Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Alex Bowman wins rain-soaked Chicago Street Race, NASCAR unveils an electric race car, and more!

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

In Episode 41 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick joins co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith for an in-depth post-Chicago race analysis and the latest NASCAR updates. Kevin kicks things off by discussing how big the win in Chicago was for Alex Bowman—he snapped an 80-race winless streak! Kevin also shares his appreciation for how NASCAR handled the wet weather. The trio dives into the unveiling of NASCAR's first electric race car in Chicago and much more. Tune in for expert analysis and all the NASCAR action you love! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There is no future for NASCAR electric vehicle racing. If it does not make noise and smell like it's burning gas, there is no freaking way. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR and Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vincy and he's Momba Smith. And congratulations. Yeah, I kept the trophy in the house. That would have to be pretty cool, right?

First win, correct? Yes, first win for my husband, Blake Harris, obviously, crew chief for Alex Bowman. You guys know how much you got to put into this deal to win races. It's a lot of work. It was pretty cool to actually interview him after the fact. Like I've never really interviewed him. Now, was that pre-planned? Like, did you have a strategy if you had to do that?

Had you guys talked about that before? No, we had never talked about it, honestly. Was it a cool hug afterwards or was it like this awkward? We don't want anybody to see. I want to keep a professional or how was it? Well, I went up on the pit box right when they won. just to give him a hug and stuff. And that was kind of like the private moment that the cameras weren't around.

But everybody was capturing the moment when we actually did the interview. And they were like, man, he didn't even look like you wanted to hug you. But we had already had our own, you know, moments per se. But yeah, it was really special. And he's worked so hard, you know, to be where he's at. And I obviously saw the success he had with Martin Trex Jr. or Martin Trex over the years. and moving over to front row and then the deal at Hendrick, it's just been like a long road.

It is a long road, though. It's a long road. A lot of people don't realize the time and effort and work and sacrifices that the crew chiefs put in because they are really the ones that require the most time. They're in the most meetings. They require the most time. And it's a lot of work. And it's a heck of an accomplishment.

So that's pretty cool that you guys got to experience. It was cool. And what a great race to win at. Yeah. You know, only the second cup team to do it. Obviously, it's kind of a premier event now at this point. So it was really exciting. Well, he went from first, worst to first.

Worst to first. You finished, Alex finished last there last year. Yeah. Yeah. First this year. I want to know about, okay, we've seen the pictures. The pictures are already out from the 7 a.m. Oh, God.

I want to know how the party a little slushy. Yeah, give me a little, give me a little grace here, everybody, closers. She was closing it down with the team all night long. I want to know about that. Well, Alex always invites the pit crew, road crew over to his house after a win, which is fun, you know, because everybody can kind of celebrate together. Everybody jumped in the pool fully clothed. It's great.

He just like he just randomly jumped in the water. All his clothes on, he's like, everybody get in here. It's great. Based upon what he said after the race, it sounded like it sounded like he could have wound up on the floor naked. Are there any sightings of Alex on the floor naked? I did not. I don't think that actually happened fortunately. Okay.

So that did not occur. He's growing up. Yeah, he's growing up. Learning how to pace himself. That's good. We're making progress. Yeah. It was a fun time, though.

They were pretty pumped up. They've had such an up and down time ever since last season, you know. We'll get into all that with injury and everything. But they celebrated this one big. because you don't, you know, the winds are hard to come by. Celebrate everyone like it's your last because you never know. Yeah, because you don't know, right? So it was a good time.

If I finish in the top five in a cup race, I think I'd celebrate like that anyway. It's just so hard. I would just celebrate anyway. It is not. Any reason to celebrate. That's right. How do you feel about Mama's fit today?

You didn't make any funny remorse about it. Well, you know, I didn't even really notice the shirt under there, but. Ooh, look at that one. That's a old 29er shirt. That's old school. I don't know where you keep finding all this stuff. So this is from a group called C&C threads. And they,

they reached out. like, hey, we want to support you? Do you like, here's some shirts? And this was one of them. I'm like, no brainer, right? And this is actually my only Kevin. No, I don't have, I have a rookie car, I think, Dicast.

I think it matches this actually. So is that like a, is that like a retro? Are they printing those shirts? Or do they just have an extra inventory from like 2001? No, no, no, no. No, I'm pretty sure they're printing these. Oh, okay. Yeah.

I'll have to check the royalty to report to make sure they're doing it right. Look how well he did the hat matching the jacket, the color scheme. Now, did you wear that shirt because I won the first race at Chicago? Or what was the reasoning behind the 29 shirt? Because obviously there is a strategy behind the attire that comes in here every week. Well, you would think that there was. Please explain all of it. So, so I just flew back from Chicago.

My flight was at 545. Oof. So like the wind. I did get upgraded. I did get upgraded. You got the upgrade? Oh, good. I was out the whole time.

but when I landed I was kind of I was kind of discombobulated I didn't be like that yeah I do you're gonna like that usually I do the big words he's starting to I didn't really know what because the time jump and I was kind of crunch on time and I was like I know a good shirt to wear for this and I was like it would go perfect with the giant so it's just quick easy you know sonoco it presents the rookie of the year award and so this is your rookie car with a sonoco jacket and this 47 hat you know the street race looks good was that the street race logo

no this is like one of the ones that 47 did okay yeah they had some cool stuff yeah it was a great time out good yeah how was your weekend on I obviously saw you I just dropped my pen right you're done if you can't tell from my voice it's a little bit more

raspier than normal it's because we did two days of driver introses and a little driver intro at the big stage. So a little bit more yelling and usage of the voice this week, but it was a great time. Saturday was beautiful. Sunday was beautiful in the chaos. And I had a great time.

