Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Chicagoland Success

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

NASCAR finally returned to Chicagoland Speedway, and Joe Gibbs Racing absolutely put on a clinic! Chase Briscoe out-dueled his teammate Christopher Bell to secure a massive 1-2-3 sweep for JGR and Toyota. We’re breaking down the entire weekend, including Tyler Reddick’s brutal radiator disaster that handed Denny Hamlin a points cushion, and the boiling-over drama between Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen. Plus, Kevin reacts to Brad Keselowski's media center comments, we preview the high-banked chaos coming up at Atlanta, and look at Tom Brady ranking Dale Earnhardt's iconic Daytona 500 win! Join Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vince, and Mamba Smith for a jam-packed episode of Happy Hour! #KevinHarvick #NASCARonFOX #NASCAR #[subject] SUBSCRIBE for more from Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour: https://www.youtube.com/@HarvickHappyPod?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on Fox One, the official English streaming platform to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox One brings the action straight to your screen so you never miss a goal. Download Fox One and experience the FIFA World Cup live. Well, let me tell you about that weekend. Oh, this is a whole thing. So they swapped my hands, rubbing my everything. There was a wedding this weekend. Did you hear about that?

He doesn't know. No, he doesn't know. He has no idea. Taylor Swift. Oh, I did hear about that. Yeah, no, it is New York. Welcome to Kevin Harvick Zapier, presented by NASCAR and Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick, Caitlin Vincy, Mamba Smith. All right. We're back.

We're back. We're back, baby. We're glad you're here. I didn't know I left. A little vacation. Joey did great. Joey did great. It was a great show.

Listen, man, he was fun. Yeah. We got a good time of time. You liked the shirt? I did. Yeah. Joey's got a great sense of humor. This is true.

He really does. He leaned into it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad he, I wish that his pick would have counted. for that chair's points this week. We're already going there. He has some picks that he has to pick.

He has a pick that he has to pick to show confidence in his team. Yeah, I get it. I don't. I go with common sense and pass results. That's fair. Whatever you show me late with. Whatever he's got going on, he is definitely making us look bad. Yeah, listen, well, I'm going to save my...

It's not hard. I'm going to save... Wow. I'm going to save my commentary for that section of the show. There you go. Save it. Yeah. Welcome in, everybody.

to episode 36. We have plenty to talk about leaving Chicago land. After a hiatus from being at that racetrack, we'll preview Atlanta coming up. And you have a very long list, I noticed, on your segment. Yeah, we got some... You got some sips in here. Hey, it's a busy week.

You got a lot going on. It's a busy week. Hey, when you have clips, you got to play them. When things are happening, we got to get them out to the people want to see the news. Closers, that's their favorite segment of the show as Mama's Socialists. You don't know how many people I hear tell me that. Mama's my favorite. So do they mean it?

They just say, oh, no, they mean it. They know he's an idiot. But they love it. But they love it. They love it. I appreciate y'all. Where's my camera over there? I love y'all.

Yeah, we had to start to show with that. So what's the TSA story that happened to you? Well, let me tell you about my weekend. So lap two or practice, I decided to drive it off the racetrack, knock the whole nose off my car. That's all I heard about all weekend at the racetrack. Then we got our ass kicked. Ethan Ebert kicked our butt in the race this weekend. So, but it was fun.

You know, we had a good fireworks show. great crowd. Who was reminding you about the nose? Was it Delana or the pipe? About the nose? No, nobody. But anyway, on my way home. So we go through we're flying home and we get to, we're in Pasco Washington. Okay. Okay. Know what that is? Nope.

No. Okay, good. Nice little town. And so we go to TSA. It's a little bitty airport and we go through and alarm goes off on Keelan as the random. He's with his mom. He's with his mom. Yeah. Mom goes through a And they're like, okay, he's the random. And they're like, okay, well, can we check your hands?

So they take the little swab on her hand and make sure she's okay. And then the lady's like, well, you, you both are the random. So can you just take your shoes off and we'll count that as two? And she's like, I'm not taking my shoes off. And they're like, oh, are you with them? Yeah. Okay, well, we'll do you. So they swab my hands.

Alarm goes off. Like I've got a bomb or something in my hand. Because, like I've had a bomb or something in my hand. I don't know because why. Right. And then they, so they swab my hand. And then they take my bag.

They take everything out of my bag. Oh, this is the whole thing. And open everything up, swab everything in my bag. And then, because the alarm went off, now they have to do a full pat down.

So it's me and this dude. And he's giving me the debrief of how this pat down is going to go. And, you know, when I go over your genitals, I will turn my hands, backwards. He's like, would you like to go into the private area to have the screening so that we

don't have to do it in front of everybody? I said, no, what I'd like you to do is pat me down so I can make my flight. Just get it over with. We cut it tight. So I stood right there and it wasn't like the it wasn't like the quick pat down. It was every freaking inch of my body like every crevice rubbing my rubbing my everything. I'm like this is the weirdest thing. I've never had that done before. I mean, I've had the, just a quick pat down, but this was weird. Yeah, we fly commercial almost every week. I've never had that thorough of a situation. I mean, they call me Mr. Smith and let me go right through.

I mean, the last week I was with Kevin Bacon, so that might have been why. The actor? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, we were hanging out in the lounge together. That's awesome. Yeah, me, Kevin, his nephew. Oh, so now you're like long-lost friends.

Oh, yeah. I mean, we've got each other's contact. He might come to a race, you know. Very cool. He's a great actor. Well, Kevin, I'm sorry that that was your experience. I'm not. I'm not sorry.

I think that's great. It was weird. And then on the way out there, somehow I had to fly Alaska Airlines. And they forgot they didn't put my TSA thing on. And I got to TSA. And I was like, no, that'll piss you off. That has happened to me. That'll piss you off.

