Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Bell Breaks Through! + Brad K vs. Hocevar Drama & Chastain Speaks Out

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

The Chase is ON! Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down Christopher Bell’s dramatic Southern 500 victory—overcoming an early pit road hiccup and a late 25-lap shootout with Kyle Larson & his JGR teammates. In this episode, we cover: The Chase Contenders & Misfortunes: Denny Hamlin’s clash with Michael McDowell & William Byron’s late engine failure. Trackside Drama: Brad Keselowski takes issue with Carson Hocevar after wall contact, plus Ross Chastain’s direct response to Kevin’s comments on his Trackhouse Racing future. CARS Tour: Kaden Honeycutt won at Florence, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 2nd in his CARS Tour Pro Late Model debut. Previewing Gateway: What to expect as the Cup Series heads to World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis and which playoff drivers face the most pressure. Mamba's Social Sips: Owen Larson's wild finish at the wire, the NASCAR Swear Jar, a dream moment for a young fan at Daytona, and grading the weekend burnouts Got a question or comment for Kevin, Kaitlyn, and Mamba? Email us at [e-mail], engage in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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No, just you. I'm his wife screaming. That cracked me up. Morgan was jacked up, too. Morgan is more competitive than you is. No, 100%. If Toyota does not win this championship, it is going to be one of the hardest off seasons for...

Bell told us that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, media. It would be a failure if we don't. But the thing that keeps these cars and teams together are fast cars. Yeah. There was a fight. Would she be like Joey Lugano's dad? Get in there.

Right now. I think she would. Get in there, Christopher. California's Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick, and she's Professor Vuich and Mumbo. Welcome to the show. We have all new names for this edition. Mamba.

Oh, Uncle over here is trying to get tricky with it, ladies and gentlemen. I have to hand it to him. He got that right. Well, he wrote it down in a way that he can pronounce it. That's not how it's spelled for sure. I honestly don't know how it's spelled. So the backstory to this in case people are wondering what we're talking about. I told Kevin before the show that my.

last name is not actually Vinci. It was changed at Ellis Island from Voochich to Vinci. So Vincy is technically a made-up name. I wonder when they just decided that that's too hard to say, we're going to make it something something. Yeah. And people still mispronounce Vincy, so it must not have been that much easier. Yeah.

Vinci. Oh, really? Yep. That's kind of, that's... Thinky. They ever struggle with your last name? Nah, it's pretty straightforward. Smith is pretty standard.

They definitely struggle with the Mamba part. I won't lie. That part does. How many people call you Mamba? Nobody just you. Nobody calls you Mumbo. Nobody calls you Mumbo. No, just you.

Nobody calls you as Mungbo. We're going to change that right now. Please refer to Mamba as Mumbo anytime you see him. Somebody did tweet us and wrote Mumbo. Did you see that? I will just say, if you do, my response is whatever you get. So if you want to take that risk, that's all on you. Hey, speaking of Twitter, I did something different this week.

I put a poll up showing all of our champ picks and ask the fans to weigh in. And they have agreed with Kevin. You know what's funny? Yeah. I need to look up the percentages. but... Picks for what? For the championship. You know what's funny?

I noticed you didn't mention your original picks from February. You just mentioned the... Well, no, because... Yeah, but that's really irrelevant. Oh, okay. We're on episode 44. I just want to let you guys know. 57% agreed with him.

Yeah. Well, okay, if he would have kept his original pick, he'd be out right now. Yeah. My guy was sitting in the garage with the blown-up motor. You would be 16. Well, I think we think it's blown up. It was something...

That was weird. We'll get into that. Yeah. There's a lot to get a deal. How does it. How about the house weekend? What did you guys do? I did absolutely nothing.

He was a car. I went to, well, that was Friday. Oh, yeah. So Saturday and Sunday I'd turn into a race fan and just hung out at the house and didn't do anything. Is it fun for you to be a race fan these days? I thoroughly enjoy laying on the couch. Don't we all? I really do.

I mean, that's fair. It's not something that I get to do very often. I really love it. So anytime that I could just lay on the couch, I'm pretty happy. Yeah, I bet you weren't laying on the couch because you had your party. No. No, I didn't have the party. No party this week. NASCAR Sundays is we're done in Charlotte until we have a tailgate for the Bank of America.

Oh, why is it done? Because going against football is just a non-starter. That's fair. Yeah, until we have a partner that's like, hey, we'll be sure to put you guys on. Okay. So you were on the couch. I was at the pool. Oh, he was at the pool.

At the pool. So Friday night went over to Florence for the cars to a race, which is great. You're all there together. It was fun. It was fun. It was hot. A lot of people. A lot of people.

A lot of people. A lot of gnats. A lot of gnats. Like bugs. Yeah. Yeah. Not good. A lot of gnats.

It's weird. Yeah. I like it. I was in Vegas again. Are you going to turn into a professional gambler? No, I am a professor. I am. This is my profession.

Buich. No, it was, it's a tie into racing, though, because it's restaurants that are sponsoring cars at upcoming races. And it's a way to showcase them. partnership with NASCAR. That's actually kind of cool. That's great. Because it's a nice blend of two very different things, racing and food.

How long did you stay out there? We were there for three days. We started in Phoenix. It is still very hot there. And then we drove from Phoenix to Vegas, which is actually a really beautiful drive if you've ever done it. I have. It's good times, guys.

Yeah. All right, everybody. Welcome in. Episode 44, if you can believe that. First Race of the Chase is in the books. Christopher Bell, now we get to sit here and not talk about him being a runner up because he was able to win over the weekend. And Kevin, how do you feel like that was a statement win in some ways?

I think we all expected it to come. I think that when you've seen some of the things that they've had happened throughout the year, I think the more impressive, well, some of the things that they've had happened throughout the year have just been unfortunate, right? But the one thing that's been pretty consistent are their cars. The cars have been fast. The Toyotas were still really fast again this weekend. But I think for Bell, what a relief to be.

able to get that get that out of the way, get the first win and have it come at Darlington, first race of the chase, just a huge momentum boost that puts them in a position to capitalize on a day that Denny Hamlin, the points leader having trouble and put them up the second and a point. So 20 team, as we've talked, right, we know that they're dangerous. It's just a matter of where they're going to be able to get over that hump and get to victory lane. And they answered that question first race. He talked a lot about the strength of the team overall. like the road mechanics, the pick crew, how solid they are from top to bottom. Obviously, Adam Stevens is a huge asset to him.