It was fun. That's good. I didn't even go out that much, guys. I stayed in all week, except one night. Oh. Yeah, one night I went out. You'll have that. Good for you.

It was a good weekend. We're going to talk all about it. We want to encourage the closers to continue following us on social media at Harvick. pod. We're going to talk all about Chicago and look ahead to the electric car prototype reaction. Oh, I can't wait for that. Kevin's fired up about it. I don't even know. And honestly, I don't know which way that's, that's coming. I have no idea. I don't really have any ideas. I know. I'm very curious to hear his take on this. Because we've seen many fan takes. So let's start with the good stuff first. Okay. Now we know where we're headed with that. All right. All right. So where do we

we want to start with this weekend? Well, let's let's start here first. I think I think we should start here. Okay. Okay. You guys talked about your weekend. So I want to, I want to tell you the, the best story for my weekend, because my weekends all have new stories. I love new stories. And so we went to the lake this weekend, and Keelan was, I mean, he is hell bent on fishing. We are fishing. Anytime we have a chance to fish. So I said, okay, I'm going to go with you fishing. So he gets out his little two-man boat, his little electric boat, and we take off. And I'm like, I have a cup of coffee and we tool out of the dock and over, over to where he wants to fish. throws the line out, reels it in, throws it out again.

And he hooks a massive bass. And he is, I mean, it's 7.30 in the morning. And he is flipping out, screaming and hollering, tell me what to do. I have no fishing pole. I don't like the fish, but I will go with him fishing. Of course. And so I get the net. I grab this fish and he sees the size of this fish.

It's probably about six pounds. And he is like, oh my God. I'm screaming and yelling. I'm like, keeling, calm down. He's like, where's the scale? Where's the scale? Where is the freaking scale? So I grab the scale.

The scale is sitting in the tackle box. I open the tackle box. I get the scale out. He unhooks the fish. It's in the net steel. He grabs the fish after we debated that just grab the freaking fish. I don't like what this is going at all. So he grabs the fish.

He tries to hook the scale in the side of the fish to weigh it. Well, as he's pulling the scale up to weigh the fish, the fish jumps, flops around. Of course. And this fish jumps up in the air and it lands in the freaking tackle box. It is in the bottom of the tackle box. The fish is the exact length of the bottom of the tackle box. I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, I'm sure the fish is going to flop around. This fish lays there like it's dead.

He's like, I'm like, how are we going to get the fish out of the tackle box? Because the mouth is up next to the side of the tackle box. And the tail is on this side. So I'm going to grab the tail. Well, you can't grab the fish's tail. And because it's so slippery, you got to grab it by the mouth. Well, we can't get this fish out of tackle box. And finally, I prod the fish enough.

And he reaches in there and grabs the fish. And we put it back in the water and it was fine. But it took us a couple minutes of panic to get the fish out of the bottom of the tackle box. Nothing was spilled. Oh, wow. We caught a couple more fish. And I made him take me back to the house a couple times to fill up my collar. I need a thermos.

You just had coffee in there? But that was my adventure story for the week. And just for those people who did see those pictures that Delana put up of the paddleboard, those were water shoes, people. I didn't have my tennis shoes on. They are water shoes that I had on the paddleboard, not tennis shoes. Were you getting some grief about your shoes? People like, why don't you take your tennis shoes off?

I got the water shoes on. Is that okay? Yeah, I'm glad you're addressing. Also, I'm glad you're now in the stage of your life where you're wearing shorts. so you can start getting a tan that's not as white as a driven snow. You've been working on that? Because you said the other week it was. We fish for probably an hour and I felt like I had a little sunburn on the inside of my ankles.

So that was probably by max for the day. And that's the time I ride the road. This is for everyone that hasn't been around Keelan a lot. Like when he gets excited, like he's a lot. Like he gets really loud when he gets excited. He was jacked up. That's the biggest fish he's ever caught. Where do you find this?

love a fishing if you're not into it. He just, it's came into them. He just likes the fish. And one of the guys that works for us and cheddar, Cheddar takes him fishing sometimes and fall at the house takes him fishing. So they, they go out and go fishing and have a good time with it. Oh, nice. And it's, and it's fun for me because I can just go sit in the boat and watch him and help him with whatever he needs. I'm, unlike his assistant. I was dealing hats with him in Victory Lane the other night, too. How do I do? We'll get, we'll get to that. We'll get there. Sorry. Yeah, we saw Kevin. I didn't mean to jump the gun.

No, it's okay. No, you're fine. It's your show. It's fine. So anyway, that was my story for the week. I love that. I love that you're just living life with your son and enjoying your time. That's great.

Okay, let's talk about Chicago, guys, because obviously we were both out there. We felt the energy and the vibe the whole weekend. It was honestly incredible because I didn't go last year. And that whole team that has put that race together, it's pretty remarkable because I feel it's become a world-class event. And the city really has embraced NASCAR a lot. What's kind of your initial impression of just bringing the street course to a city like that? Well, I went last year. I'm like, this is going to be the dumbest thing that we've ever done in my entire life. And I walked into the street course for the first time last year. And I looked around and I'm like, oh, my God.

