Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Denny Hamlin Wins at Las Vegas After WILD Comeback Through the Field!

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Denny Hamlin’s emotional NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports showing renewed speed, and a race filled with pit road mistakes and strategy battles headline a dramatic weekend in NASCAR as the season begins to take shape ahead of Darlington Raceway. On this episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith break down Hamlin’s impressive drive from deep in the field to capture win number 61, Chase Elliott’s strong runner-up finish, Hendrick Motorsports’ encouraging performance with William Byron and Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs continuing his recent run of top-five finishes, and several costly pit road penalties before looking ahead to Darlington with insight into what makes the Track Too Tough to Tame so difficult for drivers. The show also features Mamba’s Social Sips with trending motorsports stories and fan moments from the weekend before the crew makes their picks for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race. 0:00 - Intro 1:44 - Las Vegas Weekend Recap 34:20 - Darlington Preview 42:28 - Mamba’s Social Sips 51:54 - Last Call Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How many wins can he get to it? Can he get to 70? I think 70 is a lot to ask. Still seems very much in his prime. I think that Chase Elliott has been sneaky. Sneaky. We've seen Rosso Fits before. We've also seen Daniel Swiss before.

It could be quite a fight. This weekend's cup race could be the gnarliest race that we have seen there in a long time. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vinci and the Galloping Ghosts, Waterboy. No.

No, former point guard and captain. You're the water boy. Randolph Union High School got up and goes. No, no. You put that on your ex-bio, captain. Well, I was. You couldn't have been anything more than the water boy. Listen, I was a sharp shooter.

I led the team and assists too. Is that your high school jersey? This is my high school jersey. Yeah, so shout out to them. They went to the... Must have been big. They went to the... Well, we only got...

The jersey only came in one size, and I was very small at the time. They went to their championship, state championship. Shout to my old coach, Jimmy Raleigh. So they didn't win, but I want to represent. You know, it's March Madness anyway. It is.

Yeah, we're all. I didn't know there was anything on TV other than racing. Barely. Barely anything. Okay, that can justify then wearing this for March Madness. Very good. Shout up Randolph. Welcome in to another edition of Happy Hour.

We got plenty to talk about leaving Las Vegas. We'll preview Darlington, of course, coming up. And you got a big list of Sips today. The Sips are, we have changed the Sips Closers, and you're going to be excited about it. I can't wait to get there. Yes, that'll be exciting. I always look forward to the Sips. Everyone's favorite segment, as he says.

Hey, welcome back. We're glad you're here, Kevin, our fearless leader. Let's get right into Las Vegas and what Denny Hamlin was able to do, especially given everything he's been through. Was there ever any doubt, though, that he would be able to do this? It sure didn't look like it. After practice and qualifying, you could see the confidence in Denny Hamlin, and all of those Toyotas were really fast,

especially the Joe Gibbs Toyotas. And when you go back to last October, this was really the first race that we've gone to that didn't have a lot of question marks behind it. And when we left there in October with Denny Hamlin winning the race and his confidence on Saturday after he had practiced and you could see it in the speed charts. And then in qualifying, qualified well, but drove from the back had a speeding penalty early. A lot of people having a lot of problems in that first section on pit road. You know, that's a short section on pit road. Not something that we don't.

We always see that at Las Vegas with people having speeding. penalties. But Denny Hamlin put it all together, got back through traffic. They had good pit stops and put themselves in a position to win with, with, you know, the dominant car. And at one point, I thought, man, the Chevys have kind of figured it out and gotten better. But really all that was was just the toy others putting themselves at the back of the back to give everybody else a chance. So it was, it was neat to see that all come full circle for Denny to see his mom there, his kids, wife, or his, is, is his other half uh jordan with him and you know i think it's it's fun to see people be successful when they have so much so many things happening in their lives that are just so bad yeah um and having

to deal with those things and to see them overcome that and be able to achieve what you're out there to do and that's to be successful and win a race and you know i think that there were a lot of questions at the beginning of the year as to where would denny hamlin show up how would he react to all the things that happened and he's just shown back up to be the same Denny Hamlin. Work hard, drive his car fast, don't make as many mistakes as everybody else. And even on a day when he did make a mistake on pit road was able to dig in and overcome that. Yeah, able to compartmentalize all the things that have happened in his personal life to go out there and get this win. What impressed you the most about that? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the way we ended last, last season, right,

in a situation where some adversity came on, and he wasn't able to rise to that occasion and get that done in that situation. And the next time he was in a situation like that, he did that. That's Hall of Fame or Denny Hamlin, right? That's a 61 now time winner. He just passed Kev.

He just passed you for 10th all time on the win list. Like, this is what you expect out of him. And my favorite thing is when you can see in the car's attitude, where a driver's at mentally, like the car looked like he just had it in a situation where he was digging like it just looked like mean it looked fast the way he was driving was aggressive and getting back through there he was very motivated um even after especially after the pit road penalty coming off pit road and he knew he stalled a fast car

he's like no we're not going to let this one go so let me ask you guys this yeah so he's got 61 right now yep he says he's going to drive this year and one more he said he said one more well i mean i'm just that that's where the contract is right now, right? Okay. So, I mean, how many wins can he get to? I mean, how many wins do you think he can win this year? I think he can win a handful of races again this year. I think, I think conservatively, it's five. That was just going to say five. Can he get, can he get to 70? Yeah, I think so. Can he? Yeah, can he for sure? Will he? I don't, I think he'll probably get maybe like four, one year and three another year. Like, you'll still have multiple wins. I think 70 is

There's a lot to ask, especially with the landscape of the Cup series and kind of the comers and the goers. And he's got to beat his own teammates, too. You know what I mean? Like they're not sloppers over there. Still seems very much in his prime, you know? Yeah. And that's the big question, right? Like when he gets to the end of this contract, does he say, well, I'm still winning?

Mm-hmm. Should I keep going? Or do you let it get to the point where you slide? I always like when people go out on top and are winning and competitive. And, you know, you look at the Kyle Bush situation and everything that that's, happening there in that legacy and you look back at Jimmy Johnson's legacy. Darryl Waltrip. Darryl Waltrip.

So many of these legacies end losing. And it just, in my opinion, it takes away from it. So I'd like to see him. If he's going to go out, go out while you're winning. You don't get that opportunity very often to go out on top of your game. Yeah, he, he, he, he, yeah, he, he, yeah, one of the few in recent years. Yeah. I mean, at least Jeff Gordon did it.

