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Sept. 6, 2022 - This Past Weekend - Theo Von
01:51:51
E407 Tony Kanaan

Tony Kanaan is an Indy 500 winner and he currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series. He also drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar series.  Legendary driver Tony Kanaan joins Theo after a day on the track in Nashville. They talk about his life in racing, growing up in Brazil, what it’s like to crash at 200mph and more. ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com Podcastville mugs and prints available now at https://theovon.pixels.com ------------------------------------------------- Support our Sponsors: Express VPN: Go to https://www.expressvpn.com/theo today to get an extra 3 months free. Babbel: Go to https://www.babbel.com/theo to save up to 55% off your subscription.  Sunday Scaries: Go to https://www.SundayScaries.com and use code THEO for 25% off. ClickUp: Go to https://www.SundayScaries.com and use code THEO for 15% off ClickUp's massive Unlimited Plan for a year DraftKings:  Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app NOW and use promo code THEO to get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE bets INSTANTLY when you place a five-dollar bet on any football game! Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.  **If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/LA/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).   21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA(select parishes)/MI/NH/NJ/ NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. New customer offer void in NH/OR/ONT-CA. $200 in Free bets: New customers only. Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 wager. $200 issued as eight (8) $25 free bets. Ends 9/19/22 @ 8pm. Early Win: 1 Early Win Token issued per eligible game. Opt in req. Token expires at start of eligible game. Min moneyline bet $1. Wagering limits apply. Wagers placed on both sides of moneyline will void bet. Ends 1/8/23 @ 8pm ET. See terms at sportsbook dot draftkings dot com slash football terms. ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: http://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I want to announce a new tour date, November 3rd in San Diego at the Balboa Theater.
We'll be heading down there with the Return of the Rat tour.
The Patreon presale starts today at 2 p.m.
The artist presale starts tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Pacific Standard Time.
That's September 7th with the code Rat King.
And the general on sale will be Friday, September 9th at 10 a.m.
And they're available to everyone then with no code.
As well, we have October 11th and 12th in Wichita, Kansas.
October 13th, Omaha, Nebraska.
And October 14th, Denver, Colorado.
Both those shows are sold out.
But we will be adding new Denver dates and some other Colorado dates in the earliest part of the year.
It's looking like January.
You can go to theovon.com slash tour, T-O-U-R, for those tickets, for all tickets.
Thank you for your support.
I'm excited to announce that we've got the new Rat King Racing Collection hitting the store today.
If you like being in a vehicle, if you like driving or yielding, using your blink or going fast, using gasoline, if you like all of that, automobilery, you'll love it.
It's at theovonstore.com, the Rat King Racing Collection, shirts, hoodies, hats.
Get that hitter, baby.
Gang.
Today's guest is, he's that racer baby.
He's that sc boy.
You know what I'm saying?
He likes being on wheels.
He's been an IndyCar driver for 25 years.
He's won the Indy 500.
He's from Brazil.
He's from another country.
But he's put a lot of miles on America, that's for sure.
His team took me out earlier today in an IndyCar.
And man, I hit a couple hundred miles.
I hit a damn mock or a couple mocks.
I don't know what I hit.
I mean, I was fast.
There's still people looking for me.
So that's how fast we went.
I'm grateful to have him here today to learn about his life and to learn about racing.
Today's guest is Mr. Tony Kanawha.
Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you my stories Shine on me And I will find a song I'll be singing I'm going to sing I'm going to sing Yeah, man.
So if I seem flustered, I the pool, you know, which immediately tells people that I'm making money.
Right.
The pool, something broke, and the water's flowing into the backyard right now.
You know, that's what I tell my kids and my wife at home because obviously we work hard, we make money, but if we didn't have a pool, we wouldn't have that problem.
Right.
But like I was traveling to a race.
We live in Indianapolis.
I have four kids.
Oh, wow.
They all go to the races with me when they can.
So I have obviously a smart home with all the security because you have to have it.
And I turn the alarm on and I can see anything that happens.
I can see it on my phone.
And going down the road, driving to one of the races, my phone starts to go nuts and gives me different alarms that the bathroom lights on.
I'm like, somebody's in the house.
And I'm looking at the camera and I can't see it.
And I can't see it.
We're not too far off.
I said, you know what?
We need to turn around and see what's going on.
We had nobody there.
So I turned around, came home.
But first you get home, you're like, I don't know how to fight.
I don't have a gun.
I'm like, if somebody's here, but I also don't want to call the police to look like the fool.
They're like, hey.
So I go in, there is nothing going on.
I'm like, what's wrong?
And the phone's going crazy.
Then I start, try to turn the light on to check.
Doesn't turn on.
So I'm like, something's happening.
Are we going to catch fire?
Anyway, to make a story short, because you talk about your basement, I have, it's a smart home and all the equipment is in the basement, in a room with air conditioning, because they say it needs to keep it cool.
Like, you know, like we do it in the studio.
And it's positioned in a room is specifically made, but there is one pipe, one single pipe that goes through that was actually, they put the rack with all the equipment underneath.
Oh.
It was the sewer pipe.
No.
So it's dripping?
And it was broken.
Damn.
So it leaked, it burned the entire system.
So the house wasn't working, but also it's the sewer pipe.
Right.
So you can imagine.
Not your finest pipe.
Yeah.
And it was floating.
By the time I got back, it was at least 40 minutes between, and then it float the basement with that clean water.
Wow.
So who had to go in there?
Well, I was in there.
As soon as I saw that, I'm not very good at, I almost barfed.
I told my wife, look, damage is done.
Nobody's going down there.
And I still had to drive.
I mean, we're like, I have to go to a race.
So I called a couple of the contractors, the guy that built my house, and they helped me out.
And they sent people there.
We fixed the pipe and had to call the insurance company because we had to change everything.
The whole carp, I mean, everything was.
So, yeah.
Is that probably the worst thing that's happened to you as a homeowner, you think?
No.
I lived in Miami for 22 years and I used to collect watches, like expensive watches and stuff, but never really had them in a safe or anything.
I had probably 35 expensive watches, not insured.
No, and but you do interviews, you talk about things you like, you know, you have cars, you have this, and it's not a brag, but people are like, oh, so I know you like watches.
So then I actually had just given an interview to a watch guy, and I got home and they're all gone.
A couple million bucks.
Really?
A couple million bucks worth?
Yeah, some expensive, like if people don't understand about watches, but a Rolex ponyuman, which is very rare.
Like, yeah, all I actually got left with the watch that I was wearing, which is always my workout watch, which was the cheapest one.
Oh.
Damn, isn't that crazy how you'll get something nice for yourself and then you just kind of lock it away?
You know, Theo, that's something that hopefully that didn't happen to you, but you feel so violated, right?
So you work so hard.
I don't come from a rich family.
I mean, everything I've done, I really worked hard.
I gave up a lot of things to do it.
Never with the intention to make money.
I mean, to be rich.
I never said, oh, I want to be a race car driver because I want to be rich.
I just want to race.
But then you like nice things, you make money, blah, blah, blah.
And then somebody just come and takes it from you.
Yeah, that must have been really disheartening.
Did you?
It was so bad that actually, to this day, I probably have five watches now.
I love watches.
And I bought my top five because then you go, you don't need all of it.
You don't.
You really like.
Looks like people can take you the wrong way too when you break, wow, I had 40 watches.
I just liked them.
I didn't, you know, it wasn't like, oh, I have a year.
You have one.
Well, you have two wrists, but you're only supposed to wear one watch at a time.
So it's not like, so I bought my favorite five watches and that's it.
I never bought it.
Never bought it again.
Now I have a safe, then you insure them and so on.
But it almost ruined your love for them a little bit that somebody insured.
You just sold them.
That's it.
And it did go away.
Like, you know, on that particular, like, I don't know, whatever you want to call, like, pleasure that I have of collecting, that is, it's been gone ever since.
It's been 12 years now.
But yeah, I could have, thank God, I could have bought all of them back or some of them.
I'm like, nah, I don't want to.
And did you call a detective or anything like that?
So we did, but like, like I said, they were not insured.
Some of the watches, I mean, I had listed.
So they say, well, if this watch comes to service at Rolex or whatever, we can probably catch it.
If not, they're going to be gone.
So we think it's so hard because when you do an interview, look how many millions of people are watching us.
And I could say something.
And nowadays you can Google anything.
Our lives, because we live on a social media environment, they know when you're gone.
Right?
As soon as you post, hey, I'm going to LA.
I'm shooting in LA today.
Whoever knows where you live, they can assume you're not in your home.
Well, if they come, I hope they don't come to swim.
I'll tell them that.
But that's what I'm saying.
And that's my biggest fear, especially coming from Brazil, which is, it's a third world country.
Is it?
Yes, it's quite, you know, it's not as wealthy as America.
You have a lot of those kind of things.
And my biggest fear is like when people know I'm gone, my family's at home.
And they know my wife is alone.
So you try to protect yourself.
And in Brazil, do they have a lot of kidnappings and stuff like that?
Big time.
I mean, when I go down there, which I do a lot, I still have family there.
My oldest kid still lives there.
I'm racing there this year.
I have a bulletproof car.
Wow.
And I have two bodyguards that follow me on another car.
And talk about not having any privacy.
Because if you try not to catch attention, you know that well enough.
You shouldn't walk around with four people looking like, you know, like a wardrobe behind you.
Like 00 CF tails.
Yeah.
And then every time you stop somewhere, they go in first, check it out, and then you come out and people are like, well, who's that?
But a lot of people do that, which is, it takes your privacy away.
It takes a lot of things away.
And I'm always worried about my mom.
My mom is 74. It's interesting because it's almost like, you know, you achieve some of your dreams and your goals.
And then you have to, even if you want to be anonymous, you almost can't be just for your own sake.
Right.
But then when you talk about kidnapping, they're not going to come for me, right?
They're going to come to my kids.
Right.
To my mom, to my sisters, because they want me to probably pay for it.
Yeah, if they kidnap you, they can't call you.
Yeah, they can call me.
And then I say, guys, if I don't make you the money, who's going to get you the money?
Unless they're the worst kidnappers ever.
And I said, if they call my wife, she might pay them to keep me for a few extra months.
Wow, that's fascinating.
And in Brazil, is it a, I guess like, well, tell me about that bulletproof car.
So that thing is like.
Dude, it's the most amazing thing you'll see.
I mean, I raced down there for Toyota, so it's a Corolla, but they add another, I don't know, nowadays it's very, you know exactly what I'm talking about, but very the ballistic stuff that you put in the car, the metals and stuff, it's so light that it's only like 100 pounds more that you add to the car.
But it goes inside the door, the column, all every single glass.
You can't break, like you could sit in your car and flip anybody off.
And if you're locked in, they cannot get in.
Like you'd just be like, whatever, you know, but which is it's not funny, but like they still like an iPhone, just to give an example, an iPhone down there, just think about currency.
You have to think about one-to-one.
