Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Christopher Bell wins thrilling race at Atlanta, big changes coming to COTA, and Mailbag!

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith recap Christopher Bell’s thrilling overtime victory at Atlanta, where he edged out Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson in another wild NASCAR Cup Series finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Then, they look ahead to COTA, discussing the new track layout and what to expect this weekend. Plus, Mamba unveils his latest Social Sips, the crew answers fan questions from the mailbag, and they lock in their picks to win at COTA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Keep standing on the gas, Carson. Keep standing on the gas. As long as you have shoulders big enough to take all the criticism and everything that comes with it, if you learn by standing on the gas and being up front, you're going to learn more anyway. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vinci. And he's Momba Smith dressed in a 24-geared this week.

Yeah. What's happening? Listen, this is a, this is an OG. I don't get that. This is a OG. This is a Jeff Gordon shirt. Okay. I have a funny ad on Mama's wardrobe. Oh, do you? Mm-hmm.

Oh, okay. So he was wearing a jacket earlier. And I said, why didn't you save that jacket for next week? Because it was Phoenix. And he goes, we're going to Phoenix. I go, we're not. Yeah. We're going to go.

We're going west. My man, still on vacation. Listen, I was at the Little Wayne concert last night, so, you know. It's a bit foggy today. It was a bit foggy in the arena, and it was a, It's a bit foggy right now. Is it? That's good.

But, hey, and I didn't hold it against you. I still printed out a rundown for you. I know. Caitlin always has me hooked up. Did you make any notes? Mental notes. Speaking of mental notes, I got it. I did take a mental note of your shoes today.

Yeah. And, uh, brother. They're a little different. Got a little flare to them. Yeah. Got some pastel colors in there. Piper told me they were the ugly shoes I have. She's a good.

I'm going to wear them anyway. Yeah, I like them. I like them. Yeah, they're very nice. That's different than what he normally is. What are you rocking here? You got some platform shoes? She's trying to be taller today.

I'm the most boring of the group, I think, when it comes to the footwear. You guys out kick me every week. Yeah, on the footwear maybe. It's just kind of a contest. Yeah, yeah. Is it now it's just a running. It's just a shoe contest. It's a shoe contest.

Yeah. How about yours? Dig those out. No, so these actually, Bubba goes through his wardrobe and realizes he has way too many clothes. And I get a text about once a year and it's like Christmas. Nice. And so I go over and there is. bags of shoes and I'm like, oh, fantastic.

I don't have to buy shoes for a while. You are the right size foot, my friend. I have your size. Whatever you got, that's what I need. Got it. Well, welcome in, guys, of course, to another edition of Happy Hour. We encourage all the closers to subscribe on YouTube, wherever we get your podcast, also rate the show five stars, leave a review.

And... And... Harvick Happy Pod. Make sure you guys keep following us, keep talking to us. You know, the conversation's going. and we want to keep it moving forward all week long. Oh, we've got it moving. We've got it moving.

Conversations moving. That's for sure. Some love us, some hate us. I mean, this is like driving the freaking car. There are people that just absolutely hate everything that you say, and there are people that love everything you say. I find it very entertaining. It is.

It is very entertaining. We have a lot to recap as far as the entertainment goes that happened out at Atlanta Motor Speedway this past weekend. We'll talk about that. We'll preview Circuit of the America's first road course on the schedule is coming up this weekend. And you'll have your social sips that includes a lot of mail. We got sips. We got the mail bag.

Ooh, I can't wait. Can you imagine, as a driver, I can't imagine going to two super speedway races and a road course. To start the day. That's the first three points of the, point races of the season. I made some notes here, guys. Okay. When you look, I'm going to get right off the track. All right.

Just to spin Caitlin out. Can you read these? Ryan Blaney's first into points. John Hunter Nemech is seventh. Ricky Stenhouse is eighth. And then you look at the back of this point standing. You've got Brad Keselowski 33rd. Chase Briscoe 45th with his penalty.

SBG 34th. Noah Gregson, 36, Josh Berry, 31st. Ty Gibbs 29th. Wow. But that'll get worse. That'll get worse as we go to the racetrack this week because there are going to be some of those guys that just don't run good at Cota as well.

I mean, there's going to be some guys, you know, we expect Ty Gibbs to be to be good at the road course. He's been good there in the past. But you can dig a hole. And when we get to race number four, the new season points start. And there is not a worst feeling in the world than unloading your car and having to push it all the way to the back of the garage. Look how snug he looks so. She says that.

But I want you to think about this. I want you to think about this. During qualifying this week, we saw the qualifying order is determined by your finish, your average running position, and the whole formula that they have. And Joey Lugano went out really early because of his finishing position at Daytona and everything happened at the end of the race. And I feel like Blaney going out late and being able to rerun again sooner than Lugano is what won him the pole just by having more heat in his car. It was cold day. And I know that seems petty, but it makes a difference. And when you can go through inspection, that's how you go through inspection, those points standing start to matter.

and it starts to become aggravating, especially if it rains or something along those lines, then those things start to pile up. Has Clint bought into this yet? Sorry, Mom, the whole points matter thing? No, we just quit asking. We just stop asking. We just ignore him. That's fair.

And he has, I do believe that he has finally bought into believing that every point matters. Every lap matters. Everything matters. And, you know, it started at the duels, and we've gone all the way up until this point. And you look at, you know, at Denny Hamlin, hasn't scored any stage points. at Daytona or at Atlanta. Atlanta. You know, because at Atlanta, they chose the handling package.

We talked about that with Christopher Bell on the victory lap and their choice to go more towards handling and not any speed. But it just takes those guys a long time to have everything cycle through and it costs your points. And unless you win like Bell did, it's really not paying off because some of those guys have survived and kept themselves in a decent point position based off their stage wins. Yes. There's a few Kevin is.

we'll reiterate on this show. When is the waiver and every point matters. We're sticking by those. I mean, there's so many variables. And that's why when the conversation's like, points don't matter or this, I'm like, how do you figure because everything adds into your weekend?

Everything matters. If you have a bad pit stall selection, or not even a bad one, but you have one and then it's not early enough and then you get stuck behind maybe not as good of a pit crew, that's going to mess your whole race the entire time. So everything matters. And I think we don't talk about those things enough. I think on this show, we get into that a little bit more. And I think people are starting to realize,

oh, wow, well, he was bad and qualifying. And now look at his pit stall. And now he's behind the 30s. It's a trickle effect. It's a trickle effect. Yeah. So it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. Atlanta was fun. It was very eventful. I would say just general thoughts. We'll get into the winner and all the incidents that happened. What did you think of the race, the way the track was the driver's able to race it and all the different options? What did you think? Well, Atlanta is the track that puts the drivers in the most uncomfortable position that you will be in all year. It's a sketchy race. It's sketchy.

And another comment that Christopher Bell made today, I asked him, I said, well, your car, you went for handling. Did it drive? Did it make you feel more comfortable? And he's like, absolutely not. So even a good driving car that feels comfortable doesn't feel good. Atlanta, the tires hard. The track length being a mile and a half just makes it feel like you're going 300 miles an hour with the way that things are happening. Everything happens faster and you're lifting,

you're having the front end take off with the way that the car is pushed behind others in traffic. So there's just a lot of things happening at a much higher rate of speed in the car than what you'll have at Daytona and Talladega. So it's a very different style of race, a lot of lifting, a lot of moving and shaking as far as making ground, losing ground. And you've got to be pretty precise about those moves. So even a good handling car doesn't feel great at Atlanta. and our winner actually said that. Yeah, it's, you're on edge. You're on edge.

And like, it's weird to say that Atlanta is super speedway wasting on steroids, but that's kind of what it looks like. It's kind of the opposite. Yeah, it's kind of weird, right? Because it's smaller, but everything is so quick. And the way that the air is tumbling over the cars and how it gets disrupted when you're around a big pack of cars, like being, I think you guys mentioned it on the broadcast, like being up front, clean air at Atlanta makes their cars.

makes their car drive significantly better. We had the best thing that you can show this weekend with the foot cam with Joey Legano. Yes. And he was leading the race and his foot is just mad, wide open on the floor, not having to lift off the throttle at all. And then we showed his foot cam when he was back in traffic, touching the break, letting all the way off the throttle, just constantly working the pedals. And I think that, you know, that gives people a much better appreciation of how much is actually happening inside the cars. but Atlanta for whatever reason, well, I mean, it's just because it's short and there is a lot happening.

You can see a lot more things happening. We had a great aerial this week, you know, the cars and how they're staggered trying to get air on the nose of their cars and two wide and three wide. Just a fantastic race. And when you look at, you know, the guts that it took for Marcus Smith and those guys to change that racetrack and ask for the Super Speedway package and all the things that went with that, they have re-changed. They have changed the direction of Atlanta Motor Speedway into being probably the most anticipated race on the schedule. It creates photo finishes every race. Every race finish is spectacular. And I think we talk a lot about Super Speedway Racing and luck. And there's a lot of skill.

Those guys are wheeling these things around Atlanta. And even in that in car you're talking about, Joey, you can see the steering shaft. You can see the steering shaft is moving because he's just fighting that car the whole way. It's just insane what they're doing at Atlanta right now. Yeah, and here you see obviously Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson. This is as we're coming down to the wire,

what did you think as you saw all this unfolding here with these guys? Well, I mean, you see Hosevar right there in the mix, and he was aggressive all night, and unfortunately we had the caution. And I guess we need to address the caution right off the back. The race was fantastic, and the caution being thrown there going into turn three. I think that people want to see the drivers race back to the checkered flag. But there's really no way around throwing the caution.

We can't have the guys driving through wreck cars and debris fields like we have in some of those races, like you saw in the Xfinity race. They should have thrown the caution on Saturday. The Daytona 500 should have had the caution thrown. And unfortunately, those are just things that are going to have to happen to keep the drivers safe. if I know it would have been better if we were consistent about it, like we talked last week. Yeah, ahead of time.

You know, we went, we went rogue, and we went from the duels to the Daytona 500, where we did the exact opposite from the officiating side of things. But, you know, I feel like the drivers probably stepped up and said, hey, this is not how this needs to go because of the fact that it's okay until we do like we did with Austin Dillon and shove them through the fence at Daytona because nobody's letting off the gas. Right.

And that's what will happen. It'll evolve to the drivers not letting off the gas. So I feel like it's not popular, but the caution being thrown when cars are turning all over and nosing into the fence and hitting each other is a scenario that you have to throw the caution. And this one, you know, I felt like was done right. Okay, there you go. So he believes the right call was made. Not popular. Not popular.

Yeah. But I mean, so let me ask you this. Do you think, I don't remember why we went away from. from the three attempts. I don't remember exactly why we did that. But do you think we're to a point now where we should bring back the three attempts? No.

No. No, we've been down this road. You know, we had zero. We had unlimited attempts. Yep. And we wrecked, I think, seven or eight times at a truck race one time. Had seven or eight green white checkers.

And then we went to three attempts. And we just wrecked in all three of them. And especially when you get to the super speedway races. And at some point, you have to draw the line to say we can't just wreck every car in the field. And, you know, there's, there's a balance of being able to, to put all that into perspective. But we can't, we can't keep going around this same circle, right? Like, now we're, now we're back, oh, we need to race to the, we need to race to the, to the checkered. And we don't need to throw the caution. Well, that's okay,

but everybody's going to floor it and drive through everybody and somebody's going to get hurt. We all want to race to the checkered flag. But, you know, we can't, if we have three attempts, we'll just wreck three times. And, and then it just gets to, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a cost factor that goes into this and a common sense piece that goes with it as well. So, you know, I know everybody wants to, we've already been down this road. Yeah. And we've already been through all these scenarios. And I feel like as you look at that, yeah, you want to see them race back to the checkered.

But if you add more green, white checkers, you're just going to wreck more stuff. I hope they, I hope that it gets to the point where they immediately, like, if we see on the white flag lap, if you see someone wrecking, get that. There is some criteria that's going to, I mean, there's some common. sense that has to go into that. We saw Riley, Herp's spin at Daytona into the end of the field. Didn't have any issues. The green flag stayed out. You know, when they all wrecked on the back straightaway, they should have thrown the caution. And, you know, I think this week, pretty much the exact same scenario going into turn three at Atlanta down the back straightaway. They threw

the caution for what was a very similar wreck. So, you know, I think that you have to err on the side of safety, not the other way. Because the other way could have reprimed. precautions that nobody wants to see. Right. At the end of the day, the competitor's safety is first and foremost most important. And that's what really this is about. So I got a little overzealous and I jumped ahead. And it's your turn to recap the word, of course, phrase, I should say.

Yeah, let's bring that up. I was bring that up. Here, you go ahead. Listen, it's pretty easy this way. Yeah, well, it's pretty easy and he did it seamless. But everyone is focused. They didn't know it. The Twitter blew up immediately.

Did it? It did immediately once you said it. We're on the tape. Clint, we're seeing some big moves behind these guys. You saw several rows of those cars three wide. Some of those guys are putting it on the top and letting the big dog eat. Larry? Yeah, I just want to follow up on what Jamie Little just reported about.

Good to go on fuel. I'm seeing it. Everybody at the front is wide open. They are bending the firewall. And the time supported because just a few laps ago, almost everybody in the field ran their fast. The ass's slap of the race. That's letting the big dog eat, Kevin.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to step on you there. But I like it. I like it. The Glenn part was so great. I'm glad he called it back. I've gotten to the point where I just don't tell him. Yeah. Because I want to see if he notices.

Right. He can tell. He's got to the point where he can tell when it's the word. Oh, yeah. I'll just look at him like, and he'll just start laughing. That one was very smooth. I mean, they all really have become that way, but as I was listening and I immediately text you,

I was like, seamless. There it is. There is. No, I think. So you knew the word? He always tells me. I let the team know. The team has to know.

We got to be on the lookout and make sure we're working together. But the fans know, because they tell. So were you watching? Yeah. Yeah, I was watching. So you heard it. I heard it. I mean, I didn't know.

I heard it. I was dying laughing. I get so excited when it comes up. He's insinuating. You didn't even watch the race. I know. I was just asking. He wasn't insiduating.

He was asking. He was just double checking. I was locked in. Well, good job. Thanks. That was one you came up with, not from the drivers, right? Oh, that was why it was so simple. Yeah.

Yeah, simple, but it was a good term. It was a good racing term. It's a good racing term. Yeah. That's right. I like mixing it up. Yeah, I like it. Okay.

Well, bars high for next week at Kota. So either you pull from your own arsenal or the driver's suggestions. Yeah. Do you remember what it was last year? Koda? Yeah. kerfuffle. Corfuffle.

Oh, yeah, we had that big kerfuffle with the 47. Yeah. Yeah, that was awesome. Okay, we're gonna have to do that. Now, that one really caught everybody off of time. And Mike Joy was so freaking happy. He was so happy when I said, he looked at me like, oh my God, kerfuffle. This is the only time he's like the word of the week.

We'll be two-step in it. We'll find some good word. Yeah, we will. Well, let's go back to Atlanta, guys, and I want to hit on the winner, Christopher Bell. By the way, the Victory Lap interview is now available, of course, with Kevin. What stood out to you from when you spoke with him? Well, there was a distinct strategy between the Toyotos for the most part at Joe Gibbs Racing to have slower cars that had more drag and downforce in their cars to make them drive better.

And when you looked at the, I feel like the Fords are in a, they're in a better spot than the other cars just because of the window that they're working in on the super speedways to be able to make their cars handle, to be able to push, take a push, all the things that you need on a super speedway. Speedway package is it's just a little bit easier for the Ford's to be able to do that. Now, when they finally got the Ford's buried in the pack, they also push worse than traffic. So it made it made it a little bit harder for those guys to get their track position back. And we never saw Joey Ligano again. They took the stage points in stage two. Ultimately, he wound up wrecking on the last lap there. But he never made it all the way back to

the front of the pack. And I felt like, you know, as long as those guys could keep themselves up front, they could stay somewhat close to the front. But we saw Blaney get buried, you know, 9th, 10th, 12th, somewhere in there, first half of the race. And so we started to see a lot of the Chevroletes get in the mix. We saw Bubba Wallace. I felt like the 2311 Toyotas were better than the Joe Gibbs Toyotas as far as speed. And they had a better, seemed like they had a little bit better,

a little faster package and could still handle well. Bubba and Tyler, they had that top groove working really well. But as the race went on, we saw Todd Gillen blow a tire. We saw some different mistakes. We saw Brad Kozlowski had trouble in the pits. So as they got some of those Fords mixed up and got some of those Chevroletes up there, I really thought it was fairly even as long as they could keep it mixed up. But I still feel like the Fords had a slight advantage and, you know,

kind of fumbled the bag again and didn't get themselves in a position. to win the race. Yeah, they, they're just so fast on the Super Speed Race. And they also have a goal and they stick to the strategy, which is we're going to control the race. Yeah. Like, as a group. Like, even, like, because, you know, the team Penske cars, they're, they've been the fastest.

They're up front. Those three guys have more experience for the most part than Josh Barry was, you can ask that into that Pinsky mix this week. 100%. So, like, they know what they're trying to do and they execute it so well. It's like they're very calm being up front. And I felt like at the end of the race, the Chevroletes didn't do a very good job. I feel like Josevar kind of had everybody riled up there at the end.

And he and Chastain went to racing each other and just passing each other and just constantly moving around. And Kyle Bush was in that mix. And there was definitely no willingness to really work together and try to keep that track position to control the race more at the end. They all wanted to be the leader. Nobody wanted to be the second place guy. And I get it. But it just, it doesn't feel the same as what the Penske cars do when they're in that position to be able to try to keep control the race by helping each other a little bit. It kept everybody in the mix when those Chevroles would start dicing it up.

You guys started talking about Carson Hosevar. He is probably going to be one of the bigger stories leaving this race, making no friends throughout the course of the day. Ross wanted to talk to him. Ryan Blaney wanted to talk to him. Kyle Bush was bad at him. I don't want to talk to him, though. He just wanted to let him know. He aired his grievances on the radio, which we all heard very choice language and name-calling

in that regard. How aggressive is too aggressive? Do you think he did anything wrong, or is he just... Keep standing on the gas, Carson. Keep standing on the gas. As long as you have shoulders big enough to take all the criticism and everything that comes with it, if you learn by standing on the gas and being up front, you're going to learn more anyway. You got to be willing to just take those chances and do the things that you have to do

to try to win races. He was in position to try to win his first cup race. Now, he did, you know, he made a big mistake with Blaney and got off center and, you know, spun him out. You know, I didn't see exactly what really made Kyle Bush mad, but, I mean, he was making aggressive moves all day. And that's what you have to do. I think you guys have heard me say this enough about this car. the aggressor is going to win nine-tenths out of the time, nine times out of ten. And he has a driving style that is very aggressive. He's not scared to put that car in places that it shouldn't be and take chances. And, you know, it's bid him.

It's going to bite him. And, you know, there's going to be some times when he's got four or five guys mad at him after the race. There is no better way to learn. Why, I mean, why would you not want to learn by being in the front racing against the guys that are winning the races and running up front. and he's going to take a lot of heat. He screwed a lot of things up, but, you know, he got out of the car and, you know, said, hey, I made some mistakes and screwed some things up. And like I say, if he can, if he can have big enough shoulders to not back up like, you know,

they've done with chastain here and there, you know, when they got on him for being aggressive. And so you have to be able to balance all that and still be able to have that aggressive nature. make those aggressive moves. But you've got to clean some of the mistakes up. You can't keep making the same mistakes. I don't think he's going to do that personally. I think he's very talented. But I would advise to just block out the noise and keep that pedal down.

