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Young drivers express concerns over future of All-Star aero package

Four of NASCAR’s top young drivers expressed reservations Friday about moving forward with the high-drag/downforce aero package in future races.

While Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell all agreed on the entertainment value of the aero package — which was highly popular with fans in the recent All-Star Race — they said it wouldn’t be fitting for the Cup Series unless tweaks were made.

“As a race car driver, it’s pretty easy to drive,” Bowman said. “We’re the premier stock car series in the world, so obviously you would like it to be a little more difficult to drive. You don’t just want to go everywhere and be wide open.”

The aero package was first used at the Indianapolis Xfinity race last season and most recently at Charlotte for the All-Star Race, which drew widespread praise from fans. It will also be used in Saturday’s Xfinity race at Pocono and next week’s Xfinity race at Michigan.

Drivers also expressed confidence NASCAR will try it again in the Cup Series this season, perhaps even at multiple races later this summer.

But while it might make for a better show, it also brings up a major dilemma: The level of difficulty is decreased.

“We’re all race car drivers; we want to show we’re the best,” said Bell, who has won the last two Chili Bowls and last year’s Truck Series title. “You can’t (show) that when you’re not pushing the issue of the tire and you’re not grip-limited. Whenever you’re not getting the most out of your race car, it’s just a different style of racing. It almost becomes more of chess racing, so to speak.”

Wallace said he saw a post on social media that said the dream of reaching the Cup Series meant being at a superior level, and the All-Star Race felt more like jumping into a local Saturday night race. The Richard Petty Motorsports driver agreed with that assessment.

“If you had the need for speed and decent car control, anybody could have driven that,” Wallace said. “And it shouldn’t be like that when you get up to the big leagues. You know: ‘I can play with LeBron; I can match him.’”

Blaney said the cars were “a little easy to drive” in the All-Star Race and preferred it to be more challenging. Like the others, he praised NASCAR for trying to improve the racing but said changes would be needed  — whether it’s more horsepower or less downforce — to keep more of an emphasis on handling.

That’s the balance that will be hotly debated in racing circles over the coming months as NASCAR tries to figure out which direction it should go. What matters more: The show or the purity of the racing?

“(The All-Star Race) was a great race, and the fans are why we’re here and why we’re allowed to be paid to be race car drivers,” Bowman said. “From that side of things, I loved it. … You have to look at what’s best for the sport, and making the race fans happy is what’s best for not only me, but everybody in this room.”

Kaz Grala, listening to Bell and fellow Xfinity driver Matt Tifft talk about their expectations for Saturday’s race with a similar package, said he was confident the racing would be entertaining.

“I’m sure it’s going to be very exciting to watch,” Grala said. “We’re all just biased because we like to have more control in our hands.”

MORE: Analysis on whether adding more downforce is the right direction in racing

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How I Got Here with Cara Adams

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Each week, I ask a member of the motorsports community to shed some light on their career path and journey to reach their current position. Up this week: Cara Adams, chief engineer for Bridgestone Americas Motorsports. This interview was recorded as a podcast, but is transcribed for those who prefer to read.

What does your job currently entail?

Myself and my team of mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, chemists and technicians, we design and develop all of the tires used in the Verizon IndyCar Series. So there’s a lot of work that goes on back in Akron, Ohio where our home base is, and tire production and tire testing — all of those things we do to develop the tires. We come to all of the IndyCar Series races to make sure everything is going well with the tires, (talk to) anybody who has any questions and make sure the drivers can get the most performance out of their tires.

How did this whole thing get started for you? Did you grow up and have this as your dream?

My grandfather was an engineer on the launch team for NASA. He got to work on the space shuttle missions, the Apollo missions, and I always thought NASA would be really cool. I didn’t know much about racing. My family are not sports people. We’re not into sports-ing. (Laughs) They didn’t really watch much racing, if any.

