It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer with time in NASCAR and IMSA. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love motorsport for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
The podcast It’s Not the Car is created by Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Do you remember your worst day in racing?
Of course you do. How could you forget?
Jeff, Sam, and Ross: three hosts, three hugely different people, three lifetimes in and around motorsport. And in this episode, the stories of three very different bad days at the track—in parenting (Jeff), in desperation (Sam), and in the realization that a dream is gone and not coming back (Ross).
Racing is like any other part of life: It’s not about what happens when things go right. It’s about who you are when things go wrong.
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “EVERYONE TELLS A STORY.”
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Race tracks. The road. Fast cars. Slow ones. What do they have in common? Simple: If you're willing to use your noggin-brain, you can figure them out.
Maybe.
How do you get used to a new car at speed? What does it want, what does it need? What do *you* need? Can you turn the whole process into a repeatable, trustworthy routine? Of course you can! The question is… how?
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INSTANT EXPERT.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Jeff , Ross, and Sam were at the Long Beach Grand Prix last weekend. At one point, Ross and Sam went to the legendary Autobooks-Aerobooks bookstore in Burbank, where they randomly bumped into an INTC listener named Matt. Matt was there to buy one of Ross’s “Speed Secrets” books! Hi, Matt! Later, Sam ate a bag of Haribo Star-Mix gummies that had melted from sitting on the dash of Ross’s rental car. Was there a point to this story? No, of course not! Thanks, kids! I’m off to yell at clouds!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Why do we push ourselves? What makes you put yourself out there and try?
Why is that trying so easy for some and so hard for others?
How much does belief matter with all this? How much is it relevant to driving around in circles, or human performance, or doing the best you can with anything, especially given the limited resources each of us has on tap, as a person?
Why do those resources rarely feel like enough—even when they so clearly are?
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “ROSS AND SAM ASK WHY.” It came about because Ross and Sam once went to a Brazilian restaurant in Culver City. There’s more to that story, but it’s a secret and maybe we’ll tell you one day just not now ooooooh the mystery and suspense so enormous!!!
RELATED TRIVIA: Ross always says this show is what happens when an engineer, a driver coach, and a journalist walk into a bar. (Insert punchline here.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
What does a championship-winning IMSA engineer and team director want from a race car? What does he *need* from it? Should those qualities match up? How much race could a race car race if a race car could race cars?
So many questions. We definitely answer the first two. Maybe also the last one. (Maybe.)
A good race engineer blends the art of the possible with the science of the probable. INTC co-host Jeff Braun has been perfecting that blend professionally for more than four decades. Along the way, he’s won Daytona, Sebring, and a whole lot else.
Jeff’s list of favorite cars he’s worked with is too long for a single show, but we make a good dent in it with this ep!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “JEFF TELLS A STORY.”
RELATED TRIVIA: If a race car *could* race cars, and a race car *would* race cars, then a race car would race as much car as a race car could race. Or something. Also, every woodchuck I’ve ever met has been an obnoxious little punk.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
They had a shot at winning, you know? You always have a shot! Even though sometimes you don’t. This is what happens when… well, when you try very hard and it doesn’t happen.
Jeff was on the wall with Toronto’s AWA Racing, helping that spunky little team’s Corvettes go faster. (Fresh off their Daytona win!) Ross was focused on LMP2 and his driver there and coaching his heart out.
Everybody had heart on the table. And then…
Well, you’ll have to listen!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES.”
RELATED TRIVIA: There is crashing in this episode. Sam is not in this episode, but he once broke a long bone in his foot at a Connecticut Airbnb while crashing through the kitchen after a day at Lime Rock. (Insert journalism joke here.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
The first answer? Money, of course. The second answer? Also money.
The third answer, in case you’re wondering: also also money! But we don’t care about those answers! We care about how, if you work hard and maybe get lucky… you might not *need* the money. (Much.)
Ross is a former IndyCar ’shoe and a pro driver coach who has trained thousands of racers. Jeff is a pro engineer who’s helped countless teams chase wins, and he raised an IMSA-champion son, Colin Braun. Ross and Jeff know things. They share things!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “ROSS & JEFF STEAL THE SHOW.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam had to sit this one out. We could tell you why, but it’s more fun if you guess. Email your totally untrue answers to [email protected]—our favorite answer will get a free INTC shirt and a shout-out on the show!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“A mythbusting episode,” Ross suggested. “Great idea!” Sam and Jeff said.
Then we blinked, and we had gone off-topic again, taped an entire show about 19th-century American cultural hegemony. What a corker! More specifically, we had taped a show about the life and times of a long-dead American statesman who also happened to be a strong supporter of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, a.k.a. Prohibition.
Naw—that’s an exaggeration. We wouldn’t do that to you. This episode is about *20th-century* political hegemony. (Everything else above stands.)
Still here? Good! Everything above is a fib, a gambit designed to root out the nonbelievers. Except the “mythbusting” part.
Here’s a myth for you: It’s never important to read all the way to the end!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “IT IS VERY UNLIKELY THAT THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL WILL SUE US.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam, Ross, and Jeff will all be at the Long Beach Grand Prix in April. Jeff will be working his day job with AWA Racing; Ross and Sam will just be hanging out. Sam will have a pocketful of free INTC stickers. And yes, that last sentence is a threat.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
You guys have emailed to ask what we talk about off-air: "Have you ever considered an off-topic show?"
Hey, why not?
Sam cracked a beer on an empty stomach. Jeff poured a large coffee. Ross continued his streak of amusingly clean and healthy living. With no plan, we ended up yapping on—among other things—racing, Lotuses, how Sam’s grandpa got out of mowing the lawn forever, and that time Jeff’s son Colin whacked straight into a flying bat while lapping a kart in their yard in the middle of the night.
This format is an experiment. If you like it, we’ll do it again. If you don’t like, hey, no worries, it’ll go Poe’s raven, nevermore!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INTC TANGENT HOUR.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam was drinking Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. From the world’s oldest brewery, which dates to the year 1040. “Fruity nuances of banana and cloves,” their site says. Coincidentally, that’s how Sam’s wife describes his writing. (Sam: “Tough, but fair.”)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
We’re back! And one of our hosts just won the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona!
His name is Jeff Braun, he’s the competition director for the IMSA Corvettes of Toronto’s AWA Racing, and he’s won Daytona twice before. We’re dang proud of him. We asked him to break down this year's win—moment by moment, all the ups and all the downs.
AWA’s win at Daytona this year marks the first 24-hour win anywhere for the Corvette GT3 car. It’s also the first time in decades that a privateer Corvette has won the race.
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES.” Which might sound a little tawdry, but hey, Sam wrote it, so there you go.
RELATED TRIVIA: Hey, it’s a show again! It’s Not the Car took a short hiatus just after Christmas, but our second year starts here. Thanks to everyone who emailed or DM'd to check in and ask when we were coming back—it means a lot!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
How is speed on a bike different from speed in a car? Is chasing the limit different if you’re more likely to get hurt? And just why did your crazy old Uncle Eddie yardsale that ratty Ducati across a field, anyway?
