Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Denny Hamlin Leads JGR Charge at Gateway | Playoff Drama & Round of 16 at Bristol

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith break down all the action from the NASCAR weekend at Gateway, where Denny Hamlin dominated and Joe Gibbs Racing cars flexed their strength. The crew also... reacts to tough outings for playoff contenders like Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry, who now face even more pressure heading into Bristol. Looking ahead, the group previews the Round of 16 cutoff race at Bristol, with Kevin offering his insight into why the short track is one of the toughest challenges of the postseason. Mamba delivers the best moments on social media in Social Sips, and the show wraps up with Last Call, where the crew grades Hamlin’s burnout and makes their Bristol predictions. LINK TO SUBMIT PICKS FOR BRISTOL: https://forms.gle/TPEvWM7jD6UHLcns8 0:00 - Intro 3:50 - Gateway Recap 32:13 - Bristol Preview 41:10 - Mamba’s Social Sips 49:31 - Last Call! 58:04 - Submit Picks For Bristol GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 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

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Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 He let him right through the water and they drank it. He's a walking Hall of Fame. Why do we ever race on a Saturday night? Sounds like we have an item for the done committee. It won't be a sleepy race at all, I promise you that. I can't even beat the 13-year-old. Could you imagine me trying to shift left-handed at this age? Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox.
Starting point is 00:00:30 I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vinci. He's Mamba Smith. Who owns two phones, we learned? Yeah, he owns two phones. One is gold. Yeah, one is gold. You want to tell us the reason?
Starting point is 00:00:39 I don't understand. Why I have two phones? Yeah. Because, look, I don't understand a lot of things about you. Yeah, I know, I know. This is just the most recent. So I'm an Android user. Okay.
Starting point is 00:00:48 Why? Why? Because I've always been one. I've always, like, the first Motorola, like, sliding touchscreen phone. Like, I had it. Okay. And so I've always been an Android user. But, you know, iPhone people always make fun of Android people for being poor.
Starting point is 00:01:02 Even though our phone... Even though the Android phone is more intuitive, it just does more. Like, iPhone's a base. The basics. That is a big word. We're starting out. You know what that means? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:12 Yeah. Okay. I used it. I know to me. I know how to use it. That's all that matters. Okay. And also I got, the amount of times I got turned down by girls because I would give
Starting point is 00:01:21 that, we would exchange phone numbers and then I'd text them right there. And then they'd be like, your number comes up green. And they'd go from being interested to not in front of my face. And so I'm like, this is just not going to work. So why not just get rid of the green one? Because I like it. It's for, it's me. I like it.
Starting point is 00:01:39 And also my business partner hates texting green text as well. So he made me get an iPhone. There you go. That's the reason behind it. I mean, I can save you some money if you're looking to get into your budget. I mean, we can talk about your budget if you'd like. No, I'm good. Okay.
Starting point is 00:01:53 I mean, I can immediately save you half on your cell phone service. Honestly, shout out Ryan Reynolds. I got Mint Mobile on the iPhone. That thing is like... Oh, you have Mint Mobile. I have always wondered who has Mint Mobile. It works great. Wow.
Starting point is 00:02:05 I've met the first person who uses it. Yeah, Ryan's a new Charlotteian. Do you know what Ryan Reynolds is? No. The actor? Is he an act? I have no idea. He's married to Blake lively.
Starting point is 00:02:16 Never seen it. The proposal. Never seen it. I can't. We're not even going to get into it. We're off to a good start here on episode 62. So I don't want to hear anything about my jacket. He has a jacket on today.
Starting point is 00:02:29 The old fleece? Yeah, I'm old. It's 70 degrees outside. It's not in here. It's becoming fall here in Charlott. It was definitely cold this morning. We might not ever even talk about racing today. We may not.
Starting point is 00:02:42 That's fine, because we talk about the same people every week. I'm just kidding. Hey, you know what this week is? I don't know. I got a hair on my jacket. It's Elimination Week. Oh, yeah. So we know we will have less people to talk about after Saturday.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Yeah, that's true. For going home. All right, we have plenty to recap, though, after the Gateway Race. You have your Sips, as usual. Yeah, welcome in. Here we are. You're sewed 62. That's crazy how many.
Starting point is 00:03:11 The year is really just ripping by. Rippin. Rippin. I feel like... Yours almost over. Yeah, I feel like the older I get, the faster the years go by. That is an old... And the more gray you get in your beard.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Yeah, I know, but I like that part. Yeah, I like that part. Your beard's longer than your hair. Yeah, yeah. I keep switching up. I got a haircut while I was on vacation. He left the cruise ship to get a haircut. Really?
Starting point is 00:03:31 It was $85 on the ship just to get my... Mamba was on a cruise, by the way. Yeah, sorry. It was $85 on the ship just to get my beard trimmed. And I'm like, No. Are you going to go with the mustache for November? Maybe for November. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:43 Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. That's fun. Stay tuned on his facial hair. Okay. So I know you already interviewed Denny Hamlin, our big winner. I did. The weekend. I learned that he's really into this whole fishing thing. Yeah. I'm so glad you asked him because I've been fascinated by that as well.
Starting point is 00:04:03 I just, I'm really intrigued by his demeanor. He just seems so loose. Very low-key. I know it helps when the cars are running good and all those things. But since the start of the playoffs, he has just been super relaxed and hearing him explain just why that is and his approach to the playoffs this year. Obviously, he's got a different crew chief this year. But he kind of backed up the driver's demeanor, the driver's personality, setting the tone for the team. And I think that's a lot of what we see in these playoffs.
Starting point is 00:04:37 You see a lot of mistakes on pit road. You see speeding penalties. I mean, we've seen all the mistakes that we're typically seen from the guys who don't do it on a weekly basis. And then they get tense. They get uptight. Their crew guys get up tight. The crew chief starts making calls. So it was interesting to hear Denny talk about that and the things that he wanted to do differently going in.
Starting point is 00:05:00 And a lot of that comes with maturity. But he definitely spoke about. trying to be the leader of his team and setting that tone as far as the personality and things that go with it. He has a pretty uncanny ability to tune out distractions because we've talked about, you know, on the course of this show, Kevin mentioned it, crew chief change, lawsuit, had another child, and it feels like he's not really missing a beat. Are you on the bandwagon or no? You're going to get run over by it. Are you getting run over? Listen, you better, you're going to speed that bandwagon up if you're going to run over me. No, I'm not, I'm not, I don't think I, he's
Starting point is 00:05:34 He's a walking Hall of Famer. Right? And he's done it in his way. Yeah, that's a good way to put that. Yeah, I think you got to respect the way that he's put together his resume and his career. And he's won every big race that you could want to win. Obviously, the championship is what matters the most. I mean, if you ask him, he does a good job at being like, eh, if we win it, we win it.