But this has just got to be a huge shot of momentum. After everything he's been through from the injury to where he is now, this is best case scenario for race one of the chase. You guys saw him when he got out of the car. He was hype. He was. And he, we all. His wife screaming.

That cracked me up. Morgan was jacked up too. Morgan is more competitive than he is. No, 100%. The dog in that family is in Morgan. And then it gets transferred over to Chris. Christopher, like, it is amazing. And she, I think, pushes him to be that in the race car.

And then he executed, he did a great job. I was, I was crushed for him when he lost the lead on that restart to chase Brisco. And then the rain came. I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. Like, this is how this is how this is going to go down. And, you know, kudos to NASCAR for not just giving up and giving the time to get that out. Because that was a big moment. You know what, 40 laps to go or something like?

that at that point. A little less. Yeah, a little less. And I would rather us run some laps under caution and then red flag and make sure we try everything before we just pack it up, especially this time of the air. A ton of fans. A ton of fans were out there. It was hot. Sunset. Seabell, man. Seabell, he's a dog. And, you know, that's why I picked him at the beginning of the year to win the championship. I didn't waver. I didn't change my pick. You know, before the chase started. And we talked about it last week. If there was anyone that, he could go on a run and win four. He told us that on Wednesday. You're going to run.

Like he can. Yeah. He has a ton of confidence in himself. And I think that's one thing that keeps a team that's having these issues of not winning races or having things go wrong, which they've had all that. They've been close to winning races and had stuff go wrong, had stuff go wrong, had an injury, had so many things go on. But the thing that keeps these cars and teams together are fast cars. Yeah. And when you know you have that capability, it's a lot easier to reset week after week after week.

when you're going through all these things, when you know that you have the cars to beat and you know you're going to put them back on the racetrack and on the grid the next week. So that's the thing that really, in my opinion, has kept all this together. Now they are at a great organization and Christopher has been around this long enough now

to know things are going to happen. There is Adam Stevens and the maturity that comes with the team as well. But the key to the whole equation are fast cars. Caitlin, I think one thing that I was, I think no one really understood was how close he was to getting surgery to not being able to get in the car.

You kind of talked to us about that during the victory lap. And I think we noticed that there was a little bit of a pep in his step getting through after San Diego and getting back into the car. I didn't understand exactly why. I thought it was because he saw some young kid

getting his car and driving. No, it really was that he found out he didn't need surgery and that he could stay in the championship hunt. And I think that really drove him because he really thought that he was going to be out of it for this year. It did sound like he had a lot of fears.

His chase hopes we're going to be over. So the margin right now, 12 points back for Christopher Bell. When you compare last year to this year and now what we're seeing with the points as it takes shape, what do you think is the comparison between now this chase and what we saw a year ago? I think you can make up a lot more points than I was giving it credit for. Winning matters, right? Like when you look at the thing that winning has done all year,

it's going to be the exact same way in this chase. But you're going to have to score stage points too. Ty Gibbs finished second, and I think he scored the eighth or ninth most points of the weekend, actually fell back to sixth in the points. Had a great finish, but didn't score, but one stage point throughout the day. And I mean, at certain points in that race, it was all chase guys in the top 10 and maybe Josh Barry. You know, that was up there in the middle of those guys. But for the most part, it was, and that's how it's going to be.

It's going to be the chase guys up in the front for the most of the most of the. these races and you're going to have to be in that mix in that top five scoring points. And it saved a lot of guys' butts. I mean, you look at Denny Hamlin, right? Like he had an accident. It saved his butt, stage points. You know, they worked it out and wound up getting themselves an 18th place finish with the problems that they had with the accident and the bad pit stop and all the things that

they had to deal with. But you're going to have to win a race or two and you're, but you're going to have to score stage points more than anything. I think obviously that's the biggest difference between. the chase of old to the chase of new. Did you like what you saw already? I know it's early to tell, but... Look, I mean, I don't know exactly how far Bell was behind.

I'm bad at math. 50. Yeah. So he's 12. So he made up 38 points, right? In one race. And it's not like Danny finished last. So there's going to be some moments where somebody's going to finish mid-30s

with an accident or an engine failure or something along the lines of what happened to William Byron. this weekend, you're going to have those finishes that you're going to have to deal with. And one of these chase guys is going to win these races. And that's just how it is. I mean, you might see somebody different at Talladega. Somebody might surprise us at one of these places. But more than likely, a chase guy is going to win the race.

And it's going to be a big swing from a point standpoint. Yeah, right now, Bell, 12 back. Blaney, 16, Redick, 24 are all pretty close right now. Yeah, I mean, you got Ryan Blaney in there. He's about to, he's really trying to. mess up this Toyota offseason. I'm going to tell you what. Toyota train.

If Toyota for Toyota does not win this championship, it is going to be one of the hardest off seasons for both. Bell told us that. Yeah, yeah, media. It's a failure if we don't. For JGR and, you know,

and 2311, I mean, you could throw legacy in their next to their Toyota team, but like, it'll feel like a complete, absolute failure of a season because they ever won a championship in a long time. So, you know, I look at this playoffs, or this Chase system, I, I love it. I think everybody got what they wanted.