Those spire cars are going to have speed. That spire car. That spire car has speed. But altogether, they're going to continue to have speed, I think, throughout the year and be in the mix, more so than they have. ever been. And I'm with you. Let it, let him run. Like, let the, let the kid run. And how else are you supposed to learn? You know what I mean? Like, if you're just running in the back, you're not really learning the same things you learn with the best drivers in the world up towards the front. So

he made the race winning move. I feel like he made a race winning move pushing the 20. Because he kind of gave him so much of a run. It pushed him out of the way and gave him an opportunity to go through the middle. And then the caution came out. If the caution comes out, If the caution comes out, you know, five car lengths later, the 20 probably doesn't win. You know what I mean? Like, they were really splitting hairs. And the way people are mad, I get it because, you know, Blaney for sure, because he got turned around. The Kyle Busch thing, I didn't really see to your point.

The Ross thing, I don't know, they're all Chevroletes, but like, they're not teammates. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, like, well, I think, and I don't know this for sure, but. I think the frustration, I'm sure, that Ross had is kind of hung him out there one time and they didn't try to make even an effort to defend against the Fords and the other groups when they had position with multiple Chevroletes. And sometimes it's better to figure that out as you get towards the end.

And I think once that they all got frustrated with Carson, I think they just said, screw it. I'm not going to sit here at all. I'm going to pass him the first time that I get the opportunity because that's what he did to me. And, you know, I think that, you know, it's unfortunate that he, that the Chevrolet pushed the Toyota to the wind. Right. But that was the first car in front of him. And he put himself in position to be in the middle three wide to have a chance to win the race if they race all the way back to the start finish line.

So it's, it's unfortunate that he feels like he pushed the Toyota to the win. But it's also very fortunate that he felt like, I feel like he put himself in a position to win the race if you race back to the start finish line. So like I say, as long as he has big enough shoulders to take all the heat that goes along with standing on the gas and ruffling some feathers along the way, he's going to learn very quickly how to do what he needs to do because he just, he's very talented. Yeah, he's fast. We like feuds in NASCAR. Do you think it carries over? Maybe like Kyle Carson in the future. He's discontinued? Yeah. So here's what happens. Yeah, okay. Tell us what happens. What happens when you get in these scenarios? and you start making people mad, they make it hard on you. They'll shove you out of the way.

They'll spin you out every once in a while. But that's okay. You'll get past that. You will get past that. I've been there. I've run into people. I've spun people out. I've made people mad.

And it becomes hard when you, in your pit stall and that guy's having a bad day. And the next thing, you know, you can't get around him. Or, you know, you're in a position where you need a push and that guy sticks you three wide. Those are the types of things that start happening. but that's okay. You're still going to learn more by taking your lumps that way when you get the opportunities like he had this week to be able to showcase your talent, put yourself in a position to learn. He's going to learn from what he did with Blaney. He's going to go back and watch that film. He's going to go figure out why Kyle Bush was being so mad. Might not agree with that one.

Right. He might agree to disagree, but he's going to listen. The best thing you can do is just take the advice of the veterans, listen, and then make your own decisions quietly in the race car on your own. But do not let off the gas. There you go. Yes, I do think it's going to carry over to those exact points. It might not be something that all the fans can see immediately, but they'll race him harder just like they did with Ross. Just like they did back in there with Kyle Boyce. It's how this operates. Evolution. It's evolution. And it's self-cleaning or self-policing. I would say. To a certain degree. To a certain degree. So, you know, let them, let them run. Let's see it.

You know, a number of drivers already had some words with him after the race. One incident that I'll be curious if these two will discuss what transpired on the racetrack is with Austin Cindrick and Kyle Larson towards the tail end of the race. Lap 258. Austin Cindrick had had a pretty respectable good day. He led 47 laps. Thought he was in position, obviously, to win this thing. Saying Larson not clear is the transmission he said on the radio about. this. Yeah. Well, what did you see? The way that I explained this to Keelan last night is we're getting towards the end of the race and you got to put the guy that's trying to pass you or around you in the worst position possible. And Larson went up the racetrack and when he goes up the racetrack like that,

you get to a certain point where when Austin Cendrick lifts, that car just goes straight. And to me, that's what it looked like happened. He finally realized that Larson wasn't going to give him any room and he had to make a decision. And when he lifted, it went straight. And, you know, Byron was coming up the racetrack, and I don't think he had any idea that Cindrick was coming down the racetrack, and they just met in the middle right there. It was an untimed situation. You know, it's a, that scenario right there is a block that you don't make all day. And, you know, when we talk about the block that Denny Hamlin didn't make last week and you look at the results of this one, that could have very easily hooked Larson in the right rear and stuffed him in the fence. But those are the chances that you got to take to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, you know, and the results.

win these types of races is put your car in a position that it shouldn't be and see how it works out. And those are the things that Kyle Larson and some of these guys do well. They're willing to crash and willing to take themselves out of the race by taking the risk to win the race. And that was ultimately one of the moves that could have been a winning move if it shakes out in that scenario at the end down the back straightaway when the caution comes out. So I understand Austin Cendrick's frustration. He had a great day. He was my I picked to win the race. I thought he was still in contention to win the race at that particular point.

But Larson put him in a bad spot that, you know, it was questionable. And Larson said it was his fault after the race. But you've got to be willing to put yourself in those positions to take that chance to win the races. Kyle Larson finally finished one of these. It's a big deal. Any one of stage. How about that? Unreal for that.

I mean, it's shocking that we're talking about that. And he has a hard time finishing and, collecting points at any of these tracks. That's so weird because he's so good. Yeah, so like, you know, if you're trying, it's the end of the race, you've got to do everything you can for yourself. If I'm Austin Sindrick, I'm mad because

I thought I could have won the race in that situation and I feel like I got pushed into the fence. If I'm Larson... You did. Right, and you did. And if I'm Larson, I've got to protect what's mine or what I'm trying to do for my group of guys. So I don't want anyone to be overly reactive to

this because I want to see more of this. I want guys pushing it and putting each other in compromising situations and making someone make a mistake because the one who doesn't make the mistake or whoever has the biggest balls to get it out off the corner. That's great racing and that's what we come to watch. That's entertainment. That's cinema. That's what I want to see. You're either willing to do it or you're not. Yep. And we saw it last week at the end of the Daytona 500 and we saw it this week at the end of Atlanta, right? Like you either you're willing to put your car in a position that it shouldn't be to win a race or you're not. Denny Hamlin has 60 plus wins, right?

No. Does he not? 50? His goal is to get to 60. Oh, his goals to get to 60. You would know that. You would know that. So his goals to get to 60 is a bunch.