Starting point is 00:05:55 If not, we don't. It's like, no, you want to win it. Like, that is the entire reason why we do this is to win that championship. So, but for him to be able to be able to. just kind of navigate that and stay in the right frame of mind. If you play loose, you play fast,
Starting point is 00:06:14 and if you are loose in the car, you're going to drive better. Everything doesn't feel so impactful, detrimental when it goes wrong. It seems like he's able to just kind of... And I think when you grow into being the leader, you learn how to navigate life better. And I don't think that just his race team. I mean, you hear him talk about, you know,
Starting point is 00:06:37 things that he needs to do different, and that leads to things that he does at home, and it leads to heading out on the fishing boat, to go into the golf course, how to balance. And we talk about the circle of life on here sometimes. Being able to balance that as a driver is super difficult. You look at, you know, the next one's going to be Connor Zillich, right? Like, how does that circle of life get balanced? Because it evolves and it changes. Eventually, you get a girlfriend, and then you get a wife.
Starting point is 00:07:03 and then, you know, you start to, well, but I'm saying then you get businesses and then you have things that are going on and all of a sudden you're learning more and more and more about that circle of life and how to balance it in ways that work for you. But ultimately, in the end, his seniority, his age, his maturity in life are what allows him to be the leader of his team. And there's a lot to be learned by a lot of drivers and people that are watching in how. and why that is important in our sport. As much as we want to talk about the pick crew or the team or the driver, who's the most valuable, in the end, when the star is the leader, you get the most out of it. Yeah, I think it's interesting when you talk about who's great and how they become great.
Starting point is 00:07:49 It's big difference between good and great. Yeah, Matt. There's a lot of people that are really good at what they do. Yeah. There's a lot of, and I would say that we call those people like B players, right? To be an A player, you have to sack a. There's a lot of sacrifice that goes into it and being great and being elite. And you have to understand how to get the most out of your people.
Starting point is 00:08:10 And sometimes that's being the bad cop. But sometimes it's being the good cop. But either way, you got to know how to motivate the people around you. And I think right now that 11 group is pretty motivated. I think the switch between Gabe Hart to Gail has been probably better than I think even Denny thought it was going to be. Because at the beginning of the year, he wasn't really excited. I don't think he wasn't excited about Chris. Gale, he just wasn't excited about losing Gavehart, which I wouldn't be excited about losing
Starting point is 00:08:38 Gabe Hart either. But Chris Gail has been able to not skip a beat in the speed and the process. And I think that in the past, Gavehart was more the leader than Denny. Yes. But I think it taught Denny how to be the leader. And now he is the leader of the 11 car, unquestionably. Like it's not a, there's still a balance there between driver, crew chief. But in order to get that process right, I mean, I mean, he let him right to the water and they drank it. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Starting point is 00:09:07 No. Well, I was just going to say we have talked about two with Chris Gale. He was always with young and experienced drivers. Now this is the first time we've seen him paired with a veteran, so it's interesting to see that dynamic with the two of them. For sure. Okay, so we can all agree. I think we need to, before we get too far,
Starting point is 00:09:24 we need to talk about how fast those Toyotas are. That's just where I was leading you. Right out of your mouth. That's right. We can all agree Denny Hanlon and company are on a good pace. But so is Joe Gibbs racing in the Toyota. Go ahead, Kevin. Well, they had all four in the top ten.
Starting point is 00:09:39 Yeah. All four Joe Gibbs' cars were in a top ten. But Bubba Wallace had a chance to win the race. If he doesn't miss that shift, he had control of the race. And I don't know what happened to the shifter or Wyatt got hung up or whatever the scenario is there. But, you know, I think when you look at the 23 car really fast, Tyler Edick ran in the top ten. John Hunter Nemichick was in the top ten. Jay Hage and them boys.
Starting point is 00:10:02 are getting it right now. But I'm just telling you that the Toyota's came to play. And typically in the past we've seen the Penske cars be the ones that step up going to the playoffs. The JGR or the Toyotas were already in a position to be fast. But they seem to be the ones that have
Starting point is 00:10:18 stepped up to the plate once the playoffs have started. I think, and I know we're going to talk mainly about playoff drivers and as we're sure because they're the ones fighting for the championship. But the fact that the legacy motor club team, is running better and running as well as they are.
Starting point is 00:10:34 That is a significant step for Toyota as a group to have another team that you can rely on with information. Like, I'm sure, I'm sure that it's no coincidence. The 42 is right behind the playoff drivers. And the 43 has been in the middle of them. Right in the middle of them right in the mix. So that's a big thing for, if you're driving a Toyota, having another reliable team to lean on, that's huge. And then, you know, we said at the beginning of the playoffs, I thought the Briscoe, and Bubba were the two most dangerous drivers,
Starting point is 00:11:04 too much dangerous teams. We did say that. And they are not messing around. They're both really, like Danny Hamlin, they're both loose and very comfortable in their process. And the thing that I liked about Bubba Wallace this weekend was the fact that when he had those issues, issues it didn't turn into a meltdown.
Starting point is 00:11:20 Yeah. You know, in the past, we would see that maybe have turned into a meltdown on a day like that when you're in position to win the race. It's not all about winning the race. It's important to win the race. to win the race, but there's going to be things happen and being able to deal with that mentally and move on to the next goal are the things that you have to learn how to deal with. And with Bubba,
Starting point is 00:11:42 you go from thinking you're going to win the race, having control of the race, to tread in water, to get the solid finish. And being able to get that solid finish, you know, you look at Blaney, got spun out, you look at Bubba Wallace leading the race. Those are just a couple of examples of guys that rebounded and had a good day because stuff's going to happen. And it's just not having it be catastrophic that is most important. It seems like since Bubba won at Indy, that team has been firing on all cylinders because he's had five top tens in the last seven. And his crew chief has made a huge, huge difference in just the way that it seems like the team goes about the thing. And really probably the best, they are the best 2311 car, the 45 just, he still just hasn't. He hasn't
Starting point is 00:12:29 got it going. He was in the mix up in the top 10 this week, but never to the level that we expect them to be as far as winning races. I think from a speed standpoint, just the eye test would tell you that Bubba in that group, the 23 group, is probably the third best Toyota. I mean, like, it's really close with Seabell. Like, C. Bell, they have speed too, but they're just not, it seems like, they're not as buttoned up.
Starting point is 00:12:55 It's not as connected right now for whatever reason. So obviously, they're going to probably try. to really lock that in moving in this next round. But it's, you know, the 19, the 11, the 23, those three Toyotas are. And just watching the 19 car, I mean, they had issues this weekend too on Pit Road and came back and finished second. That shows you the strategy from James Small. Huge.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Yeah, but it shows you the strength in that team. And they're getting themselves into this position from just listening and watching the things that they say and do just purely from working, hard work. And they have busted their asses to get to this point. And I know everybody thinks that they bust their ass. But those guys have had to work hard and overcoming a new team, new relationship, and put themselves into a position to be real contenders because you look at a day like yesterday, it could have been a disaster.