When I went to school for engineering, I wandered down into the machine shop in the basement of the University of Akron’s engineering building, and they were putting something together. I was asking them about what it was, and it was a Formula SAE car (a student-designed race car competition). They were doing all of the machining, all of the designing and I didn’t know much about cars or tools or anything at all. All I knew was something about rebuilding a carburetor was what you did with cars. My dad had an old Volkswagen Beetle and all he did was rebuild that carburetor.

So I started to learn machine tools. That’s where I learned to use a mill, a lathe, all of that. We built the car, I got to drive in a friend’s fast car and between that and driving in the SAE car and then winning tickets on the radio to go see a Champ Car race, I just fell in love with the mechanics of the car. How the car worked, how the car shifted under load — those are the things I really fell in love with.

What would have happened in your life had you never gone down in the basement and seen that car?

I don’t know. I think I might have gone the route my little sister has. She’s actually an engineer for Boeing and she works on finite element analysis and now she’s doing project management for Boeing. So I might have gone the airplane route had I never gotten interested in the cars.

Once you were interested in cars and got out of college, what was the first step in your career?

When I first graduated, there weren’t too many jobs in the automotive field. It was right after a downturn. I ended up at Bridgestone and I was working in our tire vehicle dynamics group. Now, I knew Bridgestone/Firestone had a phenomenal history in motorsports; I didn’t realize how far back it went. I didn’t realize it went all the way back to the 1911 Indy 500, when Ray Harroun and his Marmon Wasp drove to victory on Firestone tires. But I did know they were in Champ Car at the time and they were in IndyCar, so I did know there was that history there.

When I started with the company, I basically talked to the manager at the time and said, “I really, really want to work in race tire development. How can I get that role? What do I need to be able to do? What are you looking for in your ideal engineer?” So he went back and talked to some of his engineers, and he said, “Well, we really want somebody who understands vehicle dynamics, somebody who can do programming — specifically MATLAB (engineering software) — and somebody who understands tire force moment behavior.

I thought, “OK, well I have a little bit of vehicle dynamics background. I don’t know much about force moment behavior at all. But I’m going to learn.” So I just spent nights and weekends (studying), and any kind of project I could volunteer for at my vehicle dynamics job that might involve me in racing later, I did.

So you were basically taking your free time to learn whatever you could and better yourself in order to further your goal?

Yeah. (It was) “I don’t have that job yet, but until I have it, I’m going to buy the textbooks and take notes.” My husband was always laughing at me (because I was) writing down notes for something I wasn’t actually doing yet.

I also did a lot of rebuilding of cars on my own. So that helped me get to the point where once I got into IndyCar, I could relate to the mechanics, I could relate to the engineers. Because I understood what it meant to rebuild an engine and some of the stuff that goes into making your suspension improved.

A young Cara Adams spent her spare time rebuilding cars, like this Chrysler Sebring, to enhance her vehicle knowledge in hopes of landing a job in racing. (Courtesy Cara Adams)

So what was your big break between the time this started to become a dream and the time it became a reality for you?

I’m not sure if there was one single big break. But there was one person who moved on from race tire development over to production, and that job became available. When I went in to interview, it was like I had the answer key. I had already talked to the team to know what they needed, so I walked in there and it was like, “Now I know a whole lot about vehicle dynamics, I can program really well in MATLAB and I volunteered for a program to build a force moment tire model of a passenger car and update the steering system of the force moment model.” So because I had all those, it was like I had checked off every box they had in what they were looking for in an engineer.

It sounds like you went out and made yourself the most-qualified candidate and made it impossible to not give you this position when it was open.

That was my goal: Make it impossible for them not to hire me. There was a really, really great candidate who was also highly qualified for this role, but I just had that little extra that I had done it and wasn’t going to let them say no.

How did evolve from once you started until you reached your current position?

When I started out for the Firestone Racing group, I was actually designing the street course tires. So I started out with Long Beach, St. Pete, Toronto — those were all my constructions. They were already well-developed constructions that I was tuning and making small tweaks on. So it was talking to the drivers after they get out of their cars and saying, “Alright, at this street course, was there anything you wanted more? Is there anything the tire didn’t give you that you were looking for?”

