Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Denny Hamlin wins in Richmond after Controversial Finish, Plus Kevin’s Stories from Martinsville!

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

On Episode 13 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” NASCAR Legend Kevin Harvick sits down with co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith to provide an exclusive weekend recap of the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Get ready for an in-depth analysis of the race weekend's highlights and key moments! Tune in as they break down Denny Hamlin’s overtime victory, pivotal race moments, and provide a sneak peek into the upcoming Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.To wrap up the show, Mamba delves into the riveting moment when Joey Gase tossed his bumper at Dawson Cram in Richmond. Then, Mamba shares his lighthearted adventures as the Easter bunny and takes us along on a thrilling road trip with Kevin to witness Keelan’s race and much more! Don't miss out on this exhilarating episode packed with expert analysis and all the thrilling moments you love from the world of NASCAR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

But I got home that night, and there were Dale Jr. fans waiting in my driveway. Yeah, they were waiting to my house. They were just there to taunt you. They were waiting in my driveway for me to get home so that they could yell at me. And I was just, I just weighed and showed him the trophy and drove in my gate. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. This is Caitlin Bensie, Mamba Smith.

We're here to break down everything that happened this week. And my goodness, we better get started quick. This is a layup for the storylines. after that race in Richmond, no question. Wild. Very wild. And we appreciate everyone who's been tuning in and listening throughout the course of the season.

Make sure you still subscribe to us on YouTube. Leave a five-star review for the show as well. And keep watching, right? Yeah, and appreciate y'all on socials. Make sure you keep hitting that follow button. It's Harvick. Oh, this is a mouthful. Harvick Happy Pod.

You sound like me now. Yeah, on Twitter. I'm like, oh, my goodness. On Twitter, X, YouTube, Facebook. Twitter and Instagram All the good stuff Now you can pull the rookie stripe off There you go

It is a lot to say Yeah I was like Tyler our producer wasn't kidding Yeah because well in my brain I always say Kevin Harvick's happy Which is a very small space Yeah Yes

See it dude You were slow to react on that way I know but you know You got me I got you Yeah Speaking of getting What

You got first off The word of the week He was worried about it I was. I almost didn't catch it. It was that smooth. But it was, yeah, it was good. It was good.

Well, I was really nervous because I just didn't want to use it in the wrong context. And I just, it was hard to fit in with something that we were talking about. And if you didn't take advantage of a moment, like the green flag right off the bat, somebody selling it in a turn one and making it happen with no idea of how much grip level there was, it was going to be hard to get in because there was only going to be certain moments that you could use. the phrase. Yeah, well, let's hear the phrase, roll the tape. I look at that, and I see Kyle Arson

and Cliff Daniels and his team have done a great job with rain tires and slick tires and keeping that car up front and qualifying on a pole and Kyle Arson, yeah, he's him. It was just so like, yeah, he's him. What does that mean, though, for people who may not know? Yeah, he's him. You're the dude. You're the guy.

You're the guy. You are the guy. There you go. If anyone didn't know, that was great. That might have been the best one all year. It was definitely smooth, but I was nervous. I kept telling Clint, I'm like, man, I don't know what I'm going to use this. Yeah, that's funny. And he kept laughing at me. And the more I act like I'm worried about something, the more Clint exit on.

And every time we had a conversation, man, I hope you use that word correctly. Hope you use that phrase correctly. It's taken on a whole life of its own for sure. And so did the bet between the two of you, which was easily one within like an hour. We knew you were wearing the suit. Just to be clear, I had bought the bunny suit before we had even, as soon as we left the studio and he made the bet, I bought the bunny suit. And say what your wife did, because that was really funny. Which part?

When she saw the order come from on Amazon. Oh, I had just told them, I said, it's going to be a few minutes. And my wife's going to call me wondering what hell I just bought on Amazon. And how long was it? Like two minutes. It was very quick. And I answered the phone. She's like, what in the hell are you buying a bunny suit for?

And then it went into how bad the bunny suit. was and it looked very drowsy. It was on sale for $36. Yeah, no. And it served its purpose and you wore it. Oh, here it is. Like, obviously rocking the suit, driver intro. He's rocking it.

Was that thing hot? Yeah. So what everyone... Looks like you swelled up in it a little bit. Well, you know, what everyone doesn't realize is me and Kyle Larson. So Kyle also in this picture. He couldn't see. Like, because it was so humid and all the rain, the fog machine was keeping the fog, the smoke in.

So I had to like walk him out so he could see where he's. going. But, I mean, look, man, I pulled it off, but what everyone didn't know is I wore that all day. Like, I got to the racetrack at 9. Oh, yeah? Like, I never took it off. I didn't realize you wore it all day. I wore it at the airport. My flight was at 8.28?

So the minute I was done with intros, I went to the airport. I didn't have time. What did they think about you in the security line at the airport? And I made sure to keep it up, and everyone's like just looking at me really, really funny. I was, I got upgraded, so I was in first class. They probably like, put this crazy-ass Yeah, exactly. That's amazing.

Well, you really did take one for the team. We're in that thing the whole day and on your flight. I'm proud of you. Yeah, thank you. So what do you think the bet should have been? So now knowing what I know now and, you know, the homies, they messed up because you guys kept retreats. Closer. Now I know that you guys are paying attention.

Yeah. So the next one is going to be a lot more. A higher. Stakes are going to be higher. If I would have known what I know now, I would have done at least 1,200. As after in, in, I guess, with your bunny suit and everything that, that you were doing. We had the Fox group had a happy bunny with a head,

a whole suit, feet, hands, everything. And they brought it over and Keelan had it on in the TV compound. The whole morning. And Michael Waltrip was like, hey, we're going to go do pre-race. And you can just follow me around as the bunny. And at the end, we're going to take your head off and we're going to reveal who was the Easter bunny all day on pit road. So that was the start of it right there with Keelan that has the head on.

Keelan's in the sad bunny suit at home. I asked him, I said, am I going to look good in it? So for our audio followers, this is a video of Keelan. Look at that saggy costume. Race morning in the TV compound. Walking through the whole thing. We got to the TV compound at like 11 o'clock because I was bored. And Keelan stayed with me.