Yeah, there's a couple guys that are able to do that. I mean, I think even, even Tony won in one of his last towards the end of his deal. And it, it just validates. puts a nice little bow on your career. It ends the right way. Yeah. You know, you look at Jimmy Johnson in the way that that ended.

I mean, it's just not, it just took away from everything that he did, unfortunately in the, in the, general perception of the public and the race fan. So I hope he goes out on top. Yes. He deserves it. I agree.

So we're talking about Denny Hamlin. I want to reference Hendrick Motorsports, though, for a minute, because you had talked about how this weekend was going to be a big litmus test to kind of see where they were at with that. Big word. That was a word. The Chevy knows.

So what did you think? Are you encouraged by what you saw? Yeah. Well, there's so much hype around, you know, internally around what Chevrolet did with their body, right? Like they didn't make their body worse. They felt internally. But that's just not how this works.

And with all the different arrow rules and things that you have going on, the balance of these cars is so hard to get right. There's no way that you're going to get it right everywhere. And we haven't really seen them get it right. anywhere, in my opinion. Yeah. And I think that there were moments in the race this weekend. And this was a great test because Kyle Arson has been so good at Las Vegas. Now, we did see him lead laps and we did see him run up in the front. But they didn't win. And, you know, ultimately the Gibbs Toyotas were the dominant cars in my opinion. So, you know, I still think they have work to do

to get the balance right on their cars and know exactly how they need to. And, you know, how they need to get everything, everything situated. So they definitely still have some work to do. I think that you look at the Hendrick Chevroletes, they were, they were good. The rest of the Chevroletes, not so good. Not so good. So, you know, I still think, I think they're searching. And what did William Byron tell you guys on pre-race about the cars? Yeah, and that was the first time that you've heard him really come out and say, William Byron said, look, we're struggling with the balance, to get the balance of our cars right. And, you know, I think they know that it probably makes more down for us. It's probably more efficient in all the areas that they wanted it to be more efficient.

But with the way that the bump stops are and the limitors and everything that you have going on, you just you can't get it right until you get it on the racetrack. And, you know, it was very evident that, you know, the Gibbs cars went through the bumps better than everybody else in the way that they had everything timed out. And they've still got some work to do to get all that signed out because, I mean, we're talking thousands of an inch that it takes to get everything set right. So still searching a little bit, but they're not, the Hendrick cars aren't far off. The other ones were far off. Chase Elliott was the runner up yesterday.

And he, you know, it was obviously coming pretty close to Denny Hamlet, if maybe he had more time. And he was like, I had to remind myself to not be too disappointed because we were a lot better today than we have been in the past. Which is see out of him. I mean, I'm pretty sure someone on this show said a breakout year might be coming for a Chase Elliott and company. They haven't won yet, but. Sitting fifth in points, by the way. The speed is there at the beginning of the year, which we haven't seen that at the nine group in a while. So if I'm them, I'm really excited about what we're starting out with.

And also, if you're the Toyoters or everybody else in the field, you can't expect to keep the Chevroletes at bay. Because they're going to learn so much more about what they're doing. Because to your point, you know, they're new with the nose. So they're trying to figure out exactly what they need. What they had last year was great for last year's situation. It's a little off for this year's situation. So they're going to test this out and keep getting better and better. And we only have so much time on track.

So they're going to be there by the middle of the year. And I would disagree with you a little bit on this. I think that Chase Elliott has been sneaky. Sneaky. And exactly what we've talked about on this show and why this chase format is going to make Chase Elliott better is because of the fact that they can grind. And he and Allen and the way that Chase races, he has a day like he did yesterday, right? you know, has a good solid performance. But it's the days that you don't see them or you don't hear about them that all of a sudden

they show up and finish ninth when they ran 20th. Yeah. And those are the things that Chase Elliott does better. And if you didn't tell everybody that he was fourth in the points to start that race yesterday, nobody would have believed you because they've just been quietly getting the finishes that they need and capitalizing on the day when everybody else, you look back at Larson at Atlanta making a mistake driving over the, over the front of that car at the, at the end of that stage. Those are the types of things that Chase Elliott isn't going to do.

And that's why he'll keep himself up into points. And you've got to be in the top six or seven to have a chance at this championship. It's not how far you are behind into points. It's when that reset happens with the points that go with it. Chase Elliott currently the highest Hendrick Mintersports car in the points right now. Another person who's making gains is Ty Gibbs. He had a top five performance yesterday. his third consecutive one.

I spoke to his crew chief about how much he's a quick study and very much a student of the sport. And I think you're seeing that come together for Ty Gibbs and his team. Well, you can't when you have the speed in the race car, you can learn everything else. You know, different people learn it at different paces. But the thing that the 54 car has had since last year, the second half of last year is speed. And when you have the speed to go with your race car, you're going to continuously put yourself up in the front and qualifying. helping up in front during the race. You saw them go to the back yesterday.

They gathered themselves back up, got another third straight top five. So those are the types of things. When you can consistently get top fives, you're going to start winning races. And so you just have to keep grinding away to take advantage of the speed in your race car and be able to put yourself in that top five on a consistent basis will eventually result in a win. You look at him. You got to give it credit because last year you could see it coming, but there was still some of that like immaturity and a little bit of putting himself maybe not the greatest

situations or positions on track and getting into it some folks this year I think he's settled in he knows he's got speed he has he has a confidence and the circle life is getting all the picture is getting a little bit more clear for ties coming into his own as a person off the racetrack and I think that just helps you on the racetrack and now he has the confidence and believes in the car he's had interviews where he talks about he has to write people around him and they believe in him and that's all going in the right direction. So now it's resulting on track. And there it is. And if you want to know where everybody's at, just watch their interviews. Yeah. You know, Denny Hamlin this weekend. Just pay attention to what they say and how they,

what their demeanor is like. Ty Gibbs is very much like exactly what you're saying. He has that confidence. He's speaking to the media well. Denny Hamlin this weekend. When he has that confidence in the way that he speaks to the media, you go to somebody like, um, well, Hosevar this weekend when they interviewed him after practice. It was like, oh, this is the worst piece of shit I've ever driven in my life. Basically, he didn't say it that way, but that's basically what he insinuated. It was, I mean, everything that he said was it was terrible. And ultimately, that's where they ran.