That's frustrating. I was hot. My fault didn't pay attention. But anyway. The woes of commercial. My flights were all on time. That's great. Well, we're glad everyone's flights arrived here in Charlotte for us to do this show here

today and we're good to go. All right. Let's go to Chicago land, guys. One, two, three, finish for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. Kevin, first question I have for you. Any surprise with that? Not at all. I think that, you know, based upon my pick, I was pretty

spot on. Wouldn't you say? Correct. Yeah, you got it right. We're very happy for you. Got it right? Yeah. But I think with the way that the Toyotos have run

and then you look at past history because they do print those results and you go online and look at the results of where people run good at certain tracks, you know, and you can pay attention to all that. You're spicy today. And so, you know, I just thought with the way that the Toyotas have run this year, I mean, they all ran good again this weekend. Corey Heim was up there. Ty Gibbs was up there. We saw Eric Jones on the backside of the top ten.

And then obviously, you know, the Gibbs cars up in the front with a finish of one, two, three there. So I thought Bell had the best car. And, you know, he had the, he had the contact on pit road. But, you know, I think that you picked him so he wasn't going to win anyway. Fair. Well, Chase Briscoe ended up winning. Sixth career win for Briscoe and company. I liked what he said about his crew chief, too, James Small saying how polar opposite personalities, right?

But that he really motivates him, pushes him. You heard him saying that to him on the radio, too, when he was getting to those lapped cars. I'm just like, keep charging here. Make this happen because Christopher Bell was coming. What did you see out of Chase? I think it's massive for Chase. I think when it comes to his confidence as far as what he can do in the Joe Gibbs camp, they expect it a lot.

That's the key word. We expect it now. We had expectations after last year, right? You come from SHR and there's kind of happy go lucky, right? You're kind of like in the end and can't go worse. Yeah, you won a race and got him into the playoffs and all this stuff. Cool, cool, cool. But then this last year, it was like a weird start.

and then you guys started clicking it off and ended super strong. This year, it was a we haven't really seen the clicking off, but they're starting to turn the corner. And so with the expectations, you've got to kind of show up. And I think James probably understands those expectations because he's been living it, whether it was with Martin Tricks Jr. or other things in his life. But Chase hasn't had the same thing since probably racing like Arka almost

to where like he had to prove something. I think he was always kind of in a good spot. O'Reilly, yeah, when he got the first in the 90s. at first. So he's been in a good spot for a while, but this is the first time in a minute. And so if he loses that race in that fashion, right, where someone walks you back down and then passes you with one to go or whatever, that's a tough pill to swallow. That's a harder L than I think most people would understand because as a driver, you're thinking that you should be able to hold on to that position for those last five laps.

And not to mention just last week, the race prior with SVG, he was the only one really giving him a run for his money. What did you see out of Briscoe? What we expect. And I think as you look at the beginning of the year, they just made a ton of mistakes. They had some bad luck. They made a ton of mistakes. Didn't run as good at some of the places as we thought they were going to or their teammates were running.

And I think it's just taking them a little more time. But I think that the great thing about where we're out this year with the point system and all that we have, when you start winning and you get those first, second place finishes and running good in the stages, you're seeing that you can make up points fast. Yeah. You see it with Denny Hamlin and Tyler Redick, and now you see it with Chase Briscoe climbing from outside of the chase up into eighth place in the standing.

So putting himself back on the map to be a championship contender with the way that he has climbed up the standings. His teammate, Christopher Bell, you guys mentioned him. He had a really solid showing as well. Now racing without a cast, but a splint instead, still battling with that injury. We had some questions, obviously, when he first got injured, Can he make a strong push to the postseason?

What do you think now? Well, his push to the postseason and his injury came at the wrong time with the road courses. And the timing of it was bad. And I think that getting to the Oval, he did okay at Sonoma last week with the injury and everything that he had. But, you know, this is what we expect out of battle too. We expect him to be racing for wins. And we've seen him, you think back to Kansas. I mean, he was in position to win that race and crack.

And, you know, when you come to Chicago, with Kansas and Chicago, were, in my opinion, very similar as to, you know, the results that you see. You saw Bowman run good. You saw Briscoe. You saw the Toyota's all the same, a lot of the same cars up in the front of the racetrack. So I can't believe we're this far along. And those cars at Joe Gibbs racing have run as good as they have. And Bell hasn't been to Victory Lane.

And all three of his other teammates have been. but it's not like he hasn't been in contention. It's just all the injury and all the weird things crashing on the last lap and crashing it at, I don't even remember where that crashed, Texas. Yep. When he, coming down to the wire at Nashville. Coming down to the wire at Nashville.

So he's been in contention. And sometimes it just goes that way. And, you know, I think that the biggest thing is you just have to be mentally strong enough to be able to reset yourself every week. Whether you win or lose or it's devastating or it is what it is, is you have to be able to prep and redo the things on a week-to-week basis.

So they keep bouncing back. They had the problems on pit road with, you know, the 34 car. I think it was going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the 34-car contact on pit road and finally had to just come fix the car and take their lumps and go to the back of the pack and battled his way back through the field.

So it was fun. You know, it's great to see everybody back at Chicagoland Speedway. I think the fans voted full house. with the grandstands full at Chicagoland Speedway, note to self, they'd rather be at the oval than in the middle of the city. Just saying. Street race is awesome.

Take it somewhere else. Yes. Well, you were out there, front row seat. We saw you all over the place. Mombos, like, Where's Waldo situation? Yeah. You are kind of like Where's Waldo? I mean, you know, it just kind of out there.

Trying to find the fans. What were your observations, though, from going back there? Any way we can get it to name it. Where's sloppy? No, ain't no freaking way. You have a better chance at seeing Jesus than seeing that. I don't know. A classic challenge?

Mm, sounds like it. Actually, yeah. Yeah, it is. Yes, it is. All right. Wow. I'm not scared. Okay.

I'm not scared. I know I've this gone before, but this is a different situation. It was awesome, to be honest with you guys. Even though it monsooned for two days, we like obviously. It did look fun. That part was not fun. I mean, the winds were just insane, like 60 mile out wins. It was crazy.

It looked like a scene from Twister. As the storm is coming towards the racetrack, you're like, this is not going to be. End of the world. Tough. But the grandstands, I was talking to Steve O'Donnell, and the grandstands there are the old school where how we used to have. You know what I mean? It's just like very large, very like steep, steep and prominent. And like, you were sitting in there in the infield looking at him.

