About

Founded in May of 2016, our podcast is the creation of former race car mechanic, engineer, and team manager Marshall Pruett, who turned his attention to writing and reporting on the sport in 2006. He worked in IndyCar, IMSA, World Challenge, Indy Lights, Formula Atlantic, and a variety of other championships in the first chapter of his career. As a member of the media, he covers open-wheel and sports car racing, with annual pilgrimages to the Indy 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 hours of Sebring, and dozens of races in between as part of the routine.

The podcast specializes in open-wheel and sports car racing, with IndyCar, IMSA, WEC, F1 on occasion, and plenty of vintage content served up on a regular basis. Three weekly shows anchor the podcast, with The Week In IndyCar and The Week In Sports Cars using listener questions to drive the conversation with our guests. Inside The Sports Car Paddock, a new interview show with drivers, engineers, and all manner of characters, completes the trio.

In-car audio and the ambient sounds of racing is another passion we like to share on the Racing Audio page, and then there’s Special Features, containing everything from the probing ‘Who The Hell Are You?’ series to ‘Remembering Dan Gurney,’ a three-hour compilation of memories from the Big Eagle’s closest friends and competitors. Looking through the rest of the menu items, My Racing Life and Career is our long-form retrospective show with more than 40 episodes recorded so far, and its counter, Catching Up With, is where shorter, more topical interviews take place.

MP, Alex Zanardi, Mike Hull, and Jimmy Vasser at the Target Ganassi IndyCar Reunion podcast.

We’ve done our best to make subscribing to the podcast as easy as possible; whether it’s done via streaming or downloading, you have many options to choose from. And with an extensive roster of guests spanning Allan McNish to Zach Veach, the search function on the top right of the site is the perfect way to find episodes with your favorite personalities by typing their name, a related racing series, or whatever else comes to mind into the box. Or if you enjoy a good organic search, click on one of the menu categories and take a stroll through the content–there might be a surprise or two to find.

The latest extension of the podcast comes with the live events we’ve held at IndyCar and IMSA races. Come out, pose some questions to our panel, and have a few laughs.

Mazda’s John Doonan, 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power, three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, and four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais joined us on the Cooper Tires Stage during IndyCar’s return to Portland.

Driven by key support from our title partners at Cooper Tires and the Justice Brothers, everything we do is free for our listeners, and for media outlets seeking free content to syndicate.

About MP

I grew up in Northern California as the son of an Arkansas-born British and Swedish car mechanic who enjoyed building race cars and driving them in amateur events on the weekends. Many of my earliest memories–somewhere around 1974 or 1975–involve motor races at Sears Point, Laguna Seca, and an amazing childhood spent around the sport I’d eventually turn into a profession.

In 1986 or so, I started helping a family friend, Mike McHugh, who raced locally and in the SCCA Pro Super Vee series, where my introduction to open-wheel racing as a young and talent-free mechanic began. I somehow transitioned that apprenticeship into paying jobs as a racecar mechanic in the Bay Area, got my first gig with a pro team at Sears Point in 1989, and went on an amazing ride for more than a decade. I also loved photography and brought my Canon AE-1 on every trip. The reason I have thousands of shots from participating in IndyCar, IMSA, and SCCA events from 1986 on, and so few of myself from that era, is I was on the wrong side of the lens…

 Working on the 1980 Formula Ford my father and I raced for a few years.

From my time with McHugh in Super Vee, I’d work my way up through the junior open-wheel ranks as a mechanic, assistant engineer, assistant data engineer, and other general roles before graduating to IndyCar. That first introduction came in the Indy Racing League in 1997, followed by a brief spell in CART, and by the end of the 2001 IRL season–having spent half my adult life on the road, and with five Indy 500s under my belt in engineering or managerial roles–I wanted something different.

2001 IRL, at an oval I don’t recall, with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

That ‘something different’ eventually led me to college, marriage, and my new career as a motor racing writer, reporter, and photographer.

The love of my life, Shabral Pruett. Our life together began in 2002.

2020 marks my 34th season in the sport and only on rare occasion has it felt like a job. Yes, I’m damn fortunate.

Having a laugh with Fernando ‘Triple F’ Alonso.