Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Kyle Larson Tops Chris Buescher in Closest NASCAR Cup Finish & Kevin’s best stories from Darlington

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

On Episode 23 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 AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. Get ready for an in-depth analysis of the race weekend's highlights and key moments! Tune in for an adrenaline-fueled ride as we uncover the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history! Join us as we break down every heart-stopping moment of Kyle Larson's breathtaking victory over Chris Buescher, where Larson secured the win by a mere inch at the electrifying AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.  But buckle up, because the excitement doesn't end there - we'll also delve into the unmatched talent and unwavering determination of Kyle Larson, who consistently pushes the limits and gives his all, no holds barred. You’ll also hear Kevin offer a firsthand account of his own racing adventures at Kansas, sharing captivating stories and insights from the track. The trio dives into the pivotal moments of the race and offers a sneak peek into what's in store for the upcoming at Darlington Raceway.  Next, Mamba shares his "Social Sips" from the weekend, featuring nail-biting finishes across various sports, Kevin's "Dream Roast Panel," 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

I think that's how we got here. That's how we got to the 550 package because myself, Kyle Bush, and Martin Truex were winning all the races. That's why they changed the rules. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR and Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. She's Caitlin Bensie. He's Mama Smith. Such a hesitation.

In his retro, 31-year-old retro gear. You know what's crazy is I think Kevin drove. That's what he said. You know the funny part about that shirt? I won the West Championship in 1998. Okay. Okay. So it was the 50th anniversary, but all these smart asses that drive in the Cup series now,

they like to refer to me as a guy who drove in the other century. So, oh. That's pretty dirty. That is. They're not wrong. They're not wrong, but it's pretty dirty. But that's just a slight, subtle way to get in an old joke. Yeah.

But I did race in a different century. Hey, whatever. And it's throwback week. We can talk about that. That's right. Because this is a... Yeah, you're a throwback. He's a throwback himself.

That's right. That's what you're saying. You have to go to throwback weekends. Yeah, perfect. We are encouraging everyone to continue following us on YouTube, leave a five-star review, follow us on social media, and wherever you get your podcast. What's that?

Harvick Happy Podcast. Where do you get your podcast? Where do I get mine? I like the Spotify a lot of them. Because that's where my music is too. Mine too. So, and now Spotify lets you see the video version. Yes, so that's pretty cool.

That is very cool. How about you? I actually listened to it on Apple. Apple. Yeah. Maybe I'm old school over here. I'm a throwback. I don't know.

I just follow along with whatever my wife sets up. There you go. That's fair. Whatever Keelead and Piper are watching, same streams. Same, same. Okay, so we got a big show on tap. We'll obviously recap everything that happened in Kansas, and there's plenty to talk about there. We'll preview the weekend in Darlington.

You have your social sips. And as we do every week, we've got to start out with the word. The mystery, the enigma that was this weekend. Kevin, you did a great job on the front end. I did a great job. Let's talk about that first. Yeah, okay, okay. Talk about the great job on the front end.

The great job on the front end, well done. But Mike, Mike came back to you. Totally stumped me. And got you. Pop me off guard. So great. Mike has, he has quietly bought into our little game. Love it.

Of the word of the week. Now I'm pretty sure that he just likes to hear me, just muddy it up. So he, he, I, it went smooth the first time. He said Enigma, got the context right. We had like this whole debate before the race as to what the proper context was, how I should use it on and on and on. Everything came across perfectly fine.

And we get, I don't know, it seemed like it was well into the race. It was. Next thing you know, Mike's like brought up the word enigma again. And I was like, I don't know. And I don't know what I was thinking. And I said exactly like I'm doing right now. I just kind of fumbled around. And the next thing I know I'm sputtering all over myself with, it's an easy word.

It's not a hard word. It's not a hard word. But there's sometimes when I get excited about situations, I don't know if I was so excited that Mike was engaging yourself in trying to ban her back. I think he thought he was just setting me up easy because then afterwards we got to commercial and he was like, I am so sorry. I wasn't trying to fumble upon you, make you fumble upon you. make you fumble upon the word right there, but, you know, I'm so sorry. I'm like, Mike, no, it was fantastic. Yes.

It was fantastic that I mess things up. So I'm good at messing things up. I have no problem messing things up because I'm not a dictionary. My wife tells me that all the time. I use things out of context. I don't appropriately put periods in the right spot, commas, whatever it is. I don't do it right. It's okay.

It is okay. It is okay. We're here for it. Let's roll the tape and let everyone else enjoy the splendor. The 11 heard him say, loose the five. He was getting loose. The one car in that first run was saying his car was tight. So have we solved the enigma? We have not

solved the enigma. You got me. You just created a whole other segment for your podcast. Enigma was the word of the week. We have not we have not solved the enigma. I'm sorry. I said it right in the beginning of the race. Play that.

You did. I'll give you credit. That was a set up. Guard that mic. Mike's getting a little bit. The buying a mic is what sets it on. Yes. It really is. And I think Mike is, I think he's finally getting more comfortable because in the, in the end, the commercials and the pre-race and the meetings and just even a little bit on the air, Clint and I fuss and argue and push back and forth and make fun of each other. And sometimes I'm not really sure exactly how to read Mike. I don't know if we're getting on his nerves or we're not getting

on his nerves or if he's like, oh my God, these two idiots, I have to somehow, I have to somehow deal with these two idiots standing in the booth and bickering back and forth. And finally, the truck will tell us to shut up. I mean, we are having a good time. And I don't know if that shows through or doesn't show through, but we are having fun calling the races. And Clint and I obviously get along really well. But I love the fact that it seems like Mike is somewhat engaging into the game with the word. I love that too. I'm glad we got Mike Joy a fan of it now, the word, mission accomplished there. It definitely comes across. You guys are having fun. I would say that is for sure.

Yeah, sometimes we might go overboard just a little bit, but I did threaten to body slam Clint last week. Oh. You almost yeated him. Last week, I don't know what it was during qualifying, but it was pretty much turned into just almost a fight as we were in the booth because he said something. And it's like this week, he forgets what we talk about. And then it goes on the air. And I told him before qualifying, I said, Clint, look, they are not going to run on the bottom of the racetrack. Okay.

I said, they are not going to run on the bottom of the racetrack. They are going to qualify on the top of the racetrack, maybe the middle unless something goes crazier, but most likely the top of the racetrack. We open up the show. What do you think, Clint? Well, these guys are going to fire off and they're going to run right on the bottom of the race track. No, they're not. No, they're not. right on the bottom of the racetrack. So it's fun. And now it's become more fun that we can

correct each other's screw-ups because we all screw up. And it's just part of live television that I've learned. It's true. You better be willing to make fun of yourself because if you can't just roll with it, you're going to be miserable pretty quick, especially if you listen to the 10 people who complain on Twitter. Oh, wow. Yeah. Those guys on X. Okay, well, let's talk about the race because this was one of the best races and finishes we've ever seen. It's pretty cool that we were to witness history and the closest finish ever. What was going through your mind and what did you think when you saw it? Well, it was originally we called it as Chris Buescher winning race because that's what the, that's what the timing and scoring showed, but it showed 0.000 as the increment.

And so we were just talking about an exciting finish and then we started to show the emotion of the 17 pit box and then we showed Cliff Daniel's reaction and all of a sudden his reaction changed. And he was the winner of the race and everything just, you know, kind of got crazy there at the end of the race. But what a finish to the end of this race. And, you know, you see Kyle Arson just get up on the outside of Chris Busher there and just never, never even thought about doing something different. You see him banging fenders right here. And at that point, I'm like, oh, my gosh, they're going to wreck. And Chase Elliott or Martin Shrix is going to win this race. But four cars, point zero eight apart, winners, point zero one.

apart. And, you know, obviously we see the picture there of the start finish line. But for those of you wondering, that's not actually how the race is officiated. There's actually a camera with an actually perfectly straight line through it that shows the noses of the car. And those pictures are, that's like a thousand pictures. Yeah, it's like, once. It's like a thousand frames a second. It's six thousand to eight thousand. Yeah. So it's like, yeah. So that one frame is, is, there's a, there's a lot happening right there. But the start finish. line has absolutely nothing to do with it in those in those circumstances there's actually a camera that's set up with a line drawn on it to show who the winner is thank you for clarifying that

there's been a lot of back and forth about that what did you think though just seeing this finish unfolding yeah it was great right we got to enjoy some real hard racing different lines different strategy, like watching the racecraft, a lot of passing was going on. There you go. And especially at the end when we saw Kyle Orson around the top. Yeah, and I think that, and we spoke about this on here, we spoke about it on the broadcast. That racetrack, for whatever reason, has aged into being a very racy racetrack. And I saw Rodney Childers posted a picture of the front of their car being all sandblasted today.

And he's like, maybe this asphalt and all these rocks hit in front of these. race cars has something to do with it. I'd say you're right, sir. It does have something to do with it. But this racetrack with the progressive banking and the way that the surface is worn out, I thought Goodyear's tire this weekend was pretty spot on. They changed the right side tire to what they had at Texas and somewhere else. But it wore out at the end of those runs and you see the right front tires courting, the right rear tires courting. So we saw Kyle Bush spin out at the end of the race. We saw Kyle Arson's car just shut off at one point. So really made the handling and a lot of things that were going on with the tire wear come into play.

And the racetrack itself was awesome. And for whatever reason, this racetrack has just aged differently than everywhere else. I wish people would understand that, that like winning the race itself, it takes all the pieces to make a really good race for your one team. It also takes all the pieces to put on a good race, right? Like the racetrack needs to be in the right situation, the tire needs to be right. The car, like all the pieces to give us a great product. It takes a lot of things.

It's just not a switch. So there's a lot of effort going in to make these races. I think when you look back at that whole scenario, though, I kind of feel bad for Martin Truex because I really felt like Martin Truex was going to win that race with, you know, a handful of laps to go with the way that Denny was having to save fuel. And Busher was, he was already by Chris Busher. So the way that Denny, he had run him down like a second. in one lap a little over a second,

the lap before the caution came out, I thought Martin Truex was probably going to win the race, and then the caution came out when Kyle Bush spun out. So we saw, Denny take two tires, apparently that's vegetables. Vegetable, yeah. In their code world world, code word. You don't like the code words, right? You didn't.

I think I heard you say that. You never liked using them. The one time we used code words, you got confused. You got to tell me to uncover the code words. Well, that's not helpful. So if they were yelling vegetable with me on the radio, I'm like, what in the hell are they talking about? Vegetable.

They're like, oh, you got uncover your words, uncover your words. And then they got frustrated and the pit crew didn't know. So they were calling for two tires and the pit crews changing four tires. Oh, geez. That was the last time. That was the first and only time that we used code words. Okay. There's a lot of teams that use them, though.

It's kind of entertaining how they come up with it. I think it's kind of like air blocking, right? Hey, air blocking. No, no, seriously. It's, they learn. And I think that the strategy of the code words and making sure that nobody knows your strategy and having your own scenario only known by your team, they just evolved. The teams get smarter, they get more efficient, they do things differently.

But when you go back to the race and you look at that caution and the two-tire strategy, Martin Truex was the first guy on four tires. He fired off 10th, finished fourth right there. So two tires was definitely the strategy to win the race with no caution or anything there. But it got mixed up right off the back. Larsson knew he had to mix things up right off the bat and he put, put Denny 3 wide. And that kind of started the cycle of all the passing and putting themselves in position. I felt like, and this is easy to do on Tuesday morning. Yeah. It's easy to go back and say, hey, he did

something wrong. But I felt like leaving the top open for Larson and Bush are going into the corner in the middle of the straightaway into turn three. I just feel like that if you're going, you're going to give up the right rear, you're going to put yourself in a position to where you can't really defend yourself. So I felt like he needed to be against, at least take away that top lane and let Larson try to slide him in there and then drive back underneath him. But that's, that's a lot going into that last cycle of what's right and what's wrong. But Kyle Larson was going wherever Chris Bisher was not. Right. And then the difference between whether that was right or wrong is an increment that I can't even show. Yeah. Well, it's kind of a guessing game.

We talk about Kansas, and we talk about that whole scenario of the guessing game, the cat and mouse game going into the corner to try to put yourself in position to Airblock and keep the guy behind you behind you. But in that last lap scenario, Larson's going to went one lane higher. Larson's either going to slide him into the door or he's going to slide in front of him and try to check him up. So it's just a – it's going to be the same game. It's just going to be a different strategy for Kyle as to what he does. We got to give it to our guy because he called the winner. You said Kyle Larson. Do you remember that? That was your pick. Yeah, well done by Kevin. And I want to talk about... Who did he did? Do you remember who he picked? I had it written down. Who did you pick? I picked... Chastain?

Nobody else. ...of William Byron and I went to Rudy and I said, hey, I'm really sorry about qualifying. He's like, what do you mean? I said, I picked you guys on the podcast and you didn't even make it through qualify. Maybe you do change people. I think that's a great transition into mistakes, right? we get done with practice in 24's, you know, he's one of the, he's either first or second best car. And, you know, that mistake, he just drove it in the fence trying to get too much. And I think that's where some of these guys get themselves in trouble by thinking that they have to get that pull.

