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

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor

The 30th season of the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” is underway and this season’s cast included 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***

With just four legs remaining in the race, the five teams still in the running set off from Zimbabwe and headed to Bahrain, a destination never before traveled to on The Amazing Race, in the first half of Wednesday’s double episode.

“There’s not many laps left in this race,” said Daly as the leg began. “We’ll be coming up on the white flag very soon and then it’s the checkered flag with a $1 million prize. We won’t be satisfied with second place. It’s something that’s just born and bred in us that winning is everything and we can really open up the throttle and go for it.”

Teams were instructed to travel to a nearby shipyard when they arrived, with Team IndyCar arriving first. Once there, they would have to carry 300 pounds worth of timber across the shipyard to get their next clue.

Though they got beat out by Team Extreme in the task, Rossi and Daly weren’t far behind in second place as they were off to their next destination, Showaiter Sweets, where they had to eat a local treat called the King of Halwah.

Next up, teams traveled to Delmon Pottery Industry and would have to perform the tedious task of searching for 10 tiny trinkets hidden among hundreds of clay pots. After navigation issues, Rossi and Daly arrived to the location in fourth place.

It was a close race between all four teams, with IndyCar jumping up one spot to third at the end of the task.

From there, they made their way to the Bahrain Endurance Village, where they arrived first and would have to milk a camel. Daly quickly completed the task while Rossi kept the camel calm enough by petting it, allowing them to finish first.

Hey guys, don’t mind me. Just out here demonstrating how to extract milk from camels. #SignMeUpForMoreTV #AmazingRace #StillUnemployed #LetsChangeThat

A post shared by Conor Daly (@conordaly22) on Feb 14, 2018 at 7:47pm PST

Once the camel milking was done, the pit stop for the leg, the Tree of Life, was their next destination and Team IndyCar easily made it there first to claim their second leg win of the race. With the win, Rossi and Daly were each awarded $7,500 each as a prize.

Following IndyCar was Team Extreme, Team Yale, Team Big Brother, and Team Ocean Rescue.

Team Ocean Rescue would find themselves eliminated after falling behind early due to losing their passports during their connecting flight in Dubai when they were on their way to Bahrain.

With four teams remaining, they all set off for Chiang Mai, Thailand with IndyCar in the lead.

Rossi commented on how much tougher the race would be now that they were down to just four teams.

“We’re down to four teams. It was competitive on the first leg, but you had more room to make mistakes. We don’t have that room anymore and it’s four very, very, very good teams,” he said.

Once they arrived in Thailand, they would have to take a taxi to Royal Park Rajapruek and find their next clue hidden among numerous elephant statues.

The clue would lead them to the Detour and they were given two choices:

• Size It Up – Weigh and measure elephants
• Seize It – Catch 20 frogs in a swamp

IndyCar and Team Big Brother elected to do the frog challenge, while the other two teams chose the elephant task.

Rossi and Daly were able to get ahead of Big Brother when they arrived at the Road Block (Thai Something New). One team member would have to eat three scorpions and a frog, while the other team member had live scorpions on them for as long as it took to finish the meal.

In this task, Rossi ate and Daly had to endure the scorpions on him.

Once again, they were out of the gate first as they headed off to the pit stop (Wat Chedi Luang) and were the first team to check-in, netting them back-to back leg wins.

“Two wins in a row!” said Daly after the leg. “We know when to turn up the wick, as they say. We’ve had a good last few legs and this is the time to really step on the throttle. We just want to stay in this position because that’s where the $1 million goes.”

All four teams left now head into next week’s season finale, where a champion will be crowned.

Week Seven Standings

1. Team IndyCar
2. Team Big Brother
3. Team Extreme
4. Team Yale

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), The Firefighters (Leg 8), Team Ocean Rescue (Leg 9)