Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - 2025 Happy Hour Awards Show: Driver of the Year, Biggest Story, Best Burnout, Craziest Finish, Best Word of the Week, and Best Viral Moment

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

It’s the final episode of the 2025 season, and Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith close things out with the second annual Happy Hour Awards Show! The crew hands out end-of-season hardware for categories like Best Word of the Week, Best Viral Moment, Best Burnout, Craziest Finish, Biggest Story of the Year, and the prestigious Cup Driver of the Year Award. Some of the biggest names and moments in NASCAR this season are featured in the winners circle — but you’ll have to tune in to see who walks away with what. 0:00 - Intro 6:46 - Best Word Of The Week 11:19 - Best Viral Moment 18:30 - Best Burnout 25:48 - Craziest Finish 31:48 - Biggest Story Of The Year 37:07 - Cup Driver Of The Year GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Terms: draftkings.com/sportsbook. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Sponsored by DK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm a firm believer in karma. This interview was unfolding. I was just like, this is real. If you want to be number one, you gotta be odd. The showmanship is a piece that people forget about in what we do. I'm glad that the fans are focused on the racing. He said, I bet you didn't think I was tall enough to be here to sit on the door and touch the gas pedal the same time. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox.

I'm Kevin Harvich, Caitlin Bincey and Mama Smith. In the house. We're here for overtime. We are. This is Overtime. Yeah. The award show. It's fun.

Second time we've done this. Well, it is always interesting to see what we think compared to what the fans think. It's not the same. There are a lot of times that we are not on the same page. A lot of times we're in line and they like what we have to say. But it'll be interesting to see where all these categories fall. Well, this is a little different because, you know, the way we pick the moments, there's so many moments that happen throughout the year.

Yeah. And you can pick a few to vote on. So, you know, you kind of forget because the season's so long. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. Like the Blaney and the Swar as one? I was like... I know. Where did they race that?

I was like, what was that one? It's crazy. You know, when you look back at the season and I did this as a competitor, but you lose track of... If it happened more than two weeks ago, it seems like a lifetime ago. And going back through all these things, I was like, huh, I forgot that happened. Where did I use that word?

So it was... It seems like a lifetime ago. Because the Fox half seems like ages ago. Oh, yeah. you were in the booth. Seems like a different season. Yeah. It's like a 10-month season.

We'll have that. We are long. We are long. What are you guys going to do in the off time? I'm going to race this weekend. So back for my last race of the season. But in the late model world, it's really big race season. So they had the All-American 400 last weekend.

Keelan raced on Saturday in the pro-late model piece of it. Got caught up in a Daytona-style wreck, but he did a really good. job. He qualified fifth and then drew eighth to start the race. Yeah, so he learned how to draw last. So that was eight out of eight.

Why were you in Nashville? You said you were in Nashville over the weekend? Yeah, that was for the All American. Oh, is that the Fairgrounds? Yeah, so you've got the All-American 400. You've got the Billy Bigley. You've got Governor's Cup. You've got the Snowball Derby. So a lot of

big races. Florence has one. Florence. And then you've got the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National. Yeah. There you go. Racers race. What are you going to be doing? Racers do race.

It is so crazy. Like Martinsville, late model race. That one really starts the big race season for short tracks. And I love that. I'm, well, first of all.

I need to get a wallet. I need to get a wallet. Number one thing I'm going to do is get an ID again. So I don't have luck with that. Yeah. You know the government's been shut down for 40 days. Yeah.

So I'm a little nervous about that, but I do have my credit cards coming back. So that's good. Did you see if the DMV was open? Well, I did before we came in. Yeah. And I got the hours, but I didn't, like, call. And I still have to go back home and get some other things. So now I'm going to call.

The DMV is a dreaded place to deal with that. There's a DMV and then there's a licensing office. Yeah. So it's kind of like, hopefully it's not the same deal. I'm nervous. You should have contacted the establishment you're at, see if on the surveillance they see. Well, I did go to the... Where were you?

I was at Retro Bar in uptown. Okay. And never been there. No, you would... Me neither. Yeah. Well, it's kind of new. You guys would like...

You would like it. I don't know. And then an Uber. So you would have thought that it would have been found somewhere in between there? I think someone just... I think someone just picked it up and went with it. Yeah. My favorite bar is the one at my house.

There you go. That's nice to leave. Yeah. Yeah. You know. But, you know, like, I leave. sometimes it's good to be around the public and people and... I get to be around the public and the people a lot.

So I get my... I get my feel for being around the public. Yeah, but that's like Kevin Harvick driver. Sometimes you've got to be Kevin Harvick, like, just the guy. You can't separate them. Especially if you're in race market. Like, if you're driver at the track, your driver, retired driver, like it all blends together, especially if you're in race market.