Starting point is 00:13:47 This is another great example of could have been a disaster. Come back and finish second. It shows you how fast their cars are and they're mentally capable of competing. Okay, real quick, I was surprised. on that restart with Brad Brad took the bottom and then Briscoe took the bottom
Starting point is 00:14:05 so it gave it gave Denny outside he was starting second on the top I was surprised that he wanted to get behind him because I felt like he was going to get stuck he went down into one had a plan had a plan and took it
Starting point is 00:14:19 they went three wide actually yeah they went three wide now the 11 got the jump and that kind of ultimately was the difference I think Denny was probably going to beat him anyway. He was. But it definitely made it to it. I was surprised that he decided to restart behind him instead of outside of him.
Starting point is 00:14:36 Yeah. And, you know, I think the six was obviously hoping for a miracle. A caution comes out, you know, trying to do the fuel mileage thing. But at that point, you've kind of made your bed of what you're going to do. But it seemed like James got him back. James Small got him back into the race by that two-tire strategy. And at that point, it was, okay, let's get the best finish. We'll put ourselves in a position to get a top five. and move on out of here with what could have been outside of the top 10 day really easily. So I think at that point, the 11th had him beat. In that scenario, he was just, he was the car that had superior tires and the track position to go along with that. So it was, they did, 19 did a good job. We're talking about drivers and teams that finished in the top five. So too did Ryan Blaney, but it didn't come out without some intrigue as well between him and Kyle Larson. This happened at the tail end of stage two.
Starting point is 00:15:27 they were battling, kind of just, I guess Larson just wrecked him. Yeah. I mean, basically, I don't know how to put them. Well, there was a lot that had gone on. The five had been in position trying to pass the 12 car for a long time. But the one thing I will say is the way that Kyle Arson races is a lot about situations like this. He misjudged in this situation, obviously, by a fair amount, trying to slide up and slide into the, you know, the back bumper of Blaney. But that's the way Kyle races. There's a lot of times you'll go in a corner
Starting point is 00:16:03 and he'll dive it way in there, slide right up to your door, not bang into your door or anything, but he'll freak you out. Some of his strategy is trying to freak you out a little bit to make you think he's going to hit you or whatever the case is. But I really think in this position, knowing how Kyle races, I'm not saying that it's dirty, but he is a guy that's going to try to make you think about being put into a bad position and being able to spook you and make a bad pass. And I think that when we see this move, there were a lot of laps. I don't even know how many laps he was upside by side with him trying to finish that pass on the 12, who was running the high side. But Larson definitely misjudged and spun Blaney out. But there are a lot of times when
Starting point is 00:16:50 you'll see him drive in and do a lot of these types of moves in order to try to get you to react. And this time, he got him to react. Just counter-steer spin-out. The two- Yeah, had a conversation after the race. It seemed very civil. Obviously, a lot of respect between the two of them.
Starting point is 00:17:08 But Ryan did say that he's going to remember this. Yeah, Ryan, I mean, Kyle, to Kevin's point, he's trying to get people to flinch. Because in that situation where they are, if he lifts a little bit or bobbles, he's probably going to get the run that he ultimately needed to make the pass down in one and missed it. And, you know, Ryan talking about someone who
Starting point is 00:17:26 can melt down sometimes doesn't anymore. Like since he won the championship, the melt, like, even on the radio, like he gets fired up, but it's not exactly the same as it used to be.
Starting point is 00:17:35 It's kind of controlled. And they bounce back. Could still do a lot better at it. Yeah, yeah. But they bounce back and you talk about someone leading their team. Like, I think the way that he leads his team and the way Jonathan Hassler's crew chief leads the team,
Starting point is 00:17:51 I think that they have that championship grit in the medal and they're not worried about falling back and not being able to come through. They know that they can do it. And they had a talk. And it seemed like Ryan was like, yeah, I don't think it was malicious. But he messed up.
Starting point is 00:18:05 So now I owe you one. Like, he basically was like, I owe you one. I don't think he's going to blatantly wreck him. But I think if they're racing tight, especially at maybe the roval, like a roll court type of that. And he, oh, sorry. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:20 I mean, you put him in dirt. I mean, that's just the way that it goes. but Kyle is definitely one that's going to try to put you in a bad position. He's going to do everything he can to make you feel uncomfortable. And sometimes it's a slide job and checking up in front of you. Sometimes it's right on your door. Sometimes it's sliding across your back bumper. But I'm with you.
Starting point is 00:18:41 I don't think there was anything malicious in this particular instance with the scenario. I think he just missed it. It's interesting to me how Ryan, the respect level, like he doesn't, he doesn't will sit there. and then there's talk to you. And like, it seems like the guys respect, there's a lot of respect that comes to when you're dealing with the 12.
Starting point is 00:19:02 It seems like versus other people, it's a lot of jawing. When Ryan comes up to the other drivers, it seems like there's a lot of understanding and almost like a disappointment. It's kind of a mild manner. Yeah. For the most part.
Starting point is 00:19:15 Yeah. Yeah, when the helmet's off. He doesn't flip out on people on a regular basis. It's just interesting. So do you think that in this instance, does he need to settle the score? I think he'll do it in his own way if he feels like it's necessary. I think whereas maybe before he would have given him more room, the next couple races, he probably won't. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:19:36 He's not going to put himself in a bad spot just to go out and get the five. You know what I mean? It's not like a wholesale bar situation where people feel like they want to go out of their way to go get him back. Your buddies with him, ask him and report back. Yeah, give us a report. Let me just say, R.B, I'm going to text you right now. So we can agree that it was not a malicious intent there between Larson and Ryan Blaney. So too, I don't think, for Josh Berry and Chase Elliott. But Chase did send him into the wall. When he was running 15th, back-to-back weeks, tough for Josh Barry.
Starting point is 00:20:06 I hate seeing that. Yeah, and it looks like, you know, when the nine goes in, you judge off the bottom of the racetrack, you see him just get a little wiggle right there going in the corner, and he has to use a half a lane, and unfortunately, Josh Barry is right there. So puts the 21 car in a position. You can really see it right here when he's. just has that little wiggle and has to chase it up. But Josh Barry in a must-win situation going into Bristol.
Starting point is 00:20:33 Playoffs definitely haven't started the way that the 21 car would have wanted it to with the mistakes that they made last week with the car and getting on the ground and crashing right off the bat at Darlington. And this week is kind of doing his own thing right there and winds up, you know, driver's side into the fence. So it's just a tough place. on those restarts with the way that the racetrack is so wide. And that's the thing that I loved about the racetrack this weekend is you had options.
Starting point is 00:21:01 You could run the bottom, middle, top, and really knowing how bad the cars are behind each other, it gives you an option to be able to move your car around. But the restarts were wild, you know, going in there. And you've got to take everything that you can get. And I think that with the five and the nine, you just see them trying to press the issue in really tight spaces to be able to try to gain that position and it and it just cost somebody else. We saw that happen a couple times, right? So I'm getting into one, getting into the corner, getting a little free.