Complex questions. Except Uncle Eddie. Dude owns a Chevelle and loves Foreigner a little too much, you know? Probably got hot blooded one night, wanted to know what love is. Maybe it felt like the first time? Tires were cold as ice, though, too many head games! But I digress.
Nick Ienatsch is the creator of the Yamaha Champions Riding School, one of the country’s best two-wheel performance training programs. He’s also a writer, a racer, and a hell of a good teacher. Before his current gig, Nick spent more than a decade as the lead instructor at the celebrated Freddie Spencer Riding School.
We ask Nick about motorcycles in this one. Ross, Sam, and Jeff are all bike people, but that's not a prereq here. At the core, this is an episode for anyone who likes wheels and owns a brain.
And maybe also Uncle Eddie.
RELATED TRIVIA: This episode marks the end of INTC’s first year on air! Fifty-two shows, one every week—weird, right? Honestly, we’re just geeked to still be here. Thank you for listening!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Fifteen years ago, a guy from Maryland took a camcorder and a bone-stock Ford Mustang GT to Japan and filmed a series of YouTube videos on drifting and local car culture. Back home in the States, a handful of people—including INTC producer Mike Perlman, then 15 years old—watched those videos and asked, What the hell is going on here?
By that point, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was already an accomplished professional drifter, an off-road racer, and a self-proclaimed “professional fun-haver.” Fast forward a decade and a half, and Gittin’s hands-on approach has helped drifting be taken seriously in America—and he’s done so much more.
For INTC’s 50th episode, Gittin joins us to talk about the nuance and difficulty of drifting, building a career in motorsport, and how our very own Ross Bentley changed his life!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Have you ever been in the zone, or in flow, behind the wheel? Want to get back there again and again?
This podcast is all about what’s driving the car, and in this episode, we dig deep into the minds of high-performing drivers. We talk with Dr. Sue Jackson, a psychologist who has specialized in sport and exercise psychology. She co-wrote the book "Flow in Sports" with the “father" of flow research, Mihaly "Mike" Csikszentmihalyi.
In her latest book, "Experiencing Flow," Sue looks into how we can all spend more time experiencing peak performance, whether that means on the race track or at any other time in life. Sue also talks about her recent interest in racing, and specifically about Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. (Since they knew a thing or two about getting into the zone!)
**
More information about Dr. Sue Jackson and her books:
https://www.bodyandmindflow.com.au
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/suejackson_flow/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/bodyandmindflow
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsuejackson
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
This episode has everything: Punches. Pepsi. Snow! Plus, a guy named Cale crashes a 190-mph race car in sneakers and kicks somebody on national TV.
Naturally, save the snow, this all happens in Florida.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that means the 1979 Daytona 500 and the childish, joyous three-driver fistfight that changed NASCAR forever.
RELATED TRIVIA: To hell with trivia this week—we’re just gonna use this space to rattle off every badass old NASCAR first name that’ll fit. Here goes: Dale and Cale and Fireball and LeeRoy and Bobby and Davey and Donnie and Joe and Curtis and Marshall and Lee and Richard and Buddy and Pearson and Benny and Cotton and Junior and Buck and Hershel and AJ and the other Bobby and Harry and Dan and Red and Dick and Weatherly and Rex and the other other Bobby and Ned and the other Lee and you know what? Each and every single one of those dudes knew how to slide a big ol’ Detroit sled like ***nobody’s business***.
And we like that.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Strap in, kids—it’s time for another story from Jeff’s past, and this one’s a doozy.
In 1967, future pro racer and INTC host Jeff Braun won a contest to visit the United States F1 Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
Jeff was nine years old. The trip blew his mind.
Guaranteed in this ep: Our very own J.B. as a wee man! Quality hangs with Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham! Sam explaining why Sixties F1 was bonkers-deadly but great! Jeff swimming at the Glen Motor Inn with Gurney and Jim Clark and Graham "Mustache" Hill! A private garage tour! And more!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Tells a Story.”
RELATED TRIVIA: So at one point, our boy hits the Watkins concession stands. He wants a burger. Being nine, he is not tall, can’t see over the counter. Then, suddenly, someone lifts him up. He turns around—it’s future F1 World Champion Jochen Rindt! Suited and booted, driving that weekend, three years before his death at Monza. RIP, you legend: Trackside meatwich brings everybody together.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Tony Quiroga is the editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. For the last 18 years, his magazine has rented Virginia International Raceway once a year. And each time, they’ve spent three days—normal people, not pro drivers—flogging the best new fast cars, lapping nonstop and chasing time.
Sound like a dream day? A pile of stress? Tony is an old friend of INTC, and he says C/D’s annual “Lightning Lap” test is… both!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are!
Related Trivia: Sam and Tony once worked together Car and Driver. Later, they worked together at Road & Track. Then it was C/D again. If time is a flat circle, then car magazines are a… flat skidpad, I guess?
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Once, humans set foot on the moon. Some steely eyed engineer types did some math and took some gambles, and then some steely eyed pilot types sat on a big firework and flew off.
Huge achievement, neat space candle. And that plan—the *strategy*—made it possible.
Related: A host of this show is a pro race engineer. Jeff Braun has won the 12 Hours of Sebring eight times and the 24 Hours of Daytona twice. His résumé includes a whopping ten IMSA / Grand-Am championships.
Race strategy makes Jeff’s job go ’round. So we had him explain it!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Instant Expert.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Once, Sam found himself at the end of a grueling enduro. It was the last corner of the last lap; the win was make-or-break. In the heat of battle, he made a strategic choice—he took out two drivers at once. And hey, those little girls were really unhappy about that, but they were also Sam's nine- and eleven-year-old daughters, and that’s how the MarioKart cookie crumbles, rugrats! Boom goes the red-shell dynamite! Dad-strat champion forever!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
In this episo… ah, screw it. Cut to the chase: Do you know what a Mazda R26B rotary sounds like?
Four rotors of fury! The littlest beer keg that could! The 700-horse shrieker from the first Japanese car to win Le Mans!
BEEOWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!
Except… louder. Nastier. You hear that noise even once, it makes a bee-line for the whoopy-monkey core of the human brain and lives there forever.
So we got ourselves here yep a story about that.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time an underfunded Japanese carmaker and a strange little engine design went to France and slayed 200-mph giants.
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam once track-tested a real live Mazda 787. Ross used to own Mazda RX-7. And in 2014 and 2015, Jeff was competition director for the factory-backed Mazda SpeedSource diesel IMSA prototypes.
***
CORRECTION: Sam got the location of Hiroshima wrong here; it's actually quite far from Tokyo and a large city on its own. That was off-the-cuff brain fart and not from his notes, please forgive us. (What's more: Sam has been to Japan multiple times and knows better.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Corner by corner, inch by inch, one of the greatest tracks in the world. We’ve got thousands of laps there. Walk the track with us!
What makes Laguna Seca so great? Is the answer . . . California? The mountains? Memories of Mario, getting loose in Turn 9, that cotton-candy morning fog, or how the rear axle just snap-crackle-pops into the Corkscrew on trailed brake?