We raced at Dominion Speedway the night before. So he stayed with me. We were roaming through the TV compound because he'd never been there. So I took him through all the trailers. Everything was open and nobody was there. Well, first thing, they brought the bunny suit in. So we're walking around. And before you knew it, he was in the makeup room.

I'm not going out there. I just can't do it. They'll hold that against me forever. If that's on TV, they'll always have it. Okay. So that was Keelan's reaction to the suit. Your daughter, Piper, also had a reaction to your suit. Yeah.

Take a look at this. I love Pipe. Piper, did Mr. Dillon do a good? job? Yes, but I think Daddy should have done a better job getting a little happier bunny suit. Won't you agree? I agree. I also agree. Do you put her up to that? I didn't. I just texted Delaine and I said, hey, ask Piper if she thought I did a good job. She did that all in her own. I was looking for a bargain. Apparently, apparently nobody likes sad bunnies. Sad bunnies. It was the saddest little bunny. I love you, Piper. Thank you. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Well, Bet paid off, very entertaining. The weekend was very entertaining. I know from your vantage point, let's just start with the variables going into this race, with the weather and the tires and everything going on. What did you think? I thought it was great. I thought, you know, when we were in the garage

and they were putting the wet weather tires on, we were doing pre-race show, and I'm thinking to myself, oh, yeah, we are in for a treat at the start of this race, and we're going to go. They waited about 15 or 20 minutes, because it was raining. NASCAR is still a little bit tentative, making sure that everybody's safe and it's going to be okay, and especially with a points race. At North Wilkesboro, when we did this the first time in the heat races, there wasn't any points on the line. If something went wrong,

it was a great time to learn. But this is a points race, and they were still a little bit tentative. I think that the spray wasn't as much as we all thought it would be. I think that the car is handled really well with the wet weather tires on. And I think next time, we probably could have started that race on time, even with the light rain that was coming down and been just fine because the cars, they look great. They dropped the green flag and they were from the yellow line all the way to the wall. And everybody thought that the cars drove well. So kudos to NASCAR for dropping the green flag. And I think that probably saved us probably an hour, hour and a half. Huge. So that's a big deal when you have fans in the stands and people watching on home to get

the race started on time. I think, you know, if they had it. had started in the pit stalls on pit road with the down draft, drying the pit stalls themselves would have really helped the process. And I think the only adjustment that I would make is probably when you go from wet tires to slick tires, having a single file restart. Because when you go from wets to slicks, that one lane is the only thing that is dry. And then you don't have to run those double file caution laps and take a chance of that second lane not being as dry as possible. I think you might, if you had a, single file restart after you go to the slick tires.

I think that that puts everybody in a little better position and it doesn't have to be as dry. Yeah. Would you think about it going into just watching like wondering how this is going to unfold? Yeah, no, it was awesome. I was like, so I'm, like I said, I was at the airport and I'm packing and this lady I was getting my rental car up. She's like, were you at the racetrack? I'm like, man, they're not going to get this thing in at training.

I'm like, ma'am, you do not know a new NASCAR. We are going to be getting after it here. in like 20 minutes. And I was stoked, right? Like having the rain tires to get an event going. So at least bare minimum, we can get it to halfway. And then we end up getting the whole thing. Because to your point, if we wait another hour, like that racing ain't getting over to what, like almost midnight?

Yeah, it was already late. So that made a huge difference. And I agree with you. I think now that we know kind of what it does, we can start on pit road. And then the cars kind of dry up the racetrack. Yeah, because I think the pit boxes are. the main thing to have dry. I think you need to blow the standing water off a pit road, but I think you have to start with the pit stalls to get the teams ahead start to get their boxes

dry. And I think we can get to competitive pit stops a little faster because really the reason that we don't have competitive pit stops is you don't want the cars sliding through the pit boxes into a car that's having a pit stop. So there is a real safety concern there. But I don't think coming in on rain tires with your pit box dry and all the standing water off of pit road, I think you could go right to competitive pit stops, have a sense. single file restart and everything, everything be fine. So, and I think back, and I think back to some of those races, we used to have to have every inch of that racetrack dry, every inch of pit road dry.

When we got done with the race, the racetrack still wasn't dry. The top groove and on pit road, and everything was fine. And the cars actually have more grip than you think they do. Even when the asphalt is not, it looks discolored. It's got a lot more grip than you think it would. So listening to you guys talk reminded me of a quote I heard from Booty Barker, crew chief, obviously, for Bubba. When we go to Slick, it's a massive change.

You're going to think something's broken until you settle back in. Can you explain what, like, what that means, the change and how it feels for the driver? First off, the rain tires have no stagger. So there's about an inch and an eighth or inch and a quarter of stagger in the, in the slick tires, which means the right side tires are bigger than the left side tires. The rain tires have zero. So it's the same tires on both sides. So they had impound adjustments, which allowed the team.

on those non-competitive stops and before the race to be able to adjust their cars to what they thought their balance needed to be on the rain tires. But I think that the biggest thing about the tires and everything that comes with the rain is just getting the balance right, understanding that we probably could have gone, we probably could have gone 40 laps, I'd say, on the rain tires,

maybe 45. I think we could have gone a further distance on those rain tires. So anyway, I think it's, you know, the process went really good. I kind of lost my train of thought here as to where I was going with this. So go ahead and go ahead and fix this for me. Yeah, no, I got you. I think what you were trying to say is it's a completely different feel in the car. Yeah, yeah, completely different feel.

