Once, Jeff and Robby Unser tried to qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500. Jeff was the engineer. Unser was the driver.

The car stunk to high heaven.

Unser was scared.

This is that story.

Here now, one man’s experience with the epically uncompetitive Riley & Scott Mk. VII Indy Racing League Indy car. Has Jeff Braun—esteemed INTC host, legendary bus driver, and championship-winning race engineer—met a worse race car? He says no.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Tells a Story.”

Related trivia: Want to read Jeff’s test notes and see his spreadsheets and setup from that Indy 500 attempt? We’ve published those docs on our Patreon. Check ’em out—link below!

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Gossip time! Why did Ross steal that Ferrari from Chip Ganassi? Just who dropped that tire on Jeff's toe at Daytona and became his sworn enemy for life? Which aging F1 driver did Sam give a wedgie to in the pits at Lime Rock? Listen and find out!

(Warning: This episode may not actually contain the above information.)

This episode's working title was "The Dumbest Things We've Seen in Racing." When we sat down at the mic, it got way more interesting—a discussion about high-pressure environments, room for error, and how "dumb" doesn't always mean what you think.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This format is called “Ross and Jeff Teach Sam a Thing."

Related Trivia: Jeff was at Mosport this weekend with the AWA IMSA Corvettes. Ross was coaching LMP2 remotely from his home in Seattle. Sam was at Road America for the WeatherTech vintage races. Only one of them spilled a Siebken's Root Beer on his shoes and doesn't regret it.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon

⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Well, Timmy, when a rubber molecule and a piece of earth love each other very much, they do a special hug, see, and . . . uh . . . hysteresis . . . wait, no, it’s heat cycles . . . er . . . glass point?

Short answer: Magic! Tires are magic!

Warning: We get lightly tech-nerdy here.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This format is called “Instant Expert.” Know squat about the topic? Pull up a chair, we’ll get you up to speed. Expert already? Grab a chair anyway, it’s chill, we got stories.

Related Trivia: We taped this a few weeks ago, shortly after Sam threw out his back while washing a car.

Related Trivia to the Related Trivia: This episode was made possible by prescription pharmaceuticals. Just like Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.”

Unrelated Gibbering: Long-chain rubber molecules keep us together! Don’t stop thinking about temps and pressures—you can inflate your own way! (Check the forecast prior, though: Thunder only happens when it’s wet enough for rain tires, etc.)

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon

www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Once, an English retiree made Ferrari and Red Bull mad. He looked like an accountant and wore dad sweaters. The team he ran was a down-on-its-luck collection of castoffs and pirates; in their very first season, they risked everything and landed the impossible.

Sound like a sports movie? Conveniently, the whole thing was basically a cross between “Major League,” the Paul Newman hockey classic “Slap Shot,” and that scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where all the faces melt.

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’s the remarkable story of Brawn GP—the only F1 team to win two titles in its first (and only!) season.

Related Trivia: Ross Bentley and Ross Brawn have the same initials. If you mispronounce Jeff Braun’s last name, it sounds like “Brawn.” Sam has no brawn on his body whatsoever, but he very much loves that moment in “Slap Shot” where the ref hands the hero team the trophy as he calls them all bums.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

If someone offered you a chance to drive one of the fastest race cars on earth, would you do it?

The catch: If you screw up, your boss will shut down your office and fire you and everyone you work with.

Also, you have the entire Indianapolis Motor Speedway to yourself and McLaren-Mercedes people are watching and judging and SERIOUSLY JUST RELAX ALREADY.

Once, Sam belted into a 2007 McLaren MP4-22 Formula 1 car. With the tiny deafening V-8 and the anti-stall and the goofy hand clutch. The car blew his mind, but quietly. He wrote about the day for Road & Track. And in this episode, he is peppered with questions about all of it.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep’s framework “Sam Tells a Story.”

Ross and Jeff couldn’t make this one, so Sam is joined here by INTC friend and former R&T staffer Kyle Kinard. Kyle is smart and funny, and he was at Indy for that test.

Related Trivia: Kinard’s nickname at R&T was “Kinardi,” after former IndyCar driver Alex Zanardi. The backstory is not ours to share, but it does involve—coincidence alert!—a McLaren and significant personal clenching.

Car magazines, y’all! It’s a weird gig.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

It’s another “No Dumb Questions!” You email us to ask, we sit down to answer. There are no dumb questions, but there might be some dumb answers.

Today’s focus is . . . Formula 1 drivers! What makes one better than another?

Mistakes, for one thing. No room for error in the big leagues. Unless you’re Lance Stroll, in which case, well . . . his pops owns the team, so . . .

UGH, DAD, I TOLD YOU, I CLEANED MY ROOM ALREADY BUT THEN DANNY RIC CAME IN AND MESSED IT UP IT’S ALL HIS FAULT.

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. For this episode, we’re borrowing the No Dumb Questions framework from Ross’s old “Speed Secrets” podcast.

Related Trivia: This is our 25th episode! NDQ normally lives on this show’s Patreon (link below), but we felt like celebrating.

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman. Jeff, Ross, and Sam are not his dads; that would be nepotism. Or the 1987 Touchstone Pictures film “Three Men and a Baby,” which starred Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Steve Guttenberg.

Jeff would definitely be the Danson character in that scenario. Or maybe that’s Ross? Sam is probably Selleck, but only because he’s dreaming now, Selleck had a rad mustache in that flick and Sam has never been able to grow a proper lip rug. The one time he tried, he ended up looking like a cross between Pablo Escobar and a child hobo.

(No one here is *ever* the Guttenberg.)

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Everything you always wanted to know about a sliding car but were too cool / afraid / busy paying for a chunk of Armco to ask.

Okay, maybe not *everything*.

Popular questions not addressed herein: Why is a slide? Who I win track day? Is them car better have more dinner-roll stiffness?

Have you ever really *looked* at your hands?

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode’s format is called “Instant Expert.” Know squat about the topic? Pull up a chair, we’ll bring you up to speed. Expert already? Pull up a chair anyway, it’s chill, you’re among friends, we got stories.

And none of us have ever, ever made a mistake in a race car and we are all perfect and know everything why do you ask?

Related Trivia: Sam usually says some stuff here, but he threw out his back two days ago while washing his wife’s VW and the prescription painkillers have him even more of a gibberbot than usual. Also please feel free to make jokes about the kind of person who might injure themselves while… washing a car.

Scrippy drugs ain’t hurt his writes ability though, gsgflippa fruppo see if I don’t!

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.

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.

Perhaps you saw the date in this episode’s title and thought, “The 1920s? Prehistoric! Swipe left, bruh, yuck!” Which is definitely a take.

Some people think the past is a dull place. Nothing to do with who we are or where we’re going.

Those people are—if you’ll pardon my French—stupid.

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, the story of Welshman John Parry-Thomas and the 180-mph stack of steel and chains that killed him.

Related Trivia: A YouTube commenter asked how old Sam is. Sam is 43 years old. Everyone who hears that is surprised. (Insert joke here.)

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

https://www.instagram.com/intcpod

https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/

https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/

https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/

⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod

https://rossbentley.substack.com/

https://speedsecrets.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.