I really do. It's good mix. I think winning is super important, just like it was in the last system, but consistency is super important, just like the old system. And the, the one caveat is these stage points. And I think the stage points are way more important than we would have thought, because I like the fact that you can have a good day. And just because something happens in the last stage of the race, it doesn't blow up

your entire points day. do like that. I think that's important for the competitors and everything because again, state points for Denny Hamlin really saved his A and he saved it too because it could have been catastrophic for that. Yeah, but I mean, you know, let's just say Ty Gibbs wins the race and gets an extra 20 points. Still only has 56 points. Right. Right. Total points. And then, you know, so, you know, Bell doesn't win the race. He has 53 points. Right. Something like that. No, he'll have, yeah, 53 points. Come on, Professor. So, so. So, so. I think that winning is

the key to this equation if you can. But I think that getting those stage points are going to pile up and they're going to pile up quick. If you're not the guy getting those stage points, you're just going to continue to tumble down that ladder. So you referenced Ty Gibbs. He had a solid day, very quiet day, honestly going about his business. He started further back

because of the metric, which is really probably ultimately what cost him from getting the points. When we spoke to him last week, one of the things he kept contributing to his strength is the whole team right now. He kept going back to that. The whole group of guys are really bought in. We're all rowing in the same direction. How important is just that belief in each other as they go through the next nine weeks? Well, it's super important. And I think that, look, none of these guys are the same. Every driver is different as to how he wants to be talked to, the things he wants to know, what he wants in his car. There isn't a, there isn't a system that's going to take

four guys or three guys who have money on a team and it's going to be the exact same. Now, you can put your cars together the same and you can have your processes the same in the shop. But if you're trying to make that guy drive this guy's stuff, it's never going to work. And, you know, I think that the details are the most important thing to make your car go fast. And I think for Ty and his team, being able to have a group of guys that are all there for Ty and understand who he is. as a person to be able to, you know, let him vent when he needs to vent. And I think that no matter who that is, whoever your driver is, if he wants to vent, if he's quiet, then you need to pair those personalities. It's like Rodney and I, right? Like we're, our personalities are very different.

Now, we had a lot in common in the things that we did and the things we like to do and, you know, became very good friends as we went through the process of being driver crew chief. But Rodney wasn't going to yell. Rodney wasn't going to bang his fists on the table. And I would do all that. And so it was a, it was a good balance, right? And but I didn't want to hurt Rodney's feelings. Right. So I didn't want to embarrass Rodney. So when I did speak up or yell or say something, it was for a reason. And he would always know, but that took time. And I think what you're seeing is a very mature 54 team with the, with the way that they're racing, the consistency that they had. They scored the second most stage points behind Blaney throughout the regular season, had the best 10 races over the last 10 races of

the season on average finish. So, I mean, there's there's a number of things that have, I mean, it's a it's a 180 from last year from where they were, but they're also within a very strong organization that is able to go and find the people and do the things that they need to do to make those pairings correct. And I think they would do that with any of their cars. if it was, I mean, we've seen him do it with Denny Hamlin. We saw them do it with Kyle Bush. Chase, Prisco. They're going to be aggressive. And that's just the nature of Joe Gibbs racing and the things that they do.

That organization has a lot of depth. They don't have a lot of turnover. I've noticed, too, in between seasons. Just a lot of the people have been there a long time working with those specific teams. Yeah, a lot of vets. A lot of vets over there. I haven't, honestly, that's one of the one teams that I haven't spent a whole lot of time inside of their shop or really swinging by there. But you got to respect how they run the organization.

their cars are always sponsored, right? Even when they think that they're not going to be, they find them. And then, like, you get Danny Hammond with Progressive or Bob's discount front. Like, they just always seem to find it and the cars stay fast. And you can tell when Chase Briscoe went over there from Stuart Haas, he just raised about how different it was. Now, Stuart Haas wasn't the same as when Kevin and I were there at that point. And we were very similar as to what he's seeing, what he's seeing now.

So, you know, when you're fast and you believe in what. what you guys are doing. Now you got four cars. This is the first time, too. This is the first time that all four of these guys have been in a point situation like this. Where they are the top dogs in the series. And we're going to find out who it's going to be because it'll ruffle some feathers. Because, I mean, those guys were racing hard at the end of this race.

They just don't need to beat themselves up. Yep. Right? Because in the end, it's like you said earlier. One of them better win. One of them better win. because on a year like this, when your cars are that, don't give it away by getting in a pissing contest with each other.

That is not what you want to do. That would be embarrassing. Bad deal. Yeah. So Kyle Larson, he ended up getting a top five performance. One of the teams that elected not to pit when all the JGR and Toyota's came down. Do you feel like they have some glimmer of optimism based on what they saw? Because going into the chase,

we had some questions about this organization as a whole where they were at. Speed-wise, do you feel encouraged after what you saw last night? I didn't expect that. To be perfectly honest with you, I expected, and it's not because of Larson. I expect that out of Larson at Darlington to do more than his teammates at Darlington because of the things that he can do up next to the wall and just how good he is at Darlington.

I expect him to outrun his teammates. The thing that I would base it on is the 24. He was super quiet all night, but he was always somewhere, you know, in that fifth to eighth range. He was a lot better than he's been. Yes, he was a lot better than he has been. And so Kyle Larson, not surprising. I think that, I think that to me,

I'm judging that off of the 24 car and the things that they did. Chase Elliott, kind of quiet, a little behind the 24 car. So still kind of the same split, right? I think that we expect the five to be better than all of his teammates and fast at Darlington, 24.

I think he was better than I expected him to be. Nine was not as good as I expected him to be. And 48's just 48, you know, just kind of there, right? Like in that middle of the road type situation. So I don't know. I think the 24 was better than I thought. Yeah. I think the five was in position to have a chance to win the race.

But in the end, I feel like he always kind of has a chance to win the race at Darlington. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out to see if that speed shows up at other places. So we're looking at William Byron here, who seemingly had obviously a mechanical engine issue that ultimately ended their day. How do they regroup after something like this? I think you just throw everything out of the window and go win races.

