Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Kyle Larson wins at The Roval, Alex Bowman disqualified & Logano advances, plus the Round of 8 is set!

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

On episode 65 of ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,’ Kevin Harvick, Kaitlyn Vincie, and Mamba Smith react to a thrilling Playoff race at the Charlotte Roval! Kevin and crew break down Kyle Larson’s dominant win after he led a race-high 62 laps. Then, they discuss NASCAR’s decision to disqualify Alex Bowman after the No. 48 car failed post-race inspection. Next, they preview the Round of 8 and the upcoming race in Las Vegas. Finally, they wrap up the show with Mamba’s Social Sips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My toss up right now is, do I leave, do I leave Tyler Redick in there and say he's my guy? Or do I pick, I got to go with Denny Hamlin, right? Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR and Fox. I'm Kevin Harvick. And somewhere on the other side of this room is Caitlin Vincy and Mama Smith, who are in studio. I am at my foundation's golf tournament today here in Mooresville, North Carolina. So I have to go out in attempt to play golf today. But we always have our yearly Kevin Harvick Foundation golf tournament,

Harvick for Heroes, actually, with PGA of Americas, putting on the golf event for, I don't know how long. I mean, we've been putting on a golf event for several years. So weather's perfect today. And we're going to have some fun here. So I get to enjoy this show from the men's locker room here. So how's it going? Nice.

How's it going in the studio? We miss you. You know how I feel about it when you're not here in person and you're only on Zoom. This is a very strong word. Your energy is not here, though. Mamba doesn't know what to do with himself. I don't know what to do with my hand sitting in your chair. He's like totally thrown off by the fact that he's sitting in a different spot in here, by the way.

Well, I mean, I have my eye on you today, Mama, so make sure you don't spill anything in my chair. That's right. No guarantees, huh? No guarantee. We can't even talk about Kevin's fix. We can't really see him. Yeah, do you have good shoes on today or no? I have golf shoes on.

Look, I'm mobile. So, you know, look. I didn't know. I've got Pumas on today. So you'd be, you're happy. I am happy. I didn't know that you could get you.

I didn't know you're that flexible, to be honest. Yeah, that was impressive. We just popped that leg right up. There you go. Some of us age better than others. So, you know, I just have to. That's fair.

Yeah. He's very limber. That's good. Instead of a stretch up a little. Good for him. Yeah. Well, welcome in, everybody, of course, as Kevin said, episode 65 here of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour. We encourage you guys to continue subscribing on YouTube,

wherever you get your podcast, rate this show five stars, leave a review. We have a lot to discuss here after the elimination race at the Charlotte Roval that took place yesterday. And a new round is upon us, the round of eight. The field is set. We'll preview that. Preview Las Vegas. Mamba, you have your Sips, as always.

But Kevin, once again, it was the Kyle Larson show. You know, we saw that team dominate a couple weeks ago at Bristol. Now, once again, same song, same dance. The team really executed yesterday in Charlotte. Yeah, and I was at the race yesterday and just observing and watching, went on the trackwalk on Friday to just kind of get a good reference on the racetrack and the changes that they made with the racetrack.

I thought that the changes to the racetrack really added an element to the passing and everything that happened in terms. We saw a lot of action over there. But the guy that it didn't phase at all was Kyle Larson. We saw SVG kind of take off from the pole position there and take the lead. And then that first pit cycle swapped all that around. Shane had some trouble on the pit stop. And they waited a little bit to pit.

Larson took the lead right there and never looked back for the rest of the day. So just a flawless day for the five car. And I think as you look at everything else that transpired with all, all the chaos, just another shot fired by the five with their dominance of things that they've been able to accomplish this season and to be able to put on the performance that they had yesterday while everybody else was battling. It was almost a boring day for Kyle Larson. You heard him say afterwards in his post-race interview, but tough, tough to see for the competitors to see Kyle Larson in this form going into the last four races of the season and

And going to some of his racetracks that he's had success on as well throughout the beginning of the season. Yeah. Yeah, he's, I mean, the best driver in the world is peaking at the best time of the season. And he's dominating races right now. And it's kind of crazy the way he's doing it. And to Kevin's point, he just kind of, he got out of the car. He didn't even look like he was sweating. He didn't.

I noticed this well, yeah. He's like, yeah, it's just kind of a nice day out Sunday. It's a nice day. Just casual Sunday drive. Just paddling their asses. And like it was so easy. So, you know, that team, Cliff Daniels and Kyle Lars, and they have it clicking on all cylinders.