Then I started working on road course tires. And about five or six years ago, I started working on all of the oval tires — anything from a superspeedway to a short oval to Indy, which are all very different animals. There’s a lot more changes you make on oval tires than you do on a street course tire. A street course tire is pretty good for every street course, but oval tires are very specific to the track; if you tried to run a Milwaukee tire at Texas, it wouldn’t work so well — and vice versa. You wouldn’t have any grip at Milwaukee if you tried a Texas tire or even an Indy tire.

So I worked with that a lot and learned a lot about that. I took charge of the force moment testing program for racing, and then last year I even worked a lot with track rentals. I got to know people from Iowa Speedway and Texas and Indy, because I’m working with the tracks to try and get tire testing to happen. The person who came before me in this role, Dale Harrigle, really prepared me for this chief engineer role.

How long does it take you to build respect in the garage and get to know people? How long did it take you to get comfortable enough to really start to shine?

I’m going to go back to the management we had before. Before Dale, we had Page (Mader). And Page was really good about introducing me to teams and basically giving a little of my backstory and saying, “She’s excellent, she’s really smart, you need to listen to what she says.” So really early, my management helped me by setting the stage for my eventual performance.

And once a team has a question about something and you’re able to present a solution to something they hadn’t thought of before, that builds street cred really quickly. So the fact you can understand what they’re talking about and understand something outside just the area you work on — not just tires — to be able to show something like that, it does wonders.

Cara Adams checks with drivers like Graham Rahal to get their thoughts on how the tires are performing. (Courtesy of IndyCar)

What’s next for you? Do you see yourself in this role as long as possible?

I really like what I’m doing right now. It’s very technically challenging, yet I get to do a lot of leadership. I have a fantastic team of engineers. To see them develop and get better is really rewarding. Before I became manager, it was all about what I could do and the best tire I could do. Now it’s about the team. It’s about seeing them get better in what they’re doing and seeing them be able to come up with better and better tires. So it’s a really challenging role, but it’s really rewarding as well.

If someone is reading this and they would like to be in your role someday, what is the career path? How should they get started?

First of all, education is really important. An engineering degree. There are a lot of great engineering schools. I have to give it up for University of Akron — they had a phenomenal Formula SAE program where we actually won out of 110 schools or so in one of the early years I was on the team. Getting involved in an extracurricular program like Formula SAE or Baja or one of these programs where you’re actually designing and building something (is important). It’s that hands-on that you’re doing and some of these collegiate projects where you’re learning about team-building and project management and a lot of things you don’t get in a thermodynamics class. All of the classes are important, but that extracurricular stuff is pretty huge.

And then the other thing is talking to people who are in the industry. There was a young lady who came up to me in Milwaukee in about 2007 and she said she said she was interested in science and wanted to do engineering and she liked racing. So I kept in touch with her all the way through when she graduated high school and college, through her first job, and now she’s an engineer at Harley Davidson. So it’s really neat to be able to follow her career. I had a young lady come up to me at the beginning of last year, and she was actually asking for my autograph and I said, “You’ve got the wrong person; I’m not a driver.” She said, “No, I know who you are. I just wanted to talk to you.” So I’ve kept in touch with her through her high school career. It’s been neat.

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Fan Profile: Nate Ulery

This is part of a series of fan profiles that were offered as a reward on my Patreon page. Due to higher-than-expected demand, that reward has been temporarily discontinued.

Name: Nate Ulery

Location: Arlington Heights, Ill.

Twitter name: @UleryNate

Age: 39

1. How long have you been a NASCAR fan?

Since 1991, when I was 14 years old.

2. How many races have you attended?

Approximately 50.

3. Who is your No. 1 favorite driver?

Chase Elliott.

4. What made you a fan of his?

I was a Rusty Wallace fan as a kid and then followed Tony Stewart. After they both retired, it wasn’t as much fun to watch races without a favorite so I decided I needed to pick one by the end of the 2017 season. It was great seeing Chase get competitive at the end of the season — especially with Denny Hamlin, so he became my favorite.