Starting point is 00:21:33 And I think one thing about that is you're downshifting too. There's a lot of work. Twice. There's a lot of work that's going on in that section of the racetrack. And then you, so if the car gets unsettled while you're trying to do that, it's really easy to get free because probably when the car is the lightest, I would imagine. Yeah. I mean, it's a very interesting corner because the straightaways, the corners are so sharp. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:56 And the way that that, the turn one dumps off, you know, from the straightaway into the banking right there. I mean, it naturally and the two down shifts, like you're saying, it naturally is just edgy right there. And we saw that in a, in the situation with the Dillon brothers as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Austin wiped out tie. Oh, but. Nothing worse for Richard Childress to have to stand up there. and try to navigate that.
Starting point is 00:22:22 Not only that, but it was not a great day from a performance standpoint for the RCR cars and tie and everything. So. When the draft kings got on the car, they're like, oh, we're here, it's going to be a good time. And then they just kind of get dumped by the brother. Austin Dillon, he did collect points in stage two. I mean, he's not out of the conversation, 11 back right now. And I really think he's probably, I mean, I don't see, you know, everything that we've seen so far. I don't see the 48 putting together a day that they can go out and win a race.
Starting point is 00:22:53 I think they have the speed, but they can't put a day together, whether it's speeding on pit road, pit stops. It seems like anything that can go wrong is going wrong, and it just seems really disorganized currently. But, you know, I think that from a point standpoint, I think Austin Dillon, if Austin Cendrick has some trouble right there and doesn't get stage points and Dylan can get some stage points, has the potential to go out and do that.
Starting point is 00:23:21 They've run okay at Bristol in the past, but they didn't run well at St. Louis, but did get some stage points and make something out of it, and that's all you can ask, is just keep yourself in the game. Just stay in the game. Take your brother out while you're at it.
Starting point is 00:23:37 That's right. Yeah, that sounds expensive for pop-off. We were joking, we like the three-box, though, of R-Barrs. Oh, yeah, well, that's entertaining. All right, let's talk about SVG for a moment, because he had a 25th place finish, also went for a spin. What do you make of kind of where he's at right now in the playoffs? Well, they've actually qualified way better. So I think that the oval progression is still there. I think that, you know, seeing how he qualified, but he was super aggressive all day.
Starting point is 00:24:11 And it beat his car up a little bit, got himself in a position right here where he got loose. and got turned around. But honestly, these are some of the things that he needs to do and see how far he can go with some of these things. You see him get loose getting in the corner, Byron up against the wall too. But he was really aggressive on all the restarts and all the scenarios using the bumper.
Starting point is 00:24:37 And I think those are just things that he hasn't really done in the past. And I think that probably might have been a little too aggressive on some of those restarts. and I think you've got to spin the car out, and I think you've got to run into a few guys here and there, and now he's experiencing that in the playoffs, and he knows that it's do or die in this first round on the ovals, but 15 out, so I think that, you know, it's going to be...
Starting point is 00:25:04 Which is not... It's going to be a tough hill to climb for them. On the oval. Yeah, that's a lot for them, but that's... I think if you look at that and you told everyone that he was only going to be 15 now, you're like, damn, that's pretty respectable for what they're trying to.
Starting point is 00:25:17 trying to do, I think you're really building for next year. I think they're really looking at... Going through these moments. Yeah, going through these moments. It's building for next year. So maybe it's a little bit too aggressive right now, but we want to start somewhere closer to this. Find the middle road for me.
Starting point is 00:25:33 Yeah. We want to start closer to this next year than easing into it so we can be further down the road when we get back in the playoffs because he's going to be back in the playoffs. Right. There's road course. As long as there's road course on the schedule, you can see that the speed of the car
Starting point is 00:25:47 and, you know, his comfort level based upon qualifying is way up. You know, I think they qualified 15th or 16th this weekend. You know, and then last week it was better as well. So I think that the seeing that qualifying improved definitely shows you that the comfort level and the cars are getting better on the ovals. Yes. We're talking about SVG and kind of leading into that is Connor Zillich. I want to give a shout out to him.
Starting point is 00:26:14 Got to. The explaining series, regular season, champion. Nine race wins this year. That's pretty impressive. It's very impressive. And, you know, I think that the, you know, the biggest detriment to Connor is just his accident. Seems to be actually. A little bit accident. A little bit accident from the outside of the race car. It's never going to be inside the car. This week, he tore up his suit, sliding down the, slide down the hood of the car, got hooked on a hood pin, ripped the ass out of his suit. He did that because he was like, there's no way I'm going to get hurt sliding down this.
Starting point is 00:26:49 And yet still something happens. Yeah. Something stupid. Yeah. So, I mean, Conner's, Connor's biggest fear is getting hurt, exiting the car. Getting out of the car to wait after a weird. About killed the cameraman, doing his burnout,
Starting point is 00:27:01 slid down there and about wiped out the camera man. So Sunday night, the late football game was the Bills versus the Ravens. God, I thought it was over. It was a great game. Right. I turned it off. So did they, for sure, right? And a meme, an NFL meme account on Twitter
Starting point is 00:27:18 was like basically saying the Ravens celebrating while they're up. And then they used Connor falling down as the meme. Oh, really? And Connor was like, I thought we were over this. Like, no, brother, I'm sorry. That lives forever.
Starting point is 00:27:35 Anytime someone has it and then it's just, sorry, it was so funny. But what an impressive feat. Winning this rookie season in history. Yeah. I mean, let that sink in. That's quite an achievement. Kevin, I think the last time we've probably seen someone like this was probably Byron's
Starting point is 00:27:51 Xfinity season. He had one like this that was kind of similar. And he ended up winning the championship, I think. Yeah, I don't know if it, I mean, was it his rookie side? Yeah, he was one year in truck, then one year in Xfinity. Yeah, I mean, really the only thing you can compare him this, the season that he's having just outside of the fact that he's a rookie, he's blowing all that away. I think, you know, you're starting to get compared to those great years that Kyle
Starting point is 00:28:11 Bush had in a car and all the wins and different things that he's, that he's, that he's, was able to accomplish when he was at his prime. What do you, just real quick, I mean, what do you guys think? Like, if he's the one pushing SVG on the road courses now, I would say he's probably, he's ahead of SVG on Oval's right now. So you remember the line in the Days of Thunder movie? Yeah. Which one?
Starting point is 00:28:35 There's a lot of them. In the beginning when, when Rowdy told Cole now, you did a good job, son. Now go get your own team in your own car. That's what it's going to come down to, right? Like, it's going to come down to what kind of team can they put around him. How does it gel? How fast can the cars go? I think that, you know, there's going to be a learning curve that goes along with that.
Starting point is 00:29:01 But there is a road course early in the season. I think that, I mean, his potential is through the roof. I have no idea where else. But in the end, it all boils down to how fast can the car go. And that's going to come down to the people. that put the cars on the racetrack. And in that situation, even though you have the best driver, you still got to have one of the best teams
Starting point is 00:29:25 to get the full potential out of the driver. You need the team. It takes everybody to get it. There it is. And it takes the team, but you know, you look at Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. They're in there giving the feedback. Now, Denny's given the feedback.