Yeah, he's over here looking at his. I'm like, well, I started going through my, I started going through my list here, and I got lost on my train of thought. You can't read those chicken scratches over there. Back to Caitlin's question. The tires definitely feel different. The rain tires move around more in the back. And a lot of that comes from just the tread and the way that the tread moves,

which is why we went to more tread on the tires to put heat in the tire. And the drivers felt like it gave the car more feel and you had more fuel on the tire. So that actually came from the rain tires at North Wilkesboro. And when the rain tires start to wear out, they feel like with the old car, you felt like track bar is broke. But with this car, the back of the car, the whole car just starts to feel a little bit more. yacht out in the way that it turns and then you put those slick tires on it feels like you put bricks back on the car. Okay. See, I was wondering what the differences were. Yeah, so just the fill of the car goes from really soft and mushy to stiff and rigid. And it's a big, it's a big

adjustment for the drivers to have to go from from one tire to the other. The racing, when they went back to Green with Bubba and Larson on the front row, when they switched the tires, was I was like, these boys are about to wad them all up because the like the patch that you need to be on is very, it's a very fine line because the groove hadn't really widened out yet. And because of that, Bubba was leaning hard on Larson. Well, if Larson drives in there just a little too deep or catches a patch on the bottom,

they're all washing up the hill and wrecking. So like they were, these are some of the best drivers in the world without doubt. Well, that outside lane, that's one reason when I was talking about just going single five. because you could spread that groove out naturally. They gave us some great moments right there on the restart. And Bubba knew that that second groove was dry, but it wasn't, it didn't look dry.

No, it didn't look dry. It was shiny. And so he, like you say, he was literally against Kyle Arson's door trying to keep him pinned down. And that's what he had to do. So I like everything that we did. I think that that natural evolution of when do we put reins on or slicks on after the first time NASCAR's kind of taken that into a safety measure and into the process

is to get the track dry, not come on pit road the first time. But I think after that, you've got to kind of just let it go and see where it all goes. Because one of the things that made it the most intriguing was the racetrack drying and evolving and whose cars were good and whose cars were bad kind of changed through that whole first part of that race because of the fact that the track was rubbering back up. It was drying. there were a lot of things that were coming into play that just took a little bit longer into the race

than if we'd have just started on a dry track. Yeah, and if you want to be a little more ballsy with the weather radials, you could do that and probably make up some time. If you knew that, like, man, we might not have as good of a car, but let me get some track position, and maybe we can play this game. We saw that a little bit because the one line was dry,

but when you had to start making passes on the entry, the bottoms of the straightaway were you had to go into the damper part of the racetrack, in order to put yourself in a position to pass. So, yeah, I mean, it was, I think everybody was learning. NASCAR learned, the drivers learned, and I think we can definitely do it. We will do it better the next time. But from where we were at North Wilkesboro to where we were at Richmond in an actual points race was a great step.

So the weather, the tires, obviously a big part of the conversation around this race. So too was the restart at the end. Denny Hamill, we've gone this long and haven't mentioned yet that he won the race, by the way. What did you think about how this race closed out and what you saw with the restart. Well, that's a loaded question. When we first showed the replay at the at the end of the race, everything happened and it was hard to tell who went where we showed the replay. And I said, you know, definitely looked like he rolled before the line. Well, when you go back today, he definitely went way before the line and took off. And so I think from a driver's perspective and

and everything that you do, you know at the end of the race that they aren't going to, it's going to have to be pretty blatant for them to call that restart violation. And as a driver, you know you want to go as early in the process as possible to take off so that you get the advantage on the outside guy. You don't want to wait in the box. You want to go at the very beginning of the box to be able to take off. So Denny, you know, he took off early, got away with it and won the race. and I think on the flip side,

Martin lost the race. Yes. He flipped out. Yeah. And so he had a bad pit stop. His pit stop was one second slower than Denny Hamlins and lost the lead, lost control of the race. And then Denny snookered him on the last start,

whether he's going to go at the line or before the line, you got to be ready knowing that you can go. He's going to go at some point. You got to fire with him. And he was obviously not ready to go when Denny went a little. bit early. We were seeing the pit stops there if you're watching on YouTube. Obviously, Denny Hamlin's really rose to the occasion in that clutch moment, which we've seen them do a lot of times in the past. Yeah, I mean, that was a, I mean, he gave the credit to his team.

He's like, that was a team win. Like, them boys got it done. And I think when the pit crew gets it done like that, it reminds everybody how important they are, right? So, kudos to those guys. The restart, man, like, he definitely jumped. right without a doubt but here's what I'll say a lot of people are like oh that we should have given a penalty of this that and the other like he jumped it yeah but like do you really want do you really want NASCAR to be in here like judging every little thing like like where are you at with that

because I like his eyebrows is that yeah he gave the double eyebrows like do you want them to be all the way to the book all the time or do you want you guys to be able to fight it out? Like, it's not, you know, where you're at? Well, I'm at, I'm at if you're going to paint a line on the track, you should, you should use the line. I mean, if your football team steps on the line, you're out of bounds, right? Yeah, well.

If the ball doesn't cross the plane, is it a touchdown? True. And I think if you're going to paint a line on a racetrack to, to officiate a situation, yeah, none of us want NASCAR involved in it. But NASCAR wouldn't even have to be involved in it. put a speed line there, just like they do on pit road, make the speed entering the box, X amount, give them five miles an hour, whatever the pace car speed is, plus five miles an hour,

and you put a line across the racetrack. And if you're faster than that, with the length of the car, that would be the nose at the line of the restart zone, it's a, it's a, the computer can call the penalty at that particular point. So I'm all for leaving NASCAR out of it, but as a driver, we know. Right. We know that we put them in a really tough position.

If you go a half a car length before the restart zone at the end of the race, Denny Hamlin knew that. He knows that. Every driver in the field knows that. NASCAR doesn't want to be in the position to have to make that call. I, my opinion is take yourself out of that position to make that call. And, you know, just, you know, you have a, you have a speed that enters the box. and then it is what it is,

and it's going to police itself at that particular point. So, look, I don't want NASCAR in the middle of any more than, and they don't want to be in the middle of any more than what they're in. But as a driver, I know right now that if I go a little bit before that line, it's not going to get called on the last restart because they don't want to affect the outcome of the race. So it's a really tough position to be in. But I'm a firm believer that if you're going to paint something to officiate the race on and you're going to put him in that box.

