The Race IndyCar Podcast

The Race IndyCar Podcast is back as the championship’s hotly anticipated new-season kicked off with drama aplenty last weekend at St Petersburg. Whether it was falling out of his car in victory lane, doing a shoey or tearfully praising his parents who he hasn’t seen since January 2020, Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin was an endearing maiden winner and forms the crux of the podcast. Overcoming an ev...

We're getting excited for another year of IndyCar racing with a special episode on everything you need to know ahead of the 2022 season starting at St Petersburg this weekend. Co-hosts Jack Benyon and JR Hildebrand run through the driver and team changes, evaluating some of the most interesting swaps and moves. Rule changes and bargeboards are also part of the run-down, while the drivers desperate...

The Race IndyCar Podcast returns from a short winter hiatus with double series champion and Team Penske star Josef Newgarden headlining this episode. Having narrowly missed out on the last two championships to Chip Ganassi Racing rivals, Newgarden joins The Race American Editor Jack Benyon and podcast co-host JR Hildebrand to assess his chances this season. Newgarden is quizzed on the loss of his...

This week’s episode is all about you, with a special episode dedicated to answering listeners' questions from the world of IndyCar and American motorsport. JR Hildebrand and The Race’s American Editor Jack Benyon take on topics like ‘which drivers are not in IndyCar that should be’, ‘what should IndyCar do to stop the demise of ovals’ and JR talks about what it feels like to race in the Indy 500 a...

Having both revealed their rankings for the top 10 drivers of the year, The Race IndyCar Podcast hosts JR Hildebrand and Jack Benyon explain their respective orders on this week's special episode. Each host’s top 10s are merged and averaged out to create a joint top 10 ranking for the season. Hildebrand and Benyon explain their respective rankings, what impressed them (or didn’t) about the drivers...

This week we're joined by David Salters, the ex-Ferrari Formula 1 engineer now heading up Honda’s American motorsports division. Salters, who became President of Honda Performance Development in late 2020, joins to reflect on a second straight season of the firm winning the IndyCar title and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year, extending its series streak of manufacturers' title wins to four in...

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, s...

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...

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.

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...

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. T...

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...

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 t...

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 litt...

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 a...

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. H...

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...

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 t...

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 j...

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 b...

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 - joi...

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 direct...

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 an...

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...

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.