This week’s The Race IndyCar Podcast features a frank and honest interview with Al Unser Jr following the release of his book A Checkered Past, while newly crowned Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood is also featured. Unser Jr - joined by his book's author Jade Gurss on this episode - addresses some of the high moments of his career, along with the low points which included mental health battles, substance abuse, arrests and he even contemplating suicide on his 50th birthday. Having found religio...
Oct 06, 2021•39 min
On this week’s show we look back at a dramatic Long Beach series finale, and new IndyCar champion Alex Palou joins to give one of his first interviews since claiming the crown. Speaking the morning after his fourth-place sealed a maiden IndyCar championship in his second season and first with Chip Ganassi Racing, Palou discusses his journey to the title, the role of his team, his friendly rivalry with Pato O’Ward and how he made it through the season without using one of his best traits. Elsewhe...
Sep 28, 2021•46 min
In a special crossover episode with The Race F1 Podcast, Jack Benyon joins Edd Straw to discuss Romain Grosjean's newly-confirmed move to Andretti Autosport and his prospects for 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 24, 2021•31 min
Romain Grosjean’s starring performance at Laguna Seca and a narrowed-down title fight between Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward at Long Beach are the key talking points on The Race IndyCar Podcast this week. Two-thirds of the way through a rapid-fire IndyCar showdown on the west coast, hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand detail Colton Herta’s win, how he has the ability to be dominant on certain weekends and the way he’s able to develop his car set-up to suit his style. With O’Ward’s late-race Laguna s...
Sep 23, 2021•42 min
Lap one chaos that sent the leaders to the back and led to crashes, diverse strategies and a come from behind winner made for an epic IndyCar race at Portland. Hosts JR Hildebrand and Jack Benyon assess the decision making behind sending drivers who had done nothing wrong at the start to the back because of a rule prioritising those who made Turn 1 and 2, and whether it is the right thing to do. The duo take a look at the championship implications after a woeful race for Pato O’Ward meant Alex P...
Sep 15, 2021•48 min
This week’s The Race IndyCar Podcast features an interview with comeback star Oliver Askew and a preview of this weekend’s Portland race, the first of a three race stint to end the season. Askew tells host Jack Benyon about his journey, through losing his Arrow McLaren SP drive last year and battling through a concussion, to nearly 12 months on when he has earned a comeback to race the last three races in a plumb seat with Rahal Letterman Lanigan. JR Hildebrand joins Benyon to discuss Ferrari te...
Sep 09, 2021•40 min
Marcus Ericsson joins this week’s episode to discuss his breakthrough season that has yielded two wins, 10 top-10s in 13 races and a genuine shot at the championship with three races left. Ericsson jokes with podcast co-hosts JR Hildebrand and Jack Benyon that they are due credit for his “extra motivation” in the second half of the year after they left him out of their mid-season driver rankings top 10. With Ericsson and his crew forming a new team within Chip Ganassi Racing for 2020, the evolut...
Sep 01, 2021•31 min
The latest episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast takes a look at a bonkers Gateway round where driving standards were in the spotlight and Romain Grosjean made his oval debut. Regular host and strong short oval driver JR Hildebrand is joined by The Race’s American Editor Jack Benyon, as the pair assess Scott Dixon’s claims that driving in 2021 has been “crazy and erratic” at times. The race was littered with crashes and contact, one of which wiped out Dixon and erstwhile points leader Alex Palou. ...
Aug 24, 2021•39 min
The driver with the IndyCar points momentum, Arrow McLaren SP's Pato O’Ward, joins this week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast. As part of our review of last weekend’s Indianapolis road course event, O’Ward gives his take on a race where he couldn’t convert pole position and stumbled to fifth, but did cut Alex Palou’s points lead from 48 to just 21 points. Joining American Editor Jack Benyon and co-host JR Hildebrand, O’Ward also talks about becoming the talisman of the Arrow McLaren SP team...
Aug 18, 2021•50 min
The bizarre and exciting debut of the Nashville street circuit is the hot topic on this week’s The Race IndyCar Podcast. JR Hildebrand and The Race’s American Editor Jack Benyon assess Marcus Ericsson’s drive from a crash, stop-go penalty and then on to victory with a sublime drive holding off weekend standout Colton Herta. Ericsson especially has impressed the hosting team with his recent form. Herta’s late crash and his approach to the end of the race is also looked at, as is the interpretatio...
Aug 12, 2021•58 min
Following his oval test debut and amid strong silly season rumours about his future, series rookie Romain Grosjean joins The Race IndyCar Podcast this week. Dale Coyne Racing driver Grosjean has emerged as the most coveted star on the free agency market for 2022 after the strong start to his IndyCar career, and he gave The Race the inside track on all of the intricacies behind his decision making for next year. Going full-time is not totally decided yet as he continues to discuss if doing ovals ...
Aug 03, 2021•41 min
Josef Newgarden’s title chances after finally breaking his and Team Penske’s 2021 winless streak is the main topic of this week’s episode looking back at IndyCar action from Mid-Ohio. Hosts JR Hildebrand and Jack Benyon look at the numbers behind the remaining races for Newgarden, and if finally breaking his run of bad luck brings him into the title picture. Chip Ganassi Racing had three cars in the top four at Mid-Ohio and has Alex Palou leading the points and Scott Dixon in third. Could that b...