Go win races and end the season on a high. And, you know, not to say that your season's over, but for him to make it. make up the points to he was already he was already in a bad spot for him to make up these points I think he's like a hundred and 16 or 140 now 16 16 out to get back to the I'm sorry 114 14 14 to get

back to championship contention it's probably not so much so what I think if I was that group we want to bring fast race cars to the racetrack and try to help the five and the nine also as much as we can that should probably they'll probably have a little bit of a reset and flow I almost think it's better for the 24 that they have no chance

to win the championship and I think, and the reason that I say that, I think it will take some pressure off. Just go and not have to worry about all the chatter, lets them be aggressive and take chances to win races and allows them to now get into a position to end the year, to be able to go into the winner and say, okay, we got our ship righted as we got towards the end of the year. But as far as winning the championship, they're done. Yeah. One thing I did want to say about the call, I think the way that they looked at,

I heard an interview with Cliff. He looked at it like... Kyle Larson. Yeah, with Kyle Larson. He's like, well, we had to come around the 54 to get into our box, right? So that was going to be one little thing that we had to make sure it goes right.

And then the pitch stuff had to be right. He felt like they were going to come out like fourth or fifth anyway. Yeah. And so it kind of like netted out to being the same, but they gave themselves a chance. And the thing about it is I felt like

they thought maybe two or three more cars, maybe a row or two more cars would have stayed out if that did. I think that's true. Well, the other thing that happens a lot of time at Darlington in these races is you get a couple of cautions at the end and you don't have to run it straight.

They ran it straight. Yeah. Right? So I don't know that, I mean, what happens if you get one caution or two cautions in there? It puts them in a lot better position to have a chance. But tires are pretty important. Tires still matter at Dartmouth in a case that everyone is wondering.

Yeah. And I think when you look at that that pit selection situation, right, 54 was at the, I think he started 28th. Yeah. Because of the metric. And that's one thing that I question in this situation. We got to the end of the regular season and then we started the chase and we're still setting the metric off of, it's almost like we need for the first chase race. It almost needs to reset and go off of points if you have that rainout scenario again.

Yeah. Because you've reset the points. So why are we going off the old? Why are we going off the old? I think that's fair. Old stuff. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be that way next week off the metric. No, right, right.

You should have to suffer. but when you're resetting from the regular season, you've got to take that one week off from your metric and use the points. Especially with how big stage points are. It's a massive advantage or disadvantage that now you aren't in control of because of what happened the week before,

but we're setting a new season. And let's be clear. I hate the metric. Yeah, I think we should just, I think it would be random draw. There is no reason for the damn metric. We should be random drawing for qualifying every week to keep it mixed up.

The metric thing was for COVID. Yeah. And the metric thing needs to go away. Yeah, we're six years removed from COVID. Yeah. I don't like anything about the metric. It's confusing for everybody. Draw a damn pill.

Yeah. Go out and qualify and be done with it. Yeah. Make content out. If it rains out, then start them by points. Yeah. Simplify it. The metric is too confusing.

We're doing so many good things. Like we just need to, some of that stuff, we just need to simplify. And that's one of them. Done committee. Done committee. Pitt wrote, as we predicted, could have been an Achilles heel for several teams. A number of them having issues. issues from Chase Brisco with the fueling.

Denny Hamlin's team had a slow stop. Christopher Bell, our eventual race winner did as well. Tyler Reddick, the team had to back up to tighten the lug nuts. He said after the race, that could have been. Saved his day. Yes. Yeah, saved his day. If that tire comes off, he's in Pittstall 1.

So that tire comes off onto the racetrack. You got guys leaving for a few weeks and nowhere to stop to tighten it, right? There's no way out of that scenario if those guys don't stop that car. And honestly, under green, taking your lumps there is way better than under caution. Yeah, you don't lose as much. You don't lose as much. So they did a great job of rebounding.

But I think that when you go back and look at the 45 running first, second, third all day, got him back in the pack. And it shows you how hard it was to pass with everything that they had when they were in those one, two, or three positions to be able to not make it back up there for the rest of the day. Talking about the Toyota camp, Denny Hamlin, we touched on him a bit. you know, debating on when to pit to do these repairs and things like that ended up 18th on the day, but that is certainly not the way they would want their chase to begin. You made the point that this has happened in the past where I'd have a rough first race

of the old format in the rounds and then was able to win, but now we don't have that anymore. Yeah, yeah, we don't have that anymore. And this is the group kind of fixing the damage from the front of the car after he had contact with Michael McDowell. But you look, man, I, Denny Hamlin is like the Dallas Cowell. He is one of the biggest brands in the sport. You always know where he's at. He wins a lot of races.

He's a perennial winner. He's going to be a Hall of Fame. He's a walking Hall of Famer. But just like the Cowboys, when it comes to the postseason, it just never, it's never clean. It's never clean. And they fixed it. They cleaned it up at the end. They salvaged something good out of it.

But I don't think you can have another one like this because I don't know if you'll be able to salvage it. I mean, it was very close. to being a we're down two-lap situation and finishing about 30th. Yeah. So they did a great job on the bounce back, but man, I've seen this story play out over and over again. You don't want those. Yeah, and it was an interesting move, right? Like, you go back and you look at that wreck with Michael McDowell.

He kind of slides up the racetrack and in front of him and then has to check up up off the corner. And so, and then ultimately the 71 car gets into the back of it. and stuffs him in the fence and, you know, you're looking at damage right side. So that's a tough one because of the fact that, you know, we expected this to be one of those places that Denny Hamlin was going to contend for the win, which he did. Yeah, yeah, he was up front. He ran up front. But it really shows you just how much one bad pit stop can put you in the Hornets nest.

Next thing you know, not doing a lot wrong or if anything wrong. and you're in the fence looking, looking for a way out to minimize the damage. So, you know, if you have two or three of these bad days, he had a mulligan because he won the regular season. Yep. He didn't get a trophy, but he won the regular season. So to be able to, you know, to have that cushion, but that cushion's gone. I'm going to tell you what, too. I think the gap between the Toyotas and the rest of the field, as far as the top running forward and the top running Chevrolet,

I think that gap is shrunken a little bit. and if it shrinks a little bit, just don't let them feel like they can get to you because if they feel like they can get to you, man, it's going to be a dog fight all the way to the end. Yeah, and when I go back and look at it,

I mean, I still think like the Toyota's had the best cars by the end of the race. Yep. I think at one point, Larson had the best car. Yes. But I think that overall,

I think once they got their stuff together and got their track position back, because Bell had, Bell had some trouble on pit road too. So, you know, and then he had Briscoe run out of gas. So, you know, those guys had control of the race there for a little bit. But, you know, it's definitely, it seems closer than what it did. But I still feel like the Toyotas are the cars to beat.

