Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Christopher Bell wins All-Star Race, Harvick & Dale Jr. Team Up, Kyle Larson’s Double Attempt, and More!

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down everything from NASCAR's All-Star Weekend! Hear exclusive stories from the CARS Tour Late Model race as Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. teamed up in the broadcast booth, get insights on the thrilling Pit Crew Challenge, and relive Christopher Bell's thrilling win in the All-Star Race. Then, the crew shifts gears to preview Kyle Larson's ambitious attempt at The Double as he takes on both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in one day. To close things out, Mamba brings the latest social buzz with "Social Sips," and the team shares their final thoughts in "Last Call." 0:00 - Intro 0:29 - Weekend Recap 2:20 - All-Star Weekend Recap 27:04 - Kyle Larson’s Double Attempt 29:47 - Indy 500 Infractions 31:56 - Charlotte Preview 34:44 - Mamba’s Social Sips 39:41 - Last Call! GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Terms: draftkings.com/sportsbook. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Sponsored by DK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joey not happy afterwards. I think Joey does the exact same thing to try to win a million dollars. Yeah, we want to see you go win a million bucks, but also want to see how it could translate into the future. I don't think he has a chance to win at Indy. I don't see it. It looks like he just dropped it on purpose. It almost is at one car at the end. We should tape the flag to Michael's hand.

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vincy, and he's Momba Smith. This he is. Here we are. There we are. Once again, final race completed for Fox. I can't believe it.

I can't believe how fast the season went by. I mean, we had 14 events this year, two off weekend, so 16 weeks went by like that. Ended on a big one. We ended on a banger. Yeah. It was a banger. It was a banger. That wasn't even the word of the week.

No, it was not. No, actually, there was no word of the week because I forgot to say it. It wasn't really close. I had to agree. Yeah, that's my fault. It was supposed to be all about the Benjamin's, but all the Benjamins got taken home by Christopher Bell. So, yeah, I dropped it.

It was all about nothing. All about nothing. It'd be like that sometimes. We all make mistakes, guys. I guess you're kind of off the hook now. That's what our producer said. I don't think so. I feel pretty good about it.

I can't let you out there. Typically, I have a lot of notes sitting there, and when there's a lull in the action, that's when I start formulating my plan, my plan to get the word of the weekend. And this week, heck, I never looked down. I mean, they were just from the drop of the green flag in the open. They were beaten and banging and three wide, four wide, two wide.

It was awesome. It was fun. It was fun. We have plenty to discuss on this edition of Happy Hour, recapping the weekend out at North Wilkesboro. Preview ahead to Charlotte this weekend, and you got your sips on tap as well as some good ones. Yeah, we got the good ones. Don't forget, Harvick, Happy Pod, Twitter, Instagram, all the socials.

Hit us up. It's been fun the first part of the year. So looking forward for this, the dark days of summer. That's right. Keep subscribing. Leave a review. Leave five stars. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. So it was a busy weekend out there at North Wilkesboro because you had an additional task. We both did. The cars tour race happened. And you were in the booth with Dale Jr. and Eric Brennan.

Great event. I thought it went really well. Yeah, it was a great event. I think we set the world record for longest prayer to start the race. And they needed it. We had a little miscommunication down to gentlemen start your engines. But other than that, I thought it was really good. It was what a moment for short track racing and those late model stock guys to be able to showcase what we do at the cars tour on a week-to-week basis.

Myself and Dale up in the booth, I don't know that I don't know that I ever really thought that would happen. And that was really enjoyable to be able to not only share the booth, but share. You know, we share a very similar passion in the things that we do on a week-to-week basis, you know, with the cars tour. And so we spend a lot of time talking about the things we do with the tour, and we spend a lot of time talking about racing and all those things that we share that passion for. Kind of came across and we were able to talk about together in the booth. So that was fun. Did you guys have a – was there a little bet? Did you guys have a little bet for whose team was going to do better?

or do you just leave that off the side? No, we leave all that off to the side. Yeah, honestly, we never even talk about it. And, you know, our car won the race. Landon Lewis did a great job. It was a great moment for him. You know, we've been a part of the tour now for last two seasons.

We started the year before when I started the late model stock team. And I honestly had not a lot of knowledge of just the kind of in-depth view of what the cars tour was all about. But not only the cars tour, but late model stock racing in the southeast, specifically.

And if you're going to do it, you're going to have to go through that series. And so being able to own the cars, buy the tires, by the pit passes, understand the process. It really gives Dale and I a different view of everything that happened. So it was a fun night.

