IndyCar's Arie Luyendyk Jr. & Simon Pagenaud's Best Racing Advice

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here for Young Hollywood, back at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, taking you inside IndyCar.

Gram, we're back at the Long Beach Grand Prix. This is amazing. And this is your first time at the Young Hollywood set.

It is.

Yeah. This is the first for me, but this event's been going on 44 years. And so it's cool to to be back here, to be a part of it. And hopefully, this time around, uh, R-Rahal can win this thing. I guess the Queen Mary in the background, you know, the beach right here, and the crowd. You know, we have about 200,000 people on the weekends, so it's um, it's quite incredible and it it's just nice to feel like your your sport is relevant and people care about it.

Now, you have a new title. The reigning IndyCar champion.

Yeah, it's exciting. Thanks. You know, it's crazy. I didn't I didn't think this would ever happen to me.

Well, listen, I knew it was gonna happen because I bring luck wherever I go. Wherever I put my tushy, I bring luck. I sat in your car last year.

That's true. I bring luck to people and then they win.

It's

The only thing that makes me nervous about that is I think you've brought a lot a lot of luck to a couple other guys too.

Everyone's talking about you. The fans, the drivers, you're new, you're a rookie, but yet, you're getting all the buzz. What is it?

I think it's because I'm new and that I'm a rookie. I mean, it's uh, no, honestly.

No one wants to talk to you. Bye. Bye. You're done. You're done.

I was here with the well, when they had the first event in 1975, and uh, I just can't get enough of it, obviously, you know. So, I'm really enjoying this.

So, what are you bringing to the table that everyone's talking about?

I think um, we're just doing a good job here at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports so far. It's not really there isn't one thing that stands out to why we've had the start of the year that we have, but it's just been a lot of hard work over the winter. The team's made some great additions. I like to think I'm one of them. We're planning a wedding, so we're really excited about that. And we're looking at houses. So, we're looking at kind of everything. She's not used to the desert, so we're checking out different styles of architecture. You know, we have Santa Fe, we have modern, but our taste is pretty similar. So, we we've looked at probably, I don't know, 40 houses over the last few days.

Wow, really?

And um, yeah, we'll probably decide on one soon.

What are must-haves in the Rossi household?

A yard, a pool, enough bedrooms to have, you know, to plan for the future.

Babies?

Babies. Not just relatives coming over. We're talking big

Maybes?

Well, of course. That's what we're planning on it. There's an IndyCar autograph battle. Joseph Newgarden, my teammate, he was the champion last year. We like to be the one winning all the time. It's a big competition between us. We we get along really well, but it's uh it started at the Indianapolis airport. I started signing my little die-cast that you can buy there and um, and I I made a video on on Instagram saying that Joseph doesn't sign his. Look, he uh, he started this little war. And uh, you know, he's just been aggressive. I actually think Simon's been too aggressive with it. He needs to calm down. It's too much. Like, we were going tit for tat, so he'd sign something that I'd sign something, and we keep trying to one-up each other. Then I retaliated by signing a a huge an actual race car that was at the airport. And then he signed bigger behind me, and then he signed my house that night. So, when he So, when he signed my my house, it was uh it was game on. But now he's just like doing everything all the time. And it's not even his turn. It's my turn. I'm just it's my turn to go next, Simon, so just chill. It's okay. It's a long battle, my friend.

Pick a number between 1 and 18.

18.

What is the best piece of advice you've received? Look at that. It could be about anything, but here we go. What's the best piece of advice?

Follow your heart. Doesn't matter what people think, as long as you're happy.

Seven.

Seven. Everyone loves seven.

If you could do anything you wanted and cost wasn't an issue, what would it be and why?

I think I would have chosen a career where fighter pilot.

Let's go 12.

12.

Who is the most interesting person you have met?

So, Tom Brokaw, he came to Indy with Dave two years ago. To sit with he and Dave and fire questions at both of them before the Indy 500, I'd never get that opportunity. It's pretty cool. David Letterman is part of your racing team. We haven't seen him much this year, so I can't give you a I can't give you a a temperature on where he's at these days, but, you know, uh, last year we saw him quite a lot, which was a lot of fun. But you know, reggae is kind of in the move, you know, you're like, just you're just cruising cruising around. Excuse me.

Last time we danced during our interview, you won. You are the reigning Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar champion.

Uh-huh.

It's because we danced. Not really trying, you just there. Just there. That's part of being in the moment. Please understand, the last time that we did this, I was like much fresher. It's been a year since I've danced. It was with you here. Right. So, I don't know if I still have it.

You've got it. It's about attitude.

Okay, go. Ready, go.