It doesn't put the leader at any less disadvantage. But right now you could argue that it put the leader in a, it put the second place guy at a huge disadvantage because the leader wasn't using the regulated box. So let me ask you this, because it reminds me a little bit of Briscoe and Denny at Indy. When they got into it and then Briscoe was actually being penalized, but he really kept racing with Denny and kind of like took the way.

So he gets penalized. Right. It takes them a lap to decide if there's a penalty. They call it in. A lot of the draft, like when they get penalized, they keep running for like three laps. But this is like a green white checker.

So now Denny's penalized, not there. Martin's there. And they keep racing. Like, I just don't, I don't know. It's a recipe for a complete disaster

because no one's going to stop. Yeah. But now this guy that's penalized that jump the restart is in the way of the actual second place guy that's trying to. It's a, it's a, It's a new list of rules.

It's not good. And there's no good answer to it. That would be my opinion of what it should be on every restart because it's more than just the last restart. Right. And if you're in a scenario where it's a green-white checker type situation, I don't know. Maybe you have to call it off. Laps don't matter at that point anyway. But then you get into fuel mileage and strategies.

So I don't know where that stops. But I know if you're going to put that line there and it's going to be, hey, we can go a little bit before the box, because now what will happen is NASCAR is going to call it for several things. They're going to call laying back. They're going to call going early in the box, but nobody went early in the box. You know that as a driver. You don't go early in the box until the last restart of the race. And that's just the way that it works. You know you're going to get away with that. So Martin Trex Jr. was very frustrated, pretty unusual behavior. I guess you could say uncharacteristic of him after the race. I know you noticed some footage of him, too, from the booth on an isocanian.

camera of MTJ walking after the race. What do you think about this whole reaction to the outcome of the race? Well, he's frustrated. And I've been in that position and been frustrated too. And I think as you see this footage with Martin and Joe Gibbs right here and just the fact that I don't know what was said to Joe right there, but you can see by his girlfriend's reaction right there. and he must have obviously said something that was that was that was pretty much not not what she would have said. But I don't know. Every time I was in this position and I don't want to judge

somebody else's position on where they're at and what they're doing, I like to, I would judge it on how I was in those positions. But to me, it seems like a lot of those things happen when there's some internal frustrations or you're dealing with something that's frustrated in you and it finally gets to a bowling point and man did it boil. It went from it went from getting beat on the restart to getting used up by the 11 car, which I don't think he used him up. I think he was racing at the end. He left him a lane coming off turn two.

Yeah, he came off the racetrack, but we're racing for the win, you know, to just getting in a war with Kyle Larson. Right. Smashing into the side of him off a turn two, smashing him into the fence down the front straight away. and then slamming into the back of Denny Hamlin's car several times. And when you go back and watch that footage, I mean, it is with a lot of throttle. And then we come on pit road and blow off your owner. So I think a lot of that, it seems like there's more to it than just that last moment on the restart. And getting beat off of pit road with some of the members that used to be on your pit crew.

What are how that team meeting's been this week? Yeah, I mean, what do you think? I think the team meeting was interesting if you're the 54 team or the 20 because you're just sitting back and watching the whole thing. Like that's fun. But like, so me and Caitlin were texting during the race about it and she's like, oh, I think he's going to be good. I'm like, I feel like this is he's going to, they're going to lose it. Like they were dominating. And as of late, he called it.

When they dominate races, they don't, it doesn't close it. They don't close it. Now, I thought the five was going to get him, not the 11. But I think it's weird when you're racing teammates like that. Like, I think at the end of the race, team orders have to be off. Like, as a driver, you cannot expect your teammate to give you any room, really, especially the 11, I feel like. Well, think back.

I mean, Joe Giz has been in this position before. I mean, Carl Edwards knocked Kyle Bush out of the way coming to the checkered flag several years ago. It's a tough, it's a tough dynamic and a tough situation to handle. But in the end, there were a lot of things that just boiled over for Martin at the end of that race that all the real root of the problem was the one second slower pit stop. Yes. It rode. So he went from first to second. He had complete control of that race, dominated the race, put himself in position early in the race by, you know, the exact opposite scenario.

So it's a it's a situation to where I think Martin knows. that, you know, is this his last year? Is it not his last year? I think if it, if it is his last year, he's in a position to where I want to win and be able to go out on a, on a high note. And, you know, I think that there's, there's obviously some internal frustrations, probably with the reaction of, of the way that all happened, but between the teams and the drivers or somebody, because that's a, that was a pretty over the top reaction. And they've been in this position. And he knows they have the best cars right now. Yeah. And when you lose those races, you're frustrated as all get out.

And he, you know, he lost the race and it was a bad deal. That's the one. Our pick. Yeah. We both picked him. I was like, oh, so close. Yeah, I mean, he had control of the race. And it just came down to the five getting spun out by the 23.

And five got loose and 23 was there. And same spinning. And it actually worked out better for Kyle Lewis. And he actually put himself with a better finishing position than he did. Yeah, he was actually going backwards at that point. Yeah. So very crazy end of the race, a lot to digest and going back to the whole true X situation. I don't even really know.

I don't know what the answer is, but I can tell you there's frustration there that we don't know about. Can we talk about real quick how cool Kyle Larson is? Always. Like, like, yeah, after the, after all the stuff, he's just like, yeah, I mean, he hit me and I was like. But he made a point to say how respectful. Martin typically races. Yeah. Trying to say, I think in a way like that's how I would describe it too.

Martin is always respectful about everything. And this is the incident that we're talking about with Kyle getting loose and bubbly in the gas and see the flames out above his pipes. To let off once he realized that he was going to get into the back of the five. But this scenario is what caused the last caution. And actually, you know, Kyle, Kyle Arson, I think he came out of the pits in sixth after he spun out. on the bottom of the straightway, which shows you how far ahead they actually were. And Bubba, his night kind of unraveled on this pit stop as they left the wheel loose. He had to stop and back up and wound up coming out of the pits, I think, 16th and finished 13th.

So a lot at the beginning of this race, a lot at the end of this race. We had a lot of strategy in the middle of the race with the way that the lap times were. There were a couple guys that tried to stay out and run the whole stint or split the stint in half. and then we saw at the end with Christopher Bell and Denny they kind of waited to try to have some fresher tires to make passes easier as the tires fell off. So there was a lot in the middle that played out and sometimes Richmond can be a little bit less action

than a lot of other places, but man, we were loaded up with action this time. We certainly were. So some people frustrated, others happy. One of them being Joey Lugano. We've been talking about Joey Ligano. Finally. Yeah, Kev, we took. We got to address that a little bit.

We kind of took an L a little bit because we, last week we were kind of, you know, jamming on the, on the Fords a little bit. Yeah. And they actually performed, like, throughout the entire race. At one point, there was like four or five of them in the top ten.

Yeah. And, you know, so kind of give them a little bit. Well, let's expand a little bit on that board comment then, because I expected more out of the RFK cars. I know that they were, I know that they were in the top 10, but I expected them to be, as much better as

Joey Lugano was, if they were going to be in the mix because I felt like with Chris Boucher winning there last year and as well as Brad ran, I expected them to race around the top five.

Never saw that. Never saw them anywhere, anywhere close to the top five. So kind of average, mediocre, in my opinion, for RFK at Richmond. But Joey Lugano, they talked about going to North Wilkesboro

and to the tire test up there and figuring out some things with their car. and that definitely carried right over to Richmond and they really needed that. I mean, he's been consistent, been making up points and putting himself in a better points position. But, I mean, he was in contention to race for the win, you know, with all that that shook out at the end of the race and didn't work out as a W for him.

But, I mean, he was running second there with a couple laps to go. I feel like North Worksboro and Richmond at this point kind of race a little similarly. You wear your tires out pretty fast and it's a short track. so it's managing all those things. Do you feel like that's a good measuring stick for vice versa? You know what I mean? Well, we've got Bristol. We've got Martinsville and we just had Richmond.

So we've got a few short tracks right in a row. I think the other, to go back on the Ford piece of it, probably the best Ford was the four car of Josh Barry. And they had some trouble on Pitt Road with a bad pit stop. And then he missed Pit Road under coming to the grid. at putting back like 12th, 11th or 12th, and they worked their way back up. But he drove from like 30th all the way, all the way back forward. So it's, yeah, I think with the short tracks all in a row like this, it really gives us a good read as to where everybody is.

I think Martinsville is another race that we can circle a couple cars. I think the 14 car and the four car are in that, in those cars that are circled for Martinsville. Chase Briscoe has been extremely good there. So much like Richmond was for Joey Legano and the Roush cars, I think Martinsville is that for those two Stuart Hoskars, really all of them as well. Yeah, we'll talk plenty about Martinsville coming up, of course. And I don't want to beat a dead horse,

but we always do kind of talk about the teams that are still seemingly struggling. And I go back to the Austin's once again. What do you think is going on there, Kevin, with both of this, Austin-Sendrick and Austin Dillent. Yeah, and I just, they don't have anything going for them right now. You know, Austin Cendrick qualified good this week, qualified good at Cota as well. And really, Austin Dillon hasn't done any of those things. It hasn't qualified good, hasn't raced good.

We see Kyle Busch has been struggling some of late too. So they're obviously looking for somewhere to go with their cars as to a better direction. Kyle Busch started off really great, but has. has been hit or miss the last several weeks, and Austin has been in that boat every week. So, you know, it's just been a tough start. And I think both of them, they got to get something going pretty quick. And I think they're both in Hail Mary territory as far as their playoff hopes.

And they need to win a race because they're way out of the points on. Yeah, I mean, looking at their finishes between the two Austin's, only one top 15 finished between the two of them. Gosh. So they got it. I think 100% Hail Mary time. I think if you're Cindric, you feel a little bit better than if you're Austin Dillon because you're going to rely a little bit on your road course background. And there's some road courses before the playoffs, whereas Austin isn't as strong at those.

And then you're also looking at your super speedways. So Talladega, you got to throw it out of it. Everybody looks at, everybody's looking at Talladega and Daytona. And these two guys are definitely on that list of knowing that we got to win one of those two races because they're not going to win anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah, they've both won on a Super Speedway in the past. So eventful weekend out in Richmond, to say the least, short track coming up next for Martinsville, place that you've won out in the past, 2011. Yeah.

Well, it was never my favorite place. I was going to ask you that. I was curious if you liked it or not. We were usually on the struggle bus at Martinsville. Our truck stuff was, our truck stuff was really good. But even when it was, even when it was going good, it always seemed like something went wrong. And for whatever reason, that place really from the time I got thrown out in 2002 for spinning Koi Gibbs out under, I guess under getting some retaliation. I got to spend the weekend at home eating hot dogs in the parking lot of my motorhome watching the race as a reward.

Yeah, that's what we did. We drove the motorhome home and we sat in. the parking lot of the shop and we cooked hot dogs and watched the race. That's awesome. You're just trying to punish yourself with the hot dogs or what? At that time, that was like preferred food. Probably all we could cook at that particular point. But our trucks were always fantastic there.

We had some great success in the truck series and was always a great racetrack. But 2011 was the only year that we ever put it together. I think two years ago in the cup car, we had. had a great day, won some stages or won a stage and ran up in the front all day, had a chance to win. But I don't remember having too many chances to win. We might have finished in the top five. I think I finished fourth or fifth there backwards one time crashing.

Yeah, I reckon. But most of my highlights come from scuffles or some sort of. Some sort of disagreement there. Do we have a scuffle from Martin'sville of Kevin? We do. A real scuffle, just kind of a disagreement between some groups. Oh. Ty Dillon in the truck series race in 2013 is what we're speaking of.

Oh, the Thor Hammer Throw. Yeah. And, you know, I think at this particular moment, it's a lot like the True X stuff that we're talking about. You just don't know what's going on internally. But I was leaving RCR. And so there was a lot of tension between everybody at RCR and myself at that particular point because everybody was mad that we were leaving. and I didn't take a liking to the three spinning me out.

