Stay ConnectedIt’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, a club racer, 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.
Copyright: © Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun
Big announcement in this one, kids! No spoilers! Especially not having to do with the one and only Roger Penske, no sir!
This is one of our rare “chat” shows—Jeff, Ross, and Sam gone full chill hang. With this one, they're together on the mic for the first time in months, catching up after a long summer.
(We almost never do this, but you guys have asked for it, so it’s a pleasure!)
Timestamps:
02:57 – “One Night Only” — Jeff’s Son Wrote a Hollywood Movie!
05:53 – Ross Goes Full Nürburgring Recap
17:25 – Jeff Makes a Life Change
31:38 – The Importance of Being Earnest
34:33 – Avoiding Burnout in Things You Love
41:08 – Bucket Lists and the Jeff Braun Kyle Busch Story
(Confession time: We almost titled this episode, “THE ONE WHERE JEFF DOESN’T TELL ROGER PENSKE NO.” But that just seemed cheap.)
(We have standards, you know?)
(Stop laughing. We do! Really!)
*
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “OFF THE CUFF.”
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
This summer, for the first time in 15 years, IndyCar unveiled a new chassis. The Dallara IR-28 has a chance to change everything about the world’s fastest wheel-to-wheel racing. And when the car takes its first green flag in 2028, maybe it will.
Paul Pfanner founded RACER magazine in the early 1990s and bloomed that brand into the media empire it is today.
Ten years ago, IndyCar management asked Pfanner and a few other visionaries to help dream up what the next IndyCar could be. The car that group proposed is not the IR-28—but that, Paul says, isn’t important.
What is important: Whether anyone at IndyCar is asking the right questions. And whether they’ve got the guts to be brave.
*
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “GUEST TEACHES EVERYBODY.”
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
PAUL’S COLUMNS ON MOTORSPORT:
https://www.pfancom.com/insights?author=5f6d579bf52bd37e3669f9d6
*
DAN GURNEY’S WHITE PAPER:
https://legacy.allamericanracers.com/wp/formation-of-cart-dan-gurney/
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
This episode is about how racing sucks you in—even (or perhaps especially) if it’s tied to your day job. And never more than with endurance racing.
Last month, BFGoodrich invited Ross and Sam to co-drive a Porsche Boxster in a ChampCar enduro weekend at VIR.
A lot happened. Way too much! Chiefly, though, our two co-hosts chatted with some smart people. They talked about why everyone from track-day junkies to moonlighting pros bothers to go amateur endurance racing—and why this quirky little corner of the sport has never been larger or more successful.
*
00:00 – 32:00 — TJ DENNIS and ED GLISS: Brand manager for BFG’s Ultra-High Performance division (Dennis). A former Michelin test driver turned marketer (Gliss). And two driving die-hards who currently own and track an NB Miata and an E90 BMW M3 on weekends. They get it.
*
32:00 – 49:00 — DAVID KICAK: Former IMSA and Trans-Am driver. Marketing and sponsor manager for the ChampCar Endurance Series. Has known Ross since the 1990s. He also gets it.
*
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “IN THE TRENCHES.”
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
Balázs Remenyik is a professional sim racer and the official simulator development driver for the Citroën Formula E team. He’s also chief instructor at the Speed Secrets Sim Racer Academy, where INTC co-host Ross Bentley is founder and head coach.
Sam and Balázs talked earlier this year—Sam called him up to get a pro sim driver’s insight into the topics discussed on this week’s main-feed show.
This is one of the world’s best sim racers walking through the basics of digital driving. On top of that, Balász talks about getting started in sims—how he kicked off a hobby that led to a pro career.
***
IN THIS EP: Does hardware matter? — Why fast drivers in real life are slow on a sim — Tricks of the aliens — Setup and self improvement — Screens versus VR — and more!
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
Some love it, some hate it. You’re probably doing at least part of it wrong, even if you’re good at it.
Twenty years ago, INTC co-host Ross Bentley was a beta tester for the original version of iRacing, the world’s largest online racing sim. Today, he’s logged thousands of hours of sim coaching for “real" race drivers both pro and amateur. And he’s learned a lot along the way.
This started as a simple 101-level chat between Sam and Ross about sim technique. By the end of the show, they’d gone down the rabbit hole with everything from stupid dad jokes to how people learn and Ross’s experience using sims to coach a rank amateur onto the podium at a real-life Le Mans.
“Bah!” you say. “I like real cars! Real risk and sweat and the smell of gear oil in the morning!”
("Bah!" we say. "We like both!")