There you go. Yeah. I have zero plans, to be perfectly honest. I worked a lot this year, so I'm excited to do nothing. Yeah. I just got back from Miami. I was telling you about this, the electric boat race that I went to see, the E1 race. Very cool.

Our Fox co-partner worker has a team, Tom Brady. Okay. His team won the championship. Of course it did. Yeah, of course it did. I just don't understand why you'd invest in electric racing anything. Well, they're very big on the sustainability of the environment. I know, but is it really more sustainable?

I thought we've gone through all this. It's clean tech sports. It's really weird. We didn't take the wind out of myself. I'm sure you did a great job in supporting their venture. But think about this, we're going to take an electric boat and put it in the water. Yes. That does sound on its face a little strange, right?

Electricity and water. If you go to a race, you don't want to watch a boat go by and just go... If they're very quiet. They are very, very quiet. I want to hear noise when I'm at a race track. You would have had fun. at this. Oh, yeah.

This was definitely your vibe. It was in Miami? It was in Miami. Yeah. There's some Ritzie people. Interesting. Eating some good food. It was really neat experience.

Okay. And cool to interview. I'll take your word for it. Different people from motorsports. Yeah. It worked in Formula E and Formula One and, you know, they're all kind of involved in this new endeavor. So that was cool.

I think the funny thing about that is, the more different it is racing. Racing is racing. It kind of comes back. Yeah. Can't do it. If you say electric racing, I'm out. See, he said that to me immediately last week. He's like, oh, hey, I have something.

I think you might be interested in, like all these team owners are on the same level as you. No, you lost me at E. You lost me at E. Way lost me. There's no Sunco fuel and Kevin does not want to hear about it.

I want to smell the fumes. And I, when you talk about racing boats, like I think of this Budweiser and all the big boats that used to just glide across the top of the water and Jimmy Johnson went and got back into one of those boats not three or four months ago. Yeah.

But those are the boats. boats that I remember racing. And that's, that boat racing was cool. The speed boats, those things are sick. Kevin, not impressed. No. I haven't even seen it. I'm not impressed. He's like, no sound? I'm not going. All right, guys, though, as we mentioned, we have six different awards determined by us. Also, the closers wait in on social media to put in their fan votes.

So I think it's time to kick off the second annual perfect happy hour award show. Yeah, I mean, there's only one way to kick it off with your favorite segment. Oh, my. of the Kevin Harvick Happy Hour podcast. We are kicking it off with the word of the week. And if you forgot, because again, it was a very long time ago, we have a full video of all the words. Let's run it.

When you can push like he was able to do in practice, that just has a lot of risk to it when you look at the field wanting to be pushed. Yeah, that was definitely one of those ice in the veins, cold-blooded moments right there from the driver to not overreact. It's definitely been quite the metamorphosis, you know, for this 11 car from where he was 20 laps ago. It's been quite the vicissitude for Kyle Larson. He won that stage, got a speeding penalty.

Typically, Clint is our lead rap scalyan up here in the booth. And we see Kyle Larson right here, and indubitably, he's the best guy up against the fence. Well, you definitely don't want to be all hat-no cattle in this type of situation. Well, Clint, we saw shenanigans on the pre-race with you, my friend. making fun of me. I'm still blown away by the reciprocity from the 19 team of Chase Brisco. And it looks like Chase Elliott right there rubbing up against the wall down the back straightaway. He's got that thing high wide and handsome up there.

Down the back straightaway in that fourth lane. Those cars three wide. Some of those guys are putting it on the top and letting the big dog eat. Well, that guy right there, he's been busing all day. It's fun to watch him drive this racetrack. I got to be honest. I forgot what that looks. I know.

What that look like. A lot of great moments there. So funny. I just think it's cool you've leaned into it and you actually do it. And I think that one thing I remember that Eric Shanks told me when I took this job and talking about what makes it more fun and what makes you be okay at it is being able to poke fun at yourself. So screwing up allows everybody to make fun of me, which we usually make fun of Clint. Right. And so I did screw up a few of those words.

There were several of those mornings. Yeah, but I mean, there were several of those mornings that I looked at the word and I'm like, hmm. So I would go to Mike and usually say, Mike, how do I say this word? And then you get so wound up when you're getting ready to say the words that half of them are screwed up. I thought you executed well. It was great. And my joy, like, when it's one of those big vocab words, you can just tell Mike loves it. And I love that.

So, ladies and gentlemen. Here are the nominees. Riz, Rapscallion, indubitably. There you go. And Bussin. Nailed it. Indutably. Indubitably.

We got nice little envelopes and everything. Rapscallion won, which I love this one because Biff was in there. And for that one, this was one of my favorite ones that I picked on you. That's what I voted for, but you must not have. I didn't. I voted for Bussin. Really? I know why?