And this is the worst thing for the competition because when they do, they can really roll them off. And he has a quiet six wins on the season now. I know. Which is, it's weird because he's three more than anyone else. And you wouldn't think it was like that. He had 10 wins the year he won, the championship. Kevin, do you think he's definitely emerged as the favorite right now?

I think so. We just, we haven't seen anybody else dominate like, like Kyle Larson has throughout really the whole season. I mean, we've seen some guys had some good weekends and put together pieces of races, but I don't know about you guys, but I can't think back to a race where anybody else has dominated other than Kyle Larson, for the most part, you know, consistently being able to, to lead laps and do the things that he does on all the different styles of racetracks. And so when you look at, you know, the next race at Las Vegas.

and you look at Homestead, you know, Martinsville is kind of one of one of those racetracks where I think, you know, there's more contenders than, then you'd probably put at the next two racetracks. But, you know, I think it leans into the traditional mile and a half racetrack, traditional short track at Martinsville as we go into this, you know, third round of the playoffs. So Kyle Arson won at Las Vegas at the beginning of the year. When you look at Homestead, you have to look at, you have to look at Kyle Arson and Tyler Redick being able to, to run the wall. So I just, I don't see, I mean, there's always a path to elimination, but I don't know that there's going to be somebody that's going to eliminate Kyle Arson, you know, off the racetracks that

are on the schedule, other than just circumstances and some sort of catastrophic mistake based upon the performance that they've had all year. He does mention, huh? He was my pick to win the whole thing, but I don't even remember who you picked. Are you don't? Who's your... Ryan Blaney? I got to back.

But I was worried when the playoffs started, I did feel like the five was going to be the biggest competition, and he most certainly is. And someone that needed a shot in the arm was Tileretic in that 2311 group. They kind of... They weren't as fast, and then they had the broken toe link that they had to fix,

but they were able to rebound. And I think that is important for them getting some more speed for those last next. a little run here. Yeah, we'll definitely talk about Tyler Reddick. Yeah, when you look at the, I think when you talk about, you know, you talk about the speed, though, you know, I think when when you look at the beginning of the race and you put Redick in that position to win the first stage and do the things that they did and then they got themselves back in in the pack and wound up getting tore up. But let's not forget who

finished second because it's, it's Christopher Bell. And I watched the broadcast. I watched the race live and it's typical Christopher Bell not being talked about, not being shown and he comes home second. He's had a in the playoffs. He's had a, you know, a little over a six place average finish in these races. And at some point, you have to be able to take him seriously from, from where everybody else sits because, you know, he's second in a point. So with the reset, with, with 13 points up on the cut line. But, you know, I think when when you look back at at Las Vegas, at the beginning of the year, these are their types of racetracks. And they had some trouble there at that particular track.

But I think when you look at the speed, I don't think that is going to be the issue. I think that those Las Vegas has been a great racetrack, not only for Kyle Larson, but for Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. So Reddick was, I mean, he was kind of scattered in the first round. He was probably, you know, a third or fourth place car yesterday until they got themselves, you chasing the points, which they had to do to chase the points at the beginning of the race. And, you know, I think he was right behind SVG and where I know he was right behind SVG and Kyle Larson there at the beginning. So, but when you look at when you look at Bell and

Las Vegas, they, I believe they'll have the speed to win there. I think he, you know, obviously went in the race last year at Homestead with, with everything that that he's been able to accomplish at those racetracks. I think those two racetracks will be strong for him. And we obviously know that he could be strong at Phoenix if he makes it that far. But it blows me away that he continuously just gets overlooked. And he knows it. And sometimes that, I guess sometimes that might be a good thing because of the limited amount of pressure that goes with that type of situation.