You're just like, these are freaking cool. Like, I don't know. There's something about it that look really cool. And then when the fans all came in, it was like, oh, no, this is the shit. Like there was just so many people The vibes were high I went to the backstretched Talked to some people back there

Got on their big bus that they had They've been bringing it to the racetracks in 2001 Nice Miss Louise She actually lived on the other side Of the racetracks So the racetracks like in her backyard Like she's like two minutes away

So the fans were great And then you know The C Bell situation He was fast And Mom was pick That was my pick I talked to him at San Diego

And I'm like how's it going He's like, dude, it sucks. I think the injury, and then when he got out, getting out of the car, I think. Watching someone else do his job, I think, has really ratcheted up, like, his intensity. He's on a mission. He's like, no, no, no.

This ain't going to happen ever again. And he didn't even have to watch it long. No. No, he didn't. True. Yeah, there was an early exit. So it wasn't too appreciating. I'm in heavy, smart-ass mode today.

I see that. You need to take a vacation more often. It comes back on. What all did you do on that trip? We went fly fishing, we went racing. We hung out. Went in the mountains. Yeah.

That's awesome. Good for you. So we're talking about Christopher Bell and the Toyotas as well. Brack Zolski had a lot to say about Toyota over the weekend at Chicagoland. Take a listen. They've done a lot of things to push elite collaboration amongst their top organizations so that they have, you know, for reference to. kind of A organizations rather than A, B, and C.

As I've seen to date, the other OAMs have not done that. So I'm sure you have plenty to say about this. What do you think? And I'm sure you agree, correct? Well, I think it's, well, yeah, let me think what I should think and what I should say. We can agree they are obviously collaborating well at Toyota. Yeah. And I think that when you look at Ford, it's a little bit dysfunctional based

upon my experience at at steward haws racing it was it just never really worked nobody ever worked together and they're still in that point of nobody really works together but there's a very different dynamic here and you know i think from a ford standpoint who's going to pay who because 2311 pays joe gibbs racing to build their cars and share the technology and all the things that they do um you you look at Spire. That's how Spire does it with Hendrick. Yep. So I think what Brad's asking for is everybody to work together at elite level for free.

And I don't know that it's going to be free. But, you know, I think that when you look at Ford and, I mean, you look at their development program, it's not very good, not a lot of attention. The trucks are running pretty good, almost extinct in the, in the O'Reilly series. It's tough. So it just, it doesn't seem, it doesn't seem like they're very, well. Well, it didn't seem at that time, it didn't seem like they were very well organized. They were not very well organized when we were at Stuart Haas.

As far as how they worked together, it was always very dysfunctional and didn't work very well. And I think in the details of today's world, if you're going to compete with a Toyota, you're going to have to be way more organized on a daily basis, not just every once in a while. And I think the thing that saved him was Penske was winning races and Stuart Haas would win races. And they got away with it, right? And now it's caught up with them and all the unorganization of the racing program on the NASCAR side has basically put them in no man's land except for Ryan Blaney. The rest of the time they're just, you know, they're just a part of the race. And, you know, I think that's what it shows up in the results.

It's not surprising to see some of the competitors obviously kind of coming forward and hinting that maybe the other OEMs should take note. Well, they, I mean, they don't want to get their ass kick. Right. Right. They feel like they're doing what they need to do to be better. And it sounds like they feel like there's a wall that they're up against that they need some more help to get either through or around that obstacle. And I think it's a little, it's interesting because, I mean, the Chevrolet's had a good weekend like Larson, Biron, you know, even Chase Elliott had to and Bowman. All the Hendrick cars, they ran pretty well. And honestly, Ross Chastain showed a little bit of promise too in some spots.

So, but it's interesting that Ford, uh, just had this announcement with Red Bull over on the F1 side, right? So they're doing stuff over there. And then Chevrolet has their, or GM rather, they got the Cadillac thing at F1 and both their NASCAR programs on both sides have not been what, not been what we've always expected them to be. Now, does that you, does that have a direct correlation? Like, I don't know. I'm not in the building. But I got to believe that there's some small. aren't people that have to be pulled in different directions now maybe they're not being able to to focus in the same areas that you had before and so and when you look back to the the steward host thing when we first switched to for it was it was awesome yep for the first two years it was it was awesome

and then they had a management change at the at the top of the racing program and and from for the last two or three years every year they kept asking for money back asking for money back and and they were pulling funding out of, out of Stuart Haas racing every year that they got towards the end of that deal. Well, the first two years with all the money and all the things, it was lights out. Yep. And had everything that you want. And now you see the F-1 programs. Maybe that maybe not, they pulled some money out of the NASCAR programs. But to me, it was, sure, they pulled money out at the end of the SHR days, but it was never organized and structured and well run. Yeah. And when you, when you look at the Penske deal, like to what Kevin was saying, like, they really were able to tote that flag with all the things with this generation car.

Like, they understood how to make, like, the underbody stuff work really well faster than other people. And now it's kind of leveled off. And I think it just goes to show that having a fourth OEM in the space would really do benefits for a lot of different places. Yeah. And I think that, you know, Ford had always favored Pinsky. Yeah. You know, at the end, Pinsky had basically taken over everything that Ford was doing with the program that the teams were allowed to do. And they had manipulated it to the point where they were in charge of the error program and all the things that the teams were doing. It started as Stuart Haas and Pinsky.

And, you know, now that it's all been, you know, put into one house, it hasn't run as good. Yeah. But in the end, I, you know, I think that from a Ford standpoint, it's a Ford problem. Yeah. It's not a team problem. They need more help from their manufacturer. They got good people in their shops.

And Brad pulled Rofkk or I'm sorry, pulled Roush Fenway it feels like out of kind of the mud. Yeah, it provides it. And so obviously he's like, no, we're here on the doorstep of being able to be good. I need some more. Yeah.