You know why? Because it was the easiest to say. That makes sense then I voted for indubrably Because I remembered him struggling to say it So I thought that was... Anything that I struggled with He's happy about it.

No, I was happy about. So our producer Tyler must have cast the tie vote Which agreed with me, Rapscallion. I liked that one Because it was just like a really funny moment in the booth It was a good moment in the booth Yeah, there you go So what about who the closers?

Oh yeah, closers. I want to know what you guys did. Let's see, let's take a look. There we get. Oh, Rapscallion. Dang. That was pretty even, though, with everything that was up there on the board. I was expecting something to be the standout vote.

I guess it's 11% more. 24% of you voted for Riz, 35% Rhapscalian, 18% and dutably. Even the professional can't say the word. 23% bussin. That word is hard. Indutably. Yeah, especially when you have to say it. You're reading the first two.

getting to the third one going, oh shit. How do I say this? That one is tough. I love that. I love this game. How do you say it? Indubidably. I don't know.

We look forward to seeing what words Kevin has to say next year. Okay, now it is time for our next award, and it is best viral moments. Time now to look at the nominees. We have quite a few good moments here. I want to start with the very first one, which was Keelan Harvick beats Kevin in their first race together. So let's take a look back at some of the footage from this epic day out in Bakersfield, California. Kevin, what do you remember about all this going down? Well, I remember I was racing for the lead and we all wrecked.

And then Keelan stepped into an early Christmas gift there and wound up racing for the lead here at the end and making a good crossover move. But that was a cool moment to have that race and be able to compete against each other for the first time. Sure, yeah. He's pretty much got the best of me this year. So, no, not pretty much. You beat him once. I've got in the last two. Have you?

Yeah. Once he won the whole thing, I stopped. He wrecked in the other two, so I wrecked in this one, and he wrecked in the other two. Okay. I've kind of got a little bit back. He was, at one point, his average finish was like 1.5 or something against you. It was, you know. Still, a very cool moment for the whole Harvick family.

I'm sure this whole experience has been. Okay, so that was one nominee. The next nominee, this one is hilarious. It's Ryan Blaney's nephew. He hijacked the radio during the race. Let's take a listen back to what happened. I just wonder what was going through his head initially when he heard that, like, the little child voice.

He was probably like, what is that? It's really weird because all the radios that we always had that were not somebody that was on the team. They don't talk. Yeah, no. You can't talk. So I'm surprised that they had that. But it made for a great moment.

It made for a great moment. Yeah, that was not a scanner. That was definitely a radio. And usually everyone else was. it's a scanner. So they probably will not be having no videos anywhere else anymore. A cute viral moment though for sure. Okay, this one, I don't know if this one's cute or not, but it involved me interviewing Cletus McFarland. It's a very legendary soundbite from him at Daytona. Take a listen. A lot of anticipation, obviously, with Cletus in the field. I know this isn't

how you wanted it to come to a close. What was your experience like as a whole? Well, I was having the best day of my life. Ripped around Daytona like a bald eagle. It's flat out. you know, avoided a wreck, which was awesome. I thought I was the best driver to ever exist in that moment. And it's probably because my sleeves were cut off as I was able to pull off that maneuver, come down pit road. Then someone slammed into my rear left quarter, spun me out, lived through that, got some fresh tires, went back out of there.

I'm hot dogging into one and two, and the car lost it in front of me, and I saw it, didn't have enough brakes to get slowed down before it, and tried to go around it, misread it, zigged instead of zagged, when I should have zagged, and I zigged, and bam, blew the front end right off my hot rod. I hate that for you. And before we came to this interview, you were watching that jet taking off. Have you ever seen anything like that? You seemed pretty impressed by it when you were just standing here?

Yeah, I'm the pilot of Consuela. You know what I mean? I got basically the baddest aircraft in the country, but that F-16 is pretty cool. You just rolled it, like you didn't check up. We just rolled right into another professional question. I don't think I would have been how to do that. I go, I hate that for you. As this interview was unfolding, I was just like, this is real.

He's really saying all this. So, as an amateur interviewer, when you got to the point of hearing that interview, I'm like, Mamba, I would have just been like, oh, that was the greatest interview ever. I don't know that I could have asked him about an F-16 fighter jet. I think the producer got in my ear and said, ask him about that jet. So that they directed me to ask, in other words. It's a team effort. It's team effort.

But yeah. See, I would have been, at this point, I've learned to just ignore the producer because he's usually telling me something that he's tied on time. Oh, yeah, you'll have that. Or, you know, that mama has screwed something up. That's weird because he never tells me that in my ear. He just tells it in your... Yeah, you'll have that. Well, that interview was epic.

I will remember that one forever. Okay, the next and final nominee for Best Viral Moment is Kyle Larson telling our own Kevin. He wants to embarrass NASCAR. Take a listen. This is going to come across, like, very cocky. I want to embarrass them. I want to embarrass NASCAR a little bit. They probably think they're in a good spot.