Yes! And so much else, right?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “Walking the Track.” In this installment, Sam and Ross destitch their love for a deeply American, deeply Californian, and deeply wonderful track.
You will learn where the apexes are, if you don’t already know. But that’s the least interesting part.
***YOUR RELATED TRIVIA STARTS NOW***
Ross has strolled Laguna’s pavement countless times while teaching people to go fast there. Sam once got yelled at by track security for daring to walk a lap at sunset, on a club-race weekend, after everyone had gone home.
(Not allowed, they said. Which is ridiculous, but also, in that case, why were the gates open? Boo hiss.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Jeff and Ross co-host this show. Jeff is a race engineer. Ross is a performance coach who’s worked with thousands of drivers—Indy winners, Le Mans winners, even the late Ken Block.
Thirty years ago, one kid stood out from the rest; he would become one of the most decorated drivers in American history. Oddly enough, that kid was Jeff's son.
Colin Braun is now 36. His resume holds three IMSA championships, four Daytona 24 wins, a Le Mans win, and a NASCAR rookie-of-the-year title. He’s raced in IndyCar, World Challenge, and Global Rallycross; he’s driven Le Mans prototypes and GTP cars, Porsches and Ferraris and Ford GTs.
The most successful drivers do one thing better than the rest. So we got Colin on the horn and asked about that—and about what it takes to go fast in everything.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are!
Related Trivia: Colin recently signed to drive one of Meyer Shank Racing’s factory-backed Acura GTP prototypes for 2025. This is neat. We like this.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Chris Andrews was once a NASCAR Cup Series engineer and crew chief. He’s worked hand-in-hand with drivers like Robby Gordon, Bill Elliott, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Kasey Kahne. His resume holds names like Roush Fenway, Evernham Motorsports, and Richard Childress Racing.
What you have probably guessed already: Chris has some *excellent* stories.
Is this another of our “How the Pros Cheat” shows? You bet! And now with guest!
Related Trivia: After more than a decade at the top of NASCAR, Andrews switched to sports cars—he’s currently lead engineer for Vasser Sullivan’s championship-winning IMSA GTD Lexus coupes.
Related Trivia Part Two, Badass Two-Lane Camry Edition: This episode’s guest once made a NASCAR Cup-spec Toyota Camry street-legal and drove it around suburban North Carolina. Because he is a steely-eyed missile man. Or a hero. (Or—wait, no!—both. Definitely both.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“You jerk,” they’ll shout, “that show title isn’t relatable! Only the die-hards will understand! For pete’s sake, man, think of the traffic analytics!”
Who cares? I am Sam and I write these ep descriptions, and that title makes me happy. If you don’t like it, hey, you probably aren’t the kind of person to listen to a show about a “flap,” anyway.
And: This is a show about a flap! It’s also about two of the greatest American racers to have ever lived. The moment where two men of experience and wisdom grew frustrated. And how they stumbled onto an invention that changed aerodynamics forever.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time when Dan Gurney and Bobby Unser used an Indy car to discover something that would later be used to help helicopters fly.
Related Trivia: Ross can fly a helicopter. Sam once rode in a Robinson R22. Jeff is a private pilot and about 1000 times cooler than Sam and Ross combined, so he probably taught his sons to autorotate in the womb or something. (I don’t know, I’ve never asked, but you do the math, the guy is basically our Fonzie, right?)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
How do you know when to let go of something you love? What if you know it’s time but still think about that something every minute of every day?
If you’re INTC co-host Ross Bentley, you back up but you don’t give up—and you lean into what you’re good at.
Ross was once a pro driver in IndyCar and IMSA. He is now a pro driver *coach*. And while he’s too modest to admit it, he’s one of the best in the world at what he does. He has coached Indy winners, Le Mans winners, even Ken Block, and he has made them all faster. Plus, he wrote bestselling books on how he thinks.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “My Life With.” It’s where an INTC host tells the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life. In this case, that means Ross and coaching!
Related Trivia: Sam just got home from being a keynote speaker at the Lotus Owners Group national gathering in Texas. He has wanted an S1 Lotus Elise since forever. (That’s really unrelated to this ep, but hey, Sam is a Lotus nerd and can’t let it go.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
OUR NEW WEBSITE IS WORSE THAN YOU HOPED: www.itsnotthecar.com/
Once, long ago, a German engineer looked at a VW Beetle and thought, “Ahh, my little streitzel, we should tango with the hot-rod physics of love!”
The Porsche 911 is divisive. People love ’em. People hate ’em. People fire ’em backward into ditches and Armco and spit excuses for how it wasn’t their fault—widowmaker car, Wreck-cellence Was Expected, blah blah blah. (“Too much understeer! Too much oversteer! Chappell Roan! ANYTHING BUT ME!”)
Is it the [fault of the] car? It is not!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This ep’s format is called “How to Drive It.” Please do not hit play while you are in the middle of crashing a Porsche and expect it to help.
Related Trivia: Ross and Jeff have raced 911s professionally. Sam has tested countless 911 variants for places like Road & Track and 000—from 2.0-liter Daytona winners to a 934, a 935, and most of the road models since 1964. Also, “streitzel” is both a Hans Stuck nickname and a kind of German pastry, and if those facts bring you joy, you are indeed nerdy enough for this show.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
AVERT YOUR EYES FROM OUR NEW MERCH STORE: www.itsnotthecar.com/
***Don’t ever go there! It will rot your brain! (These annoying store mentions will stop soon, we promise.)***
Once, in college, Sam studied under a dignified old journalism professor.
“The thing about putting the word ‘sex’ in a headline,” this prof said, “is that it’s the easy way out. Like an exclamation point or a question mark—those are language cheats, to avoid thinking of something smarter. You can always do better.”
But enough of that! What did that prof know, anyway? Sam is very tired right now! Does he find shocks sexy? Who doesn’t? Have you ever considered how many damper-adjacent words are lightly titillating? Let’s share a few!
“Digressive!” “Frequency!” And even—gasp!—“knee!” (Cue the fainting grandmothers.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “My Life With.” It has nothing to do with sex and is instead a chance for an INTC host to tell the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life.
In this case, that host is JEFF, our very own champion race engineer and IMSA-team competition director. The subject is DAMPERS!
Related Trivia: This ep description is light on substance because Sam is very tired—he’s worked too many late nights at his day job over the last few weeks.
Unrelated Trivia: In spare moments, to relax, Sam stares at the website for this podcast. There have been no ill effects to date. Probably.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
WE HAVE A MERCH STORE NOW: https://www.itsnotthecar.com/
You asked, we delivered! . . . is exactly what we will tell the authorities.
*** 10% OFF ALL ORDERS FOR THE FIRST WEEK ***
BRIEF SALES PITCH: Sam built a website. That site holds both useful info about INTC and driving-adjacent merchandise. Sam wrote every word there and designed all of our merch.
Is he a seasoned design professional, you ask? No.
