got to fully celebrate the win . So that was kind of cool .
That's great . Thanks for sharing that . Hey , how many stints will you do in that 25 year ?
We have a stint schedule , but you probably do around five or six hours a piece , so each stint is basically an hour Right . So it works out to be five or six stints .
During that 24 hour period you're in and out of the car . How do you deal with that ? You talked about your dad getting to sleep . I don't guess you get to sleep much .
Not really . I don't really sleep too much at all . I'm not very good at sleeping while the car is on track . I don't do too much . Some of the guys , you really do a better job of resting . Maybe now that it's been like fourth one I'll be more acclimated to being able to fall asleep . But all in all it was .
You know , I think getting your body shut down kind of in that mode where you can rest , you can be fresh for your next stint , is really important . So anyway , some guys are better at that than I am , that's for sure .
But it is an art form to kind of go from you know full attack to Rest to back to full attack here and you know only a short , you know a few hours time .
Kind of hard to turn off the adrenaline rush , I guess once you get out of the car right .
Yes , yes , it is , it is . There's so many those other factors that you don't necessarily think about in another race . You know , in some other races , even other endurance race , you may they may be long races , but you may only do one stint .
That's a triple stint , right , you know you may be only in car once , or you may be in the car for two doubles , which are you know , but in a , you know that may be the same day . So it's not like you wouldn't otherwise be asleep during that time .
You know this one you're , you would have been asleep for at least some part of the race that you're now you have to stay awake for and you have to perform . So it's just a whole new element of you know , I've got a whole new challenge that you otherwise don't really face .
And in these other endurance races , to be honest , you know 24 hours , of course , you're out there in the dark . What's that like driving in the door ?
You know it was really nice . It is lit up pretty well . It's a lot better than some of these other places . However , it is In it and it is mentally taxing but it's kind of fun . You know it is interesting .
It's cool to see the fans up in the grandstands , you know , late at night , early in the morning , enjoying the , enjoying the race , and you kind of look up at 2 , 3 in the morning See people with blankets , you know having a good time . So that that is always cool and it's it's nice to have that support .
So it's just , it's just a very different feel Than what she just would expect in any other race .
What fans to keep up with here ? People who listen to my podcast . What car number are you ?
So number 43, . I think the race starts on NBC and ends on NBC , and then also there's some coverage on USA typically , and then I think the full race is on peacock . Okay so yeah , peacock , you know you can tune in there and I have to switch over and then just follow me . If you're gonna follow me is usually Instagram or Twitter is best .
Instagram probably better than Twitter . It's just that you're a dandruffy , so that's usually the best place to find updates , things like that .
They're going on well , I can't thank you enough , for you know I texted you today and I said hey , I'd love to do a few minutes with you , and you're always so Portugal to do that . I really appreciate it .
No , no , I appreciate you guys having on there , I appreciate bringing people to sport and I hope this gets a couple new people do a tune in and get up on sports .
And you know I like to end with Letting my guest a little promotions . I know you have a favorite charity . Tell us , tell us about that .
Oh , yeah , yeah , absolutely . I appreciate
¶ Injury Foundation and Giving Back
that . And we have the checker for injury foundation that my you know starter started in honor of my father and it helps get you know Cole and Oscar piece or people that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them Uninsured uninsured can't afford the deductible . We're really proud of that .
We've given away , you know , over 50 to date so far and we're excited about , you know , eventually giving away more here in the in the coming year again , jared , thank you for taking just few minutes to talk to me . Yeah , absolutely . I appreciate your call me and talk soon until we meet up again .
You can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom . I hope you will follow this podcast so that you don't miss any upcoming episodes , and share it with your family and friends so they can enjoy the stories of my guests also until we meet again on a future episode , keep having conversations with each other and keep driving .