What’s the word for Chip Ganassi? Clean language on team radios

NASCAR and IndyCar team owner Chip Ganassi prides himself in running a clean and professional racing operation.

That extends to language on his race team’s radio communications. With conversations between drivers, crew chiefs, spotters and others on the team freely available to fans with scanner radios, the onus is on everyone in the team to keep their language clean and above board.

“I have always found that the drivers I respect the most are the guys that win races and win championships,” Ganassi said Friday at Sonoma Raceway. “If you look at the guys that win races and win championships, nine times out of 10 those are the calmer, succinct communicators on the radio.

“They don’t get into a lot of poor language or obscenities. The guys that win on a regular basis or the guys that win championships don’t feel the need to do that. I think that probably should tell you something.”

When asked if he has ever had to take a driver aside and discuss their language with them, Ganassi concurred and then added a laugh for emphasis.

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s just say that now that the scanner traffic is more in the public domain I’m glad that certain driver’s aren’t with us anymore.  I’ll say that much.”

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Brad Keselowski tests Team Penske IndyCar at Road America

A typical test for the Verizon IndyCar Series at Road America ahead of next week’s Kohler Grand Prix had a shocker  in the final couple hours of testing.

Brad Keselowski, the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, climbed into Simon Pagenaud’s No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet to run some laps.

Team Penske and the IndyCar Series posted tweets of Keselowski preparing to run the car and video of him doing so.

Keselowski does have one past NASCAR Xfinity Series start at the track, having finished fourth in 2010.

And for good measure, Ed Carpenter offered Kasey Kahne a chance to run whenever he wants too, after Kahne tweeted “awesome!!” after seeing the news. Carpenter runs the two-car Ed Carpenter Racing program.

So, just before 4 p.m., he looks set to do so.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to appear tonight on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will take on the challenging obstacle course tonight on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.”

Stenhouse was the lone NASCAR driver. He competed against IndyCar drivers Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Josef Newgarden. The show was taped in late April in Indianapolis.

“I had a great time during American Ninja Warrior,” Stenhouse said in a statement. “I have been a big fan of the show and always wanted to try some of the obstacles. All the participants were so helpful. They would tell you what they struggled with and how to attack a certain obstacle. I’m definitely going to train harder next year and do it again.”

Tonight’s show airs at 8 p.m. ET.

Texas’ ‘Big Hoss’ is getting bigger, better and more useful

Not long after the end of this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway, the track’s “Big Hoss” TV will begin to undergo a facelift.

The videoboard, which is the largest the world and a Guinness World Record, will soon include a ribbon-style scoreboard at the bottom.

“Big Hoss,” will grow by 2,071 square feet to 22,704.64 square feet. The project is expected to take three weeks to complete and will debut during the November NASCAR weekend.

The scoreboard, which will replace the track’s two 110-foot scoring pylons, will feature race running order, lap counts and will display “advertising opportunities, graphics, race statistics, video, advertising and even social media” elements.

“Big Hoss” utilizes a selection of 19 different video cameras across the 1.5-mile track to display instant replays, latest driver and race stats, interactive entertainment, and more. And at night following on-track activity, the track shows movies for fans camping out in the track infield to enjoy.

NASCAR on NBC podcast, Episode XVIII: Roger Penske

Venerable team owner Roger Penske, who turned 79 in February, made a visit to the infield hospital last week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This wasn’t a checkup to determine if Penske, who remains as spry as ever with his racing organization in its 50th year, was at risk of slowing down as he nears his ninth decade.

This was to ensure he could speed up, hammering the accelerator of the 2017 SS Camaro pace car that will lead the field to green Sunday in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

“I guess before you can drive on this racetrack, you need to have a physical,” Penske said with a chuckle during the Wednesday episode of the NASCAR on NBC podcast. “So the good news is I passed my physical, so I guess I’ll now be able to drive the car on race day.”

There was a time when he would have been racing it.

Though he has become synonymous with success in fielding cars – his teams have won a record 16 Indy 500s – Penske started his legendary career in racing as a driver and was named Driver of the Year in 1961 by Sports Illustrated and in 1962 by the New York Times.

Though he hung up his helmet for good in 1965 to focus on his automotive empire, Penske once won a NASCAR race at Riverside International Raceway in 1963, and he discusses those memories from his driving career during the podcast – including another NASCAR race he nearly won at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

“I was leading with about 10 laps to go and lost the rear end and then went out and won the race at Riverside,” he said, laughing. “When I came back (to Indianapolis), they didn’t want to let me in the Speedway because I’d driven a NASCAR car.”

Other topics covered by Penske:

–His first visit to Indy as a 14-year-old in 1951;

–His team’s success since combining its IndyCar and NASCAR operations under one roof;

–His potential future plans for returning to sports cars;

–Why he believes “anything you want, you can get it.”

–What he believes the future holds for IndyCar, NASCAR and auto racing.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking below or download and subscribe to it on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher

Here are times cues for easy referencing while listening to the episode: