Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Joey Logano Triumphs in Nashville, Chase Briscoe to join JGR, Harvick Races at Five Flags Speedway!

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

In Episode 39 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick joins co-hosts Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith for an in-depth post-Nashville race analysis and the latest NASCAR updates. Kevin kicks things off by reflecting on his Super Late Model Race at Five Flags Speedway, sharing his favorite moments and detailing his preparation for the event. The trio then breaks down the Nashville race weekend, focusing on Joey Logano’s impressive victory and his 5th overtime win, which marks his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the year.They also delve into the major news that Chase Briscoe will be taking over the No. 19 car from Martin Truex Jr. for the 2025 season. Tune in for expert analysis and all the NASCAR action you love! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're in a position to win the race, that's not when you settle the score. You try to win the race first and settle the score later because I still believe that Kyle Arson could have won that race if he'd a race like Kyle Larson. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR and Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Vincy and he's our mystery guest. He is our mystery guest. What in the hell are you wearing? I'm a concrete cowboy, cap. Concrete cowboy? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, because we came from Nashville and now we're going to the street. to Chicago, so I'm a concrete camera. You look like you're stuck somewhere between Nashville and Chicago. I'm stuck between on the side of the road hitchhiking, it looks like to me. Well, I had to drive home from Nashville. So that was long, that was, all you need is the guitar on your back. And I guess you'd have to go back to Nashville.

To get the guitar. Looking for your break. That's a sharp hat, though. Where did you get that? A wrestler hat company. In Nashville. In Nashville, yeah. But you bought that.

You got a K on there for us. Look at that. You got the K and Caitlin. Look at that. It's a nice little feather detail. Looks to me like you need to get a meal. Yes, no, why? Because you're, I mean, you're totally confused.

You've got your Pumas on, you've got your came up pants. You want me to break this down? Yeah, please break it down for us. From top to bottom, okay? So, actually, bottom to top, let's go that way. Okay. So I go with the red shoot with the red pumas. Those are black.

Black with the red accent. Okay, that matches the shirt. Okay, I see that now. Okay. I wanted something else because this is a, you know, this is nice. And it's black. This is nice. This is nice.

You have no idea what it is, but it's nice. It's a jersey, you know, for the white socks that goes with the black shoes. So are you going to go to a white socks game while you're in Chicago? I don't think I'll have time. No. But the camo pants go with the green hat that I really needed to wear because I just bought it. Honestly, it's the snake ring for me. He wears that all the time.

And Piper's bracelet. And Piper's bracelet. So like, we got a lot of things going on. You definitely have a lot going on. You might want to simplify it next week. No, I don't think so. Listen, you're simple and you look good doing it. Yeah.

Someone has to bring some style. Yeah. I'm going to leave that to her. I wish I had a camera on Kevin's face when he first saw you, though. That was pretty funny. He wasn't ready. I've never seen you wear that much. Stuff.

He's like, do I say it? Bling. No, sometimes I wear a fistful and rings. Okay. All right. It's going to be a good show, guys. It's already off to a great start. We want to encourage the closers to continue subscribing on

YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Also give us a rating. Give us some five stars. We always like that, right? Yeah, we always like that. Closures have been, they're just gassed out. Could be worse, yeah.

Could be worse. Yeah, you don't like us. Tell us that too. That's true. If you want to see something better, like, or just tune out. Or two now. Don't like us.

Watch something else. Speaking of tuning out, you know, I think it's so funny on our socials on the handle for the podcast, there'll be some people that are like, all Kevin does is just talk. And I'm like, that's the point. It's Kevin Hartman's happy hour podcast.

It's a podcast. I don't know the way you want. Should we not talk? Yeah, I guess you should just sit there in silence. Yeah, I'll just sit. And then I won't talk enough. That's my favorite. Clint posted something on social on X the other day.

And the first comment was Clint, you talk too much and act like whatever. And then the next comment was, I wish Harvard talked more. He doesn't say enough. And it's like, what in the world? We can't keep up. We're watching the same thing, though. Yeah, watching the same thing. We have a lot to talk about on this show.

today. And I want to start, though, first with your weekend because we were back in the race car. We obviously were so stoked for you getting back racing. How was it? It was fun. I had a blast and learn a new racetrack, learn a new car, got my butt kicked by Bubba Pollard. The Bubba Pollard lap me. So that made me feel pretty good. But we went to Pensacola, Florida, to Five Flag Speedway. And I think they had almost 6,000 people show up to the race, which is the track where they have the snowball derby. And we had people. drive from 12 hours away. One guy brought his little girl from eight hours away because I didn't sign his picture in Homestead. They didn't get a chance to sign the picture that I took with his little girl.

So he drove his little girl eight hours to come to the race and get their picture sign. They hung out in the pits for the whole day. Stuck around after the race and signed autographs for about an hour and a half with the fans, which led to a beer drinking competition that I will always lose against Bubba Pollard. You're not beating that. And thank God it rained. Really? Thank God it rained because that would have been a disaster. It started downpouring and we had to had to leave.

So many beers did you have then? Probably more than I should have. Yeah. It was, it was just, that's what you're supposed to do, right? Exactly. We're going to the short tracks and enjoying the time. And I definitely enjoyed myself. We need to work on our car a little bit to make it a little better.

But I wouldn't be shocked if we race a few more times now. Oh, Delana, I'm sorry. Yeah. It was too much fun. So, all right. So you got to work on the car a little bit. How's the driver, though? How did the driver do?

Well, the first day, I was nervous the first day because I had never been there. I hadn't driven the car. You're racing against the, I mean, that's the best of the best super late model guys in the country. They can go anywhere in the country, that group of guys and win races. So, but that's how I wanted to do it. I wanted to step way outside of my comfort zone to be. able to say, okay, these are the cars I want to race. I need to go race against the best guys because that's how you get better quicker. When you go and you start, you know, at the, you know,

the bottom and try to work your way up, you kind of get this false sense. You're going to get your butt kicked when you get to the top anyway. So we figured what the heck. We'll just start there and work our way backwards. But I felt good until about lap 50. It was hot. I bet. And I decided I said, I'm going to put this cool shirt in here and we're going to get it all hooked up. And it's to be the best late model race ever. And guess what happened? It failed. It failed.

