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, 2025Kevin 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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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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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,
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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,
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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,
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
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.
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
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
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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,
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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,
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Thank you, Klosures.
Yeah.
There you go.
That's your.
Thanks, Sloppy.
Lomba's social stick.
Yeah, old slapstick.
Sloppies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sponsor landscape.
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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,
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.
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Yeah.
I like it.
Let's go.
I did not know.
It's about time.
I know.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