It was a fun night. And I was doing pit road. And every driver, I suppose, to you could just see how much it meant to them to be showcased on a network stage like that. And one of the drivers, Carson Quaple, who I didn't get to share this because he had an early kind of exit from the race. But he was saying he felt like the competition in cars is just as good as what he experiences in the Xfinney series. Yeah. And that says a lot. It does. Well, you talk about Carson and talk about Lane Riggs and Josh Barry and Brent Cruz and

Connor Zillich and all these kids, you know, that have won on our tour, they immediately have credibility to say, okay, well, he can drive an ARCA car. Butter being our last year's champion goes right into ARCA National and wins a couple races at Daytona and Kansas. And so, you know, these kids, when they're winning in the cars tour, you can take them right out of the tour and usually put them in ARCA trucks and they're going to be competitive. So it has kind of become the stepping. to get to those the next steps.

Yeah, it's a great thing. I think what you see is kind of what we've been having this conversation this year is when you're late mall stock racing or even, you know, it's really grass-rich racing, there's OGs that have been doing it for so long, right? They're really good at driving these cars and they make you better. They make the kids better. They've been doing it for 15, 20 years. And even guys that are younger like Landon Huffman,

who's been running Hickory Motor Speedway and all around Tri-County and all those stuff, right? So those guys are racing against guys that are really, good at this level. And so it makes them better that much faster. And without those guys sticking around and being cornerstones of a series like car store, they're not able to be ready like they are. It was a very special weekend. Hopefully we'll see more cars tour on Fox maybe in the future. That'd be nice. Let's transition over to the weekend for the Cupside. It actually started with the PIC crew challenge. And I bet everyone sitting here was a bit surprised to see the PIC crew that actually pulled off the big honors.

Yeah. I would have definitely not picked the 37. second-rank pick crew to win the pick-crew challenge. And the fun part about that, and the All-Star race is supposed to be fun. And to see those guys that hadn't won before, a team that was so green and fresh and building, not a, you know, a Hendrik or a Gibbs. And to see the emotion, every time they'd beat somebody, we'd go down, show them on camera. And you could see the emotion that was that was sitting there wanting to to win that event and so to to have those spire guys win that event was was a lot of fun for the whole overall all-star weekend yeah that those that's the new wave all those guys were athletes in different sports and they've now transitioned over and

you could you could see that you could see that part of them come alive and they were you know there's a lot of nervous energy and every time like you just said every time they beat one they were jacked up And then at the end, Michael McDowell's down there. Saw Chad Canals, I think, was down there because they're a Hendrick Devo team. So that's the cool thing about this is you get to see who's good when the lights are brightest. Like, everyone knows who the top 10 crews are. You expect them to be good. But these guys in the back, like, you know, they get an opportunity to be good on the big stage.

Like, they might be at a crack one out. And they did. And they did. And you look at the favorite Bubba Wallace's team. I mean, they kind of laid an egg, right? The pressure is real. The pressure is real. And it's very easy to do.

And when the lights are on and all the cameras are on and everybody's talking about you, and the expectation is for you to be number one, sometimes it doesn't go good. Once a year, once a year, these guys are center stage. It's true. They're families, their friends, like if they went to college, all them people were watching, if they were in NFL or MLB, them old teammates are watching. Everyone's watching you this one time of year. And so sometimes it goes like that.

Right. So that team got the $100,000 bonus from winning the Picker Challenge. But Christopher Bell's team got the million dollar bonus. But right out of the gate watching this race, the drivers were super aggressive. I think about that battle with Brad and Joey. It was like, I'm like lap five. We're going for it. Yeah. And we saw in the heat races, it really started there. And I think everybody started to learn, let me back up. All this started in practice. And they let all the cars go on the racetrack. at one time during practice this week. They didn't split everybody up. And it was by far the best practice that we have had all year because of all the cars being on the racetrack. They had two sets of tires. They had 45 minutes.

And the teams were trying things. The drivers were not afraid to move around the racetrack on that first set of tires because they knew they had another set of tires. So everybody was really aggressive. And it kind of gave us a snapshot of what it might look like with all the cars on the racetrack because when all 38 cars were on the racetrack, there wasn't a lot of space. There was, that was the, that'll be the big difference when we have a points race here. Hopefully we do.

That that leader is going to catch the back of the pack really quickly. And you're going to start to immediately see, have to go through those lap cars. So it's, you know, I think that in the heat races, the drivers started to figure out, hey, if I'm going to pass, I'm going to have to be aggressive because if I spend four or five laps down here on the bottom of the racetrack, I'm going to heat my tires up, and it's going to be tough to finish the pass any time after that. And as they dropped the green flag in the open and the All-Star race, they were a lot more aggressive than they had been all weekend. You love to see it. That's exactly what we want. We want to see guys being aggressive, teams being aggressive with changes, trying things.

Like, yeah, we want to see one a million bucks, but also want to see how it could translate into the future and give us a snapshot of what we can do. watching this, I feel like this race, this track kind of race it a little bit like IRP. You know what I mean? It kind of is multiple grooves. You can kind of run the bottom for a minute, but you better get back to the top. Yeah. It gives you that opportunity to do a side job. You can kind of lean on guys a lot.

