This is off track. Uh, when did you get back?
Uh, so I had a connection 'cause the flights got booked so late, I couldn't get out last night. So I flew this morning via LaGuardia.
Okay. That's an interesting route from St. Pete to LaGuardia. Attend India.
And then, yeah, I got back at two. Did did
James book your flight? That sounds like Ohh. Flight. Shut up. Shut up. Yeah.
Man. It was just, it was the, it was the one that got me back the soonest today. Yeah. And when my alarm went off after, uh, like five 30 or whatever I was, oh, I was ready to just get home, man.
What's, yeah. So what time did you get home?
Uh, so flight left at 2 7 50. Got home around like 1 45.
Okay. Yeah. Not terrible. So a long-ish day though, when you're up that early after, I'm sure you were out all night celebrating what was, uh, successful debut in the television
. Well, it was a debut if nothing else. I think , uh, no, it was super fun. Like, no doubt. But like, I, I was so drained from it, like that adrenaline peak and then the come down hit me so hard, like after the race that, yeah. I went back to the hotel and I literally, it wasn't intentional, but I fell asleep for like an hour.
You had nice power nap,
A lit, like strong power nap. And then I was like, well, I really need to work out. 'cause I haven't worked out properly in like a couple days, but I'd say a couple days since like Wednesday. Mm-hmm . And that kind of threw off my cadence a bit. And then man, I went out, like, I had like one beer, one wine, and then was like, I'm, I'm not in the mood for just
Yeah. like
Alcohol right now. So
Just drained.
Yeah. Yeah. it's a mentally taxing weekend. It's not even just a day, like, it's four days of actually kind of mentally challenging and just exhausting work, isn't it? The cadence of which these shows are put together, but like, everything before, and obviously like the during and the thing is, man, that I was confident in my general IndyCar knowledge,
I knew. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah.
Like I know that Colin Hurt is good at St. Pete, however, when you're then starting to get into like, some of the stats to really feel like you're actually prepared Yeah. To give someone like a, you know, a good nugget on, on the program and on the show and whatnot. Like suddenly you feel like you don't know, like, you know, a very broad amount of knowledge, but maybe not a specific amount of knowledge as you think.
So then suddenly I'm, I'm, I feel like I know more about the drivers at St. Pete than I've ever known about other people's stats, which is just wild. So the cadence of the shows and then ob obviously the first weekend everyone still kind of figure their, figure their own, uh, role and groove out and whatnot. So, I mean, it was, that was probably the, the most, I felt like I've been in the deep end for a while. Well,
Yeah. Let's, I feel
Like there was an opportunity there to say you don't know Jack. And I feel like we just as a group collectively missed it.
I know. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed that show I need, we need to start doing that. That's gotta be our Brian project again here soon. Yeah.
get buzzkill on it. Yeah. But no, like, let's, let's, I mean, let's go back to the start. So obviously a a, um, a late announcement, I guess announcing that you were joining the Fox team in Pit Lane. Um, I guess I, for the people at home, like what was that sort of process like? What was it like getting that phone call? And we should
Also probably say his name is Jack Harvey, by the way. We're joined by Jack Harvey today. Yeah.
I assume, to be honest with you, I wasn't really sure if we'd started or not, if we were just going straight in and chatting and which I was good with it either
. Yeah, no, I wanted to not do that intentionally because I feel like the conversation starts off more conversational without being like, and nah, today on off track. So it doesn't sound like just a straight up interview and we get some some real, real stuff out of them. Yeah. But thanks for ruining that, Tim. Now it feels like it's an official interview. Um, geez,
Tim. Yeah, it's
What I knew guys was You welcome. I was gonna post record a uh, hey, today I'm off track with Hinge or Rossi. God,
You were just gonna gimme more work. Okay. Understood. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah. You made made it very clear, clear to me that you wanted as little work as possible tonight. And so I am going out of my way to make sure that you don't get time with your daughter. Oh, now I sound like the jerk.
also one of my least favorite words in America. What? Jerk. Jerk. I feel like, yeah. I dunno what it is. It's so like cutting to
. I love that. I love that. That's,
I don't know what it is that I would rather, there's significantly worse words and especially ones that some Brits use a bit frequently.