Alternator went out just before halfway. All the gauges shut off. Shirt went out. All the fans went off. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to die. It was south. It was panhandle, Florida hot. Can you explain to people like, so the cool suit, like we've heard guys on Sunday and Saturday

when the cool suit goes out because it's running water through it. Yeah. So when it goes out, it's not sight. which means it's the same sitting water for lap after lap. Starts to get hot. Starts to boil. Yes. So did you have time to, was there a break?

Like did you take the cool suit off or did you? No, just a caution. So you just had to cook like a lobster? Yeah, just cooked. Open my shield up and let it rip. Yeah, I got out. I was laying in the trailer afterwards just trying to, trying to cool off. And I set up about halfway and I've got my shirt off and my suit down and Keelan's sitting next to me.

And I was fine, but I mean, I was hot. Yeah. And he looked over. He's like, Dad is so weird to look over at you right now. You've got a big puddle of sweat in your belly button. And I was like, that's just kind of weird. I'm like, I've got sweat just running everywhere. And he's like, are you sure you okay?

I'm like, it's not the first time I've been hot. But that's why you train in the heat. And really, everything that I've done in the past, when you get to May 1st, you take the gym outside because you have to be used to the heat. So I haven't changed any of that since I stopped. driving full time on the cup side, I still believe that if you're going to go outside and enjoy the summer, you're going to have to be used to the heat. You can't go from the air conditioning to the heat. And I knew I was going to race. So I wanted to be, I wanted to be used to the element

still. So your next one is North Wilkesboro, right? Yep. We're going to just switch up cars. Okay. So last week, I did a little Hoosier tire test in the late model stock car. I went to Tri-County for the first time. Went to Hickory. I guess technically for the second time. But it's been 25 years. Do it look the same? No, the infield's paved. Okay. The track was the same.

Everything else looks the same. Wall's still about to fall down. I don't think it's been painted since I race there last. But, you know, it's a totally different car. Late model stock is, it's a cars to a race at North Wilkesboro. So that's a series that myself and Dale and Jeff Burton and Justin Mark's own that we've ran for the last couple years. So I'm looking forward to running that race at North Wilkesburg.

August 3rd. So in the late model stock car for the first time this year, probably going to be the exact same thing, just a butt kicking from a different group of people. But that's the way it goes. The difference between the late model stock and the super, like the late model stock never really turns as much as you want it to do. Like, it's harder to get it to operate. Like I feel like the super, at least you have so much horsepower that you can like kind

of maneuver it a little bit differently. Totally different. Yeah. One's got a rack. One's got a steering box. Yeah. one weighs 3,100 pounds. One weighs 2,800 pounds.

One's got a lot of horsepower. One doesn't have a lot of horse power. Let's like that. It's, uh, it's, uh, two totally different styles of cars. But we're going to, our goal is to do the same thing. That's to have fun. Have you run a car tour race already? I ran one cars tour race, uh, at North Wilkesboro.

That's the only, only one I've run was at North Wilkesboro. Okay. Yeah. That's going to be a good show. We look forward to. So you had a busy weekend. How was your weekend? I actually saw you.

Yeah. I got to see. Oh, you guys saw each. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Both went to the track?

Yeah. Or was it somewhere besides the track? But we saw each other at a bar. Yeah. At a bar? Yeah. What was that place called? Like bourbon street?

Bourbon Street. No. Wait, there were several bars. I don't know. We started at 1230 club and it just kind of kept going on. Yeah. So 12.

30 club. That's just in Timberl-Lays place. Okay. You've been there. That's where the SMA is. The karaoke bar? No. That's not,

no, no. That was the place before you guys went to the karaoke bar. We need to take her to the karaoke bar. I agree. I know. We want to hear her sing. That was a time. I remember when we were for the banquet this past year.

Don't bring that up. We're all leaving the 1230 club. And mind everybody, this is before like this show was ever even a thought, right? And we're all leaving the 1230 club and walking up the street. It's like Larson and Clint and Caitlin and everybody. And I'm like, I need to go to bed. I definitely need to go to bed and they're walking up the street. I just keep walking slower and slower and then start walking backwards and turned around and dipped.

Because I knew Kevin wasn't going to let me. Yeah, it was supposed to You dipped on me Yeah, I did I had to But yeah So we saw All that talk

And then you dip out On the old guy I had had a long night The night before And Nashville like really Really gets me But we did the We did the trackside

Chronicles vlog So it was like a follow vlog So we went to a bunch of different spots Hung out with the Barstow guys At Robbins Racing That's cool Went to Went to the cowboy

The cowboy We went to Vandy So that was cool too Our poor guy though Had to drive like pretty much through the night to be here because by the time that race ended it was what time it was very late by the time i left it was like 11 he's not give you many excuses no it's not it was my it's my fault it's your fault i missed my flight on friday morning ah and i had a small window to get to a

shoe it's always more to the story yeah it's my fault so we drove the we drove the old how you have an excuse for how you dress you're tired you're tired you can't see straight right is that you're Okay, next. All right, let's talk about the race, guys, because this was very eventful. I'm not really sure where to start with this one. Gosh. Like, yeah, go ahead. You can't start at the start because the finish was just out of control.