So pivoting to a non-chae story, I want to give some flowers to Josh Barry, who continues to be very impressive. Those be like daisies or roses? What kind of flowers are you handing? Yeah, definitely some roses. Six straight top tens, which is the first time Wood Brothers has pulled off that feat since 1976, which is hard to believe. But, man, he has turned it on. Pregnant paws here.

It's getting awkward over here. It's getting awkward. Man, you talk about getting mud thrown in your face. This whole situation's... Bizarre. It's so bizarre. Yeah. to be able to go and not do what they were doing to all of a sudden doing what they're doing now

and then getting rid of the driver and going to put a rookie in it next year, you're going to start all over. Yeah. Because Jesse Love's not going to do what Josh Barry is doing in that car right now. And you can't expect them to. Yeah, exactly. You shouldn't be expected to do that. I mean, it's just, I don't know.

It sure seems like they jumped the gun on a scenario that was company-wide with, with, with their car is not running good because they have all run good. Yeah. 22. That's right. It's going to turn to the tide. Probably the worst, worst,

worst one at Darlington at the end. It wasn't his race in the top five stellar weekend for, for Ryan Blaney that we all expect. But, um, yeah, I mean, I hate it for this situation because it just,

it seems like they just got it rolling. And now it's over. It, it sucks for everybody involved. It sucks for the group that's there right now. It's going to suck for the group that. that come, whatever the group is that comes in next, like Josh has proven that if the cars are doing what he needs them to do, he has a good feel for it.

And he's a cup driver. Josh Berry is a cup driver. Does that mean he's going to win 15 races in his career? I don't know. But he's a legitimate cup guy, I think, at this point. Yeah. With what he's been able to do in the equipment's right. And then Jesse Love is a NASCAR champion, right?

Jesse Love is a young guy. We think he's going to, we hope that he has a good career. We don't know yet. We don't know what we don't know when he makes a jump. We thought we thought Zilich was going to come in and be a world beating this year. We don't know what we're going on. His car is having run good and he's been in the back all year. Right.

It's a tough learning curve when you come up to cup. If you, if Jesse, if you expect Jesse to run like Josh is right now, you're going to be disappointed. Yeah. And he shouldn't have that pressure. But unfortunately, the way the world works, this is big time auto sports, man. It's just going to be like that. Yeah. And the expectation is going to be how it ends.

Correct on the 21 car. Without a doubt. That's the bar. That's the bar that'll be set for you to start at next year. It's easier to go into the 33 than it is the 21. Right. Like as far as expectations. Right.

We'll see it, legacy, Josh. All right, moving on to would be determined. Now, we would be remiss if we didn't mention this other story that developed between Brad Kozlowski and Chase hopeful Carson Hosefar. Okay, these two had an incident. Brad hit the wall after contact with Hosefar essentially just turns them around. Here is what Brad had to say. say to above the yellow line after the race. Take a listen to this soundbite.

Do you know what happened with the 77 earlier? Oh, yeah, he ran into me. Is there any history there? Do you, do you have any idea why that would have? There will be. Oh, yeah. Care to expand him on that at all? His day's coming. It's coming hard. Watch out, Carson. Thanks, Brad. What happened off turn four off the sixth car? Oh, no, it looked like he's bombed. How did he spend? Oh, he spawned. You have one coming for you. Any comment on his thoughts on the issue? I'll tie it my belts.

Drivers are getting fed up with this. You can definitely sense that amongst the garage area. Your reaction to their interviews. You go first, Mumbo. Okay. Here's a deal. I kind of thought that once we got to the chase, we were going to kind of, you know, not do so much of this.

But he doesn't care. and the more that the guys allow him to do it, the more he's going to do it. And, you know, from the entertainment standpoint, sitting in this chair, love it. It's amazing. Gives us something to talk about. It gives us something to talk about.

Like, he's selling t-shirts off the rack. Like, he just did. He already made a t-shirt, you said? He made a t-shirt that they made a new one. And then he added, he added, uh, he added like 6% for six hours of discount on the discount that he already had, right? Like, he is going to, keep doing this.

But somebody at some point, if you guys wanted to stop, you guys as the rest of the field wanted to stop, someone's going to have to yank on that chain and do something about it. Because it won't, the only one that's tried to, it seems like a Zane Smith. But the other thing for Carson that I would say is this isn't Zane Smith. This is Brad Kislowski, a cup champion, a cup owner, and a future Hall of Famer. I love the game. But I think there's certain people that. you need to throw a little bit more respect to overall.

That's kind of what I'm right. Well, it's an interesting, it's an interesting soundbite just because of the disrespect that comes with it for that reason. And, you know, I think that it's one thing to play the game, but if you're going to really know how to play the game, which he doesn't know how to play the game, right now he's worried about selling T-shirts and all the things that go with it, you have to be respected by the guys you're racing against. And right now there's not one guy in the garage that respects what.

what he does behind the wheel. And a lot of it is just because of that right there. And the camera. The sound bite. Yeah, the sound bites. That would have been a real easy scenario to say, hey, I F this up. Take onus. I got up the racetrack, was sliding up the racetrack, got into the back of Brad, that one's on me.

That's going to be more respected than being a just complete dick about it, right? And just almost like you're trying to put on a show. and trying to do the things that you're doing to sell t-shirts. You can still sell the t-shirts and do all the things that you do by being good. And you can still have a personality, but at some points you have to earn the respect of your peers and the people that you're racing around if you want to be successful in cup racing. Otherwise, you're going to get run out of it.

And if you really want to play the game, you need to know how to play the whole game. The long game. Listen, ma'am. Well, you can play the long game, but the whole game, I mean, look, you can, there's going to be certain points where that game that he's trying to play is going to be very much, it's going to be very useful to be able to not, to basically say, I don't give a fuck about what you think, but it's got to be to the right guy at the right time. It can't be all the time. And at some point, these OGs, like, this is the first, this is the first, like, he got into it a little bit with Stenhouse, but this is the first, like, older, like, tenure driver of a really long... I've told you since day one what I would do.