I want to smash the field when I run. That's motivating for me, for sure. I like that, yeah. That was him talking about when he races down in the Crash and Truck Series or the Riley series, and he just wants to smash the competition. Look at you. You nailed that. Oh, Riley already.

We can't refer to it as its old title anymore. Yeah, we'll just, it's the Grand National Series. There you go. That has to be coming. That has to be coming. We're just going to refer to it and it'll just catch on. I think the O'Reilly people would really love that if it was that. They probably wouldn't because nobody would say O'Reilly.

Yeah, exactly. That would not get their branding out there. You get like a $50 gift card to get some free auto parts? I don't know. We'll have to find out what the incentives are. I hope that they're listening and, you know, I got you in the first show. So how much boy. Good job, Mamba.

All right, let's take a look at the winner for Best Viral Moment. It is. Cletus McFarland. Well, surprise there. He has an unfair day. Yeah, he's a very long following. I bet you on YouTube he probably won the vote by like 95%.

Yeah, he might have. There you go. Yeah. Who'd you pick? Did you pick that one? You must have. I did. Yeah, you must have.

Did you? No. Brian Blaney. Yeah, I picked the Blaine. Yeah, I picked the Blaine. Of course you did. Yeah, but I thought it was a way. I am a super fan.

I am a super fan. Support me, I guess. The one that had me. I was definitely supporting. Oh, that's why he did it? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly why I did it. It was the best interview of the year.

It was the best interview. Okay, so who did the closers vote for? We want to see what you guys had to say on Best Viral Moment. Here are the results. 33% said Kevin. Where the closes is out. Heal and beats Kevin. I love you guys.

I love you guys for picking that one just because it's an L for Kevin. Thank you so much. You guys are the best. 24% Blaney's nephew on the radio. 31% Cletus and 12% Larson, embarrassing NASCAR. And I think you've learned this over. the last two years. We have a very loyal fan base. Yeah, no, no, no. You have a very

very way. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, we in general have a very loyal fan base that's always always had my back. So any of the votes. There you go. Cool. I like that Kevin won. Okay. You're up, Kevin. He didn't win. Well, we get to do some driver stuff now. So, you know, the best burnout for me is obviously a category that I take a little bit of pride in because I always felt like our burnouts were

pretty good. So I think it's fair that we get to critique these guys. because, you know, I've done a few of them in my day. They obviously listen. Here are the nominees. So here are the nominees for a best burnout. The first one we have is Chase Elliott after the clash. He really set the tone for what a burnout.

And the things that go with the burnout that can set you apart. Yes, he did. There you go. Started out this season opener at the clash with a solid burnout. And the cool part about this burnout was the fact that, He started down the back straightaway, and he drifted. We've seen SBG do this, but he did a backwards drift with a kawiki. Yeah, Polish victory lap.

And basically dragging the tail, but not dragging the tail all the way around the wall at Bowman Gray. So that one set the standard really early in the year as to not just doing a burnout, but doing a burnout that was good enough to set yourself apart from a guy that just sat there and melted the tires. There are some days that you just need to sit there and melt the tires, but that one was not. The second one was another trendsetter, and we've seen SVG really step into the showmanship of what comes with celebrating after the race. But his burnout at Watkins Glen, and we've seen some good ones, the middle finger out the window with Austin Hill last year. But he basically went everywhere around this racetrack. I was surprised that the tires lasted as long that they did.

And he made it all the way back around to the front straightaway at Watkins Glen. And then as this burnout ends right here, Yeah, this is the best part. This is the best part. Still doing burnouts. The crew, yeah. And we're gonna do some high fives along the way. So.

That's awesome. Working the car over, getting close enough to the team. Very special moment for the whole crew. So that was definitely rubble. flying in the camera right there. That was definitely, that one, that one and Chase Elliott's were high marks. The third one was William Byron at Martinsville.

I think when you look back at that win for William Byron, obviously it meant a lot. But his burnout right here after the race was definitely William Byron's best burnout. Yeah. When you can kind of lock the left front or the right front and do a perfect donut like that, I always think that's really,

And this is a huge moment for this team. It was a, it was. And I think, you know, those are the moments that we talked about throughout the year. But the celebration of this burnout and the smoke and the donuts and just the longevity of it. But William Byron up there, obviously in our top four. But he did a great burnout and wound up parking at the start finish line eventually. Yeah, eventually. Eventually, it gets there.

He was a little excited. And when he got out, too, again, you talk about Kevin. When you get out, give me a little bit of juice. When he got out, he was pretty loud yelling at the fans. And I thought that was big. He was jacked up. Well, and I think, you know,

each burnout kind of represents where you are in your season. Yeah. What it means to you. I think as you win multiple races during the year in a row, the enthusiasm for that kind of goes down. And William hadn't won in a while. So to see that enthusiasm after the race was pretty cool. And I think you see where somebody is in the type of burnout that they do.