5. Who is your most disliked driver?

Joey Logano.

6. Why don’t you like that person?

I don’t like the way he drives — especially after what he did to Stewart at California and Matt Kenseth at Kansas.

7. What is your favorite track?

Bristol, historically — but the road courses may surpass it soon.

8. What is one thing you would change if you were in charge of NASCAR?

Change the playoffs so drivers aren’t tied going into the last race. The work the rest of the season and during the playoffs should give some advantage to a driver. I understand that isn’t the norm in other sports, but in other sports you don’t compete against all of the other teams every single week.

I would also like to see NASCAR be more inclusive by banning the Confederate Flag at all races and making it clear that racist behavior will get you permanently banned from all sanctioned events. More about my point of view on this topic is available at viewsfromthegrandstand.com.

9. What is one thing you would keep the same if you were in charge of NASCAR?

I wasn’t sure about stage racing when it was first announced, but I have grown to love it. It adds some real excitement to the race by giving drivers the incentive to race midway through the event.

10. How often do you yell at the TV during a race?

More than I should.

11. Do you have any advice for other fans?

Follow Brent Dewar and interact with him on Twitter.  No other sport’s president engages fans like he does.

12. What else do you want the NASCAR world to know about you?

NASCAR has provided me a series of great experiences which is one of the reasons I love the sport and like talking about it. A few examples:

— When I was a kid, a family friend arranged for a personal tour of Petty Enterprises by Maurice Petty (Richard’s brother).

— As a teenager, I wrote the president of Talladega Superspeedway and volunteered my dad (a local church pastor) to give the invocation before the race.  He called a few days later and asked my dad to give the prayer for the Fram Filters 500 Busch Grand National Race. We had pit passes and garage passes and were able to meet every driver in the field. My dad volunteered me to write an article about the experience for our local newspaper.

— After that article was published, the sports editor at my local paper received positive comments from his readers about having more NASCAR coverage and it coming from a teenager. Over the next six or eight years his staff showed me the ropes and throughout high school and college, I ended up covering about a dozen NASCAR, IndyCar and IROC races as a by-lined author for the Midland Daily News. The press corps was very accommodating to a young writer and really helped show me what to do. I loved it, but also knew it wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted with all of that travel, so supporting Jeff has become my way of seeing someone else live out my dream.

Nate Ulery (right) and his dad, Kent (left), participated in the MRN ridealong program with Rusty Wallace (who was Nate’s favorite driver growing up) in 2017. (Courtesy photo)
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Recent developments at Charlotte and Indy could boost downforce argument

Carl Edwards is gone from NASCAR, and one of his core philosophies may soon be following him out the door: Less downforce makes for better racing.

There was no topic on which Edwards was more outspoken than when it came to extolling the virtues of a lower downforce package. Take downforce away, Edwards reasoned, and drivers would have to lift more in the corners because the cars would be more difficult to handle. As a result, passing would increase.

“Some people want to see guys race spoilers and splitters and wings and downforce and side force, but they aren’t stock car racing fans,” Edwards said in 2015. “(High downforce) is just not stock car racing.”

At the time Edwards said that, NASCAR was starting to listen. Officials ultimately scrapped their plans for a high drag package and went the direction the drivers wanted after it showed potential in an experimental Kentucky race.

Here’s the thing, though: Once that became the package, it didn’t work how everyone expected.

The racing, particularly at intermediate tracks, still isn’t where NASCAR wants it to be. That’s why officials have been looking at other options, such as package NASCAR tried at the All-Star Race (which was popular with fans).

While the merits of turning Cup into a restrictor-plate series are up for debate, NASCAR might have the right idea in trying to add more downforce instead of take it away.

Look no further than Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 for evidence. In the last six years, the Indy 500 had averaged 43.6 lead changes. This year, there were 30.

While that’s not bad at all compared to the previous decades (when the race mostly had lead changes numbered in the teens), it’s still a step back for what had become the best racing on the biggest stage.

And the drivers knew it. After the race, they made comments about “track position” and “dirty air.” That probably sounds familiar to NASCAR fans.