Starting point is 00:29:45 Chase is getting the feedback, right? Yeah. You know, so there's two different scenarios. So, you know, you've got a rookie with a lot of potential. Now, who's going to guide him? I'm so interested. To get the right information out of him. And I think that's going to be the tricky part because now it's a game of problems.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Yeah, right now, Darien Grub has been the crew chief when they run that extra car, I think. and which Darien obviously has worked with the best guy. Like literally the best guy. Look at Watkins Glen. I mean, he was a midpack car. Right, right. You know, in practice and qualifying. That's my point, right?
Starting point is 00:30:22 Like, Watkins Glenn is his best racetrack from a road course standpoint, it seems. And when it's not right, you're midpack. And that's the best you're going to do in Cup unless it's all right. I mean, the best drivers with the best cars have to have the best people, and then they all compete together.
Starting point is 00:30:39 And sometimes the best driver doesn't get the best people, and, you know, it's an uphill battle. I think it's an underestimated fact that when you add another car, it really takes a lot. Like, the amount of work that it takes for that car to be slightly as quick as your main cars. Yeah. That's why Jimmy isn't racing as much, because he felt like it was taking away from the two cars that need to be running the best thing. And it looks like he was right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:07 And I think when you, like, when you look at yesterday for, for, for, the trackhouse team in general. Ross ran okay at the beginning of the race, and then they all kind of migrated, you know, to the middle of the pack. Daniel got wrecked. But, you know, I think that that is just going to be the key to the puzzle.
Starting point is 00:31:24 We've seen a lot of things changing at track house. I think that some of that is the anticipation of making sure that they get that three-car dynamic correct. So they've got the drivers that they want with Ross. He can grind out any race when his vehicle is up to snuff. And, you know, I think that the difference between Ross and SVG and Connor and Daniel is he can grind it out and get a, you know, a finish out of an average car.
Starting point is 00:31:55 I don't, I mean, Conner's got a lot to learn. Yeah. So in the end, it's just going to be, it's going to be about how fast can they make the car go. It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting, yeah, to see how Conner's Village progresses in the Cupside. But for now, as sites are set, obviously, in the X-20 series and getting a championship there. We are moving on now to Bristol, a very cool venue on the circuit. For an elimination race, this is going to be exciting.
Starting point is 00:32:20 It's a Saturday night race. Saturday night, baby. Under the lights. Saturday night. Let's talk about this. Nope, I didn't get very far. Okay. Why do we ever race on a Saturday night?
Starting point is 00:32:33 It makes no sense. It doesn't? No. Zero. It makes zero sense. Why does it make zero sense? Well, just look at the TV ratings when you get done. I know it's football season, but the TV ratings are historically, completely well known by everybody in the industry that it does not score ever, ever, ever, ever on a Saturday night, ever.
Starting point is 00:32:53 Ever. How long has this race been on a Saturday night since the 90s? I don't. Early 90s? I don't know. Since Earnhardt dumped Terry Labani, something like that? Yeah, but still, I mean, we went from Saturday to Sunday at Richmond, TV numbers go up. We go from Sunday to Saturday, crowd goes up.
Starting point is 00:33:08 I'm more concerned about the TV ratings than I am how many people are sitting in the grandstands because that's what makes it go around. So no NASCAR race should ever not be on a Sunday. You think they all should be on Sunday? Every one of them should be on Sunday. So if we move to Sunday, do you think we should move the time slot? Yeah, just run it Sunday afternoon. Sunday earlier. Yeah, the Bristol night race is forever not there.
Starting point is 00:33:35 It's not in August. just, it's, you know, we're in the middle of September now. Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. You know what I mean? Yeah, I understand. As I spit everywhere. It's a playoff race. Fired up over here.
Starting point is 00:33:47 Yeah. It's a playoff race that got moved to September. It's not the Bristol night race anymore. No, I understand. That's fair, yeah. With that, with that mindset, now I get where you're out. Yeah, I just, you know, as I go back and I look at the Richmond TV ratings, they know it doesn't score on Saturday night.
Starting point is 00:34:03 It's a dumb move. So maybe we should just flip it? they should all be Sunday. Oh, just leave them all Sunday. They all should be Sunday. For every race or playoffs? Every race. Every race. Kevin thinks that we should. There's no Saturday night racing in the history of NASCAR since the Bristol night races that has scored well in the last five years. Sounds like we have an item for the done committee here. We haven't had one in a couple weeks.
Starting point is 00:34:27 That's right. The interesting part about that, I think, is the dynamic of the teams. and if they want that. Don't care what the teams want. See? Yeah, that's... I don't care what anybody wants. Sunday races rate better than Saturday. There you go.
Starting point is 00:34:45 Listen, he's not wrong. The numbers don't lie. The numbers don't lie. Why do we keep going back and doing dumb shit? I love night racing, but the numbers don't lie. I like night racing. You can't make it on a Sunday night during football season? Yeah, and Sunday nights are tough.
Starting point is 00:34:59 Yeah. Saturday nights are tough anyway, even if you're watching it from the TV, it's tough. Yeah. Okay. Well, for now it is a Saturday race. Sorry to say. Damn it, Saturday. What are these teams in for? With this racetrack, you know, you've obviously a ton of experience there. You're going to struggle with the night. Yeah. Well, I think that, I think that the Bristol night race always seems to have a little more flare to it than the spring race just because it's Bristol night race. It should be the Bristol Day race. But it's a racetrack where we can see them go 150, 200 laps,
Starting point is 00:35:39 whatever the length of the whole stage is under Green, or we can have 15, 20 cautions. So you don't really ever know. But it seems like this race has a lot more potential to have crashes and things go wrong than the other races. But it's an intense place. You're going to see both grooves open up. They're going to do everything they can to keep it on the bottom
Starting point is 00:35:59 as long as they can with the track treatment and everything that they put into it. But got the 48, you've got the 3, you've got the 88, you've got the 88, you've got a lot of guys that the agendas are drastically different for this weekend. Josh Barry has to win, 48 has to win. I mean, there's a lot of guys in a must-win situation. All the rest of them that aren't in the playoffs, don't give a shit either. They just want to, they want to go out and put themselves in position to try to save their season and win a race.
Starting point is 00:36:28 So, yeah, it's a tough race with a lot of different agendas this time of year. Do you which configuration, I guess configuration might not be the right word, but when the groove was slammed around the bottom. Yeah. Versus now we have two defined grooves for the most part, which... It's too perfect now. Which, yeah. Yeah, I think that old Bristol was better because you really only had one option.