Use regularly. Yeah.
I would prefer that than jerk. I don't know what it, a jerk just seems so, like, someone's looked into my soul and like exposed
. That's hell. That's interesting.
Yeah. I hate it, man. I really hate it.
Tim, I want you to know the refrain that I am showing right now in this conversation specifically. Yeah. I just want you to know because I appreciate it. We do swear on this show, Jack and Oh, you do? Tim has Oh, excellent. But Tim has to, Tim has to bleep it out. And because of the aforementioned request to keep the post edit requirements low, he asked for me to not swear. And that conversation was very hard, freaking hard to not swear during.
But I want you to know, Tim, we're making a, a conscious effort for you on this one. Um, okay, so yes, back to the, back to the, to the story at hand. Um, kind of like how did it come up? I know you, you, you put your name out there. You, you did interviews saying that this is something that you wanted to pursue. And so, you know, what was sort of the process and when did you, when did you actually get the phone call?
I got the phone call the week Monday before the race. So Jacob called me Monday before the race? No, like the week before. The week before the whole entire week. Right. Okay. Uh, Jacob called me, it was on the President's Day. Okay. Which actually I completely forgot, was like a, like a hol national holiday here, holiday. I did that all the time. I'm so in line with like what British Bank holiday is versus like an American one. So anyway, I'm just doing my day.
He, he calls me and he is like, it's yours. And I'm like, oh my God. Like, amazing. And then we're kind of chatting and then I really didn't hear anything for like a probably another, I don't know, four or five days. So we got like one of their, uh, their first offer and first contract kind of proposal. My manager went back, I'd know, like I spoke to you. I mean, you were so generous with that initial phone call and trying to like, help me navigate through some of that.
So then he Friday comes in and I like text Jacob again that evening just to basically say, is this still like happening? Because I, I really didn't hear anything. And he was like, yeah, I got you. Don't worry about it. So I'm like, okay, cool. And then enter race week. I had coffee with Jamie Monday morning and she's like, well, what flights are you on? You know, you're coming from Indy. And I'm like, I haven't booked anything. Like, I really don't like who do I even speak to to, to do this?
And the thing is, uh, and what I'm learning, these huge corporations have someone, I had no idea who the someone was. Right. For all the different departments. Yeah. So then finally through lots of emails on that Monday we booked flights. Uh, then Pam says, try and get there as early as you can Wednesday. So I, you know, I, I changed my week around a bit hoping that this, you know, would happen. And like you said, I really put my name out there.
I actually met Pam for the first time at Nashville last year. Right. So it really was something I was pushing the whole off season to try and get. So I get to St. Pete, I don't know, 12 ish Wednesday. And I'm like, okay. I'm like, I'm here, I'm ready. By the time I finally like, get to the track, it's like three 30 and then it's just conversation. We're just chit-chatting a little bit.
I was hoping to like wear the headset and, you know, just to kind of familiarize a little bit because the thing that was causing me the most anxiety, the thing that was making me the most nervous was, I have no idea. This is a whole new industry. Yeah. A whole new like sequence, a whole new process. I'm still learning words that, you know, is normal in this industry that I, you know, feel like I should know, but I have no idea.
And I just, I just keep asking, I'm man, you, you, you know, will Townsend, Jamie, Kevin must be so sick of the questions that I had no all weekend. Like it was relentless, man. And like I know it was. Um, and then anyway, first time with the full radio headset on where I could hear the program, but also, uh, you know, my producer Anyway, uh, Eric was a lot like for the very first one and people texted me like, oh, you looked a little bit nervous. And I'm like,
. Yeah, man.