If I say, because the dollar there, it's five to one.
Okay, so yeah.
So one dollar, it's five of our currency.
Okay, got it.
Let's pretend you live there.
So if you make 10 grand, you're making 10 whatever.
Right.
Right.
So an iPhone there, it's 50 grand.
50 grand in Riais, but you have to think that if you live there, you're making 50 grand of something.
Right.
So, but I'm telling you, so, and then the minimum wage, it's 2,000.
So think.
So you have to work for 100 years to make an iPhone?
No, 100 years, but like 10 years, right?
Yeah, sorry, yeah.
So, you're walking down the street talking on your iPhone.
Yeah.
Wow.
Somebody takes it and they make two grand a month.
They can sell it.
Okay, it's stolen, but for 40, that's almost two years of work.
So they take it.
But in a bulletproof car, they actually tried to break the window, and then you just flip them off.
It's ah, not getting that one.
You keep on knocking, but you can't understand.
I mean, you know how it's miserable to live a life like that.
Oh, yeah.
It's like this big game of hide and go seek, and it's only because you achieved some of your dreams or you had some success.
You know, I actually went to one time, Salvador.
That's where I'm from.
Really?
Yeah, that's where I was born.
Dude, I got mugged by a, I mean, it's beautiful, but also I got mugged by a woman there, dude.
And I never fought a woman before.
What did she take?
I had some of my money and just belongings in my front pockets, right?
So she put one of her hands in my pocket.
So I grabbed her wrist and held it against my side.
So locked her hand in my pocket.
But then now she and I each had to start, you know, I didn't know she was a woman at first.
So I was just ready to defend myself.
And then we each punched each other a decent amount.
But guys, look, can you imagine Theo, like, does he look like a Brazilian walking down the street in Brazil now?
No.
That's why.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't look like Pele.
I look like Pele.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
No, it was, I thought, look, it was awesome.
And it kind of was like, and I hadn't had any coffee, so it was like free coffee.
I mean, that'll get you going.
Oh, it gets your adrenaline up.
But it was also, you know, I mean, I think some of that stuff is just, it's not a frown on the society.
It's just part of, you know, some cultures they're not doing as well.
And I remember there was a kid who said he would bite me and that he was infected, that he had HIV, right?
And it was just like a scam, you know?
And I was like, well, I probably, I might have something, you know, so I bite me.
And then I think I just gave him a couple dollars.
But I actually, I admired his ingenuity a little bit, you know, that dirty dragon.
That's desperation, right?
You think about, oh, yeah.
Like, it's just like being in the jungle, right?
You're like, well, it's not fair that the lion's going to eat the little elephant, but he needs to do that to survive.
And that's basically, unfortunately, it's what with like, you know, when your family is starving and you can't make ends meet and you're making less than a thousand bucks a month and it costs you five grand to live.
Yeah.
People do desperate things.
Oh, you know, it's a shame.
It's really a shame.
Yeah.
And then it becomes a culture because then it starts like that, but then people go, oh, that's easy.
Right.
Right?
Yeah, I'll do it.
Why am I going to work nine hours a day to make $2,000 if I can steal a phone and make it $40,000 in 30 seconds?
And then you have weird things where it's like, okay, if I have one kid and he's out threatening to bite people and making money, why don't I have five kids and have a little nibbling family?
And then it becomes up like, you know, like a chorus almost quick, right?
Like just like, you know, that is out there just snacking on people.
But yeah, I think a lot of that is just, it happens with poverty.
Even in poverty, people have to find a way to survive.
So, and then when you're, when you're poor, your enemy, because my enemy always growing up was rich people.
I fucking hated rich people, dude.
You know, and for no reason, except that they were rich.
Because they had more money than us.
And you kind of have to have an enemy, you know, especially when you don't have anything.
You got to have an enemy.
You know, it's a motivation.
I take it as a motivation.
That's what it is.
You're like, you know what?
It's not sure you.
Yes.
You think you're rich?
Yeah.
It's a motivation, man.
Like, I remember the first time I went to somebody's house and they had a dog inside.
And it blew my mind.
It was like inside dog.
I'd never seen it.
I thought it was like a myth.
You know, it seemed like something out of the Bible.
You know, I remember being by my buddy Scott.
You know, dogs do acupuncture now?
You know that?
They have masseuse.
Do you know that?
Do they?
Yeah, man.
See?
You're going to hate them even more.
Not the dogs, but.
Bring up that dog acupuncture, please.
Let's get a peek at it.
I want to see what you're talking about.
Because I've never seen an animal shoot up.
Look at that.
Ooh, wow.
Yeah.
Oh, come on.
See?
Some of this seems mildly satanic, man.
Migraines.
That's what they say.
I don't know.
I have migraines.
I do acupuncture, but.
Yeah.
How does your dog tell you you have a migraine, you know?
I don't know.
Somebody tells you that, right?
Yeah, somebody tells you.
Right.
And you believe it.
Yeah, the dog isn't saying it.
Yeah, the dog, this seems like a little voodoo dog right there.
That one.
Wow.
Hey, can you bring up an article on it, please?
Do you mind, Bub?
Dog acupuncture.
Yeah, when I was young, they didn't have dogs didn't do acupuncture.
I think they like they say that they have arthritis, like, you know, like some stuff like that.
But they got four legs, man.
If you got four legs, you're going to get arthritis, bro.
If you don't think you're getting arthritis and you don't have four legs, that's your fault.
Into the dog's body at specific points where nerves and blood vessels converge.
These points are located in sites called meridians, just like human, huh?
Just like human acupuncture.
But that's what I'm saying, though.
We can go to an acupuncture guy or doctor, whatever you call, say, I'm having a headache.
How do you know your dog does?
You woke up in the morning, he said, let me take the dog to the vet.
He barked a little weird.
He doesn't migraine on it.
He had a long night.
Yeah, I think he could.
Yeah.
That's crazy, bro.
That's wild.
And that's one of the side effects of having too much money in a career.
Well, but also it's the same.
I have dogs.
I mean, I had dogs all my life.
The kids love them.
And then it becomes part of your family.
Right.
And you just will do whatever.
Yeah, I guess I would never, I couldn't imagine a dog getting acupuncture.
I think I don't know if it would, I couldn't do it, I don't think, no matter what was going on with it.
Even if I got a little note from it saying, hey, man, I'd love, you know, some little, you know, a Chinese therapy or something, I'd say no.
I'd say no.
But I remember, yeah, the first time I ever saw a golden retriever indoors, somebody's housed.
I've never seen a golden retriever before.
And it came around the corner of my buddy Scott's house and it looked like it had just come out of the Bible, man.
It was beautiful.
God, it was beautiful.
In a poor country is because NASCAR or racing in America is often synonymous with poor people.
Right.
You know, and I don't know why that is, really.
You know, I know when I was, you know, I was poor and a lot of people like cars.
Poor people like, you know, getting a car.
It's kind of, there's something cool about it.
Because we can't have good cars, so we have to like cars because we have the crappiest cars.
And you super men.
They're always breaking it.
Yeah.
People would be like, oh, I got, like, I had a 90, 90, I had a 1984 Ford Escort, and somebody stole the passenger seat out of it.
So you had to get in the front and then just go sit in the back.
That was actually like the limousine, man.
It was pretty nice, man.
It wasn't too bad, but it was weird, though.
People would get in the front door and be like, well, where do I even go?
They're like, well, fucking get in the back.
Drive like I'm your driver.
Football, it's back, baby.
Pig skins, they're coming.
You can hear all the pigs scared in their troughs.
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But is it a poor sport?
Because you grew up in Brazil.
What's it like there?
It's, well, I mean, actually, it's funny how it's cool to hear a prospect of somebody that is not involved in racing because actually racing is a very like, it's a rich people sport because you spend so much money.
Like people that work in racing, I can argue that mechanics and engineers and even drivers and especially in the lower levels.
Blue collar.
No, it's people that, you know, sometimes don't have, but like to fund a kid to race go-karts nowadays, you're going to spend at least $200,000 a year.
Wow.
And in go-karts, you don't find a sponsor to get the return, right?
I mean, nowadays, a little easier.
So Brazil is like, we have soccer, which is extremely popular.
Yeah.
Right.
Because it's very cheap.
Oh, y'all are so good at soccer.
We watch.
Right.
But while we need to play soccer is soccer ball.
So anybody can have that.
You can play anywhere.
So in the favelas, which is like people who live in this cartoon houses boarded, you can play anywhere.
So we have the majority, 80% of the population play soccer.
And then you have the second biggest sports, racing, because it became very popular back in the day, but it's very expensive.
So it becomes a rich people.
If you're rich, you go karting.
If you don't have a lot of money, you're playing soccer.
So I was very fortunate because my family wasn't rich, but we were not poor.
We were mid-class.
My dad worked really hard.
So I started, I used to watch races with him on TV since I was, I mean, since I can remember, so like four years old, five years old, watching Formula One and IndyCar.
And some NASCAR wasn't very popular at the time.
It was more open wheel.
You go watch in person?
You guys are watching?
Yes, both.
Right.
So we do a father and son thing.
And so finally, when I was eight years old, I actually asked him for a go-kart.
So he bought me a go-kart and started to kind of fund it.
We didn't have the best equipment, but I was pretty good at it.
I won every championship I've ever raced from eight to 16. But what happened was when I was 10 years old, dad got diagnosed with cancer.
And he was really ill for like three years.
And when I was 13, unfortunately, he passed.
With his passing, we basically lost everything.
Into a year, my dad ran his business, but my mom always, my dad was from Lebanon, a very like the mentality there was my wife will take care of my kids.
And I get home, everybody needs to be ready.
You're talking about 48 years ago, very traditional, but we need to wait for him to have dinner.
And my mom and we all sit in the table.
So mom was, my dad was 42 when he passed.
Wow.
my mom was 36 and never had work.
So, basically, to make a little story short, his business just went bad.
We lost everything.
So, we basically went from mid-class to like, then we really like we had, we didn't have a car.
We both went, my sister and I, we were in private schools, we went to public, but remember, public schools there are not like public schools here.
If you go to public school, it's because you can't afford it and it's not good.
The safety level falls off.
Safety level, but even the education, it's not as high.
It's not as good because it's just like a product of the government that we have.
So then I had to go work.
So my dad made him promise him that one day, the day before he passed, he called me up in a hospital.
And we're sitting, he was actually very lucid.
It wasn't like, and going to a hospital with him, I did it for three years in a row.
So it was very, it wasn't a problem.
He's like, hey, let's go sit down and have a chat.
So he asked, actually, it was on a Thursday.
He called my mom.
I was at the racetrack.
We usually like race weekends are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Even for go-karting at work?
Even for go-karting.
So it was Thursday afternoon.
I was at the track getting ready for Friday.
And he asked my mom to tell me to stop by the hospital because he wanted to speak to me.
So we sat down and I sat in his bed.
He's talking, obviously sick, cancer, you know, no hair, but not like, oh, he's dying or something.