Starting point is 00:36:53 Yep. And that was run the bottom of the racetrack, and if you were going to pass them, you had to move them. Yeah, and it took a skill to do that. Yeah, and not wreck them. And not wreck them, yeah. You know, I think that, I think if you go back and look at it, they probably wouldn't do what they did to the track. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:07 And make it the way that it is. But, I mean, it's a perfect racetrack because you can run, you can run the dead bottom, you can run the top of the racetrack, but it's, I think we've all learned that in this day and age, we don't want perfect. No. Yeah. No.
Starting point is 00:37:22 We can all go. As a driver, as a driver, it's because you can do whatever you want, and you can slide job. probably really, it's probably one of the most fun tracks to go and run around, I would imagine. But from what we know about Bristol, we're like,
Starting point is 00:37:35 ah, that's not exactly. And I think, and I think that, I think that, I think that this track in general for this particular car has become a little bit tougher to race on because of the,
Starting point is 00:37:45 you know, the aerodynamic piece of, of what the short track racing is. So it's, you know, I think it has the potential to get ugly. It has the potential to be clean. You just never know how all,
Starting point is 00:37:57 all these guys are going to wake up. Do you know what we're getting for tires this week? Round ones. Yeah. Round ones. Round ones. There you go. A little softer tire.
Starting point is 00:38:03 A little softer tire. And I think that when you add those new elements in, the best race that we've seen at Bristol in the last, since at the, you know, in the long time was when the tires wore all the way out. Big accident. Yeah. And the big accident. Turned into one of the best races. That turned into one of the best races that we've ever seen at Bristol in this configuration. So hopefully it's not all the.
Starting point is 00:38:27 the way there, but pretty close. Yeah, yeah. So the new tire element could turn this whole thing upside down and all these conversations that we're having are out the window because now you have some sort of tire conservation piece of it or something that pops in, hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully. We're all hoping for that.
Starting point is 00:38:42 Do you think the four that are below the line stay there? I do. I don't think it changes. Okay. Okay. Do you need me to remind you? No, I know who's there. I think the only one that, the only one that might change is the three.
Starting point is 00:38:56 on points. I agree with Kevin. Even if the 48 has the speed, they got to put together a perfect day, and it just seems like, even when it's good, there's going to be a lot of pressure. There's going to be a lot of pressure on that team.
Starting point is 00:39:11 Yeah. You know, if they get eliminated in this first round of the playoffs with all the chatter and everything that's happened in the past, it's going to be interesting. It'll be crazy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:22 It won't be a sleepy race at all. I promise you all. It won't be that. That's right. No, we do not want a sleepy race. We don't need anyone sleeping on us. Okay, well, we look forward to it because it's going to be exciting. You're also doing the truck race.
Starting point is 00:39:35 I am doing the truck race. So am I on pit road. Thursday night. Who's your booth mate? Do you know? Do you remember, recall? I don't know. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:39:43 I think it's Legano. Oh, okay. I think Joey's in the booth. Oh, that'll be awesome. That'll be good. Yeah. Have you guys ever had any run-ins on at Bristol? I don't think.
Starting point is 00:39:53 Probably. Well, I did spend him out one time. Okay, you guys can talk about that. I did spend him out one time. He was chopping me. He was chopping and chopping and chopping and chopping and we were coming to the checkers, so I just wiped him out. That's fair.
Starting point is 00:40:05 Yeah. Well, that happens. It wasn't the only time. It was just one of those moments in the, in the Lugano Harvich saga that we worked through. It just took a while. Can you please bring the shirt? Which one? The I wear the, what is it?
Starting point is 00:40:21 She wears a fire suit. Yeah. We bring that shirt and hat you go over the fire suit. to him. He has them. I know, but I just want you to give him a note. That was one of the great parts about my retirement year. That was one of the fun weekends that we did. Yeah. And we actually, I actually went to Joey and I was like, hey, we want to do this. Is this, would you be cool with this? And he played right along and fell right in. And Joey and I actually became pretty good friends as we got towards the end of my career and worked through all the, all the nonsense that
Starting point is 00:40:49 we went through in the beginning. It was fun to watch, I assume, but Joey's just a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a good dude. He works hard. He's very vested in all things. Racing, works hard off the racetrack from a business standpoint. So it's fun. It'll be very fun having the two of you in the booth. Make sure you don't miss that Crosman Truck Series race on FS1. Okay. It is time now. It is a perk up. Hey. I thought the show was over. No. I thought this segment got canceled. No, this is, no, this is should get canceled. Ladies and gentlemen, this is, this is, you know, this is, you know, your favorite segment of the show. Mamba's social sips.
Starting point is 00:41:30 We were actively looking for a partner to make this even bigger. I thought we changed this. What? Yeah, I thought it was Slappy Social Sips. No, that's just what you, in your mind, we changed it in your mind. It changed for about half a second,
Starting point is 00:41:42 and I'm glad that Tyler has the right title around the bottom of right here. Slapstick. What could we sell? What if we renamed it Slapstick Social? Harvey. If that's what, Listen, if that's what gets as a partner on this part?
Starting point is 00:41:53 I got to find something that, sells something that maybe there's like a slapy's tequila or slapstick jerky or something. Maybe the 10-runner, 10-runner whiskey that R.B. just slapped. Oh, there you go. That is pretty cool, by the way. What? Ryan just dropped, he launched a whiskey. No, that's not fun. We need something called slapsticks. Oh, something called slapsticks. Yeah. You're a slapstick. That sounds funny. Just sit over there.
Starting point is 00:42:19 Did you say bucket? What did you say? Just sit over there. You'll be all right. Okay. Yeah. All right. Anyway, this past week, Erica Enders, who's one of the goats in the motorsports space, NHRA, Pro Stock, like five-time champion, got her 50th career win. It was a, in this, you know, which is super cool because this team has been, they've been struggling a little bit throughout this year, facing an uphill battle that I think typically you wouldn't see from someone, you can tell how excited they are.
Starting point is 00:42:52 The elation, yeah. Because that was also the U.S. Nationals. Very cool. You know, it was a big race. So shout out to her. I always loved that Disney Channel movie about her and her sister. I didn't see that one either. It was your kids probably know about it.
Starting point is 00:43:07 You can stream it right now. It's really cool. I forget what it was called. But it was basically their story of how they got to where they, where they're at in NHRA. So all the trials and tribulations. It's cool. That's cute. Yeah, it's cute.
Starting point is 00:43:19 50 wins. Shout out, go. Another racing space, but this is completely different. Austin Cindrick announced this week that he's going to across the pond, way across the pond. The land down under to race during the off season. Let's see what Austin has to say. Hey, Supercars fans, it's Austin Cindrick.
Starting point is 00:43:42 Can't wait to be joining the Supercars grid this November at the finale weekend in Adelaide. Can't thank everyone from Ford Performance, Tickford Racing, the SA Motorsport Board and Supercars for putting together this awesome wildcard opportunity and my talking points here say I'm ready to give it a red hot crack I'll see y'all there
Starting point is 00:43:59 A red hot crack I'm always worried with a red hot crack Is that normal? Yeah I don't think so I think y'all got to put some baby powder in there or something I don't know what you're supposed to do with that But are you sure I don't know I don't mean my I don't have that issue Mine's always just tanish
Starting point is 00:44:19 But anyway, it's huge for them because Austin, like the team Penske, they don't usually let their drivers go off and do stuff like this. Yeah, they really don't. So I think this is really cool. So that'll be something different. You said you always wanted to do this. I always wanted to go over and run one of the supercar races just. Seems like you could. They look like in cars.