You know, today, I got to be aggressive. Kansas puts them in a position to where they have to be super aggressive up top to, you know, hold the throttle down and not touch the brake. And you got to run that top lane. But, man, you can't crash the car. cannot crash the car because they went from, seventh or eighth would have been better than sitting in the garage having to repair your car. 36.

Coming from the back of the field. So you can't make a mistake like that in qualifying when you've got a car like that. And William Byron just, he never recovered. I think he got to 10th one time. Yeah, maybe just inside the top 10. But he never recovered from the qualifying mistake. I want to talk about Kyle Arsenae for a moment

because we've obviously talked about him on this show. he's won prior to Sunday night. But when you watch him and his prowess, his talent level, if I'm a crew chief or road crew pick crew, that is the guy I want as my driver. Because you know he is going to give 110% all the time. I mean, I think we're witnessing one of the greatest athletes in all of sports right now.

What do you think? Well, it's interesting because I obviously have started to spend a little bit of time with a few of those guys. Oh, weird. So the dynamic of... Yeah, I heard you were there this week. Yeah, you learn a little bit about. the dynamic of the personalities on the team. So I had to go do my seat fitting this week to

drive his car, which is a whole different story. I want to hear that story. I believe that he and Clint are in cahoots to just totally make a fool out of me. But that's fine. I can make a fool out of myself. No. Without that. But when you have somebody with the ability of Kyle Larson, and I think a lot of this really shows up on this last restart. Right? Like he knew he had to go right after Denny Hamelin. And it wasn't like, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to try this. It's like, well, if I'm not going to go three wide on the bottom, he's going to go three wide in the middle. He's going to go anywhere that they're not. And he just has this incredible ability to pass and have a plan to execute it in ways that other people just don't think about, right? Like that was a pretty, still pretty narrow gap. Maybe there's a lot of guys that probably push the limits on that gap. But when you go back and listen to his in car and listen to him thrott, bottle back up to make sure he has that position on the on the outside of of a busher there. There's just a lot of little things that that happen right there that, you know, you just have to have an incredible, incredibly high racing IQ to execute.

So Kyle Arson is just willing to do things that other people are and he's not worried about making a mistake. If he would have crashed right there and spun out and finished last car in a lead lap, he'd have been fine with it. Like, it's not going to affect him. And he, that's the thing that strikes me the most. about Kyle Larson being different than everybody else. Like if he makes a mistake by spinning somebody out

or crashing into the wall by going for it, it's not going to phase his confidence. Like there is, I don't see much that phases his confidence. And then you've got Cliff and those guys on the team. They have this support, he has this support system behind him that has this ability to just push those things immediately aside and just reset.

And they support him and know that because they know that he's probably the most talented guy out there and gifted and going to do whatever it takes to win the race. So the dynamic that they have with their whole team is very unique and very supportive. Yeah. And they just, they believe in each other, you know, unbelievably when you listen to them on the radio and listen to him and talk about each other. Cliff Daniels is a leader of men. Like when you hear that, when you hear that and like with football or basketball coaches, it's a coach that like, everyone really like if he says it

I believe it he makes you believe in yourself and I think Kyle needs a lot not that Kyle needs a lot of that right he believes in himself but it's always good to have somebody that you believe telling you like no dude you are you are the best you and I think that Kyle Larson is the best race car driver on the planet

right now well and and let me I don't want to shy away from his team yeah let me tell you about this seat fitting yeah I was like I've been waiting to know this so you're talking about a guy who's never stepped foot into Hendrick Motorsports, and I've had the interaction with Cliff Daniels like I was the driver of this car.

I walk into the shop, his car chief comes and gets me from the front door. We walk back. I ask my questions about, you know, this or that, and I get in the car. You know what we changed? Nothing. Not one thing.

We didn't move a heel stop. We didn't move a pedal. We didn't change a seatbelt. We didn't change anything. Would you tell them beforehand? I mean, they had some help, but still, I mean, the ability to execute that. I mean, there are, you know, some things that had to be helped with as far as measurements and things like that. And, you know, Rodney has been, you know, willing to help them with some of the parts and pieces that they needed to do it.

But you still got to execute it, right? Yeah, 100%. And, you know, I go to get in this car and there's 10 people standing around in a car. One guy's asking about the dash. One guy's asking about the side mirror. One guy's asking about the side mirror. One guy's asking about the throttle pedal. And all of a sudden it's like,

all right, we're all done. And so my point is the ability to execute the details, even if you're given the answers to the quiz, in today's world, not every team has the ability to answer the quiz with all the, with all the questions already answered for them. You still have to take the answers and apply them to your situation, whether it's your car, your driver, your team, your process, whatever that is. You can have all the answers to somebody else's equation, but you have to be able to execute them with the details that come with it. Speaks volumes about their program for sure. That's my point.

Right. Yeah. That's my point. So, well, that reminds me of another thing that happened in this race. Former driver for Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmy Johnson. Old Daddy was upset this past week. Oh, man. Cory Lejoy.

Did he really get back out of the ambulance? Yeah. And he stood on the track and was just watching him. Yeah. It's probably when he got out, but I didn't know he got back, got in the ambulance and then got back out. I got a, I got a, we've talked about Jimmy on this show a few times. And like, everyone here. And I think everyone in the whole sport wants to see Jimmy Johnson succeed.

Like we want to see him be competitive because of the guy that we know him to be. And it's been a struggle. He said it. But this week, like, so Dover, he's practiced better. Now he gets to run again. And now they're racing a little bit better, a little bit more competitive. And he's just minding his own business. It gets slum run over it.

And like, he lifted. Like, you can hear the in car. Like, he lifted and stuff. But like, it just, and here it is. with LaJoy and he lifted a little bit. I think Clinton, you called it, like there was some smoke up front and he lifted a little bit, but it was just a really bad deal. Yeah, and, you know, he said that he didn't lift for any reason up front, but, you know,

those are really the only views that we have. I mean, are pretty good views. You can hear the throttles of both cars. And there was a definite lift going in the corner. It's just hard to tell whether that was where he normally lifted or didn't lift or what that was. So definitely didn't work out well for him. Yeah. Hey, I just want him to have a clean race. I think we all do. Yeah. I feel like he hasn't had a clean race. But it's hard, right? When you're not fluent with everything that's going on with

these cars and the way that they race and we've heard several of our drivers talk about having to live on the side of being too aggressive. And that's just not the world that we raced in. When Jimmy was last in the car and racing, we didn't live in a world where you lived on the side of. You lived on the of being too aggressive. You kind of aired to just the middle of the road when you were in those situations racing in the back like that. And that's not how they, in the back they race way on the side of being too aggressive. Yeah.