But it's not something in my opinion that Christopher Bell backs away from. I don't think that pressure scares him. I think that it allows them to fly under the radar. But I also believe that they deserve some of the. headlines and things that they've been able to do throughout the playoffs with the finishes that they've had. But then again, we know what this playoff system is built on. And that's being able to win races. And that's what Kyle Larson and his team do. Christopher Bell, currently 13 above the line. And, you know, that team, Adam Stevens, is crew chief, the guys on the team. A lot of them

were with Kyle Bush back in the day and have won championships before. So it's a really strong unit as a whole. But to Kevin's point, they're always just kind of quietly going about their business. business. No one's really identifying them as a favorite at any point in time, but it seems to work for them, obviously. Yeah, no, I mean, I think the other thing about it is to a lot of the time, not a lot of the time, but like last year, he was doing walk-off wins to, yeah, like he was doing walk-off things, which was really exciting and still wasn't getting any respect for doing it at the highest pressure. Now he's like ahead of the curve and they're like pointing their way and ahead of time and accumulating a really good runs throughout the playoffs. And,

still not getting any credit for it. So, but, you know, it's time. Right now he's Mr. Final Four. There you go. He's been in the last two years. It's a good nickname. Here on Happy Hour, we're going to give Christopher Bell the credit he deserves. We're going to give him the attention. Okay, so we're going to go through a lot of these playoff guys in more detail. But I want to go to one of the biggest news that came out of the race, of course, yesterday is the 48 car of Alex Bowman failed post-race inspection for the car being too light. NASCAR obviously spoke with the media saying, you know, it went through the OSS, it went through the underbody scanning system. They kind of walked through all the different process they go through after the race determined they were disqualified, so Joey Lagano was in. What did you think when you heard this, Kevin, and as you were seeing it unfold? I was really surprised because we don't hear of weight penalties virtually ever. And, you know, I think back to some of the conversations and some of the things that used to happen with the car when you'd, you know, you'd have the crew guys

taking the radio in and out and they put the actual radio, take the actual radio out as it was going to inspection and they'd put a tungsten radio back in and they had students that were made of tungsten or, you know, and put in the car to try to be able to get away with some of that weight. And I don't know what the scenario is here. Obviously, everybody's holding their cards pretty tight to their vest just because of the fact that they know there's an appeal coming, I would assume unless Hendrick thinks that it's, you know, not something that they can win. So the one thing that I will tell you, and I watched it in person yesterday, was the 48 car hit one of those blue turtles and launch up into the air a fair amount of distance.

So, you know, you just, you never know if how these things are going to go down. We've seen some of these appeals, one, if there is one, as they go through the process. But, you know, you get a, you get a percentage. So it's like 17 pounds that you get off the total weight of the car. NASCAR lets them make sure the car is full of gas. They let them fill the engine system back up with water. So they give them every chance that they can to make weight. So unless something fell off the car, it seems like there could be something to the car,

whether it was intentionally lighter or not, is yet to be seen because neither side is going to talk about it until the process is over. So, you know, I think it was, it was a heck of a break, if that's the way that it all turns out for Joey Lugano to be able to put himself in. He had a decent day yesterday at the Roval. They scored some stage points and wound up with a decent finish, which, you know, these scenarios are just very unique. And I think that when you have that second wind and you heard Joey Ligano talk about being in the owner's championship after the race. So we do have a couple of different championship fights going on, not only for the driver's championship, but the owner's mix of points was a little bit different before this all shook out.

So we'll be interesting to see how the rest of the week progresses, to see if the 48 penalty stands. But tough, tough battle to be able to fight, you know, not making wait. So we are filming this on Monday. So we don't know the future yet of the appeals. We know they're going to have an expedited appeals process, for the 48 team. And regardless of the outcomes, say they win this, it's a huge distraction for the team, though, and it's going to throw off the rhythm and cadence of their week.

This is really kind of the last thing you want to be dealing with, right? Yeah, well, you're trying to do two things at once. You're trying to prepare as if you're going to be in the playoffs. But everyone is like, are we, are we not? So it is a distraction. And you're worried about how to go about the appeals process, get all the information that you can. And you've got to make your case. I've never been a part of those processes. but I know that you have to, you know, bring all the evidence as to why whatever is not what it is to win your case, right? So that's a tough deal for them. And it sucks because the 48 was putting a really good run together.

They did everything that they needed to do. Alex Bowman in the midst of all the rumors of him losing his ride. He just blocked it out and went and did his job. And, you know, for him, he deserves to be in there. You know, mistakes happen. And it's the worst time to have a mistake like this. but we'll see what happens. And if now, if the weight got shifted and moved around,

I can imagine because he hit that turtle, Kevin, and he ducs and has that thing. So I can see why something would have fallen off. Yeah, you know, these cars don't carry a lot of weight on them anyway. They're like, they're like tanks. So, you know, I think when you look at that jump that he had through the, through the last chicane right there, he hit the, and misjudged the corner and hit the first part of that,

that blue turtle and wound up jumping that, that thing like he was at a rally race, wound up landing in the ground and touching the outside wall. So not only did he do it, but Daniel Suarez did that. I will say this. I think as you look at the car preparation with all the logistics and everything that they have, I think that, you know, that car should be pretty much ready to go to Las Vegas as it'll probably have to leave tomorrow to go to the racetrack on Tuesday, so to travel out west and get parked in time. But, you know, you talk about momentum and we've talked about momentum so many times on this show and everything is up and down and talk about all the things that Alex and his team have been through.

And like you said, they've had such a good run in the playoffs being consistent and putting themselves in a position to gather the points and do the things that they needed to do. And it's such an up and down sport, though. You have to be able to take things like this and put them aside and prepare the car the exact same way. And that's, you know, that's more difficult than it is to talk about when you actually have to put that into play in person. And to be able to race in championship form every week, you have to be able to take controversy. You have to be able to take criticism. You have to be able to keep the highs from keeping you progressing to try to find something new.

Even though you're running good, you have to work like you're not in order to keep that progression going forward, to consistent. be ahead. So Hendrick always does a, obviously does a great job at that. And I, you know, I think that if there's any organization that can take the bad news and get it spun around and, you know, fix the problem and explain the problem, it will be Hendrick. We've seen them win appeals before, get them changed with the appeals process. But we'll just have to wait and see how all this plays out. So that's the story for the 48. On the flip side of this, Joey Legano. I mean, what do you think the team approaches for them because by all measures, they're in the postseason still. So that's this kind of a unique dynamic at play with these two teams, the 48 and the 22.

It really is. And that 22 team, you know, they've been in positions before where they've been in the playoffs, out of the playoffs and been able to perform. I think when you look at the 22 car on the mile and a half racetracks in general, you know, they obviously haven't been as good as what they need to be compared to the Hendrick cars and the Chevroletes, you know, the Gibbs cars, especially at Las Vegas, we saw them not run great there. I think when you look at the Fords in general that are left with Blaney and Ligano, Blaney is definitely going to be the pick. But I can't tell you this. If they do have

anything that's better, Las Vegas has been a place that the Penske cars have run well. I don't see them going to Homestead and win in the race. You know, I think if they're going to go to any of the three racetracks and run well, it's going to be Martinsville because of the short track system and program that they have had this year. So for Lugano, it's, I can't imagine going a home from the race and being done with the event, thinking that you're out of the playoffs to all a sudden getting that call, say, hey, we're in, guys. Let's go do this. So it's what a roller coaster for everybody. And they get another call being like, I'm sorry. Yeah. I might. I know. That's But you're right. You're right, Kevin. Vegas has treated Penske and the 22 specifically so well.

They're going to be, I would imagine they're going to be good there regardless if they're in the postseason still or not. And, you know, the 12, you look at Homestead, the last couple years at Homestead, it's been a really strong track for them. So this is a good lineup of racetracks for them, but it's also a good lineup for race tracks for Kyle Arson, Christopher Bell, Tyler Redick. Well, it's actually really good for Denny Hamlin because I was looking at his numbers. and he has one win at Vegas, five at Martinsville, and three at Miami. Your original pick, Kevin, Denny Hamlin, he made it through to the next round. And I would say he's probably going to be one of the strongest based on those numbers at these tracks. Well, you know, I think that, yeah, when you look at, when you look at Denny and you listen to his interview and everything that happened in the race yesterday with the 45 running into him, having the damage with the car, having the 45.

get into playoffs and having the 11 car get into playoffs, you can really hear the sense of relief that that came from Denny Hamlin because when you when you hear him talk about those those first two rounds of races and the dynamic that comes with all the unique racetracks that they had to go to. And, you know, I feel like they're going to run, they're going to run good at Vegas. But I just don't know that they have had the speed at that particular racetrack that the five and the 45 have had. And if you go back to the beginning of the year when we were at Las Vegas, I mean, we all felt that Tyler Reddick had the fastest car. And we felt like, you know, Kyle Arson, I mean, he didn't feel like it. He did.

He went and dominated, you know, most of the day and wound up putting the car in Victory Lane. But we felt like Tyler Reddick had the fastest car. He just made some decisions at the end of the race and didn't wind up going to Victory Lane. So when you look at Vegas and you look at Homestead, you're going to have to run up next to the wall. Well, guess what? The two guys that are the best at that are going to be Tyler Redick, Kyle Larson. And I think Christopher Bell is very good at that as well. I just, you know, I think that Denny will have good speed.