Our advice: Visit ItsNotTheCar.com not to support this podshow or engage in the unparalleled joy of commerce, but to marvel at the garage-couture trainwreck therein. Or . . . to read a lengthy excerpt from the lyrics of the 1957 Broadway musical “The Music Man.”
(Perhaps you think that last line is a joke. I assure you it is not.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time in 1999 when three Mercedes-Benz Le Mans prototypes left the ground at nearly 200 mph and hurtled dozens of feet into the air.
(Our “normal” episode descriptions will return next week.)
Related Trivia: ItsNotTheCar.com also contains trivia. Did you know that Ross has coached fighter pilots? Or that Jeff has won the 12 Hours of Sebring eight times?
Sam is writing these words and will share his own trivia here in a sec even though he absolutely loathes talking about himsel—OH LORD WHAT IS THAT LOOK OVER THERE oh whew nevermind it was nothing but hey gosh gee darn now wouldn’t you know it, we’re out of space!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Formula 1 can be so boring. The King Mother-Humper of dull TV, with so much unknown: Why is Danny Ric slow now? Are those cars battling, or does it just look that way? How many different hairstyles can Lando Norris possibly have, and why does every single one make him look like a dapper little cutie patootie?
Here’s the catch: Every broadcast holds answers. And when you know how to find them, F1 gets *way* better.
INTC co-host Ross Bentley is a professional driver coach. He gets paid to watch racing, and he sees things in F1 that you don’t. Here now, he shares his methods!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Instant Expert.”
Related Trivia: Jeff had commitments at tape time, so this one is just Ross and Sam. For the record, Sam needs a haircut. Sam’s wife says he should stop telling the barber to “cut it like Lando,” and that he looks nothing like that kid no matter what they tell him at the local Curl Up and Dye, but she is wrong, you see, even if Sam is middle-aged and balding and his body is basically just a sad quilt of farmer’s tan and coffee stains, and well, er, LOOK, TINY WHITE LIES ARE ALL THAT GET SOME OF US THROUGH THE NIGHT, OKAY? PLEASE JUST LET ME HAVE THIS
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
What happens when famous actors go fast? Not just Cool Hand Luke. Also Tom Cruise, Patrick Dempsey, and many others, including that guy I can’t remember from that one show. (You know—that dude with the hair and the face?)
Spoiler: There is crashing! But that’s not the point.
Ross has coached Hollywood celebrities. Jeff once worked with Paul Newman himself. Plus, we dip into the weird and wonderful story of the 1977–2016 Long Beach Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. Which was basically Formula 1, except the part of Max Verstappen was played by Carlton from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Ross Teaches Sam a Thing.”
Related Trivia: Jeff and Sam were at the VIR IMSA race last weekend, working and slapping INTC stickers on children and livestock. So many people found us in the paddock to share how much they enjoy this show! Thank you—we really enjoyed meeting all of you!
(Except you, Tom from South Dakota. You know what you did.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Cheats II: Electric Boogaloo! Back by popular demand, like before but more! Firsthand accounts from an INTC host who works in the paddock!
Our first installment of “How Pro Racers Cheat” was back in May. We didn’t intend for this to become a series, but you loved it and asked for more. We could have said no, but that would be lame, and then we wouldn’t get to hear Jeff Braun talk about race cars with mercury pumps. (Yes.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Shares a Secret.”
Like last time, this episode is just Jeff and Sam. Ross was off gallivanting around the country. You know, gadding about! Jazzing around! And other such language I certainly didn’t just lift from an online thesaurus!
Related Trivia: Sam will be at this weekend’s IMSA race at VIR. He may have INTC stickers. If you see him and want one of those stickers, all you have to do is utter the super-secret code phrase: “Hey Sam, can I have a sticker?”
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
In the summer of 1965, a V-8-powered love song from California dethroned Ferrari, shut up the haters, and won America its first FIA manufacturer’s road-racing championship.
Naturally, almost no one here noticed.
The Californian car was a gutsy experiment from a 28-year-old ex-GM designer named Pete Brock. Their story holds bootstraps, napkin math, and one badass stab at 180-mph immortality.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the short, brilliant comp life of the 1964–1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe.
Related Trivia: Want to read Sam’s never-before-published notes from track-testing a museum-grade Daytona clone at Summit Point and hanging out with Brock himself for Road & Track? They’ll go live on our Patreon today—link below!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
When INTC’s tape day rolled around, Sam was sick. He landed a nasty bout of food poisoning and went wreck-it ralphing. So we postponed our planned show, and then Ross and Jeff hit the mic to improvise.
Their topic? The driver-engineer relationship!
Questions answered in this ep: Why do you need an engineer, anyway? What makes that relationship crucial in pro racing? Should you be embarrassed if you can’t feel a change someone made on your car? What should you do if you’re the only person on your team—both driver *and* engineer? And more!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Ross and Jeff Steal the Show.” It’s a good format.
Related trivia: Sam will be back on the show next week. If you don’t like that, you are wrong! This means you, Tom from South Dakota—we know you’re listening!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Once, Jeff and Robby Unser tried to qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500. Jeff was the engineer. Unser was the driver.
The car stunk to high heaven.
Unser was scared.
This is that story.
Here now, one man’s experience with the epically uncompetitive Riley & Scott Mk. VII Indy Racing League Indy car. Has Jeff Braun—esteemed INTC host, legendary bus driver, and championship-winning race engineer—met a worse race car? He says no.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Tells a Story.”
Related trivia: Want to read Jeff’s test notes and see his spreadsheets and setup from that Indy 500 attempt? We’ve published those docs on our Patreon. Check ’em out—link below!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Gossip time! Why did Ross steal that Ferrari from Chip Ganassi? Just who dropped that tire on Jeff's toe at Daytona and became his sworn enemy for life? Which aging F1 driver did Sam give a wedgie to in the pits at Lime Rock? Listen and find out!
(Warning: This episode may not actually contain the above information.)
This episode's working title was "The Dumbest Things We've Seen in Racing." When we sat down at the mic, it got way more interesting—a discussion about high-pressure environments, room for error, and how "dumb" doesn't always mean what you think.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This format is called “Ross and Jeff Teach Sam a Thing."
Related Trivia: Jeff was at Mosport this weekend with the AWA IMSA Corvettes. Ross was coaching LMP2 remotely from his home in Seattle. Sam was at Road America for the WeatherTech vintage races. Only one of them spilled a Siebken's Root Beer on his shoes and doesn't regret it.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Well, Timmy, when a rubber molecule and a piece of earth love each other very much, they do a special hug, see, and . . . uh . . . hysteresis . . . wait, no, it’s heat cycles . . . er . . . glass point?
Short answer: Magic! Tires are magic!
Warning: We get lightly tech-nerdy here.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This format is called “Instant Expert.” Know squat about the topic? Pull up a chair, we’ll get you up to speed. Expert already? Grab a chair anyway, it’s chill, we got stories.
Related Trivia: We taped this a few weeks ago, shortly after Sam threw out his back while washing a car.
Related Trivia to the Related Trivia: This episode was made possible by prescription pharmaceuticals. Just like Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.”