Let me ask you this, because you talk about that and like comparing the cars a little bit, right? Like, Larson has always been on the side of aggressive. Extreme, right? We've seen it and like he probably has lost some races doing it, but he's won a lot of races doing it too. So I would just take that what it is. Do you think that this car has kind of leaned into his aggression a little bit? Because I feel like if you're aggressive, good things do happen,

whereas the other car, that line was a little bit easier. I would say that he's going to be rewarded more than he's going to be penalized. I think we've seen him be penalized a couple times by some things not working out. I think back to Homestead getting to pit roads, trying to make that gap up and hitting the sandburn. But you can't think of many of them. And you look at a situation like this weekend where aggressive on the restart, aggressive on the top side and winning the race, he's going to win more of those than he's

going to lose. But he's also got this ability to do those types of things better than most people. Yeah. And that's really those aggressive situations where they're just these unorthodox just kind of go for it moments, he's just good at. And some guys are just not good at just completely throwing caution to the wind and being able to figure it out and wing it to say, okay, I haven't driven a corner like this all day. I'm going to overdrive the entry, use more brake, throttle back up to keep the position. If he squeezes me in the wall, I'm not lifting, and then I'm going to bang the door coming down the hill and then, you know, hit him.

Right. Like there's just that ability to adjust on the fly to making a corner different. Yeah. and not having done that before. A lot of guys would just overdrive the car and not have that extra correction of the brake and drive it into the wall and who knows what happens after that.

But, you know, he was able to do all that and I don't think he ever touched the wall. No. He's a special talent for sure. So he was the winner. Chris Busher, we talked about it, came up short. But let a lot of laps, won a stage. We've been talking throughout the course of the year

how we need to see something happen for the Ford. So now it feels like they finally have something to hang their hats on. They showed up. They have momentum on their side. Have you ever been in a situation like that where you thought you won, but you didn't? Not that I, not that.

No, gosh, that's got to be just brutal. I don't think I've ever been in that situation. No, I guess Daytona, you knew you won against Mark. Like, you had enough. We raced, oh, yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, I knew for sure that I'd won that one just based upon the positioning of my car. That's a tough situation,

especially when you feel like you've been struggling and all of a sudden you show up and you've got speed. But it's the first weekend outside of Daytona that I felt like they showed up and had legitimate speed enough to win the race. And that's really what we've been expecting out of the RFK cars all year.

I felt like they were fast last year on several occasions at a lot of these racetracks. They have had a few runner-up finishes this year. But I feel like that's been based on, Texas was just based on a good strategy and experience. It wasn't based on speed. Richmond wasn't based on speed. Kansas, they raced up there based on speed, the 17 car.

And that's really a big sign for them. I heard that they had, you know, their next step in engines at this last race. So I heard there was a few cars that had upgraded engines. So I don't know if it was all engine, but there was definitely, there definitely has to be some handling in these types of scenarios. And they had, that's the first time they've had enough speed to win a race. Yeah, I mean, I think we can, after. seeing some of the things the 10 car has been doing with Noah Gragson.

They haven't had the speed to win the race. Not the speed to win the race, but they've had consistent speed to where, like, it's respectable. So at least you have a platform to start off of. If you're just out there, like, nothing sticking to the wall, you're really scratching your head. And running 25th is hard. Well, you speak of the 10 car, right? Like, they ran up in the top 10 all weekend. And at one point, I think the 41 was last.

The 4 was right. Oh, yeah, they were right in the 14. they were all like 36, 37, 38, 35, 36, 37, 38. You know, Riley was there this weekend, too. So that's the part that you got to fix. You got to figure out how to get more than just one car running good enough. We've been talking about the finish. I want to go back to stage one, though,

because this was pretty incredible, watching the racing from the very beginning, guys going four or five wide, like Ross Jastain was in the mix. Was that one of the best stages you think, stage one we've seen all year? It was definitely interesting at the beginning of the race. I really thought that Ross was going to stay up there and contend. But when he got hung, and that's pretty typical with these cars,

when you get the cars kind of door to door like that, sometimes they'll just lock together almost, and you just got to slow down until they part ways. Like magnets. So he and Christopher Bell got together. And really neither one of them showed back up after that. No. Christopher Bell was kind of riding around.

you know, the top five a little bit after that. But Ross, you know, he got shuffled back to 10th, and I think he finished like 18th or 19th, and never really had the speed or ability to get through traffic and get back up towards the front. But that first stage was awesome. Ross did a great job battling with Larson. And I can't remember who the other car was right now.

Was it Hamlin? Hamlin. Yeah, I was up there. But it was mainly Larson and Ross at that particular point going back and forth with the lead. Because he passed him at one point, and I was like, oh, he's just going to drive off. And then Ross went right back by him. So it was good racing.

I think that the mile and a half stuff and this car have definitely been a lot better than every other style of racetrack. And I think that keeps it entertaining. Yeah, let me tell you something that surprised me was I was sitting on Pit Road during qualifying. So it's the final 10, right? And Ross is the only one out of his car. And he's walking from the end of pit road. I don't know where he was. He's coming back.

And so I think he was, he was, like, six, so he was in the second group of that 10. And I'm, like, watching him. I'm like, where's he at? He rolls up, just walks up, puts his head in the window of the five. Okay, they're chatting for a minute. I keep looking at his guys, looking at the Hendrick guys. I'm like, is he going to leave?

They talked for, like, five minutes while Kyle was in the car. I'm like, and they, I would have, I don't know what they were saying, obviously, but I would assume that it had something to do with, hey, what's your strategy here? What might be going on there? And then in the race, with them just swapping positions back and forth, that is the most,

I don't know if anyone, if you haven't driven a race car, you don't understand what that type of fun that is. When you know that the guy to your outside isn't going overdrive and right, and you guys are just going swapping and racing so hard, that is pure fun. That is racing at its finest to me.

I agree. And they put on a great. show, but you go back to the qualifying piece of it, it was a huge commitment this weekend. And it was all the throttle that you had the guts to give it. And, you know, William Byron obviously had plenty of guts. He had got a grip to make the corner. But those guys, qualifying was a full commitment this weekend. Kyle Larson, very complimentary of this car on the mile and a halfs in his post-race interview saying, I know people have complained a lot, but it's great on the mile and a halfs. You obviously had experienced driving different cars. Was there ever

a car that every box you could check, short tracks, mile and a half, super speedways, does that even exist? Because I feel like we've been talking about this a lot. That's a great question. Yeah, and, you know, I think that you go back and I think it's always something. But I think that the cars before this, you could definitely check the short tracks and road courses together. I think that, you know, the, mile and a half stuff was always, well, I think that's how we got here. That's how we got to the 550 package because myself, Kyle Bush and Martin Truex were winning all the races. That's why they changed

the rules. One of the biggest reasons they changed the rules is because we won too many races. They'll flat out tell you that. And that's why we went to the 550 package was to try to make the mile and a halfs better. And I think so, 2018, 19, you know, those 17, 16,

those years on the mile and a halfs, I mean, we were just kicking everybody's teeth in between the three of us. So I think people got tired of seeing the same people win the races and kudos to them for for changing the rules. And now we're at a point where the mile and a halfs are the best. And, you know, the short tracks and road courses are not, not where you want them to be. So it's, I don't think there's ever anything perfect.

