SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Each year, before the Indianapolis 500, 13Sports director Dave Calabro gets together with IndyCar’s drivers to get to know them a little better, to ask some probing questions and to have more than a few laughs.
This time, Dave brings the milk and the cookies to learn who the drivers would invite to a dinner party and to talk guilty pleasures. We dare you to order and actually eat Josef Newgarden’s post-race order at McDonald’s!
Former driver you wish you could have raced against?
HÉLIO CASTRONEVES: Rick Mears. That would be phenomenal. He would kick my butt, but…
DAVE: You think?
HÉLIO: It would be a battle, but he’s a tough dude, man.
DALTON KELLETT: Probably Rick Mears, I think.
TONY KANAAN: Probably A.J.
DAVE: How would A.J. race you, do you think?
TONY: Dirty as h---? And I would do the same.
DAVE: (laughter)
TONY: Chopping each other off and probably get in a fight at the end.
TAKUMA SATO: A.J. Foyt. I know he’s fast, strong. And I want to be ... I want to challenge him.
SCOTT DIXON: A.J., Mario. You know, Rick. There’s just so many.
ALEXANDER ROSSI: Honestly, Mario, ‘cause I’ve gotten to know him so well over the years, and he still thinks he can beat all of us.
DAVE: (laughs)
ALEXANDER: And I just don’t think that’s true. It might be? But if we race, we can figure it out.
Who is a safe driver?
DAVE: If you need another driver to pick up your mom or kids, to drive them home safely, which driver would you pick and why?
DAVID MALUKAS: None of them.
KYLE KIRKWOOD: That’s a good question.
TAKUMA: I would probably trust Will Power. He’s the slowest driver on the public roads. He can’t even merge into the intersection to the motorway.
FELIX ROSENQVIST: Marcus Ericsson.
DAVE: You would?
FELIX: He’s the slowest guy on the road. Marcus would be in the right lane getting passed by the trucks.
ÁLEX PALOU: TK.
DAVE: You would?
ÁLEX: Oh, yeah. 100%.
COLTON HERTA: Hélio.
DAVE: Really?
COLTON: He’s like the nicest guy ever.
JIMMIE JOHNSON: Scott Dixon. He has more children than I do.
DAVE: He’s old.
JIMMIE: He’s old. Responsible ... at least most of the time. So, I’d pick Dixon.
Historic dinner guests?
DAVE: If you were having a dinner party with three people from history, who would you invite and why?
TATIANA CALDERÓN: Roger Federer. Then probably Ayrton Senna. And I haven’t met A.J. yet…
DAVE: Oh, you haven’t?
TATIANA: So, I’ll go with A.J.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Senna is one of them. Michael Jackson, just for the music.
DAVE: Oh, that’d be cool.
CHRISTIAN: Kevin Hart.
DAVE: Oh, that’s a good one. He’d be hilarious, wouldn’t he?
CONOR DALY: Rick Mears, George Washington and General Patton. A lot of great Americans.
ALEXANDER: Abraham Lincoln, Machine Gun Kelly and Tom Brady.
Guilty pleasures?
DAVID: Chocolate covered rice cakes.
CONOR: I like to buy Pokémon cards.
TONY: I work out literally to, like, Cher.
HÉLIO: That was me!
DAVE: You like Cher music, too?
HÉLIO: Yeah. That was me!
DAVE: Come on! You don’t even know who Cher is?
TONY & HÉLIO: (singing) Do you believe in life after love?
DAVE: Something I didn’t expect to hear today!
HÉLIO: That’s my guilty pleasure.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: McDonald’s. I mean…
DAVE: Cheeseburgers or….
JOSEF: It’s a very big order.
Dave: It is?
JOSEF: It’s a big order. It’s like…
DAVE: Oh, come on. What would you order?
JOSEF: Three double cheeseburgers,a fish filet. That happens. An order of, like, nuggets...
DAVE: Wait…
JOSEF: A large fry...
DAVE: This is one order?
JOSEF: Yeah. And a McFlurry. And I would get some crispy chicken sandwiches, too.
DAVE: No you wouldn’t.
JOSEF: I swear.
DAVE: You can knock all that down?
JOSEF: Yeah! After a race...100%. If it’s a bad race...no problem.