Yeah. This is really neat. With all the banners and the bridges and the signs and just where the track was positioned in Chicago and everywhere we went last year, everybody knew we were there. Everybody was engaged to the event in the city. And that's not, that's not been the typical response. Like when you went to L.A., it wasn't the typical field like you, but in Chicago, that, that is not the case. And so this year, watching it on TV and seeing the enthusiasm from the drivers and the competitors and looking at things on social media, it obviously had that, had that same feel to it. And I just, I love the fact.

And NASCAR has done such a good job with the promotion inside the city. And the cities embraced it. So the Xfinity race was good. The cup race was good. And I think that to be able to get all the concerts and everything in this year, it kind of gave it that complete festival feel. I know the race was shortened because of rained and nobody really expected it. But we got it in.

And that's, you know, that was the completion of the event. So I hope we stick to the road course stuff. I think Chicago does a great job. I don't know that it's a forever thing. I think you could probably do it again with all the enthusiasm around it. But I think there's a lot of places that you could take this race and really make an impact of what we've done on the Cup Series level with what we can do with it. So you look at markets like we haven't gone to before, you look at a place like Denver. It's a great place that you could kind of get a little bit further into the.

Northwest and you could go to a city that really hasn't seen NASCAR. And it's even, it could be a fix for LA. We ran the L.A. Street race there a long time ago with the Southwest tour cars through right outside of the Coliseum. And everybody looks for that Southern California. What are we going to do? We don't have a racetrack type of situation. And I think that, you know, that could be an option there.

So I think it opens up our options from a, from a NASCAR standpoint. the places that we can go. Obviously, it takes some planning, but Chicago has been awesome. Man, vibes were really high out there. And I'm really, I'm really excited because I feel like we've taken a step, like, into the new NASCAR era, which is not just the car, but how we promote, how we put on events. We're going to do making adjustments mid-event, because obviously, like, Last year was the first time we've ever not made it to halfway in a event and called it, right? And then this year was like, man, what are we going to do? And NASCAR, I felt like made a really good call.

And they learned from last year, from the ops side. And then even the hospitality, last year the hospitality was, I think it was two levels and it was longer. This year they shortened it and it was the same. It looked like the same hospitality as was in Iowa. It was stronger. When the rain did come, it held up. Everyone was viving in there. It was a party in the hospitality.

There was a party out on the grid. It was amazing. Yeah. Because I went out into the fan zone area. You were out there all. She was out there the whole day. But they had like club set up bars, all kinds of restaurants and local vendors. It was pretty amazing.

I haven't seen a track maybe do quite this level in some time. I think that's the way that we, I hope we can get closer to doing that for the tracks that we have. Like already, right? It was just a whole experience. Yeah. Like we got a really. cultivate whatever city's close by. Yeah.

Try to create that. How do you do that when the racetrack's not there? That's the question, right? I think it's when it's disconnected, like when Chicago was, you know, way away from the city and Juliette and then you have the city, it's hard to get the city excited. But when you shut their streets down and you put the race right on, right on the city streets that they're used to driving around, they want to, hey, what's going on? Yeah.

And I, you know, I think it's just different. different. It's definitely harder to put all the pieces together when the race isn't actually in the city, I think, because it's just, it's like you say, I wish we could do that everywhere, but it's just different when you're in the middle of the city like that. And you can walk to the hotel from the racetrack right across the street. That's the best part. It's so great. I know. What I really hope we do is keep advancing this and take it to different places. but I want to see a quasi oval version of the street course. Like I want to see some like going down a block or two, banging a left because I think

or around like Central Park. Like I just think that showing that part of NASCAR would be really cool because these people, I think a lot of the people that go to the Chicago Street course, they watch a lot of F1, right? Yeah. Watch a lot of drive to survive. That's what sucked them in because what I noticed was when it rained. They didn't leave.

No, they really didn't. Yeah, and at the F1 events, you don't leave. You just sit through whatever weather you're in. So I think that's what they're kind of programmed to do versus like some of the core fans. When we're at an oval range, it's like, ah, well, okay, because that's what we've always done. So that is a new set of fans. It really is, and it's really awesome. It was an awesome weekend.

So let's talk about the cup race in particular. Alex Bowman, obviously getting the victory, as we talked about. It's been a rough road for him. He had the injury last season, missed the playoffs as well, but this is big for this team because they've had a lot ups and downs. Yeah. And, you know, I think when you look at Alex Bowman's situation, you know, I would say that people probably look at the results and they don't take into consideration the whole scenario. And when you really stop and look back at the last couple of years for Alex with his injuries and the things that he's had to deal with, it really puts him in a situation that, you know, it puts him in a situation that. is unique to everybody else. I think when you look back to 2021, Alex won four races,

you thought, hey, here's the spot where he's going to jump over the top of the mountain and really start to progress with winning multiple races every year. And then, bam, you know, he's hurt his back, he's hurt his head. And, you know, that road back can't be easy. I never had to deal with anything like that from an injury standpoint. point. So working through all that and the mental side that comes with our sport, just when everything is going well is difficult, let alone when you have everything that's going on with head injuries and back injuries and all the criticism that comes with that. But now he's past