I think when you look at those cars, it was, it was difficult to get the super speedways right. And, you know, we had the tandem drafting. And then we had cars that, you know, you couldn't push well with. And so it's always going to be something that the ball is always going to be moving. I think right now everybody's like, hey, you should. Chicago Land Speedway, what are you looking like? That would be a great service.

I'm glad you said that. I've been thinking about that place since Can't, like, because I feel like Chicago and Kansas, you tell me, because I don't remember being there since like 2017, but were they were kind of similar, right? Or no? They were built at the same time. Right, okay. They were built in that era when we were all going mile and a half racing and we had to

build these new venues to hold a bunch of people. But that was a worn out racetrack, bumpy racetrack while we were there. Kyle Arson and Kyle Bush had a fantastic finish there. One year just beating the snot out of each other. Claibbering each other. I think that Chicago Land would be a great racetrack, but I just don't know that I don't know what the condition of Chicago Land Speedway. The reason that we left Chicago Land Speedway, I believe,

is because there wasn't enough people showing up to the racetrack. So, you know, there's a lot more to that. But it would be a great racetrack with these next-gen cars. Yeah, think with the street race. And if you told people, if you like the street race, come check this thing out too. I think if you had a little... So you're saying we could have two races in Chicago.

Why not? Hey, I'm fine with it. Best races, whatever the best races are, that's where I want to go. And we can keep moving them. That's right. That's what I feel like. Yeah, if your racetracks crap, let's just take it somewhere else. If you're racing.

People aren't showing up, then they don't want it. Then let's try something else. I agree. I'm all about trying stuff. Speaking of great racetracks, we have a really good one coming up this weekend. Darlington Raceway. It's an iconic racetrack. It's a crown jewel. It's throwback weekend, as we referenced.

Our guy and Kevin's won there three times. And two of those happened in 2020. Yeah. Yeah, so Darlington has always, it's been a little bit of a love-hate relationship for me because at RCR we always, it was, we always kind of struggled there a little bit. We had some good runs and bad runs,

but I don't remember ever struggling at Darlington when we went to Stewart-Hoss Racing. So we won the Southern 500 in 2014, and it was the first race back in 2020. And that was just during COVID. So it was just a weird time because we'd been sitting on eye racing. Nobody had done anything. And they're like, hey, we're going to go race. So we went to the racetrack.

I left my house. It felt really strange. There was nobody on the road. You drive to the racetrack. You go to the racetrack. they take your temperature. And then we're going to go race so that we, all the drivers had their motor home. You had to stay in your car or sit in your motor home until they called you out to the grid.

And you had to bring your own helmet and Hans and everything with you, all your gloves. Nobody else could touch it and undo all your stuff and, you know, get in the car. We stand there. One of the oddest things about that first race back was the National Anthem. And I don't, have you ever watched, you might not. Have you ever seen a war movie like an old time war? Oh, I love that. Yeah, I love a little time.

Yeah, yeah. I watched them all the time. So we, surprise. We were, you know, like when they pumped the music or the, through the, through the cities or wherever they are for the soldiers while they're, while they're in the middle of the war. Well, it was like that. They had this, they had this recording, but with nobody in the racetrack, it just kind of echoed around and it was loud.

That is so strange. And you're standing at your car by yourself. And the spotters are spread out in the grandstands. And we get in the car and we run the race. We win the race. and I get out of the car and I've got that same emotion, right? Like you're jacked up,

ready to just rip somebody's head off and happy and excited, whatever those emotions are. And so you pop out of the car and you're like, yeah. And all you hear is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Echoing back at you. Echo across the race track

and I'm like, oh, man, I bet I look stupid on TV. And here comes Regan. He's got a six-foot pole. Mike. And he's shouting the question out and I answer the questions and then it was Ryan Blaney's spotter at the time, Josh Williams.

He's spots for Zane Smith now, but he yells from the top of the grandstands. He says, great job, Harve. And I could hear him like he was sitting right here. So I do the interview and they yell from across the pit wall, the one NASCAR person that's there. They said, go to Victory Lane.

So I drive the car to Victory Lane. I pull into Victory Lane. There's a trophy, three hats, and one photographer. So I'm pulling to Victory Lane. they take three pictures, one with each hat, and then the NASCAR person that's standing way away from the photographer says, all right, take the trophy, walk to your motorhome and go home. I said, there you have it. Okay.

So I had to go to the motor home, and that was really the first time that we had done a lot of Zoom. So we did all the media on Zoom to everybody who's sitting at their house for all the media. I get in my car and drive home. And as I'm driving home, the very first call I get is from Kevin McCarthy at the third. the White House. And he says, I just want to congratulate you on helping our country, get pointed in the right direction. You have reopened the door for everybody to get back to normal and the sports world to start functioning again. And the second call was from Joe Gerardi. And he was like, I want to make sure you tell everybody at NASCAR, thank you, because this is going

to give Major League Baseball a huge kick in the pants to get back on the field. So just cool stuff. That's pretty incredible. Yeah. I don't think we realize how many barriers we broke down for the country by pushing like NASCAR and our sport did to get back on track. Yeah, that is a pretty, that's a story you'll remember forever. For sure. On that, yeah. That's pretty remarkable.

All the stuff that is always going on, four years later, you look back on it. You're like, oh, yeah, we were the first. We were the first. And we really pushed that and figured out a way because no one else didn't. Even with the eye racing we did. I mean, it was like, I know that obviously. That got old quick, though. It did.

Especially when you just crashed in everything. I remember it had over a million viewers, though, for an eye race. The first time. Wasn't Keeling in one of those? Yes. Keelan ran one of those races. But it was, it was a weird time. And I think, honestly, for me personally, I think it extended my career probably a couple extra years.

Oh, probably. I didn't have to do anything. Yeah. Oh. Right? So we went racing with Keelan. We'd leave Wednesday. we'd go to wherever he was racing because the go-kart tracks were.

We went to Florida every week. It was not a problem. And there were a lot of people in Florida at the go-kart races. And so we would go to Florida and race pretty much every week. And other states started to open in different tracks and things like that. But it was an interesting time. But the sponsors didn't want you to do any appearances. You didn't have to do anything for NASCAR.

Everything was on Zoom. So I would fly to the go-kart track. And Sunday morning I'd wake up and fly to where, wherever we were going to go. We were flying private at the time and show up at the racetrack and race. And then we'd all meet back at home on Sunday and go do it again the next week. One small positive. We got more years of Kevin racing because of that.