So I think for me, the, I guess the place to start is do we like all the green white checkers? It was getting pretty frustrating towards in. Yeah. I think you like them? I'm saying I just don't, I think it robs. I know that. gets it gets messy at the end but just that for it to get messy and then end on a under caution like an arc erase or something I'm like I don't like that at all

I'd rather so would you would you rather end at the right distance and end of a caution or you just wanted to I just wanted to end I just wanted to end under green or at least you know the one lack get the white flag and then it I think that I think it takes a lot away when it just ends under caution yeah I agree and I think part of this is we are in the entertainment business I think that you know I think the me would tell you that I want the race to end at the right distance, whether it's green or caution. But I like the show. I like the fact that the race ended under green flag and they

were competing and it added all these different elements to the end of the race. It did drag all the slow cars to the front, which for our purposes is amazing. Yeah, we're going to have some out of boys for some of these teams. It drug all the slow cars to the front. They were obviously making a lot more gas than the cars that were that were running up front the fact that Joey Lugano could run that far and I saw Chris Gavehart tweet after the race a fan asked well how did how did Joey Ligano go that far on fuel and Chris Gabehart wrote because he was slow and you know I think that it's you just never know in this sport I think you just have to keep yourself rolling you have to keep yourself in contention I've been on the other side of the fence where

they have these rules where you can only do one green white checker, well, then somebody will spend somebody out or something happens. And it ends the same way that it would have if it just ended at the correct distance. So we went away from the green white checkers unlimited when they had that truck race in St. Louis. And they had all those crashes at the end of the race. But I like it in ending under green because I think that's what the, that's what the fans want to see. and you just have these unexpected moments that show up with races ending this way. And now with Lugano winning, it kind of turns that whole playoff picture a little bit upside down. But I'm telling you, if one person outside of that top 16 wins, it's really going to get interesting because of the fact that you have Martin Truex, I feel like he's the only guy that's safe on points.

Rochester. Justine, Ty Gibbs, Chris Busher, and I can't remember who's 16th. But Bubba, Bubba is out. Alex Bowman. Alex Bowman. Yeah, yeah. So Bubba is out by like 51 points. So he's in trouble.

And I think from his standpoint, I think he'd like to see his cars run faster. But I think they're capable of buckling down and finding some speed. It's just a matter if those racetracks match up right because you've got, you've got Chicago Street course. You've got Daytona Super Speedway, which they'll run good at. You've got another Richmond race. You've got some very unique racetracks. He can run good at, he'll run good at Michigan.

Yeah. So, you know, I think there are some racetracks that are good for him for the rest of the year, but it's a matter of getting into the playoffs and those races that they have leading up to the playoffs. It's going to be interesting because we have a good chance that someone else could make that happen. Yeah, I think so too. When you look at the variety of racetracks coming up. So you were there, as we talked about firsthand, What do you think as you're watching all of this unfolding?

Drivers starting out of gas, all these things happening. Well, first I was trying to see through the waterfall of sweat that was just raining down. Like, it was hot. Well, it was cooking. And like, I mean, those drivers, the teams, like in the fire suits, everybody. The fans, too. Shout out to you guys. Because you guys stayed through the weather.

It was packed out. And even after it was still packed out. The racing was, it was very interesting because the strategy started changing so much. And we were sitting there. I guess it was like eight of the top 10 were like basically running out of gas and you knew it and I was talking to a couple people that was around and I'm like well the problem

is at this point when you go to the gas there's not going to be any like now you're so low like there's nothing going to pick up and that's when they're going to sputter and then we saw that with Kyle Larson so the strategy of it I love right it just adds another element it adds entertainment adds drama

but if you're you know if Zane Smith would have won if Coyla Joy would have won the 14 like that that would have changed that whole thing already so we're we're we're percolating on percoling we thought probably joey was going to get it like i mean i think we all assumed that he he did not he did not all right well i thought he had a pretty good shot to get in on on a win but you could tell that he was incredibly relieved in his post-race interview to now have that there's a there's a lot of pressure on these guys i mean i've lived that i mean there's a there's an immense amount of pressure

that that goes with being a cup driver and when you're are in the position of being a two-time champion like Joey de Gano and the expectations are as high as they are not only put on by himself, but by everybody else around him, right? Because there's just a, there's a different value to a guy that's expected to win that's won a couple championships and put those pieces together year after year after year. And when you're in that position to where you don't put those pieces together, that pressure starts to build. And especially as we get closer and closer to that cutoff date.

you could see the emotion just with, you know, how many times you wiped his face and turned around and just the awkwardness of the interview wasn't the typical Joey Lugano interview. I mean, you could see the emotion and the relief in his interview after the race. So let me ask you, so Penske went from, or especially early on the year, the only one that was running well was the 12 was Blaney. We felt like he was consistent, but it wasn't like dominating speed. We go to all these tracks that we talked about last week, off throttle tracks, using some break having to slow down and they and shift and they have all one legano's one blanney's one and syndic's one so now penske has all three and what does that change your view on their company

or do you still think that they aren't fast enough of the other tracks yeah well i think blaney was the fastest car this weekend of of their crowd and he wasn't a winning contending car he's about six right yeah i i didn't think he was winning contending and i actually talked to ryan about this last week he came out to the summer shootout and was hanging out with Bubba and came by and said, hi. And I asked him, I said, where are you at? He said, well, we'll find out when we get, you know, to some of these bigger racetracks. And I think if they can run fifth or sixth at the Nashville's, the mile and a half racetracks, those types of places, I think they're going to be, they're going to be in contention. When you looked at this at one point this weekend, the four or five Toyotas were the four or five first cars.

in the field. So I still feel like those guys have more grip and they do a better job. They're doing a job with the package that they have, whether it's aerodynamics or suspension or whatever it is. They just are able to run better. I mean, Denny was, Denny was lights out. Martin was good at points. But when you looked at Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, there were, there were several Toyotos up in the front that were fast. You mentioned Tyler Reddick. His post-race interview, very dejected. What do you make of that, just his frustrations right now with himself? Yeah, I think Tyler Redick knows that he should have one more races than he's won. That's my opinion. I think he's frustrated with the fact that he hadn't won. His car was way faster than Joey Lagano's at the end. And he, you know, he tried that

top line both laps there at the end. And Ligano just ran him up the hill and air blocked him and he didn't leave himself any options. So, you know, I think it's, I think he's just frustrated with the fact that he hasn't won as many races as he felt like he should have won. And he's had so many heartbreak moments this year, whether it was Vegas or now Nashville. He was just, he was way faster than those cars around him. And Lugano did a good job. He definitely took the line away and, you know, pushed him out of the groove. But there was a whole, there was a whole other race track down there for as as much faster as his car was. So I think he's frustrated with himself and the fact that he hasn't won as many as he thinks he should have.

At one point, I think the Toyota's at like seven of the top ten. Yeah. And they had like four of the top five. I think Morrison was the only one in there that was messing it up for him. And they were dominating. And then it's crazy. The sport is so, it gives you so much and they'll take away the next week because you have Christopher Bell out there doing what he's doing.

I'm like, oh, shoot, he's going to, he might win another one here. And spun it. Spun it. Yeah. Just lost it over in one or two. His was, we saw the nine car spin out a couple times. we saw the six cars spin out

I think that he thought he was going to be clear his spotter actually called him clear and then the three drove in there and kind of tapped him in the left rear and spun him out but the nine spun out on his own twice and when you look at Christopher Bell's

moment when those cars were I think they were three wide in front of him and he had one kind of at his left rear and one on the outside you kind of get into no man's land when those cars are side by side below you and then you have those cars on one side or the other of you.

And you get in this air pocket that really there's no air. And the next thing you know, the car just comes out from underneath you. And that's one characteristic of this next-gen car that's so much different than what we used to have. You go, go, go, and you lean on it, you lean on it, you lean on it, and you try to get a little bit more, and it spins out. There's just, it's a knife's edge. And when you get to a place like Nashville, where it's kind of got that choppiness of the bumps that go with the surface and you're on the edge of spinning out like that.

We saw some guys looping around. We saw the 42 car spin out all on his own. So we saw a handful of cars just spin out on their own. And that's just nature of the beast. I want to revisit something we talked about last week when Kyle Larson's spotter was a little critical of him, how he was racing Denny Hammon. This once again showed up this past weekend with these two drivers.

What do you think is going on here? Well, I think this week, I think that that's, that's why I didn't like the, I didn't like the comment towards Kyle last week. And I don't think that that's the place to discuss those types of things on the radio. I think you discuss those things quietly behind closed door and then you go out

and make it happen. When the moment's right and, you know, you do what you have to do to the other guy in those moments. And I think with the Larson scenario here, I mean, he was definitely trying to move the 11 out of the way. And it's like you said earlier, he was trying to do

something out of character. hit the apron and wound up wrecking the one. And, you know, that, that took the one out of the race, it wrecked a few other cars. But that was really, instead of Kyle doing what Kyle does, he was, he was kind of falling into the pressure of trying to do something out of character. And that was moved to any Hamlin or, you know, turn him sideways or, and push him out of the way instead to just pass him and do the things that he normally does to try to win the race. And it got, it got somebody else in trouble. Yeah, we see it in another sports all the time. It's play your game. Play your game. Play your game. And, and, and I,

I think Kyle, I mean, a lot of fans were critical of him, like, on socials and stuff for not for letting, you know, Denny kind of bully him around. And I think Kyle was like in a situation where he's like, oh, I can take this, I can kind of flip the script. And it kind of reminds me of Dale Jr. and Kyle Bush way back at, like, Richmond. And Dale felt like he had to get Kyle back, right? And he felt like he was letting fans down if he didn't and letting people down. And Kyle tried, I think, a little bit. And he got him. But all of a sudden, the sparks fly on the left front.

or in the apron. Yeah. And that's, that's, you know, that's the part that, I think you learn along the way.

And I think Kyle Arson will take a lesson from this and say, you know what? I'm going to do what I don't like you. I don't need to listen to the guys around me in some of these situations because the crew guys,

they'll put this unneeded pressure on you to do stuff like that. And the fans will put this unneeded pressure on you to kind of force you into doing something that's, that's out of character. And I just,

that's just not the way Kyle Arson races. He's going to be aggressive. He's going to put that car in places that it typically wouldn't go because of the way that he drives. But when you try to start doing things like that and do them intentionally and try to do things that you normally don't do, you get yourself in trouble. And I think that's just something that you learn from the pressure that comes with the fans. You know, I've had a spotter before when I drove the 29 car. It was always just firing at me to go wreck that guy or go do this.

don't let that guy push you around. And, and I just, I don't, I don't think that's the right place to do it. I think that the, that you have to have those conversations and be a little more methodical about how you go about those scenarios and when you push somebody around and how you push somebody around. And it's not on the radio from a guy who doesn't really know what he's doing. I would say that Larsson, or fans who don't know what they're doing. I would say that Larson is like when you compare the two guys like, I, I would pick Larson as like talent wise. But Denny, the way Denny races and the way. Kyle races, Denny is his kryptonite for sure. Like if Kyle's Superman, the way Denny races and puts

him in different situations and bullies him, like Kyle puts people in tough situations to where they need to make a decision to lift or not or they're going to wreck. Denny puts Kyle in the situations that are, I don't care. You're either going to wreck or I'm going to be fine, right? They do a lot of bully ball. I just, you know, I don't even think that was the right place to wreck him, do you? No, on the entry to one. You can't be bumper to bumper like that pushing him into the corner. You're not just going to push. those tanks out of the way. No, and he's going to not be able to turn either, right?

You can kind of get locked together and go up the hill. I just, you know, I think in those scenarios, and I had this conversation with some of our younger drivers a couple weeks ago, I said, look, when you're in a position to win the race, that's not when you settle the score. And I think it's, you try to win the race first and settle the score later because I still believe that Kyle Arson could have won that race if he had a race like Kyle Arson. and I just think that he was trying to force the issue on something that was just not how he would have done it. I also think to end that is you got Ross just in on the top.

You know Ross is going to do whatever he needs to do. And if there's one guy that he's going to really run hard, it's going to be the 11. So like, I would have let Ross kind of, I would have let that play out a little bit and then be the benefit of. Because at that point, Ross didn't have the race car that Denny Hamlin had. No. And Ross had done a great job of holding off Denny Hamlin. as long as he did. And, you know, he had another chance to fire off in there and was probably going to be door to door. And likely Kyle Arson could have just let that play out, like you said,

and drove around them both. But I don't know. I just, it seems out of character for Kyle. And I think a lot of that comes from just the guys around him that putting the pressure on him to do something like that. And I think naturally you can take care of a lot of that stuff without forcing the issue. Maybe he needs to tell him to shut the up again. I'll just say that. They'll drop that in there. Look, these are just things that you learn along the way. And Kyle Larson has experienced a lot of things.

And he's going to go back and look at this scenario. And it always has to be win the race first. It's not the time to settle the score. So that's the story for Kyle Larson. What about Kyle Bush? Because this poor man, this team. I mean, it's like they had, I wrote down all the different things occurring. They had radio issues.

He slid through his pit stall. It was off the lead lap at one point. Hail Mary moved from Randall Burnett. But then he's finally in the front. I mean, contending in the top five. But we want this to work out for you, Kyle. Hapy. Hats off to you, my friend, because I feel so bad. I feel so bad.

Because they put themselves in a position to really, like, have a shot at a win. They did everything right. They executed. They really did. They went through adversity. And it came down to a strategy. and the five just runs out of gas and you're just in the middle, the sandwich in the middle with nowhere to go.

27th on the day. And, you know, the first part of the race, they ran 30th. Yeah. 31st. Running in the back. Terrible. All the mistakes. Finally, they get it all turned around.

They get the track position. They get up front and he gets spit out of the line. He's the guy that gets sent out of the line into the fence. And I just, I don't even know how you fix it at this point because they didn't do anything wrong. He didn't do anything wrong. They ran the gamut. It is, he is on the worst bad luck cycle of, of anyone. Anyone on the circuit right now.

And it is, it is bad. Like, don't go around Kyle Busch right now because it is, if you want bad luck, don't, don't get around that guy because he is, he is plagued with bad luck. If they're able to sneak a win though, because all that fire and motivation, if they're able to sneak one in, he'll be a bulldog in the playoffs. And we saw changes this week, Andy Petrie out as the, as the competition. director at at rCR um so that that tells me that there's obviously some issues on the performance side with everything that is going on with andy you know stepping down or getting pushed out or

whatever the scenario is they obviously feel like they need to make their race cars run faster because they're now looking for a new competition director have an intern competition director and you know it's it's the last couple weeks the three cars outrun the the eight for the most part. I think the three has run a little bit better, but it has outrun the eight. But I think there's, there's definitely some things that they're trying to address internally with the moves that they're that they're starting to make. And it looked like it was Andy Petrie first. Man, well, we're thinking about Kyle Bush and hoping that his luck will eventually turn. So I want to give a few out of boys. You guys kind of mentioned them a little bit. The Zane Smith story,

getting the runner up finish. That's huge for that team because they have struggled this year. They have. Yeah, they, and it's like we talked earlier, a lot of the cars that were slow had the most fuel because they burned less fuel. And they wound up at the front of the pack. So there was there was some strategy that played into this, but there was also a lot of luck that went with it with winding up in the front. But that happens in these races. You have to be able to keep your car rolling and you just never know. you can never quit at any point during these races because you just,

you don't know when the next five green, white checkers are going to come. I don't, I don't think that anybody saw that as happening this weekend, but it'll happen again. And you just never know where. But I think when you look at Chase Briscoe was, was up there, ran not great all day,

Zane didn't run great all day, Kyle Bush didn't run great all day, Corey the Joy didn't run great all day, Joey Legano didn't run great all day. Ryan. You know, it was, it was the back third of the field at one point that was up in, in the front of the pack with the way that everything cycled around with the fuel. So, uh, strange race, wild race, fun to watch. I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed the, all the different things that happened watching,

watching through the race this, this weekend. So what did, what did you guys think? Looking at another spire car, Holsafar in the 27. That's right. We wanted to talk about this. And the, like, there's a wreck and, and. one and two, and then, you know, all of a sudden, Burton's down the backstretch, turn around. Yeah.

I didn't really, I still didn't really see, I didn't really understand, because I was out of the track, so I also couldn't hear. So everything that I've taken in on this scenario is, I guess Harrison blocked the 77 and he didn't like it. And then under the caution, he came up. And NBC had a, had a view of it where you could see Hosevar accelerate. And you could see the 21 drag the brake a little bit when he started hitting him, break him a little bit and then Hosevar just spun him out. And I was a little disappointed that they didn't. I don't like the reckoning under the caution. I don't like the right rear hook. I think there are just certain places that NASCAR needs to draw the line. I really don't like the under caution piece of it.

I wish they had a black flag me and park me more times for doing that because it's just, you know, it's just not the right way to do it. And so, Hosefar got away with that one so far, in my opinion, but I think it was definitely a missed call on the NASCAR. side of it. So, um, is that the only mystical? No. I, I, I think that the, I think that the, the, the, the, the, on the, on the, yeah, what is going on that? Yeah, what is going on that? So, I went through this at Darlington last year. We, we all piled up and, and, um, I actually didn't spin out or anything. I got hit from the back, hit from the front. And, and, and I just slowed down and, and wound up with contact. But the way that the rule is right now,

it's not as if you're involved in the wreck. It's where they throw the caution and, you know, if you're just slowing down for the wreck. And the reason that they want the rule this way is they don't want people speeding through the wrecks under caution. So if you have to slow down like Kyle Bush did to keep from continuously hitting the car that was in front of him, who was Jack sideways? 42. Yeah. Well, 42 or whoever it was, was dead sideways in front of him. So he just basically, he didn't stop, but he went up, scrubbed the law.

wall, slowed down, slowed down. He actually never hit the 42 again or whoever that was. So he just slowed down and they gave him a spot back. But the reason that they do that, it's not that he was involved in the caution. It's not whether you're involved in the caution. It's not even a matter of maintaining pace. But when they throw that caution, if they deem you as a part of that wreck or you were spun out or anything like that. So it's kind of a, it's kind of a strange rule. But the reason that they don't worry about how much you slow down during that wreck is because they don't want people driving through that wreck faster than they need to and hitting cars unnecessarily. Probably like when we used to race to the line, right?