Lugano has three championships. Those are two guys that love putting people in compromising situations and they win a lot. And I've raced around Kyle Larson. He's very good at just making you think that I'm going to run him out of room right here. And then at the last second, he'll leave you two inches. Yeah. Right? It's just enough.

But it makes you, he has that reaction to do those types of things to put Cendrick in that position. Ultimately, I think he would have left him maybe a car width. But when you're going up the racetrack like that, you've got to make a choice at that point as you're going up the racetrack. And it all happens really fast. And, you know, for Austin, it wound up putting him in a fence. And, you know, the five kept going and then 24 and the two wrecked. But, you know, yeah. That's the end of a super speedway race.

We're talking about Kyle Larson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, was involved in an incident earlier in the race lap 149. Chase was in it, Brad was in it, Ricky Sinhouse Jr. as well. This is one of the bigger ones. Kevin was educating me on toe link repairs also as a result of this. Yeah. What did you see going on here? Well, the end of that right there is after the 47 and 19 make contact door to door.

And then the 47 shoots up the racetrack, into the nine, gets a nine in the fence, breaks the right rear toe link. He goes to go straight down the straightaway, and the car hangs the left and collects a whole bunch of cars right here. Brad Kozlowski got the worst end it. You see Corey LaJoy right there, but Kozlowski pretty much teaboned him right there and knocked the radiator out of his car and ended his day. As you see the toe link break right here at the start finish line and Brad has nowhere to go. So Brad's in a tough spot. That's a tough spot about having two super speedway races at the beginning of the year, like we talk. Sometimes you're just in these scenarios that are tough to get out of. But the thing I can tell you,

and especially at this particular race, being in the front is better than being in the middle or the back. Yeah, because you come off a turn four. If someone has to lift, it starts to coordinate. We just talked about it off camera. The way that the track is, you got guys coming up and guys coming down and it gets really tight. Natural. It's a natural corner exit at Atlanta. And the way that that banking just rolls out of the corner so fast onto the straightaway, it almost throws you to the outside of the racetrack. And when Brisco, when he hit the outside wall and came back down in the next rec that we'll see, same, it's a different scenario, but same scenario where it all funnels down to where the bottom lane's coming up the racetrack for the tri-oval,

the top lane's coming down. And when somebody's in the middle that you don't really recognize, that hole closes up quick. Yeah, let's take a look at that. Lap 204, Chase Brisco, who you just. reference into the wall. That starts another chain reaction. He makes contact with Chris Buescher, who then spins into Alex Bowman, who'd been having a pretty decent day up until that point. Obviously, Chase Briscoe's been in the news a lot. We will talk about that momentarily, but what all did you see here? Well, Briscoe hit the fence. He got tight in the middle of the corner,

hit the fence, and had to get his car off the wall and make the exit of the corner. So see him hit the fence and, you know, he's coming back down the racetrack. And with these cars, there's really no contact there other than Briscoe coming down the track and hitting the right front of of Busher's car. But for whatever reason, when you touch the right front of these cars right with the side of another car, it just turns them around. And this was the start of the wreck after Chase got tight. These cars are super sensitive. And we saw all day a lot of lifting in the corners and you had to position your car correctly to get yourself some clean air as much as you could on the car, but very tricky track to drive as far as car position, getting your car to turn.

We saw a lot of guys struggle with it more than others. But usually these wrecks are caused by somebody having to check up. Right. It's the accordion effect that typically you see in Atlanta now. That's making these wrecks happen because it's not like anyone's doing anything egregious for the most part. They're just, by the time it gets third fourth row back, you're backed up really far. Speaking of egregious, let's move on now to Cota Weekend. And starting with this news item that happened since our last show, NASCAR issued a massive penalty to Chase Briscoe after the Daytona 500, docked 100 driver points, 10 playoff points, 100 owner points.

Joe Gibbs racing was fine, $100,000 and a suspension of crew chief James Small for the next four weeks once this whole deal actually begins. For the modification to the spoiler base, this is about the last, thing anybody needs to start out the year? Well, I think that I guess we don't know the whole scenario other than what NASCAR said, obviously the team is going to appeal the penalty. It's a massive penalty because it has put Briscoe 5th into points. He was negative 67 when it first happened before.

So that puts them in a position to where they're probably going to, I mean, they're going to have to win. And they expect to win anyway. But, you know, with the way that. it with the way that the year has started, it is a long ways from the Daytona 500 poll. It is. And the success that they had. But when you go back to the Daytona 500, you qualified on the pole, right?

And we saw, you know, some searching around the roof hatch a little bit. And NASCAR didn't say or do anything. But when you qualify on the pole for the Daytona 500 and your car is intact, you're going back to the R&D center. Yeah. And they took that car back to the R&D. D center and ultimately found something that they didn't like about the Brisco car. So it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out as we go through the appeal process. It's a hefty fine.

A distraction as well for the team anytime something like this is happening. Yeah, I think those guys are professionals and they'll, you know, persevere through it. And they know their jobs and they probably have a plan for if and when James has to start a suspension, start serving that. So I think they'll be okay from that standpoint. But, you know, James and Chase, they're brand new together. Like, the whole team is new, you know, new drivers. So you want to get that cohesion together so you can make waves when, you know, the dog days of summer hit.

And now this will set that back a little bit, but hopefully they'll be able to keep being fast cars with the race. They're going to learn a lot about each other really quick. Real quick. And that's how these scenarios go. We've talked about this in the preseason. We talked about this after the clash and how important it was for. Denny Hamlin and those guys to get off to a good start. Briscoe had a decent start.

Bobba Wallace has had the best one out of the guys that are new places. But I think for Briscoe and James, this is really going to test who they are and who they develop into being because of the fact that they're going to go through so many questions, so much adversity, be so far behind. And all we have to do is listen to the radio. And we'll be able to tell how that is going. And, you know, I think it's important for those. those guys to take a deep breath and figure out how to work through this and stay focused.

But we're going to find out. Yeah, those radio conversations are always a good indicator on how the marriage is going. How connected are we here? How connected are we? Where's our chemistry? All right. So next up for NASCAR is Circuit of the Americas, as I mentioned at the top of the show, first road course of the year.

Big changes line ahead for the layout. They're now going to be utilizing the national course, since extended from 68 to 100 laps. And fans will have 50% more action in front of them, which was one of the things Marcus Smith was talking about with this new layout, the pavement, everything. What do you see here and what are we in store for? Well, there's a lot of new pavement around the racetrack.