It spoiled them boys so bad because and now we're trying to peel it back and it's still taking a lot. But we also learned a lot, though, too. We learned a lot of what we need and what we didn't our sport that we didn't really understand. Yeah. Funny thing about the COVID time about when we went back racing. So me and Ryan, Blaney, we were living together at the time. Well, yeah, I mean, not that he needs to live with anyone to save money, but appreciate it, R.B, thanks for letting me save some money at that time.

But so we're hanging out, right? Like, because everyone's off and we're, you know, we get on the lake zone, we do this. And I remember when he got the call that we're going back racing. And it was like right before it was Mother's Day weekend was the last weekend off. And we were like at his house. I was out in the sticks. And I go, hey, man, just what I say. like, it's been really nice having you home for some weekends.

It was cool. So you've got to go back to work. Probably sooner. But the great part was that at that time, we raced, we raced on Sunday. We raced on Wednesday. Yeah. We raced on Sunday. Yep.

Because we race three times at Darlington. Well, that's what Kevin and we were all looking at the stats earlier. And I said, wait, why were there three Darlington? I had forgotten that because you, he, he won't go of them. And three at Charlotte, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's.

Because there were certain places that we couldn't race at that particular time because the local government. Like when we went to New Hampshire, we had to have a letter. We carried around a letter from the governor with us that said we were okay to be in our hotel,

wherever that was, at this airport, wherever you flew to, and at this track. Those were the only three places we were approved to go in New Hampshire. And we carried around a letter

from the freaking governor that said it was okay. We almost didn't. It almost got next right at the last minute, too. Like it was like a very close there was a bunch of them like that.

Well, that is behind us, but I want to talk more about Darlington because it's one of those places that is super challenging. You've been able to win there several times, three times. What is tough about it? Because it's got all these funny nicknames, Lady in Black, Too Tough to Tame. Those monikers live up to their names, right? Don't go using those big words. Mike. Oh, wow. No. I think they live up to all those monikers. Monikers. That's the one I got them. Yeah, I knew which one it was. I think that, I think that, I think that. I think that. that it's the true definition of make don't don't race everybody else race the track.

And that is that forever lives true at Darlington. It's narrow. The tires wear out. You have to be able to run as high as you can with this car. You don't want to be on the apron. You don't want to run low. You don't want to run in the middle of the racetrack. You want to do all that as little as possible because with this car,

it'll wear the right side tires out. And every time you have to go on the apron and pass somebody or run through the middle and pass somebody, you're just, you're just killing life out of the tires. So you have to be very precise. You have to be able to make speed in your car at different points in the corner up against the fence. And a car obviously has to handle well to be as good on tires as possible. But it's become a little bit more interesting through one and two. They added that patch to get rid of the bump off a turn two. So you slide around on the entry and you slide through the middle of the corner and then you gas it up to get to the exit of the corner because that patch has grips. So you almost just, it's almost like a slot car track that leans into it.

But it's a very fun racetrack. A racetrack that I, this is one that I actually, I will tell you that I actually am a little disappointed that I'm not racing this week. Oh, that's the first time he said that all year. Be careful. You might get a phone call here before too long. Darlington, you didn't have to worry, you know, at this point in the season, you knew if your car was good or bad. If your car was bad, going to Darlington, you still had a chance. Because you could make a difference with the way that you drove the car and kind of some of your old characteristics of things that you were looking for in the car. And this is just one of those places that you could make a difference, a bigger difference than most other places. So it's a fun racetrack to drive, especially you got to be,

you got to be ready for the restarts because the racetrack is really, if you put three cars side by side by side, that'd be the width of the track. You're not, that's as wide as the racetrack is. Now, when you get to the exit of turn two, you might be able to get through there too wide, but it's going to be pretty sketchy. What do you recall about the Kyle Bush versus you, Darlington, 2011? I recall my shoulder still hurting because as I went in to punch him in the head, he decided to take off in his car. Right here, right here, he knew he was going to get punched in the head. He decided that I'm not, I'm not going to get punched in the head, but we um that was a very interesting post-race conversation uh they they pulled us into the naskar trailer

that was and i was getting our invitation we had a very fiery bunch of of guys that just wanted to fight anybody yeah and and so uh we went up in the trailer and and kyle and i had been in the trailer a lot together to get to get over over instances but that night i never i'll never forget it because that was one of those nights that joe gives and richard had to go to the trailer as well because they were supposed to be in charge of their drivers. And Joe Gibbs said something, and I said something back. And Joe actually wrote me a letter after that meeting of just, hey, this, this, and this. And so it's funny how those types of things to happen and lead to new conversations about, you know, who you are, what you are,

whatever that conversation is about. But it's, you know, it was just a very intense conversation. that wasn't the first one. Do you still have the letter? I don't have that letter. I have the letter that Carl Edwards left me after Talladega. Maybe he wrote me a letter. After Talladega?

Yeah, I said something on TV and he didn't like it. I wasn't to my plane nuts, so he wrote me a letter. Oh, okay. Love Carl. Nice. You know what the other moment that remind, I mean, I was luckily on Pet Road when you won in 14, so that was great. Ricky Craven winning against Kurt Bush was great for me because as a New England

guy, like, Craven was like, yeah, here it is. Ricky just doring the hell out of him. Another close finish. Yeah, it was the closest until this past weekend. So that was a big moment because New England guys didn't race that much on this level. So someone to win was huge. But the Kevin Harvick versus Ross Chastain in the Xfinity race, man, that was highly entertaining.

Because you as a vet, you know, Ross is trying to make his path, right? and you guys are racing hard. He does something to you you don't like. And he retaliated on you. And then you're like, this guy's never going to make it. Do you remember that? I do.

Okay. And I feel like now full circle, where everyone's friends still? Everyone's friends. That's the way this works, right? Like you have these, some of the things, like the Kyle Busch stuff,

I appreciate those moments as much as anything I ever did. The moments with, that moment with Ross, those are the types of things that I live for. Like, I love the competition and just the,

the jabs back and forth and what's good, what's bad. Because in the end, you respect that because those guys are pushing as hard as you. And I always, and I think we've talked about this on this show before with Kyle, I always appreciated the Kyle Bush rivalry because it pushed us from a race team standpoint. It pushed you from a driver standpoint, from a personal standpoint. It pushed you in all those directions. But, man, if you're going to be in this and don't love competition and don't love the rivalries, you're just not going to get the most out of this.