Unrelated Gibbering: Long-chain rubber molecules keep us together! Don’t stop thinking about temps and pressures—you can inflate your own way! (Check the forecast prior, though: Thunder only happens when it’s wet enough for rain tires, etc.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Once, an English retiree made Ferrari and Red Bull mad. He looked like an accountant and wore dad sweaters. The team he ran was a down-on-its-luck collection of castoffs and pirates; in their very first season, they risked everything and landed the impossible.
Sound like a sports movie? Conveniently, the whole thing was basically a cross between “Major League,” the Paul Newman hockey classic “Slap Shot,” and that scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where all the faces melt.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that’s the remarkable story of Brawn GP—the only F1 team to win two titles in its first (and only!) season.
Related Trivia: Ross Bentley and Ross Brawn have the same initials. If you mispronounce Jeff Braun’s last name, it sounds like “Brawn.” Sam has no brawn on his body whatsoever, but he very much loves that moment in “Slap Shot” where the ref hands the hero team the trophy as he calls them all bums.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
If someone offered you a chance to drive one of the fastest race cars on earth, would you do it?
The catch: If you screw up, your boss will shut down your office and fire you and everyone you work with.
Also, you have the entire Indianapolis Motor Speedway to yourself and McLaren-Mercedes people are watching and judging and SERIOUSLY JUST RELAX ALREADY.
Once, Sam belted into a 2007 McLaren MP4-22 Formula 1 car. With the tiny deafening V-8 and the anti-stall and the goofy hand clutch. The car blew his mind, but quietly. He wrote about the day for Road & Track. And in this episode, he is peppered with questions about all of it.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep’s framework “Sam Tells a Story.”
Ross and Jeff couldn’t make this one, so Sam is joined here by INTC friend and former R&T staffer Kyle Kinard. Kyle is smart and funny, and he was at Indy for that test.
Related Trivia: Kinard’s nickname at R&T was “Kinardi,” after former IndyCar driver Alex Zanardi. The backstory is not ours to share, but it does involve—coincidence alert!—a McLaren and significant personal clenching.
Car magazines, y’all! It’s a weird gig.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
It’s another “No Dumb Questions!” You email us to ask, we sit down to answer. There are no dumb questions, but there might be some dumb answers.
Today’s focus is . . . Formula 1 drivers! What makes one better than another?
Mistakes, for one thing. No room for error in the big leagues. Unless you’re Lance Stroll, in which case, well . . . his pops owns the team, so . . .
UGH, DAD, I TOLD YOU, I CLEANED MY ROOM ALREADY BUT THEN DANNY RIC CAME IN AND MESSED IT UP IT’S ALL HIS FAULT.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. For this episode, we’re borrowing the No Dumb Questions framework from Ross’s old “Speed Secrets” podcast.
Related Trivia: This is our 25th episode! NDQ normally lives on this show’s Patreon (link below), but we felt like celebrating.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman. Jeff, Ross, and Sam are not his dads; that would be nepotism. Or the 1987 Touchstone Pictures film “Three Men and a Baby,” which starred Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Steve Guttenberg.
Jeff would definitely be the Danson character in that scenario. Or maybe that’s Ross? Sam is probably Selleck, but only because he’s dreaming now, Selleck had a rad mustache in that flick and Sam has never been able to grow a proper lip rug. The one time he tried, he ended up looking like a cross between Pablo Escobar and a child hobo.
(No one here is *ever* the Guttenberg.)
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Everything you always wanted to know about a sliding car but were too cool / afraid / busy paying for a chunk of Armco to ask.
Okay, maybe not *everything*.
Popular questions not addressed herein: Why is a slide? Who I win track day? Is them car better have more dinner-roll stiffness?
Have you ever really *looked* at your hands?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode’s format is called “Instant Expert.” Know squat about the topic? Pull up a chair, we’ll bring you up to speed. Expert already? Pull up a chair anyway, it’s chill, you’re among friends, we got stories.
And none of us have ever, ever made a mistake in a race car and we are all perfect and know everything why do you ask?
Related Trivia: Sam usually says some stuff here, but he threw out his back two days ago while washing his wife’s VW and the prescription painkillers have him even more of a gibberbot than usual. Also please feel free to make jokes about the kind of person who might injure themselves while… washing a car.
Scrippy drugs ain’t hurt his writes ability though, gsgflippa fruppo see if I don’t!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Once, a long time ago, a brave man went to a beach and tried to drive faster than anyone ever had. He did not survive.
This is his story.
Perhaps you saw the date in this episode’s title and thought, “The 1920s? Prehistoric! Swipe left, bruh, yuck!” Which is definitely a take.
Some people think the past is a dull place. Nothing to do with who we are or where we’re going.
Those people are—if you’ll pardon my French—stupid.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the story of Welshman John Parry-Thomas and the 180-mph stack of steel and chains that killed him.
Related Trivia: A YouTube commenter asked how old Sam is. Sam is 43 years old. Everyone who hears that is surprised. (Insert joke here.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Free bonus episode! To celebrate the release of Sam’s new book, “Smithology,” we’ve released one audio excerpt, read by him, every Monday for a month. This is the fourth and final installment.
The book’s full title is “Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writings, 2003–2023.” It’s an anthology of Sam’s writing for car magazines over the last 20 years.
Today’s story originally ran as a column in Road & Track magazine in 2016. It’s called “Indoor Storage.”
“Smithology” is available on Amazon in print and as a Kindle e-book. (There’s a link further down in this episode description.)
Enjoy!
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Is this a free bonus episode where Ross and Jeff break down and analyze the 2024 Indy 500 and 2024 Monaco Grand Prix? Indeed!
Sam is on this episode, but he mostly just listens, because he didn't watch either race this year. Boo hiss, that guy, what a chump, right?
Wait, doesn’t Sam write these episode descriptions?
Isn’t he just talking to himself right now?
Also: Why are there so many free bonus episodes lately?
Also also: Is this the closest INTC has ever come to resembling a traditional friends-yap-without-direction podcast?
Answers, in order: Yes! Only sometimes! How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat any meat! And, well, perhaps! Forty-two!
Related Trivia: INTC’s producer, Mike Perlman, is on vacation this week, so this episode was edited and assembled by Sam.
Trivia Related to the Above Trivia: Make no mistake, Mike is way better at that job. For his part, Sam has stared at some audio-editing software for too many hours today and he’s a little slap-happy from all the molecular analysis of WAV files and he was so engrossed that he kind of forgot to eat dinner, see, and it’s late, but you know what, the fridge is full of beer because Memorial Day and the kids are in bed so screw it beer dinner plus empty stomach—what could go wrong?
Also, you know what just occurred to me? I think we need to buy Mike a pony when he gets back. As thanks for putting up with us.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Secrets dished! Stories told! Firsthand accounts from an INTC host who works in the paddock! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll ponder the nature of human morality!
This episode’s title implies a question. For the long answer, press play. The short answer is, “very effectively.”
Sometimes.
Mostly.
(Insert push-to-Penske IndyCar joke here.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Shares a Secret.”