Listen, man. You downshift that bitch and you just hold the throttle down and you drive him straight in a fence. If I'm Brad Kesowski, if I'm Brad Kesowski at this point, even after the clip, I don't even care. I don't care about the points. I don't care about a suspension. He has nothing to lose by junking you this weekend at St. Louis because it's a short track too. Yeah. You know, he has nothing to lose.

And eventually your owner, if you start getting junked every week, because of what you say in the media, owner in your sponsor people are going to start being like alright maybe we just let's get something straight your owners are doing a bad job too because they're letting you do they're encouraging it we talked about that earlier so it seems like that in the end a good owner is

going to sit them down and explain the game to them and make them understand that I want you to be you but at some point you got to take responsibility for all the shit that you're tearing up for everybody else right like you have to be able to put that in perspective for your driver. You can't just send them off and say, oh, man, everybody loves it. Keep going. Keep going.

I've fallen into that trap because everybody's like, man, that was awesome. Keep jumping over the cars. The broadcasters are the broadcasters. Yeah. Man, you're really mixing it up. But if you want to be a champion of this sport, you can't do it that way. But you can still have a great personality and you can still have great clips and you can still sell a lot of T-shirts. But I'm going to tell you what, that won't work. He's got to keep selling a bunch of ass teachers because that new T-shirt, he said, it said, got my seat got my belts tightened i mean he's gonna he's gonna sell some t-shirts of that but man it's gonna be tough for the respect factor and in the day that matters a lot it's a lot of work and and sometimes when it's that much work it takes your focus off of what you should be doing

and that's winning races that's what you said a week ago if you don't win racin's it's all kind of for not so okay so i want to hit on the cars tour momentarily because you guys were out there over the course of the weekend two-star studded event it was it was it was Dale Jr., Keel and Kevin, everybody who was anybody was at this event. I was just there. It was great. And, you know, Florence has been a great event for us over the past several years just because it's the Friday night before everything kicks off at Darlington.

And we had SVG, Conner Zillich, Dell Jr. making his pro late model debut. And we were able to have some fun and be able to talk about pro. I've been on Dale for a while now to get in the pro late model just because I feel like the guys in the late model stocks do it all the time. And it's so hard to just jump in there and race with those guys. Like we haven't seen anybody just come in. Honeycutt comes in and races with him because he's still racing. Yeah, he was doing it before. He's still racing them all the time.

You know, you see Conor Zilich, who's won late model stock race on the cars tour. you know, he ran 8th, 10th, 12th, all night. SVG was having some trouble in the back of the field. We saw Kyle Larson come in last year, and he did everything he could do to finish 10th. William Byron had a pretty good run. He spent some time in the late model stocks,

but it's just, it's hard. And to see Dale racing in the pro late model race and the place was slam-packed full of people and see the crowd's reaction to watching him race up in the front was pretty special and really nobody left. They all stuck around for the late model stock race. And in the end, Caden Cople wound up putting it on them at the end of the race and had a dominant night. But overall, just another typical Cars Tour race with great competition and a lot of cars and a lot of people and a lot of fun.

So Honeycutt won the pro late model race and Quaple won the late model stock. and right back at it Wednesday night. We've got the ASA Stars race that will be at Tri-County, and then we back that right up with the Cars Tour race on Saturday at Tri-County. So big week of racing at Tri-County this week. Big week of racing. That's super special for the fans to see that range of talent from veterans to up-and-coming drivers and see everybody out there performing.

That's cool. No, it was great. And SVG got a little bit of a taste. You know what I mean? I love that because I think he's one of the best drivers probably in the world. He's just, this is his first time in that. So I hope he keeps trying to, you know, take some more stabs at it, seeing Connor running.

And he ran really well. We got damage, so it affected his car for sure. But those Red Bull cars look cool on a Friday night under the light short track. So I hope Red Bull keeps coming and, you know, helping those guys get into it and being a part of the grassroots market. I think it was great for the brand to be there. And then obviously, Keelan's right there in front of him. Got some damage early and kind of turned the left front to a parachute a little bit.

I'm sure that drove just like it did in practice. You tear it up. got a drive that was right um but yeah it was a great it was a good race it was fun to watch i i i thoroughly enjoy and as i said when i was there keep supporting local short track racing uh jacky zacharise and steve jacky is one of the hardest working people in the industry and trying to keep her racetrack uh running running well and getting fans out there so shout it to them yeah their daughter morgan actually works for a car store west so yeah they they do they do a great job and and i think that going back to the red bull thing it's it's interesting because i think i think

feel like the cars tour events are a lot like their motorcross events, their outdoor motorcross stuff that they do with that that grassroots feel. So it was interesting to see those cars on the racetrack in that grassroots type environment. Yeah. So Kevin said it's a big week for the cars tour heading into this week. And it's a big week, of course, for the Cup series headed to St. Louis this weekend. Chase Race number two on deck. What intrigues you the most as you look towards this event this weekend?

Kevin. Fords. Ford's. Yes, sir. Yep, for whatever reason, this has been very friendly to the Fords. Friendly to the Ford. Yeah, friendly to the Fords with the RPM range and the shifting and the way that this track functions. So I'm interested to see if they can do what they need to do this weekend to capitalize on that with their history.

We know the Toyotas have been great. They're going to be in the mix at some point. But for whatever reason, this has been a very Ford friendly track. I'm in agreeance with Kevin. I've got a Ford pick on deck for the weekend. I'm pretty sure we all do. And I know that I might, he might pick someone else. But I'm excited.

