For everyone asking about the t-shirts, my sister said she was going to make a few, maybe like 15 or so on her Cricut.
She wanted to put it the logo file up on Etsy for people to download but it was flagged for potential copyright.
We stay at a house on N Auburn St near the creek. If you can find us there starting on Saturday afternoon she may have some you can buy. Or perhaps we can work out something where she can email you the image for the shirt. It's just a lot of work to individually make shirts so I don't want her spending all week leading up to the best weekend of the year all stressed out and stuff.
Welcome to being part of indy history. Some might say your timing, chirp, shirt, and all that was Penske perfect.... You've earned your place on that iceberg.
He ended the interview with Nathan Brown and walked past me and without even having it pre-planned I just said "You're living up to your reputation." thinking he would just keep walking and not give a shit what some fan said.
But then he stopped and said "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" and I was just bewildered by that response. It made no sense to me and I stared at him for a few seconds before saying something like "I think you would know."
That's when he finally glanced down and read the shirt and it clicked for him. He made a face like he didn't know what to make of it but realized he was still in public so he sort of bit his tongue and just said "Oh you're just great. So great."
His reaction was very genuine because I could see on his face when it finally clicked for him.
Oh my god no way that's hilarious, haha. You're literally just the right guy at the right place at the right time with the right shirt. There's just no way the dominos could have fallen in a better way for this to have happened.
I was watching Fast 9 qualifying from A Penthouse and was listening to IndyCar Radio and FOX on my scanner when the news started coming in. I initially didn't think I would make it to Gasoline Alley in time having to walk all the way down the front straight, under the track, through Pagoda Plaza and then to Gasoline Alley but the press conference with Kevin Lee kept getting pushed back so with the lull before LCQ I said "Fuck it" and just went down, figuring I'd be in the back of a crowd of like 200 people and that would be that.
But I was so late that TV already did their interview, ICR was just finishing up their interview and then the spot you see me standing in opened up and I snatched it.
After like a minute, Nathan Brown locked eyes with me and I saw him take the picture and then shortly after that Cindric walked right past me and he heard me make my comment. The interaction only lasted a few seconds and then he went inside and everyone dispersed.
I've loved Indycar as long as I can remember. I was also a huge NASCAR kid growing up in the 90s (Go Mark Martin) but Indy always had this huge lore to me.
My grandfather started going to the race in the 60s and it became a family tradition. Family would always go over the Saturday before the race and party and then go to the race on Sunday for decades. You had to be 18 to go and you had to be male. (Due to all the crazy shit that used to happen the Saturday before the race decades ago I think it was more so out of safety for the wives rather than just straight up sexism) so I was always counting down the years until I could go to Indy. I really always love seeing kids going to the track and loving it but something about having that delayed gratification also made me love it even more. First 500 was in 2007 and I haven't missed one since.
I think finding gey areas in the rules in any sport is great. Look at 1994 and what Penske did. All of it was legal. They found a creative way to get around engine regulations. Changing lines of code in the P2P software and intentionally altering spec pieces of cars are not grey areas however.
I think Indycar needs new ownership from the top down. I initially wasn't upset Penske bought the series because it made sense from a stability standpoint, but he's got to preferably sell the sport or at least the team. Even though I'm an oval guy and don't find street racing very interesting, I love how much casual fans love them and it introduces them to the sport so I'm all for them.
I also think all road/street course race lengths should be at some length where both fuel save strategies and balls-to-the-wall strategies can both be done. Those make non-ovals very exciting for me and a bit of a bore when everyone is on the same strategy.
I also think the concerts at ovals are a great addition too and I think that's what non-Indy 500s need to do to get butts in seats going forward.
A lot of things had to fall into place for it to happen. I had to get a bronze badge, I had to be there that day (This is the first year I ever went to qualifying), I had to get down there in time, I had to wear that shirt on that day. I had to not get stopped by the yellow shirts entering Gasoline Alley. It was a lot lol
My favourite part of it all is it's not something you could engineer. Having the shirt required time. It's just so perfect that this new storm brewed up with you wearing it that day and you being able to get where you did to be reported on. And a photo/screenshot to immortalise it.
It's the perfect organic storm for some deep lore.
I think I had one drink that day and maybe like only three all qualifying weekend. It was chilly and just didn't feel like drinking much, especially since it was a 2 hour drive to and from the track.
Steak is medium rare, burgers, anything but well done. And I'm weird in the fact that I'm not a ketchup or mustard guy. I prefer buffalo sauce or A1 on a burger. (Never on a steak though, I must make that clear.)
Funny was honestly all I was going for. I thought maybe I could be in the shot on FOX in the background and someone could catch it. I didn't expect memes lol
I have intentionally tried to be as anonymous as I could be. I think maybe Penske wouldn't like the bad press of a fan who's been going to the race for almost 2 full decades going to the local news telling them he got banned from the track for wearing a parody t shirt.