Jul 08, 2021•48 min
IndyCar championship leader Alex Palou joins us for the first part of this week's episode, before JR Hildebrand and Jack Benyon debate the top 10 drivers of the season so far. Palou joins Jack to discuss his meteoric rise from Europe through Super Formula and now IndyCar where he has been one of the standout drivers of the year in his first season with the team. JR and Jack then count down their joint top 10 of the best drivers of the year so far, with each person taking a slightly different app...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 32 min
With exciting debuts and stand-ins, a dramatic finish where the long-term leader suffered and Penske again failed to break its 2021 winless streak, there’s plenty to discuss from IndyCar’s Road America round. Regular co-host JR Hildebrand breaks down what he thought was the weekend’s stand out performance from ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean, assessing his learning curve with the latest development being his opportunistic braking leading to multiple overtakes. Hildebrand and American Editor Jack Be...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 1 min
It was an explosive weekend of drama in the Detroit double-header, with Pato O’Ward storming through to win race two after a controversial ending led to a first IndyCar win for ex-F1 driver Marcus Ericsson. Through all the drama, series powerhouse Team Penske came close on both days but still failed to get a first win on the board in 2021. JR Hildebrand - after being on the ground in Detroit - joins The Race American Editor Jack Benyon to discuss some of the key topics like Will Power’s outburst...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr 4 min
The Race IndyCar Podcast goes behind the scenes of the upstart team that won the Indianapolis 500, Meyer Shank Racing, with its co-owner Mike Shank, who also helps with listeners' questions in this special episode. Shank discusses the celebrations from the Indy 500, what the result means to the team, how its technical tie-up with Honda and Andretti Autosport was crucial for success and what direction the squad is set to take in the future. What’s next for four-time winner Helio Castroneves is al...
Jun 08, 2021•1 hr 3 min
The Race IndyCar Podcast takes a look at the 105th Indianapolis 500 with JR Hildebrand bringing his perspective from the race where he finished in the top 15. The Race American Editor Jack Benyon quizzes co-host Hildebrand on driving for AJ Foyt and Tony Stewart, how the new aero package impacted the racing and his take on how the race played out from the cockpit. The duo talk Helio Castroneves and his young team Meyer Shank Racing in detail, as well as assessing the ‘claiming victory from defea...
Jun 02, 2021•55 min
In a special episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast, Al Unser Jr stars to talk about his and Penske's 1994 Indianapolis 500 victory. The event is significant mainly due to the shock the Ilmor-built Mercedes-badged engine produced. Built in secret, it exploited the rulebook with bigger displacement and turbo boost than its rivals. Whether its parts being flown on a World War 2 fighter jet and Concorde to reach Penske, a scuba-diving holiday that helped trigger an engineering breakthrough or the 'Taj...
May 27, 2021•1 hr 19 min
IndyCar racer JR Hildebrand and The Race's American racing correspondent Jack Benyon look back on qualifying for the Indy 500, and look ahead to how the race could play out on Sunday. JR also gives his insights into his own programme with AJ Foyt Racing, having successfully qualified for the race! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 25, 2021•1 hr 2 min
This week on the IndyCar Podcast, co-host JR Hildebrand gives you an expert preview ahead of what will be his 11th attempt to qualify for the Indy 500. Ahead of starting practice this week, Hildebrand gives you some insider tips in what to look for, how to asses the practice order and how to gain the most from the week’s action as a viewer, also helping to explain the complicated schedule of the 500. As ever Hildebrand is joined by American Editor Jack Benyon and the duo also look back on the In...
May 20, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Romain Grosjean joins The Race IndyCar Podcast this week ahead of his return to the championship at Indianapolis this weekend. After two races in America, Grosjean confirmed to the podcast that “if you ask me right now what I think, I think that I'm going to stay” in IndyCar beyond his one-year deal. He outlines in detail how he’s changed his driving style and training to adapt from Formula 1 to IndyCar, the standard of the opposition and if any of them deserve a Formula 1 chance, and his love o...
May 11, 2021•25 min
Pato O’Ward’s drive to Texas victory provides the main talking point for this episode of The Race’s IndyCar podcast, which also bagged the driver a Formula 1 test courtesy of Zak Brown. Indianapolis 500 regular JR Hildebrand joins co-host and The Race’s American Editor Jack Benyon to break down an exciting double header on the 1.5-mile oval, after which half of the series' oval races are now complete with Scott Dixon being the other race winner. The hosts assess who was to blame for some of the ...
May 05, 2021•52 min
IndyCar rising star Colton Herta dominated the Grand Prix of St Petersburg, and even the series' most established stars are picking him out as a fierce championship rival in the future. IndyCar driver JR Hildebrand joins The Race’s Jack Benyon to break down the storylines from St Pete and answer listeners' questions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 27, 2021•1 hr 4 min
IndyCar driver JR HIldebrand and The Race's Jack Benyon look back on the 2021 IndyCar season opener from Barber Motorsports Park, including a detailed analysis of how ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean performed on his first weekend in the series. IndyCar lead commentator Leigh Diffey also stops by to discuss the health of the series and its direction of travel under the leadership of Roger Penske. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 20 min
IndyCar podium finisher and Indy Lights champion JR Hildebrand has joined The Race to co-host its new IndyCar podcast in 2021. The Race’s American Editor Jack Benyon will join Hildebrand each episode to follow the key storylines emerging from the championship. In this instalment the duo take on the changes in the off season and how any behind the scenes alterations might impact the championship’s big three teams, which always start the season as favourites. Andretti Autosport's intriguing driver...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 11 min
New for 2021: The Race Indycar Podcast. Join us for the latest news, views and reviews as hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand discuss all matters Indycar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 24, 2021•3 min