all that. And I think getting back into the winter circle, now I want to see can he get back to that, that 2021 where is it just one win? And he's like, let's his guard down, or is it one win and can keep that same pressure on himself to go out and win multiple races like his teammates are doing with the nine winning and going to victory lane at Texas? And then you have the five and 24 who have won multiple races. Because I really felt like that's where they were in 2021 from Alex's standpoint. So I think there's a lot of pressure on him to win multiple races and do the things. I think there's a lot of chatter of, you know, Is he in the 48? Is he out of the 48? And you know how those rumors get started. Whether there's

any truth to that, I have no idea. But for me personally, I want to see if he's in a position now that he can win multiple races like he was in 2021 because I think that's the expectation. Yeah. And he kind of addressed those rumors, not kind of, he did address him in his first guy. Yeah. And he in which was great. I mean, I loved his interview. And I want to see the hack, Alex. The guy that Denny called the hack, the guy that ran over. Denny at Martinsville for a win because that guy didn't care. And his personality was in full effect. And when he got hurt, it's hard to come back from those type of ones because you got

to drive these race cars at the highest level. You got to be able to feel it. You got to feel the car. You got to feel it in your body, what you're doing. And it's tough. And then he had the head injury, which is even harder. I feel like just mentally to get over, that's maybe more than the physical part. so well the the the the the question that i have is you know 2021 was in the old car and then he had

the injuries right so is it just where's he at where we yeah where we're where we're where we out as far as winning races and what the capability is as far as how many races can you can you win because in the end that's the expectation at hendrick motorsports and that's that's unfortunately that's that's what you sign up especially with the 48 yeah like the 48th legacy is like literally perfection and championship. So now Blake has his win. Alex is back on his winning ways. Like now it's like, all right, we got to take this to the next level because our teammates are still in front of us. Like we still got to, we still got to get up there. I would just prefer a little bit of a filter on Alex's mouth. You would. I just, I don't, I don't want to hear anything about

drinking too much bourbon and passing out naked and waking up on the floor. That to me is too far. You know, I don't know. I got to be honest with you, I loved it. I know. Keep it going. Keep it coming. But I think some of those things you just need to keep to yourself. I don't necessarily want to have to think about seeing that. The visual of that for me is just... It's just strange. And I just don't really know exactly how to... Where I should go with that visual from here.

Because I heard it. Now I've had that visual and it's just not... It doesn't sit well with me. I don't know. It's just awkward. I mean, send it. I love it. I don't think it occurs.

He was looking at me. He's like, you really... think he woke up on the floor? Oh, no. I was like, oh, I don't, I'm not sure. Okay, so there's a little bit of dad in here that's coming out. A little bit of dad. It's fair.

Trust me, he hears way worse than that. So great. We still don't know whether or not that actually occurred last night. I'll have to try and check in and see. Yeah. Well, they didn't go to, they didn't go to Ben. Yeah. We're going to find out because I'm going to interview him today.

That's right. Oh, yeah, you can ask him. If he shows up for the interview, we'll know that he's okay. We're going to confirm his status before the day is over. So this race was very interesting because right out of the gate, obviously the weather playing a big factor with the tire selections. Then it was basically a race to the clock, if you will. What did you think about all of that as it was unfolding? Well, I think that the teams didn't expect it.

I think when you looked at the forecast and all of a sudden, here comes the weather pretty rapidly. Very rapidly. Yeah. And so I loved the. way that NASCAR started the race. And that was, hey, guys, go out, check out the track and you come in and decide what tires you want to put on your car. And we did live pit stops in the wet. I don't know what that means for the ovals, but if that's the pit road speed that we need to have on the ovals to do live pit stops and we can do them at the road course, then maybe we should

take the next step the next time we do that. But it seems to me as though we are moving along in a pretty rapid pace with our wet weather situation with the decisions that NASCAR is making. I love that we had a pretty defined into the race pretty early. I was watching on television, but it was defined pretty early to television and the teams, hey, we're ending this race at 820. That'll be the last lap and we're throwing the white flag. So I think when it's fair to the teams, I like the fact that they designate that before before they get too far into the race.

I love how they gave them the choice on tires, and the rest of the day just kind of played out as it was, and that was what you had as far as, you know, your decisions on the tires. So I hope this is the direction that we're going with the oval stuff. I know everybody's kind of been tiptoeing around, but it seemed like NASCAR was pretty aggressive in laying these things out. So, you know, I think that the end of the race was pretty interesting.

I think, you know, the slick tire strategy was obviously, the losing strategy. And that was the end of it. And I think Christopher Bell probably had a faster car on slick tires at the end. But ultimately, there was one line. And, you know,

the way that all those guys just followed Bell and putting those slick tires on, ultimately got themselves buried. Bell wrecked with trying to make a pass with whoever wrecked with. There was two or three of them that wrecked all at the same time. Somebody got loose. And he wound up towards, were up. And really, Ty Gibbs got, he got knocked back there in the same type of situation and ultimately cost him a chance to, to win the race. So you had all those rain tires that stayed out,

stayed up front. There was enough of them to block the, the slick tires. And it's just harder to pass when there's, when there's only one dry line and you have slick tires on. So you really have to tiptoe around there. And after we saw all the mistakes that we saw all day from some of the best, right? You know, we saw Chase Briscoe wipe out SVG. We saw Kyle Arson. all but wipe out Ty Gibbs sliding in the brake zone. And that break zone is tough and six. For whatever reason, it is super slick and just takes stepping over the line.