And he's like, hey, man, you know, if anything ever happens to me, you need to promise me you need to take care of your mom and sister, but also you're never going to give up racing because you're really good at it.
And I'm like, but he like, over the course of the three years, we had a lot of talks like that.
I think he was trying to prepare me.
I have a younger sister, so I was the oldest.
My cat that he says, and one day, you need to win the Indy 500 for me because we used to watch that race.
And to me, as a kid, I mean, it has nothing to do with the win.
I remember that the winner will take a picture with a million dollars cash around the car.
That for me was like, that's what I want.
As a kid, you're like, whoa.
Right?
It's like, dude, I don't have a freaking million dollars here.
So he says, and I said, yeah, man, sure, but what are you talking about?
Whatever.
So I go home that night.
I fall asleep.
I wake up Friday morning to go to the track.
My mom is at home.
I'm like, what are you doing?
She goes, well, your dad passed last night in the middle of the night.
And so I just came here to tell you.
But before he passed, he asked me to remind you what you guys talked.
Really?
Yeah.
So I was like, then she says, do you know?
Do you know what it is?
She wasn't there.
I said, yeah, of course.
She goes, okay.
I said, well, I'm going to go to the racetrack.
She goes, what?
I said, well, that's what we talked.
So I did not go to his services.
I didn't want to have the picture of my dad laying there.
I think as a kid, he was going to daunt me for a long time.
Was that a personal choice or was that part of your mother's choice?
Because that seemed like a strong choice.
No, mom was actually, because I said, well, I think the first thing was a promise that I made him because I had a race that weekend.
So I said, I promise I'm going to keep racing.
I can't miss a race.
Right.
So I went.
But in the process, I think, I think, I don't recall exactly because it was such a long time ago, but I think that probably led to maybe, I mean, the goodbye was the night before.
It's not, he's not going to talk to me.
Right.
You know, I know people like to pay respects, but I mean, that's my choice.
And your mother was okay with you making that choice?
Yeah, because I told her the promise I made him that I was going to go race.
And I won that race that way.
Wow.
So that trophy from that day, April 8th, 1998, my mother still has it in her nightstand in her home.
Oh, that's beautiful.
So and then from then on, basically it starts the poor kid.
Living the promise, right, right.
And then I had to do whatever I had to do.
Man, that's interesting, man.
Yeah, my father passed a cancer when I was 16. And he was 70 when I was born, so he was older.
So even today, when I got to go over about you guys' track and ride around with Mr. Andretti, who I think was 82. Yeah, it's like that reminded me of being a kid riding around with my dad.
I mean, my dad went a little slower, but that was, you know, that was.
Smarter here, you're curious.
When I was, yeah, when I was 10, when I was 12 years old, my dad was 82, and we'd go drive.
And then when I was 13, he let me drive.
When I was tall enough, he let me drive and he would just sleep and stuff while I was driving, which was insane because I had no idea what I was doing.
So, yeah, I've never done anything like Nice Car, but that was the closest I'd ever came was just driving a senior citizen around.
But that was a little bit of a similar experience that I had out there today.
So the prominence of racing is that big in Brazil?
It's big.
Obviously, it could be bigger, but it's so expensive that it's not.
But like a kid that is born in Brazil and obviously follows sports, either they want to be a soccer player or a race car driver.
And it's easier there for wealthier kids to get into.
In racing, if you have 20 kids, one will be that has no money, everybody else has a parent or somebody that is paying a hell of a lot of for them to start.
Wow.
And only becomes more expensive, right?
So when I looked, because when I look what my mother did for me after my dad passed, because like I said, we're mid-class.
I mean, dad was responsible.
So we had some savings.
And my mother, to keep my dream and my promise to my dad alive, kept funding.
That's why we ran out of money.
Wow.
And I told her that I have four kids now.
And with all due respect to my kids, if they want to follow a career, I wouldn't jeopardize because I had a sister That had to actually sacrifice for me as well.
Wow.
Right?
I don't think I could do it to one of my kids because what about the other three?
Okay, I have a little bit too many kids, I think, for that.
But it was me and my sister, and I got all of it.
Yeah.
Spent all of it.
And she's like, What about me?
What about me?
Was there favoritism?
Is there like because you were the male as well?
Was that favoritism?
No, no, it was human.
And, you know, that's something that I joke about it.
I said, the day that I find that I, you know, finally I'm not around and I meet my dad again, he's going to hear because it was a big responsibility that he put it on me because until this day, my sister never said a word.
Wow.
I mean, they all knew the story.
So I think it was more of dad's word putting the responsibility on me and on them to sacrifice for me for a dream that we had, him and I. They had nothing to do with it.
Wow.
So that must have felt like an added pressure, huh?
But yeah, because then you think about it, after a year, year and a half, we lose everything.
Then I actually quit school.
I stopped.
I was in ninth grade because I had to go to work.
It's pretty high.
You know, so I had to stop.
She obviously graduated.
She's extremely successful now, but it becomes that I started working on the go-kart factory to be able to have money to pay for our bills and also had the equipment to keep racing go-karts.
So it was a good, good situation.
But then since then, well, not my sister anymore, but I still take care of my mom.
She's still my responsibility.
So all of a sudden, a 15-year-old had two daughters.
I didn't have my mom.
Oh, interesting.
My mom was 38, trying to find a job anywhere, even here.
A 38-year-old woman that never worked in her life, trying to find a job that you can actually maintain two kids.
And, you know, it's hard.
Nobody will give her a job.
So I finally had a good friend that owned five nightclubs in Brazil.
And nightclubs, I mean, it's a mess, right?
So do you always worry about people stealing from the cashier because they deal with a lot of cash.
Oh, yeah.
So I used to work at one I stole.
So he was like, hey, man, I need somebody to take care of all the cashiers and somebody that I trust.
And he knew my mother would never.
So basically, my mom was to go to work at 11 at night and come back when they closed the nightclubs, which in Brazil, it's 5 a.m.
It ain't 2.30 in the morning like some other places here.
Yeah.
So we never really actually saw each other.
Oh, wow.
This past is just.
Yeah, she'll come home to sleep and I'll be leaving to go to work and my sister had to go to school.
So if what would you get out of go-karts then?
Because I mean, obviously, you know, you've had like the penultimate of success like in America is kind of, I guess, the Indy 500.
You know, it's like, I'm sure it's a lot of you guys' dream.
Right.
So how do you get from, you know, go-karts?
When do you make that transfer and how does that happen for a driver?
Do you get called up?
Is it a matter of sponsorship?
They are all the above.
But my story was I had no money.
I mean, but people knew my story.
So you have a couple of friends that would help you out.
You have a team that would, but at the end of the day, you have to win races.
That's the best way you can actually achieve success or move and get higher.
And why did you win, do you think?
At that point, why were you winning?
Honestly, I could sit here and say, well, you know, I'm very talented.
I'm good in what I do, which I believe that.
But I think at that point, I had no choice.
I had to.
I mean, it got to a point that people asked me, what about if it didn't work?
So I never gave myself that option.
It was going to work.
Now, was I going to go to IndyCar and win the Indy 500?
I didn't know that.
But I said, this is what I know what to do.
And then this is how I need to make a living.
So it's going to work.
So I think what made me good, it was like just whatever, man.
I sleep in a floor, on a mattress on a floor in a race shop for three years.
Wow.
In my boss's office.
I will get up and kick some ass on the racetrack.
And I think you can see that.
Like, you know, when you can see when somebody, do you really want it that bad, man?
I mean, I left my country.
I didn't speak.
When I came to America, I spoke zero English.
That was back in 1996.
Oh, I went to Italy.
I went to an NASCAR then.
You should have went in a NASCAR.
So, and I went to Italy first before I came here.
And it was just, I think, to be honest when people, actually, my 14-year-old just asked me that question because he's in the phase of trying to figure out what he wants to do.
And kids nowadays have 3,000 options.
And I said it.
I said, I think it was the no option, no choice.
Interesting.
Yeah, I can kind of relate to some of that.
Like even with stand-up comedy, I never felt like I was going to lose, really.
Right.
But how many people said, go find a job, man?
You think just going to make people laugh all your life?
You think, what about you're not that funny?
You know, like, that is always, and there are people like, no, man, go ahead.
You know?
Yeah.
Like, that is always going to be.
And nowadays it's even worse because everybody has an opinion that they can write about it.
Right.
And you can get instant on.
But yeah, I never thought anything.
I said, I'm going to make this work.
Because it's interesting.
I thought maybe you would be a lot more intense when I met you, you know, because I don't have a concept of what really drivers are like.
You know, the only race car, I met Tony Stewart one time.
I did some commercials with him like many years ago.
Yeah, he was interesting.
He seemed, he kind of like was like kind of like he seemed like a little quiet and maybe crazy.
I don't know.
I couldn't tell.
He was an interesting dude.
Or am I there?
Just tell me.
I'm interested to hear.
I don't know what Tony was like.
I saw him at the comedy club actually a couple years ago and I went up and said hey to him.
I'm trying to remember what he was like.
I can't, you know, I can't even remember that good.
He kind of kept to himself a little bit.
And he had this blonde chick with him too, man, with some damn bombs.
You know, that's race Car drivers, we always have hot chicks, yeah, huh?
It is, huh?
Yeah, they just something.
But then we're so short, so every woman is a lot taller than us.
It's crazy.
Yeah, that's why a lot of times you don't even know what driver the chick is with because you just see the chick.
Just look for the short guy and you find it.
Oh, look at her old son.
Yeah, exactly.
It's like, you know, and then they're going to go out and look.
She's only with him because he's somebody because he can't date somebody that short.
And then I met Clint Boyer a few times, who's kind of who's a buddy of mine, man.
He's crazy, man.
He's crazy.
And he is sheerly crazy.
Like, you could see that he probably hadn't slept in maybe 17 or 18 years.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, he's just got fucking, you know, his stare is like 93 octane.
You know, he's got really, he's got diesel in his fucking, you know, just in his damn, in his gums.
You can really feel it coming off of him.
So yeah, I was like, I was, my question is, what is it?
Is it intensity?
What does it take to really make someone who can operate a vehicle at these speeds and be in that sort of atmosphere?
Because even just going today on the trial, you know, went around for a couple of laps or something and it was, you know, it was just damn intense.
You know, all my blood went to my back strap or whatever.
And I was just full in the back, you know?
I felt like I just, you know, I don't know.
I just felt like you get a boner like you said you would, though.
Dude, I got the opposite of a boner, man.
You know why?
I'll tell you why, because it gets tight.
So he ain't getting a ball.
I didn't want to spoil your comment there, but I'll let you experience.
No, man, I honestly think the biggest thing is you need to be able to compete.
You need to divide what you can't live your life the way you race.
Life's not a race.
I'm saying that now because I got somebody brought that up to me eventually.
Because when you grow up in a competitive environment, that's the only thing you know.
Right?
