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Team IndyCar Takes on “The Amazing Race” – Week Five

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor

The 30th season of the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” is underway and this season’s cast includes two IndyCar drivers, 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi and Conor Daly, among the 11 teams competing for the $1 million prize.

As the duo races around the world, we’ll track how they’re doing in the race and see if they can capture the checkered flag when all is said and done.

***SPOLIERS AHEAD***

Survive and advance.

That’s the name of the game when it comes to The Amazing Race, especially as they crossed the halfway mark with the sixth leg of the race on Wednesday night.

Team IndyCar’s fifth-place start would resign them to the second of the two flights from Les Baux-de-Provence, France to Prague, Czech Republic, which would arrive roughly an hour behind the first. This would be huge in the overall outlook of the race as the first U-Turn of the game would be waiting for them when they arrived.

For those not up on The Amazing Race terminology, the U-Turn would mean whichever team was U-Turned by another team would have to complete both sides of the Detour instead of one or the other.

Luckily, Rossi and Daly were the first to arrive at the U-Turn board and clue box, electing not to U-Turn either of the teams behind them (Team Big Brother and Team Well Strung) and continuing on in the race like normal.

In the Detour, teams had two choices, This or That.

“This” would require teams to travel to the Staropramen Brewery, re-stack empty beer kegs, find a full keg among the empty ones, pour a perfect beer, and then once approved by the brew master, deliver the keg to the party boat Fidelio to get their next clue. Meanwhile, “That” would be more difficult, requiring teams to listen to an astronomical lesson regarding Earth being round vs. flat and then pass an eight-question oral exam to get their next clue.

Team IndyCar, like the majority of teams, chose the former, keeping their fifth-place position by the time they completed it.

Next, they would proceed to Andelska Lazen Beer Spa, get a clue from one of the Czech locals bathing in a beer bath, then head over to Stara Cistirna Odpadnich Vod for the Road Block – “Hello, Hello, Hello?”

The Road Block would be a flashback to a task from Season 15 of The Amazing Race, in which there was a room full of hundreds of ringing phones, with only eight having someone on the other end of the line with a keyword. Each team member would then have to put the eight words together for a famous Franz Kafka quote – “The meaning of life is that it stops.”

Rossi headed into the room of doom for Team IndyCar around the same time as Team Big Brother and Team Ocean Rescue, with the three competitors helping each other out by comparing notes along the way. However, there was a little bit of hindrance thrown their way courtesy of Jessica from Team Big Brother, who fed them incorrect information on purpose to slow them down, only helping once she was on her way out the door.

Even with the hindrance from Team Big Brother, Rossi and Daly left the Road Block still in fifth place as they headed to the Pit Stop and the check-in mat.

En route to the Pit Stop for this leg of the race (Letenske Park), Team IndyCar was able to pass one of the teams ahead of them despite being unable to find a taxi and running the 3 kilometer distance, finishing the leg in fourth place, and staying alive for another week.

Week Five Standings

  1. Team Extreme
  2. The Firefighters
  3. Team Yale
  4. Team IndyCar
  5. Team Ocean Rescue
  6. Team Big Brother

ELIMINATED: The Ring Girls (Leg 1), Team Goat Yoga (Leg 2), Team Slam Dunk (Leg 4), Team Chomp (Leg 5), Team Well Strung (Leg 6).

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David Morgan is the Associate Editor for Motorsports Tribune. A 2008 graduate from the University of Mississippi, David has followed NASCAR since the early 90’s and became hooked at an early age after attending his first race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. He has traveled across the country since 2012 to cover some of the most prestigious events both IndyCar and NASCAR have to offer, with an aim to only expand on that in the near future.