Like, I'm trying so hard not to swear for Tim here, but like , you know, like I, yes. And it's live. So my audition was live. Yes.
So was a lot. That's such a good way of, that's such a good way of looking at it. Like what people, so you and I had the same conversation that I got. I I gave you the same pep talk I got from Townsend when I first signed with NBC, which was, Hey man, welcome to the team. I bet you're expecting a lot of prep now. I bet you're expecting them to send you a bunch of information and teach you a bunch of stuff. And I was like, yeah, do I have to like sit in seminars and like learn how to do this?
And he is like, yeah, it ain't coming. They give you a microphone and it's sink or swim. And so like imagine walking into a new job, literally not knowing what the next step of the day is. Like go to the TV compound. Okay, cool. Where's that? Then you go to the
T, where Then you get to the compound. Okay. Everyone's in the net ops trailer. There are 12 trailers. Which one is that? Okay, cool. That's in the net ops trailer. Okay. Now you gotta go find your pit spotter and go to BSI to get your headset. Cool. Who's my pit spotter and what is BSI ? You know, it's just, It was, it was every single one of them, the schedule came out and it's like meeting this time, I'm like, where, like, where is the meeting?
Right. Like, I just happened to be in the right place for one of them, which was honestly like a miracle really. Because you walk in and, I mean, I'm used to trailers, obviously I spent my whole life at racetracks, but somehow all of theirs looks even more similar Yes. Than anybody else's. Yeah. I'm like, ah, there's 10 trailers to pick from here. I guess just keep knocking on the door and then work it down, I guess. But yeah, the thing that probably surprised me the most was the cadence.
Just like how quick things happen. I know that sounds like so silly to say because it's live tv, but it, I was like up and down pit lane and then doing the, uh, indie next stuff as well. Like I, this is really bad to say, but I really thought this was gonna be just a, you know, a Kush game. , I thought I was gonna gonna be like in pit lane and then in the garage kind of like getting some info hanging out with my mates coming back to pit lane.
I'm gonna chat with people and just kind of like back and forth and man, I could tell you that was, I don't know what rose tinted glasses. I was wearing when I thought that . But man, was it something different?
Yes, it is. It is more work than people probably think it is if you want to do it. Well. And that's like, that's why you will succeed in this business, Jack, is because you came into it with the same mentality of, all right, I'm gonna approach this with the same effort that I would've approached getting ready for a race. Right. Um, yeah, you can just phone it in and it's a lot less work, but then it's not gonna work out as well. The other thing for you, man, is you were doing double duty.
Like you had a more hectic weekend. You and Kevin had the most hectic weekends of anybody going from the booth in Indy next and then straight, literally like, we don't even go off air as a broadcast. You guys just leave the booth, we swap in, you hop on a golf cart, get run over to pit lane, grab your headset, and then you're straight into the, to the Indy car side of things. So you're learning a whole new series in lights. Sorry, next in terms of, of all the drivers,
Whatever. I've did that so many times. Yeah. Which I think I did that like during the race, like twice to the point where Kevin was like, it's uh, Indy next. And I'm like, I know that same at me. Thank you . I know that it's easy to do,
But Yeah, but you, I mean you had twice as much work as Will Townsend or I did, to be totally honest in terms of the prep and the execution on the day. So you truly got thrown in the deep end and it was, you know, it was an admirable job, my friend, because that was not an easy thing to do. Oh, thanks. You don't get to practice it though, right? Like, and that's something drivers are used to, right?
That we, we talk about this how racing's a dumb sport because it's so hard to practice your craft, right? You don't get to just go practice doing pit lane interviews or practice calling a pit stop. That is all stuff you have to learn on the job. Like you say your audition is at work.
It was, I was so nervous on that first just hot sequence because I look at, you know, use just Joseph. 'cause that's who I was covered one of his, uh, his box and a bunch of the other guys. And I would just be like Joseph's in the two car. However, now when it's on tv, it needs people more informative than that and it's the, the
PPG Chevy Ity racing.