But for the forwards, like they have to. Like they, I mean, like honestly, they have to. This is their race. They got to win this race. Like Ryan Blaney and Cindrick and Lugano to stay to keep in touch. Not so much Ryan because he's right there. He's like 20-something points out. But they need to make sure that a Toyota doesn't win this.

race if they possibly can because they, this is a strong suit for them, so they need to take advantage of it. And the second thing that comes to my mind are brake rotors. And who has the most problems with break rotors? 2311. Hands down, 2311 has had the most problems with break rotors. And this racetrack is, it has really long, straightaways, really heavy braking. So it's a really odd place as to what you need for rotors in your braking system to not have rotor shake or just have the rotors get too hot and explode. So you want the split in the brake pads to keep the car from getting loose in the corner. So you have heavy right front braking, break heat and things that happen with this style

of braking and racetrack. And then you have that long straightaway to cool everything off. So be prepared for the restarts. The restarts are wild when they all shove that thing off into turn one and go all over the racetrack. But it's a cool place to race. And it's obviously we've talked about. how Darlington had issues for pit lane.

Narrow pit lane here too. Very. Yeah, it's going to be tough. It's probably going to be hot because it's Missouri. It's hot there. The fans will be packed out because they've been packing that place out.

And it's a chase race. It's a chase race. They deserve it. They earned this chase race. That place is a great job. It's one of the independently owned racetracks. And the ownership has done a great job and really support in the community.

I like how it's cycled into the chase and then going to cycle back out. Yeah. I think that we should, make sure that we do that for places that don't necessarily have a chase race that want to chase race obviously for a place like bristol they felt that since it wasn't a playoff cutoff race that they felt like they should go back to their traditional dates there are places that should have their traditional dates and there are places that like st louis that

would bring a little prestige to their racetrack when they do get a chase race so i like how it kind of a moving target also good it's a good place of the country at the time of the year like there's a lot of good things about that are you headed out there this weekend? I am. I got practice and qualifying. Oh, nice. Top button will be in full force. You'll know it will too. Get a little at mumbo jumbo out there.

You gotta get it right for the ladies. Yeah, that's the St. Louis women. Yeah, we'll report back. Okay, we look forward to seeing what happens over the course of the weekend and now it is time for me to pass the mic over to everyone's favorite segment according to Mamba. I'm not even going to be social sip. He's not even

sipping today. Ladies and gentlemen, KV. Vuich just told you that is your favorite segment of the show. All right, let's go,

because we're going to be drunk after this one. We got a big bar tab today. We're going to start on the dirt track. Owen Larson is turned into a good little dirt track racer. He's starting that. Imagine that. Imagine that.

Look at him. Wheeling, this is two laps to go. He was in a dog fight with two other cars. They're just swapping league. For these kids to be so young, I love seeing this stuff. Yeah.

Well, and a lot of times people just underestimate how much these kids learn. And all of these kids did a really great job of not running each other over. So that's fun to watch. Yeah. I mean, slide jobs left and right. Yeah. And this is the final pass here coming on the line. Yep, right there.

So Owen Larson, congrats to him. I think Audrey still has more wins than him this year because she's been winning a ton too. So he's got a couple more to catch up. But they both are beating dad. so that's good for them. I don't know. Dad's one of a lot of sprint car races this year. That's fair.

Maybe not. Maybe not. Easy on dead. Yeah. Okay, fair. You guys hear about this swear jar? Oh, yes. Brilliant.

This is one of the most brilliant things that NASCAR has done. I don't know if you guys don't know you're about to find out. Let's roll the tape. This NASCAR postseason. Every time you hear a swear on the radio during the chase. NASCAR throws five bucks into the swear jar. And if you can guess how many times they swear. You can win the whole

jar of cash. I can't see Nick get the fucking out of the car. NASCAR swear, y'all. Let me pick the fuck. The chase is about to pay off. Okay, I'm done. I bet Kevin wishes they'd had that

when he was racing. I love it. I love it. He would have been taught P1 on the swear standings. It's going to be pretty great. Yes, it is. I love the fact that they've been super aggressive in the marketing and everything that they're doing and poking fun at it,

putting pressure, random press releases out. I saw they put a backup, a second press release out. For priests, they put a priest presser. I don't know if that was just to justify their first one, but. I think they're doing it every week now. I think to do a more like edgy press release.

That makes more, it ties it all together. Yeah. First I was like, what in the world are we doing? But it's all starting to make a little more sense to me now. So good job of coming up with an aggressive. I like this one though.

This one's gonna be fine. It fits in perfectly with our sport and our brand. It does. That's just, that's a good. You know what else fits in perfectly with our sport and our brand? Hard to say. It's well about the kids. Even though this is the SIP segment, racing is for the kids and that's how we keep this thing moving. And there was this young gentleman that I actually met him a few years ago in Daytona

and his dad takes him there all the time. And he actually got his shirt signed by I don't know. Looks like a ton of people down pit road after the race, which I just think is really cool because that kid is, he's been a fan his whole life

and he'll probably find a job in this sport at some point. That is cool. And it's nice seeing all the people taking time to sign for him. Yeah. I'm not sure. That is, this is,

this is something I will agree on Hosebar with. Did you see that little blurby put out on X the other day about all the crazy adults moving the kids out of the way and doing that, putting their stuff. Like I would only sign the kid stuff because the adults annoyed me because they were always so pushy and aggressive when the kids were around. And I just walk with the kids and push the adults. Adults out of here.

Because I mean, come on. Yeah, you're going to push a kid out of the way? It's really, I mean, that's the most, that's the best thing there is seeing the kids smile and being able to sign their autographs. You know it's genuine, right? The rest of them, I don't know if they're genuine or if they're going to go sell it or what the case is. But the kids are there just because it seems cool. It's 100%. And they're having a great, great time.

Man, the mountains are cold in this next part. Cold. They're cold. Ross Chastain responds to Kevin after Kevin was questioning what Ross is going to be doing next season. Ladies and gentlemen, let's roll the tape. Earlier this week, Kevin Harvick on his podcast said he felt like there was a uncertainty. as to your future at track house. Have you begun to think about your next contract

and if not, how close to free agency do you get before you are thinking about it? That's a long ways away. So, yeah, it's the way our sport goes. People are going to start talking about it. And that's why Kevin's on a podcast. He wants to do that kind of stuff. He got out of the driver's seat and decided he wanted to talk

as much now as he ever has. So, yeah, right now, that's for everybody else to talk about. We're focused right here on the one car here at Darlington. Well, Kevin is paid to talk about it. That's my job. And look, really, you have to look at those scenarios when things, when you think you have an A driver in cars that are not A equipment at the time, you have to, I mean, everybody's going to ask that question, right?