So what happened? Well, IndyCar has a new car this year — one that has been universally praised on the road courses and street circuits. It looks sharp, races well and is cost effective.

But the car has less downforce than the previous version, and drivers struggled with handling as a result.

“More downforce,” Alexander Rossi said afterward. “We need more, man. This car looks great. The road course car is fantastic, but it’s pretty hard to pass around here.”

It was still possible to pass at times — Rossi himself proved that — but it took heroic, ballsy moves that could only be accomplished on restarts when the cars got bunched together. Otherwise, they were too far strung out for the slingshot passes that became a signature of the recent Indy 500 races.

“The old car, you couldn’t really get rewarded by getting away or getting separation,” Indy 500 runner-up Ed Carpenter said. “I think if you have a good enough car (in the new package), you’re rewarded by being able to get away a little bit.”

Carpenter was saying that in a positive manner, because he thought it was better that way. When it’s challenging for the drivers, the top talents prefer it because they feel like they have an advantage. The harder it is, the better for them.

But for the rest of us, here’s what it comes down to: Would you prefer to see the elite drivers and teams be able to use their skill and speed to outrun everyone at the expense of a good show? Or are you hoping to see passing and side-by-side battles and exciting racing, even if that makes it harder to separate the best from the average?

When it comes to the Indy 500, I would personally rather see a crazy passing fest with drafting and all sorts of wild moves. Those cars are dangerous enough that it feels like the drivers are daredevils on four wheels, so it’s fine with me if making moves becomes easier again.

But in NASCAR, I’m still torn. Even though NASCAR has gimmicked-up other parts of the racing (stages) and season (elimination playoffs), watching an unrestricted race still feels pure enough to be a true competition of the best. That feeling doesn’t extend to Daytona and Talladega — even the drivers don’t view it as “real racing” — so what would everyone think about an entire series with a bunched-up field and the possibility of more random results?

On the other hand, these are desperate times. Perhaps something that extreme is needed. If it doesn’t work, NASCAR can’t shed fans and viewers any faster than it already is…right?

Perhaps focusing purely on entertainment is for the best. Feed the masses what they seem to want and throw a Hail Mary at rejuvenating the sport in the process.

I wasn’t convinced after the All-Star Race’s high drag and downforce package, despite the entertainment value. After seeing the Indy 500 take a step backward after the cars were harder to handle, maybe it’s an indication more downforce is the way to go in racing.

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12 Questions with Erik Jones (2018)

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The 12 Questions series of interviews continues with Erik Jones, who is in his second year driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. These interviews are recorded as a podcast, but are also transcribed for those who prefer to read.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Not a whole lot. Every once in awhile I’ll have one. I guess when I’m really thinking about a given race coming up or thinking about certain things. Maybe I just watched a racing video or something before I go to bed, and then I’ll have a dream about racing. But in general, I don’t remember a lot of my dreams anymore.

2. If you get into someone during a race — intentional or not — does it matter if you apologize?

It does and it doesn’t. I’ve had guys that have gotten into me that have apologized and haven’t apologized, and I’ve gotten into guys and apologized and haven’t apologized.

You know when it’s intentional and when it’s not intentional. And if it’s not intentional, honestly, it is what it is. I mean, you’re frustrated as a driver — I’m frustrated if it happens to me — but you can’t be all that mad. It wasn’t their intention to do that, you know they already feel bad enough about it. But if it is intentional, I don’t think there’s much that needs to be said there, either.

I guess there are times where I really feel like if I did something completely wrong, I’ve gone to guys and apologized. But if it’s something small, I usually don’t say anything about it. You just kind of move on.

3. What is the biggest compliment someone could give you?

Overall, I’d have to say that someone was proud of the work that I was putting into whatever it may be — not only racing, but I think just anything that I was up to in life. Just proud of the work that I was putting in at that point in time, the effort was paying off and it was helping everybody and better for everybody. That would be a big compliment to me.

4. NASCAR comes to you and says they’re bringing a celebrity to the track and they want you to host them. Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host at a race?

