Oilpressure

Apparently, I have fooled someone else into thinking that I know what I’m talking about.

One of the many advantages of having this site is the large amount of people I have met through it. One of those is John Goolsby, who is a sports writer for a newspaper in Alabama – The Trussville Tribune.

I’m not sure when exactly John and I became friends. I believe we first met at Barber, since it is so close to him. But he is a regular at IMS in the Month of May and covers a few other IndyCar races. He has his son alongside serving as his photographer His location also dictates that he cover NASCAR, but he has a ton of IndyCar knowledge. I last saw John and his son at the Music City Grand Prix at the Nashville Superspeedway back in September.

Over Christmas, John contacted me and asked if I would be interested in doing a racing podcast. I said I would, but I thought he meant periodically he and I would sit down and record ourselves talking about IndyCar. He wasn’t wasting time. He took the ball and ran with it. The next thing I knew, he was setting up dates in January. He was also talking about scheduling guests. I guess he didn’t realize I don’t do interviews.

Clint Eastwood allegedly uttered a line in The Outlaw Josey Wales “A man’s gotta know his limitations” or something to that effect. I don’t think on my feet quick enough to ask drivers or other racing personalities meaningful questions. In almost sixteen years of sitting through press conferences at varying tracks, I’ve asked drivers a handful of questions. Once was at Barber, when Josef Newgarden won for the first time there – when I asked him something stupid about how it felt to win at his “home” track.

The other was last summer, when I attended a tire test at Nashville Superspeedway in late June. There was media availability, but I was the only regular IndyCar media onsite. The rest were local Nashville reporters who had no IndyCar knowledge nor any interest in being there. They had no idea what to ask the drivers who were standing there wanting someone to ask them anything that had to do with IndyCar. I felt obligated so I dove in with much better questions than they were getting – even though I already knew the answer to most of them.

Aside from that, what I get from press conferences is I observe the drivers as others are asking the questions. I look at their body language to see if they are getting uncomfortable. I listen to their answers and form the opinions you read when we are at race tracks. I get more out of that than I do trying to look smart in front of the professional journalists.

When John started talking about guests to interview, he was talking about F1 journalists, IMSA engineers and NASCAR drivers. I quickly knew I was about to be out of my element and was in danger of making a fool of myself, which is pretty easy to do anyway. I figured I’d better bail out while I still could. I called John just after New Year’s and told him I didn’t think I was right for the job. I let him know that he didn’t realize how IndyCar-centric I am. Sure, I can talk IndyCar history and present-day situations all day long. But get me out of that comfort zone, and my motorsports IQ drops significantly. I let him know I would bring the show down. That wasn’t false modesty – it was true.

John tried to persuade me that I would do fine, but I knew my limitations and that it would not go well. I’ve taken a short story and made it way too long. The gist of it is, John found someone far more qualified than I was – Andrew Pinkerton. Andrew is local to Birmingham. He has also actually raced and is an engineer in IMSA. He knows a lot of people in the IndyCar paddock and does this for a living, unlike me who does this as a hobby. I agreed to be a rotating regular guest as an IndyCar expert, which is somewhat laughable.

I am honored that they included me to make an appearance on their inaugural episode, which was recorder last Tuesday night and dropped in on Thursday. As I sat listening to the F1 conversation before I was brought on, I was reassured that I had done the right thing. I would’ve been lost in that conversation. I would have either sat there like a bump on a log without uttering a word, or I would’ve opened my mouth and made a fool of myself.

In case you are so inclined to listen, they got to me around the 47:00 minute mark and my part lasted about 40 minutes. I held my own. I did not embarrass myself and I think I even brought up a few points that they had not thought about.

This is a good podcast. Some racing podcasts seem to be geared toward Racing 101 for beginners. This is not that. This is for pretty hardcore racing fans – like the ones that come to this site. They may have decided they no longer need my services, but I hope to make some periodic appearances.

The podcast is officially called The Trussville Tribune Sports The Green Flag. It can be found on Apple Podcasts and most major platforms.

There is not a lot of new and fresh IndyCar content out there, but this Podcast fits that bill. Give it a listen. You can also listen to Episode One here.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on January 20, 2025 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.