This episode is just Jeff and Sam. Ross couldn’t make it—he was busy [redacted] a [redacted] while [redacted] because the moose had [redacted]. But that’s okay, because the Dallara was [redacted] and you can really only eat so much [redacted] before you [redacted] anyway, right?
Related Trivia: We could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Free bonus episode! To celebrate the release of Sam’s new book, “Smithology,” we’re releasing one audio excerpt from it, read by him, every Monday for a month. This is the third installment.
The book’s full title is “Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writings, 2003–2023.” It’s an anthology of Sam’s writing for car magazines over the last 20 years.
Today’s story originally ran in Road & Track magazine in 2018. It’s called, “Dajiban!”
There is a race track in Japan. A vehicle goes two-wheels-up over a curb. Taylor Swift makes an appearance. The rest . . . well, hey, strap in. It gets weird.
“Smithology” is available on Amazon in print and as a Kindle e-book.
Enjoy!
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“You’re gonna get fired anyway, so you might as well start racing!"
Clay Millican was a forklift operator. He quit that job to chase a dream in drag racing, and now he's an NHRA Top Fuel legend. He's also our very first guest on It’s Not the Car!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Guest Teaches Us a Thing"—in this case, what it feels like to have 11,000 hp under your right foot. If you like it, don’t worry—there are plenty more to come whether you like it or not.
Related Trivia: Top Fuel racing can be absurdly violent. Clay's car once vibrated so much that it shook his dental crowns from his mouth. Mike, INTC's producer, wrote this episode description late at night with approximately four functional brain cells, and he will probably suffer the same fate simply by continuing to miss his dentist appointments.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Another free bonus episode! Why? Sam has a new book out! To celebrate, we’re releasing four excerpts, each read aloud by him, every Monday for a month. This is the second installment.
Sam’s book is called, “Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writings, 2003–2023.” It’s an anthology of his writing for car magazines over the last 20 years. Like the man himself, it’s thoughtful, funny, and deeply human.
Today’s story originally ran as a column at Hagerty, the classic-car insurance and media company, in 2021. It’s called “Mears and My Feet.” It’s about racing, pain, and the things we need to do.
“Smithology” is available on Amazon in print ($29.95) and as a Kindle e-book ($12.99).
Enjoy!
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“Driving a race car,” Sylvester Stallone once said, “is terrifying.”
Aw, Sly, buddy—that just makes me sad, you know? A big ol’ dollop of Guy Fieri bummer sauce. You’re missing out! It’s only terrifying if you’re doing it wrong!
Speaking of: What if you made a horrendously expensive movie about IndyCar while knowing almost nothing about the sport? What if, a quarter-century later, that film was widely held up as one of the worst in history?
Here now, the story of Stallone’s 2001 cinematic assterpiece, “Driven.” Little-known trivia! Joyous dissections of inaccuracy! Awful behind-the-scenes insights! And at the end, Sam makes Ross and Jeff act out lines from the film, because he is clearly a broadcasting nightmare and should never be allowed to run anything.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INTC Movie Club.” If you like it, don’t worry, we’ll do it again. Probably with “Sharknado.”
Related Trivia: Ross, a former IndyCar driver, seems to loathe this film with every fiber of his being. As far as I can tell, Jeff simply finds it an amusing trainwreck, like watching a dog try to bake a cake.
Unrelated Trivia: Sam’s wife no longer lets him bake anything in the house.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Free bonus episode! Why? Sam has a new book out! To celebrate, we’re releasing four excerpts read aloud by him—one each Monday for the next four weeks.
Sam’s book is called “Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writings, 2003–2023.” It’s an anthology of his writing for car magazines over the last 20 years. Like the man himself, it's thoughtful, funny, and deeply human.
Today’s story first ran as a column in Road & Track magazine in 2015. It’s called “Wall Drug”—it’s about visiting Indianapolis during qualifying for the Indy 500.
“Smithology” is available on Amazon in print ($29.95) and as a Kindle e-book ($12.99).
Enjoy!
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
To borrow a line from this episode, “this is a great story because it’s got Paul Tracy melting his feet off and a bunch of stuff blowing up and Mario Andretti sits on his porch giving the stink eye at one point.”
(The Mario in the headline is a different Mario. Headline Mario was Swiss.)
(Digression: Headline Mario sounds like the *worst* Nintendo game. “Hey, Timmy! Come by my house after school! We can play Headline Mario and eat Cheez-Its!”)
(Timmy: “Uh . . . I have to . . . wash my hair?”)
(What would that game even be, really? Like, Mario and Luigi save the world from a giant jerky turtle monster by doing… journalism? What would the spinoffs look like? “You guys! I got the red shell in Headline Mario Kart! Now I can murder another kart with a single split infinitive!”)
(I should probably be telling you what’s in this episode, right? Ah well, too late, we’ve used up too much space already. It’s a corker, though, I promise.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history—in this case, the top-secret, hyper-rad moonshot project that three very clever men built to absolutely destroy the 1994 Indianapolis 500.
The cool part: They actually got away with it!
Related Trivia: Did we mention that SAM HAS A NEW BOOK OUT? It’s called “Smithology.” Available now on Amazon in print and as a Kindle e-book. It is far better written than the episode descriptions for this show. Though that's admittedly not saying much.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
instagram.com/intcpod/
facebook.com/INTCPod/
rossbentley.substack.com/
speedsecrets.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
They do! But first: SAM HAS A NEW BOOK OUT. It’s called “Smithology”—available now on Amazon in print and as a Kindle e-book. Check it out, if you have a sec?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Sam Tells a Story.” And in this case, that story is another dive into all the stuff you wanted to know about car magazines but never had a chance to ask.
Jeff and Ross have questions on the topic. Sam hates talking about himself and is convinced that these questions are simply data collection in prep for the day where Jeff and Ross build a robot to replace him. If we are lucky, they will program that robot to be significantly less annoying and also capable of remembering to start the dishwasher at night.
Related Trivia: This episode description was written by Sam’s wife, Adrienne, who is nothing at all like Sam, which is to say, she is very nice and generally coherent.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
instagram.com/intcpod/
facebook.com/INTCPod/
rossbentley.substack.com/
speedsecrets.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
The catch: We’re the fans. (Bet you didn’t see that coming.)
“If you have the chance to make something beautiful,” Dan Gurney once said, “and you don’t, well, what does that say about you?”
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode’s format is called "How I Got Here." It’s a free-form dive into the people, places, moments, and machines that made us care about racing when we were young.
In this case, that means the one and only Daniel Sexton Gurney—the legendary American driver and team owner who changed how we view optimism and the art of the possible. (Gurney's resume is a mile long, but among so much else, he remains the only American to win an F1 race in a car of his own construction.)
Also: This one is just Sam and Jeff. Ross was busy doing something at tape time but didn’t tell us what. Because Ross is Canadian, I now get to type the words, “He was obviously writing his poutine manifesto.”