And so just listen and pay attention to when the drivers talk and you can tell where they're at mentally. And you got it, like some of those guys, like when you know what you kind of got going into the race, right? And some of them, like a Chase Elliott or like a Blaney, the guys that can grind out a good finish. They have the confidence because they know their team is going to, we're going to keep working on it chipping away at it. Yeah. And some guys, they don't have that because they haven't been able to do that as much. So when they unload bad, it's a, it's, it's

in their head. I almost said a word I shouldn't say it. I was seeing you do that. It's in their head and they can't, like, it's hard to get over that because I haven't seen us do that before. We're going to suck all day. And that's the difference between a host of our interview and a Blaney interview. Yeah. He gave us the keys to the whole puzzle. We knew that he wasn't going to be a contender right off the bat with the way that he spoke when you talk to blaney it's like well we're not very good but you know i know the guys are going to make a good change in the car and and you can just you can tell the guys that have been there for a while and understand the process and some weeks you're going to struggle but when you struggle in this format you better figure out how to finish 10th or 12th

or maximize your day and not make it worse spig got uh this is one point he was fifth going into the weekend and now he is 16 that yeah can you believe that's how much of a swing this point if you You get a DNF. That's wild. We talked about at the beginning of the year. Like now you're starting to see how quick your season can kind of get turned upside down. All right. So let's talk about Christopher Bell now.

Got the poll. Had one of the best pit crews all day, by the way. Very impressive performance from them, but still didn't get the win from the pole. Yeah. Those pit stops, unbelievable, had multiple pit stops below nine seconds, which was pretty awesome to see those guys are doing a good job. Look, Bell, he qualified on a poll. he's never won from the pole.

And so, you know, I think you have to look at, you know, what's happening there. And we talk about Christopher Bell all the time. I mean, he's fast and had a fast car all day, but just couldn't quite figure out how to overcome the, the 11 speed, the toy or the Chevroletes got around him at one point. And just didn't, didn't capitalize on having that first pit stall and qualified on a pole in the track position and everything that went with it. But I mean, they've got speed. And I think that like we talked with Ty Gibbs, I mean, when those cars have speed, that that makes things, you got to make that result a top five. And they did. But, you know, I think that those top five still result in wins.

And there again, we talk about it with Kyle Arson. You've got to have the consistency throughout the whole year. And I think that's going to be where we see what the 20 team is made of if they can have that consistency without having those big failures. You thought you picked him the whole day. I thought the whole day. I guess last week I must have leaned in. You kind of went between. You know, I started with Bell and then I went with Briscoe, which was a fine pick too.

Yeah. But Bell, I mean, he's just one of those guys that he has so fast. And especially at Vegas, he's so fast. And they kind of ganged up on him a little bit. They had to. They had like the, when he was in the dog fight with the Hendrick cars, oh my God. That was some of the best racing I've seen. That move that Larson made.

and Larson is notorious for this. He'll make these big sweeping moves and then stop, like with one lane. And he did that to Bell, and it actually checked Bell up just a little bit. But he's notorious, and he doesn't end in a sprint car and racing around him for a long time. He'll put you in these awkward positions that were like, is he going to come up the racetrack right here? I'm not sure, so I'm just going to protect myself. And then all of a sudden, he's got the track position, but that's exactly where he did to Bell. They ganged up on him, man.

They put on a hell of a show. Like nowhere, just the whole thing. Yeah, just all the sudden. because, you know, how the air moves with these cars, like once two cars get side by side, it sucked in the third, Chase Elliott was there. Now they're three wide for two laps.

And then all of a sudden, I know where William Byron comes through. And then the other Toyota started coming through. And even when the 2311, Toyota's were up in there, and he was racing with Gibbs and Denny, it just seemed like everyone was attacking the 20, and he would get sucked back.

He had good short run speed, but not enough to get in front of them. And then it was better in the long run, and it fell off at the end. It just seemed like the balance of one he was in the front, front didn't really match up. And at that time, that's when the 54 and 11 had their penalty. Yeah. And those toys, there was more of them right there. And in my opinion, you want to try to take those guys down that that you think if they get the track position and have that clean

air, they can be dominant. And they did a good job of keeping him at bay right there. So we're talking about Christopher Bell. What about his Joe Gibbs racing teammate of Chase Briscoe, who we continue to talk about week in week out with a series of different issues that keeps plaguing this team. This time, they also had a speeding penalty. Then they had a pit in Ty Gibbs pit for a loose wheel. You got a top 10, though. Do you think they're going to ever cross this threshold? I think James is going to go through a lot of radios.

I mean, there's going to be stuff broken everywhere. And I love the intensity out of James. And I think they're a perfect match for each other. I've said this before because that's what that's what Briscoe needs. But I can promise you, and you'll hear this in my picks this week, but I can promise you that the intensity level of that team from the top at James, in the crew chief role will push that team forward

because they have what they need from the speed standpoint but when he got trapped he had the loose wheel had to stop and get it done and then he had the speeding penalty all those things happening kept him trapped a lap down

but they had the speed to get back where they needed to be and just it took them all day to get back on the lead lap and never really got to adjust their car racing in the front they were always battling trying to fight for their life

to get themselves back in a position to be on that lead lap and never really saw the full potential out of that car because of the mistakes that they made. But whether it's a crash or mistakes, you know, I think that that has really put them in a hole that is going to be a tough hole to dig out of unless you're winning races. And I think that they know that they're going to have to start winning races. And the biggest thing that happened this weekend, they didn't score any stage points.

Right. Yes. After two consecutive 37th place finishes, they're probably just happy to have a top 10 right now. Well, I mean, the way the weekend started for Chase in the O'Reilly series race, he knocked down the fence and that race twice. Had to come down pit road, fall all the way back, finished second and that one. So he kind of was the same thing on Sunday. Like adversity, you know, self-inflicted wounds,

and then trying to lick your wounds back to health so you can be okay again. But it started from the last week. Yeah. When they went out in qualifying, and Vegas is one of those racetracks where it cleans off as guys go. And he went out super early. He had the car that could have qualified up there with his teammates. But as early as he went out, no chance. No chance.

Speaking of qualifying, Brad Kislauski has struggled in that department as of late. Now, they did get a top 10 and definitely some glimmers of hope for RFK as a whole based on what you saw on Sunday. What do you think about where that organization is? RFK had the best Fords. They had the best fords at the racetrack. And we knew the forwards were going to struggle on the mile and a half racetrack with what they have going on with error wise. So, and I think they all know that. They all know that the mile and a halfs are their weak point to be able to compete on.