But I mean, especially with a newcomer like Ross, right? Like you're in a position, like you want to immediately take control and just say, hey, if you're going to do stupid stuff, you're going to have to deal with all the stupid things that go with it. So there are a lot of times in those situations where you just try to make it as chaotic as possible for somebody who's not used to dealing with that. So they had to deal with it all, right? And when they have to deal with it all,

next time it's going to be like, eh, I don't really want to deal with it all. So we're just not going to push the issue right here. So you always mentally want to have the upper hand. All the head game. Look at the end game, as they say, to these guys. He was notorious for the head games, too, on the playoffs media day. Remember that?

You would always do the... As chaotic as you can make it, the better it is. Because you want them to think you're half crazy. And you want them to think that... Half crazy. It was all pretty thought out. You want them to think... That might be more.

crazy that it's thought out than that you want them to think it's crazy. It's calculated. It has to be some, it's not all about the race. There is a show that goes along with this. He understands the entertainment side. There is an entertainment side, but there's also a mental side that goes with it. And you want those guys to want to not have to deal with you. And, you know, really think about it if they're going to run into you or run over you or, you know, try to put you in a scenario that is difficult to be in because of the chaos that might come with you.

it. Speaking of entertainment, this weekend, as I talked about it, is a throwback weekend. The drivers get into it. The crew guys wear the special shirts, the paint schemes. It's been, we've been doing it for a number of years now. Do you have a paint scheme that stands out to you that you really liked that you did from the throwback side? I, and I think now, I don't remember exactly what year it was, but I think now that I look

back on it, the year that we ran Kale Yarbrose Bush Light Throwback Scheme. Yeah, that one was cool. And Kale was actually able to come to the racetrack and take pictures beside the car. And now that kale has passed and, you know, you have all that stuff. But that was one of my favorite. That was a, that was a really neat looking car and just the fact that he was there. But we did, we did so many paint schemes that honestly. Can't remember them all?

I don't know. No? I wrote down your 2015 car. I had the original Budweiser gold can color. You remember that from 1936. Oh, yeah, that one was pretty cool. Yeah, I just thought it looked kind of neat. Yeah. I think one of my favorite Budweiser's car,

Budweiser cars was actually run at Phoenix. And it was the race that we won to lock ourselves in the championship in 2014. They made these wood crates, like these throwback crates. And the car had like the wood on it and all the throwback logo to go with. It wasn't a Darlington paint scheme, but it was one of those schemes that I just kind of liked it. There was a World Cup car that, a World Cup soccer that did we actually run it? Did it run? It was gold. I think it didn't run.

Really? Yeah, it didn't make it, but the scheme itself was super sexy. Yeah, I wish we could have something to what we never hear when you were described. It had to have one dig in there on, you know, anybody. Let's not leave Darlington without talking about Eric Jones. Okay. He sat out an extra week this week. He's won there a couple times.

I feel like we can't leave the Corey Heim thing on a just. Yes, yes, yes. Because he had another good week where he ran all the laps. His finish does not reflect how he ran. all day. And I think it puts a lot of pressure on legacy, Toyota, because Corey Himes is a real deal. And silly season is getting ready to get silly. The silliest. And it's very early for silly season. It's going to be silly because when you look at all the scenarios that go with silly season, you obviously hear all the rumors of SHR and whether they're selling charters, how many charters

they're selling. Those guys are all going to have to exist in a world that of unknown until until SHR decides to, you know, to address the situation. And, you know, you hear all the rumors about Michael McDow and moving teams. JTG, they got that. Well, JTG, you know, is it JTG or whatever the scenario is there? But regardless, Ricky Stenhouse is the driver. Yeah, you're going to be there. And so that seat is filled.

So it's going to be fun for us on this show to be able to have all that stuff going on. Also, great race for Eric Jones. This is one of his better race tracks. Yeah, that's a great track for Eric. But you cannot leave, you cannot leave Corey Haim out of the picture because he's inserted himself into the picture with two great weeks. Hello, I'm here. Yes. Hey, I'm Corey Hyme. We'll be back in action this weekend, of course, in the truck series out at Darlington. Time now, though, for Mamba's Social Sips. What you got on tap today, my friend.

Oh, there you go. Welcome to Mamba's social Sips. I know you all have been waiting for this moment as if I. So, Kevin, I know you like to roast me. That's no doubt. Our Fox sports teammate, Tom Brady. Tom, good to see you. Just because you're from New England doesn't mean he should know you. We're kin.

He did a lot for me. Yeah, don't worry. Yeah, him, gron, Belichick. So, Julian, so they all did a roast. For Netflix. For Netflix. Okay. It's been very popular.

We found before we came on stage that you had a roast. I did. So probably premature. We didn't have enough material, but we did it. Yeah, it was like back in 2011 or something like that. Something like that. Yeah. Speed channel days.

Over decade ago. But it was pretty cool then. Now, what I want to know is if you were to have a roast of yourself now, who would you ask to be the cooks in the kitchen, if I may, of this roast? Oh, that's a great question. I don't know any really, you know, too many comedians because I really don't really don't watch that much TV. I'm pretty boring. Yeah, but you can have guys that you know, like in the garage or whatever. It doesn't have to be comedians. Oh, well, in that last roast, Mike Dillon was fantastic because he was so drunk that he couldn't

hardly function and he just started blurting out things that were fun. I think you could definitely go back and find a cast of characters that you could make the roast that they had on me way more edgy like they did with Tom. I think we need to do this. I'm fine with it. He could handle it. For sure. We can do it. We can do it. But, I mean, obviously, Clint has to be there. Yeah, probably. I mean, Clint would definitely add some entertainment value. You rose him almost every week.

I mean, you guys have a mini roast. He makes it pretty easy. You better let Clint go early, so he's not too lost in the sauce before the end of it. Well, I was just going to say NASCAR chasm is the OG of NASCAR satire. He would be a great one to be on something like that. Yeah. Well, you definitely need to plan it out. And the problem with a roast is you can't just go in there with some half-ass,

hey, we're going to kind of push some buttons. You've got to go in like Tom Brady. And if you're going to do it, you've got to do it. Yeah, no corny jokes. No corny jokes. Full throttle. All gas, no break. Come get this roast of Kevin Hartman.

That's right. All right. So all in one weekend, we've talked about it multiple times. NASCAR's closest finish right at Kansas. But also the Kentucky Derby had its closest finish. and then the game seven, overtime win for the Bruins and also a Cavs winning game seven

that was a huge comeback. So like across the sports landscape just close finishes, close calls, big wins. Good weekend to be a sports fan. Yeah, sports. I got to, with all the rain delays and everything.

You got to watch most of it. We watched the Kentucky Derby Saturday after a qualifying. And he was, he gets into the weirdest things. He was all into the horse race. I'm like, the damn horse race asked the 90 seconds.

Who freaking cares? I don't know. Look at this picture we got from NASCAR and Fox. It's a photo finish maximum horsepower. With the Kentucky Derby and, you know, our guys went across the finish line. There you go. Well, great job.