Yeah. And I'm like, uh, okay. And it was just the trying to say it at like totally correct, right? Instead of just like, oh, that's new garden. Or like, I don't know, something very casual, which, you know, not to be disrespectful, but a lot of my relationships with people at the minute are, they're pretty casual. I mean, they're literally people I've raced with for, for years. I mean, and you, you know, it, I mean, you live it every day as well.
Um, so trying to strike that balance of trying to be, you know, really professional because this is my, like, my new role and there's probably a certain standard trying to remember that you could also just walk up to these people and you know, pat 'em on the back. And when I text Scotty Mack that I was doing this, his reply was, I'm gonna come and tap you live on TV . And I'm like, I'm like, I'm terrified because I think you actually might, he
Will do that And it was, I think that's the next step for me is being able to learn to deliver or trust a question that in my mind, I know that I can, uh, can use and then keep it a little more conversational. I was so focused on a good question and making sure that delivery was right and that the, you know, the actual saying the full car name was right. I think that when I reflect a bit is probably the first
thing that jumped out. Um, But, but I gotta say though, man, I always found thinking of what questions to ask in those moments, the most difficult. And I would say that day one, you were better than I currently am today at it. Like, oh, that's your questions very inaccurate, so good. And no, no, no. The what you were asking was so good. And what's, what's so hard about that role sometimes is you've gotta remember that you're not asking for you, you are asking for the people at home, right?
So sometimes you end up asking a question that you know the answer to. Yes. But it's not your answer to give. Right? Yeah. So it's, it's like kind of, it's kind of a mind twist
Man that, uh, on Thursday, oh, was it Thursday or Friday? One of those days. I did three things that I've never done before because this was one of the things that I really noticed, and I don't know a lot of people in the pit lane and through the whole paddock, and I can chat to pretty much anybody at any time. The, the, the shift was that suddenly people were coming directly to me because they had info that they wanted out there.
Right. So I'm like, well, this is like even somehow like a bit of an easier transition than what I expected. They're literally, they're texting me,
Which is, which is great. That's so helpful when they do that. Oh,
It was amazing. So then, uh, Pam calls me and she's like, Hey, come back to the TV compound. So anyway, I get a, I get a lift, I go over there, she's like, you're gonna go meet Tim Shedrick. And I'm like, well, okay. And people need to remember that. That's a guy that I've probably wanted to have a sit down with for like my entire career. Right?
Right. I got invited into the team Penske transporter and sat with Tim for half an hour, which I pr I practically would've given anything to do at any time. We then ended up in the chip GSI hospitality with, uh, with Chip and Mike. Cool. You know, pretty intimate setting, same sort of deal. And then we ended up talking to Dan, uh, as well from Andrea Global.
And you're like, okay, well these are all the people that I've practically been trying to get in front of for years, you know, and a really, you know, intimate sit down way. And people were like, well, you did a lot today. And I'm like, well, yeah, I did my first, you know, commentary in Indy next, well, my first like live pit lane reporting, but I also did three other things that I would've considered as a driver and still Yeah.
You know, trying very much to be one as well to have been like elite level. Like I would've, if Tim had ever texted me before and even replied, I would've, you know, called my family and been like, we'd have been high fiving and things like that. And the, I'm still learning some of these things. It's still so like fresh and whatnot. But it was, I gotta say man, I really did enjoy it like that that's not a, you know, goofy answer. Like, I had so much fun doing it.
Uh, and the group of people that were there were like so fun and getting dinner with everybody, you know, it was just a great, it still feels like I'm just going to goof around with my mates at work. Mm.
Was there, was there any bit of you that's like, Hey, so, um, notice you don't have will signed for next year
Yet, , you know, or , is there a little bit of overlap there?