I just don't know that he's going to have that dominant speed that, you know, the couple guys that we talked about are capable of actually having. Yeah, I got to give, I got to give him some credit and handing some credit here. I've been asking, where's the guy that, where's the dog, where's the fight in this guy? And I saw it for the first time, not only all playoffs, but maybe since the Michigan, since the penalty from Michigan. he had damage. He figured out how to make the car still quick. He was passing cars like because before the damage, Kevin, he was really running like 25th, like running 25th.

And then he got the damage and I don't know what they were able to fix or figure out, but it was like a light switch. And he started going to the front and drove to the top 10. So I think that that probably bodes well for them and their mentality. You know, we're talking about that mentality. The whole mentality. mentality having the right mentality going for the round of eight. Well, it's definitely, you know, I would tell you that the mentality that they have is in a much better place than it was six weeks ago. And just just listening to his tone of voice and the confidence that he exerts for these racetracks.

And when we go to Martinsville, you will have to deal with Denny Hamlin. And we know his success there and the things that he can do at Martinsville. So I expect him to run good at Vegas and I expect him to run good at Homestead, but I just don't know that they will have the dominant speed that that is capable out of that five car. And I think if they're capable of it, but we haven't, we just haven't seen it lately. So, you know, you have to show back up and have that dominant speed in order to say, okay, we can do this. And it's all about doing this at the right time and being able to find that mojo,

we saw Ryan Blaney do it last year. You find that mojo at the right time and it could lead you to a championship. So that's what that's what needs to happen in this round. We look at the last round. Look at William Byron, right? I picked him to not even go through the next round. Guy goes in and, you know, scores, scores a ton of points locked in before the last race. That's how quick it can change. I mean, they're all capable of that to be able to swing that momentum and score that amount of points. So it's all matter who gets hot that's left standing right now. Speaking of hot, I do want to touch on Tyler Redick again and a little more detail in terms of his race yesterday because he was the stage one winner, but he did have damage to his car after an incident there in turn seven. But watching him trying to chase down other drivers to make his way in on the points, it was really impressive. It was a heck of a drive by him. What did you think of what you saw to Tyler Redick? Well, I loved the, I loved how they performed under pressure. And I, you know, I think when I, when I look at that, I'm like, where is that all the time, right? Like, where is that urgency all the time? Like, I want to see that from lap one. You know, we saw him in practice. You know, have a little spin out there getting going. But, you know, that, that urgency and that communication and the things that they had when they had to have it, how do you feel? find that and make that just be the norm. That's really what, you know, that that last piece of the puzzle to be able to do that

outside of when you need to do that is really what takes guys to the next level. And that's that's really what I'm waiting on from Tyler Redick is how does he find that extra gear every lap to be able to go and put on that show even when he's not in need of it? Yeah, I mean, first off, the wreck that he had, that could have been huge for multiple. And I, Kevin, I really have no idea how he was able to put the car on the nose like that. Like, I don't know how that happened. It looked kind of like a sprint car wreck where the two back tires kind of in a lock and then you get flipped up. So that was crazy to me.

But his resilience was huge. I also loved MJ on the box. I didn't say those. is in Billy Scott's ear. Like he's a crew, like on the crew. And I love seeing that. Then after, you know, Bubba's, Bubba hasn't been a great road racer either.

He has a good day. And they're walking down pit road. And Michael Jordan is just ear-to-ear grinning. Bubba has the top 10. Tyler Reddick's in the next round. It was a gritty performance by 2311. Love it. Yeah, I agree with that.

It's always cool to see Michael Jordan's reaction. And it's just his presence. I know we should be used to it by now, but he is very involved with the team, which is cool to see. Okay, so that was the Charlotte Roval. Now we are moving on to the round of eight, and the first race is Las Vegas.