So anything is a competition.
Let's go down the stairs.
I want to beat you.
Yeah.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't even.
What is that for?
If you're going to beat me, it doesn't matter.
Let's go out.
I know exactly.
Where are we going out?
Where are we going?
To a bar in your buddy's bar in.
Okay, how long it takes?
It's three miles.
My entire life was like that.
So I think you met me in a very good, I would say, a very good moment of my life that I'm more, that I'm calmer.
I mean, I used to be a lot more intense.
Now I probably know how to separate that and say, okay, time to be intense.
It's when I put a helmet on, but I can't carry that all the time.
Right.
But just to give an example, this morning I drove from Indy to here and four in the morning and somebody was trying to pass me in the highway and I just got the best out of me.
So they're not passing me.
70, 75. I'm like, dude, come on, give up.
So I guess, I don't know, maybe it's funny that I like to hear people that meet me for the first time to hear their, because you didn't know me at all.
So you haven't followed me.
No, I didn't.
So which is a good thing.
I've seen some pictures that we didn't have.
And we barely talked because we didn't want to.
And the same with me.
I knew who you were, but I really didn't follow you all the time.
When they said that you're coming on the show, they said, so here's an example of the show.
I said, I don't want to watch it.
Yeah.
Because I know who you were.
I know what you do as a combat.
I said, I don't want to watch it because I want to be there.
I want to experience.
Because, oh, you know, I watched that and I know what.
I said, I don't want, which was such a coincidence that you said that to the first time we just met today.
Don't mind if I don't speak to you right now.
Yeah, the first thing we said to each other was, I said, I actually don't want to speak to you either.
I don't hate you or anything, but which is, I didn't want to, which is good to hear that because I'm actually very intense.
Wow.
But it's nice that it doesn't come off all the time.
Yeah, I was like, oh, this guy really has just a fun personality.
That's what I thought.
And I thought, because I've always thought, is intensity the thing that these drivers need?
Because we do.
It is.
We do.
I mean, that is no way you're going to strap your ass in a race car and go some of the tracks 240 miles an hour.
Here, okay, here's 200, but you have walls.
You can't make a mistake and not be intense.
I mean, just the environment itself is going to bring the pressure.
I mean, it's a performance sport.
You win, you're good.
Monday, you got to do it again.
You're not good anymore because Sunday is fast.
Damn.
And the next race you lose, you're bad.
So, and that's just like that all the time.
Would you say that you probably became pretty hard on, I noticed from my, people always tell me I'm extremely hard on myself.
Do you think that you are?
100%.
Yeah.
I'm my worst enemy.
Like, I suck.
You know, like, you suck, man.
Even when I win, but that's, that's the thing.
And those are things that I'm telling you, the people that brought that up to me, I didn't really, I'm smart enough to realize you win a race two hours later.
I'm like, fuck.
Well, yeah.
Never do it again.
Yeah, damn.
You're never happy.
You know, it's like, what the fuck, man?
Where does that come from, man?
I think we just, you know, when you're good at what you do, man.
And that's why we're good.
I'm not here bragging.
I'm not here to sitting here says, I'm the best, but I think that's what makes you good.
Because if you are happy, then, oh, yeah, good job, man.
That was a good show.
Good job.
I mean, no, what can I do better?
Right.
I want the race, but I, you know, on stage, I will be, people will, my group that is on the side will be like, man, awesome.
And you can see in their faces, they're literally waiting to tell me how great it was.
And I'll be like, motherfucker.
Do you know I chew their asses?
Because it says, you guys only tell me that because I pay you.
The day I stop paying you, I want to hear what you have to say.
So let's do this.
I'm going to stop paying you for a month.
You come to a race and you tell me the truth at the end.
You know, because it's like my friends, bro.
Awesome races.
Shut up.
You're my friend.
You're never going to say, are you really going to say, you come off stage and I'm one of your best boys?
You know what, Theo?
You suck, man.
That joke was bad.
They're like, TK, you drove horrible.
I wonder if I'd appreciate it, though, if one of my friends actually said, hey, man.
but you know, I actually, my mother is the best one because she does.
Yeah.
She's like, well, are you going to crash again?
No.
Well, the way you're driving.
But I appreciate that.
It's like, same thing the other day.
My wife actually dressed up the other day and says, how do I look?
I said, not good.
She's like, what the fuck?
I said, well, well, let me explain to you.
I don't think, I'm not saying you don't look good.
What you're wearing doesn't look good.
It's not vulgar.
It's just, I don't like it.
The pockets on your jeans are spread apart.
It looks like you have your mom's butt.
So, and I said, and you should appreciate that.
Yeah.
Because I don't think you look good.
And I think a lot of people don't think, but they don't have the balls to tell you.
And she actually says, actually, I appreciate that.
I said, well, then can you start telling me the truth as well?
So I don't think in 15 years I look good all the time.
I drove the best races of my life.
I'm the best driver in the world.
I haven't won a fucking race in three years.
So you can't tell me I'm good.
Maybe I am, but there's a lot of people better than me now.
Man, yeah, I used to date this girl, and she had the same butt as her dad.
It's crazy.
And it always, dude, it was so like, it made it impossible sometimes for like.
I have a challenge with my wife, you know, like.
For sex, you know, because I'm every time.
Because her mom's.
You would see her dad?
Oh, well, it just, I didn't.
But her mom's, like, her dad had she just had a distinctive looking butt.
And when I met her parents, I was like, oh my God.
But see, but don't they say that you're, Don't you think they say that you got to look at your mother-in-law to see how your wife's going to look like, which I don't think it's true because you said, you know, I told my wife, you better not.
Not on this one, yeah.
And that's going to be a divorce at sleep.
Oh, my God.
No, it's interesting, though.
Being hard on yourself is interesting.
Do you think that you had that your whole life, or do you think it happened after your father passed away?
Do you think it was just built into you?
Well, just granted, from eight, I started racing, I was eight, eight to 13, so it was five years.
I think my dad was pretty hard on me.
Like, he was just that type of person, putting the pressure for me to be.
You want to be a race car driver?
You got to sleep early.
You got to eat well.
Like typical, like, like you got to be home for dinner.
And so I really didn't do anything apart from racing my entire life.
I suck at anything else that you tell me to do.
So it was like, but that's what he wanted it.
And we can sit here and debate if he was still alive, would I resent him or not?
Yeah.
Right?
But because he's not, it was a choice that I made.
Yeah.
Right.
Because you see that on top at least all the time.
I mean, you see in tennis players, like your parents are the ones they will.
Because at eight years old, I can't just, I didn't woke up and said, I want to be a race car.
He took me to the races, kind of induced me to.
Same way I take my kids to do six different sports to see what they like the most.
Whatever they like, we're going to help him because I think it's healthy.
But yeah, no, I think I was always really like, I don't think ever I finish a race, even if I win in the races that I won, that I would tell myself, hey, good job.
Yeah.
Which is kind of sad.
Yeah.
I've been, man, you're talking.
I am listening to myself right now.
Yeah.
It's sad in a way, but I can't do it.
I know.
And you always think about next.
Well, because you raised the bar, right?
Well, then, and everybody's watching because people, everybody's watching you.
Your job is much harder than mine because people have to laugh or clap.
If I crash, they actually clap because I come out of the car alive.
I guess it's constellation.
It's a loser.
Go home.
Your job might be harder.
Because people hate being in traffic and that's what you're in, you know.
No, they hate me even more.
So I drive a minivan with kids and they hate minivans.
I can tell you that.
You see a minivan, you think it's an old lady with kids.
She's going to be on her phone.
They just, whatever opportunity people have to pass a minivan, they will because they're like, I can't be behind this person.
And then you get me driving a minivan that give people the run over their money.
But then I have my kids and I'm like, what are you doing?
I actually, this is the only time I know what I'm doing.
So shut up.
Yeah, this is it.
This is it.
You know, I'm not going to, Dad, you can't play baseball.
You can't, no, I can't.
But this, I can.
So you guys shush it.
Once I park, yeah, I'm back to the lock.
I'm back to the loser that you guys think I am.
I can't text.
I can't talk on the phone.
I can't play any games.
I can't play basketball.
Nothing.
But this is what I do.
Yeah, you're like a cartoon character, dude.
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I used to listen to this singer called Timaya.
You heard Timayo, of course.
Yeah.
It's my favorite.
It had like love songs and stuff.
He was awesome.
I met a guy, a friend, this guy named Patricio, and he used to do racing, actually, too.
And he's from Brazil, and he would always listen to it and sing it.
He liked slow dancing with the ladies.
He's like a Brazilian soul, like the guy, the singer.
He passed away.
He was cool.
Can you bring him up?
Bring up Timaya.
Do you know how to spell it?
I don't know how to spell it.
T-I-M space M-A-I-A.
Here we go.
Oh, yeah.
Big dude, big voice, man.
He's awesome.
Yeah.
Dang.
I bet you think I'd have a lot of children, you think?
Dude, I don't know his, like, but that guy, I don't think he ever, ever did a concert that he was not annihilated.
That's why.
But I'm like, if I drink that much, I couldn't ever speak.
Then the guy will sing.
I knew him personally.
I went to a few of his shows.
An awesome dude.
Wow.
Fun, but typical rock star, you know?
That's interesting that I brought him up.
Yeah, that's the only like thing about Brazil I know, except for him and soccer.
Yep.
What else did I see the other day?
Something about cars.
Oh, they found a bunch of rats in cars.
Do you have that?
Here we go.
Why so many cars have rats in them?
They chew all your wires and stuff.
Yeah, they sure do.
So, but you know, you know what's funny?
You know why, like, they don't, they are not hungry that they want to eat the wires.
They always go to the engine compartment because it's hot.
Oh.
So it's kind of cozy.
And then they're there.
So I guess they go, I might as well eat that wire and freak fuck with them.
Might as well have some lunch.
Yeah.
Increase in vermin in cars had doubled during the pandemic.
I guess because cars were sitting around.
Yeah.
What kind of, do they have any interesting vermin in Brazil?
I don't know.
We have a lot of rats for them.
Yeah.
Like it's, you know, I think.
Oh, there they are.
Because I used to sell hamsters my first job when I was young.
I used to sell hamsters and guinea pigs.
Yeah.
Tell my kids that.
Yeah, it was pretty big business for a little bit, but people started doing drugs.
A guy that I worked for, and they shut it down.
But what do you think?
So when I was in that vehicle today, so I had the opportunity to go out there and ride, right?
So what kind of car was I in?
You're in an Indy car.
In an Indy car.
It calls a Dallara.
That's the make.
But it's a special made chassis for that full carbon fiber, which is a composite that race cars are made.
It's not like a NASCAR car or your street car.
It's the carbon fiber.
We have some pieces in our streetcars, but it's a lot rigid.
It's a lot safer.
You know, because you crash your car, it goes like, you know, you can see the door like getting smashed.
Right.
Those cars, they have intrusual panels.