But RFK cars, I mean, they ran, they ran respectable as the day went. You saw priests and Busher and Kozlowski up there. But the biggest deficit that Brad has, I think if he could qualify in the top 10 like Busher did, I think he's going to race a little further forward just with his experience and the things that he can do on the racetrack. But if Brad's going to get back to Victory Lane, they're going to have to qualify better. What did you see at RFK? They should feel good about where they're starting the year.

I think being up in the mix and not only with one car. Like when it's one car, you know, you're like, okay, but is this really hitting for everybody? It's just this group and this drive or whatever. But when all three cars are in the mix, and I mean, which they have been, you know, a little bit, but more so on a mile and a half, which is really important. And I think with Brad's leg and still recovering, I mean, I don't think you could ask for much more out of that driver to get you a top 10 in that situation. You know what I like about that team is is the camaraderie between the three drivers. Yeah. It just feels good. Yeah. And I feel like they're working

towards the same goal. It feels like a working man's team. You know, with priests and Kozlowski and Busher. It just feels like a working man's team. Did you guys see their commercial? Yes, I love that commercial. What was it? The Trimble. Yes. Their commercial with Carla Metsons is like asking a question and they're like ignoring their question. And then they're just like sitting there like the night of the rocks barry it was so funny like to your point like they do a lot of stuff like that and they do a lot of stuff together and i wouldn't say that they're the same type of race car drivers but i think they understand the common goal and work to your point kevin to that together and i think people underestimate that chemistry that it takes if you can get

three drivers that'll work together the progression of how things happens happens faster yeah and when you when you have that in a team, and that's what always was better about the four team at Stuart Haas compared to how it was at RCR for me, you just had that, everybody had that belief in each other and they believed that they were going to get better and they were working towards it in a manner that was productive. And, you know, I think that's, that chemistry is super important. Chemistry among teammates important. Speaking of that. Kind of like here. Yeah. That's right. We got a nervous Nelly and a water boy.

and some old goat that is not even true some old goat over there on the other side I can't see you what he's still blind from the sun out in Phoenix with all Bush sit down now I got a spray tan

you got a spray tan you needed that base layer yeah I need that base layer I don't need a base layer my base my spray tan was the the shiny sun in Las Vegas and Phoenix and Bakersfield when you ran there

Baker's field when you're racing yourself that's probably why that's probably why Maybe my ears red. My helmet's too tight. Scratch my face. That's what happens when you get old. You say, do you have a big head?

No, I'm just saying that I like to wear my helmet tight. Oh. Yeah. Why? Well, that way when you hit something, you don't get hurt. That makes sense. Did you see Zillich at Phoenix when he went to qualify? And he went down on the apron for the first time and knocked his helmet down.

He came up off the apron and he had to pull his helmet back up after qualifying. It was funny. Yeah. Before this, we were talking about teammates. and I think an interesting development has happened between former teammates of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez having some incidents on track came together after the race on pit road.

What do you make of that whole situation when you're that mad about 17th or whatever they were fighting for? Yeah, well, you're already mad that you're racing for 17th and I don't know exactly what happened on the racetrack to create that. But, I mean, what do you read into that just from, I mean, is that from what they, what was going on at trackhouse before? It seems a lot deeper because, you know, that was that was pretty heated off of

something that was way back in the pack. Yeah, I would say without talking to either one of these guys, that there is some, they're very motivated. Perhaps to Lauren Emily, by the way. I think he always feels like he's getting the short end of the stick and like is a part or something and maybe feels like he's told like, yeah, you're going to be our nucleus and then kind of gets knocked down a couple of rungs. I think that happened a little bit at Gibbs.

It kind of happened at SHR. It kind of happened to get at track house. And now he's at Spire. And now they're running better. Like he's running really fast. He's run better than most of those. Most of the truck house cars. And so, you know, there's that.

And then you take Ross. Ross is trying to, you know, captain this young trackhouse as far as experience, young trackhouse group. And they're struggling a little bit. And, you know, those two things are kind of crossing. And they're too fiery guys. We've seen Ross Strow Fits before. And we've also seen Daniel Swirs before.

That'd be a war. It'd be quite a fight. That is one that I would love to witness and I don't know who's going to put it on. I don't either. I mean, those are two tough-ass guys. Heavy hands. They've got heavy hands and not scared to use them. Yeah.

And I think that there's definitely some tension. So that'll be interesting to follow. It will be. We'll be curious to see if that continues. You know who they were all scared of those. Lauren who was standing there. I was trying to say that. Props to her.

Yeah, the PR girl. She was. having none of it. She's like, boy, boys. She looked like a security card. This is not happening today. And if you're going to go to him, you're going to have to go through me. That's definitely the message that she was sending. That was awesome. With a straw hat and everything.

It was awesome. And never even, never broke a smile, never flinch, nothing. It's just like, look, I'm not having this today. I'm in charge here. You two can do whatever you think you need to do, but you're not going to hit each other. It's like, it's like the aunt is holding the two kids up by this. You know what I mean? Just keeping them outstretched.

It's so funny. Good for her. It's part of the job is PR up, apparently. You got to step in and prevent the fights. Sometimes. What do you think about track house right now? Obviously, SVG had that incredible save on lap two in the race. And I mentioned the drop he made in points, unfortunately, but where do you think that team is right now?

Well, I think he's done it up until this race. He had done a really good job of keeping himself in position, just made a mistake right there and got loose off the corner, got in the door of Eric Jones right there and got loose. And, you know, I think that that one moment, I don't know what the damage was on the car or what what took place right there. But just never really gathered gathered it up through the day to be able to rebound like he has in all the other races where, you know, they've had trouble. So, you know, I think at the end of Coda, I think Connor Zillich had the

fastest car to be perfectly honest with you. I think he was the fastest car on the racetrack and got in two unfortunate positions. I think at Phoenix and Vegas, I think we saw the reality of the Cup series for Connor and how hard it's going to be. But my gauge is just like what you said, where's the one car running? And Ross Chastain is the heart and soul of that team as far as the performance goes with his experience and leadership of the organization. And I just, you know, I don't think they've quite got their cars where they need to be right now, especially when you get to a traditional oval like we saw last weekend. Yeah, I think it's just super hard. They're just in a really difficult situation.

I was hanging out with, you know, Randall Burnett and who is... I saw the picture of the guys together. Connor's crew chief and their group and Connor as well. And we were kind of talking about like the difficulty of the Cup series

and Connor's like, it's hard. Nothing he's ever seen. Nothing. Like it's like, you know, these guys are shitting and getting and it's hard to keep up with them. And I, and he just doesn't have the track time, right?