We love sports. I mean, I like big events, but the Kentucky Derby took 90 seconds. Have you been? No. Have you? Have not. I've worked for 30 years.

On the Saturday of the Kentucky Derby. What's that been like? Well, I mean, it's been great. Okay, cool. Yeah. I'm not complaining. I just never had time. Reference the rain delay, though.

I want to just mention this quickly, Denny Hamlin calling his shot on the rain delay with you. Denny Hamlin called his shot, said this is the year. He's winning the championship. There you have it. Clint cornered him and almost forced him to say it, but he made him say it.

So there you go. He said it. I don't, interesting he said, I mean, that's really. Well, he called his shot at Dover and said he was going to go win the race. So Clint's like, if you're calling your shot at Dover, are you going to win the championship or not?

He said, yes. You're going to win the championship. That's different. A lot of pressure. That's different than just call on a race win. If he delivers, though, wow. If he delivers, but I feel like he's told us before he's going to win it. He's sponsored by FedEx.

Wow, look. Kevin's got jokes. I love it. Okay. And the last one, I thought this was pretty funny. Micah Parsons, the linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, got in a sumo wrestling match with an actual sumo wrestler and gets manhandled on the first one. Right? So here we got the, for our audio audience, we got the video up, make sure you take a peek at it.

And he just gets slung around. And this is one of the best football players in the world right now. So then he goes back to back. And on the second one, he's able to push him out. Okay. I want to know from you who you think in the garage would be a awesome wrestling, Matt, sumo wrestling. Now, here's what I want to see. I want to see Noah Gregson. Oh. And Ross Chastain. Don't do it. I do. I don't think Noah got a fair shot. We asked him about it on a pre-ray show this weekend. He's like, that damn security guard.

Yeah. If he just wouldn't have grabbed my arm, I would have at least got my fair shot in. Let him do his job. All right, so you want to see him in a wrestling match or in the UFC? I'd rather see him box. Oh, box, so not no kicking. Yeah, I mean, sumo wrestling.

I mean, you're going to have to have somebody who's a little bit heavy. Okay. Otherwise, it's not a sumo match, right? Like, if he doesn't have man boobs and a few jelly rolls around. You jelly roll. I mean, it's not a sumo wrestling. You're right. I mean, I think it's a style of wrestling.

Yeah. Okay. I don't think it's the person. I think it's a style of wrestling. Yeah. Agreed. He's an expert on wrestling. That's, I've never seen a skinny, I've never seen a skinny sumo wrestler.

No. Yeah. Have you seen a sumo match until this? Yeah. I mean, yes. They're in movies. Have you ever seen that show MXC? Yeah.

Yeah. You're, Delano loves it. No. Oh, yeah. It's been back in the day. MXC? Yeah. I've never heard that.

It's like the most. stream challenges. Like this old, old, is it Chinese, Japanese? Yeah, it's an Asian culture show.

And they voice it over with, they voice it over with English. Yeah. So everything's off. And it's, it's entertaining. And now Piper, she'll wake up and she'll say,

let's go. That's what they have. It was one of those shows that was on in the 90s, early 2000s that was on after dark. Like, your parents, when, like,

it's not something your parents for like, allow you to watch. I see. So it's a bad parenting that we'd like, let our six-year-old watch it. Of course not. She's smarter than all of you guys.

Fair. Yeah. Well, there you go. All right, those are your sips. Those are the sips, and we appreciate you coming by. Yes, we sure do. I mean, is it like a doctor visit? What is it?

Yeah, that's it. Oh, you're like, oh, you're like. He's concluding. I'm thanking the closers for stopping by for the sip. I got you. Sip it. Time now, though, guys, for our last call. Predictions for the weekend.

I'll start us out, I guess. I'm going with Ross Chastain this weekend. We saw him show some. Show some. Speed, lead laps at Kansas. He was fifth there in September. Got a really cool paint scheme, too. Have you guys seen at the Bush Light?

I got some bad news for you. Baby Blue. I got bad news for you. What are you got? I'm not going to win. I think it's going to be 19, 11, 5, or 24. That's not fair. I'll take the 19.

Did you see what he just did? 1911. 25? No, I don't even know what else he said. There's not even a 25 out there. Well, I mean, all you guys had to do is study the stats. It's pretty simple to see who's going to win. Okay.

I just hope for once I'm right. I hope not. I hope not. You're never right, so go ahead. Yeah, but you're the jinx. I know. And I'm really struggling this week. Yeah.

Because I just don't want to jinx anybody, but I got to pick somebody. And I'm going to go with whose paint scheme I like the most going into this weekend. And that is Kyle Larson. It's not like a limb. I'm not going on a limb. I thought you were going to have some hokey ass. No, I'm not going to go on a limb, obviously, because Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels in that group are who they are. But he has the Terry Labani Kellogg's throwback, and it is so sweet.

I agree. That is a great, great throwback paint scheme. Took them three years to get that together. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I was talking to John Edwards about it, like a couple years ago. I'm like, why don't they do that? And he was explaining, like, what they were trying to do.

It took a while. Nice. We'll have to see who's doing the burnout. We're not ranking the burnout because there was none this week. Yeah, so you get a zero, car loss. There's a zero on that. No burnout. But it was, I understand you were excited, but your burnout sucked, because you didn't do one.

Well, usually his is, I think it gets a little bit of grace because usually Larsson's burnout is like the burnout of the year. Yeah. Well, he didn't need to do a burnout. He had the race win of the year. It's kind of hard to beat it too. Yeah. That one's going to be tough to beat. We'll reconvene.

Can you get any closer? What? Like, can you get any closer as a finish? Yeah. Do you know, yeah, you can tie. That's right. Do you know what the tiebreaker is? No.

Do you? I do. But this is homework for next week. I want you to come back and report. Oh, you're not going to tell us? No. What a quick hangar. Yeah, you'll have to tune in next week.

He's a little Professor Hervik over here. Right. Love it. From a professor real quick. Okay, so you've got a special interview on tap this week with Todd Barry, or a very well-known figure in the sport. It's a throwback in a way for you, too. It is a throwback.

Also, the man who introduced me to my wife, he was my first crew chief at RCR. Give us some great insight on old car versus new car. differences in the shop and all those things. So he's been around it for a long time. So it'll be fun. Cannot wait to hear that conversation. Yeah. We can look forward to that.

Yeah. All right, we encourage everyone to continue following us on social media, ranking the podcast five stars only, of course. And maybe send in a secret word. We'll have to see what Mama comes up with this week. Of course, we love the clothes as a sentiment. Yeah, I love you.

And if it's not a five star, it's going to be a four star. Just leave five stars and in the comments just say you don't like it because Mama, it's fine. All right, guys. We'll see you after Darlington.