100 Days to Indy Season 2 started with a thoroughly underwhelming premiere, and the season’s second episode continues the theme of money above all—which works better because it’s Thermal week, but is still problematic.
“More Money, More Problems” is still about money and contracts and the business of racing more than the actual racing. However, those concepts work better in this context, because the race in question is all about money—it’s a $1 million exhibition at California’s Thermal Club, which is essentially an expensive advertising weekend as IndyCar looks to court more financial backing. It doesn’t count toward anything other than someone’s bank balance, so now money is actually relevant.
Plus, the two drivers that The CW has chosen to follow this episode are Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou. The connective tissue between the two is money. O’Ward agreed to a massive contract extension with Arrow McLaren before the 2024 IndyCar season, and Palou should have been his teammate… until the ugly contract dispute which erupted when Palou decided to stay at Chip Ganassi Racing. Litigation in that matter is still ongoing (though that doesn’t stop the 100 Days to Indy producers from trying to get both drivers to comment on it).
O’Ward and Palou is a great pairing for the episode. Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson were heading in separate directions, but there’s some compare and contrast between O’Ward and Palou. The former is relaxing in Mexico; the latter is in Indiana looking at baby clothes, having just become a father for the first time. Yet as different as they are off track, they’re both charming and they both share a deeply competitive instinct, even by racing driver standards. There’s a wonderful moment where O’Ward talks about the respect he has for Palou and the idea of being teammates with him—but it doesn’t last long enough, because the show has to get back to talking about the lawsuit McLaren filed against Palou.
There is so much more to discuss than the financials of IndyCar, even in a money-motivated event like Thermal. 100 Days to Indy shows that with the glimpses viewers get of the other drivers, many of whom are delightfully out of place within the club’s rarefied air. There’s Scott McLaughlin admitting he doesn’t know what a “desert casual” dress code is, Will Power accidentally flashing a camera and Alexander Rossi just being Alexander Rossi. And then once cars get on track, there’s Palou smashing the entire field while O’Ward just barely misses out on even getting into the main event. That’s the story, these two stars who could’ve been working together ending up so far apart.
But instead there’s Jenna Fryer commenting on how money isn’t going to affect Palou. There’s McLaren boss Zak Brown taking shots at Palou, which won’t surprise anyone familiar with Brown’s public statements. “Now that I know the personality behind the man, I’m happy with the three racing drivers we have and the integrity in which they operate,” he says, bluntly implying that Palou lacks integrity but not saying the actual words. And the polarizing Danica Patrick has been added to the show’s commentary rotation. None of this adds anything to the core story, which is the 2024 IndyCar season and looking ahead to the 2024 Indy 500.
100 Days to Indy Season 2 seems to have settled on being more of an entertainment show than the docuseries that was Season 1. But even considering that the series is targeted at casual fans who are looking for a hook, the hook shouldn’t be money and off-track drama. It should be the quality product and the personalities of the people who make it possible. With Episode 3 due to feature the Grand Prix of Long Beach, it’ll be very telling. How much of the episode will be about Scott Dixon’s jaw-dropping winning drive, or will that get eclipsed by Team Penske’s cheating scandal? Audiences will know then what tone this show is aiming for. At least in its first two episodes, it’s fallen short of the checkered flag.
100 Days to Indy airs Fridays at 9:00 p.m. on The CW. This article is exclusive to Fangirlish and if reproduced or excerpted anywhere else, has been stolen without the author’s permission.