He was only in the O'Reilly's Art Apart series for one year. So he's like, So in that situation, you see these tracks. But these cars are way different to drive, and the drivers are next level. And Randall's like, yeah, we just don't have enough practice. So I'm asking him to do things at a very high level that he's never seen before. And he just has to believe that this car is going to stick.

And when I say, all right, I'm putting tires on it, hold it wide open. And he's done 10 laughs around the place. Right. Like, that's a lot to ask somebody. So which is also why I think the Cup Series drivers are some of the best in the world because they have the shortest amount of track time and then are just doing. in remarkable things. So I think you're just going to see the evolution, right, of Connor and with SVG.

And we even heard Bubba had an interview this weekend. Someone asked him what he thought about SVG. He's like, he's going to win an oval race this year. And when SVG starts winning on ovals, and I think it'll be like a mile and a half probably, watch out, man. Yeah, and I don't think that's going to happen this year. I think that I don't think he'll win a race, but I think we've already seen that he's going to be more competitive.

And I think that he has. the potential down the road to win an oval race, but I don't see that happening this year. Not what the other cars are right now. No. They might earlier on. One of the things we've talked about a little bit was pit road. And I want you to explain a little more detail why that pit road at Las Vegas is so tough. Well, it's difficult because it's not straight. And so you have these little curves in the corners of pit road. And what that creates is two different speeds that you have to run

down pit road, the way that they measure pit road. And, and, and, you know, So you saw a lot of failures on pit road because of the fact that they would speed in Section 1 or speed out and getting too much out of the car. You set the limiter right where it needs to be within half a mile and hour of the maximum. So it's real easy to as you go from fast in the corner to slow it back down going straight to go too far and then you wind up bumping that RPM really easily. So it's a really tricky pit road. You saw Blaney slide through the pit box right there. Those pit boxes are really slick with all the rubber and the way that that concrete is. So it's a very, very difficult pit road to navigate for stopping the car and keeping your pit road speeds maximized, but also not taking it too far.

I think even pit in is super hard because it's kind of late. It's really late in the corner. Well, we saw it was Zillich. He hit the back of Stenhouse. Ty Dillon destroyed that car last year. And then I think, Denny and actually Denny and. See, Bell almost got in a situation like that early. Bell had to check up really hard.

So, like, you're kind of, you're all loaded up and you're trying to keep pace because you don't want to give up all this time into the corner just to get down pit road. It's all the way around the corner. It's all the way. It's so late in the corner. And then you just got to kind of stop and turn it all at once. And, like, you can't let someone know, like, these guys aren't one hand out the window like trying to do that.

Like, you got both hands on the wheel still trying to get on pit road. This is this a really, like, difficult situation. And I don't know if we saw it before with the other cars. I just see like now it seems like it's really showing up every time we go to Vegas. Pit Road definitely in Achilles heel for a number of teams this past weekend. What about Kyle Larson? He's the final driver I want to touch on one, the O'Reilly's race. Has always been very strong at Vegas.

But what did you make it his day? I thought it was a good day. I think that this was a real, I mean, he had a great weekend. He won the O'Reilly race and won an Sprint Car race, ran three sprint car races, the O'Reilly race and the Cup race. So typical Kyle Larson racing. racing everything that he can race and being successful at it. But I think that the cup race on Sunday is the best judge that everybody has had,

including them, as to where they are and what they need to work on. I think from here you see a progression as we go forward because of what they were able to see what their deficits were throughout the day and what they needed to have different. So they're working through the process right now of getting their cars balanced correctly and knowing what they need, what they're. new Chevrolet body. So I think that it wasn't a disaster. Both he and Byron and Chase Elliott, you know, ran in the top five, but just not quite, they're just a little bit off of where they need to be to have the raw speed and winning speed and just outright beat everybody right

now. Kyle Larson currently seventh in the standings, by the way. Yeah, they have enough speed to be in the conversation. And if you mess up a little bit, they will be able to capitalize. I think the Hendrick, I mean, take Alex Bowman out of it because he's sidelines right now. The three of them, Byron, Larson, and Elliot, you got Larson who's super aggressive.

Then you got Chase, who's, to your point, we've talked about a bunch, a grinder, and just kind of meticulously makes his way through the day. And then you got Byron who has a little bit of both of that in him. Yeah. And I think it's a very interesting trio, and I think that they are

able to work together in a different way than RFK, but because you have the styles of how they drive, it makes it interesting. So I think you're finding a lot of information out. And Byron, Byron's a sleeper. He's a sleeper from the aggression side. Yeah. He's super aggressive, but he's just real quiet about it. And I don't know that he gets enough credit for how aggressive he has become.

He doesn't, you know what it is? Is like his aggression doesn't usually turn into Rex or DNFs or spinouts, right? Yeah. And a lot of times we see Kyle's does. But Kyle's aggression is a little bit more like putting the car in a weird spot. And I think Williams is more like putting his car like next to me. It's just a little bit more calculated. Yeah, that's a great way to put it.

Well, look at it. Yeah, she's very elegant about it. He gives you a compliment, then he gives you a dig. That's the way it goes on this show. All right, guys, let's move on to Darlington, a racetrack that you had success at, won there three times, Kevin. So I know you work with a lot of young drivers. What advice do you give when you're working with them about this track?

It sounds repetitive, but race the racetrack. Only go as fast as your car will go and just keep yourself in the game because so many people are going to make mistakes. This weekend's cup race could be the gnarliest race that we have seen there in a long time. Listening to all the drivers, we have the simple diffuser, short track diffuser back on the car this week with the increased horsepower. Right. And based upon what happened at Phoenix, with the drivers talking about just how the power affected the car. You know, I think that getting to a bigger racetrack like Darlington,

hopefully it sticks out like a sore thumb this week that we need more power. I'm going to start beating that drum again because with 60 or 70 horsepower and I know it's a tall task, let's get in front of it because I think that Darlington is going to produce something that everybody is going to go, oh, wow. Yeah. That was unbelievably hard, which what we do is hard, every week with what these drivers and teams do. But it is going to be 85 degrees.

And we're going to have not enough tires. And these cars are going to be out of control this week. And it should be fun to watch. That's what Denny was saying when we were listening to him, just all the unknowns going into this weekend. Yeah, when everyone's hearing the drivers complain about their race cars. They're not complaining. No, no, no.