Starting point is 00:44:36 That ship's sailed for me. Yeah. Why not? Because he can't even beat the 13 year old anymore. I mean, I can't even beat the 13 year old. And could you imagine me trying to shift left-handed at this age? Oh, no. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:48 No. Is it on the wheel? No, I don't think so. I think it's all over there. It's a sequential, but you've got to shift with your left hand. We have a mailbag question, y'all. We always love when the closers tag in for these. Let's see.
Starting point is 00:45:02 Why do even elite teams like Hendrik sometimes struggle at specific tracks like St. Louis? Despite the resources and data, why hasn't Kyle Bush been able to turn things around what say you go? Well, Kyle Busch turns things around almost weekly. unfortunately. He's talking about the spin last week. Had a little spin again this week. Yeah. And I think that, you know, I think that the Kyle Bush question is it's going to be tough. You know, I think their cars are just off. I think that Kyle being Kyle wants to push it faster or further than, and make things try to go faster. And when you do that in this car, you spin out. So, you know, he's just, he's had a, he's in a tough spot right now with,
Starting point is 00:45:49 where the cars are performing, and it seems like he goes overboard almost on a weekly basis, you know, with the spinouts and things that have happened, because there's just no, there's no cushion there. And you can't make the thing do more than it'll do. And, you know, that's, that's hard because he's not been programmed that way for his, for his whole career. I think that when you look at the, the Hendrick piece of it struggling at St. Louis, I think they had pretty fast cars. The nine. And the five were pretty fast. I think that that data and those resources did.
Starting point is 00:46:24 We talked about it last week. We thought they were going to be not competitive. And this week they were very competitive. And it's the first time that we've seen the speed out of those cars that we expect and at a racetrack where, you know, the results in the past haven't really been very good. So I think that there was, in my opinion, the sign of hope. But I think that you get, as an organization, you get good at certain types. of tracks, but it seems to rotate as you go through the years. Little things will change.
Starting point is 00:46:54 Little things will change. All of a sudden, you know, the package that you like with the soft rear springs or the stiff rear springs or certain type of shocks doesn't work at those tracks. And it doesn't really fall into the path that you've been chasing to get those things to work well on those styles of racetracks. And St. Louis is a, it's a different track. It's not like it's a Loudon or Richmond. It's a very, it's a very, you know, it's a very, you know, unique racetrack with the length of the straightaways and the braking and all the things that go with it. So it's not uncommon, you know, for those things to happen within an organization. But I, I do think that the one that's making the most grip right now is going the fastest.
Starting point is 00:47:35 Yeah. Shout out Ms. Michelle Johnson with that one. I think, too, Kevin, the one thing that changes a lot that you don't think about, well, I mean, the teams do, but we don't watching is the arrow part. Like, as you're working on different parts of the car, what we're, We'd adjusted this and now this. Arrow's always king. The cars that make the most grip run the fastest. And that all comes from the arrow group and the parts and pieces and maximizing the floorboards and the body panels
Starting point is 00:48:03 and everything that can make that much more grip and stacking them up times 10, all of a sudden becomes an advantage. And I think that that's where, that to me is where the speed changes come in cars. and when you see a situation like you see with, you know, the Gibbs cars and the Toyotas right now, it's just an overall grip enhancement. Sometimes it might come with a small horsepower piece that goes with it. So put all those pieces together and you see what we've seen at the start of the playoffs. The Toyotas are the fastest cars.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Thank you, Klosures. Yeah. There you go. That's your. Thanks, Sloppy. Lomba's social stick. Yeah, old slapstick. Sloppies.
Starting point is 00:48:46 Sloppies pick. We can get you like an. Elmer's glue, if we call it. We can be like slapsticks, um, social sips presented by Elmers. Can we sit? Calm down, grandpa.
Starting point is 00:48:58 You don't even know what Elmer's glue is. No one uses that anymore. No, yes, they do. Now they're, now they're glue sticks. Glou sticks. Yeah. You don't have any kids. So we, we've seen the evolution here. I don't think I have.
Starting point is 00:49:11 Big glue sticks. Blue stick gal, yeah. Oh, slap sticks. You don't want a glue sponsor? No, I think. I'm good. Yeah. He was looking for booze, I think.
Starting point is 00:49:20 You can't get picky. Hope there. When you're looking in the sponsor category. Hey, he can be a little picky. No. That could be a whole show in itself. Yeah.
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Starting point is 00:49:55 see dkng.c.com slash audio. NASCAR is not responsible for this promotion and used under license. Okay, Kevin, before we get into our picks for this week, let's take a look at the best bet of the weekend, courtesy of Draft King. Denny Hamlin, plus 450 this week. So, yeah, not over the top, but still could have made some decent money off of Denny Hamlin going,
Starting point is 00:50:16 Taking the checker flag. The last two years there. Yeah. I mean, he's run. He's run well. So it's definitely interesting to see how those odds are set. But take the checker flag with Draft King's Sportsbook. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook app and use code Harvick.
Starting point is 00:50:32 That's code Harvick for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on draft kings, the crown is yours. Yeah. I like it. Let's go. I did not know. It's about time. I know.
Starting point is 00:50:45 I know. I got, so. Wait, who got you that one? Well, so Piper is still, you know, manufacturing my real one. But while I was on the Virgin Voyager cruise, they gave me one doing one of the party nights. I'm like, oh, that's coming home. That came all the way from the cruise. Don't tell me you were dressed in like some sort of white.
Starting point is 00:51:04 No, no. That was Halloween a few years ago. Okay. I meant on the cruise. Yeah. What were you dressed up as? On the cruise? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:10 I was just looking good, Kev. I was just, when I stepped out, I was looking good. A couple buttons down, letting the chain gang hang out. No, you didn't keep the top button? No, no, no. Are you a hairy-chested kind of guy? I'm not, like, in the middle. I almost need to like...
Starting point is 00:51:23 It has a whole tattoo, right? Yeah, well, it goes over here, but I almost need it. It's like... Big tack guy. Tack guy. You got a tat-ed. No. No tat.
Starting point is 00:51:30 Is he tatted? Oh, man, I'd be mad. You'd be mad? Yeah, I mean... So if I beat you in the, in our little points thing for our show here? He is never going to get a tattoo. Yeah. That's not, okay.
Starting point is 00:51:43 That will not. It was worth that. What would I tattoo? I just put slapstick on my... You just got to put my face on your butt cheek. Tyler's telling me to move on to the burnout. I think of this conversation. All right, let's take a look at it.