And once you lock those tires up, you can't get it back. It's just like you're on ice and it looks like they pick up speed. So I loved it. No, it was great. We talked about this a few weeks ago. We were like, what was the next step? And we thought we might find out at Richmond.

I guess we found out a step in between the ovals and where we were on the road course. this week. You know, you get to decide how you want to use the tires. That was great. I was talking to Chris Lawson and AJ. Like, AJ was literally sitting in the car and I'm like,

what do you think? Like, this was right before, because we had that extended period of time before the race start. He's like, I'm trying to decide if I should go slicks or rain. And I'm like, well,

whoever's going to make the decision to the other side. This is before the second pile of rain came, right? So early on, if you went, if you went slicks and kind of tiptoed and then it dried out really quick, you were probably going to be moving forward pretty quickly. but then that second bit of rain came. This change of strategy constantly, I love that.

That's high, I love of entertainment. I think, I think as you look back to the beginning of the race, you know, we talked about, talked about Chase Briscoe wiping out SVG. And SVG was in a pretty good spot. I felt like he was, he was filling it out. And, you know, he had a great race on Saturday winning the Xfinity race. And I felt like he was going to be in control of that race. But that's all it takes are those one moment.

of something happening like that. And it's the other thing that's interesting to me, the SVG situation as to what that has done to AJ Almondinger. Yes. We don't talk about AJ Almondinger being the guy to beat. He hasn't qualified well on really any of the road courses, hasn't been in contention at most of the road courses, whether it's been Xfinity or Cup.

And we talk about Bowman and the things from a mental side of things. But man, it is. it has put a damper. It has put a damper mentally on AJ and the things that he's been able to do on the road courses from the outside looking in. I don't know what you think. I think, I mean, yeah, I mean,

AJ was the standard on the road courses. Yeah, there was always the guy who was, he was everyone looked at. Yeah, all of it. And now SVG, the way SVG drives is different than AJ and it's almost like he's elevated, right? Someone has to elevate. And SVG is now the new standard.

and it's pretty apparent. Now, AJ is AJ, like, clear-cut second? When he's on, he is. But then when he's off, like, it's off. Even when he's on, though, he's not as fast. It just doesn't seem like the same. I don't know if he's not enjoying it like you, if he's just not having fun,

because sometimes when you're not having fun, it kind of spirals out of control. But they're not as fast either as a colleague as a whole. And I think at this point, SVG is able to elevate a little bit. in the places that they lack and maybe AJ because he was the reason that they were elevated, they kind of hit the ceiling a little bit. Yeah.

It's a pretty interesting scenario because it is basically taking him out of all the, out of all the conversations on the road courses and all the races that we've had so far. The other moment that stuck out to me, and I almost don't like to say it, but the Tyler Redick scenario at the end, Tyler Redick was going to catch Alex Bowman. And we've seen this out of Tyler in several races now where he's had a chance to win and doesn't win. You know? And I think he clipped the wall there in turn two, I believe. But he was running Alex Bowman down and he was going to get there to the back bumper that 48 car before he got, you know, back to the start finish line.

And ultimately took himself out of contention again of winning the races. We saw him very frustrated after Nashville with not not being able to win that race off. with a much faster car. You know, I think when he goes back and looks at that race, just sticking to the top line and, you know, not giving himself an option in the entry of the corner and through the middle of the corner to do something different, basically made Joey Lagano's job a lot easier than it should have been

from a blocking standpoint with running that top line. But he had a much faster car. And, you know, you go back to Las Vegas at the beginning of the year with that scenario and not winning that race. he's just going through a lot of scenarios here that he hasn't been able to capitalize on all these wins. And we saw the frustration after Nashville with not being able to win the race from Tyler. But he's got to figure it out because he's got cars that are in situations, whether he has the car or not, he's had situations where he should have, he's in position to win more races than what he's won. And I think that that frustration that he carries on himself is probably affecting him.

and the things that are happening at the end of these races. Yeah, I mean, I think he feels it. I mean, his mid-race interview when we had the rain delay, it was like a post-race one. He's just like processing and trying to figure it out. But to your point, it reminds me a little bit of early Larson. Yeah. When Larson was so fast, especially driving the 42 car,

Gannasi, and then he'd put, it almost like he was running at 110% when if he was running at 90 or 95, he still would have given himself a chance to win and probably would have won a lot more races early on. And I feel like Tyler is pushing so hard because he knows he's got him where he wants him and then he pushes just a little too far. And that line is so razor thin.

