Debrief alert! INTC co-host Jeff Braun helped run a GT3 Corvette at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. To a top-ten finish! In his day job, Jeff is comp director for an IMSA team. Baptiste Viala is a 25-year-old engineer who works with him. June marked Jeff's sixth time running a car at Le Mans and Baptiste's first. Two cool cats. And they have surprisingly different angles on the same trip to France. This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “The Rookie and the Ve...
Jul 08, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 21
For July Fourth, an American tale: Big ambition! A mutant Camaro! A crashed mutant Camaro! Success! Failure! Wisconsin! Plus: a NASCAR man, in France, with his name on his boots . (Gave proof, through the night, that our flag was still there.) This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our semi-regular deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that means the time in 1981 that NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough took a short-track "outlaw" Camaro to the ...
Jul 01, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Laguna Seca. Nineteen privately owned Mazdas. And one man, lapping all those cars for Road & Track, quietly losing his mind. Car magazines: It’s a weird gig. In this episode, Sam relives one of the more unhinged story pitches of his career: A nonstop weekend wrangling 19 wildly different Miatas. Modded and stock. V-8 swaps and K-swaps. Turbo four-cylinders that made everything from hamster power to some 360 hp at the wheels. Plus one car that looked suspiciously like an Ariel Atom... but was...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Corner by corner, inch by inch, with one of the greatest tracks in the world. Do Ross and Sam use this episode to dissect their love for the pavement of Road America? Does a Wisconsin bear pope eat beer cheese in the Kettle Moraine woods? (The answer is yes, for the record. Yes to both.) Welcome to the Upper Midwest, cats and kittens. You will learn where the apexes are, if you don’t already know. But that’s the least interesting part. This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 16
“They were all standing in front of our big Kenworth, the truck, this monster big American machine. They could have cared less about the Ferrari. They were like… the *truck* is awesome.” That right there is an actual quote from this episode, about actual French people meeting an actual Kenworth tractor-trailer. (Sacré bleu, good buddy!) This episode was supposed to be on another topic and led by Sam. Then Sam got sick and lost his voice (again), so Ross and Jeff kicked out the improv jams—storie...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Just what happens behind the scenes at a big-league pro sports-car race? Answer: Everything! And in this extra-special, audiobook-style INTC, you get… a whole lot of it! Jeff Braun and Sam Smith are two of this show's three hosts. Jeff is also competition director for the IMSA GTD Corvettes of AWA Racing. Last summer, Sam and Jeff met up for the IMSA race at Virginia International Raceway. Jeff and AWA were running a car—and Sam was building a show around all of it. Warning: This ep’s so big, we...
Jun 04, 2025•2 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 15
A race engineer, a driver coach, and a journalist walk into a bar on Memorial Day. “Ow,” says the journalist. (Figures. The other two were smart enough to use the door.) Is this an episode where we break down and analyze this year’s Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix? Indeed! Did we do this exact same thing last year? Indeed! This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Ripped From the Headlines.” CLARIFICATION: Shortly after this ep was taped, IndyCar announced tech-vio...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Not always. But often. It’s one of the many mysteries of motorsport. Here now, a dive into some of those mysteries! Starring a champion race engineer—Jeff!—and a recovering motorsport journalist—Sam! Some racing mysteries are fun. Some are frustrating. Regardless, if they’re in this episode, we don’t have answers for them, and we probably never will. This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “IT’S NOT THE UNSOLVED MYSTERIES.” RELATED TRIVIA: Sam wrote these words l...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Free Bonus Episode! What's it like to spend a whole week and thousands of miles with someone you barely know? Ever tried that while barely sleeping, while lapping nearly a dozen race tracks at speed, while trying not to lose your mind? Welcome to spectacle—the event, the 40-year tradition—that is One Lap of America. Ross is an ambassador for BFGoodrich. A while back, his friends at BFG called and asked if he wanted to run this year’s One Lap in a new Honda Civic Type R. Ross said yes. His BFG co...
May 16, 2025•1 hr
This episode holds... Death! Glory! Men in great hats! But also Enzo Ferrari, Ferdinand Porsche, 160-mph race cars, and an entire regiment of the Nazi army. Oh, and: One of history's greatest drivers eats a ham. Oh, and: Hitler. Hold onto your butts, y’all—this one’s a doozy. This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our semi-regular deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that means Tazio Nuvolari’s against-all-odds win at the 1935 German Gran...