You know, I think that the national course that they were going to use, that the supercars used, and some of the other was a little bit too rough. So they actually paved the new section around the backside of that that they're going to cut through from six over to, over to, I guess, what we'll call 6B and off to 12. 11 and 12. So it's going to be interesting because of the fact that it's a shorter, shorter, less technical racetrack than what it was with the big chunk of the racetrack being cut off.

It cuts that back straight away down quite a bit. I would expect our normal players to be in the mix on the road course. You know, SVG is obviously going to be in the mix. And William Byron was on point there last year. The Gibbs cars have been really good at the road courses. So it'll be interesting to kind of get our first feel of where everybody's at from the road course standpoint. And we haven't even been to a true oval. We haven't been to a true what we did.

What we do. True intermediate or a short track or anything along those lines. But it's a big, big. change for the drivers. You know, Bell said in his victory lap interview, he felt like super speedway races gave him the week off as far as preparation and things go. And now you go into a road course where it's the highest level preparation that you have all year, the first one that you've done, you know, this particular season. So it'll be, it'll be fun to see the guys get out there and have some practice and be able to see them adjust to, you know, that new section of racetrack.

practice will be very important coming up this weekend. And it seems like the same group of names have always kind of been in the top five. There's a few of them that have done it every time we've been there. Reddick, Chastain, Bowman's always been good there. So who are you watching? Am I correct in saying that Connor Zilich is in this race? You are. I'm watching him.

I'm watching him. That's good. I like that. We used to be able to pick Road Course Ringerers, right? You knew, and like even with SVG coming, you know that he's like a dog, but everyone has gotten so much better at these road course races that the field is, that can win is kind of bigger. But then you throw this kid in here. Wasn't that your bold prediction that he was going to win or did I make that?

No, no, no. My bold prediction is that he's going to make a round or two in the playoffs. SVG. Oh, SVG. I was thinking Connor Zillage. I could have sworn you had some prediction about him. Hunter Zillage wins this race, I wouldn't be shocked, but I don't know if I would just like pick him.

I wouldn't be surprised. The hard part about cup racing are, there's so many other elements that are so close when you talk about pit stops and pit road and details. And when you get behind in a cup style race, it's just harder to make up track position, like we saw him doing the trucks. And, you know, the Xfinity car,

he just went out and just absolutely smoked them. But when you get to, I guess it would probably be the fourth pit crew in line, you know, at track house. And you start having those little details get you a little bit off. He's going to be fast and could qualify on the pole. You could. You know, he could be right up in the mix, but you've got to do all those other things really well.

And he's never done that in a cup car. But I expect him to be super fast. You mentioned pit road. I watched the race back from a year ago and listening to Utah. You were saying it's one of the narrowest pit roads on the circuit. You're also saying how physical this race track is on the driver's side. So can you tell us? a little more detail of what that was like.

Well, Pitt Road is, I mean, we saw it bite Kyle Bush again this week at Atlanta. And those guys have had a tremendous amount of trouble just dot in the eyes and crossing the T's to have a complete day when their car is fast and they're in contention to win. Unreal. Same thing with Brad. I mean, he got stuck in his pit stall, got to back, got wrecked. So that can happen really quick here. The pit stalls are on your left. So it's a little bit different than it's the opposite of what we would do on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a,

normal, Watkins Glen, it's on your right, on your right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So Watkins, it would be on your right. So you have a, you know, a lot of these guys have a lot of reps at the Glen, but it's on your left. But it's, the pit stalls are really narrow, really narrow compared to what you're used to is what I'm trying to spit out here. You'll get there. We got it. I'll get there eventually. But just give me a second. So the pit stall is on your left, like normal. It's not like Watkins Glen that is on you're right, but the pit stalls are very narrow. So it creates a little bit of a different visual because of everything that is happening with the length and the narrowness of the pit stalls. And so it winds up being very compact. But we've seen mistakes on pit road every freaking week. And whether it's the driver, we saw Denny Hamlin drive through too many pit stalls this week. I mean, that's an elementary air that you just, you know, you can't have.

have in today's day and age of NASCAR to keep the track position, you just can't overcome those penalties and get yourself back up to the front, typically. So not making mistakes on pit road, being on point as soon as you can because of the non-traditional size of the pit stalls and things that come with this. So tracks, I mean, road racing is super physical in general just because of everything that you have to do inside the car and you have to drive the crap out of these cars. So do you think we're going to get, you said it's less technical this configuration? It's still pretty technical. Is it okay?

I was going to, like, Walkins Glen type, where it's kind of, you know, you can really drive the car hard without having as many negative repercussions. Like Sonoma, you've got to be pretty technical. Yeah, well, you're going to cut out that 7, 8, 9, 10 section of the racetrack, which was a pretty technical racetrack, a piece of the racetrack, where they would drive through the dirt. And you had a couple sections that you drove through before. you got to turn eight right there. So you're taking out a pretty technical part of the racetrack and just adding to what seems simple turns. We'll find out how much how simple that actually is.

It'll be pretty simple from the booth. I'll tell you if they're doing it right or not. Doing it right or wrong. I mean, one's faster, one's slower. I don't know. But, you know, I think overall it's going to add more laps to the race. So the fans will have the cars coming past them more times throughout the day.

So I think that's really the goal here is that. And we had all the dirt on the racetrack. I don't think that they probably came to a conclusion of how to fix that corner of the cars driving in the dirt. So I think this was a good compromise. It's going to be very entertaining. As you said, you'll be in the booth. I'll be there on pit road.

I'll be cheering you on from the house. Okay, from the house. That's nice. And the race fans, if they're there, they have some fun things in store for them with Echo Park, right, Kevin? Yeah, Echo Park is. It's the Echo Park Grand Prix this week. So Echo Park has been a great part of everything that we've done.

We had the restart zone this week, and we'll continue that this week. But race fans, if you're visiting Circuit of the Americas for this weekend's races, don't forget to check out our friends at Echo Park Automotive Speedway Experience featuring games, racing simulators, a custom coat of pace car, and meet and greet with Kyle Petty and our very own Michael Waltrip. Yeah. That's nice. That sounds good for the race fan. Doing a great job activating.

They are. Austin does, yeah, it's different than our typical racetracks because there's so much, there's so much property. And there's some really cool things. It's like always a Ferris wheel. And there's like some roller coaster's, some stuff for the kids. You ride the Ferris wheel. Yeah.

You do. Yeah. I wrote that one sketchy little ride that you can do that like swings you up high. Yeah, that is sketchy. When you get up there, it starts waving like this when, because it leaves you hang up there. And it kind of, you're like, pocker factor goes up a little bit. We went to Disney last.

week. So how's that? I got my fill of rides. Yeah, Piper was the exact height. So it was awesome. That was the best time to take Keelan when he got to do all that stuff for the first time. But I can tell you, it's, uh, Guardians of the Galaxy is, it's legit.