And, you know, they won the championships with Lugano and Blaney, you know, but it was that it wasn't, you didn't have to be good every week. It was a different situation. You could be good at the rights. And now you're in a new situation. and Ford is definitely the weakest of the three manufacturers currently in the sport. It's a conversation will continue to follow.

And of course, there are two Toyotas leading the charge right now in the points. Denny Hamlin now 44 up on Tyler Reddick. And I want to take a look at this briefly. His finishes, Reddick's as of late. Michigan 35th in a crash. Pocono, he was second to Hamlin. San Diego 25th cut a tire with two to go. Sonoma 36 power steering issues.

Now Chicago 36, hole in the radiator. So I'm curious from you. do you think it's better to have these issues now and you're battle tested or you want to go into the postseason with momentum? You want to go into the postseason with momentum and it's hard to just flip it. When you get from race 26 to race 27, it's hard to just flip that switch because it naturally just happens, right? Like these problems, stuff going through your radiator. And that's the thing that always worries you when you have an awesome start to the season. When's the bad coming?

just wins the bad because it's going to happen right you're going to have the pit stop mistakes you're going to have the you know the mechanical failures and very rarely do you go through a year that you don't have flat tires or stuff happen getting a crash and reddick didn't have any of that happen at the beginning of the air now it's all starting to balance out right like you had denny had you know not as hot of a start and reddick had a hot start and and now everything's starting to even out as far as the the Mulligans and, you know, the bad luck that goes along with the, with the season. Yeah. And it's not like he hadn't had a great season, but, you know, the problem is you can tell

that they're frustrated with the things that are happening that are, you know, that's not in your control. Right. And, and, you know, it's, it's also, you know, he ran good yesterday, but I don't think he was going to beat the other three cars. Yeah. The other three Gibbs cars. I think the 23 car is honestly a little better than,

He was good. And he made one mistake and got loose, and that was it. Never saw him again. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I talked to Tyler after the race. Like, I interviewed him after the race. And, you know, he's frustrated, but he wasn't, like, down because they're fast.

Like, they're doing. There's a picture of what went through the radiator right there. They have speed. So speed, speed cheers and keeps a lot. You have a lot of things moving. He does a lot of things good. So, but they, but you want to finish well and you don't want to, you feel like you're as good as the 11. Like, they feel like they're as good as the 11.

And, like, looking at the stats, like, yeah. But they have had way more things go awry for them. And even when they had things go bad, like at Echo Park in the spring, they were to bounce back in the same race. Yeah. That wouldn't have it. Do you feel like he's as good as the 11? No. I don't think he's as good as 11. I think they think they're. How about you missing? That is a good point. No, I don't. But to

your point, even when he was winning, he was, there was still things going wrong. He was just over to... They were able to overcome. Execution. Okay. So, So those are some of the people who had some misfortune, and the list continues on. And I want to move to Kyle Larson, who qualified on the front row. You referenced the fact that Henry Motorsports obviously had speed, but spins on his own and pretty much ends up two laps down the rest of the day, Kevin.

What did you think of that with Kyle Larson? Well, you know, it just we still haven't seen a Kyle Larson dominated race this year. I mean, we've seen those moments where he's been leading laps when all the other guys are having problems on the day when he's running decent. But we've not seen all 400 cars show up and be good, right? It just seems like every week it's one or the other that is off. And, you know, it's not like they were way off, but it's just hasn't all lined up for Larson. And the fact that the winning streak is as long as it is, is pretty well. wild talking about our past champion and just you know I thought by this point they would they would

have figured out now I think that they were better it's the best I've seen William Byron run all year definitely better they were definitely better and you know Byron led a lot of laps and did all the things that that he needed to do this weekend to start getting back in the real conversation of winning races yeah chase Elliott you know was was in the mix this weekend 48 of Alex Bowman was what ran good but uh 48's been the most inconsistent. Yeah, for sure. But 24 isn't far behind.

Yeah. You know, as far as the inconsistency of where they've been all year. But is this where they're going to wind up? And, you know, now we're going to a, you know, a super speedway again at Atlanta. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. What did you think of Hendrik Motorsports over the weekend?

I think that they, I think that they are probably pretty pissed off that it's been called the Toyota Cup at this point. I'm sure that doesn't sit well with a couple of people. I don't know Mr. H at all very well. I've talked to J.G. And other guys and girls in that group, they do not like to lose. And they are not used to losing. And this has been a long losing street for them.

Yeah. Well, you know, I think the other thing you've got to remember, too, is Rick does not like to lose. Rick is a winner. And he is, I guarantee you pushing the buttons. But his wife doesn't like to lose worse than he does. She really doesn't.

She won't all for it. Yeah, there is a lot of pressure on those people in that race shop to get this thing fixed and be able to put themselves in Victory Lane. And I mean, there were there were definitely signs of things that were very good. Signs of life. Very good from the weekend. Don't, don't count, listen, don't count them out because if they start getting it, this is the time. This is a good first step. If it looks like this over the next few weeks and that gap gets closer, just wait until postseason.

time because they'll turn it up a lot of weird tracks though you know that was that was really the last uh oddball the complexion it's like a new race track it's like not really that's how they talked about it no i don't think so i mean but the tire test i mean they i mean they hadn't been there so they don't have a lot of notes yeah yeah but it's not a race track where they hadn't had some idea of what it's not like they were going to san diego but i mean you're going to go to at lada dula North Wilkesboro. Yeah, Daytona. I meant Daytona.