The last one was Kyle Larson after winning the championship. And there were a lot of elements to this particular burnout. And I think being the surprise winner at the end with all the strategy and not being in contention all day. And then Cliff making a great call at the end. And Kyle Larson, you know, keeping that car ahead of Denny Hamlin and the rest of them that were in the world. race, still racing for the championship.

But this burnout right here, getting out of the car, car against a fence, got the waving the flag on the gas, team standing on the wall, and the celebration afterwards to me was definitely one of the top moments. He told me at the banquet, he said, I bet you didn't think

I was tall enough to be able to sit on the door and touch the gas pedal the same time. I said, you're right, I had no idea you could do that. He got his, he's got a little baby seat in there. A little baby seat. Yeah. So, let's see who the winner is.

Yeah, the best burnout. The best burnout of the year. Who do you pick? The winner is Larson. There you go. Yep. That's who I voted for as well. I mean, it's hard to beat a championship.

I mean, unless it just was a complete dud. It's hard to bet against the champ. Also, because they're, like, when they're in that burnout, that celebration, there's just so much going on with it. And he added a lot to it. So it was deserving. Cool. There you go. I liked it.

Who the fans think? Let's see who the fans picked. What the closers get? Closers, did they agree with us? No, they didn't. Not even close. Well, actually, that's not surprising. SVG at Watkins Glen at 48%.

I mean, we got it. 22% to Chase Elliott, 12 to Byron and 19 to Larson. The SVG one was as far as pure like... Are we just so did a few clips of it? Yeah, as far as pure burnout. Now, it was amazing. Yeah.

When we first saw that, we're like, we've never seen anyone do this like this before. And I feel like SVG has a lot of fans. Like, I'm wondering if he is going to overtake most popular driver at some point. Ooh, I don't know about that. You'd have to need, I don't know. He'd have to need a lot of the people in New Zealand and Australia. They would really need to, like, buy into the voting. We've got to have a better campaign is what you're saying.

Yeah. It just seems like he has a lot of fans already. Which is cool. Yeah. And they're not voting for anybody. everybody else. Right. Yeah. I like that we evaluate the burnouts every week because it's such a unique thing to racing and a unique sports celebration. Well, we hear so many fans talk about, you know, the drivers are boring, this is boring, that's boring, they don't have any personality.

And we've had several guys. I mean, Larson gets it, he leans in, SVG leans in, Chase Elliott, you know, with his with his burnout. I think that the showmanship is a piece that people forget about in what we do, right? You're there. We're entertaining people. And so Denny Hamlin leaned into the things that he says and does off the racetrack and that interaction with the fans,

whether they're for you or against you, is part of what you do. You are an entertainer. It's true. When I think Byron did it, Blaney did it, Austin Dillon did it. Like when they get out and they like do this big yell at the fans, I'm like, yes.

Like that is. We want to see the passion and the emotion. I love a good AJ Almondinger went, too. Those are always great. Those are very good, yes. All right. Next, craziest finish is what we got on here on tap. I actually had to go back and look at some of these

because I forgot like exactly what was crazy about. We're one week at a time, people. Yeah, yeah. This week is the most relevant week. And what happened three weeks ago, I forget about it. Or 10 months ago. Yeah, 10 months ago. It was really tough.

So let's go back through them. The first one on the list, Ryan Blaney over Daniel Suarez at Daytona in the fall race, which he kind of came out of nowhere, too. I think at one point with like two to go, he was like 12th.

Yeah. And usually, when he's in these situations, on the Super Speedways, he wrecks from the front. So I thought they were wrecking from the front right there. It's a big block there, yeah. It's a big block.

Cole Custer did a great job at Daytona at both races. Well, this, and in my opinion, and this was the best super speedway race of the year. Yeah, they were getting after it from the town. This from the start to the finish was the best complete super speedway race that they have. And we talked about this. Obviously, Blaney comes on at the end right here to win this race from deep in the field.

But they race like that all night. And that's what we talked about all year. NASCAR's got to figure out a way to get these super speedway races so that they race from start to finish like they did at this Daytona. Right. 0.031 seconds. Yeah, 4 wide. That was a great way to end the regular season. Next, Christopher Bell over Denny Hamlin, Phoenix, obviously in the March race.

I definitely went back and looked at this because I forgot completely that it was like this. I forgot this one happened as well. Yeah. Which was big for them at the time because we're like, well, we're coming back here for the championship. So this meant a lot. And, yeah, didn't use them up. Just kind of leaned on him a little bit. I used them up as a shoot-off.