Yeah. A lot of people probably don't. Yeah. And that ruined because Dale Jarrett was sitting in the middle of straightaway sideways and two cars went around him at full speed trying to get their lap back. And he was, you know, wrecked and could have been hurt. And so a weird scenario. Very weird scenario.

I'm not 100% sure that that was the wrong call. I think that that, I know that they got criticized on the air for making the wrong call, but I don't 100% think that it was the wrong call based on the current rule. There you go. Thanks for clearing that up for us. You referenced one other driver I wanted to touch on briefly. It was Ryan Priest, a good run for him. We know obviously all the things that the Stewart House Racing guys are going through right now with added motivation to try and perform. And that was a good idea of joining for him.

Who else was up there? AJ Almondale, I think finished 11th. Hemrick was, I think Hemrick was ninth or tenth. Ninth or tenth, yeah. Yeah, ninth. And then Justin Haley again, with a lot of damage, somehow sneaked out 13. So, like, I like seeing those guys. Justin Haley, I mean, just, just know at this point, he's not sneaking anything.

No, we're going to just start putting him in the group. He is a legitimate contender week in and week out because we keep mentioning his name and people keep mentioning his name. He's a contender now. He's a top 20 guy. He's a top 20 guy. Top 20 guy. I think so. I mean, Rick Ware has that alliance with RFK and it's obviously paying off for him because he's consistently up there. Okay. So these regular season races are starting to decrease. Who are we really concerned about right now that really needs to make some things happen? Well, we've obviously touched on Kyle Bush. We're concerned about Kyle Bush. I'm concerned about Bubba Walls. For me, I think they're just missing a little bit on the speed side of things and haven't been able to

to put a lot of things together. And when they do, it's kind of been like Kyle Bush. It doesn't go right for them. It doesn't seem to work out in the end. So I think they have the capability to put more speed together at certain places. And it's just going to come down to capitalizing on those days where he's able to go to a racetrack where they can do that. But the problem now, he's 50, points out of 16th. And if another person wins, then it's going to be, then it's going to be an even bigger deficit.

And they're going to have to, they're going to have to point their way through some stages and start scoring more points at a much more rapid pace. So he's my big concern. I don't know about you guys. So you're saying panic button for the eight. I was going to say, is that a panic button for the eight?

Panic button for the four. Panic button for the 14. Yeah. Panic button for the 23. I mean, I guess we can't make that a segment. Now he just ran through half the field. Well, I mean, it's fair, though. There's a lot of people in a bad spot.

No, I think the four. Chase Briscoe for me. Yeah, I think the four. Yeah, no, I agree. I think the 14. I think there's just guys, everyone kind of outside the top 18, 19, you just don't see them winning. Like you don't see where, so they're going to have to really manufacture something.

Well. And this was a place that you, this was a, this was a perfect opportunity to manufacture a win at a nothing and it went to someone who is already what joey legano did manufactured a win out of nothing yeah and this weekend we're going to a street course so when you when you when you talk about when you when you talk about chase briscoe i mean he's got he's got more on his plate now they announced him as that's right as the 19 driver so we've been saying that for yeah and i think now he's got to manage all of that as as well so going to a different manufacturer and and what they want to keep I thought it was interesting, too, that they reported about Michael McDow, how his resources have been, you know, decreased now that he's also moving. And that could be very problematic for that. Yeah. And I think it'll be the whole Stuart Haas situation is going to be unique as far as what happens with the resources because you've got, now you've got Chase going to a different manufacturer. You've got the other three guys that aren't 100% sure. You've got crew chiefs that are probably going to go other places. So what are the resources going to be as we get towards the

into the year for Stuart Haas. Are they going to get better engines from Yates for the playoffs if they have guys? Are they just going to get what they have? Is Ford really going to be 100% behind Stewart-Hoss racing because of the fact that they know they're not going to be around? If I'm Todd Gillen, I'm probably pretty happy because he's like one of the only guys that they know that he stayed with Ford is like, I'm getting good engines. I don't know what you guys.

Like, I'm good. It's going to be interesting. No doubt about it as all of these teams try to manage these things in the next couple of weeks. All right. I see you're already queuing up the sip. Oh man. I could tell. I could tell. I could tell. Loves the spotlight. Yeah. Love's the spotlight.

Welcome. You got a lot of Howdy partners. Cool sips this week. Welcome to Bomba social sips. Okay. We're going to start right here. Kevin brought up cool suits, cool shirts. And so T.J. Majors, the spotter for

Brad Keselowski, had a cool suit shirt on the tower on the top there spotting for Brad. I guess in practice. And Bob Prokris asked how to interview with Brad about it. It's like, are you going to reimburse a TJ for the cool suit? Like, is he going to have to pay for this himself? And I think it's funny because there was a time not too long ago that people would give a lot

of shit to drivers that wore, you know, a helmet hose, a cool suit. And now we got spotters doing it. And I'm not saying that it's a bad thing because it's hot out there. You probably wanted one, didn't you? I would have loved one. Even when I'm doing intro sometimes I want one. It's only 20 minutes. What's your take?

Say you, Kevin Harbick. I'd rather keep them cool. Yeah. It's a long day. And the cooler that you can keep yourself, the better you're going to perform. And if you're inside that race car and you're hot, miserable, we saw so many of those guys miserable on Saturday with their cool shirts going out in the car. But it's the same thing up there.