So you got Atlanta, Daytona. You got Indie. Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. So you got some weird racetracks that end this whole thing and a couple super speedways to go along with that that could get random. Speaking of weird, the weirdness just continues for Connor Zillich's or key campaign gets taken out lap one,

not of his own doing. But if you're somebody in Connor Zillich's unit within his team, what are you saying to him to keep him motivated right now where was that wreck off a turn two no what Chicago oh in the back yeah middle of the pack yeah my advice would be to qualify better and that's you know I know that that's one big question that that everybody has is where those track house cars on on the ovals you know we've seen we've seen SVG run good he ran great at Charlotte you know Connor ran good at Dover at the All-Star race real good that's really the only place we've seen him run good aside from the you know Sonoma in San Diego so and he's just he's

been in the middle of it all but the only way that you take those chances and lower them is to qualify better it's painful to watch I know you tweeted something about that to that effect of just the frustration mounting for this young racer it just it sucks like he's not getting any latch yeah he's not getting any opportunities to learn you're not going to see anything about it anything like so um for him i think uh he i think this situation also though too i think it's easier to stay optimistic because there's so many things that have been out of his control now there are been things in his control that he has also messed up on but i just feel like um it's going to create you know a kind of a little bit of a dog in him like he's got like you got

like you got to get this thing straight and you're the leader of the ship like kevin's talked about it before. Like, your team operates off of the driver. Like, you are the North Star, so, you know, you're down. Well, make sure you grab those bootstraps up and keep digging. The good thing about Connor is he's always going to be

somewhat up, but what that looks like while he's functioning isn't what's always functioning in your head. And no matter how much of the leader that you want to be in that scenario, you're not driving at an elite level from a confidence standpoint when it's

when it's all just going wrong. That's the hard part. I hate it for Connor. I think he can get the job done. But it definitely has been a disaster. Yeah. On Saturday and Sunday this year. We all hate seeing that, yeah.

This week on Saturday. Yeah. My man, it's just, just, ah, it's tough, man. Yeah. We hope things turn around. While we're in the track house families, let's talk about this little incident for a moment. SVG versus big country.

Big country. We had lap 48 contact between the two of them. Austin Hill calling him Van Gogginheimer, which could be a very fun new nickname for him. Richard Childers Respondent said it's payback for San Diego. What did you think about this whole thing? Yeah, well, it's a tough situation. We've seen these guys go at it for a couple years now.

It's still one of the best burnouts that I've ever seen with SVG. Sonoma, right? Hanging his finger out the window doing a burnout around Austin Hill's car. That was epic. Still probably one of the best burnouts that I've ever seen because of the whole scenario. But, you know, I think when you watch and, And listen right here, I mean, there was definitely, definitely something to be settled. And you don't know whether it was something in this race, if it was something in the last race.

Because I look back at San Diego and I'm like, man, that was just, I thought that was just hard racing. He just drove over his head. Yeah, he just, it wasn't like he wrecked SVG. I find it hard to believe that he wrecked him back for that. But, you know, the unfortunate part for Shane is he's right on the cusp of making the chase. and a guy like that will in a position like Austin is in not having anything to lose. I mean, I don't know. It just seems every week with you now.

And it seems odd that you would want to create that enemy and take yourself out of another week possibly where he wipes you out to get even to be able to have the chance of what that does with your chase contention. That's two big boys. So you think wins in a regular fight between them? I don't know, but I want to watch. shit I am here for all that. This is the other one though too. This is, oh no, this is the same one. He comes up and retaliates right here and kind of gives SVG a shot in the left front.

Yeah, I mean, obviously he could have lifted and chose not to for whatever reason. Who? The 97 could have lifted. And he kind of drove it off in there. But at the same time, like, he kind of was committed to where he was going. Like, I just don't think he cut him a break. No, does he have to? He just decided not to.

Now, the 38 and the 77 situation of Zane Smith and Carson Holsavar, there was nowhere else for you to go. Yeah. So there's two different ways to do it. One did it. Don't ever do it like Zane Smith. That's embarrassing. Don't do it like that. If you're going to do it.

If you're going to wreck somebody, don't wreck yourself with him. Yeah, you can't do that because now Carson's in the car. Like, yeah, he's mad because his stuff's tore up, but you're tore up. He's like, you idiot. Like, you couldn't even do it right. You know what I mean? So those were interesting. situations. Very interesting. The 3877, I don't know where that came from. It's just that time of

year. It's summertime. Everybody's hot. Some guys are frustrated and mad and you've got guys that have run into you at several different spots. And it sounded like on the radio when Hosevar talked about this one that he had tried to wipe him out at some point before and didn't make it happen. But you definitely don't want to embarrass yourself and wipe the guy out and your own self. I think they did have a run in at a different race. Yeah. Well, he's had run-ins with quite a few. I mean, he's going to have running with almost everybody.

But if you're going to race hard, you're going to have run-ins and you just keep on roll. You know what's coming up to? What? Short track racing is not too far away. So that's a good time to, that's right, mess some things up. Wow. It was a busy, fiery weekend out there in Chicago. It was hot, too.

A lot going on. A lot going on. There was a wedding this weekend. Did you hear about that? No. He got married. No. Are you serious?

No, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. No, he doesn't know. He has no idea. You've got to be kidding. Football player got married. You didn't hear about the football player? And a really famous singer.

He has no idea. Sir, Taylor Swift. Oh, I didn't hear about that. No, Ian, I didn't hear about that. And you know what I was thinking about? We should have our own version of what happened between those. I vote Chase Elliott and Ella Langley as the next duo. Oh, is Ella Langley?

Oh, Kevin, you know who that is. I guarantee you have music. What do you say to that? What are you suggesting that Chase? I'm saying we need our own version of how that all transpired. Of a high level. Yeah. Wait, who is Elle Langley?

She's a... She's a... She's a country singer. We'll show you after the show, but that's my pick. Chase. I don't know. I think, you know what? I think my version of that would be like Florence Pugh and me, I think, would be a perfect. Oh, my God.

I knew that was coming. Me and Florence. See, I can't... I hate that I can't even participate in this conversation because I don't watch many movies or... Yeah. I guarantee you have her. music though so we'll we'll reconvene after the show and see no you have a daughter she definitely probably your wife listens to like old 90s grunge rock okay uh okay like a like the googoo dolls

like nirbana oh link 182 maybe some country every once in a while but i like old country yeah like garth brooks i'm a mute moody you are you're a moody you're a moody i feel i am moody Yeah. I am too. I mean, you're the only one who is always happy. I am always happy. Yeah, that's okay. Are you sure?

Yeah. No, I can get mad, but I'm always happy. How's your broadcast go this week? Oh, we're good. I saw you spurn at social media with some fans. No, but that's just the fun. That's the fun part. What you screw up?