And that was, you know, one of those scenarios, and I don't remember who I was talking about, but when you go back and look at the championship race at Phoenix, I'm still a little perplexed that William Byron didn't use Denny up more than he did at that point of that last restart or the next to last restart. Because I just felt like, and we talked about this at March, He got back to Brian Blaney to make that move, but he didn't take advantage and get aggressive with him early in that restart at Martinsville.

And I felt like that was the type of move that you needed to do to put yourself to, you have to look at every opportunity as the last opportunity. But that was the type of move, you know, that you have to do to win these races. I had to do it. Didn't get that one done. Third, Austin Cendrick over Kyle Lars and Talladega, April. Another great Super Speedway finish. I'm just glad Kyle Larson was there at a finish. Yeah, he still isn't one of us.

Yeah, it's been weird for him. Poor guy. Yeah, this one, 0.056. It was actually over a priest. Larson was right behind him pushing. Which is, you know, for the RFK group, that's when they had the Yeah, oh, that's right. That's right.

That's right. Yeah, so the 60 car got disqualified after that particular race. So, you know, I think when you look at those Talladega finishes and Daytona finishes, the finishes are always pretty exciting when they're all hammered down like that. And this one, the last nominee, is probably my favorite and most heart-wrenching finish of the year, both at the same time. Chase Elliott over Denny Hamlin, which is quasi-Bubba Wallace over C. Bell, Denny Hamlin over Bubba Wallace. The way this race ended, and this is, it was amazing. All the drivers were laying it out in the line. Overtime.

Over time. You know, Bubba and C. Bell were really leaning on each other. All the Toyotas are in the front. You're like, okay, one of these guys is going to win. I think at this point, most people are like, oh, Bubba's really. probably going to win. Denny's going to try to race him hard, but probably not do anything wild. Chase

Elliott says, nope. And this was the race that Denny Hamlin had the power steering issues. I remember correctly. Yeah, and he knew that. And then he goes, sends it down in here, and we just use him up. And then, here comes to nine. Thank you very much.

And that last lap for the nine really started at the start finish line right there. The lap before when all the chaos started with the 23 and the 20 getting into each other off a turn four. And that momentum led all the way back around to all those moments. Insane finish. And let's see for us here on the show, it was Elliot over Hamlin. I did vote for this one.

Is that what you guys had? Yeah. I didn't. I did Blaney over the story. That was a good one, too. I thought that was, yeah. I want to know. It's got to be the outlier, Caitlin.

Yeah. Didn't mean to. If you want to be number one, you got to be odd. So let's hear from the fans. Let's see what the closing. What the closers had to say here? Oh, 67% Chase Elliott win, of course. That's a pretty substantial win.

It's also, well, it's also a Chase Elliott win and a Denny Hamlin loss, and I think that probably added it. Probably doesn't hurt anything. It's been hurt. Anytime you have a Chase Elliott thing in there, it just goes through. So you were still in the odd. I mean, you were still odd. Did Blaney.

Oh, you picked Blaney. Yeah, yeah. 21% went for that one. Wrong super speedway race. Yeah. 7% was Bell versus Hamlin, 5% Cendrick versus Larson. Yeah. There you have it.

Honestly, the finis. makes one with Bell and Ham, I think people generally forgot it was that close. I do. Because when you watch it, you're like, wow, that was a amazing finish. There you have it. The fans have spoken. A lot of great finishes throughout the course of the last 10 months. Okay, time now for our next award, and it is for biggest story of the year.

Well, we had a lot of great stories throughout the course of this season. The very first nominee, though, has been ongoing for two seasons now. And it was the charter system lawsuit, of course, with 2311 racing and front row motorsports suing NASCAR. So this has been a persistent story, so of course we had to include it. The second one is Denny Hamlin's championship chase falls short. I know where we all weighed in on that a week ago. And then the third nominee was NASCAR announced as horsepower increase for 2026. And the final nominee was SVG dominates road courses winning five straight. Okay. Well, when I look at that list and obviously the charter system lawsuit is still going.

Yep, it might be a 2026 story. It's set for trial and I'm sure they'll, whatever the decision is, hopefully they settle it before it all gets to that point. But if they don't and it goes to trial, I'm sure there will be an appeal and then it will continue being in trial and we'll still be talking about it next year. But I can tell you I hope it's over. Yes, we all are hoping for that.

Yeah, it's hard to, I mean, that one obviously is the story of the year. If you take that out and just focus on the racing that we care about the most, I think SVG's dominance was wild. It was a very cool story. A pleasant surprise. A pleasant surprise. More horsepower is always good. And Hamlin missing the championship.

It's been a story for 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. And when you look at the Hamlin championship story and everything that went with that, I felt bad for him this time. I did too. And just the way that they dominated the race

and the way that their cars ran, you know, the story with his dad and just, you know, I think we saw it at William Byron and Martinsville with the pressure that is on these guys. And I think in Denny's situation, knowing that the clock is ticking, announcing when his last year will be, his dad's health, the performance of the cars. I mean, it was a, that was a, that was a tough, tough moment for Denny Hamlin to lose that championship. And you saw it on his face after the race. At the banquet. At the banquet.

At the bank, I was just going to say that. Yeah, I've never seen more people sad for a competitor. Yeah. So is the tide turning for Denny Hamlin? No, I don't think so. Is he on the Kyle Busch path to where people are going to like him next year? No. No, no, I don't think so.

Okay. It's going to be short-lived. Yeah, like, I think everyone feels for him because he dominated that race. Yeah. And you look at it, like, you should have won, and that sucks. But I don't think he's... You know what was... interesting to me before that race is all the, all the, um, get on the bandwagon train talk and just

all the hype that they promoted before the race. Man, I'd have had to, I'd have had to next that. What do you mean? I just, I'm a firm believer in karma. Oh, you are? Yeah. Yeah, well. And I just, I don't, so, I don't know. I just, I'm so cautious about stuff like that because I just, I don't ever like to beat that drum before you get too far. You never had to because you had such a legion of I know, but I don't know. I just... Yeah, I get what you're saying though. It was kind of strange. Well, when the time comes and you got to take that out. Put a lot of pressure on yourself. A lot of, yeah. It's entertaining. It is entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, what was the biggest story of the year according to our crew? It was indeed the charter system

lawsuit two years in a row. We think we have voted for this one. So, yeah. I mean, how do you, you can't argue against it. It's a huge story. It's huge in sport. It's a huge sports story. And it's getting bigger. It is getting smaller. I saw I read an article last week that they were going to drag Roger Pinsky, Rick Hendrick, Formula One. I mean, there's so many things that are getting drug into this now that it's just, it continues to get messier. But yes, we appreciate Bob Poccherus, who has very diligently covered this story and allowed us to kind of understand all the many layers to it, I might add. Okay, so what did the closers vote for? What did you guys have to say? What was the biggest story of the year to our fan base? And 44% said Hamlin's championship run

coming to a close. 39% were on the lawsuit. 9% horsepower, 8% SVG dominance. I'm glad that the fans are focused on the racing. That's, no, that literally, because like... This is true. That's what it should be. Probably because they don't understand the lawsuit. Yeah. They're over it. Well, they don't want to hear about it. Yeah. They're over it. Yeah, it's like talking about politics in the middle of sports, right? True. You just don't want to do it. Don't care.

I don't ever turn something on in sports to want to hear about politics or lawsuits or all the... I turn the race on to watch the race. Right. That makes me happy that the fans are actually showing what their voice is as far as what they're doing with. I think we chose lawsuit from a journalistic standpoint. For sure. Yeah, no, it's like... Not that we actually enjoy having to talk about that.

Well, we have to talk about it. Yes. We have no choice. All right, Kevin, you're up. Well, we're down to the last category that we have. I can't wait for this. Which is a cup driver of the year. And we've got quite the list for our nominees here.

Our first one, obviously, our champion, Kyle Larson, who had just a fantastic year to close it out and start with. Middle? Eh, not up to Kyle Larson standards. I would say that most cup drivers would be okay with the results that he had, but those standards were a little bit subpar in the middle of the year. So I'm not sure if you heard this, but he spoke to Sirius XM recently, and a lot of what you were saying on the show throughout the year

was saying he didn't seem the same after Indy. And he admitted to that. He said he was off his game. He lost confidence in himself. He was like, I just didn't perform while. I was disappointed in myself. And then he referenced that Hendrick kind of lagged a bit through the summer months. I'm not going to also, I don't think,

It's hard to talk about it, but the loss of John Edwards affected the whole industry, but the way it directly impacted the five team in Hendrick, I think there was more to that than what people would expect from someone in that position, but he was a big piece of that place. Well, there's a couple things. You hear us talk about it on here all the time,

the circle of life, right? When you have the John Edwards scenario, the lack of confidence, cars begin off a little bit. But when you have the John Edwards piece, the indie piece with the lack of confidence, that directly affects the development piece and the week to week of what you think of the car, how you drive it, what capability you can drive it to the communication between the teams. Because you're having to deal with other things, right? In the past, we've seen Larson not have a problem dealing with other things. But typically, it's not dealing with all the things that happen in indie, the loss of someone's life. I mean, these are. major, major moments that are going to, you're going to have to have to deal with in ways that you didn't have to deal with going to a sprint car race and figuring out how to get there, going to Indy and, you know, battling for the wind late like he did the year before, totally different scenarios. So that circle of life definitely affects things. Second driver,

Denny Hamlin, you know, he had another career year with the way that they performed, new crew chief, all the things that they went through this year in contention to win the championship up until about five laps to go. A lot of wins. Yeah, a lot of wins. William Byron, another Hendrick driver that had a great year, battled for it all the way to the end at the championship race. And the guy who dominated on the road courses, SVG.

