It's Not the Car

Little ditty... 'bout a race and a Speedway! Two Indy names, growin’ up in the heartland. Race gonna make the front page of the Indy Star? Speedway gonna something something… uh... museum... race... car! Yeah, sure, that makes sense! Don't tell me if it doesn't? The story of the first Indy 500 holds a lot of things—death, sand, smoke, around a million blown tires—but it does not hold John Mellenca...

Remember the time you almost died because your hotted-up old Camarobird got all loose and stabby up at Dead Man’s Cul de Sac? Or maybe it was Turn 45 at Laguna Merrica. Either way, there you were, boppin’ along like a lap-wreckered Versteppy, when you nearly bought the farm. “She handled like trash that day,” you told the cops/the race steward/that fry cook at Burger Queen. “No idea why.” And the...

INTC is on a short break, so we're dishing up an encore presentation of some of our favorite stories! This show originally aired in June of 2024. *** Once, a long time ago, a brave man went to a beach and tried to drive faster than anyone ever had. He did not survive. This is his story.  This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic mom...

While the INTC gang is on a short break, we're dishing up an encore presentation of some of our favorite stories! This episode originally aired in April of 2024. *** Once, in the 1990s, an Italian carmaker hadn’t gone sports-car racing in 20 years. Maybe they were too busy figuring out new ways to make a 348 catch fire or something. Then some influential folks made a few expressive hand gestur...

INTC is on a short break, so we're dishing up an encore presentation of some of our favorite stories! This episode originally aired August 13, 2024 . Guts, hot-rodders, and the legendary Carroll Shelby—it's a good one! *** In the summer of 1965, a V-8-powered love song from California dethroned Ferrari, shut up the haters, and won America its first FIA manufacturer’s road-racing championsh...

The perfect race driver doesn't exist. But great drivers *try* to be perfect. How? We'll tell you! In the form of a spicy excerpt from “Ultimate Speed Secrets," the best-selling performance book by INTC co-host Ross Bentley! (Bonus: Saucy stories from Ross's coaching past!) (Disclaimer: Said excerpt and stories may be neither spicy nor saucy!) This show’s format rotates weekly, be...

When Chris Andrews was a NASCAR Cup Series engineer, he worked hand-in-hand with drivers like Robby Gordon and Carl Edwards. In his current job, Andrews is lead engineer for Vasser Sullivan’s championship-winning IMSA Lexus team. And man, does Chris have *stories*. Chris first hit the show last fall, when he shared killer tales of illegal race-car foolery. ( INTC #46, “How NASCAR Cheats." ) And no...

It’s “Top Gun” on wheels, almost beat for beat. It’s awful. It’s great. And it’s a racing flick, so this ep must be… The return of the INTC Movie Club! SPECIAL GUEST CO-HOST:  Kyle Kinard, formerly of Road & Track magazine. (Kyle’s last time here was INTC Ep. 26, “When Sam Drove Alonso’s F1 Car.”) IN THIS EPISODE:  The story of Tom's Cruise’s 1990 cinematic assterpiece “Days of Thunder” — ...

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. Topics this week: What are the three most important things a beginning track-day driver should focus on? Is it possible to give yourself extra mental bandwidth while driving at speed? And how do you pull feedback from a car—an EV, for example—that...

“Why did I rob banks? Because I enjoyed it. I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life.” That’s Willie Sutton, the famous 1930s bank robber. Over a 40-year career in the field of unlawful arts, he personally stole a fortune, at gunpoint, from dozens of financial institutions. He never killed anyone, and he spent more than half his life in p...

Colorado, 2025: An IndyCar veteran enters a stanky old stock car in the world’s most famous hillclimb. On his own dime, with his dad as crew. Because he wanted make a point. Also: Because fun. 800 horses! An ex-Kyle Petty 1990s Winston Cup car! And JR Hildebrand, your 2011 Indy 500 rookie of the year. He finished fourth in class in Colorado, 16th overall. Later, Kurt Busch and Kyle Petty rang his...

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 Fra...

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...

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 pow...

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....

“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 S...

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. Jef...

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 “R...

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 squ...

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...

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 fr...

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...

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...

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 an...

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...