Starting point is 00:51:56 Denny Hamlin. He took his time with this one. And we know he does listen to the show, so maybe he was hoping that he could get my heart. Well, it wasn't going good right here. You see the front tires are locked up. Back wheels are spinning. So he's got to have to reset.
Starting point is 00:52:09 He realizes that the front tires are not moving. So I don't know if we made some adjustments. I should have asked him about this. We had a good victory lap interview. But from that point forward, after we do this burnout in a circle here, burnout turns pretty good. He gets the wheels spinning right there. Big smoke.
Starting point is 00:52:30 Goes on for quite some time. So I was pretty impressed with this burnout. So we're going to give it a high remarks. Here I'd say somewhere bottom of the top five. There you go. bottom of the top. Yeah, because so realistically, this is like a, that was like a miniature SVG one. Because SVG would have been high five.
Starting point is 00:52:50 You know what I mean? So just the added little elements. It was just the burnout. Yeah. No added elements. You know, it's like we're looking, I don't know how we score gymnastics, but I guess you're looking for those little details that go along with. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:02 How far your toes were spread apart or. Is that a thing? I don't know. I don't think so. I just made that up. Okay. I can tell you don't watch gymnastics at all because that's, I don't think that's a thing. Oh, well.
Starting point is 00:53:13 To spread. To spread. Ex. Point two points. It's point two tenths. That's about what my score is right now. Two tens? In the picks.
Starting point is 00:53:22 Point. Oh. Yeah, you suck. Yes, I am aware. Let's see. Kevin got plus six for picking Ryan Blaney. The two of you both picked Ryan, so you gained. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:32 I picked Tyler Redick, which I truly believed in. I don't know what happened. I think you truly believe in all your picks. I want the best for everybody. Do you put any thought into them or do you just kind of look? I actually do. Really? You go back and look at some old stats and things like that? I do.
Starting point is 00:53:45 You know me. Of course I look at stats. You need to throw those reddick stats away. I think she just needs to change her methodology. Yeah. So what's your pick this week? It was Joey Lagano. You're going to pick Joey Lagano?
Starting point is 00:53:59 I am. Okay. Brittany told me, Brittany told me never to not, never to count out Jerry Lugano. Oh, I agree. I would never count them out. To win Bristol, I don't know if that's true. I would love to just be right once. I'm not picking first.
Starting point is 00:54:12 Are you not? No, you're in second. So I have to pick last. Okay, cool. I think we're going to get our first winner from outside of the playoffs. I think he is going to get his first win of his Cup Series career. Give me 54 tie gifts. Interesting.
Starting point is 00:54:29 That's an interesting pick. Yeah, I was not expecting that. Yeah. And, you know, I think you guys left all the winners on the table there. Larson and Hamlin. Yeah. Which one are you going with Larson or Hamelin? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:39 Yeah, okay. I mean, I think that I think that, I think that, I think that the five popped up last week with some speed that I hadn't seen in Bristol has always been his place. Really good there. So I'm going to go with Larson. Let the diffuser flap stay down. Up.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Yeah. That's what I meant. The Larson thing, it's hard not to go with him with how dominant he was there in the spring. Last couple. The last couple. And Danny's been really good there throughout his career. So I'm just like tied. and it's time for Ty to get a win.
Starting point is 00:55:12 There's one on the schedule right now. Those cars are fast. I mean, he finished all four of those JGR cars were in a top 10 last week. He finished 10th. This is Gabe Hart's favorite racetrack and obviously he's been a little bit more entrenched with what's going on.
Starting point is 00:55:24 Very much entrenched. Gabehart. A little will be interesting. I think I'm gaining points this week. I don't think you are. Tell us about your Thursday interview. Well, we had our friend Rodney Childers back to get an update.
Starting point is 00:55:38 Friend of the show. We've seen a lot of his comments on social media, and it's that time of year where people are starting to look around, to try to make their situations better. So it'll be interesting to see where he lands. But I just wanted to see where his head is, talk about late model racing, talk about what he's been doing and what this time has been like with him.
Starting point is 00:56:03 So it was an interesting conversation. Look forward to that. I always liked him. I truly believe, tweeted this out over the weekend. I saw your tweet. That's nice. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:11 It's X. What do you call an X? What do you call an ex post? Exactly. It's an ex post. That's why I like tweets better. Yeah. Like, I truly believe if you were a Xfinity or like a truck team, because those are the type of cars, I think Rodney loved the most generation of car.
Starting point is 00:56:30 To not ask him to come in and try to give you a good, honest opinion of where your organization is and help with some processes to make. Like a competition director. Not even that. Just like as a consultant. Yeah, but what does that get you? I don't know what it gets. I mean, for him personally, what would that get you? I don't, I'm not sure.
Starting point is 00:56:46 It depends on the deal you make, right? Like in my brain, you get more, you have more freedom. You get to still be a part of a process. Yeah. But like, you're not married to anything, but you're married to making things better. I think that if you're going to cup race, you're going to have to get into it. Oh, yeah. If you're going to cup race.
Starting point is 00:57:02 If you're going to cup race, you're going to have to get into it immediately. Yeah, yeah. And move forward with that. because it's just the progression of the garage and the way that all the information flows and how fast everything changes, it'll leave you quickly if you don't stay involved in it on a weekly basis. Do you think that would be a good pairing with Conor Zilich? I think that the experience in youth would definitely be an interesting pairing. I think that somebody like Brad Kozlowski, I mean, they're going to have to look at changing that team around,
Starting point is 00:57:33 in my opinion. I think they got to run better. I don't know if it's engineers or crew chief who knows. But I think that when you look at teams that need a change, I think you look at the 6th and you look at the 48 and you look at the Zillet situation, you can make a long list of the 41 car. I mean, there's a long list, half the garage needs to make a change. But when you got a guy that's won a championship
Starting point is 00:57:58 and been there, done that, it's just a matter of who is going to make a change. Yeah. All right. Wait. You have another note. Yeah, I have a little note. Oh.
Starting point is 00:58:09 Hey, closers, the world. Make your picks. We have our QR code. There's a link. Go to it. Come try to beat. Kevin. You have to try to beat, Caitlin.
Starting point is 00:58:20 Yeah, apparently quite easy. But you can try to beat me and Kevin. One of us is going to win this whole thing. I think we should give something away. Okay. What do you think? We should start coming up with a prize or something or something to give away for. Yes.
Starting point is 00:58:33 Like weekly or just at the end of this thing? Maybe? I don't know. You have a lot of stuff. Weekly. I think weekly. Yeah. Scan the QR code or there is a link in the podcast description for you to get in on the action and submit your picks for the weekend.
Starting point is 00:58:46 All right. You can wear them or tie them. You wear them more time. Or just frame them. That's worthy of a frame, my friend. Okay. Thanks for your shoes. You're welcome.
Starting point is 00:58:57 For us here. All right. Make sure you keep subscribing on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. Leave five-star review. Send in fan questions and make sure you select your race picks as well. you guys after Bristol.

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