You know, this car. You can get up in the fence and it doesn't kill you versus the old car. If some of the things that happen, maybe with Christopher Bell towards the end, where he got up in the fence, it might have, you know, knocked the fender in on the tire or something like that. So it's nice that those things. I wish Larson would have been there in practice. Because I feel like that's really what started to push the groove in the race because he was...

He was the first one to have to make up ground. And he really pushed the groove up into that third lane through turns three and four. They did a lot pushing the groove up in practice. But I felt like it would have been even wider if he was there because he started to make some big ground in the race to make his way forward. So ultimately, he wound up getting out of the groove and smacking the fence and breaking the toe. link, but that was what he was going to have to do to win the race. But I can't wait to see what this track looks like in two or three years when it gets a couple more years of age on it. It's, and you heard Christopher Bell say it after the race. This is the best short track on the

circuit. He was jacked up. He was awesome. So were the crowd. The crowd was jacked up. That place was on its feet cheering. Nobody left. And when you don't have people exiting the stadium before the end of the race because they don't know what's going to happen and who won. you've put on a good show. And Marcus Smith and his group did a great job all weekend. Race quality is very high at North Wilkesboro, for sure. You guys have been talking about how aggressive, you know, the drivers had to be to make something happen.

No one more so than our eventual winner, Christopher Bell, making some moves there, obviously, with Joey Lugano. And not surprising. I mean, we've grown accustomed to seeing this out of Christopher. And he said it in our Victory Lap interview this week. He's like, I knew that I was either going to be first or just somebody else in the field. and he knew that he was going to have to get aggressive to make it happen. You see him make the move right here and Ligano block him.

And to me, when you block, it's game on at that point. And so he slid up the hill right there. Joey not happy afterwards, but I think if the roles were reversed right there, I think Joey does the exact same thing to try to win a million dollars. Yeah, I think he's also mad over the promoter caution there. It kind of jacked him up. But there was a move, like a lap before that that Christopher made kind of setting up the pass.

He kind of, he rolls, let's see, he rolled to the inside. I think it's right here. He rolls to the inside down into three and, like, shows the nose. And he kind of gets into him a little bit up off the corner. But what then happens is Joey kind of makes a move to the inside and throws a block right here. And then Christopher straight to the top. And I thought right there, I'm like, oh, he's going to get rolling. in real deep and have a nice run off of two.

But Joey kind of did what Christopher did to him, which was kind of pinch him in the fence a little bit. And it saved him a couple laps, but ultimately, C-Bell had too much for him. Yeah. And, you know, when you look at some of the things that happened this weekend,

I mean, we had a few guys that were fired up at each other. Priest was fired up after the open. He went and found a cone and set it up, set it up on the wall for that restart box that he missed and made the two times before. but, you know, the drivers in their emotion, that's what we want to see. We want to see that emotion.

I felt like in the open, I felt like Priests was going to win the race. I felt like he had the best car in the open race, and he was mad and trying to blame it on somebody else. But in the end, I mean, that's your responsibility to put that car where it needs to be. And knowing that, you also know that you had the best car in the race. And you know that you want to be in the big show. and it's not going to happen because of that mistake. And so, you know, you look at Brad Kay losing the lead there on the restart.

That was his only chance. But all these guys know, you get, you're there to win. You're there to be in the show. You're there to win. And there's a million dollars on the line. And I love to see the emotion. Yeah, no one wants to be the guy going home. No.

Do you know this is the anniversary of the shorts, one of your favorite moments? Yeah, the shorts were there. Ricky Shorts were there. What are you talking about? Ricky Shorts were there. Stenhouse wore them. He did? Yeah.

I can't remember who sent... I think Corey tweeted it out. Oh, I missed that. That's funny. I called him or I texted him on Friday and I said, hey, just so you know, I don't know if you have those shorts anymore, but it would be really fun if you wore him to the racetrack. Yeah. You meant business. He was ready to rumble.

It's fantastic. But we're talking about some of the battles taking place. And there were a number of really good ones throughout the race. I'm thinking of when a couple of former champions were battling with Kyle Bush, Brad Kizlowski, William. Byron going three wide. And both of those drivers have had a lot of bad luck as of late. And once again, it looked like Brad Kozowski was showing a lot of promise. And that comes to a close.

Yeah. And Kyle Busch fired off right here. I'm like, man, he caught me off guard. I didn't know where he came from. But he got a really good restart, put himself in the mix up towards the front of the pack. And, you know, at this point, Brad was losing control of the race. We were a little bit weary of that at the beginning because we felt like that second lane, he was able to hold his ground, but Joey was being pretty nice at the beginning of that race.

