How Pro Race Cars Blow Up!

How Pro Race Cars Blow Up!

From It's Not the Car by Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun

March 17, 2026 · 57 min · Season 3 · Episode 102

About this episode

Jeff Braun shares humorous and insightful stories about how race cars break down.

The short answer? Use, abuse, and every way but loose. (But sometimes also loose.) This podshow has three hosts. One of them, Jeff Braun, has won Sebring, Daytona, and multiple sports-car championships. From Indy to Le Mans and beyond, Jeff has seen race cars fail in strange and funny ways. And when you ask Jeff to dish the goods, he dishes goods. (For the record, we love asking.) This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “JEFF TELLS A STORY.” *** IN THIS EP: How *do* race cars break? Well, Timmy, when an irresistible force and an immovable object love each other very much, they come together in a special hug! A short while later, the world is gifted a new life, and that life is very often a large and expensive heap of metal and composite smooshed into a delightful new shape. This shape usually resembles the sort of thing your dog might leave on the sidewalk after a particularly large meal. Isn’t the miracle of birth exciting? *** 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…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun

Topics covered

  • race cars
  • car failures
  • storytelling
  • motorsports
  • car engineering

Keywords

  • race cars
  • car breakdown
  • motorsports
  • Jeff Braun
  • car engineering

Sponsors

BFGoodrich

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