No, they didn't. Someone was like, I didn't know that the button all the way to the top is back in style. And I'm like, oh, we're back to the fashion. Oh, my gosh. I love all the critics on social media. Aren't they fun? They are. We want people to have personality, and then you get it, and they're like, not like that.

Like, bro, what the hell? I love it. It's a good time there on the social spheres. All right. Before we get back to it, got to give a shout out to a sponsor of this podcast, Shopify, for a second. I have friends and colleagues who run their businesses on Shopify, and they all say the same thing. It just makes everything easier. So when they asked me to talk about it, I figured I'd pass it along.

That sound? That's Shopify. It's the platform behind a huge chunk of online stores. Like one out of every 10 things bought online in the U.S. runs through Shopify. From big brands like Allo Yoga down to the small mom and pop shop just getting started. It's simple. You get hundreds of templates to make your store look good, no coding, no headaches. If you're short on time, Shopify's got AI tools that'll help you. that'll help write your product descriptions, your page headlines, even clean up your photos. And everything, your inventory, payments, all your sales numbers, it's all in one spot. You're not bouncing between five different apps.

They've also got marketing tools built in so you can do email and social posts straight from your Shopify to help bring customers back. And if you ever get stuck, there's support teams there 24-7. If you want to stop losing sales to clunky checkout, go check out Shopify.com slash Kevin. You can try it out for just $1 a month. That's Shopify.com slash Kevin. Okay, headed on to Atlanta next, guys. Obviously, it's an exciting track, returning at a different point in this season.

So what do you think this is going to present? It's the most exciting race of the year. Why do you say that? I mean, it's just everything happens so fast. It's a mile and a half racetrack that they turned into a super. speedway and I mean it just happens so freaking fast and it's rough it's going to be hot hot hot hot which is going to make the cars not not handle as good so I mean at some point this place is going to swing and we're going to get a race where all the sudden handling really matters

and I think that's always the guess with the teams as to what to do with the setup so okay I think it's going to be super hot do I want to knock some speed out of my car and make the car handle a little bit better I think you're going to have to do a little bit of that this week just because of the temperature, but you just never know where the track is going to be. So I'm definitely looking forward to the race this weekend. It is going to be fun to watch. And every race that we have had at the reconfigured Atlanta has been very enjoyable.

So I think it's the most exciting race of the year. Kevin's obviously raced both eras of Atlanta. What are you expecting to see this weekend? It's one of the best tickets in our sport is this one. The night race is awesome. The fans are rabbi. and excited all the time. Looking forward to seeing them down there.

I would suspect, because it's happened almost every time, over time or Green White Checker and like just mayhem coming to and us sitting there trying to figure out who was, who won the race, whether it's at the timing line or at the start finish line

because it just has been like that every single time before there. Who do you think has adapted best to the new Atlanta of the teams? Well, I think that the Fords went through a phase where they were, They were good for a little while. Yeah.

Where they were really good. I think they'll be, I think they'll probably be okay again this weekend. I think that they- Especially Brad. Yeah, I think, I don't know about that, but I think that they could be back in the mix. And I think that, you know, obviously Tyler Reddick won at the beginning without a fender. Yeah, I don't know what that means. His car was really fast with a fender.

Yeah. And then even without the fender, it was really fast. So, you know, I think that it's open. we saw at the beginning the Hendrick cars had put themselves in a position to be pretty good there. I think it's as open as any weekend as we've gone to lately. Okay. As to who can win? Okay.

Who are you going to be watching primarily? I got my eye on the 77. Oh. He has almost won this race. I feel like four times. So I'm keeping eye on him. And last time we were there, he wasn't afraid to play a little bully ball to try and get up there. Why does he not?

Yeah, no kidding. Kevin, the downforce and how downforce versus drag, do you think the Toyota's, because it doesn't seem like they struggle regardless if it's in a place like this or not. They're up front. They had a shot to win. They did win, right? Yeah. So they were up front, I think, with Bubba and C. Bell at the end of the race in the spring.

So do you think they're going to be any different? Do you think the Chevroletes and anyone that's caught up? Or do you think it's, you know what I mean? Well, I think this race is different than the first one, just for. from what you need in the race car just because of the temperature. Just from a grip standpoint. So I think that it's just going to be finding that balance. And the unique part about Atlanta is it always feels like it's on the right rear tire.

Even if you have downforce in your car and your car is slow, it just always feels like you're on that right rear tire, which you are. And it's just a, it's just a, it's the edgiest place that a driver will drive all year are these two Atlanta races. Because it just, it's uncomfortable. It happens quick. you know and a lot of times your car's just not going to handle it it's not going to feel good and you've got to ride that thing all day so full day's work full day work going to be very interesting out there in hotlanta this weekend okay so we've got a mailbag question you want me to read this one this one came from megan in Dallas Texas says when fans finally meet their heroes a lot of us get tongue tied and say something awkward or completely blank out that's how I felt the first time I interviewed Kevin I blanked out other than the famous boob lady incident what is the funniest fan interaction you've ever had and what goes through your mind in those moments. Yeah, well, I mean, it definitely varies.

That's for sure. I had one this weekend during the autograph session that had me call her grandma. She was a huge fan to tell her happy Fourth of July. So those are always, that's always awkward to me when you ask me to call somebody and do those types of things. Like on the phone? On the phone. Yeah, FaceTime.

Oh, okay. So I get to meet Grandma for the first time on FaceTime. Yeah. I see. Yeah. And you just never know. it's going to pop on the screen. Yeah, really, that would be a little.

Have you had one? Because you got a lot of fans. I think this isn't actually an in-person interaction, but I used to have a guy write me letters. Creepy. And he would always send pictures for me to sign, but here's the thing. Only when I was wearing leather. Hmm.

Ah. So that is very odd and awkward. So did you sign them? Yeah. No wonder they keep coming back. I had one not too long ago. At the RAM stage, there was like these two people that were in, you know, a man and woman that were in the stage.