I think, you know, we've seen the evolution of Shane just get better and better on the road courses. He was pretty much unstoppable. And the ovals do not let him average in top 15. Don't sleep on him. I can't wait to see what he does next year. And the ovals, like at least a mile and a half, like whatever, you know what I mean? And we saw him in the top 10 at several of the races over the last part of the season.

So guys a stud. Let's see who the cup driver of the year winner is Denny Hamlin. Interesting. I knew he wasn't going to vote for him. No. No, because. But we must have. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, you guys must have.

Yep, I had to. The thing about it for me is Byron won the regular season championship with one race to go. And I thought that was highly impressive for what you got to remember, Denny Hamlin missed a race. Denny missed the race. He did. I think that race that he missed wouldn't have changed anything because it was a road course. But I think... You can make a case for every single one on the list.

I picked Denny because he had six wins on all different times. types of tracks, mile and a halfs, short tracks, Darlington, Crown Jewel, going through the lawsuit, his father's illness, the crew chief change you referenced. I just felt like he had an amazing year. Career 60 wins. To me, he was the driver of the year. Yeah. And I think that from an overall standpoint, you know, I think Denny, you know, he, with all the things that he had going on, I just think he dealt with more than the rest of them. So he didn't win the championship, but the rest of it was better than everybody else's, I believe. I did have a write-in, and Tyler told me I couldn't use it.

That's why it says, that's why it's a car driver. I wrote in Corey Heim. I thought that Corey Heim, I thought he was the best. Well, then we need to see Connor, too. Well, I thought that Corey had the best year, like, take away, yeah, he's in trucks, but, like, that was incredible. It was the best truck season that, on record. Ever enough.

But it's like I tell people all the time. Can't compare it to Cup. It's not Sunday. It's not Sunday. It's not Sunday. But he had a great year. So what do the closers think? I wonder if they agreed to us. I would assume that the closers are probably going to be split on this one.

Yeah, I would assume so. Oh, no. Not really. Okay, see, this makes me wonder if he is getting more fast. But listen, it's a sympathy boat. I agree. 54% is a high number. I don't think you're going to, I think, this is what I think.

I think, Denny. is Denny, and come Daytona will be five, six weeks in, and the guy that is always, like, pounding his chest and, you know, heckling the fans, is he going to be that same guy? I don't know if he will be. I wouldn't. I think he is. I don't think he'll. I think he, I mean, looking at that vote, I think that the, you know, the sympathy towards

his situation and everything that he's gone through this year. And, you know, I think you saw the, the reaction that he had to the fans. talking in appreciation of them, it was a much different change, much different than what we've seen in the past. So I'd rather, if it were me, if it were me, I'd rather go out with the arms of the fans wrapped around me,

not with them pointing both middle fingers at you. I think that's a 20, 27, that's what you'll get in his last year. Yeah. Like I think you'll get, I think it's the last year. We haven't had a, like the last time, like when you were the last one to retire, right? Martin Tritch.

It seems like it was 47 years ago. I know. It feels really long ago. But like we don't have a whole lot of moments like that, like retirement tours. So I think Denny's will be special. Well, 54% went with Hamlin. The second percentage was to Kyle Arson.

A reminder, 11,000 people voted on this particular category. Wow. So that's pretty awesome. I think that we, in the sport, in the industry, we need these type of awards. to happen at the banquet. Like, best driver, best crew chief. Like, every other sport has these type of awards.

I think they're important to help with Star Power and all those things. Yeah. I mean, maybe we'd just do like they're doing at the Super Bowl, which create our own show. Yeah, that's not right. I think that out here we are. Yeah, here we are. I mean, you've got 11,000 people that that turned into that boat.

Yeah, that's a high number. So they're obviously interested in having that conversation. And I think it creates a healthy conversation. So that's good. Yeah. Well, that's it, guys. That's it for the award show this year. Right now, we get to talk about the Daytona 500

because the 26th Great American Race is right around the corner. Make sure you purchase your tickets at Daytona International Speedway.com. And the race will be Sunday, February 15th, back on Fox, the best freaking network covering this shit. Yeah. Sorry. No, no, no. Make sure you get in the comments.

Tell us about the award show what you liked, what you thought about the winners. You guys know, even though we're off line, we are always on. We're always engaged. Yes. Thank you to the closers for tuning in for another season. Thank you, Kevin, for having us back with you. Good job, guys.

It's a fun year. It was a fun year. We'll start again in about two months. That's right. Not very far away. Not very far away. We'll be back in January so you guys can see Harvick Happy Pod returning in 2026. Make sure you continue to follow us on social media for more updates.

Thanks again for tuning in all season long. We'll see you in a few months.