And Brad was just a little bit too tight or whatever, loose or something through the center of the corner, and he just didn't have the mid-corner speed that he needed. And eventually when he got put back in the field right here, kind of just became one of the other cars. So definitely a fun show at the beginning And the guys had plenty of room to race I don't know what more you could ask for Than this right here Oh, there'll be something that everybody can complain about

I don't know what more you could really want Then from the drop of the green Guys getting after it Finding ways moving around the racetrack Leaning on each other Not wrecking each other Because that was a big thing That's been a big thing this year

Kyle Bush has talked about multiple times He was like, we're all clowners Run into each other They really didn't do... Now, most of them didn't do that. There's a couple of incidents in the back. I think Cendrick had one with Chastain. But at the same time, they're all running three wide.

Like, they're just trying to get what they can get. So I don't know what more you could ever want from a race. The soft tire was great. That seemed like it worked really well. We definitely made some strides at this particular race to say, okay, that was a better short track race with the same car. The Bowman Gray tire. The Bowman Gray tire at Bowman Gray, that race was good.

It was good at North Wilkesboro. So, you know, some of these other tracks that we've gone to that we didn't think the short track package was great. I don't know what to tell you. We've had a couple races that were pretty good, you know, with this tire and on really small tracks. Do you think so because they weren't shifting this week. Right. I think that's that's kind of a big deal because usually they are. If we can get away from that, is that the-

I think you've got to be really careful with that because, you know, with the mid-quarter speed at Martinsville being so low, the RPM would be really low. So it'd be, it's really tough at like a Martinsville to be in that position now. Maybe at a place like, maybe at Richmond somewhere. The more thing in Richmond. But the other thing is when they would run fast laps, which tells me they missed how fast.

the cars were going to run a little bit. At the end, they were hitting the rev limiter at the end of both straightaways. Okay. So when that top lane came in and they started ripping, they were up on the rev limiter. So yeah, I mean, if they want to bump the RPM up, I'm sure nobody would complain.

Nobody would complain about that except for the engine builders, maybe the team owners, but, you know, nobody wants to talk about a horsepower and nobody wants to talk about RPM, but who am I? Here we go again. So this race, obviously, it did have the promoters' caution, but a lot less, like, gimmicks, if you will, than maybe some of the all-star events we've seen in the past,

were you in the birth of the field and you do this and you do that. I thought it worked out better that way. Yeah, you know, I think looking back at it, when you look at the promoter's caution, not really knowing when it was going to come out, and then you had the all-star caution at halfway. But it didn't feel gimmicky at all, other than Michael dropping the flag,

it didn't feel that gimmicky. Everything else. I mean, it felt, it felt racy. It felt energetic. It didn't feel like the fans, you know, were bored. They were never bored at any point. So the only thing, I did, the whole manufacturers challenge was a little bit, was a little bit strange, just with the way that you had to add it up and kind of seemed like a like an afterthought a little bit. But overall, I think it was a home run. I'm guessing that was implemented in the event we have new manufacturers coming in, some other. incentive for them, perhaps? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Chevrolet won, though. Chevy won. Chevry won. Can we talk about this for a minute? What's going on? Mikey, Mikey, you got to hold on to the flag, my guy. Yeah. This is a whole new meaning to Mike. Yeah. When we, when we heard that this was happening and Mikey was, Mikey was going to wave the caution flag

and was going to be the one coordinating when this caution would come out. We told producer Chuck that we should tape the flag to Michael's hand or he was going to drop it on the racetrack. Yeah, sure enough. It wound up on the racetrack. I thought it looked like he just dropped it on purpose.

I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It almost hit one car at the end. Yeah. That part maybe not so much. How'd they get it off? Now, I have seen people drop the green flag out there waving the flag

and they kind of lose track of where they are and then they forget to hold on to the flag. But they don't know what they're doing. Makes you know a green flag is on the ground. He's a, I mean, he's been doing. You're claiming that Michael knows what he's doing? He should know how to wave the flag. How many times you think he stood in that,

in the grandstand? Probably at least twice. You think? No. Have you ever been in a, have you ever been in a flag stand? I mean, I've been in them, but not for the start of a race. I've never gotten no way.

There's nothing better. I bet it's really awesome. The best part is when they come back around the second time after they take the green. They are full speed. There is, that's a pretty, that's a pretty exhilarating situation. Is it hard to hang on to the flag? Oh yeah, because you don't realize how much wind that there is with the cars and everything going by. Okay.

It's real. So Michael, maybe we can give them a pass. It's harder than it looks. One thing about that that I was thinking about it when we did it, right? Like maybe if you're going to do that, because we can do it. do live polls. Maybe, like, in the first half of the race or something, do a live poll and ask the fans. Like, be like, do you want, are you liking what you're seeing? Nah. No? Because I like it's so like, it's like, it's like, because now it feels like you're picking who's at front.