We were doing whatever we were doing. And I thought, I was like talking to him on the mic. And I thought they were together. So I was like, we were kind of cutting up making some jokes. And after like a couple minutes, he goes, that's my sister. And I'm like, ooh. Because some of the jokes were definitely like. Borderline.

No, they were borderline. They were just like couple jokes. And they were like laughing. And then they didn't let me know earlier. I got a good one for you. So we used to, we have a lot of military people that, that, you know, you know, send letters and, you know, they'll take pictures in front of planes and helicopters of when they would fly your flag around up in the air.

And back in the, you know, during the Afghan war, I got a package in the mail from whoever. And it had an Afghani soldier's belongings that they had taken from the soldier. So I got an Afghani knife. I have the money that was in his pocket and everything else that was in his pocket. That is wild. Yeah. Oh, my.

Yeah, that one. Interesting. I'm going to lost words on that one. That one can stay on the shelf. Yeah. It's a pretty cool stuff, though. That is dope. Yeah.

That's crazy. Oh, okay. Well, thank you, Megan, from Dallas, Texas for submitting your questions. Everybody keeps sending them our way. Just blue his mind. The more unique questions, the better. Yeah. Speaking of unique.

Yeah, what is? Mamba is a unique man. Yeah, he is. It's time for him to take over the mic. Oh, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen. Look, he's got his own cup. Is that a sticker or an actual cup?

Do you have a Kevin cup or a Fox cup? No, he is a Kevin. See, I'm the only one that just has a fox. No, turn years around. Turn years around real quick. Oh. Hey, you got the NASCAR Sundays out now. Is that still a thing?

Oh, my God, is it still a thing? We were at Tiber Creek this weekend. We were rocking still. Who's that at? South End. Yeah. Oh, it's in Charlotte. Yeah, so this week we're going to hopping.

But he doesn't get to attend, obviously, because he's at the race. But I always give him a shout out from the podcast. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, anyway. welcome closes to your favorite part of the show I'm excited and it's been a minute I feel like I've missed you guys Tom Brady one of our Fox football player football player

the goat he knows who that is well he should they should one of our Fox compadres ranked some of the like he started ranking the top 10 moments in US sports history or maybe yeah in sports history and then he actually ranked just a bunch of them but you know which one he started with you know which one no let's roll the tapes let's show him which one he started with All right. What's more American than Dale at Daytona 98?

That's Americana 101 right there. One of my favorites, Tiger running away from the field at Augusta. Yeah, we're going to end right there. I mean, after that, it just doesn't. I mean, this whole video was really cool. The video is really neat. Yeah. But I did not have it on my bingo card that they were going to start with Daytona 500.

When I saw that. I mean, he's right. It belongs in the top 10 list. It was a moment. Yeah. What a moment. That's really cool. Super American.

So that was awesome. We're going to stay in the Earnhardt, in the Earnhardt family. Caitlin found this one and thought it was hilarious. So I just felt like we had to put it in. Ryan Blaney, about 4th of July. Let's run it. I was shooting fireworks off one time. I lived at this other house on Dale Jr.'s property,

and his mom got pretty mad at me one time. And I could hear yelling through the woods. And so we stopped it immediately. And I saw her later that week and apologized. And then I just texting Dale. us that tell your mother I'm sorry that evening. I could hear her through the wood. She's shoot off another firework and I've called the cops and I knew who it was.

So we stopped. It's the moms that are. It's the moms you got to watch out for. I'm sure that caught his attention when he heard her saying, calling the cops. Guarantee another firework. Did you, have you spent much time with, did you spend much time with Dells,

does mom? Not a lot of time. Yeah. I thought you were going to ask me if I spent any time at Dales' house. Oh, no, I know you did that. Yeah. Right. That's where Delane and I went on our first date.

Oh, really? At his home? Well, we wound up there. We wound up in a limousine with Freddie Query, Hornaday, and us, and we wound up at Dale Jr.'s small home for his... He used to have a lot of parties, and so we went to his house, and that's one of the adventures of that evening. Very good. Yeah.

I like that. I thought you're going to ask him if he sets off fireworks himself. No, I've seen him carry the torch at his pool once, so... I mean, I have set up... We usually set off fireworks. Oh, okay. Yeah. Does someone else do that for you?

No. Oh, okay. It's tracking. I mean, Keelan's got to the point where he likes to light him. Well, yeah, he let Keelan do it. Yeah. All right. I know he talked about Zillich earlier, and it was kind of a downer.

So we're going to go on the upper because Jim Zillich, his dad is hilarious on social. He is so great. He's a great follow if you guys wanted to just, like, I don't know, see some awesome dad stuff. Awesome. So the dad. So the down forward posted that Jackson Zilich was going to be making a start. Conner's brother, younger brother, right? Okay.

Everyone's reading this. I'm like, I don't really remember this kid ever. And then Jim says, apparently I'm going to have to go talk with my wife about this other kid. Child, yeah. I did see that initially and I stopped from him out. I'm like, does he have a problem? Then I started questioning everything I knew about it. I'm like, wait a minute.

Does he have a younger? Yeah, shout out to the downfall because downfall will get some people. They will. That's what? What is that? It's just like a satire account and they say stuff that's like close and not, like very closer that could be true. And that was just another picture of Connor.

Yeah. I was a young guy. Yeah. Younger guy. And like if you don't know, you're like, oh, of course he has a brother, which he does have siblings, but like not younger. That's funny. You got to check out of the wife on that one.

And then, of course, it was 4th of July. And I saw one of the coolest things on eye racing. Eye racing community is amazing. They have really random stuff. And to start off one of the street stock races, this is what they had going on. My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye. Everybody blew a flag out of it. He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.

I love. That is awesome. Like, they just, they just have a good time. I love ir racing, but here's the thing. It's the 4th of July. Yeah. Show some respect. Go outside.

Oh, go outside. Yes. I mean, that might have been before the fourth. That could have been on the third. That's the fourth all day. Yeah, but it might have been on the third. I don't know when it was posted. That's fun, though.

It was, I was dying loud. That is good. Classic song choice. Classic, classic eye racing stuff. You know that song? Of course. courtesy of the red, white, and blue by Toby Keith. Okay.