***
IN THIS EP: Where sim racing came from – What kind of equipment do you really need? — Getting used to a sim’s lack of feel — Why you’re slower in a sim than you are in a car — and more!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “DON’T HATE THAT.”
This episode was produced by Sam Smith. (With title apologies to Sarah Marshall's excellent podcast, "You're Wrong About.")
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
Once, Ashley Baily was a pastry chef. Now she’s the 26-year-old, Daytona-winning tire chief for an IMSA Corvette team. Landing that leap took guts, passion, and five years of working two demanding jobs at once.
(Plus cake. There was a silly amount of cake.)
Want a job in pro racing? If you're ready to knuckle down and work like hell, it’s closer than you think. This episode is the latest installment in our HOW I GOT HERE series—a dive into just what it takes to land a career in professional motorsport. We asked Ashley for her story.
(We also asked about cake. Because cake.)
Fun fact: INTC co-host Jeff Braun is the competition director for Ashley’s IMSA team, 13 Autosport. After more than 40 years in pro racing, from Le Mans to stock cars and beyond, Jeff says Ashley is the best tire specialist he’s ever worked with.
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
***
FREE 115-page BFGoodrich High-Performance Driving Guide written by Ross Bentley:
https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/auto/learn/performance-driving-guide
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
INTC’s Jeff Braun had to do it. Just a few weeks ago, only a few hours into that epic race, with a car still fast and healthy.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans. A GT3 Corvette. Months of fighting just to make the grid. Maybe you’d make the same decision—pull into the garage, start packing for home. Maybe you’d double down, scarf a bucket of croissants, have the guys strap in and send it. We’re all different.
INTC co-host Jeff Braun has spent decades in pro road racing. He’s won Daytona, Sebring, and championships. He came back from this year’s Le Mans looking forward, as he always does.
So we talked about that, and about what happened in France. And how you learn to keep your head up when all your plans go up in smoke.
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES.”
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
***
FREE 115-page BFGoodrich High-Performance Driving Guide written by Ross Bentley:
https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/auto/learn/performance-driving-guide
***
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
LIVE from a Porsche Club of America weekend at Grattan Raceway on June 13, 2026!
*
Want the INTC gang to come to *your* event and tape a show? Drop a line – INTCPod@gmail.com !
*
Two weeks ago, Ross and Sam went to a PCA track weekend to coach, tell stories on a podcast, and hang out. This is the stories bit — Saturday night, live from the paddock, a series of definitely plausible tales from our hosts' long careers in motorsport and car journalism.
PLUS: Audience questions, tangents, and Sam has candy (for some reason)!
*
Questions Answered in This Episode: How did Ross—one of the world’s top performance coaches and a sports-car champion, learn to drive and coach? — Which car did Sam get into as a journalist where he thought, “This is gonna kill me”? — Why were Ross and NASCAR legend Bill Elliott in the same car at the same time, sideways and backward, collapsing in laughter? — And more!
*
This show changes format every episode, because squirrel. This format is a new one—we call it “LIVE FROM THE WESTERN-MICHIGAN BUDOKAN."
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
***
Special thanks to the PCA's Rally Sport Chapter for the invite and the hospitality, and for eating all those Haribo bags we left behind.
As always, thanks to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
It’s another mythbusting episode! Ten classic racing myths, ten rapid-fire shoot-downs, no prisoners whatsoever.
Your answers, as always, come from INTC’s resident paddock veterans: Jeff Braun is a champion IMSA engineer with time in IndyCar and NASCAR. Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and sports-car champion turned world-renowned performance coach and author.
This show changes format every episode, because squirrel. This format is a new one—we call it “THE FASTEST LISTICLE IN SPORTS.”
***
FREE 115-page BFGoodrich High-Performance Driving Guide written by Ross Bentley:
https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/auto/learn/performance-driving-guide
***
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
As always, thanks to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 other Tuesday.
Why are some drivers fast in everything? What makes a person quick in Miatas but not Mustangs—or vice versa?
How do the pros wrap their heads around big jumps in speed, power, and risk?
This is show about many things. Precision. Restraint. A Corvette Z06 walloping into the climbing esses at VIR. That feeling you get when everything is right and nothing is wrong, at least not anything important, and you are up on the tire and the sky is awash in blue.
“Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube.”
This show changes format every episode, because squirrel. This format is a new one—we call it ROSS AND SAM DISSECT THE OBVIOUS.
***
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
As always, thanks to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
**
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!
INTCPod@gmail.com
**
Check out Sam's book!
**
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 biweekly on Tuesdays.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