So if you hit the wall, nothing comes in to hurt you.
Open wheel, which is, you don't have fenders.
And you have an engine we race for Honda, but which is around 700 horsepower.
Oh, yeah.
I used to drive a Corolla.
I used to drive an Accord.
But they didn't have 700 horsepower.
It was sedan.
No, I don't think it did.
I think it had, I don't know what it had.
It was four wheels.
100 horsepower.
Yeah, maybe it was 100 horsepower, 150.
Yeah, I don't know what it had.
It was okay, though.
I didn't want a 700 horsepower on the street anyway.
Yeah, it was.
I mean, I like it.
But so basically it was a special.
Yeah, so the indie cars are specially made just for the track.
You cannot drive them on the streets.
You know, they're so low to the ground.
Yeah.
You saw it.
So when the craziest part that I noticed was, so you're going, you're almost going, you're going so fast it feels like, I felt like I was on a ride at like Disneyland.
That's what I tried to tell people.
Like, this is, what is it like?
I said, well, get on the craziest roller coaster you can think of and do 200 laps on it.
Wow.
And add heat and other, you said it, I mean, that's the only time we actually talked when you got out.
You said, I can't imagine when I did that by myself if we had more people around.
Yeah, it'd be very alarming.
Yeah.
But 33 more guys around, it would get exciting.
So do you, over time, do you get like a feel for things?
Like, is it become, because I noticed with stand-up comedy, like after a while being on stage, I get a feel For what's going on, I get a feel for like, I can tell when this part of the crowd is enjoying something.
I can tell when they're waiting for the next thing.
You know, you start to just get like just an energy.
Is that something that grows over time with racing?
Like, is it like, what is that like?
Well, the feel that you get, obviously, you're feeling people.
We are feeling a race car.
And with the experience of being doing indie cars for 23 years, 24 years.
Okay.
I used to say you feel it in your butt.
So basically, you go out and the way that the car behaves, because you're sitting so close to the floor, to the ground, you can tell.
You can tell when somebody, we're making changes all the time.
You're fine-tuning things.
It's so complicated.
Engineers have an idea, you don't agree, or you agree.
And it's always like a very, you know, the engineer is trying to tell, well, but the computer is telling me this, I'm not the computer.
I'm your computer.
You need to listen to me.
So you feel it in your butt.
So you can tell.
They change something, you go out.
In three corners, you can say, this is going to be awesome.
Or this is, oh, this sucks.
But sometimes you can do things about it and sometimes you can't.
But then it's very, it screws with your mind because we have so much resources that you're always looking to improve.
So you're never happy.
Right.
So you said, Tony, so you just dominated the race.
You won kick everybody's butt.
How was the car?
That was okay.
What do you mean?
It was the best car out there.
Well, but that doesn't mean I liked it.
Right.
And 90% of the times, you actually, I'll give you a stupid example.
You're telling jokes that people think it's funny, but you think it's stupid.
I'm driving cars that it's cool to drive, but I hate the way they drive, but they're fast and I have to drive it that way because I'm still better than them.
So it's very, so you feel it in your butt, basically.
So you sat there and you turn and the car will behave.
So that's what I say.
Feel it in your butt.
And then you describe that to a person that is sitting in front of a computer.
And then we both say, okay, so for this behavior, you can do this.
For that behavior, you can do that.
I don't want to get technical because then people would just don't understand what we're talking about.
But that's basically, we have a fix for everything, but doesn't mean it's really fixed.
But you always, but then there is a fine line as well because what's your gauge?
It's your stopwatch.
You make a change, you go quicker.
It's better.
You make a change, you go slower, it's worse.
Not necessarily.
Sometimes you make two changes that are worse, but then you're trying to put a piece of the puzzle together to be better.
So you're making choices constant, but you have to be so confident that the choices you're making, you can't second out yourself.
And that's a big...
Are they, are a lot of race car drivers, do they have to be like, are they angry people?
Are they a lot of them like driven people?
I think we're more of adrenaline people than angry.
I mean, you can't like driving angry sometimes doesn't mean you're going fast.
Actually, it's probably sometimes it's worse.
You make more mistakes because then you're doing things that you're not thinking.
Because when you're angry, your level of thinking, it's a lot less.
So you actually, the calmer guys, I mean, I have a teammate, Scott Dixon.
They call him the Iceman because the guy is just flat.
And he's the fastest person because he thinks, you know, you're not mad.
You're like, okay, this is how I'm going to get sneaky, you know, in a good way.
Are some cultures like are some cultures better at racing than other cultures?
Do you think it's just built into people?
I don't know.
I mean, obviously, I'm not American.
I became American a few years back.
My entire family was born here, my kids.
But I think we have goods and bads like everything.
I mean, we, you know, like me, I'll give an example.
As a Brazilian, I had to fight for what I wanted.
So I actually perform well in a pressure in a bad situation because probably I'm being in bad situations a lot more than I'm being in good ones.
Okay.
So I'm really good at managing that.
Right.
I'm not really good at managing when everything is right.
When everything is right, what's going to go wrong?
Yeah.
Because I'm not used to that.
It's too good to be true.
This can't be right.
Totally.
And of course, what's a shittier situation than a bunch of people going really fucking?
Right, but I think it makes a difference when a race car driver, you're constantly making choices.
Right or wrong, you have one second to make that choice.
And I think guys that brought up in the hard way, we can think a little bit more outside of, because you're forced to, when you're just, I don't know if I'm explaining it myself.
Because you're already used to being in a shitty, like in a rough environment.
So you know how, you're more confident to make that decision and it's not going to be a bad one.
And if it's a bad one, who cares?
I'm being in a bad one plenty of times.
Right.
I'm right back where I've always thought I was anyway.
What about like if you get into a crash?
What do you do?
Do you like close your eyes?
Or what do you do?
So it's human nature.
You definitely close your eyes.
You're not going to go, all right, let me watch.
Am I going to go, oh, that's cool?
That's all.
You just, we usually, the first thing you do, you take your hands off the stereo because it yanks.
And actually, I have a, I don't know if you guys can see it, but it's a pretty big.
I didn't take my hand off the stereo and the wheel came in and broke my arm, hit my elbow, and I broke seven of my ribs and knocked myself out.
I was in a coma for two days, but.
In a race?
In a race in Detroit.
And did you...
It was a long corner, long right-hand corner, and we're racing on the streets.
And we had a manhole that actually the car prior to mine, a few seconds ahead of me, went and actually just level and brought it up a little bit.
And our cars are so low.
And I was the next car, and then took off and landed no brakes at 180 miles an hour into the wall.
Wow.
That's all I remember.
I mean, I don't.
Somebody told me that.
And do you remember coming by, like just waking up later?
I mean, what?
So I remember.
That's so sick, dude.
This is, I'm telling you what they told me, but what I remember is I woke up two days later.
So basically, I had no idea.
And my arm was hanging because they just had surgery.
I had two plates, 14 screws, and it was hanging because of the swelling.
And I opened my eyes, and that's all I remember.
I had my arm up there, and I'm like, what the hell?
Where am I?
Yeah, like you're probably in class or something.
Yeah, I was like, am I in heaven or something?
Yeah.
Excuse me.
Can I go to the bathroom?
So when you like, are there different things that you have to do for your body to take care of yourself for this type of sport?
And how has that changed since when you got started?
Like, are people physically doing things different?
100%.
Really?
Well, you think about it, right?
So racing hasn't been, for the longest time, people didn't think it was, we were athletes because, well, you're driving a car.
Right.
That can't be that hard, right?
Right.
If you hadn't driven whatever.
Today, you go, I get in my car, I put my cigarette on, power steering.
So it wasn't very common between drivers to work out because you didn't need to.
Like the cars were easier to drive.
And then, you know, with evolution, technology, and they becoming, you're talking about 240 miles an hour.
The thing is pull 3 Gs into the corner.
You saw it today.
How much you're sweating on that suit.
Oh, yeah.
So, but it was not in a specific training for it because it was something new.
Like, you know, basketball players, what do they do?
They play basketball all day.
And then, yeah, they go to the gym to try to improve a couple.
So for us, it was more was a developing, like, okay, what do we need?
We need core.
And we need neck.
You need shoulders and you need forearms.
So, and then you start developing, you know, and talking to experts and you say, okay, what can I do?
Nowadays, I mean, I'm 47. Really?
It's not very common to last this long.
I mean, you talk about in any top high-level sport, talk about Tom Brady.
He's old.
I'm old.
But we took care of each other, like of ourselves.
And, you know, you're lasting that long because you're still fit, you're still sharp.
But today, I think the biggest improvement for us, like you have a lot of reflex machines and stuff that you can train your eyes.
Like first time somebody told me, you know, you can train your eyes, I'm like, stop, man.
Come on.
It's like, tell me my dog need acoupedures.
I'll just lay it up today.
You know what I mean?
It's like, come on.
And you do.
So you have, like, nowadays we go to the gym for the heat as well.
So we go do a session in the gym.
Well, let's say we go lift weights for 20 minutes.
They put you in a freaking hot room in a sauna for 20 minutes.
You come out, you do another drill, come back in, because that's, you saw how hot it was.
And you come here, I mean, Nashville, street course, 90 degrees outside.
You have to sit there for two and a half hours.
It's going to be hot.
You're going to dehydrate.
And we train to drink as little as possible because in the race car, you're not, oh, let me drink at 200 miles.
Are you doing it?
And there is not enough space to have a drink bottle.
You have a little tube that you can have maybe less than half a gallon on your drink bottle that you can, you need to suck at it.
It's like, like, what, what?
So I think, and the reflex machine, it's awesome.
It's just a flat screen TV.
It's a program that you just, it will pop a light and you have to cause reflection, but, and, and you keep getting better at it.
And then that's something that, you know, you train your eyes and then the overcorrections.
And you saw like you're always fighting the Syrian.
It's not just a drive from your house to the supermarket.
So it has improved a lot.
And I think since my generation, we have increased the level of fitness and sharpness.
And then I think, like in every other sport, one guy starts doing and he does well, everybody's starting to say, oh, I got to imitate.
I got to do the same he does.
And then he brings the level up.
And then you just.
Do drivers have to be smart?
Is it a smart man's sport?
A smart woman's sports?
I don't think so.
I think we need to be dumb to do what we do, to be honest.
You strap yourself in a car, very uncomfortable.
You go faster than everybody else, but you can die every time you hop in, but you don't think about that.
Yeah, no.
No offense to us, but.
Yeah.
No, I've always been pretty close.
You know, I'm not sure.
The stupider you are, the better.
Yeah.
Because people are like, I just told you, I broke my arm, seven ribs.
I was in a coma.
First thing I said when I woke up, the doctor told me, because I don't kind of remember, I had a concussion.
I said, when can I get back in the car?
Yeah.
That's stupid.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My sister's an idiot, and she's the best person I know.
She's the best person I know.
I mean, you can't beat that.