It's not like they do them any favors with a, putting any screens or anything around. and they just leave them up on top of the roof to bake. So I'm all for it. I think they should, maybe they should build something that has some shade for those guys up on top of these roofs. Do you think at this point could we just put a little overhand, like a little.

Just put an awning. A little awning over the top and maybe, maybe three sides you could put some screen on that you can still see through. I don't know. It seems like we could create a little better scenario for the guys that you know they're going to be up there every single week. It's kind of been the same for what, like 30, 40,

Yeah, but now they're up there. Now they're up there actually thinking, right? So now they've got hoods on. They're taking care of themselves. Yeah. And so now we've got cool shirts. We've got sun shirts. We've got all kinds of stuff up there.

You get somebody like my old guy, Rick Corelli up there. I mean, what's he? 75, 80 years old. He's still doing it, right? Yeah, he's still out there spot. And he might fall out. You've got to be careful. High planes drifter might go down.

We don't want anyone going down. No, no. We're all for the cool suits for everybody. for the cool suits and looking cool. You think Karelli would wear one? I don't know. I feel like he's so old school. He wouldn't.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, but the minute he got it one time, I think he'd be like, oh, no, I can do this another 10 years. I think so. I think so.

Yeah. All right, well, we're trying to stay cool. Well, someone who was a car that was cool this weekend was Bubba Wallace's car, had Luke Combs all over it.

Who's Luke Combs? What? You know who that. Stop playing. You're not getting me on that, Kevin Arvick. No, sir. You didn't know who T.

Payne was. That, I'm not surprised on that. Luke Combs, there's no way. So the car looked awesome. Luke was also the honorary pace car driver. Okay. So that was cool. And he was having a good time.

There's a lot of country music artists out there. He's a North Carolina boy. Yeah, he's one of our guys. I've seen him, I've seen him perform at, um, Couty Joe's a couple of times. Yeah, he's a great entertainer. So I think, you know what? I think that Luke, I think you should come on, come on over and be on part of Kevin I'm having a hard time looking at you right now.

Why? Well, it's just, it's Dennis Rodman's lips. I can't tell if it, if it, I mean, it looks like it's blowing me a kiss every time I, every time I look over at you, it's like, right, it means, he's staring at me. Okay. Well, look at it. Kevin is really not in favor of this outfit. I know, I think it's great.

It's really distracting. It is distracting. I can't look at your face because I'm looking at his. Okay, well, we'll invite Luke to the show, please. We want Luke on here. Okay. Can we have Morgan Wallen on here, please? You know, I'm not sure.

We got Clint Boyer on today. I mean, okay. Clint Boyer, Morgan Wallen. I don't know. I mean, you did just leave me right into Clint. So did you see the clip of Cash and Clint? I did. Okay.

So Cash gets interviewed by Michael Waltrip. And he's like, you haven't fun. How's your racing career going? And Cash goes, yeah, well, I'm the only one that's won a race between me and this guy. And the way he said it was so adult. really was. It was so Clint Boyer, I was, I fell out. Oh, Cash is all Clint Boyer. Hey Cash, how you been, buddy? How's your racing career going? Are you having fun? Yeah, I'm having fun. I'm actually the only one that's won this season so far competing with this guy. He came to North Wilkesboro

to the all-star race and he is all Clint. It's like copy paste. Copy and paste Clint. So I was sitting there with Keelan and we were, we were watching and he heard, he saw the clip of of cash saying that. He's like, what would you do if I said that? I said, first off, buddy, neither one of you are race car drivers. He's a go-kart driver and you're a legend car driver. So when you earn the title race car driver, come back to me. And for the second, Clinton hasn't even raced.

Yeah. The guy's, that was his first race. I thought he did fine. He did. He did a good job. He even got a little tussle too. He did. He did.

With who? I don't know. He had damage on the nose. I think he just kind of bumped. It might have been part of. Orson or something. Maybe it was Lane Riggs. We might have bumped Lane Riggs out of the way.

I got you. Yeah. And last but not least. So there was an interesting tweet from an interesting account that came out. The tweet said this was replying to Chase Biscoe's announcement of going to JGR. You could explain the backstory of the shirt. Yeah. So the shirt, yeah, the shirt had the shirt had the Toyota logo on it and the JGR logo and then the Bass Pro.

pro on his son. Now, it's a little awkward because you're still driving, driving for another manufacturer. But you brought up the point of the sweepstakes thing. I didn't know. What is that? I'm pretty sure sweepstakes 1901 is that's a Ford. I think that's kind of like his account on X. So.

But that's not common knowledge, right? Is it? Or is it? I mean. You know, obviously. But I never knew that. I feel like it's common knowledge if you're driving a Ford. That's fair.

Okay, I see now. I feel like it's common knowledge if you're driving a Ford. But to Etzel's point, I think it's a major fail on Chase's part to have that Toyota logo on during the gear. I know when we announced Josh Barry's stuff that he was coming to Stuart Haas, it was definitely we made a point to make sure that he had a Stuart Haas logo and that was it and worked with Junior Motorsports to make sure that they were okay with everything that was happening. Now, it's a little bit different situation with him leaving a team that's closing, but I still think that you don't want the Edsel Fords of the world mad at you. It's just an etiquette thing, right? You want to go out on the right foot because you may have to cross that bridge again. And I think it's just, you know, I know in these situations that people can be frustrated and they can be at a point where they're not happy.

And you get super excited about what you're doing next. But I think it's definitely definitely a mistake by having that Toyota. logo on before the season ended because of the fact that he still is a Ford driver, still on a Ford team. And I think there were definitely some things that were missed on Chase Briscoe's part in doing that and having that logo on his shirt. Daddy is not impressed. Yeah. Well, I mean, he spent, he's, they spent a lot of money on. Yeah. And I think Ford has been really good to, to Chase Briscoe through the years. And I think that it, it, sometimes it takes the smallest thing to rub people the wrong way. And when you look at it, if you make that manufacturer mad and you make somebody like Edsel

Ford mad, that's one third of your options currently. So you got three options from a manufacturer standpoint. You got Ford Chevy Toyota. You can't make one mad. Do you think he just didn't think about it or not getting good guidance there? Both. I think, yeah. Yeah.