May 13, 2025•2 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Landing a job as a pro race driver takes talent, hard work, and a truckload of money. Or sometimes just money. And some people do it for giggles, as a hobby. (You know, like knitting! Just with more Senna inspo quotes.) This show changes formats weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “MY LIFE WITH.” It’s where an INTC host tells the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life. In this case, that means Jeff, his career as a champion race enginee...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 11
It’s another “No Dumb Questions!” You email to ask, we sit down to answer. There are no dumb questions in racing … but there might be some dumb answers. In this episode, we take questions from only one listener. Spoiler: That listener is Sam! This was supposed to be a fun little exercise where Sam asked Ross and Jeff random racing questions. Then Sam got a “rager” (his word) case of Covid and was barely able to talk. So he asked Ross and Jeff to read his questions aloud and spent most of the ep ...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Do you remember your worst day in racing? Of course you do. How could you forget? Jeff, Sam, and Ross: three hosts, three hugely different people, three lifetimes in and around motorsport. And in this episode, the stories of three very different bad days at the track—in parenting (Jeff), in desperation (Sam), and in the realization that a dream is gone and not coming back (Ross). Racing is like any other part of life: It’s not about what happens when things go right. It’s about who you are when ...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Race tracks. The road. Fast cars. Slow ones. What do they have in common? Simple: If you're willing to use your noggin-brain, you can figure them out. Maybe. How do you get used to a new car at speed? What does it want, what does it need? What do *you* need? Can you turn the whole process into a repeatable, trustworthy routine? Of course you can! The question is… how? This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INSTANT EXPERT.” RELATED TRIVIA: Jeff , Ross, and Sam wer...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Why do we push ourselves? What makes you put yourself out there and try? Why is that trying so easy for some and so hard for others? How much does belief matter with all this? How much is it relevant to driving around in circles, or human performance, or doing the best you can with anything, especially given the limited resources each of us has on tap, as a person? Why do those resources rarely feel like enough—even when they so clearly are? This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We ...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 13 min
What does a championship-winning IMSA engineer and team director want from a race car? What does he *need* from it? Should those qualities match up? How much race could a race car race if a race car could race cars? So many questions. We definitely answer the first two. Maybe also the last one. (Maybe.) A good race engineer blends the art of the possible with the science of the probable. INTC co-host Jeff Braun has been perfecting that blend professionally for more than four decades. Along the w...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 6
They had a shot at winning, you know? You always have a shot! Even though sometimes you don’t. This is what happens when… well, when you try very hard and it doesn’t happen. Jeff was on the wall with Toronto’s AWA Racing, helping that spunky little team’s Corvettes go faster. (Fresh off their Daytona win!) Ross was focused on LMP2 and his driver there and coaching his heart out. Everybody had heart on the table. And then… Well, you’ll have to listen! This show changes format weekly, because squi...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The first answer? Money, of course. The second answer? Also money. The third answer, in case you’re wondering: also also money! But we don’t care about those answers! We care about how, if you work hard and maybe get lucky… you might not *need* the money. (Much.) Ross is a former IndyCar ’shoe and a pro driver coach who has trained thousands of racers. Jeff is a pro engineer who’s helped countless teams chase wins, and he raised an IMSA-champion son, Colin Braun. Ross and Jeff know things. They ...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 4
“A mythbusting episode,” Ross suggested. “Great idea!” Sam and Jeff said. Then we blinked, and we had gone off-topic again, taped an entire show about 19th-century American cultural hegemony. What a corker! More specifically, we had taped a show about the life and times of a long-dead American statesman who also happened to be a strong supporter of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, a.k.a. Prohibition. Naw—that’s an exaggeration. We wouldn’t do that to you. This episode is abo...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 3
You guys have emailed to ask what we talk about off-air: "Have you ever considered an off-topic show?" Hey, why not? Sam cracked a beer on an empty stomach. Jeff poured a large coffee. Ross continued his streak of amusingly clean and healthy living. With no plan, we ended up yapping on—among other things—racing, Lotuses, how Sam’s grandpa got out of mowing the lawn forever, and that time Jeff’s son Colin whacked straight into a flying bat while lapping a kart in their yard in the middle of the n...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 2
We’re back! And one of our hosts just won the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona! His name is Jeff Braun, he’s the competition director for the IMSA Corvettes of Toronto’s AWA Racing, and he’s won Daytona twice before. We’re dang proud of him. We asked him to break down this year's win—moment by moment, all the ups and all the downs. AWA’s win at Daytona this year marks the first 24-hour win anywhere for the Corvette GT3 car. It’s also the first time in decades that a privateer Corvette has won the race. ...