You know, I love to be here because I can't say things that I probably wouldn't say in a normal, like you sit down on a podcast.
You go, wow, you know.
My sponsor is here from American Legion.
If I get fired after that, I might need a.
What is your sponsor?
What is it?
American Legion.
American Legion?
Oh, really?
It's all the veterans.
Oh, yeah.
I went and saw, you know who I saw at the American Legion play not long ago?
Was Hank Williams Jr.
Or Hank Williams, yeah, Jr. is the one that's still alive, yeah.
You know, we raised the 500 of their cars, and it was a really cool cause.
We are, you know, we have this campaign, be the one trying to save veterans from, you know, depression.
And when they come back and try to reintegrate them, and, you know, being veterans, they think they need to defend us, and they never would admit they're in depression.
They actually, we lose seven lives a day, Dean?
17 a day.
So we've been trying to get the word out.
So great sponsor and a great cause.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Just a lot of the mental health stuff these days is just crazy.
I don't know what's going on with humans.
It's a weird time to be human.
Do you feel like y'all's sport is at risk of like automization ever?
Do people ever start talking about that?
Look, there's always talks.
They talk about what about race cars?
Are they all going to be electric?
They're not going to make any noise anymore.
Or we're going to have robots.
We don't need drivers.
I think technology is around and we've been getting better.
I mean, let's think about it.
20 years ago, we thought we'd be flying cars now.
That's true.
We always think we're going to be doing a lot more.
Oh, in 2022.
Cars are not going to have wheels anymore.
You're going to be just like, oh, space shuttles are out.
Yeah, and all we're doing is ordering pizzas and doing dumb taxes.
But humans are still delivering.
It's not a robot.
Maybe a drone, but you know what I mean?
It's like a guy still could come knocking your door.
Hey.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
So, no.
They just had a guy, actually, what's that?
They had a guy who, what did that guy do?
Trevin, can you look that up?
Oh, damn.
God put me in a position to save kids in a burning house.
The Vita guy, right?
He was delivering inside.
So, but see, if you had a drone, the drone wouldn't do that.
No.
Yeah, the drone just couldn't.
You know, just drop it.
So, yeah.
I mean, okay, you're going to have race cars without drivers.
This is, you know exactly what I'm going to say because you're in an entertainment business.
If nobody watches you, not going to have a show anymore.
Yeah.
Anyway, right?
If it's a comedy or your podcast, racing is the same thing.
Yeah, you're going to show up to see empty cars.
I don't know.
If that happens, I don't think we'll be actually be like frozen.
Frozen, right?
Yeah.
Chronically frozen, yeah.
That's crazy because we're about to talk with that guy.
But do you think like, because also then, yeah, you're not going to have fans aren't going to want to come watch a rock.
I don't know if fans want to go watch a rotation.
My question is, like people talk about, you know, there's a lot of debate nowadays about the electric cars, which I think it's awesome.
I mean, the environment and everything.
But then you talk about racing.
Like I said, maybe the next three generations won't know what race cars sound in the past, but we still have enough people.
Will you go to a race and just, it would be quiet.
You can actually talk.
You're like, hey, I think it's weird.
Yeah.
They do have a couple series that they run, which is awesome, but there is a place for them too.
I'm saying, are we going to just vanish everything?
The extremes, for me, it's what people exaggerate.
It's a great series.
They have a couple.
It's innovative.
I think we need that because what people don't realize, racing, it's actually a lab.
Everything that you have on your streetcar, we've been developing for decades.
The electric, our stuff.
Our engineers are guys that the manufacturers are only involved in racing to make their product better.
It's not because we love racing.
Yeah, I guess we do.
But what are we getting out of it?
Right?
And that's what they do.
We develop a traction control.
The pedal shifts that you have on your steering.
We did that.
Traction control.
The electric cars.
So my point is that it's placed for everybody.
I hate when people say, you're not going to be racing with few anymore in 10 years.
I'm like, come on, man.
Yeah, we have that series there that people come watch.
Right.
They can watch both.
Right.
Yeah.
If you like being quiet, some people go because they don't want to listen to their spouse for damn three hours, you know?
And that's the truth, man.
True.
I can't say that.
I think, well, no, but I think I can say it.
And I don't have a wife.
But I think a lot of people, you know, you see it.
You're just like, just a second, honey.
And then, you know, and she'll say, just a second, honey.
You know?
And that's men or women, you know.
But I interrupted you earlier when you were telling me, how did you get from, so how did you get from the go-karts to the next level?
So I was struggling to make ends meet and working.
So I was in a go-kart track.
So to make a little bit more money, I was teaching kids how to drive a go-kart.
So I had a clinic.
And so that I would have made some extra money.
At the go-kart place.
At the go-kart place.
What was it called?
The go-kart place?
Interlagos.
It's in Sao Paulo.
It's one of the most famous racetracks.
I actually just raced there Sunday, last week.
In a go-kart?
No, no, in a stock car.
I'm doing stock car Brazil as well this year, apart from IndieCar.
So be traveling quite a bit.
And Grant and Man, back in the day, we didn't have cell phones.
So I was down at the go-kart track, and the guy that used to prepare my go-karts, my mechanic, comes down.
The race shops are always near a racetrack.
That's very common.
Indianapolis, all the shops are there.
He walked down and says, hey, somebody's on the phone for you up.
I'm like, dude, I'm working.
No, no, no.
So it was a guy called Nelson Pique, which is one of the biggest, most famous race car drivers in Brazil.
I'm like, so I'm very well known for pranking people.
So I'm like, that's one of my friends that are screwing with me.
So whatever.
So I go up and he says, hey, it's Nelson.
I'm like, come on, man.
Who is it?
He says, no, no, no.
He says, listen, it's me.
And this is the deal.
He was very well known.
People, we were very well known for having good race car drivers in Brazil.
I have a friend in Italy that owns a team.
And he says he wants a Brazilian race car driver.
If I knew somebody that was good, it was you.
So you have to go to Italy.
It was Friday.
You have to go to Italy tonight.
I'm like, dude, okay, great.
I can't have, like, I used to take two public buses to go to work and come back.
I'm like, I barely have the money to take a public transportation.
And had you been practicing driving actual, was this for, this is for cars.
Cars.
Yeah, but I was actually racing cars in Brazil for a small series and doing go-karts.
So I was already driving cars.
So I said, all right.
So I called a couple of friends that, you know, had a little bit more money.
I said, guys, I got this opportunity.
Can you help me out?
I need to buy a ticket.
I'll pay you back, whatever.
It's like, no, no, no, no, no.
So a dad of, so my dad sponsor me and another kid when he was alive.
This kid had a lot less money than us.
Funny story, because then he passed the situation flipped.
And then, so his dad says, no, your father helped us a lot.
So I'll buy you the ticket to go.
Oh, wow.
So you get over there.
So, but I go there.
The test was Saturday.
And Sunday, I was going to go home Sunday night.
I had a ticket.
It was a weekend.
So I go home.
I said, Hey, mom.
At that point, I was 16, but 17. I didn't have to ask permission for anything.
I was working.
I said, Mom, I'm going to Europe.
She's like, hell, how?
Where did you stole the money to go there?
And I explained to her and I left.
So I landed Saturday morning, went to the track.
They had 10 guys that they're going to choose two drivers.
They're doing kind of like a gong show, putting 10 guys together.
You would go out, two cars, and they will time it, and they will pick the two fastest guys.
So I get there, didn't speak in Italian, so I didn't know the track.
I never had driven the car.
So I go out, I do five laps like you did, and I come in and they check the car.
They go, okay, now you can go and do 10 laps, and we'll check it out.
I went out, I did four more laps, and they actually called me in and they said, get out.
I'm like, what did I do, man?
I'm screwed up here.
And the guy took me to the truck.
I mean, we're trying to talk.
I mean, I didn't speak Italian.
He says, you're good, you're good.
Sign, good.
So basically, I think on my four laps, I went half a second quicker than everybody.
And he says, no, you're good.
And he was looking for a Brazilian.
Yeah, he must have been good, man.
So he's like, you hired?
I said, okay, so when can I go?
So I'm going to go home tomorrow.
That was Sunday.
And then when do I go back?
He goes, no, you can't go home.
I'm like, okay.
You're Italian now.
Then he goes, we're going to hire you, but I can't pay you.
All I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a car to race for free.
I said, well, I don't have any money.
He's like, well, so I then I can't stay here.
I can't rent a house.
Yeah.
Can't just drive around all night.
So he goes, well, no, okay, we'll take care of it.
So like you, you figure out how you're going to find a way to have whatever, a little bit of money, but we have the race shop.
You can live in the race shop.
This is my office.
We're going to put a mattress there.
Every morning when I come here at 8, that mattress needs to be out and clean because this is my office.
This is a TV.
And I was underage, so the shop was in a remote area of the city in Milan.
He says, at 6 o'clock, we're going to lock you in.
You have a phone.
If you're in trouble, you call.
At 7 a.m., we open up and you work on the cars during the day.
I said, all right.
Jeepers.
So I did that for three years.
Wow.
And we won a championship.
And then at the end of 95, that's actually a funny story that I like to tell my kids that and people that like we talk about racing a lot that I start racing not because of the money.
And same to you.
You said I start, you start your career because you enjoy what you do.
Yeah.
At the end of 95, I was making $1,000 a month, living for free.
It's a lot of money.
You have no bills, man.
I had no phone, no call.
$95 is good.
Right.
So I get a call from a manufacturer in Italy saying, hey, can you come talk to us?
I said, sure.
I was racing an open-wheel car called Formula 3. And they invite me to say, look, this is a contract for half a million dollars.
Damn.
And we're going to give you a house in a car to drive apart from, so it was Audi at the time.
And you're going to race the touring cars, which is the normal, like kind of NOSCAR, like just your streetcar, but converted to.
What do you mean?
Like a Dodge Neon or something?
Right.
Something like that.
Like, yes.
Just, yeah.
So I said, okay.
He says, here's the contract.
Take to somebody to look at it if it's okay.
It's a two-year deal, so it was a million dollars.
Damn, bro.
You must have been geeked up, huh?
Dude, I'm like, I actually said, where do I sign?
I was like, there's, hey, no lawyers looking.
Tell me, where's the pen?
I'd have been licking my fucking leg telling me if somebody gave me that.
But at the time, I had one sponsor.
And it was Philip Morris at the time when the cigarettes were big and racing.
Good.
But the CEO was kind of like my mentor.
I mean, he didn't have to sponsor me.
I was nobody, but he knew my story.
So I called him up and I said, hey, I need an advice.
He says, what's going on?
And I explained to him.
He says, well, I was about to call you because we, as Philip Morris, we're going to take five drivers to the United States to do a test on Indylights.
So Indy Lights, it's actually the series before IndyCar, like you got the leather series.
I was really young and says, and we're going to do a test.
And out of those five, we're going to pick two guys.
And we're going to fund it for two years.
And the deal is you learn the first year because you're racing ovals and stuff that we didn't do.