So I just held on as long as I felt like I could right there without getting beat up by the whole team. To keep him from making their pit stops, you know, take off right there. He was about to get lapped. That was my whole goal was to make sure he didn't win. So I was just going to hold him in his pit stall as long as I could. But yeah, I got a big sledgehammer thrown at me. You did.

Yeah. Wow. I don't think I would have wanted to be on his bad side. Kevin? No, heck no. not as a racer. And if I couldn't beat you up, I was going to be somewhat vindictive.

Calculated. You're petty. Very calculated. Petty. Oh, geez. He called you petty. Petty shots. Yeah.

Well, you got to take them however you can get it. That specific video, I always laughed so hard at it. Which part? The whole thing, really. Have you ever had a sledgehammer thrown at you?

You didn't get it thrown at you. It's thrown at the truck. It didn't even make it to the door. My window net was down. You couldn't even see it. You're right. You didn't know what was coming. But, like, you just parked there.

And I'm like, it was kind of like for you to park in the stall. That's gangster of you. It is. That is. Look at the officials. The officials don't know what to do. They're like trying to remember. So I got her from this truck.

Just chaos down there. And all those guys hated me at that particular point. Obviously. Yeah. I mean, there was just, you know, you're leaving the team. They felt, felt like you, you shouldn't do that. And I felt like, you know what? I don't really care.

I'm going to do as much damage as I can right here. I'm going out on high note. Well, sure you're not winning this race. I know. I want to go back to the Cup Series when, though, 2011, because you passed Dale Jr. with four to go, and you said I was going to be the bad guy. I was.

I was the bad guy. I actually, we crashed early in that race and knocked the back of the car off and came back through the field and wound up passing Dale with a few laps, four laps to go there at the end of the race. So it was a fun, fun race with Dale. And anytime that you get the, the Earnhardt Jr. Nation behind you, wanting to be mad at you or whatever the scenario is. And at that point, they were mad. I didn't do anything wrong. I just beat their guy.

But I got home that night and there were Dale Jr. fans waiting in my driveway. Oh, what? For me to go in my gate. Yeah, they were waiting to my house. They just there to taunt you. Scream at you and tell you that where were you living at the time. How do people find out where drivers live? I don't understand this. That is wild. So they were waiting in my driveway for me to get. get home so that they could yell at me. And I was just, I just waved and showed him the trophy and

drove in my gate. Where is that trophy? Because you get a very cool trophy if you win at Marisville. It's a grandfather clock. Where is it? So, uh, we have a very organized household, thanks to my wife. And apparently the decor of the grandfather clock doesn't match anything. Yeah. And so the argument with the grandfather clock was, uh, well, I'm bringing the grandfather clock home. It's a marquee trophy in any series, but let alone the Cup series. And I knew I wasn't probably ever going to win another one. So I'm like, I'm bringing this. I'm bringing the clock home.

And I lost the battle. The clock now lives in the garage. Okay. So that's as close. But I refuse to, I refuse to take it out of the house. Okay. It's not in the house. It's in the man cave.

I was going to say, I have a good place for you. It's in the man cave. But I am not, that is as far as it's going, it's not going into storage. I think it would look good like We can put it on the set We can bring it here I think it looks at the set Yeah

I mean it's the grandfather cock It's never been put together So somebody's gonna have to put it together All the all the bells and weights And everything are still in the package No we're definitely bringing it in here then If it's not even put together It'll just start chiming though

In the middle of show Well I mean it's together But nothing none of the chimes or anything have ever been put together We need to put it we need to bring it in here Okay It's a very cool trophy You just come pick it up and we'll bring it

Yeah, we'll put it in my little sion two door. Perfect. There you go. Well, and to commemorate that win, I wore a jacket to rep Kevin today. I bought this off a seller on Etsy. It was a couple hundred dollars. Really? It was.

I mean, good things are high priced. And the guy didn't wash it. It was literally, like, smelled like a racetrack still. So I had to wash it. I did wash it. Yeah. Definitely won up in you today, and I love it. I'm doing my best.

It's really hard to one up him. Yeah. You're not going to get much credit unless you come up with a 20. or a four jacket. Maybe you can get one of those big old leather jackets. Yes. Yes. Yeah, that's true.

I can't remember the name of the guy that used to make all those jackets. I want the, I want an A.C. Delco one. AC Delco? Yeah, those ones. I just like the branding of that. Like, that car is so clean. Yeah. Yeah, I always liked that one.

Yours was the two, right? Mine was the two. But then Junior drove the three. Yeah. His jackets are probably worth more than mine. That's what I'm going to get yours because it's cheaper. Cheaper. I got you.

He thinks you need to sign it. I do. You don't know. Oh, you're saying no. If you're going to wear it, I wouldn't sign it for now. There's a fake signature on it somewhere. See, there's on there. Yeah, it's on there. Sown in.

Sown in. Back when they used to sew things. Right. Sewing machine. Okay. Is that vintage? It is technically vintage. How many years is vintage?

In car culture, I think it's 20 years. 20 years. So it's vintage. Yeah. Yeah. That's a minor detail. Anything that has GM good wrench on it for you is definitely vintage. I thought that is cool.

Thank you. Thank you. It's worth more that way. All right. So we're talking about Martinsville, the next track we're going to. I want to know some specifics about it. What makes it so tough? Like you mentioned, it's a place everyone kind of wants to win at, but it is hard to win there.