There was a few questions in our production call where everyone kind of did their quick whip around, which I've n term that I've learned, um, about what is a storyline. And I think perhaps we all felt that, and here we are talking about it now, but perhaps it was a little early in the season to be talking about Will, and now he's got a new management because he doesn't have a contract. And lot of speculation around David, how
Orders been. Are you soft pitching yourself to these guys? You're like, you know how
Things Oh, would've, no, I would, I would've aggressively pitched myself if the opportunity came up , to be honest with you. But no, I mean, it, it was fun. Um, you know, I, what I will say, and I went to Tim a bunch of times through the race and he gave me what I thought was very accurate, very fair info. And, you know, after the race we had a, you know, very brief conversation.
And I think from their perspective is they want to be able to contribute a little bit to the narrative and just being able to ask them, I guess a better question to try and get the answer is just informative for everybody.
Yeah. And that's all part of it, right? That's, that's that that comes with experience too. But it also, like I said before, they as the teams have so much control at the end of the day in the messaging, if they're proactive about finding their, their pit reporters and giving them information.
Absolutely. And it was really interesting to see which teams were the most active in, like, helping with that. Mm-hmm . And I, I can guarantee that who people think it would be versus who it was and not the same.
Yeah. Yeah. Just, just because they run up front doesn't necessarily mean that's how the whole, you know. Yeah. 'cause it's not, doesn't correlate like that necessarily.
No. But I can pinpoint what I think the hardest thing was. And yes.
Tell me, so I hear a lot of things and I don't honestly know how you will and Townsend do it. Like at this stage, I'm so impressed and in awe, which I'm, I'm hoping it's something that I can learn. I don't know how you are having a conversation or delivering an opening or even just finishing a thought while someone else is in your ear. So I'm, I'm listening to the, to the program. So I'm literally hearing it the same as everyone at home's hearing it.
I've got my, my, uh, my camera or my, uh, my display anyway, it's got Called The Jerk, the Jerk Cam.
Yeah, I know your Forward and uh, you know, so then Eric will be like, okay, go down there. So I'll go down to, you know, Christian stand. I'll get a bit of info and then I'll be listening to the program waiting for my time to come on. And then Eric will start counting me in, and then I'll be interviewing, you know, who, whoever. I mean, let's just use Tim again as an example. A guy that I really am interested in what he's saying, and then Eric's continuing to talk to me at that point.
I have not got to the stage yet where I could just hear something while focusing over there. Yeah. Like that to me was, was really hard actually. And people think that when you're racing, you have a lot of voices coming at you, which is so true. I reply when I have time in the car. Right. So if at St. Pete, if they, if I get a radio message going into four, I'm not replying till nine.
Yeah. Exit nine if I don't to exit, exit nine, you know, like if I don't reply to Eric in like a couple seconds Yeah. Or at least let him know that I've got it. Like that's live and like a, you know, in the wrong moment, a three second pause live is kind of weird.
. It's
Very weird. So I just, I don't know how, because I'm sure there was a moment where I was trying to listen to the, it might have even been Joseph, or it was one of Joseph or Christian, one of those two guys. And Eric, like, it wasn't just a quick thing, it was like, count
Along he try tell you something or like give you a direction of a question or something like that. Right.
And, and this happened with Alex Rodriguez, which, Arod which I mean, I mean, what a mega star to like, how
Cool is that?
Get to do that? Yeah. Um, you know, and I'll, I'll, you know, confess, I don't know a lot about baseball mm-hmm . Um, you know, cricket wasn't my sport growing up either. And basically Eric is trying to like, help me say it the correct way. Right. So that like I don
Trying to like coach you through it so that Yeah.
And then I'm trying to understand like what Aron is actually saying, because I mean, what on Idol for so many people, and I feel lucky that I'm getting to do this, but I, I dunno how, I dunno how you all did it, because there was definitely a moment. I wasn't sure, whatever he said, I had my question ready to go. And it, even if it didn't really flow, I, I had my next question because I really couldn't focus on both things at one time. Yet
The, the, the best way I can, I can like analog analogize this. How do you , what's the, what's the word I'm looking for? The best analogy I can share with this. Come on, Tim. You're a word person. Um, is I
Was enjoying just watching you struggle.