When in the race, like in this weekend, when they're complaining about their car, it's because of all the things that we want them to complain about is going to be being shown right now. And I think that's kudos to the teams for figuring out what they need. NASCAR. Being able to relay that to NASCAR,

NASCAR making adjustments in that direction to what they feel like they need. And then Goodyear as well. Like we saw the tire fall off at Vegas. Oh my God. The tire fall off that's going to be a Darlington. These boys are going to be tongue out. Tongusted.

Yeah. From hanging on these race cars. But think about it. At Phoenix, we're talking 60-70 horsepower. Imagine if it was 200, right? Like that, if it moves the needle with that small of an improvement, it's got to be something that we work towards. And I know we've taken a good step and it's produced what everybody thought it was going

to produce, which is a better product. We just got to keep pushing. But we got to do it soon enough to where we put the engine shops in a good spot so that when you start 2027, everybody could be prepared. So if we're going to do it, let's get in front of it. Let's make that decision on the power because I just, I think, I think Darlington's going to be like we haven't seen it in a long time. We think about gritty race car drivers.

This is going to be a gritty kind of race. Yeah. Who do you kind of think that this change kind of helps the most? Well, I'm going to give myself a little wiggle room here to get out of what I say. Yeah. Because I just, I truly believe that somebody could hit it and dominate. That's what Denny said, too. I truly believe it that somebody could hit it and dominate just because it's a new package and new scenarios.

And so that that'll tighten up as we go forward after people. figure it out. But I just I love the the unknown piece of what what is going to happen. But I think that when you look at how much when we went to Vegas, how much the Gibbs cars had hit on it, I think that you could see that potential for a group to hit on it because we have short practice and you can't work yourself out of that window. So if I was if I was to say have to say something right now, I'd probably pick those Toyotas again just because of what they did this weekend at Vegas. What does this race present from pit road perspective?

Because there's a lot of stuff. I mean, it's a tough. I mean, it's a 400 mile race. So it is a little bit shorter than what we'll do at the end of the year. But I'm really curious as to just, I think managing when you put tires on and when don't put tires on because if the cars are that hard to drive and they start banging up against the fence and spinning out and all those things that could happen at Darlington already before we went to this package, I think it could put.

the cruise in a really curious spot as to when you put tires on when you don't with the tire allotment that they have. So managing your tires and when you put them on the car could become an issue if you see a lot of cautions early, but race the racetrack. You have to race the race. Just go as fast as you can go. Keep yourself rolling. Stay on the lead lap because you're never out of this one if you're on the lead lap. So Kevin has identified the Toyotas or one to watch. Would you agree or who do you have your eye on? Yeah, I know. I think the Toyotas are definitely, they've been so fast here and always seem to show up, whether it's Tyler Reddick or Denny Hamlin, even Bubba's had some really good runs there. So I think those guys are always going to be there. Briscoe's obviously one at Darlington before. But someone who's, huh? Twice, yeah, I think twice. Yeah, I think, Joe. Yeah. Two. Two. Two fall races, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, but if I'm outside of that, I'm hanging my hat on a, on a Ryan Blaine. and like a William Byron

they both have been faster obviously Larson has been faster but he just has not like his wiggle rims it's narrow against the wall yeah he's pushing he's pushing it so and I think that's gonna be whoever can manage that the best like if I'm if you know you have a good car

and to what Kevin was talking about with tires not putting your crew chief in a situation where like we just rub the we just rub the wall again we got to get him some new tires if you can manage that the best and save your stuff to the final stage, I think that's going to pay off. I went there the first time.

And Donnie Allison was standing down in the corner. And I went down there to watch because I'd never been there. And he said, kid, here's your only goal through this corner once you get past the first two laps. And this was on the old surface. He said, all you got to do is you got to roll into the corner, roll out of the gas. When that thing gets to the wall, your only goal is to touch the floorboard one time in the middle of the corner and then come right back off of it.

If you got to the floorboard, you did pretty good. And that's really the, as you go through turns one and two at Darlington, as the tires where if you can keep the car from sliding or pushing or and off the wall and you can just touch the floorboard and come right back off of it. And there are some laps you'll go through turns one and two and never get to full throttle as the tires wear out. That's a great story. That advice stayed with you forever. It did. And it is very true. Turn two is treacherous to like how the cars come off the corner of the wall kind of jets at you.

It just seems like that's where we'll see situations on restarts. That new asphalt is not new anymore, but it's rough going on to the patch. It's rough coming off of the patch. And it's super hard to navigate the car from bouncing out of control and trust in the racetrack right there when you've just gone through this old asphalt that is just like you're driving on ice and all of a sudden it grips a little bit. And you're like, oh, that feels, oh, no, it doesn't feel good. So it's a, I mean, it is, it is like going back in time.

from the time you drive in the tunnel. And it's really the only racetrack that we go to that you can compare to what they used to do. It's no wider. It's not been changed. The dynamics of the racetrack are exactly like they used to be. But it is narrow. It is so narrow. I can't explain how narrow it is.

I tell a lot of people when they ask, what's your favorite racetrack to go to? I'm like, to watch, it's Darlington. Yeah. Because you're above. You're above the rate. There's not a bad seat at Darlington. And when they go through the corner, if you're in the racetrack, it looks like they're on a roller coaster. You're just ripping through the.

top way. And from a driver standpoint, it changes every lap. And so every lap that the tires have degraded a little bit and worn out, you know, from the lap before. So you've got to constantly adjust your driving style. It's a really hard racetrack. And in practice, to get in a rhythm, to know what that pace is going to be on the fast lap, what it's going to fall off to. And then every time you get to the end of the run, then you've got to start over. You got to go back to that new tire pace. And then you got to remember, okay, this is the lap time where I want to move up or do move down so challenging from a driver's perspective. Really hard racetrack makes it all the more rewarding if you can win there.

So we have a lot to look forward to as it pertains to Darlington coming up this weekend. And we have a lot to look forward to on our favorite segment of the show, right? Don't say that. Way to go. It's the water boy segment. It's the water boy. Sip time. Closers.

Shout out to all of you guys that came to beer park in Vegas. A lot of them showed up. We gave out 100 tickets over the weekend. What's beer park? It's in the Paris Hotel. It's in the Paris Hotel. Oh, Paris. So they had me come out.

Is the Paris Hotel in Vegas or Paris? This one's in Vegas. But I think there's a Paris hotel in Paris. Okay. Yeah, I've never been to Paris. I got you. I'm assuming there is. It was just a curious question.