Matthew McConaughey. I’m a big Matthew McConaughey fan, so that’d be pretty cool. I think he’d like it too. I don’t know if he’s ever been to a race, but that would be kind of neat.

It seems like he would. He seems like he’s kinda got the Southern relatability going on.

I think he’d just be a guy who would kind of sit back and not be a big ego guy. He’d kind of just be along for the ride and really want to take it all in and explore. So I think that’d be pretty neat.

5. In an effort to show this is a health conscious sport, NASCAR decides to offer the No. 1 pit stall for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for one month. Would you do it?

No. No way. No. I couldn’t. I like a salad every once in a while, but not that much.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I’ve picked a random race from your career and you have to tell me where you finished. This is the 2016 Fall Charlotte Xfinity race.

That’s a tough one, because we ran second for a long time that day but we had a restart at the end and we didn’t run second. Did we run fourth?

Fifth. That was pretty close.

It was hard to remember because that day, we ran second all day to (Kyle) Larson. We had a caution with like five to go or something. We got shuffled on the restart and didn’t finish as good as we should have.

Wow. Do you remember all races that well, or is this just one that sticks out?

No, that one sticks out. That was the first year of the Xfinity playoffs, and we’d gotten ourselves into trouble about advancing in the next round and we had to finish pretty well that day, and I just remember trying to very conservative. Fortunately, we had a really good car and we just ran really good all day, and when the caution came out, I got nervous because I didn’t want to get wrecked and not advance to the next round.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

It’s hard not to say Eminem. He’s from Detroit, that’s where I grew up — close to Detroit. I’m a big Drake fan, too. Those two guys right there are probably the best ones for me, but I guess if I had to put one above the other, it’d be Eminem. He’s a home state guy for me, so it’s hard not to say that.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

Wow. Anybody in NASCAR? I don’t know, that’s a tough question. I feel like somebody’s gonna get mad at me. I mean, the funny one for me to say is Kyle (Busch) because he’s my buddy, and I know people would like that.

I don’t know. There’s probably not anyone I really want to punch in the face right now. I mean, nobody’s really made me mad. I think (Ricky) Stenhouse wanted to punch me in the face after Bristol (when they had an incident), but I told him at Talladega, “You finished good. I spun you out and you finished well, so I can do that weekly if you need me to.” But I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anyone that I have marked down on my list right now.

9. NASCAR enlists three famous Americans to be involved with your team for one race as part of a publicity push: Taylor Swift, LeBron James and Tom Hanks. Choose one to be your crew chief, one to be your spotter and one to be your motorhome driver.

Taylor’s driving the motorhome. Then we’ve got Tom and LeBron. I’ll take LeBron as my spotter because I think he’d be motivational. I think he’d pump me up. I think he’d do a good job. I don’t know what he’s like, but you watch him and he coaches the Cavaliers, as they say a lot.

And I guess I’ll take Tom Hanks on the box. I think he’d be pretty calm and cool and be able to sit back and make some focused decisions. So me and LeBron would be rockin’ it, keeping it pumped up on the racetrack.

10. What is the key to finding the best pre-race bathroom?

Well, a lot of times Alicia (Deal, Jones’ PR rep) will map one out for me. Sometimes I’ll watch as I go around the track. You can kind of map it out. Sometimes I’ll do it at qualifying — you’ll see right away if they’ve got port-a-potties on pit road. That’s the key. That’s the best racetracks right there.

But if they don’t, that’s when you run into a problem and you’ve gotta kind of find the bathroom back in the garage. That’s when it’s a struggle.

I really try to hydrate a lot the days before so I don’t have to drink much water on race day, which sometimes works, but not always.

But that still means you have to make the stop.

I do, I still make the stop. I get nervous.

11. NASCAR misses the highlight reel value brought by Carl Edwards’ backflips and decides a replacement is needed. How much money would they have to pay you to backflip off your car after your next win?

Do I have to complete the backflip, or just attempt it?

Just attempt it. It’s up to you.

I don’t need a full rotation?