Yeah. I, I'm not, I I'm on very little sleep pal. Uh, you know, like the first time you drive on a short oval in an Indy car, right. And things just come at you so frigging fast and you are taking all of your mental capacity just to make the left turns right. They come in and you say, what was it about? Like, I think it was under Sir, you like, did you try the bar? You're like, no, I didn't try the bar. Did you try the weight jacker? I forgot it had a weight.
Jacker . I was just trying to not hit the walls.
Yeah. and you're adjusting the car end to end and everything just makes sense. Right. It's the same thing. All that stuff's gonna just become so second nature that it'll be like pop, pop, pop. Um, uh, I will say, oh, I, I want to ask, what was your highlight and then what was your honest lowlight of the ?
Um, I think the, the highlight really just from a, like a broader perspective getting to do, and I, I know we're gonna finesse this a little bit over time, getting to do like a little bit of a grid walk. I mean, you know, I've always thought that was really cool.
Uh, especially on Formula One. You know, when Martin Brule does hear the, he is, even though they're chaotic, he still seems smooth and he seems cool and really didn't realize how short two, two minutes was, you know, and to go from a, you know, Olympic medalist. Now granted I did, I wasn't aware of how big Shinedown were. Right? I knew that with Felix this weekend, but then to, to get to speak to Arod in any capacity I thought was really, really quite cool.
Um, so I would probably say he was the highlight mm-hmm . Most likely. Uh, what was my low light? I, I think I, no one prepped me for how like my voice and my throat is so sore and I, I was not ready for that. Or the lack of sleep or how nervous I was. My, actually no. My, my low light was standing at the grid with Patto waiting for this interview to start off my, I main race broadcast debut.
My legs were shaking so bad that like, there was a moment where I wanted to just like lean my arm on Po just to like, help prop me up. Like when I say like, I wanted to do, well, like, that was it. So probably my, my high and lows and they probably happened within Yeah. Four minutes of each other. It's
A hell of a rollercoaster this TV business, lemme tell you. But yeah. And
Then I sent Jamie this funny gif that I saw on, uh, Instagram Star Wars themed. That's, I, that was one thing I wanted to get one Star Wars reference in every show, and I already failed , so that's a bummer. And, uh, but I can't even say it 'cause Tim didn't want the extra work , but it's basically called He's
Given, he's given you permission on this one.
I, I saw it. I, and I don't need it to be told twice on that. It's called a <inaudible>.
Okay. going great, keeps going great. And it's like, where's the bad thing? Ah, okay. Yeah.
Yeah. So anyway, that, that, I thought that was funny and I just kind of kept trying to kick the can down the road. Yeah. And I think I woke up this morning finally feeling all of it, but I, I gotta say to man, like, it was fun. And I think your analogy on the, you know, the short oval and his team are like, did you try to buy, like, I completely forgot that I had them. Yeah,
A hundred where you've gone on them just epic qualifying laps where they're like, how's the balance? You're like, I have no idea. I was on pole. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I'll have to watch it back on video and see like what my hands are doing. Someone said, what was your favorite question? I'm like, I, I honestly can't remember mm-hmm . So too many, I hope hoping all that . You had too many, honestly, I'm still, I'm still, I am in awe of how well you did on that for your first crack at
It. You guys are just really like, honestly, I, no, I wanna amend my highlight. My highlight was how gracious you all were with your help. And I, I said this a couple times, but between all of you, I felt like I was swimming, you know, upstream, but through everyone and taking the time to chat and share, suddenly I was like, you know what, I'm, I'm in a boat and I've got a paddle to go with it. So it was, that was super cool actually. And
You got a bunch of other people with paddles helping. Yeah. I mean, we're all there, man. We're all,
Oh man, it, it was so cool.