You know what I mean? Kind of. And I don't know, I feel like I don't really love that. I mean, they waited until the last minute and almost bit him because if they don't throw the caution, Larson's going to be the caution. He had just hit the fence. I think I'd rather just let him be a caution. They, They waited too long. Yeah. And that was going to be a caution regardless of whether they threw it or not. And apparently there was fireworks and everything that were going with it. Oh, yeah.

That was fun. The caution was coming out regardless. Yeah. And they were in a mad scramble to throw the caution immediately. And that was the promoter's caution. And they waited all the way until the end. But I'm all for the promoter's caution and not having all those gimmicks. Yes.

I thought it was a neat, unique element to add it. I liked when there was less opinions and only a couple people in charge. Oh, okay. I agree with that. You know what I mean? Yeah, I do. Trying to get everybody involved and making all this happen. No, we need less.

Less is more. Less is more. I'm going to tell you what, back at my home track at Thunder Road, Tom Curley, the guy that, you know, him and Ken Squire, it was them two. Them two decided how the show was run. And if you weren't putting on a good show, they'd park you. you and you got to sit and wait for the end and you guys get to come back out. Like they were legit.

So we ended on a high note for the Fox portion with the All-Star Race. It might be a good time to just say, what do you think it's been the best story so far this year of what you guys have seen? I like the Josh Barry story. Damn it. I was really excited to share my part.

Well, okay. We can both agree. Yeah, go ahead. Tell us yet. Well, all I was going to say is I think that that has been, you know, one of the bright spots of the season, Josh Barry winning at Las Vegas. He's been leading a lot of laps. He's really elevated Wood Brothers. I'm not saying I didn't anticipate that he would, but it's been a pleasant surprise.

Well, you just never know how those things are going to go. And you look at the exact opposite on the Brad Kozlowski side with his new crew chief and his team, it didn't take right off. It has run better the last two weeks. They don't have any results to show the speed that they had. But the Josh Barry situation immediately has fired off. Danny Hamlin fired off for the most part. They ran almost last last night. But that's going to happen. Like, you're going to have those nights. No matter how good you are, you're going to have those nights in this next gen car. But I think that, you know, the couple, the few cars that I think really need to win are the nine. The nine car needs to win. I think for them to keep their confidence level where they are, I think Chase

Elliott has to win. I think that's the expectation that he has. The team has the organization and Alan have has as the crew chief. They're consistent. They're doing, they're finishing races. They're dot in the eyes. They're good on pit road. They're doing all the things that they need to do, but they're not winning. And I believe if they don't win soon, there's going, that frustration is going to build. The other one is the eight. I think that if Kyle Bush, that doesn't stabilize with everything that we have talked about with contracts and this and that, I think that that could boil over

before it's all said and done if there's not some bright spots pretty quickly. Yeah. What do you think's been one of the better stories? I'm going to go with C-Bell, a bunch of wins at the beginning of the year, really dominating the front end, and then the last few weeks, not as much.

And then they've kind of turned it around and now they're kind of looking like they're going to be set up well for the summer, just one of a million bucks. I think the Netflix show Full Speed really showed a lot of his personality and him and Morgan's character. And I think that that show made people a Christopher Bell fan. I didn't even know it was on. Yeah.

When did it start? When did it start? It started May 7th. May 7th. Yeah. What's the date today? May 19th. Okay. Been out for 12 days.

For 12 days. So if you watch it, I think you'll be a fan of Christopher Bell and pull for him. So I like that. Like what they got going on. And then when you look at guys that need a win or need to do something to stay where they're at, you know, AJ Almonddinger's close in that 16, 17. They kind of had a rough couple weeks.

They have not been able to finish. And we have road courses coming up. And so they need one of those needs to be hits. Roadcourse season's going to be interesting for Almondinger, for SVG. Some of these guys that you don't think should be in the playoffs that could easily put them. in the playoffs. And that's when it starts to get interesting. When you start having guys get into

the playoff picture with a win that aren't even close in the points battle, then it starts to get interesting because you're knocking guys out. Then the almond-dingers are out. Then the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the preces and those guys that are right there around the bubble are all of a sudden way further behind because it goes to the next guy in the points. And that's, I feel like it could bump up into that chastain area, even though it seems like he has a good points cushion right now. I think you've got to take two or three of those spots out of the mix because of guys that are going to win. It's going to be very interesting to see how the next couple of weeks play out. Of course, coming up next is Charlotte. And Kyle Larson, once again, is attempting to do the

double, the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. It was derailed last year his efforts due to weather. Hopefully we don't have that same outcome this weekend. But what do you anticipate to see at him? because it's been a bit of an interesting ride so far. He's had two accidents within the last two months. I think the goal is to run the 1,100 laps. I don't think he has a chance to win at Indy. I think with the way that they qualified and all the things that have happened this year, I think that that hope is out of the picture personally.