It's legit. Okay. That's the best roller coaster I've ever been on. Okay. Oh, that's a big endorsement. Yeah. Best roller coaster he's ever been on. Yeah.

Speaking of roller coaster, time now for Mamba segment. The first sits. I was like, that was a pretty good transition right there. I ain't Kee. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mabat Sips. Listen, this week

in Atlanta, there is a lot of fans, but one in particular that we got to see NASCARcasm found them on the broadcast. This kid is so stoked. He's so stoked at

that Kyle Bush. during the truck race that Kyle won. And his dad grabs, he's got a Creed hoodie on too, actually. Brings him down there. I think that's so great because this is what the sport's all about. Exactly what, you know, we watch the media and everything. It can feel like it's tough sometimes, but this is really what it's about. He's been waiting for a Kyle Bush one, it says, and he got to see that at Atlanta.

That's cool. That is pretty cool. And, you know, one crazy stat that I heard this weekend in the trailer, and I know this is during your segment, so I don't want to screw it up. No, you're not screw up. But when Kyle Bush wins a truck race, on average, he finishes six spots better in the cup race. Really?

That is very interesting. I'm not shocked because when Lars, like, when these guys run more, they run better on Sunday. Like, there is a correlation. When Byron ran those late model races, he was ripping off wins in the Cup series at the same time. Like, I think there's a real question. I always felt like I was at my best when I'd run 70, 80 races a year.

How can you not be? trucks, Xfinity cars. And, you know, it's just, it's time-consuming and, you know, it takes away part of your life. But right now, this is your life. The reps. Better be. Interesting stat. Good job.

Bert Nernie with that. Was it them? They got that? I think Bert found that one. Oh, good job. Bert. Thanks, Bert. All right.

Yeah, we're still in it. All right. We're in the mailbag. I mean, there was one here that I read. I just thought would really get you guys attention. This is from Kathy. I can't pronounce that last name. McKay.

It is McKay. I didn't want to mess that up. Talk about other manufacturers. Shut up about Ford Ford Ford's. You know there are other manufacturers. Right now, as I'm watching, there are five Fords and five Chevroletes in the top ten. I had to shut off, I had to shut off for the Daytona 500. You guys are doing a poor job.

Oh, shut up, Boyer. Shut Boyer. Oh, shut Boyer up. He sucks bad. You did so good last year talking about everyone and shutting Boyer up. Hope you try harder, Kevin. Well, there are a lot of Kathy's in this world. There is. Another Kathy moment.

I'm sorry, Kathy, that we didn't talk about whoever your favorite driver is because you never mentioned it. So we'll get right on fixing that one. But I love the passion. But if you didn't notice, the Ford's did control the race for most of the race. So I don't know what to tell you. If you want the other manufacturers. Thanks for your note.

Thanks for the note. Can you imagine waking up just that pissed off at people you don't even know? Oh, I can. You can't? He's like, last week, I didn't really like anybody. Oh, that's fair.

Was that when you were grumpy? Yeah. Okay. Maybe she just, maybe she's just grumpy. Having a bad day. But thanks for your note, Kathy. Get a Bushlight.

We had another Kathy complaining last week. The Kathy's are always complaining. Yeah, you did have one. It was a Karen. Now it's, don't be a Kathy complainers. Right, right. This is not a Kathy complainer. This is a better one.

Erfan. Irfane? I think. Mohamed. Okay. Erfim Mohammed from New York. In the early stages of your career, did you have a moment where you realized your talent was special? And if so, what slash when was it? I can imagine you were winning all the local races.

But did you realize, hey, I can actually make it to NASCAR and win? I think there were a lot of those moments where you thought you could make it to the next level of what you were doing. And I always felt like you were always working to get to the next. phase of what you were doing. That's a tough one. You know, I think at RCR, there were those moments where we finally got, there was the moment we finally got the first win at St. Louis.

Once we finally broke that barrier at RCR to get that first win in the Bush Series car, I felt like, okay, we can do this. We're on our way to figure this out and went on to win a couple more races that year. But I would say at RCR, that was definitely the moment. everything in my cup career was so screwed up with the way that it all started. Everything that happened with Dale and getting the first win with three weeks into it, but having so many other things that were going on, I always felt like in my cup career,

I felt like I made it when I walked off at Phoenix because I was able to do it on my own terms. And that was really how I approached it all the time was you need to find something new. We need to make sure that we're not keeping, you know, our eyes closed to what's happening around. Do you always be open to what's next? Because if you don't, you're going to get left behind in this sport. It's evolve or die. Evolver die. KV, do you have a moment that you, in your career, that you're like, oh, wow.

I can be a high-level broadcaster. I mean, I think when I got hired, when I was 24, they kind of brought me in. The timing was just right. They needed another reporter in Charlotte. They decided to put me on some of the track side shows that were on the circuit. And I was like, well, I guess this is happening. I've done several years at Langley Speedway, but now I'm getting the big call up to the big leagues. To the big leagues.

Way we win. There we are. 14 years later. Here we are. We are now. We got voicemails too. So we have mailbag and voicemails. Whose idea was this?

Tyler's and I love it. I love the voice. Let's run it. Hey, happy hour. Kevin Harwick, love your show. Always liked you as a racer. I just wanted to know if the car right now works so great and produces great race on a mile and a half, why can't they just make a different car for short tracks and a different car for road courses?

Could you go into that and explain that? Well, that's a loaded question. And I think it, exactly, it all comes down to dollars. I think when they design this car, and we've been, as a sport, been working at trying to make the short tracks and road courses better. We've seen them change. We've seen them try these crazy splitters. We've seen them take the diffusers and take them basically off the back of the car. I think the biggest thing that has moved the needle is not the car. I think it's the tires. I think once Goodyear really worked and got to a point where they felt

like the tire was soft enough and wearing out, that's really what has moved the needle the most. I just, I don't think you're going to move the needle too far with what you have, you know, the package of the race car to make it just these big swings at downforce or whatever it is, hasn't really pushed anything in a direction that's any different. So, you know, if we had multiple cars right now, they can only have seven cars. So each car number gets seven cars, and that's all that you can have as a team. So you wind up racing a lot of these cars at the short tracks, intermediates and super speedways sometimes, you split them up into how those cars go through quality control and how they're measured and how they'll travel the back of the car.

So there's a lot of technology that goes into everything that we do. But it'd be pretty tough to just create a different car for everybody to work on from an efficiency standpoint. Cost is already higher than the owners want. Right. And I will say I'm glad that the Goodyear tire is such a changer because we can work on that easier, I think. Got to keep going. We got to keep pushing it. Yeah.