They just want you to try it.

Oh man. I’d do it for $75 grand. I mean that’s a big number, that’s a lot of money, but yeah, I’d attempt it for that. Into the grass, because I wouldn’t make it.

They might have to pay your medical too, though.

It’d be fine. I’ll ask (Daniel) Hemric for some tips first. He’s good at it. He can do them right on the ground. Like he can do it right here.

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Matt DiBenedetto, and his question for you was: Who do you think is the next guy that is going to come up and be the next breakthrough driver in NASCAR?

Like in a lower series?

He said it could be somebody from a lower series who’s going to come up, or it could be somebody who’s around now and is just going to start winning races.

I would say from lower series, it’s Todd Gilliland. He’s really talented. I’ve been impressed with him for awhile. He’s just really good in stock cars. I watched him in Late Models for a long time and he didn’t have a lot of success, but once he got into K&N and Trucks, he’s ran really well.

At our level, at the Cup level, I’d love to say it’s me. I’d love to come and break through and win some races. But I think all of us are right at the cusp of having a lot of race wins. I think myself, Chase (Elliott), Ryan (Blaney), Daniel (Suarez) — all of us are right there and we’re just trying to find that last little bit to really get there and really be super competitive every weekend.

I don’t know who the next interview is going to be with, but it’s going to be an IndyCar driver. Do you have a question I can ask somebody in IndyCar?

Is IndyCar racing really about how hard you can possibly drive the car with all the amount of downforce you have — how hard you can actually push? Or is it super finesse?

NASCAR is very finesse, especially with the low downforce. It’s very finesse and very having to back everything up and slow everything down. Is IndyCar more of all-out, high downforce, just getting all you can get, hustling as hard as you can, or are there tracks that you go to that are very finesse? It’d be interesting to me.

Editor’s note: These interviews were posted out of order due to the Indianapolis 500, so Jones’ question has already been answered by Alexander Rossi. 

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Erik Jones:

— April 21, 2015

— Sept. 21, 2016

— June 21, 2017

 

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Will Power wins the Indy 500, but Alexander Rossi wins the show

Alexander Rossi found it hard not to smile after pulling off an impressive feat during the Indy 500. (Photo: Jeff Gluck)

Alexander Rossi kept saying he was disappointed not to win the Indianapolis 500 after finishing fourth on Sunday — and no doubt, that’s true.

But he could barely hide a smile while surrounded by reporters on pit road after the race, because Rossi knew he just did something pretty cool.

After starting 32nd — second to last — on the most difficult passing day in the last half-dozen years at Indy, Rossi nearly ended up on the podium. And he seemed to will himself to the front thanks to gasp-inducing moves on multiple restarts, where he improbably made the outside lane work.

Rossi said it wasn’t a matter of having giant balls, but rather “just opportunity, man.”

“It’s not anything to do with anything else,” he said. “You try to make the most of the opportunities that are presented to you.”

Come on, though! Other drivers weren’t making those type of moves work — or even daring to try them, seemingly. Rossi did, and put on the most memorable show of the Indy 500 despite losing out to Will Power.

“It’s just a different mindset,” he said of starting at the back. “You’ve got to expose the car. You’ve got to do some things you’re uncomfortable with and hope they work out.”

They did. It’s fitting Rossi was accompanied Sunday by several of his fellow contestants from last season of The Amazing Race — winners Jessica Graf and Cody Nickson, along with Kristi Leskinen (Team Extreme) — because that was certainly a fitting description for how he drove. Leskinen snapped photos of the media mob surrounding Rossi on pit road to ask him about his feat.

Rossi has a subtle approach to answering questions and doesn’t seem to get caught up in his own hype. But he acknowledged the good day in his own way, noting this year’s new IndyCar made it so “your ass is clenched around here quite a bit of the time.”

When Rossi was asked about his level of confidence in making those moves, he basically gave a verbal shrug. 

“Confident enough,” he said. “I mean, you never know. The inside was blocked, so sometimes there’s not any other option. And I’m not going to lift, so…”