And the second year, if you win, we'll take you to IndyCar.
Well, IndyCar, my dad, I promise him, I'm like, well, but what about if I'm not, if you don't pick me?
He goes, well, if the team doesn't pick you, that means you're not good enough.
And you have to smoke to her now?
No, it didn't.
It didn't matter.
Not at all, which is, it was, it was, it was kind of controversial at the time because I was an athlete.
So I used to go a lot of media training because, hey, at one time I sat down to do an interview and the reporter says, hey, so your car, we have Marlborough sponsorship, you know, the cowboy stuff.
He said, yeah, yeah, they helped me.
And he goes, well, how do you feel about inducing people to smoke?
I was like, what do you mean?
I'm just here doing my job.
Not telling you.
Like, I would never, I never did a commercial.
But anyway, so it was kind of iffy at the time.
So anyway, back to he said, well, but that would be your choice.
It's your own risk.
But man, I had like, it's like money, it's a million dollars two years.
Like at that time, still, I'm like, I'm set for life, man.
I'm good.
I do two years.
I can't retire.
Yeah.
So I went home and I'm like, what do I do?
What do I do?
And I had to make a decision.
And, you know, at the time, I'm like, well, I'm young.
Yeah, money is good, but the promise I made my dad, I'm going to go.
So I actually bail on the deal and I came.
So the next day, he bought me a ticket and I came to America in December 95. Spoke zero English.
I actually asked a friend of mine to write it down in a piece of paper a couple keywords: like, hello, I'm hungry.
Where's the bathroom?
Yeah.
I landed here, went to Phoenix, Arizona, and I did the test.
I was the fastest in the test.
I got picked.
Me and Castro Neves, which he's racing this weekend, he won four Indy 500.
Helio, is it a?
Helio, yes.
Him and I, we got picked.
We were teammates.
I finished second in the first year.
I won the championship in 97 in Indylights.
Then I moved to IndyCar and start to pursue my dream.
But I like to tell the story because I could have actually had gone for the easy, easy money.
Right.
Easy.
But I don't think I would have fulfilled my dream and the promise I made my dad.
But then on that, I probably need to thank him because it's tough to make a decision like that when you're broke.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, dude.
I wouldn't have made it.
I would have taken, I would probably have taken the decision.
Yeah, but I think I would have.
I would have too.
But then the only thing that stuck out was my dad wasn't around.
And that was what I told him I was going to do.
Yeah.
You think your dad's proud of you, you think?
I hope so, man.
I mean, I took care.
Everything he asked, I've done it.
My mother is sad.
I mean, first thing I did when I made enough money, I told my mother, from today on, you're never going to work for the rest of your life.
You tell me what you want to do.
And if you want to do one thing different every day, you will.
And she is very obviously like lives a very simple life.
She lives in a one-bedroom apartment because she's actually kind of like me when I'm afraid to get old and become like her.
It's like one bedroom, so nobody comes to sleep in my house.
Yeah, interesting.
They want to come visit me.
They can sleep in a hotel, come to my house.
Yeah.
And then they can leave.
You're like a cat, man.
You're interested.
You know, so, but she does.
She lives in Rio de Janeiro, which she goes to the beach every day now.
She's 74. Took care of my sister as much as I could, but my sister is a lot smarter than me and extremely successful.
And I want $8,500 for him.
Everything else, obviously, I have a beautiful family.
I have four beautiful kids, and I try to show them as much love and my wife.
And I hope so.
I mean, I do hope so.
I'm not perfect, I mean, in any ways, but hopefully you'll be proud of me.
And according to you, you'll never will be.
We're never.
No, we're never going to be happy.
It's not impossible.
My wife tells me that every day.
I said, well, just get used to it.
I lived my entire life not being happy.
I ain't changing it now.
And I'm getting older.
It's right getting worse.
We bitch more.
We complain more.
Oh, it's too hot.
Oh, man, it's too cold.
It's like, when are you happy?
I'm not.
It's two something.
It's always two something.
Right.
Who's like, who is it?
A driver that's just a, who's like the, just like, who's the, who's the toughest driver you think you've met out there?
It's hard.
There are so many generations, right?
I'm a huge fan.
Like, I can ask you the same question and what you do.
You can go 30 years ago to current.
So I would say, I would pick something in the middle.
Okay.
I think the guys that race prior to us back in the 60s, like we like.
Because they burn to death all the time.
Three of them will die a year.
Wow.
You lose three drivers a year.
Four.
Nowadays, we don't lose anybody.
You crash at 200 miles an hour.
You get out of the car, hop in the backup car, and you're racing five minutes later.
Right.
So I think A.J. Foyt probably for me, like he worked in his cars.
You see a guy who get out of the car and punch people because he was mad, get a hammer to fix something.
You don't see that anymore.
So those are the top.
Bring him up.
Let's bring AJ Foyd up.
I want to see him.
You know, he fought a lion for real.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Theo, you guys, just put AJ Foyd lion.
He went to do a photo shoot.
Look, the lion attacked him.
He was doing a promo shoot.
Oh, damn.
So you tell me if this is not a badass.
Look at him.
Yeah.
Let's see that article.
Can we get to that article, Sonoma?
This is unbelievable.
Look at that picture.
Hold on, zoom in on that picture.
He's going for his jaw.
Look, it looks like he's trying to hug him a little, too, in the one.
Damn, that shit looks damn good.
You saw that fought a lion and survived.
Look at it.
That's crazy.
He looks like he's laughing even.
But I raced for him before I drove for Chip Kanesi.
Really?
He told me the story.
He says, you know, he's from Texas.
I can't.
You know, I fought a lion.
Here you go.
You can't do that.
I cannot impersonate him.
But he says, you know, I was doing a photo shoot and they brought this.
He speaks like his freaking lion.
I'm looking at the lion.
The lion looking at me.
I didn't think he liked me, but I didn't like him either.
And then all of a sudden.
He was with Stuart Haas.
He came at me.
And I said, but what was his trainer?
He says, well, he was trying to get, but like, that's it.
And a lion's trainer, let's be honest, dude, is just a trainer.
You know what I'm saying?
The trainer knows the lion.
The lion's mad.
Come on.
The trainer is the dude who watches the lion.
You know when he's mad.
If he's mad, what are you going to?
You're going to hit him?
Yeah, come attack me instead of him.
Go ahead, my friend.
Knock yourself out.
Sorry.
That's exactly who the trainer is.
If you can see an article on that, that's crazy, man.
That's unbelievable.
Being attacked by...
That's beautiful, though, man.
You don't get to fight a lion very often.
Unless you're doing like a Wizard of Oz and they do like a box of women.
He's a man.
I'm telling you, he's one of my heroes because this guy, so he was in a bulldozer.
He's 70. 74?
Okay.
And he got attacked by, he was in his bulldozer, attacked by bees, more than 300 bees.
Damn.
And he was by himself and survived.
He beat them all.
Oh, dude, you should see his eyebrow.
You should see the bees, huh?
I was like the poor.
And then I said, So, AJ, how was this?
They thought they were gonna fucking kill me, and I kill all of them because when they bite you, they die.
He's like, Yeah, man.
So, I mean, he can't win.
Yeah, he's just like, keep biting me.
But like a hardcore dude, but then very hard.
Like, you drive for him.
He will be the one to say, what are you doing?
You go, what do you mean?
You suck out there.
I'm going to take you out of the car.
I'm going to put somebody else in.
He's that type of person, which I appreciate.
Wow, that's powerful, man.
That dude's a freaking gangster.
He's here this weekend.
Is he really?
Yeah.
Damn.
I would like to meet.
Yeah, I would like to meet him.
And he won everything.
Like, he's the type of person that, like, he drove race cars are not the same.
Like, not that you drive an ASCAR car, you're going to be good at an indie car and vice versa.
And he drove all types of cars and he won in everything he drove.
Wow.
Like Mario, that old man that drove you around today.
Yeah, dude.
He looks like he still pulls some beautiful women, too.
Is he married?
He's a widow, but I guess he's single now.
So, yeah.
Oh, he's a widow now?
Yeah.
Damn.
Or male widow, huh?
Right.
I don't know what that's called.
What else was I going to ask you about?
Oh, uh, the, uh...
Because you're, I mean, you're in your 40s now.
What keeps you in racing?
you've won the Indy 500, you've kind of achieved your, like, is it, You got close last time.
I mean, is it like...
It was...
It's...
Like, you know, like, I think you relate to that because you were very successful in what you do.
So, but you could say, why keep doing it, right?
It's the adrenaline, then you're going to go.
Like the same way I believe I've never actually, obviously we do speeches and stuff in front of people.
I don't get the crowd reaction.
We don't hear them.
So to me, it doesn't affect me at all.
They can be buoying me or could care less.
I can't hear you.
But, you know, that moment before you get on stage that you get that butterfly in your stomach.
That's what keeps, that's what it is.
It's not, yeah, it's the speed.
But those kind of things, I'm used to it already, right?
So you used to make people laugh.
You used to talk to people.
You get, you know how to ask the right question.
But it's like, it's the feeling of when you, when I get in a car, it's my moment.
Like it's, it's me in the car.
It's me and the beast.
And like, we're going to go beat everybody.
Doesn't necessarily happen all the time.
But yeah, I think the adrenaline and, you know, I've been doing this all my life.
I think the toughest part is to realize, I said that the other day.
My biggest fear because I think I'm still competitive and not because I think that my results are still telling.
Right.
I am.
Because that's our life too.
Doesn't matter how old you are, but you have a couple bad years.
That's it.
That's it.
Because you have to perform.
It's a performance-based sport.
But if Tom Brady had had the past two seasons weren't good, he wouldn't be playing this season.
Yeah, and he wouldn't be coming back.
But that's the toughest decision.
It's to let it go when you still think you have it.
Right.
And until the day that something overcomes that, because it's a very selfish, and you know that too, because, I mean, anybody can relate to that when you dedicate your life to what you do.
Everything else comes second.
My wife, my kids, like my wife asked me the other day, which she knows very well because she worked in racing, so she knows.
But did you ever think about that something could happen to you?
What about us?
I said, I do, but I don't.
Because I still want to do this.
And I hope you guys understand that.
But then she says, no, I'm not asking for us.
I said, what about you?
Are you fine with that?
I said, I am.
And I think the day that I'm not, that would be the day that I think I need to say, all right, now I'm done.
And I'm not ready for that yet.
I mean, we just finished third in the biggest race in the world.
We had a chance to win.
I want to do it again.
And then there's a bunch of annoying people saying, when are you going to retire?
Why should I?
Yeah.
Was I that last?
Yeah.
Was I that bad?
I thought it was bad, but I thought, but I have that opinion all the time about me.
Yeah.
Right?
So it's a tough call, man.
It's a tough call.
And, you know, you think about out of my four kids, I wasn't there for two of them on the day of their birth.
Wow.
And you miss many things.
