“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!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

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⁠⁠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.

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!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

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.

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!
INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠

**

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!

⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠

**

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?

**

EMBARRASSING CORRECTION ALERT: Embarrassing moment: Sam "verbal typo'd" the Gurney F1

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar/⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

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

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

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.

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!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

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.

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!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

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.

“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!

⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠

**

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.