I just, I don't see it. I think that he could come back and be a real contender at the Coke 600. and, you know, I think just being able to finish on the lead lap in Indy and run all 1,100 miles and check that box is probably the most realistic goal for this year. But still, an amazing feat. You know, he's not had, it's not near as fun. It doesn't look like he's having near as much fun this year as, as he did last year with a couple crashes already. And everything is happening. So it'll be interesting to say, to see if he moves forward with it after this year, with it not being as much.

much fun. Yeah, it's hard for those things to be the same type of fun year two as they were year one. Yeah. And when you back to back, it like that, and there's so much hype and like they were running so well last year. Expectations are high. You know, going from what he did last year to this year, the expectation was to go there and compete for a win. Yeah, basically. And that was over early. Yeah. I agree with you. I think the goal should be to run the whole thing. It's just so hard to do that. Yeah. Winning, I heard a stat like, There's been like seven winners. I think Mike Joyce said this is like seven winners or something from 21st or further back.

Yeah. But, you know, it's not typical. The interesting thing about this, though, is how many wrecks there have been throughout the practice overall, which tells me the track is treacherous for everybody. I think last year it was more like, all right, Kyle Larson's going, is he really the best driver in the world? Yeah. I sure it probably is. This year, it's not gone as well. So let's make sure we get the overall goal, which is to complete all the laps.

Yeah. And, you know, it'll be interesting. I have Chip Gannasi as our interview this week on the show to kind of get some of that perspective of just what this month is like at Indy, what it's been like for the drivers. We had the rules and fraction from the Penske crowd and just with Roger Owen in the series. And it'll be interesting to see what his comments are towards that situation. because knowing Chip, he's definitely going to have an opinion, which I like. Can you speak on that a little bit? Like, because you obviously are part owning the car store.

You have a team that races in the car store. That's a weird, that's a sticky situation when your team is having infractions. Here's what I tell my guys. Look, we've been thrown out of the car store. So we got thrown out in the first race, first race that we won. So that tells you my expectation from team owner, series-owned. owner as to how my cars, mine and Dale's cars should be under more scrutiny than everybody else's. If you're going to do an hours worth of tech, you should do two hours on our car and take more

apart because the expectation is exactly that. You know, you should hold the highest standard to the car. And if my guys don't do a good job, then they should, you know, they should suffer more than everybody else. And so it is a tough balance, but you got to, I've been very clear with my team after we had that first problem to understand the rules. That's really what we did the first time. We didn't read the current year rule book. We went off of the last year rule book and just didn't follow the current rule.

And didn't do our due diligence, which is what comes down, that's how most of this stuff goes down. You don't do, you don't dot the eyes and cross the T's by keeping yourself updated with everything that you need to be updated with. It's kind of like the spoiler shim thing with priests, right? Most likely they do.

just put that in there to get the angle right, didn't understand the detail of the rule with the guys that were doing it. And bam, penalty. But that's how a lot of these penalties. Now, some, there are intent. But like in light model racing, you're relying on a lot of people. You're relying on your chassis builder. You're relying on the engine builder. You're relying on the transmission guy, the rearing guy. All the parts and pieces are bought. We make nothing in the shop. We just basically assemble the car. So you're putting a lot of faith in a lot of people. and sometimes that goes wrong. But, you know, Dale's had some issues with shock penalties and different things on his cars.

And it's the same thing. Well, we went from a car swore race to a NASCAR race, didn't do this right. And it was wrong. But when it's wrong, it's wrong. Speaking of relying on things, there's no bigger race that you need to rely on engine, driver talent, pit crew than the 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It takes everything to win one of those races. Every area has to be buttoned up and you have done it in the past. sir?

Yeah, I think I've won that one a couple times. Three is one. How many do you have? Is this accurate? I don't know. I know it's at least two. Okay. I don't really know, to be honest with you.

But it's a really hard race to win. Well, here's the thing about the 600 that's hard. It starts in the day and it ends at night. And usually in the day, it's just, it's hot. And Charlotte is a very weather-sensitive racetrack. And my goal was always just to be on the league. lap when it got dark. And if you're on the lead lap by the time it got dark, it just always has a lot of mistakes in the beginning of the race. You have already made several pit stops before it

gets dark. Usually a lot of people spin out and crash at the beginning of the race. There's always seems to be some sort of drama at the beginning of this race. So I've been there and not had that and been lapped a couple times before it got dark. I've been there right where I need to be and lost them late and won some. So you just have to keep yourself in contention. at this one, dot the eyes, cross the T's. I've seen a lot of mistakes on pit road. You're going to make a lot of pit stop. It's a long day for the spotter, driver, crew.

So that last 100 miles is hard to program your brain for. It is tough to say, oh, man, we got to 500 miles and I still have to go another 100. So it is a long night. Yeah, I can't even imagine. But it's a crown jewel race for our series. It's huge. This is one of those top four races that, you know, You definitely want on your resume and you get a ring for it.