Like, you have to wonder who could move around. And it's our job to figure out who might move around, who might be the next guy in 28, 29, whenever it is. But when you get those quality guys that are in a position to where, they don't want to be. That's kind of what I thought. We were saying we thought you were making the point. He may move on his own accord, not by the team.

He may choose someone else. He backed up his team too and you got to respect that. That's right. For sure. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a wrap on your favorite segment of the Kevin Harvick, Happy Hour podcast. Well done. Mbo's Social Sips. Momba Social Sips. Thank you. Mbos. Thank you very much.

Good job. Okay, guys. Time now for our last call And we have to start by grading the burnout for Christopher Bell that happened there at Darlington. So what were our thoughts on this one? I thought it was pretty good, actually. I think that obviously Priests had some trouble on the front straightaway last week at Daytona. But Darlington is not that way. You can do a pretty good burnout. A lot of smoke, yeah.

I think the burnout also represents like how excited the driver is for each win. Like you know what the vibe is. Especially when it's your first one and things haven't been going your way. First one of the season. No kidding. When you've had a lot of things put in front of you that have kept you from being in Victory Lane. So I'm going to give it a B. Okay.

Because the interview added to it, I felt like. Yeah. And the Morgan Scream and everything else. Oh, Morgan Screamer was like. So I got to tell you. So earlier when you were talking about Morgan might be the inspiration, whatever you said earlier. I said she's the dog. She's got that dog.

And the first thing that popped into my mind, I'm like, man, if there was a fight, would she be like Joey Lugano's dad? Get in there right now. I think she would. I'd get in there, Christopher. Maybe. She's fierce, man. She wouldn't try to get him to back down, that's for sure.

I love it. It'd be really hard to back down when your wife is standing, like, in eyesight, like, foot tapping, like, are you going to get in her? You can get him or what? Go. Get in there. I get delayed to do with that. She's cool shit.

Comes from a racing family. Yeah. You got it going on. That's what makes it even better. Yep, B for Bell. Speaking of B's, let's take a look at the point standings, where we stand after one chase race. We did have a reset, so you can see the points here.

Kevin is still the leader in the clubhouse at a cool 43 to my 21 and your six. I'm so excited about this. I told you all what I was going to do. And my guy, my championship contender, my championship got one week one. But we all picked up points. So at least it wasn't just a complete. wash. No, I don't care.

If you get 50 points for winning, what do I get for second? Nothing. No, nothing. There's no. Oh, that's not how this works. No, that's how it worked last year. You get nothing.

You get nothing. You didn't win. Points have changed this year. No, you didn't win. You don't get nothing. I'll be further ahead. Listen, we don't have a podium situation. I'll be further ahead.

I'll be further ahead. You're going to need to be more than 40 because I'm going to win the last race and I'll have 10 extra points to spare. Yeah. Well, you're in last. So that's all that matters. Amen.

You're going to be in last all nine weeks. The only thing that can save you is usually if Christopher Bell wins. Not if, when, when. He's hanging on to that. That is his hope here is to see Bell's a big title. I'm going to be closer by the time of the 10 races. Okay, so who wants to go first for picks this week out in St. Louis? Well, he's leading the point.

So it's fair that you let the old guy go. Oh, you want me to go for? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair. All right, well, I think I'm going to stick with the Ford trend. Hang on real quick. It's either, ladies and gentlemen, it'll either be the 12 or the 12. or the 21. Watch this. Here we go. I'm going to take the 22.

Oh. That's who I had. I'm going to take Joe the Ghana. Here's some stats to back up, Kevin and I. Never finish worse than fifth and four starts. Three point five average finish won the inaugural cup race there. I feel like I'm playing fantasy football and you guys just left me the best player on the board. Like I'm taking Ryan Blaney. What? Like, no, no. We're going with YRB. If you took Blaney, I was going to take Barry. So that was, I really thought you guys were going to take him. We are all in agree. I said, Joey.

Oh, you're going to take the same pick. I like that. You should have went with his pick, though, so he can't make up. But I'm saying that's why I read you those stats because I had those prepared for my reason I was choosing. You know she picks a week before. I do not. I swear to God, I don't. Okay, so we have a lot of confidence in Team Penske this weekend, is what I'm hearing.

Well, they've won this race. I feel like they know they need to win this race. There is pressure for them to win this race. I feel like Blaney, I feel like he has more opportunities to win. Yeah. I feel like Martinsville is going to be good for these guys. Talladega, St. Louis. Vegas? Hasn't been great over the past couple years. Okay.

But I think that I think there are just certain races that you know as a team that you need to really take advantage of. And I think this is one for those guys. I really want to pick Josh Barry. I really want to pick Josh Barry because I really think that he's going to end the season on a really, really high note. It's just the 12 needs it. You know what I mean? If it comes down to it, it's hard to beat the details of Chase Guys and the intensity that the details and intensity that Chase Guys brings is just, it's another step

than everybody else at this time of year. It's going to be exciting. We can't wait to see how it unfolds in St. Louis. Have fun out there while you're there. I don't get too crazy on us. I can't. You got to make it back for a Monday show. St. Louis.

Oh. Yeah. Practice and qualifying. You got a hook up over AB. Aren't they out of there? Yeah. You got someone I can. you know, maybe a tour or something?

Probably. Anheiser Bush? Yeah. You can go see my tank. I have a dedicated tank there. Oh, we need to do a field trip. Happy hour field trip. There you go.

If you're going to go to headquarters, you're going to have to drink out of the spicket. I'm in for it. Right out of the tank. Straight from the spiket. Straight from the spiket. Drink it out of a firehouse. That's right.

All right. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. Follow us along on social media. For Kevin Mamba, myself. That does it for us. We'll see all of you after St. Louis.