I think both of it. I mean, it could have been, I think it's both. I think some of those, sometimes in those scenarios, you know, the self-awareness that goes along with doing the right things is good. I mean, there's no way the team would have said no way. It's just, hey, I got to respect my current deals and the things that I have going on right now to make sure that I don't make anybody mad.

So, you know, I just, I love the fact that Chase is getting an opportunity to go drive a great car. But I think this is definitely one of those things that you just got to go through the rest of the season, making sure you check all those boxes to do the right thing. Yeah. I mean, I think it was just a shirt off the rack. because it's probably the one that the whole team wears.

And they just didn't really, he's like, yeah, they're working. They just didn't really think about it. But it happened. But it happened. And he, someone, it got so much attention. Got some detention. All right. Kev, this is the burnout session.

Yeah. So this one is tough. I thought it was pretty good. I mean, you didn't think so? I mean, it was okay until it ran out of gas. Right. So he's kind of at a disadvantage. I mean, Joey always does, does good burnouts.

But, you know, the execution of the burnout was. was going, it started okay and then it just ended because there was no gas. Yeah. You know, it's like, it's like saying, you know, I did great on the first half of the test and didn't finish the rest of it. So I, well, so I think because he had to get the fuel all the way there, I'm going to give him a pass. I'm just not going to grade him.

I'm just going to be like, the fact he even gave any burn out. He got a pass. He went to Victory Lane. Yeah. But the fact that he was able to do any burnout, that was impressive that he was able to keep any gas to keep everything. Yeah. I saw, I saw, I don't remember who tweeted it.

Or is that what? Do we call it a tweet? I'm still calling it. Yes. Yes. It's fine. If it's on X, what do we call a post now? I think it's an X.

I don't know. We should ask the... We should ask them. Yeah, we have a live audience. A live group of interns. Is it a tweet or a post? What is it? Do you guys know?

No, we don't know. So we're going to call it a tweet. But I saw a tweet after the race and somebody said, man, I don't understand how Joey Lugano was able to go this far on fuel. Might have been Chase Briscoe that said something about the fuel. Not sure how he went farther than me. Chris Gabehart responded and it said, because he was slow.

So, yeah. I think the burnout was, it started off good. Typical Joey Legano fashion was going to be a great burnout. And then was quickly interrupted by the lack of fuel in the fuel tank and the car shut off. And he wound up facing the crowd and doing his interview with no more burnout. They all went crazy though. Well, if it's SVG again this weekend, we know his burnouts are insane. Yeah.

And he's going to, you know, he's going to kick that. rugby ball up into the stands. That's right. Yeah. So we're making it. Do we remember who's P1 for burnout? Yeah. Yeah. It was it. No, well, first, he had Lugano for the All-Star, but then, but then he really liked Cindricks because it was, it was that. On the cup side, I think it was, I think it was Cindrix, but I think overall, I mean, the, the, the, the SVG, Sonoma burnout. That's because there's so much going into it. With, uh, the, uh, Austin Hill finger-hanging. out the window and him just totally doing a burnout all the way back to

the start finish line. It's pretty awesome. The pettiness. Real quick, before we start to wrap this up, another race impacted by rain. Oh, I thought of that actually. You know, unfortunately, I think of these things too, and I'm like, maybe we should just go to dinner now. He just wants to get it over with. I know, but I'm like, MJ, and I want you to know that I won the bet.

Like, I want you to know that I won. I can't win if you give it to me. There you go. All right. So technically you haven't won yet. Right. I'm going to win. Time now for our last call.

And I mentioned it, Chicago this weekend, street course race, who are you picking? You know who I'm picking. I think you might know who I pick you. I think he's going to win again. Me too. Yes, VG is going to win again. I do think so.

I think the long shot's Justin Haley. Oh, I like that. You don't get a long shot because that's my guy. I'm picking. Oh, Justin Haley to win this race. I like it. Because they put himself in a situation last year to win it. it. And actually I changed my mind because you just got me fired up because you used him as a

secondary because originally I was going to pick Tyler Reddick because I thought it was redemption time because he was actually the only one that could keep up with SVG and he has ties to Chicago, Illinois, you know, Jumpman being from there. Yeah. But I think I'm going Justin Haley. Okay. Justin Haley and two SVGs as we head to Chicago this weekend. You talked about it. Clint Boyer. He's your next guest, right? He is. Oh, boy. I'm excited because it's, you never know what's going to come out of Clint's mouth when he starts talking and he gets excited and wound up. And now that I've been around him enough to understand that you can, you can get him going off in different directions.

Who knows what we're going to talk about today? I know. Did you even prepare anything? I didn't have to. I did prepare today. I always prepare, which I typically do in the booth. But usually it's useless because we go down these random roads. And Clint and I got so comfortable at at the end in the booth that we would we would just go down these rabbit holes of things that were fun or funny some people thought they were funny some people didn't but we care but we don't or as chris meyers would say we kid we kid because we care yeah that's what he says yeah so all right uh i think it'll be fun i hope that clint uh cracks open a beer to start the show i would assume that clint's probably at the lake so oh yeah you think he's gonna have a

time it is, but it's definitely, it's definitely probably beer time for Clint. You could get one. Somebody's been getting one out of these. Somebody's been, somebody has robbed two beers out there. Was that you? It has not been me. It was definitely not me. I know those are iconic.

Those are iconic beers back there. I'm not, uh, I'm not going after those. I don't know. We'll have to keep an eye on that. That's right. All right, guys, it's been a good show. We encourage everyone to keep subscribing on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. And we'll see you next week after Chicago.