Well, especially there. In that situation, it's just like you push a little bit over the line and you're in trouble. Tyler Redick saying after the race just couldn't get the job done. Okay, so speaking of that, let's talk about some of the guys below the cut line right now because we only have six races left in the regular season. Who are we eyeing for major concern? Well, I think the guys outside the top

16, I'm highly concerned with Bubba Wallace, Kyle Bush, Chase Briscoe. We talked about that last week. The guys I'm concerned with now, Ross Chastain and Chris Busher, and they're 15th and 16th in the points. and I just I just have this feeling that that somebody outside of that top 16 is going to win Daytona. I think that's the wild card in this thing. I think when you look at Pocono and you look at Indy, you look at Michigan, I think you're going to have your guys that have been good on the bigger racetracks be the guys that can win. But look at Michigan, right? Bubba Wallace has been great there. Kyle Bush has been good there. And I think that even at that particular track, I think you go there and see.

somebody outside of that top 16 winning races. And I haven't seen the speed out of the 17 car that we, we saw a little glimpse of it. He needed that Darlington. It's almost like he needed the Darlington win against Reddick, but then Brad got, so like the team got it, but like,

I just haven't seen it lately over the past few weeks. We saw a little glimpse of it this year like we did last year. But I just, I'm a little bit concerned with where they're at, especially when you look at the schedule. And you look at those big, racetracks for the fords and I just I haven't seen anything out of the forge that makes me makes me think that that they have totally fixed their their big track problems

that they've had Michigan will be the tell tell that's that's when you're going to see the big power and everything come out of the Yates engine shop that's that'll be all they have when you get to Michigan because that's how it is every year so they put they push hard for that race so I'm just concerned with the 17 not having that speed that that they had And I'm concerned with the one that they have the speed that they need to do what they need to do on a weekly basis. We haven't seen the lapsled and things that you would expect from them. Yeah, I mean, I would be, because on that bubble line, it's just with this many races left, it's just not a comfortable spot to be. No.

There's no, and there's not really a good way to get out of it without winning a race. Like, you're just there. So if you got someone like Brisco or Kyle Busch that are in a contention to win a race, you're really nervous. because those guys are going to do whatever it takes to win a race and get into the playoffs. And then for Bubba, at least they got, you know, they can look to Michigan. They're always strong at Daytona. But like they've had speed. They haven't been able to finish it out.

And even this week, he's not a, he's been open about not being a great road racer and has gotten better at. And he's running right with the 48. So he would have been in that mix. And they, they tangle up early on. And I think the, when the 99 hit him in the right front. I think it damaged some suspension, and that was the end of his day. And then they kind of got into it after the race. We saw a few of those after the race.

Listen, and like Alex Bowman was like, he should be mad. Like, he's like, I wrecked him. He's like, I didn't do it on purpose, but he still wrecked him. And people were going crazy and about it. I'm like, I don't know if these guys are athletes. Like, they're going to. You're going to see those moments continue. I think when you look at that scenario, it sounded like Alex was reaching for his

winchel wiper switch is what he said. It sounded like he was trying to do something else. and ran into the back of Bubba. But, you know, after the stuff race, you want to see the excitement and stuff. But, I mean, his window net was down. The both of them were down. Yeah, both window nets were down. And, you know, I think Alex was not really expecting what happened.

So I don't like that. I love to see the emotion out of the guys. But, you know, you hate to see those scenarios where they have their window nets down. But it's, it was a physical race. And you saw Suarez and Chase Elliott mad at each other after the race. You know, the nine, shoved the nine. shoved the 99 out of the way. I couldn't tell if there was somebody behind him shoving him into the 99,

but the 99 didn't like it and totally knocked the nine out of the way in the last corner coming to the checkered flag. So those races are physical. The emotions are just going to ramp up over the next couple weeks as these drivers are trying to make their way into the postseason. Okay. So the other big storyline that came out over the course of the last couple days is NASCAR unveiling its first electric race car. This happens Saturday in Chicago. And I think you have a lot of thoughts and I can't wait to hear them. Well, I think that the electric race car in itself, you know, I think that that scenario,

I think that that scenario is probably a little bit political. I think with the manufacturers and just where NASCAR is as a whole in trying to put that electric vehicle together, I really think that the EV push came from the manufacturers and NASCAR started this project. and the EVs aren't doing as well as what they were when this project started. And I think NASCAR finished the project. And I think from a perception standpoint, from politics and emissions and all the things that go with the rest of the world, I think it's great to see that you have something. But I think NASCAR was so far down the line with the EV project being pushed by the manufacturers that they finished it.

but I think that the manufacturers at one point where, hey, each of us will build three of them, we'll put on some exhibition races. And I think when the EV thing went away, the manufacturer's like, hey, we're not going to do that anymore. So thanks, but no thanks. And now NASCAR stuck with this electric vehicle that they can do some demonstrations with. But that's really the only thing that excites me about it. There's really nothing about a race car that doesn't make noise that has any excitement for me. Yeah, I think everyone should just calm down.

It's going to be okay. We saw. You're not going to see NASCAR Cup cars or anywhere on the national level like this. This is far in the future. I think it's pretty far. And I also think it's more to do with overseas and other maybe other manufacturers and giving a dabble and letting them see that we can do stuff differently. Oh, we can do anything. It's like to tell you this.

There is no future for NASCAR. electric vehicle racing. If it does not make noise and smell like it's burning gas, there is no freaking way that people are... We're a sensory. Yes. We are a sensory, experiential sport. And you need to feel it.

And if you don't feel it, feel it, feel it, see it, smell it, hear it. Like NHRA. If NHRA and Nitro cars weren't blasting, if they weren't hitting you in the gut, you wouldn't want to, you wouldn't want to go. Because I've seen their electric and it's cool. They're fast. but I appreciate, I appreciate the effort and, you know, I get it. There are other things from the other side of the world, but anybody who thinks this

would be a success as far as, as far as how they race, it won't go far on the ovals, first off. Like, I'm on the road course, it's, you know, it's probably doable. But like that formula E series and all that stuff is, who watches that? Nobody watches that. It's great for the manufacturers to develop their batteries and do all that stuff. but nobody is watching that. And here's the thing. No one cares.