You really got to put it together. And a lot of times it's you against everybody else, and you just have to keep yourself from getting torn up. And there's just so many things that can go wrong. You can get a fender knocked in. You can get the radiator knocked in. harder to do with with these cars but it's just a it's a very uh you have to be very precise at martinsville to put the car in the right spot and you have to have a great handling car which are two hard things to to do at martinsville to put the car in the right spot every lap there's guys that are

really good at it it's a it's for for me it's a the way that i drove with the mid corner speed wanting to be partial throttle and do the things that i did in the middle of the corner it just was never a good place for for me to do that and the way that I drove, I'd always be fast through the middle third of the corner and run into the back of somebody or gain my time there and I could never pass on entry or exit. So the style that I had just didn't fit there. Some guys are like that. Some guys aren't. Some guys, it fits really well. I always wanted to run right next to the curb. I feel like there's like a six or eight inch clean strip of concrete down there. And if you can wrap your tire right around that, that concrete and there's a little

crack right next to the curb between the curb and the actual concrete that you would want to wrap. But if the rubber builds up, you're either going to want to run right down there or you're going to want to split the rubber and diamond the corner. So it's a great racetrack. It's fun to watch. I'm glad I get to watch this year. Never somewhere that I really actually enjoyed driving because I knew how bad I was there. Oh, well, what do you think about this weekend?

What I'm looking forward to for the paper clip as we call? Yeah, the paper clip. Then the hot dogs. Oh, yeah. Have you eaten one of those? I've never had a hot dog. Are you kidding? Oh, we got to send somebody up to the booth.

Have you had one? I have. What do they put on them? Well, it's involved over the years. I never could get past the fact that they were pink. Yes, that is a bit odd. I'm not saying eat a bunch of them. You said you ate hot dogs in your bus.

I can't believe you did. I don't eat pink hot dogs. I don't know. It's just something that doesn't look right about pink hot dog. Okay. Well, we're going to bring you one. What comes on the hot dogs? I don't know.

Have you had one? Yeah. I don't get it. How do you not know what comes on it? Because I don't get it. You get it plain? Track style. Yeah, whatever.

Yeah. I don't know what's called. I don't know, Martin style or something like that. Yeah. What is that consistent? I don't know. It's like, it's kind of like an out burger. You can't say you know all about these things.

I didn't know. It's like chili and cold saw. What'd you have on yours? It was like a chili and a colesaw. See, I don't like coleslaw. You can get it plain and put ketchup on it and mustard just like you like it. Yeah, it's right. You got you, he went to, we had to go.

I was like, how did he go to the snack bar this week? And we went to Dominion and I'm like, I got there and I was just wanted to hang out with Kulin. And the next thing I knew, Everybody knew where I was at. So I told, I told Mama, I'm like, hey, man, would you go to the snack bar? Because I just, I don't want to go to the snack bar because I might not ever make it back. This is the price you pay being coming back. And he said, all right, what do you want?

So I had a walking taco out of a Frito's bag and a hot dog with ketchup and mustard on it. And it came back perfect. Everything was pretty good. He's him. He is him. Yeah. But the hot dog was not pink. No.

Okay. But back to Martinsville. I'm excited because people always get so mad. Everybody's mad. They're so mad. We need to make a list of everybody using that. I know. This year they've been really chippy. They have been chippy.

Like, this is a place to repay somebody. Like, if you see the eight having a bad day and the 20s around them, this is probably one of those places. Yeah. And even this week, like when the five went past the 20, he squeezed him up in the fence and the 20 had to lift. And those are the types of things that you don't typically see. But Clint pointed that out this week.

He's like, do you see that? And I went back and watched it. We have a camera that'll play replays. And that's where we saw the True X and Joe Gibbs footage there at the end. But the five, the five just, I mean, he just kept coming up. And 20 was like, I know what that's for. That's funny. Well, it's going to be entertaining.

Martin's Mill always delivers in a big way. And time now, though, for you to do your new name. Tell us the new name of your segment. The new name for the social segment is Mamba Social Sips. Love it. And I got my social sips. Social sips of water over here. Let me see your cup.

He's got a Kevin cup. Yeah. Oh, cute. Yeah. Kevin. Look at it. Pretty good. See, this.

I'm a lefty, so they put it up. Are you? No, just what I, I had to pick it up with my left hand. I'm a righty, but I don't know. Shocked. We're like, what? How would I pick up my cup if it was on the, on the, on the, I'm picking it up with my left hand.

Completely fair. It's not you and Tony were both south up. We didn't even know he was a Sagittarius. He doesn't even know how to spell it. doesn't know what it is. I had no idea. But it's mom for social sips. We're in it.

And we couldn't do this one without talking about Joey Gase. Joey Gase is such a nice guy. He's just out here grinding. Just trying to get through. And he gets wrecked by Dawson Cram over in three and four, it looks like, and takes his bumper off here, which says, I think it says, like, take a bite out of a crime. And then he, yeah. And then he performed a little bit of a crime.

It does say it. Race Against Crime. There it is. So, you know, Joey, I feel for you, my man. I know you guys are just trying to build your stuff. But thank you for the clip. This clip was on FS1 shows. It was on every sports show. I bet it was.

Over the weekend. Not advised for any local short track racer to walk across the racetrack like that. We're in a much different environment there. But I think he was going for the back bumper in the side window. What do you think? I think if you get it stuck in there, he has to come down. It's, you know. You know?

I would say he... Daddy's getting upset. Dad says. Dad says he should probably get a fine because I just... The guy's walking on the racetrack like that, man. It's just... We've seen a number of instances where people get hurt and run over and what if he fell and fell in front of the car or something? I'm not opposed to this, but are you saying he should get a fine because he walked across a track or because he threw the stuff at him?

Just walking on the track. Okay. I don't think you should walk across the hot track anywhere. I just... I don't... I think we've seen enough problems with things happening. Look, I'm all for them pushing and shoving and banging into each other and creating excitement and saying everything.

I want to see all that. I've lived all that. But just the walking across the track stuff, I don't know. So for all you cars tour. I'm the downer. Kevin's not into that sip. For all you cars tour drivers, make sure you don't do that because Uncle Kev is going to get you. We find a number of them last year for running across the

track or walking across the track. So, yeah, you do that in a car street. You're going to get a penalty. Uncle Kev Bob. Sorry. Uncle Kev Bob. I'm the downer. We also, we talked about a little bit, but we went to watch Keelan race at Dominion

Speedway over the weekend. Support your local short tracks. It's always cool when we're in market. There's a picture of Keelan and Kevin. You know, the cool thing about this is there was no photo cred when it was posted. And I don't know who took it, but he did a really good job. Whoever took this photo. So I read that you were looking for some credit for the photo, but it was my

phone. I took the picture. Wait. That's not how that works at all. You need to understand what photo credit is. If you take a picture with my phone, so that's like a, that's like a, I guess that's like a, is that like a squatter coming into your house and taking over? Do they own your house? No, you didn't say, it's just like a little

begging for taking the picture. Yeah. Well, thank you. Did you guys have fun though? You guys wrote up together? Yeah, we talked about a lot of stuff. I heard. We did. We had a good time. I'd never been, I'd been to Dominion, but never actually inside the We've been to the road course there.