Like when, you know, S-H-R, you know, we were fortunate enough to win if Kevin or Ryan or Tony or any of these guys won one of those races, we all got that ring. That, those races mean more to everyone at the shop because you get to, you're getting something. Yeah, you get some bling. Bling and a bonus. Be a little bit of flash. You know, that bonus hits a little different. Yeah, that's right. You know, everything's a little better when you win those ring races, those crown jewels.

And, you know, it's one of those races. we've been watching for the whole entirety of NASCAR and the World 600 is the patronry of the event. Yes. It's awesome. I'm looking forward to going to it and just taking it all in. And I always think when I'm on pit road, like right before the flyover and stuff, you look in the crowd. And everybody is just, this is electric coming out of the crowd. It's just different at Charlotte because we're home and everything's awesome.

And no other sport is more patriotic than NASCAR. And this is a very big weekend for the military. who have served this country. So it's always a very special weekend. It is time now to drink. It's sips time. Oh. Hey.

We're already here. Perfect. We're here to sip. America. Lend me you're here. Welcome to Mamba Social Sips. Kevin's favorite part of the show. We're still saying that shit.

Yeah. Because it's still true. Listen, we're going to start with our three-time champ. Joey Lugano. him and his wife, Brittany, are two characters. And I highly enjoy when they start getting into the social media game and stuff. Well, they did a little undercover shopping at one of the four dealerships the other week. Let's roll the clip.

Hey, it is Joey and Brittany Legano usually, but today we're genuinely. And lean. Why don't we take it for a test drop? Oh, music's my ears. We'll have both of you guys, drive you. You want to drive it too? No, I'm good. No, you go?

Do you know where we're going? Yes, sir. I always bring a math. Yes, sir. I love it. Honey, you don't even need those heat seats. You already got that hot. I'm like that.

Joe, put the window down, Joe. What are you doing? It was Joe's idea to check out the... Joe! That's a great idea. Yeah, yeah. It's on YouTube. Go check it out.

I haven't watched the whole thing yet. I need to because... It just looks like they had a blast. Yes. I like the hot ass comment. Oh, you don't need, no. See a woman's back there. He already got that hot ass.

They're cute couple. They do funny stuff like that. Listen, when they won the championship, I went down to congratulate Brittany. The first thing she does is sticks her finger in my face. And it goes, don't you ever vote against Joey Lugano ever again? I said, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah. You guys have never done any undercover shopping or anything like that? you? No. No? We did reality shows and all those things back in about 2001. You did NASCAR 360? We did NASCAR 3. I think it was 05. NASCAR 360. Yeah. That was a great show. That was kind of the beginning of when all that stuff started happening. So, not going to lie, we were ahead of the time. We were. That show was badass. Someone else who's a badass is a great person. Probably one of the garage's favorite guys, BJ McLeod. His cup team. team is just part-time, just here and there. But for the first time, Kevin, and maybe his

entire career, because I'm not exactly sure, he's running a, I would say a top-tier car or truck and for a good team has opportunity for the first time. What do you think? I think it will be very interesting for BJ to be able to do this. And I go back to the, I love BJ McLeod, great person, have a great relationship with him. But I go back to the Cory LaJoy's situation when he got in the nine car of Chase Elliot's and didn't go like everybody thought it might go. And I think, you know, getting in the good equipment, sometimes it's just a different scenario than what they've been used to when you're in the equipment.

You have the expectation to run up in the front. And sometimes it just doesn't always go that way. So it's not as easy as just stepping in saying, all right, tonight, I'm going to, I got some good stuff. I'm going to go out there and go fast. Yeah. It's just not that easy. Yeah. Well, that's Charlotte.

He's doing it. I hope it goes. Yeah. Well, you'll be calling the action to see how it goes, by the way. Yeah, Jamie Little's, she's got to be an indie, so I'm going to take over the play-by-play for Friday night's truck race. So that'll be fun. Kevin's good at that. I'm going to pop in the booth and see how you, see how that works.

Yeah? Yeah, just a little behind-the-scenes action. Yeah. Well, we're probably a few people shy. Who's with you? Everybody's on indie. Mama now. Just bring some snacks and some water.

I'll be fine. I got you, man. He'll be driving the Pigeon Ford racing coaster, which is super cool. I hope BJ just put him on the dash, buddy. I hope to send it. Do it. I hope he does it. I hope so, too.

Remember, if you guys want to leave a voicemail, it is 805-317-4-1-75. And if you want a mailback question, Harvick Happy Hour 4 at gmail.com. Yeah. That's your Sips this week. There you go. Send them our way. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler.

In New York. Call 877-8. Hope N-Y or text Hope N.Y. 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort Kansas,

21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gambling resources, see dkng.co slash audio. NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license. Okay, guys, before we get into our picks

for this week, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend, Kevin, courtesy of draft kings. Yeah, I thought Kyle bet or Kyle, uh, Kyle, uh, Carl, Larsson.

I almost pulling a boyer right there. Yeah, almost pulled the boyer right there. I almost, I was going to say is I almost... It's fine. That's what happens. That's what I told Clint. I said, if that ever happens, just hand me the mic, please. Yes, exactly. I was going to say Kyle's bet last week didn't have a lot of

room to make a lot of money. Christopher Bell's bet this week has less room. He was plus 175 to win the All-Star race. So I don't remember who I picked. You picked Blaney. We picked Blaney. Both of them. You picked Barry. I picked Barry. Yeah. Well, when I set my draft king's fantasy team, I picked Bell as my A player. So that I'm sure worked out well for me, even though I'm almost last in the standings. But in these standings, I am not last. How does that work? How are you not last in these standings, but over there you're getting your butt-wooked?

Maybe I should just start setting my team on Monday. Oh, maybe. Right? And not overthinking it. Oh, okay. That's fair. Yeah. So, and here my competition is just a lot easier as well.

You're mean. She took way more offense to that. That's me. I have less competition. I have less competition here. Take the checkered flag with Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use Code Harvick. That's code Harvick for new customers to get $300 this week in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks.

Only on draft kings, the crown is yours. All right. Good job. Well done. Who's winning? Speaking of crowns. You're winning. Yes, we know he's winning.

Well, here we go. Here's the standings. Yeah, Kevin's still P1, 55 to my 39, year 27. Yeah, I mean, even if we don't, anybody doesn't make a pick right for the rest of the year, I'd be fine with it. I'm sure you would be. Okay. You know what? For the rest of the year, whoever starts 33rd, that's who Kevin gets.

For anyways. 33rd? I don't know if you see to go for that. Yeah. I don't think so. All right. What about this burnout? Because you shared a little insight on this particular one.

that I thought was kind of interesting that we didn't realize. Well, the burnouts at Northwarks were are just better. And because they're right on top of the racetrack there, I thought Bell was going to do a little drifting right here, but it didn't end up being that way. But he did some great donuts at the start finish line. From the booth, it was really cool with the way that the smoke was blowing. He did all these burnouts, and that left front tire was just pinned,

making perfect circles. But he wound up parked almost against the wall right there, and we couldn't see him until, he was up on top of the car. So when the smoke cleared in front of the booth, he was there. That's neat. So that was pretty cool.

It looks less cool from this camera angle because he wasn't out of the car yet. But I don't know. Just kind of reminded me of Lugano's burnout last year. So it's in that eight-ish. Eighth. Eighthish. Good job, Belle.

It was good. Just nothing spectacular. Yeah, like I need some showmanship. Yeah. on a wind. Yeah, if you're going to be great, you're going to have to drift all the way around the racetrack

or flip somebody off while you're doing your burnout or something spectacular. Spectacular. Yes. Okay. Well, bar is high. Once again,

see what people do the... Burn it to the ground. The rest of this season. Okay, time now for us to make our picks on who we think can get it done out there at Charlotte for 600 miles. 600 miles. That's a long ways.

It's a long time. I'm going to go with William Byron. All right. I almost picked him. Yeah. It just seems like you want to copy everything that I do. Whatever. Maybe we just think alike.

Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, we're losers this week. All right. Well, I'm going with Ligon out because he strikes me as a driver who could, him and that team, they have what it takes, I think, to win that race. And he's already mad after what happened last week. He is. This is typically the point where team Penske really starts firing off on all cylinders.

it usually starts 600, 600 weekend. So it's time. Again. YRB. I knew it. Run it. Going with it. Run it.

Going to have to break the barrier down at some point. I mean. Yeah. It's just going to be one of those years where it's not going to happen. Yeah. They have the speed to win. And they're confident. They are confident here.

Yeah. Like they love this place. So I think it's theirs to get. It's either them or a Hendrick team. I feel like it's 600 typically right now. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, home race. We'll have to see how it all goes down. That's happening in NASCAR, as we've talked about, Indy 500, on the other side of things. And Gannasi will be the guest.

Yes, Chip Gannasi this week, I think just with his NASCAR ownership, just hearing the differences between the two series and all of his success on the Indianapolis 500 side and the IndyCar side, it'll be a great conversation. I've always had a good relationship with Chip, and he's always pretty honest. So I can't wait to hear some of the answers to some of the. questions that he has. Shout out to Scotty Mac and the Thirsty Threes. I hope the yellow sub gets it done this week. Okay. That Indy 500 is on Fox this Sunday, May 25th. Coverage starts at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Closers, make sure you keep subscribing on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. Leave a review. Leave five stars. No more leaving a word, but we will see all of you after... You can still leave a word if you want to. We'll see you then.