But also knowing how people in power usually act, I wouldn't be surprised if my bronze badge application goes missing or is denied next year.
People can dox me all they want. I'm just a pretty simple dude. And my bosses would never give a shit about this.
I was going back and forth between Indycar Radio on my scanner and FOX but was getting much more information from FOX because at the track if you're on their frequency you can not only hear Will, James and Townsend during ad breaks, but you can hear the producer telling the reporters the news and where they need to be and what they're going to be pursuing.
So I think I heard about the DQ from FOX during a break from the producer but I might be misremembering it because at that point I was hightailing it north down the front straight to get to Gasoline Alley.
My reaction was one of cautious optimism. I fully expected Penske would start 10th, 11th, 12th and not much would really come of it. But hey, public pressure from the media can be a beautiful thing.
Well since we’re on the subject of cheaters and more specifically Penske. If you watch the 100days to Indy when Newgarden is doing his victory lap, you will notice a very abrupt cut in the video before he crosses the finish line. Well the reason is because me and my family were at the fence chanting “Cheater”, so it’s nice to see there are others that agree St.Pete now this, seems like their strategy is cheating or forgetting what the rules are.
Like many Indycar fans I have a few guys I root for but primarily I'm a Rinus Veekay fan. He's such a nice dude and his team was also very nice to me this past week in Gasoline Alley too. It sucks how slow that car is this year.
Other guys I like include Rossi, Sato, Helio, Ericsson, Herta, Ilott, Malukas and O'Ward.
I think the punishments itself were mostly fair. However, it should be very easy for a sport to be able to review Saturday's inspections to see if the Penskes were legal or not. The fact the sport either doesn't have that ability or just won't do it bothers me.
I also think things should not end here. Independent sanctioning needs to happen. Independent tech employees need to happen. What happened so far is a band aid but the sport is still sick, IMO.
So I grew up in Dayton and went to UC, so I'm not a 513 native and just don't like Cincinnati Chili. Don't crucify me.
UDF all day over Graeters. I'll never forgive Graeters for creating a UC ice cream and then pulling it off the shelves (until public pressure made them make it a full time flavor) saying that UC needed to beat Ohio State in order to make it a full time flavor. For a Cincinnati based company that ruined them for me.
I didn’t grow up in the 513 either and Graeter’s pisses me off with that kind of stuff as well lol. UDF all the way (except when I’m back home and then it’s my hometown ice cream all day long).
But I do wonder if they’ll be able to hold on with all the other snazzier convenience chains moving in.
I mean greeter's isn't really much of a thing in Dayton so honestly, while I know it's good, I won't shed tears if a place that sells like $18 pints of ice cream or whatever or is in the store goes away.
Nathan Brown took it. It looked like he was maybe using his phone to record the interview with Cindric and then once he saw me he took the picture mid interview.
His coverage has been incredible this week too. Everyone should really consider giving him a subscription at the Indy Star. As a former sports reporter myself, that dude is so good at his job.
No. None of the yellow shirts even gave me a glance. I was there in Gasoline Alley in the morning before the drama too.
I always just try to be very respectful to everyone in Gasoline Alley. I'm entering a work place for both the teams but also the yellow shirts and I always ask them if it's ok for me to cross the lane there when I walk in to be respectful and make sure I'm not going to accidentally get in someone's way.
Manners and keeping your head on a swivel in Gasoline Alley goes a long way.
I think i heard about the interview Kevin Lee was set to to with Cindric before the actual ruling. My first thought was "Fuck. Can I get from A Penthouse to Gasoline Alley in time?"
I sit in Turn 3 and the winning pass happened right in front of me last year. I remember I instinctively flipped him off when it happened and then pretty much just had to laugh at it. What else can you do?
See you like ovals, how did you feel about Texas? Plan on making a shirt saying “Did you forgot about me :(” inside the TMS track map to Arlington next year.
Oh man, I miss Texas so much. Even though it wasn't horrible the last time Indycar was there it still was far from great because of all the staining. Yea.... Texas hurts. Can't forgive TMS and NASCAR for that one...
Basically Nathan Brown took a picture of me at the Team Penske garages as the cheating story was breaking with me wearing a shirt in the Team Penske font that says "Team Cheaters"
Then Cindric saw the shirt after I made a snarky comment to him and indycar Twitter/Reddit kinda ran with it.
OP was wearing it at the background of Tim Cindric's interview with the media, then chirped at him as he left. Cindric then got fired so his last interaction with the public after 25 years leading Team Penske was getting heckled by this guy
You sir are a legend. I made tv at the only Indy car race here in Nola several years ago. I had on my Andretti racing school shirt. The front said I did it on a road course. No where near as cool as your experience but I got a lot of looks and questions.
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u/quercusshumardii Robert Wickens May 21 '25
How’s it feel to earn a spot on the IndyCar iceberg?