Oh, you miss many things.
My girl went back today.
It's her first day at school.
I'm here with you.
Yeah.
Am I sad?
I hate to say it, but I'm not.
I mean, that's our life.
And that's the way I chose to live mine.
I mean, I give them the love that I can and as much as I can and as much as I want.
But it's a very selfish thing.
And it's not even selfish to you.
It's selfish to you, but it's the requirement of the job is a lot.
Right.
Because it's not people think that whatever we're doing here, you just sat here right now, we talked and we're done.
What about the studio?
What about the preparation?
The thought that you had to put in?
Who am I?
You're going to talk to me.
And the same thing with me.
I go home.
I got to wake up and work out.
It's not just, yeah, the race car.
The easiest part is to drive the race car.
Yeah.
What about go to the race shop?
Talk to the engineers.
Dedicate yourself.
Look at it.
It's a full-time job.
It's not just, yeah, you guys have the best life, right?
I mean, this is my 14th weekend in a row that I spend in a racetrack.
Wow.
So the entire summer, we didn't go on vacation, which I understand a lot of people don't either.
But I'm saying, like, it takes your entire time.
And in the meantime, you have kids to raise, you have soccer games to take them or basketball, whatever.
But then you just try to make it the best.
But like I said, to answer your question, what makes it the selfness, selfness.
Selfishness?
Selfness.
Sorry, Brazilians.
Selfness, yeah.
Yeah.
And it's interesting.
And it's a selfish, it's a, Everything needs to go, It needs to actually rotate around you or me, right?
We need to go.
Well, I want to take the kids to Disney when next weekend.
Well, I can't.
I'm racing, but you can go.
Or can we go?
Can we make plans to go in November?
Well, I don't know.
The team might ask me to go test because we have a new car.
You can't have a schedule because you're on call.
You're like a doctor.
You never know.
You might get lucky.
Or you said, cool.
Let's tell the team we're going to go this week.
I'm going away with my kids.
TK, Theo Call, you can be on his show.
I mean, we've been trying to go to see him.
I'm a fan.
Honey, I got to leave.
Yeah.
Well, you guys can stay.
And then you leave.
I know.
Yeah, my whole life's been like that, I think.
No, I do, but.
Right, but it's my life.
I know.
Yeah, I'm hard to reach sometimes, man, I think, in a lot of communication ways and stuff.
Like when it comes to relationships and stuff, it's really.
You know, Theo, but I think at the end of the day, like I'm on my second marriage.
My first wife, which is the mother of my oldest kid, a great person, but she was a normal girl, like normal girl.
I mean, she got brought and raised, lived with her parents until she got married, never actually watched racing and stuff, and she couldn't do it.
And I couldn't do it because then I couldn't do it more of her requiring and asking me all that.
It was a lot of pressure.
And then I get my wife that I've been with Lauren for 15 years.
She was a reporter.
She had a TV show all about racing in cars.
She gets it more.
Well, she knows.
And then it becomes like, we'll do whatever he needs to do.
And then in a relationship, again, it could be flipped the other way.
If she had a much bigger dream, probably I would give up mine at some point and leave hers.
But in a relationship, somebody's going to have to give up.
And I'm not trying to say, oh, I'm the man.
No, but she met me.
I was already who I am.
Right.
And I think the same with you.
Like either they get used to it or then it's not for you.
Yeah.
They have to give you relationship advice.
No, I don't think I would.
But I feel like, yeah, it's the same kind of stuff.
It's like, man, it's hard to find somebody to fit into it.
And that understands, right?
Because you never have a schedule.
And that's for some people, it's a problem because you can say, all right, you know, tonight we're doing this, this, this, this, that.
You have all these plans.
And you get a phone call.
Hey, you got to go to LA right now.
Yeah, something changed.
Yeah, whatever.
Yeah, you got to go.
Sorry, tell this person.
I'm going.
Yeah, sometimes you can.
At some point in your life, you will be able to say no.
But even then, I think you're going to think about it because, oh, but it's still a good opportunity there.
It's a movie where you're like, man, come on.
I mean, if my boss calls me and says, you need to be in Pittsburgh tomorrow, I'm going to tell him, well, you know, my girl has a, you're going to put on a Steelers jersey and freaking hit the airport.
What time?
Yeah.
What time do you need me there?
Yeah, what time?
I got six great watches.
What are you doing?
When he calls, his favorite word, right?
He's like, hey, what are you doing?
I said, whatever you need me to do, boss.
What do you want me to do?
No, no, no.
I'm asking, what are you doing?
He said, waiting for you to tell me what to do.
Have they tried any like advanced, like alternate types of racing or things to get the sport different or more, not more exciting, but to add variation to it?
Really?
I mean, it's no different that, you know, the fans are, the hardcore fans will be critics.
They are the worst critics.
And you're never going to please everybody.
But the best way we try to make IndyCar is that everybody that actually is going to feel the car, they will have a chance to win the race.
Some series that is only two teams that dominate, and then that gets really boring.
It's awesome for the two teams that are dominating.
So we try to keep the competition level side, which is hard to control.
But with the equipment and the cars and the engines, you give them rules to keep the cars close.
So then you take the best out of the driver, the engineers.
And obviously, there's always going to be the teams that are well funded, they have the funding to hire better people.
Right.
It's like baseball.
Right.
And that's like anywhere in the world.
But the way they're making, so we're making adjustments all the time.
And you talk about not just on the equipment, but the way we race.
I mean, look at the challenge here in Nashville.
We have a street course.
It's a street.
You just built around it.
How do you know if it's going to be good?
So we did the first year.
Some places are bad.
Then you come back and you make it better.
We shouldn't start the race at this point because a lot of people crash.
You should start it over there.
So it's constant.
I mean, it's a tough job, you know, but that's what we do to equalize.
And then it's easier to sell sponsorship because when you go sell your sponsorship, the trickiest question, because it's like, let's say I want to buy your drink.
I said, how much is that?
He said, five bucks.
I said, here, five bucks and I'll get it.
I drink it.
That's good.
A sponsor will ask you, how much is a season to win?
Well, that's not a question.
Because if you can give me the biggest budget, but that's still not guaranteed, I'm going to win.
So it's never, it's a risk.
The season costs X million dollars.
Well, costs $5 million.
What about if I give you 10?
Are we going to lap the entire field?
No.
Or about 15?
No.
We'll probably lose to a team that had $2 million budget.
So it's never guaranteed.
So you're kind of like trying to...
our team owner has a team i have a lot of friends uh tony i mean i know tony well and clint uh it's two different completely different mentalities uh the way they run things the cars are not similar they run more of a raw old school they're getting like more and more advanced but we're technology wise we're i don't know in the future 15 years ahead of them damn but that's damn but that's not because they're not capable that's the way they choose the way they want it that's the product and
it works yeah because then we don't even compete like there is no competition i mean they go at 160 miles an hour 180 tops we'll do 240 yeah they corner at 120 we corner at 230.
damn you know so but yeah there is huge difference and and and the fan base as well because then you go from the guy that likes electric cars or open wheel or nascar interesting man i think i've learned a lot you know i've learned a lot about you and i've learned a lot about the the sport overall um i think there's probably more stuff about the sport that i could learn but i think i just have to get out there and experience it more i i think uh you got probably the best shot as far as you know experiencing
something that you know it's like you you're being on a car now so you probably you relate a lot more than if i just had sat here and tell you you know you go to a roller coaster now you know exactly what we're talking about you talk about you have a you have a wheel that has it costs 50 grand just a wheel and you have 15 buttons that you have to change them four or five times a lap why are you going 230 miles an hour why are you having cars
all around why you have to look for because you know that's another thing that people don't realize when you're going that fast you're not looking what's happening here you're looking what's happening like way ahead of you so yeah i think you have it i mean hopefully hopefully you enjoyed it and you have a different appreciation for what what we feel well i certainly have a appreciation for you now and i have i think i have a better appreciation just being in the car and um just kind of seeing what that's like you know it's just
amazing we come up on a turn i'd be like i don't know if we're going to be okay for this yeah what would and then we would just you know we have the same thought right yeah but we have a little bit more of notion that it's going to be okay but sometimes like oh that's not going to be okay when can you even pass someone i didn't see any opportunities yeah i mean you it's a setup man it's it's a cat and mouse game sometimes like in this type of track there's probably one place to pass but
the but sometimes that your car is not as good at that place so what you do you force the guy to make a mistake you put enough pressure on him until he pops and that's when it comes in back to whatever we've been talking for an hour now the pressure the guy that can take it and but it's just really it is like that and then you're relying on a team too because we do pit stops right we change four tires and we put 20 20 gallons of fuel in eight seconds but
then when you put that those eight seconds when you come into the pits that the entire field of 26 cars that we have it probably gonna be in one and a half seconds from first to last wow if you come in and the guy has an eight second pit stop and you have a 10 because somebody made a mistake then you lost yeah you go from first to last and then a place that you can't pass you're done so there's so many other things that are out of your control as well that have to go right that is
it's actually it's brutal you know what i mean because to win it's brutal well because it's like in any other sport some of the other sports if you don't win because you suck because you suck you can't shoot the ball right it's on you yeah right well i can't make the basketball i can't hit the baseball but that's on you you need to go there and pre us you can be the best guy out there if you don't have a team behind you you're done there's a lot of factors right and on top of that you have the best team but the manufacturer that make the little lug nut one
of those are defective and they break and then you're like so it's very uh it's unfair it's like life man yep 100 and we're never happy we're never happy man life's unfair and so is that sport um tony thanks so much for your time man thanks man i appreciate it really during thanks thanks for having me i'm uh i'm a fan and uh you know it's it's a pleasure to be here that's the same way that i feel man and i i look forward i'm going to come out to the indycar in uh in min next may
so i'll be uh hopefully hopefully it'll be my uh we're working on it putting the people behind the scenes but yeah it's uh it's gonna be my 25th year and i if you really serious and you have the time you'll be my guest and i'll i promise you you're gonna experience something that you never did with 400 000 people in that place i'll give you a radio you can listen to the conversations during the race yeah be sick i'll definitely make it and i have to say it might be my next one my last one so
you'll probably be there for the good farewell the shout and then we can go party sunday night yeah the way i say it we can go drink to celebrate or to forget go get you a third wife huh no no no no no no stop it i'm joking no no i'm joking miss get you a wife yeah oh there we go she has some friends she does i want a brazilian wife too well she's not brazilian she's american but i have a blood of brazilian friends so yeah are you sure you want that yeah i think so my friends married a brazilian lady and she seemed like a great lady all right well i'll uh i'll
send you some uh yeah send me some temaya some tea maya so i can play it for him uh tony thank you so much for being here appreciate it i'm just on the breeze and i feel i'm falling like these leaves i must be called the stone but when i reach that ground i'll share this piece of my mouth i can feel it in my bones but
it's gonna take Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner.
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And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head.
You have three new voice messages.
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So great.
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Here's a deal.
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