If you can't hear it, I don't want to see it. In the United States, we are V8, right, right now. And we're the last of that. We're going to, things are changing. But like overseas,

cool. I'm down with that. You know what's changing? Less people like EVs. I like where we're at right now. And I have one. They're loud. They're proud.

Yeah. I just bought myself a Dodger, S.R.T. How cats? You know I'm V8. Yeah. Come on. I bought an EV. I bought one of those Ford lightnings and I'm like, I just want to see what it's all about, right?

The same thing as the manufacturers and everything. It's like, I'm just going to get one and see if it's fun to drive, but it won't go far. I'm not taking it on a trip. So that thing's out the door. We got a ways to go before. It's out the door soon. Yeah, we got a ways to go before we get to that point. So you're not buying into all this then? It doesn't sound like it at all. No. There's no way that I wouldn't spend another, I wouldn't spend much more money on it. Now, well, will we, maybe be hybrid? Do I think that's great? We could turn the battery on and run some caution laps and charge the battery and all those things that go with that? Sure, because we have to keep up with the technology for the manufacturers. But all electric, no freaking way. No freaking way, he says. Listen, I got a Sonoco jacket on right now. So you know why I stand. You know, that's true.

How fitting for this particular topic. There you go. There you go. You were sending a message just with your fit. Just with the fit. All right, Mamba, it's your turn to take over and do your Sips. Wow, we're already here. We're already here. Let's see what he's going to talk about. We've been crushing it.

Welcome to Mamba Sips, your favorite part of the program. He always says that. I guess like everything else we do is shit, Kevin. Anyway, don't listen to them. Listen to me. All right. So over the last week, because things are happening even faster now, we don't, I pull the Sips off of the week, not just a week.

weekends at this point. So this week, Keelan went back to Victory Lane again. Couple times. A man's on a heater. Proud of you kid. But the best part about this one's in particular was old dad, uncle here became the hat. The PR rep. He was holding the helmet, if I may. This is the kind of shit that I have to deal with. Look at this. It says Keelan wins again. They didn't tell me they were going to make fun of me. So now we have to, now we have to, I can't even believe the notes. I'm sorry. What?

Whoa, what? I just told him we were going to talk about Keelan winning. I just wanted you to have that moment. Exactly. They're all in on it. All of you behind the camera too are all in on this. You have a new career.

It's looking good. Yeah. So, yeah, he did great. And you know what? I have no problem flipping hats. And he's a typical driver. He bitched at me the whole time about just throw the hats to me. I'm not going to drop the trophy.

I'm like, he's 11. He's 12. of today, actually. Today's his birthday. Happy birthday, Keith. Happy birthday, Keelan. But I'm like, just shut the fuck up and catch the hat. That's what I would think is just catch the hat.

I'm going to hand you the hat so you don't drop the trophy. It's kind of like everything he does at home. So he griped at me just like a typical driver. Oh, you drivers are so difficult. I was trying to make it easy on him. And his mom sets me up by just filming me and making sure that we can make fun of what I'm doing. But I have no problem.

I'm at a point in my life. I don't care what you think about my shoes. I left this morning and my wife was like, man, those blue jeans and that black shirt, I don't know about that. They don't go good together. I'm like, I don't really care. I will say that Beave, Aaron gave me the video. Yeah.

Oh, he did? Yeah. He sentenced him. Okay. Yeah. Well, Paris Fair Bee. Welcome to the show. I love the fact that I get set up on my online.

You didn't get set up. But. Own she. But I'm going to set you up for another one. here. Okay. So, uh, the same, same, same event. Well, that was a different event. Oh, that was that was that summer shootout. But at the caraway, Keelan did win too. He did. But you, you guys pretty much swept with the events that you entered. KHA won with Brent Cruz. Uh, and it was amazing race. What a race. They were, there was four, it started with two guys racing hard. Then a

third one shows up because they're all racing. Then a fourth one with Byron's in the, and I think the most impressive thing about it to me was, was they moved each other. They didn't wreck each other. And I think it was awesome to watch that. Well, that's the great thing about the cars tours. We've been very fortunate to have races like this throughout the whole season. But you have those guys in there that have raced for a long time.

And you have a kid like Brent Cruz that comes in there and says, okay, now I don't need to go in here so hard that I'm going to spin this guy out on purpose or do something to that. I can move them because they're going to move me. And that was kind of his quote was move or be moved. And he did a good job of putting himself in a position to be the mover on the last corner of the race and was able to get to victory lane. But what a great, great event. We appreciate William Byron stopping by the Cars tour and being in the mix there at the end with the three guys that, you know, are there on a week-to-week basis in Cawaple, Carson Cople, Brent Cruz and Connor Hall.

He got right in there and mixed it up with him. So I'm sure he was sitting back going, oh, my God, what in the world? I forgot about late model racing. We've been fortunate to have some great races. And I will ask everybody in the NASCAR garage to drivers, please continue to support local short track racing. If you can get to a track and run or even just hang out, it matters a lot for the fans. That's right. And our last little one here.