And I don't typically, you know, Keelan, we've tried to schedule his races somewhere around closer to where we are racing to be able to do that. Yeah. And Mamba was was around and was able to go with me. So we had a good time. Keelan's first time there as well. Smash the bumper so hard that he couldn't steer anymore. He learned it's a very different style of racing, which is why we go to different racetracks. But he learned that smashing in the back of the people is detrimental at Dominion Speedway.

because when you're going 105 miles an hour. They were strolling around there. They cave in pretty easily. When they cave in too far, you can't steer anymore. Yeah, that's kind of how we end of the race. So, but, you know. Sounds like a fun weekend. It was fun.

They had a great crowd. Yeah, it was packed out. It was packed out. It was packed out. It was a great crowd. Very cool. Chase Briscoe was out there, too, actually. He showed up, so that's cool.

Was he getting mob like Kevin was? Well, he was on the side of the mob, so yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wasn't getting mobbed. I was just, I was there, and it was just, It was just one of those situations where I didn't want to go to the snack bar. I just didn't want to go to the snack.

The thing was, is on the front stretch in his defense, they were doing an autograph session for all the drivers. So had he walked over there? There were a lot of. Yeah, there was a lot of people. And they would have started coming away. I wouldn't have been able to carry all the food back. That's fair.

I couldn't even carry all the food back. Okay. Well, it's time now for our last call. And we're going to give our picks on who we think can get it done in Martinsville this weekend. I guess I'll go first. Oh, now you want to go first. Yes. Now she wants to go first because she's been getting beat.

Well, we both got beat last week. We both had the same pick. Don't look over here. All right, I'm going with Joey Lagano. Oh, really? We are definitely not on a safe page. How many times does he win on Martin's role? He has one there.

He also has 11 top fives in case anyone's telling me. He's run well there. I expect him to race. I expect him to race in the front again this week as well as I ran last week. I can't wait. I hope he wins. So what do you got? Yeah, Kevin.

I'm going to stick with the old horse. I'm going to stick with the 11. Okay. I had the 11 and a 5 on my list. So I just think that these guys are on a roll right now. The redemption pick could be the 19. I think he gets yelled out this week a little bit and comes back with a with a fury. Yeah.

What do you think? I feel like I'm starting to think that we should cap how many times you can pick one car. Okay. That's fine too. You're like four. We're like seven races in. picked the 11 four times. All right.

Well, who you got? So here's my problem. Just like I've told you before. Every time I pick somebody, they don't do well. I feel like I'm jinxing them. I'm going with... That's their problem.

I know. I feel like the 12... Yeah, they need a little bit of a really strong run. Obviously, they're a really strong here in the fall to go to the, you know, give himself a chance of the championship. I don't see that changing. I think the 12...

I think Blaney gets it done. I think both of those picks are good picks because I think from the arrow side of it, it's the least amount of arrow that you're going to see. So I think it's the Ford's best chance that we've currently had outside of Daytona and Atlanta. So Blaney, I mean, Blaney's run well there. He's had a lot of speed there too. He did not have a lot of speed at Richmond. He ran in the back.

Yeah. I think he got up to like 12 and then something happened and he was just back. I must have my eyes closed. You were not paying attention. I was watching the 12. Okay. Kevin approves of our picks, which is good. I feel like he approves of these.

I go with the easy picks. It's fine. We'll see how they do. They're always tough to beat. See? Always tough to beat. I'm going to stick with my saying. There you go.

Gibbs cars are going to be tough to beat. He's never wrong because he always doesn't. I've got four choices. Well, six, whatever you want to call it. So we have been asking the fans and the listeners to submit names for what are groupies? Are they? No, not groupies. That's not good.

We have groupies. No, we don't. You do. We, um, but what's, what's our new name? What have we talked with? So, ladies and gentlemen, we have been listening to you for weeks. You've been giving your five-star reviews, much appreciated. And we have decided that you are the closers. Love it.

Of the Harvick Happy Hour podcast. We appreciate you. A nod to Kevin's long-term nickname. Well, I think that's a good choice. Did you think of that yourself? No. Somebody, fans thought of it. Actually, I think Bob Pockeris.

Remember we were walking out that day and Bob was like, Oh, Bobby P. Thank you, my friend. He listens to every episode. I'm glad some of those old-time things stick around. That's right. Hey, they do. Called me vintage, Kevin. Vintage.

Vintage. Vintage. Vintage. And like, whatever, lit. He's him. We'll have to see. What was the one before that? Dog and him.

You got the dog in him. Got the dog in him. Yeah. Real quick, before we. Buffle. Buffle. That's a squad. That's a squad.

buy one. So that doesn't, that's old. That's old. That's timeless too. Okay. I want to make a bet with you guys real quick. Okay. Okay. Last year we had 11 cup races affected by rain. How many, we're at, we're at three now. Over under 11 this year. I think it'll be under. I hope under. Yeah. Yeah. But you know the great part about it is for me? Once we get to June 9th, I don't really give it crap anymore. My work is done here. Okay. So if it's over, then you owe dinner at steak 48. Ooh, I like this.

If it's over. Yeah, I'm taking the over. He's trying to get a free dinner now. Classic. Duh. What do you mean? We knew there had to be more of this bet. Deal.

You got a deal. Okay. All right. We'll have to see how it all unfolds. Thanks again, everyone for watching. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube. Follow on X, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere you get your podcast.

Harvick, Happy Pod. And we'll see you after Martinsville.