We're all rowing the boat in the same direction. Well, look man, I mean the, the, the, uh, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. And again, if anything, I hope a lot of people listen to this because I hope a lot of people, anyone that maybe was like, oh, I don't know, he seemed a little, this seemed a little, that it's like, understand that when we get these jobs, they give you no preparation. Like you are doing it for the first time. Yeah.
On network television in front of millions, question mark, hopefully of people. Right. So, um, I thought you handled it great, man, and
Oh, thank It was fun to watch and, and, uh, really, really happy to get to have you on the team and be a part of it. How did you enjoy the first show?
I mean, it was, it was chaotic man, you know, look, first, first week with, with everything that's new, uh, there was always gonna be, you know, some little fires to be putting out. But at the same time what was so impressive about this group and you know, a lot of 'em, Jack, I haven't known much longer than you have, right? I mean, my deal only got done in beginning of January and so, um, the team only got fully assembled a few weeks ago. But it is, it is a very, very good group.
Everybody's taking care of each other. Everyone knows it's a team effort. You know, no one's dogging on anybody, no one's, you know, getting mad at the things that may have gone wrong or may have could have been better.
This is a learning experience and uh, that's something I think the fans are going to see and notice as, as this year goes on, I think by the time, you know, you and I get to Indie and May, the broadcast is gonna look, sound, and feel pretty different already than, than what you guys have seen. So I'm excited and, uh, hopefully you're excited and you still have this, you still have this youthful enthusiasm about it, .
'cause you're only one race in, let's see, once we finish our fourth consecutive six hour practice day at Indy. Yeah.
how, how into
On, we get him on after Nashville. It's just the long drag of the cigarette. Like Can't stand talking to Tim Cric, man, ,
This Tim Cric guy won't stop texting me. It's really annoying.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like the one time he actually you've wanted him to text you for like Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Oh, how things have changed.
Yeah. How I always, I always, I meant to ask you this when I was with you. So you and will have known each other for a long time, right?
Yeah. We've known each other sort of casually for a while, but then we started working together in 22, and that's when we got much closer.
Uh, okay. So I was curious how like that transition from Lee to Will has been like for you because on the, on the program and on the show, it sounds really good already. Yeah, that's, so that's a pretty pivotal person to like, change up in that, in that group.
It's the quarterback man. I mean, if you, if you look at, at the broadcast program, the broadcast team, like a football team, that's, that's the quarterback. And you know, I was so fortunate that my kind of introduction to this world was under the tutelage of Lee Diffy because that guy is an absolute legend of this business. He'll be in the sports broadcasting hall of fame for sure, and was such a cool guy to learn from.
And then, and you know, will was kind of that same thing for me when I first got to F1. You know, that was a, everything you just described about going to, to St. Pete, that's what I had when I went to Austin. I didn't know where to go. I didn't know the people, I didn't know the terminology. I didn't know anyone in the, but, but I didn't even know anyone in the paddock either. Yeah, right. It was, it was brand, brand new. I'd never driven the car. Like I knew nothing.
And Will was the guy that really put his arm around me and took me around and, and all that. And so, um, I felt like I was able to kind of do the same back and reciprocate a little bit. And that first day especially was going around showing him where things are, who people are trying to make some introductions. But he is a pro, and this is not his first time, you know, it is his first time leading this kind of broadcast certainly. But I thought he stepped into the role incredibly well.
And you know, the fact that Townsend and I have that working relationship from the last few years definitely helps. But, uh, again, it, it's just gonna keep sounding smoother and smoother and better and better as we go on. So I love it. I'm excited man. I'm excited for the rest of the year. Thank you. And the future. And so, uh, yeah, again, welcome to the, welcome to this side of the business. Welcome to the base. Yes. At Show Biz Baby. Here we are. Yes, let's go. We're doing it. Nice.
And, uh, yeah, glad you enjoyed it, man. And can't wait to get to Thermal and we'll do it all over again.
Yes, sir. Thank you. I'm excited.
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