***CORRECTION ALERT: In this episode, Sam commits a verbal typo and transposes Dan's Spa F1 win to 1968. It was, of course, 1967. Sam is a moron. He has a poster from that race on the wall in his house and has known that fact since he was eight. Feel free to shame him publicly.***
Related Trivia: No trivia this week. Sam writes these episode descriptions and his wife is currently in bed with strep throat, so he’s a bit brain-dead from simultaneously working, taking care of a sick lady, and solo parenting two kids in grade school hold on a sec I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU, STOP EATING BEANS AND THEN SITTING ON YOUR SISTER’S HEAD, OKAY?
Sorry, where were we?
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Once, in the 1990s, a fancy Italian carmaker hadn’t gone sports-car racing in 20 years. Maybe they were too busy figuring out new ways to make a 348 catch fire or something. Then some influential folks made a few particularly expressive hand gestures and the Italians agreed to do it—but just this once, and then you gotta vaffanculo, alright? The shrieking red funkbullet that resulted won much and made a noise to eat your brain.
Hold onto your butts: Today, we tell the story of the Ferrari 333 SP, the last purpose-built racing Ferrari before the Le Mans Hypercar they’re running now.
Ross raced one of these flying pasta-saucers in IMSA. Jeff engineered them in the same series. The 11,000-rpm V-12 sounded like a Formula 1 car because it came from—wait for it—a Formula 1 car. It’s a good story.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “It’s Not Not the Car.”
Related Trivia: Ross’s 333 came with a factory man named Renzo. Renzo was there to mind the engine. Jeff later engineered the same chassis, with the same Renzo, but Ross had found another ride by then. Sam was once driving a Ferrari 488 in a track test when a wheel came off at 100 mph, but that’s unrelated. (Joke maybe three people will get: “It’s-a me! Gnar-io!”)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Step one: Know you might die trying.
In 1993, at the tender age of 36, a host of this show tried to qualify for one of the greatest races on earth. He didn’t make it in, but he did lap a 900-hp car at more than 220 mph, suffer third-degree burns on his face, and meet a hospital.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was your month of May?
(No, really: That’s what we asked Ross to talk about—the Indy 500 rookie experience. The flames that nearly killed him were just part of the story.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Ross Teaches Sam About a Thing.”
Related Trivia: Jeff calls himself a bus driver as a joke in this episode, but he really does own a bus. Ross occasionally calls himself a “bear of very little brain,” but he’s actually quite smart. Sam calls himself an adult, but then, he occasionally eats Haribo before breakfast as his kids cheer him on, so we all know how that one shakes out.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/intcpod/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1.” —Niki Lauda
Gilles Villeneuve got his start racing snowmobiles, crashing on sheet ice at 100 mph. Enzo Ferrari loved him; Ronnie Peterson said he was a menace. And in upstate New York in the fall of 1979, in blinding rain, an entire F1 paddock stopped what it was doing to watch him do what no one else could.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history—in this case, Villeneuve’s absolutely epic qualifying session at the muddy, rain-drenched ’79 U.S. Grand Prix.
(Spoiler: He went nearly 10 seconds faster than his teammate—who had just locked the championship—in conditions so awful that most drivers never left the pits.)
Related Trivia: Like Gilles, Ross is Canadian. Like Enzo, Jeff looks great in sunglasses. Sam knows every word to the Canadian sea-shanty folk anthem “Barrett’s Privateers” and has loved that song since childhood but will only sing it in public on G.V.’s birthday—oh hell, who am I kidding, I sing that ridiculous thing any chance I get OH THE YEAR WAS 1778 / HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOWWWWWWWWW
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
What makes a special place special? Wonderful people? Beautiful scenery? How you keep going back for more in the face of terrible odds? Some tracks are more than just tracks, and Wisconsin's Elkhart Lake—Road America—is far more than meets the eye.
This show’s format rotates every episode, because squirrel. We call this format "Sam Rambles About a Thing."
Related Trivia: Ross has opinions about track limits. You might get to hear them, you might not. Jeff recalls a time when his uncle Boom Boom was in a police chase. Sam, despite terrible weather conditions and a myriad of cheese issues, has never had a bad weekend in Wisconsin.
INTC's producer, Mike, wrote this episode description because Sam fell asleep at his keyboard while dreaming about never-ending bratwurst and being 24 again.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Answer: The blowy thing goes WHOOSH and the invisible gas that keeps us all alive goes WHEEE and the racey thing stays put. And later, if you have done the math right, you maybe drive around in circles better than everyone!
Alternate, more grown-up answer: physics and stuff.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This week's approach is called “Jeff Teaches Sam a Thing.” Jeff knows a lot about a subject—in this case, how race teams use indoor wind to develop aerodynamic downforce—and Sam asks questions.
Warning: We get lightly tech-nerdy here.
Related Trivia: Every host of this show is a father. And so I ask you fine people, in the name of Bernoulli and Pocahontas and all that is holy, tell me, what color is the wind?
Blew!
Get it?
DAD JOKE!
(If any of you actually read these episode descriptions, please email [email protected] and let Sam know. It gets lonely at this keyboard.)
Ross is off this week. We miss him.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
It’s another “No Dumb Questions!” You email us to ask, we sit down to answer. There are no dumb questions, but there might be some dumb answers.
Today’s focus is . . . going faster with data and friends!
Many race teams use data feeds to help their drivers improve. (Examples: brake pressure; speed over time; the four-dimensional thermocouple plot that lets Toto Wolff know just how far down to unbutton his shirt.) Can those data systems lie? Can friends at the track help you get faster? And what does any of this have to do with Sam’s mom?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. For this episode, we’re borrowing the NDQ framework from Ross’s old “Speed Secrets” podcast, from a popular Q&A show he and Jeff ran there for several years.
NEWS: This episode marks the last Q&A on the standard (i.e., free) INTC show feed. Going forward, new Q&A shows will appear as monthly bonus episodes for members of our Patreon. Link below!
Related Trivia: Ross and Jeff have known each other since the 1990s. They’ve traveled down the road and back again; their hearts are true, they are pals and confidants. Also—this is completely unrelated—if this podcast were a TV show, Sam would totally be played by the ghost of Estelle Getty.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman, who was born after “The Golden Girls” went off the air and won’t get that reference but we love him anyway.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
“It will never have enough . . . until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear.”
A man named Mark said that. Mark engineered and drove race cars. In the early 1970s, he was handed a barely drivable, 700-hp Porsche. Because Mark had a brain the size of a planet, he made the car a blisteringly fast, 1500-horse dollbaby. It was so good, in fact, that it killed a prestigious international racing series deader than hell. What happened in between is utterly bonkers.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history—in this case, Mark Donohue, Roger Penske, and the 230-mph Can-Am Porsche 917s of 1972–1973.
Related Trivia: Jeff met Mark once, long ago, when he was a little Jeff. When Sam was a younger Sam, he went to Sears Point to drive a factory-owned 917K (not the Can-Am car) but got rained out and was sad. Ross was never younger or older and has always been an ageless sage; he’s basically a Galápagos tortoise who really likes trail braking.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
There are so many answers to this: A favorite color. Human legs. An enjoyment of oxygen. But chiefly—this is the fun part—you can coach yourself to be better.
Great, you say: How?
