“We look like idiots.”
Sounds like a bit of a harsh review from one of the stars of the first episode of a docuseries, right?
But it’s not. It’s Scott McLaughlin, one of the core characters of Episode 1 of "100 Days to Indy," which aired privately for the IndyCar paddock Wednesday in Long Beach ahead of this weekend’s street race, finally realizes (as so many of us have known for some time) how goofy and sometimes cringe-worthy he and Penske teammate Josef Newgarden are in their YouTube video series, "Bus Bros."
The unique chemistry those two share as friends, teammates and highly-charged competitors is center-stage in what is, coincidentally or not, a bit of a Penske-heavy debut episode of the docuseries for the Penske-owned racing series. But what director Patrick Dimon, his co-producer Adam Marinelli and the rest of the Vice team managed to capture in recent weeks was anything but a polished, prim, Penske-style production.
Watch:Vice, Penske Entertainment give 'first look' at 100 Days to Indy
It was honest. It was raw. And it was revealing (perhaps a bit too much, as you’ll notice from one lengthy shirtless Penske driver workout scene). It was the type of episode that, although not perfect, did what may be one of the greatest things behind-the-scenes media can do: It taught one of the participants something about themselves.
“It was very cringe,” McLaughlin told me before a light-hearted laugh at the show’s after-party Wednesday evening. “You see yourself having an interview on TV, but you don’t see yourself being ‘yourself’ that much. I don’t really watch the ‘Bus Bros’ back unless there’s a segment where we’re talking to fans on the streets for their reactions.
“But this is very personal. You’re watching yourself with your family, in your environment. My wife’s drinking (alcohol; though McLaughlin used colorful down-under lingo), but she’s so cool, and it’s cool for people to get to see her like that.”
Below are my initial takeaways from watching Episode 1, which debuts at 9 p.m. ET April 27 on The CW (with future viewing opportunities through Vice’s various media platforms). In order to not to spoil too much, I’m trying to stay big-picture while providing some glimpses into what I watched.
The details:IndyCar finally gets its docuseries, partners with VICE, The CW for leadup to Indy 500
Papa Newgarden
Pre-Penske Newgarden was before my time covering the sport, but from everyone I talk to, that public version of the now two-time champion was as off-the-cuff, honest, easy-going and relatable of a driver as the series had at the time.
Now?
He’s a sponsor’s dream, the perfect spokesperson who never has a hair out of place with the trim, cut, defined body of an athlete who’s every bit a company man. Occasionally, he’ll nudge the curtain back a hair, and it feels like you’re getting the real Josef – and you’re not. One of IndyCar’s most public-facing drivers is also perhaps its most private and introverted.
What we saw in Episode 1, though still a bit produced, felt like the most honest version of Newgarden we may ever get. We see him as a goofy dad. We see him as a husband – and what being the wife of a driver means to Ashley. And we see what can only be described as an audition for some unnamed top-of-the-line workout equipment that makes up his home gym.
Like him or hate him, this was as much Josef as we may ever know and see; and that was refreshing.
A moment with the team owners
Though both showed up in very small doses, it was great to see Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske featured via formal sit-down interviews in this, admittedly, marginally dramatized, Penske vs. Ganassi episode. Neither was a star of the episode – though it was a "Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske" side of The Captain that he’s largely cast aside since taking control of the series and IMS more than three years ago.
I hope we see more of them – and that we get some brutal honesty. Will Ganassi and Arrow McLaren boss Zak Brown discuss what went on with driver Alex Palou – and the tensions between them? Will we get unfiltered Michael Andretti talking about Mid-Ohio last summer or his team’s crash-fest of a season-opener last month?
One can only hope. IndyCar has plenty of characters, but some of the best pent-up anger and unfiltered frustration lies within some team owners. It won’t be a complete story without them.
Best supporting actor: James Hinchcliffe
One of the things the show did best was use James Hinchcliffe to educate IndyCar neophytes. His explanations on some of the simplest things – from testing rules to the pressures of qualifying – provided real knowledge for beginners without losing longtime fans.
That was one of my biggest worries about the presentation: Can the show engage decades-long IndyCar fans while also interest an active CW watcher who tuned in after seeing an ad for it three nights prior? I can confidently say that if you’ve never watched an IndyCar race, you’ll come away comfortable with the basics of a race weekend that serves as a foundation for what’s to come.
Luck in Pato O'Ward's unluckiness
I couldn’t help but think while watching this, "Man, they sure are lucky Pato’s car sputtered with just a couple of laps to go." As harsh as that may sound, it’s true. As you’ll notice in other episodes, Vice selects a couple of drivers they’ll shadow – for better or worse – on a given race weekend. However their days on-track go, that’s what you’ll see. It’s Dimon and the producers deciding that, to tell the story of the lead-up to the 500, you need to know the characters, whether they win or crash on Lap 1.
A challenger:Are Pato O'Ward and Arrow McLaren ready to end Penske and Ganassi's title run?
As the defending Indy 500 winner, it makes sense that Dimon picked Marcus Ericsson as the piece of the Ganassi puzzle to lay the groundwork for that team vs. team dynamic, even if he didn’t play a heavy role. But when Ericsson tears past O’Ward at the start-finish line in St. Pete, you can’t ask for more from a storytelling standpoint.
Who knows if that luck will continue. Without any insider knowledge, I have to think, given his connection to the track, that O’Ward’s time in the spotlight will come in Episode 2 when we dive into the action at Texas Motor Speedway. Though he didn’t win, the role he played in that weekend’s on-track drama, if it's partnered with a never-before-seen look into his glamorous life, would seem like a perfect fit.
“The story is unfolding as we tell it, rather than with these recap shows, where you can go back and pick up shoots and change the narrative,” Dimon said Wednesday on the red carpet. “It has to be, ‘Listen, we focused on this team or driver for this race, and this is what happened, and this is the story we have to tell.’ It’s a true docuseries style where this is what we have, and we’ve just got to tell it.”
Is there room for the 'little guy'?
I wonder if we’ll see any serious screen time for big characters who aren’t part of the front and center teams.
As those who watched the PGA Tour’s similar Netflix docuseries, "Full Swing" – which Dimon played a role in producing – know, one of its stars happened to be one of the sport’s most forgettable names. A few months ago, you had to be a real golf nut to know who Joel Dahmen was – the self-deprecating, lovable loser that was everything the PGA’s cutthroat fight with the LIV Tour is not.
But I wonder if, had the producers of that show merely been shadowing the PGA and LIV Tours for four months, under the pressure of producing episode after episode without knowing the ending of the story, if Dahmen’s battle with imposter syndrome would’ve been given a second thought. When you have just eight episodes (or in the case of "100 Days," six) and you don’t have the luxury of an extensive editing process, it’s hard to give a lot of air time to someone who might not be a factor in May.
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Perhaps there will be future seasons for those stories to be told, or maybe we’ll see guys like Conor Daly, David Malukas, Callum Ilott or part-timers like Marco Andretti and Ed Carpenter pop up with big roles in future episodes. But I’ll understand if they don’t, and it’ll come down to the limitations of this type of storytelling. For all its overly-dramatized moments that often drew the ire of F1 drivers and team owners, you can’t argue that "Drive to Survive" wasn’t riveting storytelling.
And you can tell, as IndyCar and its drivers tried their best to avoid uttering those three words Wednesday, that the sheen of "that other show" casts a shadow over "100 Days." Generating that level of attention, in a series that doesn't have that kind of glamor, within a sport that hasn’t been clinging to a curtain to yank back, all in real-time driven by folks who are new to the sport, will be no easy task.