Feb 25, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 1
How is speed on a bike different from speed in a car? Is chasing the limit different if you’re more likely to get hurt? And just why did your crazy old Uncle Eddie yardsale that ratty Ducati across a field, anyway? Complex questions. Except Uncle Eddie. Dude owns a Chevelle and loves Foreigner a little too much, you know? Probably got hot blooded one night, wanted to know what love is. Maybe it felt like the first time? Tires were cold as ice, though, too many head games! But I digress. Nick Ien...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Fifteen years ago, a guy from Maryland took a camcorder and a bone-stock Ford Mustang GT to Japan and filmed a series of YouTube videos on drifting and local car culture. Back home in the States, a handful of people—including INTC producer Mike Perlman, then 15 years old—watched those videos and asked, What the hell is going on here? By that point, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was already an accomplished professional drifter, an off-road racer, and a self-proclaimed “professional fun-haver.” Fast forward ...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Have you ever been in the zone, or in flow, behind the wheel? Want to get back there again and again? This podcast is all about what’s driving the car, and in this episode, we dig deep into the minds of high-performing drivers. We talk with Dr. Sue Jackson, a psychologist who has specialized in sport and exercise psychology. She co-wrote the book "Flow in Sports" with the “father" of flow research, Mihaly "Mike" Csikszentmihalyi. In her latest book, "Experiencing Flow," Sue looks into how we can...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 49
This episode has everything: Punches. Pepsi. Snow! Plus, a guy named Cale crashes a 190-mph race car in sneakers and kicks somebody on national TV. Naturally, save the snow, this all happens in Florida. This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that means the 1979 Daytona 500 and the childish, joyous three-driver fistfight that changed NASCAR forever. RELATED TRIVIA: To hell with trivia this w...
Dec 03, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Strap in, kids—it’s time for another story from Jeff’s past, and this one’s a doozy. In 1967, future pro racer and INTC host Jeff Braun won a contest to visit the United States F1 Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Jeff was nine years old. The trip blew his mind. Guaranteed in this ep: Our very own J.B. as a wee man! Quality hangs with Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham! Sam explaining why Sixties F1 was bonkers-deadly but great! Jeff swimming at the Glen Motor Inn with Gurney and Jim Clark and Graham "Mustac...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Tony Quiroga is the editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. For the last 18 years, his magazine has rented Virginia International Raceway once a year. And each time, they’ve spent three days—normal people, not pro drivers—flogging the best new fast cars, lapping nonstop and chasing time. Sound like a dream day? A pile of stress? Tony is an old friend of INTC, and he says C/D’s annual “Lightning Lap” test is… both! This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episod...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Once, humans set foot on the moon. Some steely eyed engineer types did some math and took some gambles, and then some steely eyed pilot types sat on a big firework and flew off. Huge achievement, neat space candle. And that plan—the *strategy*—made it possible. Related: A host of this show is a pro race engineer. Jeff Braun has won the 12 Hours of Sebring eight times and the 24 Hours of Daytona twice. His résumé includes a whopping ten IMSA / Grand-Am championships. Race strategy makes Jeff’s jo...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 45
In this episo… ah, screw it. Cut to the chase: Do you know what a Mazda R26B rotary sounds like? Four rotors of fury! The littlest beer keg that could! The 700-horse shrieker from the first Japanese car to win Le Mans! BEEOWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP! Except… louder. Nastier. You hear that noise even once, it makes a bee-line for the whoopy-monkey core of the human brain and lives there forever. So we got ourselves here yep a story about that. This show’s format rotates weekly, be...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Corner by corner, inch by inch, one of the greatest tracks in the world. We’ve got thousands of laps there. Walk the track with us! What makes Laguna Seca so great? Is the answer . . . California? The mountains? Memories of Mario, getting loose in Turn 9, that cotton-candy morning fog, or how the rear axle just snap-crackle-pops into the Corkscrew on trailed brake? Yes! And so much else, right? This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “Walking the Track.” In ...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 43