We’re glad you asked! Ross is a professional performance coach—he helps race drivers get faster. And many of them, pro and amateur alike, have asked how they can improve when he’s not around. So we give you a primer!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Ross Teaches Sam a Thing.”
Warning: This one has some deep thoughts in it. And at least one Vampire Weekend lyric.
Jeff is off this week because he is a grandparent and was needed for rad grandparent things.
Related Trivia: Jeff’s grandson Roczen is adorable. Ross has no grandchildren but does have an old Lotus, which is kind of the same thing. Sam has two small kids and he got in a war with them at bedtime last night where everyone threw stuffies at each other and then Sam lost and was dead on the floor no regrets the end.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
And other things! Step right up to hear about work life at one of the world’s strangest day jobs!
Do we share secrets on this episode? Do some of them involve Sam giggling at the wheel of a NASCAR Cup car at Road America, or Ross curb-jumping minivans at Thunderhill with Black Sabbath blasting from the speakers? Will this episode’s description be all questions, or will it actually have something to say?
I don’t know—what do you think?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep’s framework “Sam Tells a Story.” Or in this case, multiple stories, mostly from his eight years on staff at Road & Track magazine.
Related Trivia: Sam writes these episode descriptions. Ross and Jeff have not asked him to stop. Yet.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun/
instagram.com/rossbentley/
instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
It’s the return of “No Dumb Questions!” You email us to ask, we sit down to answer. There are no dumb questions, but there might be some dumb answers.
Today’s focus is . . . rain driving!
How do you adjust your mindset to be quick in the wet? What does Jeff do in the rain that many race engineers don’t? What does any of this have to do with the time Sam rode down a rally stage at speed with Ken Block?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. For this episode, we’re borrowing the NDQ framework from Ross’s old “Speed Secrets” podcast, from a popular Q&A show he and Jeff ran there for several years.
Related Trivia: Jeff lives in Texas, in a place of little rain. Ross lives in Seattle, where it rains often. Sam used to live in Seattle but is now in East Tennessee, where he once asked a restaurant waiter to “make it rain fried green tomatoes,” and from that point on the evening was extremely delicious.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun
instagram.com/rossbentley
instagram.com/thatsamsmith
rossbentley.substack.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Sixty-nine years ago, two Englishmen entered an open-road race known for killing people. Ten hours later, they had seen nearly 1000 miles of Italy, left fourth-gear jumps four wheels up, and spent heaps of time at 170 mph. All in a car with no safety belts, no roof, and an engine borrowed from Formula 1.
And they won.
What does that look like through a modern lens besides . . . absolutely bonkers?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing’s past—in this case, the 1955 Mille Miglia and Stirling Moss’s legendary, record-breaking win for Mercedes-Benz.
Related (Italian) Trivia: Ross drove Ferrari prototypes in IMSA in the 1990s. Jeff engineered those cars in the same era. Sam once got lost in Maranello while looking for a store that sold Haribo, but then he downed three espressos and everything turned out okay.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
**
Where to find us:
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
What do Formula 1, NASCAR, IMSA, and countless moms of teenagers have in common? Answer: They all know *exactly* what’s going on in that dark room but have decided to stay out of it.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This week's approach is called “Jeff Teaches Sam a Thing.” Jeff knows a lot about a subject—in this case, the insanely expensive “driver in the loop” racing simulators used by pro teams—and Sam asks questions.
Warning: We get lightly tech-nerdy here.
Related Trivia: As an engineer, Jeff has won two Daytona 24s and eight Sebring 12-hours. Sam has also won those things on iRacing and he never crashes there and certainly not multiple laps in a row FOR PETE’S SAKE WHO WOULD DO THAT. (Do not fact-check that last sentence.)
Ross is off this week because he’s busy coaching someone. Who? It’s a secret! (Confession: He doesn’t tell us, either.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
**
Where to find us:
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
In the early 1990s, McLaren built the last great analog supercar. It wasn't supposed to be a race car, but they took it to Le Mans and won anyway. Why do we care?
Sam and Ross have each driven a McLaren F1 on track. The same one, in fact—a factory-backed GTR that finished eighth at Le Mans in 1996. They loved it, but who wouldn't? Why does a machine like that make such a dent on people?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this week's approach "It *is* the Car." Which is totally the opposite of what our logo says, but hey, surprises are fun.
Related Trivia: Ross got into that GTR because he was once a BMW factory driver. (The McLaren was powered by a BMW V-12.) Sam had the car melt his face off during a Road & Track test. The engine sound you hear—and the helmet cam in the YouTube version of this episode—is him at the wheel.
Jeff is still buried in Daytona prep and had to sit this one out. We miss his dulcet tones!
APOLOGIES: Tech gremlins had Sam's mic popping a little for the first 12 minutes. The problem is fixed and won't happen again.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
**
Where to find us:
facebook.com/INTCPod/
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
Like Lionel Richie, the French do it all night long—on public roads, at more than 200 mph, every June.
Why is the 24 Hours of Le Mans one of the greatest things on earth? The reasons are endless. And we’ve raced in it! (Well, Ross and Jeff have.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Last week was our monthly centerpiece, where we dive into an epic moment from racing's past. This episode's format is called "Sam Rambles About a Thing." (Caveat: That he loves.)
Jeff is busy getting a pair of GT3 Corvettes ready for the 24 Hours of Daytona, so this one is just Sam and Ross.
Related Trivia: Ross has been to Le Mans more than he can remember. Sam went once, stayed up all night, and ate too many espresso-soaked gummy bears while watching Toyota lose the overall win with just three minutes to go.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, choices, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon
www.patreon.com/notthecar/
**
Where to find us:
instagram.com/j.v.braun
instagram.com/rossbentley
instagram.com/thatsamsmith
instagram.com/intcpod/
facebook.com/INTCPod
rossbentley.substack.com/
speedsecrets.com/
www.facebook.com/Drivercoach/
**
We want to know what you think!
Drama, science, and 200-mph dogfights: The world’s most famous race is so much more than three hours of left turns.
Sam, Ross, and Jeff use the story of Alexander Rossi’s landmark 2016 Indy 500 win—he coasted over the line with an empty tank—to highlight everything that makes the 500 great.
Related Trivia: Jeff has engineered cars at Indy. Ross nearly died there in 1993. Sam once stood inches from Turn 1 in qualifying and drank a Coke while losing his mind.
This episode of It's Not the Car is our once-a-month deep dive into an epic racing moment from the past. It was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
About the show: It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people, motorsport, choices, and how we all work under pressure. In other words, we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
The show's format rotates, because squirrel. One show each month is a deep dive into an epic moment from racing's past—anywhere from a hundred years ago to last week. Sometimes we have guests!
New episodes every Tuesday.
**
Support It’s Not the Car: Contribute on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/notthecar/ Where to find us: instagram.com/j.v.braun instagram.com/rossbentley instagram.com/thatsamsmith https://www.facebook.com/INTCPod https://rossbentley.substack.com/ https://speedsecrets.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach/ We want to know what you think! [email protected]
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.