I didn't know. No, they came out. It was great. We gave our way a lot of tickets. A lot of first-timers went to the racetrack. It was fun based on all your posts and stuff. That's cool. Welcome to your favorite segment.

And you might have thought that we forgot about the word of the week. We did not. We just moved it. So your favorite segment. can be longer. Mobbist, social Sibs, got an addition. Word of the week is now a part of it. Let's go back because we missed Kevin last week.

Let's go back to Phoenix. Roll the tape. Well, the one that's Cowboyed Up Right here is Carson Hosebar. And every restart, we see him get a little bit further and further towards the front. Here he is trying to put himself in the middle of these Toyotos at the front of the field. Well, you have to, it takes aggression on these restarts. Two, three, four, five, eight wide. It doesn't know what it's going to be.

I need an aggressive race car driver. Carson, Hovart, Hosevar's your guy. Well, you got two of them right there because Reddick's not giving him an inch. You got a cowboy up sometimes, Cab. Yeah. Yeah, you kind of gave me a mulligan on that one. Too easy? Yeah, that was pretty easy.

Yeah, well, here's the thing. I'm here for the culture, too. So, I mean, sometimes I want it to be funny. Sometimes I want to try to stump you. And this earlier on this year, Kevin was like, you guys are never going to get me. And I said, challenge accepted. Roll this week's tape. Get to hear a lot of that engine noise, and it's such a molyptious.

Lewis sound around this racetrack to be able to know what that is. To hear the sound of that car. That is a four-syllable word. Yeah. That's too big a word for a racecar driver. That's one that Clint can't say. Oh, you struggle with it. It's rowed down around in front of you.

With the syllables. Flip the syllable. What I said, when I said the word, Mike looked at me, he turned so fast. He's like, what in the hell did you just say? That's funny. And you didn't, you didn't, you've never heard the word. I've heard of that word. I got to be honest.

How'd you find that one? I can't give away my secrets. Well, that was a good one. That was good. Yeah, it was easy to find a place to put it in. I like where you put it. But when you sent me the word, I always pull it up so that the little AI lady will tell me how to say it. Yeah.

And she said it so eloquently and so smooth. And I said, oh, okay, well, no problem. And I went to say it. I couldn't say it. It took me like 15 times to figure out how I was going to stumble through that four-syllable word. You would know. You delivered it in a little sloppy. It got a little.

I was too sloppy. Got to jump through that one syllable. And I was so nervous standing up in the booth this week because I'm like, I am going to mess this up so bad. Oh, you were nervous. Oh, yeah. I was nervous. I had to get it out of the way early. That was really early in the race.

That was a good. That's funny. Yes, very good. Word of the week. Look for it, Momba, Social, tips. So let's get into the Sips here. My boy, my boy Stuby, Joel, he does a lot of stuff with stats on social. And now he's added some music to it.

Listen to this little number. That's a nice little tune. That's just showing the points moving around. I thought it was going to the beat of the music because that's what the points do right now. Right? Yeah. No, they move so much. And so when he shows that, that active, that's why I'm like, bro, when you show that,

it's so cool to see how important the points are points are right now. And how much they're moving all the time. So crazy. I love it. Now you got Bubba's back in P2, so 2311 is going on. That's like a song Bubba's back. Bubba's back. Yeah.

If he gets it when he wins again. Bubba Bubba's back. Can we get that in there next week? Yeah, maybe I'll talk to Joel. Maybe you can come up with a song called Bubba's back. Oh my God. going open wheel racing. Max Verstappen, he's been talking a lot

about this season, this car, what he doesn't like. But apparently what he does like is some Mario Kart. And that's his new training tool. Listen to this. I found a cheaper solution. I swapped a simulator for my Nintendo Switch. And, yeah, practicing a bit of Mario Kart, actually. Yeah, finding the mushrooms is going quite well.

the blue shell is a bit more difficult but I'm working on it interesting yeah he had a couple other in this singers he had a couple of singers he's they're in an interesting place our friends across the pond in motorsports and how their drivers are

feeling about their current situation yeah I'm intrigued I'm intrigued I mean you know it's it's very similar to how we started with the gin 7 car with I hated it didn't want to drive it a lot of us didn't want to drive it some people were like screw it I'm I'm new here I want to drive it and that's

exactly what they're going through so you either embrace it or you don't keep race you don't yeah that's going to that's right that's gonna be interesting I'm looking for those blue shells yeah well the blue shells are the only ones you get when you're really far behind so you shouldn't be looking for that oh yeah the blue shells I haven't played Mario Kart since I was like 15 yeah that was probably what the Super Nintendo that wasn't even Nintendo 64 you were was that below whatever the first Nintendo was is what I played it on because we used to skip school. We'd act like we were going to school and then we'd just go over to my friend's house and play

Mario card all day. Oh yeah. Did your mom know that? Eventually. It didn't take that long to bring it out. Eventually. We had kind of scam the system to figure out how we were there. But anyway, that's a different story. Yeah, Caitlin, don't listen to that part. Yeah. So Chase Briscoe got a speeding penalty. Correct. But he also got one in real life. In real life. before the race and he said hopefully

it's the only time he's going to get this he turns out he jinks himself but it wasn't chase what are you doing? Hold that until after the race next time buddy

because you put yourself in a spot where it it affected your whole day not once but twice both areas of life the career and regular life yeah so and one more thing

even though the Crasman Truck series on Fox was off this weekend somebody thought they needed to run the quarter mile. Listen, this safety truck, this is some Dodge Ram,

and this guy is getting it off of the quarter mile. Man. Right before, I think practice are qualifying for the O'Reilly series. You have to do that on purpose. Like, there's no reason for you

to come out of a quarter mile sideways. It looked like he dipped a wheel in the dirt right there. Oh, he might have. It looked like he dipped a wheel. But he forgot to let off the gas. He didn't need to. Yeah. He's a wheelman from way back.

No, he was behind. He's just lucky. didn't wind up in the wrong direction. Listen, if he would have wrecked right there, the amount of stuff that would have been everywhere, because that was one of the... Was that you drive? Are you sure you weren't there?

That was not me. It was going too fast for Don Caelin. Yeah. Are you a slow driver? No, I'm just a bad driver. Okay. Well, at least you admit it. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Does that make you want to get back behind the wheel again, Kev? That guy getting after it like that? In the safety truck. Yeah, I think he wants to. Yeah. just in general.

I feel like I should race more. Yeah. We support this. After this last weekend. I figured out that when I went and raced a super late model again, I just kicked their ass the whole race and was seven laps to go, got a flat tire. And I left mad again.