I can sing that song forward and backwards. There you go. Go ahead. No, not right now. My voice, the way my band count is set up, I can't sing until Wednesday. That is Kevin's kind of music. So that's your excuse. Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's the Sips for this week. Appreciate y'all. Keep having some fun out there and I'll see in Atlanta. Yeah, keep telling Mamba how great he is because that's really what we're all here for. Good job, buddy. Okay. Time now, guys, for the last call. here on the show and we got a fresh

burnout we need to grade. Joey gave high marks by the way last week to said it was the best burn I've ever seen. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Well, yeah, because it was awesome. The SVG one. SVG one. So he got a high mark which you weren't here for that. But now you get to grade Chase Briscoe.

So what are your thoughts? Let's take a look here. Well, there's nothing better than the guy winning for the first time of the year because usually the burnouts are a little more enthusiastic and you know, I think that And the give a shit level is pretty low as far as the engine and all the things. But I thought he did.

Okay. That's fine. Look, I'm kind of a burnout snob, though. Like, you're really going to have to do something spectacular to impress me because I've melted them to the ground before. Yeah. It was cool. I mean, like, the thing about it, like, he got it up on the bank and it kind of, you know, did one of these numbers. And it was fine.

I get a C. This is like a C. That's why I thought he was going on. The C for Chase. I think it, because his deal is like he gets out and stands on the, on the, the roof. Yeah. So he needs to like get out of the car after the smoke is like just still be like in the smoke. Like that's the picture. Yeah, we're definitely going to have to do better chase. That was we expect more. Yeah. Just do better. Yeah. Do better. Now we've we've, we've been

on your ass all year about, you know, not winning the race. Now we're on your ass about burnout. So it could be worse. We're always going to be on your ass about something. That's right. That's our job. It could be worse. Okay. Gosh, this part, unfortunately, I hate to see it. The point standing. getting out of hand. This is, it really actually kind of is because Kevin is running away with this, 97 for Picking Chase Brisco, which I usually give Kevin compliments, but I really had to give him one for this because I, what he hates when I do this? I honestly, not saying I didn't think Chase could win, but it's like even when he tries to

maybe seem a little obscure in his picks, he still fucking wins. He wasn't, he wasn't obscure. The 19s been on a heater for a month. It's just timing. Yeah, but like we hadn't been to Chicago in a long time. Like, it's kind of hard to pick. I picked the best. Last time you picked him, last time you picked him, he crashed.

At a second, I've picked the fastest car on the race tracks. That's starting to be the theme for me too, but now I think like I'm not picking Reddick. In the near future because I want him to do well. That was weird. She tries to pick like the low hanging fruit and it doesn't quite work out. The fruits already bloomed. Yeah. Okay.

She picks it on the ground. I am still ahead of Mamba, though, by the way. I'm at 66. That's amazing. I love that. So, well, we all have a chance to redeem ourselves, so we get to make choices now for Atlanta this weekend. I just want to say that it doesn't, you know,

we have a, once we get to the postseason, like, there's a whole reset, so I don't care, but it's fine. Let's go. You're still going to be behind. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. Do I get bonus points for just totally demolishing you? We've gone over this a couple times. What did we land on on how this is?

is going to go. I think it's 30 for first. No. Five for second. No. No. No. Something like that. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. We took out the champion thing, though, didn't we? Like, no, that was, well, that was before. Do I get an award? Because that was the only way that I won. I get a regular season award. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Regular season award. Whatever. Okay. We'll recover some points. Anyway, what are you about saying? Oh, I'm saying we're going to make our choices. Oh, go ahead. We could have to pick somebody. You finished last. Yeah. I'm going with Christopher Bell this weekend. I think he crosses the threshold and gets

that victory. He's been getting close. Okay. What do you think? Go ahead, mamba. You don't want to go? No. I finished first. That's fair. Mamba. That's Mumba. That's Mumbo. Remember Mumbo? Hey, you can call me whatever you want. Just don't call me late for dinner, you know? I think it's time for old Daryl Wallace Jr. Oh, I like that. To get one. He's been close here.

I've been really good here, honestly, and he's going on speedways. So I think that's time. You had a little pep in step, I thought. A little pep step. Yeah, we had a space jam. He had a space jam. That's cool. Space jam on the car.

That was cool. We got to get him a haircut. No, no, the haircut is what I told him. The haircut would have made him better on the roadcourses. He couldn't see. Yeah. It was across his eyes. He made it better.

Yeah. Okay. So vote a conference for the Michael Jordan team. What do you think, Kevin? I'm going to take Ryan Blaney. Okay. That was another one. That's the other one that every time I pick him, it doesn't work out. Yeah, I just, you know, they got a little momentum, been quiet momentum.

I mean, he hasn't been lightning fast to lead races, but they've been fast enough and they're just grinders. And I think that they know that this is an opportunity to get to Victory Lane. And I don't, you know, I don't, I don't know that they've got a, they've got a couple more of those opportunities. I think Blaney could sneak one out here and there if they, you know, some people have some problems or maybe get a little bit better. But I think this weekend's an opportunity for that. I really wanted to pick Brad, but I just can't, like, I can't do it. Like, he runs good here. I just can't.

Just can't. Yeah. And I just think he's got other things. I mean, there's just. There's a lot going on when it's a lot going on. It doesn't, it's kind of just lost its momentum. Speaking of Blaney, he is a good actor. I posted this on X the other day when they did that bear segment for Chicago of him.

He's pretty damn good. It's funny. He's entertaining. Yeah. Yeah. Did you see that video of them all? doing the cooking scene. It was from last year, actually. Yeah, because he didn't have a mustache.

Yeah, yeah. Now, yeah, well, now he's a dad. Now once he's a dad, he can wear, you know, RP lets him have the mustache. There you go. Yeah. He's hilarious. Okay, cool. All right, we'll have to see how all of those picks fare. And we've got a lot to talk about, I'm sure, when we leave Atlanta. So thanks for tuning in. Make sure you follow us at Harvick Happy Pod. We'll see all of you after Atlanta.