We have a second voicemail. Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's go ahead. Let's hear it. Hey, guys. I mean, it's almost as slow as Kevin. And also, do you think it is safe and, like, reasonable to think that they should bring back the talking, like, during super speedway races with Atlanta coming up and all that? Do you think that should be a good thing to bring back?

The communication between drivers in the race. I think. What did he say? Something about the answer is. He said almost as slow as what? as you at Bristol. As slow as me at Bristol. Yeah.

But his question was, should they allow the drivers to talk to each other mid-race? Like they did, like you guys- Oh, that was so freaking cool. I thought that was all. When we had the tandem drafting

and we were able to talk to each other on the radio, and all of a sudden, you'd switch over to somebody else would pop on your radio to the car that was in front of you, all of a sudden his spotter would start spotting on your radio.

That was wild. And you would just randomly pick up whoever. But if you didn't have a teammate or whoever that was. But the spotters, everybody had everybody's radio channel at the Super Speedway races. And finally, they eliminated that. And you could only have your channels. But at one point, we had every driver in the field's channel. That's awesome.

And you would sometimes be spotting with your own spotters. Sometimes you'd spot with their spotter. But you never knew how that was going to work because you'd be right up to the back bumper of the car in front of you. and you couldn't see anything around the spoiler and the back of the car because you just stay right on the back bumper and push them all the way around the racetrack. I like the tandem times. I'm glad we don't have it. That's not coming back.

It was fun to watch. I'm glad it was a little moment, but I don't need that. And we still see them tandem. Yeah. They just can't stay attached like they could in those days. I mean, it was like a magnet. It was wild. So that's our mailbag.

Yeah. Thanks for the messages. Yeah, great, great calls. I think if some of you are calling at like late hours, so just keep that in mind. Yeah. But make sure. Careful how many beers you drink. Yeah, careful. The number for the voicemail is 805-317-4175.

And to email us, it's Harvick Happy Hour 4 at gmail.com. So keep them coming. Keep them coming. Leave a voicemail. Leave a pen-pal note. Whatever you need. All the things. It's funny when they come through.

Don't write us again. All right. Time now, guys, for our last calls. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. In New York. Call 877-8. Hope N-Y or text Hope NY

467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-7-7-7 or visit ccpg. Or visit cpgg. 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, c dkng. So, audio. NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license. Before we get into our picks for this week's race out at Circuit of Americas, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend, courtesy of draft kings there, Kevin. We've seen some great bets this year.

And I think when you look back at some of the bets that we've had in the previous race, Christopher Bell kind of takes the cake plus 2,500. And that is a monster win for somebody, if you have a, had the guts to bet on Christopher Bell. But take the checker flag with Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook app and use code Harvick. That's code Harvick for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks, only on draft Kings, the crown is yours. So this week's best bet. Definitely Christopher Bell at plus 2,500. There you go. That makes sense. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that. She handed that to me like I didn't have it.

Well, I was trying to help you. I appreciate it. It was a good teammate. I was trying. I didn't know if it was fun. I was trying to figure out where the Christopher Bell piece that I wrote down was. And it's literally on the same card that I'm looking for trying to help him. No.

No, you don't ever feel bad for trying to help. Yeah, his chicken scratches aren't. No. Oh, goodness. All right, there you go. I think that's the wild part about these super speedway races is you can find some buried treasure. in some of these drafting bets because of the fact that

we didn't think Christopher Bell had a shot in hell and all of a sudden at the end of the race when all that stuff gets mixed up and the cars are crashed and you never know how it's going to end somebody somebody made some cash off a bell this week I think his name is Marcus

he's always on our YouTube Marcus is like a huge Christopher Bell fan he calls him to win every race and win the champion he made some money this week hope you cashed in Marcus So we're talking about Christopher Bell, time to grade the burnout, right? Time to grade the burnout.

So this one is kind of tough. I think in person it was probably better than what we got to see, but there was a lot of smoke. A lot of smoke. And I did like how he just parked it on the front stretch and let everyone know that he was the man. But I can't say it was overly impressed with the burnout. And I don't think he cares how we're going to grade this burnout. I don't think he cares one bit about what we say, but I'll give it a C. Okay.

I thought it was just a... Christopher. You know, just an average, smoky burnout. Nothing spectacular. A car disappeared. I don't think he really cared. He won a Super Speedway race, and he is so freaking happy right now that he's put himself in the playoffs and in position to not come out of this first week stretch in a hole.

First three-week stretch. And his last two head-to-heads with Morrison, he's won. One on dirt and one-on. I was thinking the same thing. And those guys were door to door coming down to back straight. I'm like, man, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, here we go. It's going to be a thing. Another round.

It's going to be a thing. Kevin wanted that to be a thing, the C. Bell Larson situation. And a reminder, C. Bell is his pick to win the championship also. But let's do picks. Standings remain the same as how they were after last week. Me, Kevin, Mama. We're moving on. We're moving on.

Let's do our picks. I don't want to make anyone upset, Kevin, who you got to win in Cota. I'm going to take William Byron. I think that, you know, he's. he's, he just notoriously has the early season mojo to get into victory lane. Like that word. Has done well on the road courses. So I'm going to go 24.

Okay. I'm picking SVG. And I had mentioned that the bold prediction, he's laughing to me, bold predictions that I thought he was going to win multiple cup races. But I think he could be one of the guys this weekend. What say you to that, Mamba. I think I talked myself into it. I'm going with the kid. Give me Connor.

Oh, man. Oh, wow. Give me Connor Zillage. I'll... Red Bullback. Connor Zillich, first cup race. He's how passionate he is. I was thinking about it while I was sitting there.

He's already won at the top of the high level. Like, he knows what he's doing. So like, he just prepared at anyone. But you got to remember, this kid is raced on a world-class level with, you know, they've raced all over the world in carts. He's run sports cars, late models, Xfinity cars, trucks, and he's been fast in everything that he's done. You know, I think he'll be fast again.

It's just a different level. It's a different level. Go get them, kid. Yeah, we'll have to see how all these picks fare. One driver I mentioned, who's always been good at Circuit of the Americas over the years was Alex Bowman. I know you have a full interview coming up with him on Thursday. We do. And, you know, this whole Alex Bowman drifting thing and the time that I got to spend with Alex, I feel like I learned a lot about Alex Bowman as a racer and a person.

This guy is, I mean, he's more hands-on than I had ever imagined. I didn't realize that he built his own cars and the way that he raced. And so it was fun to get to know Alex a little bit more and spend some time not only drifting, but to be able to do a little one-on-one conversation. And I hope everybody enjoys what turned out. Underrated person, for sure. Way underrated. You can catch that on Thursday.

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