I haven't left a race mad in a long time. That would piss me off. Okay. We don't like when Kevin's mad, though. Well, it was a competitive mad. I didn't think I, I didn't really, well, yeah, I don't know. It just, it's having an internal conversation. There's this battle going in my head of like, man, you should really be mad about that.

I'm like, well, I'm here to have fun. Yeah. But it still sucks when you lose. Yeah. Especially to that. You know what? You know what? I have some friends over at RAM and they have a free agent truck.

So maybe you should get in. This weekend, this is what we should do. This weekend at Darlington, we're jumping the RAM trucks in the back parking lot. So you should come by, get yourself in one of those new Rams and then hop over in the race car. I just want to see it be fast enough to be able to race in the race car. front. Yeah, okay. That's, you know, just got to wait until it's that fast. Okay. Well, we got some people coming. No, he's not no. I'm just saying, make them a little faster. Yeah, we've got to make them faster. But Kevin's interested. All right, fam, that is Mamba social

sips. Well done. 805, 3174175 is the voicemail. And as always, Harvard Capriar 4 at gmail.com. If you want to leave a mailbag, I appreciate you. All right. Very good, Mamba. That was the excellent Sips segment today. Time now for our last call. and also time to grade the burnout for Mr. Denny Hamlin, win number 61. I'm excited about this. Yeah, a lot of smoke. My man right here did an epic burnout all the way from turn one. We were watching in the booth, and I'm like, where's he going?

He's just going to wave at the crowd. And I thought there was no way that these tires are going to survive all the way to turn one. Yeah. And they did. Well, he didn't go all the way to turn one. He went to the start finish line. But I thought for sure that the tires were going to blow out, and they just kept going. When he goes over the orange bay, he gets a little different color in the smoke.

Yeah. Yeah. I like the paint burnouts. But this is an epic burnout. And if you're going to put yourself 10th by yourself all time on the win list, you might as well have a burnout to go with it. Exactly. That was a really good one. You kept the smoke rolling off of the car the whole time.

I like that. Yeah. I mean, he never stopped spending the tires. And I mean, the good year tires were obviously very durable. to be able to do that burnout the whole time. And I like the slow. That was a good one. That was very good.

The whole celebration was neat. This family there, everything they've been through. So what grade are we giving this then for Mr. Hamlin? What did we give Reddick? Do we remember? Yeah, he was an A.

Yeah. I think we're going to. We're only handing out A pluses if they're just extraordinary. That was a good one. That was great, but not extraordinary. So I think it's B plus. I think it's a B plus.

Yeah. Because, you know, Reddit got those style points flipping it into reverse. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be tough to beat. It's kind of like the Chase Elliott one from last year where he drifted right around the fence like that. At Bowman Gray. The year before where he had flipped off Austin Hill right beside him and taunted him the whole lap. That was an all-timer.

That was an all-timer. That was a very, very good burnout. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, still good by you, Denny. You got a B-plus. All right.

Time now to look at our standings for the picks. Right now, I'm still leading at 18. I got zero for Lagooner. The Lagooner gave you zero. Kevin wasn't here, so he got zero. I can't believe that my pre-race pick didn't work. You know why it doesn't work? No, you get credit for the win, but it's just like back in there.

I like how you guys just don't even call and ask. You get called. Hey, what's your pick this week, Kev? I mean, just send me a text, something. Tyler. Somebody send me a text. You're on vacation. I didn't want to bother you in Jackson.

I definitely didn't want to bother you. I'm trying to hold it down for you. Hey, who's your pick this week? Oh, yeah, I'm going to pick Hamlin. That would have been easy. No, see, you get credit for the win, but no points. And the win is the waiver, remember? I thought we got rid of all that crap.

Yeah, well, you know, you never know. I didn't think the win was the waiver anymore. Yeah, we don't have that anymore. But, you know, I'm just trying to make you feel good. As long as you're not in first, I'm happy. He said 16, so he's very close to me. Mamba's at 12. He got three points for picking Chase Briscoe.

And I thought I picked Bell all the time. You went from last to last. Good job. Yeah, but I got points. Okay. It's a points this year. You're still in the last. You are the loser of the group.

No, you lost this weekend. You got a D&S. You didn't even start. Okay, so we have another chance to make our picks, and that's happening right now. So who wants to go first? No, I got points, so I'm not going first. Okay.

I'll go first. I'll pick Briscoe. Oh. You can agree with me. It's fine. Same. Yeah. Chase Briscoe. I'm ready for them to turn this around, get back to their winning ways, and they have won there in the past.

Who are you going to pick last place? Man, you know, we talked about it. The Toyota's, I want to go that route. But someone who has been on the cusp of winning here a lot and really hasn't got done is Ryan Blaney. And I'm going to put my first 12 pick in for the year. I knew that was coming sooner rather than later. First 12 pick of the year is going with Y. ORB now, old Ryan Blaney.

What do you think the odds are that we could go? gets you to be like, like to hand him a water bottle during the pit stop during the race. Is that possible? Awesome. I just, I have these random thoughts and the whole water boy thing.

As much as you're on the Blaney bandwagon, is there any way that we could just. I'm driving the bandwagon. That would be such great footage of you just handing him a water bottle on the pit stop. You'd have to be part of the team for the weekend on the roster somehow. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I go over the wall.

I feel like our boss is at Fox could probably get something like that worked out. Yeah. I do it. I'm not scared. I was an interior mechanic. I know how to do it. I'd like to see that. And if we can't do it during the race,

maybe you could just hand it to him like in his interviews or anything. Maybe after practice or something. You could be like his PR handler for the weekend. I used to do that too. Listen, I'm a jack of all trades. I want to see you handing him a water bottle.

I got it. I'm locked in. It's a new task at hand. Hand a water bottle to Ryan Blaney. Okay. All right. So those are picks. Two votes of confidence for Briscoe.

One for Blaney. And you have Kyle Bush with you on Thursday, right? I do. Yeah, it was a great interview. Kyle was very open as to where he thought they were talking about his mistakes, the team's mistakes, his, you know, his ability and things that make him tick with this new car. So it was a great, great conversation and just talking about his passion of racing and everything that has kind of been reintroduced to him through Brexton and the things that they get to experience from Legend cars.

light models and all the things that they race. Okay, we look forward to that. Make sure you don't miss it on Thursday. Make sure you subscribe on our new YouTube page as well. And we will see everybody after Darlington.