So there's this 11-year-old kid named Braden Wilson. He was playing in the American Cornhole League. okay so the reason why i brought this up was because him and his partner or his coach i have a hard time telling it because they flip sides i've hard time telling exactly what it was it was the last shot like he needed to put both of the bags in the hole and the other guy was kind of blocking a little bit and they take a moment and the coach comes up to him and says listen man you got this let's go whether you win this or you lose this i'm gonna love you either way yeah and i thought that that was the most important part, especially for you to both being parents. Like when your kid knows

that even if I fail, it's not a failure. Right. That's got to be different. And then he rose to the occasion. And then he nailed it. Nailed it. And he was freaking pumped. He was. He was awesome. I didn't know that that was televised like cornhole competitions. Yeah. Yeah. I never knew that. That's on a lot of know. Is that a flow? No, it needs to be though. It probably is, actually. I bet it is. I'm just kidding. I bet it every review search for it. So those were the social sips and that's where we lead right into the burnout for Alex moment. Burnout was awesome. Did you see all the smoke that he got out of those rain tires? He tried to do the drifting thing, which I didn't really like. I think when you're drifting around like somebody else, we saw

SVG do that. So I didn't really like that. And he tried to do burnout a couple times. But man, when he finally got after it there at the start finish line, there was a lot of smoke. And it was, it was, He stopped the one time. I think he was like, did they blow out? No, no, they didn't blow out. I'm going to keep going right here. I'm going to keep going. And he burned it down and then got out of the car, stood on the roof,

walked across the hood. But always fun to see those celebrations of guys who hadn't won in a while or first-time winners. There was a lot of scenarios, a lot of emotion going along with that win. So that was awesome. So what grade are we given? We don't give away A's. Because we're going to give him a B plus.

A B plus. We're going to give him a B plus. A B plus would probably be like an 8, an 8.2 area. Oh, yeah, since we're getting close to the Olympics. Yeah, 8.2 area. And my favorite part about his burnout was when he went back into the donut, I think he recognized his guys were in front. And he kind of held the break and drove it right up to him.

And I don't know why it is with this car, but the smoke comes out of the front. And I think it looks so bad ass. There was smoke coming out of everything. It was coming out of it. the trunk. It was coming out of the macaduct. It was coming out of the roof. Will wells. It was, there was smoke leaking everywhere. The rubber that he left on the, on the track was probably a good like four to six inches like packed up behind it. Yeah, that was a good one. It was a good one. It was a good

one. And we'll see who does one in Pocono, which is where we are headed next. So time for us to put in a little early predictions on who we believe can be victorious out there. Well, I think we're, I think we're getting back to the racetracks where we're going to see our, our, our, our, guys are five and eleven i think we're i think the five and the eleven are going to continue their battle but um diney's been so good there over the years i'm going to go dine on that one i'm going m tj i know i've picked him a lot lately and i don't know if this is just like a emotional pick because he's retiring but he has been very good at polkino over the years as well so i'm good martin he was ready to retire this weekend with all that spray back in the pack he was like this

is ridiculous yeah i couldn't agree with him more that which nascar did a good job stop in the race at that point because of the spray. That's the limiting factor with the rain, but MTJ was, he was not having it. It's definitely that old dog, that old, like, you know when you're like, I'm not, I don't want to do this. Like, I'm too old for this.

Like, that's that moment. I'm going with, uh, I think I'm going to go with Ty Gibbs. Ooh. I think I'm going to go with Ty Gibbs because, which is, uh, the Toyota's here specifically. I feel like a really fast over the last couple, a couple years. Um, and Ty is just like, he's just like,

He's like so close He's like right there And somewhere it's got to break through And if he gets into the playoffs Which he's sitting really good right now I think he'll be a dog When he gets in there So I'm going Ty Gibbs in the 54

Make it happen Make it happen Also real quick Two things One I think it's interesting that Hendrick Has all four cars in He has all four cars in As it stands right

Three sorry As it stands right now Jay Gibbs has as theirs in right now. So like that's a very interesting. It's going to be a team versus team playoff. It works like right now. And Kevin will one,

one rain, uh, rain affected race away from that. Oh, all elusive. And it always rains in Poconos. The little tricky triangle. You're going to get your dinner.

It's fine. It's not the point. I just want to know, you didn't know that I want. Are you going to Pocono? No, I'm not. I'm off.

Is it still the honeymoon capital of the U.S.? Is that still a thing? I don't know, but one time, back in 01, 102, I don't know. And I'm sure that they could pull it up. They had Delane and I do this.

Oh, boy. Where are we going with this? This weird pre-race thing, Fox did. And we wound up at one of these hotels with a heart-shaped hot tub. Hot tub. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I don't remember exactly what happened or how long.

And then nine months later, Q-In was born. No, no, no. That didn't come out right. But anyway, we did this strange pre-race piece in a, Are you? We got to pull that close. Yeah, I'm sure that we can find it. But Box used to do all kinds of fun pre-race stuff. And this was definitely one of those unique, unique ones. More on that story next week, maybe, hopefully. That story got different. Quickly. Okay. This week, your interviews with Alvin Kamara. This will be cool. Actually, all of us are going to interview him. So we're going to have a good time with Alvin. He's been obviously, you know, very much a part of our sports.

over the last couple of years. So we're going to find out why. We sure are. We look forward to it. All right. Everyone continue to subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Also leave us a five star and review as well. And we will see you guys after the tricky triangle.