Before we kind of dive into this round and what we're expecting of people, who was your biggest surprise, Kevin, that didn't advance? And actually, I mean, this is kind of a hard question to answer because we don't know for sure who's going to be in it,

but based on where it stands right now. Well, you know, I think when you look at the 99, you look at the two, you know, as we sit here today, I mean, it would definitely be the 48 just because of the fact of everything that they put together. But we don't know that that'll be the actual way that that goes on. So if it's not the 48, I would tell you that, you know, it's the, it's the it's the 22 just because of the fact that, you know, you expect those guys to compete. But, you know, the 48 car is definitely put together the best string of races that they have in a while. And, you know, I think it's, it's a little bit of the Christopher Bell effect with, with the 48 team and not, not really being noticed with the, with the things that they're doing and the success that they have had. So I think if it stands as it is today, it'll definitely be the 48 because he's, he's been contending up in the front of the pack and scoring a lot of points. So, you know, I think when I look at Brisco, I think we all expected that, that fairy tale to come to an end. Suarez, not a surprise.

Cendrick was in position at Taledega, but not a surprise to be out. So it's, you know, it's that Alex Bowman, Joey Lagano scenario that would be the surprise for me, whoever it winds up being. You agree with that? Yeah, no, I mean, it's pretty much. I mean, I've been hard, hard on the pushing for the 14 because I wanted to see the magic, but the magic ran up. It really ran up at Kansas when they got in that big hole.

Once they got in the hole in Kansas, it was like, all right, we have to win Talladega, did win Talladega. they unloaded and they were pretty much garbage all weekend. So that sucks for them. Cindrick and Suarez, Swares, like, they should be proud of them making it as far as they did, period, because they won their race so early on in the season. They really didn't have a whole lot of speed throughout the year

and found it in the playoffs to compete. So that was good for them. Cindric, he made some big strides. I felt like he put himself in position at the roval to potentially win if there was a late race caution and he was going to be in the mix there. But it would be the first. 48 of Alex Bowman or the 22 of Joy Lagano. Like whichever one of those two guys don't make it, that's who I'm most sad about.

Such a strange situation. It's weird. I don't even know how to approach this on a Monday. We'll talk about this, yeah, next week when we actually know what's going on. So the complexion of this next round, Kevin, we obviously go to the mile and a half race track of Vegas, then a homestead Miami short track of Martinsville. What do you, do you like this round? Do you like the way these tracks line up?

What do you think the challenges lay ahead for the teams? Well, it's definitely more of a NASCAR traditional round with three ovals. when you look back at Watkins Glen and the Roval being in in those in those two rounds previously, that that really changes things. And then you throw, you know, Talladega in there. So it's just a, it's just a, it was a very unique two rounds of races that you had to go to all these different styles of racetracks. And this one's, this one's more straightforward on, on paper. But when you, when you look at Las Vegas, it's, it's definitely going to be a racetrack where you need to run high.

The weather is going to be cool out there for, for, for this particular. weekend. So it's, I mean, cool for this time of year. So mid-70s. And so when I look at that, I look at speed from from Las Vegas and it's going to be a place that wears the tires out. And you're going to have to run a unique blend of lines. And I think that you have to be, have a versatile car to get through traffic. If it winds up being at the top of the racetrack or if it winds up being at the bottom of the racetrack, you're going to have to be able to maneuver your car in places that other people aren't in order to get through lap traffic and get through the field or whatever, whatever that case may be. So it's a Vegas is unique with the bumps in

turns one and two. You have to be to run the bottom or the middle of the racetrack. Your car has to go through the bumps well, but it's a it's a super fast racetrack that has some fall off. Homestead, you're going to have to run the wall. And we documented earlier who who we think are the best at running the wall are and able to to make that speed. So Martinsville is, you know, we expect the, you know, the Hendrit cars to go run well. We expect Denny Hamlin to go run well at Martinsville. So you have more traditional style racetracks, but still very unique in the fact that they're, they're mile and a half racetracks or racetracks that you have to be able to, you know,

control the fall off in your car, be able to run the bottom of the racetrack at Vegas and run the top. Homestead, you're going to have to run the top and you're going to have to run right next to the wall. and, you know, Kyle Arson and Redick will be the best at that. Yeah, no, I love this round. I love this round because the first two race, it is traditional as to what we typically have. The first two races, Vegas and Homestead, you're, you got to be with it. You are so on edge and you are pinpointing, like driving the, what's the with the little scalpel that the doctors use, like you're not using a sludge.

camera here. You use the scalpel to be right on the edge and make sure you don't step over that line. And these guys are going to be driving with so much precision. And I think that's the vaguses and the homesteads, you add the pressure of not stepping over the line, not hitting the wall. I think this is why these guys are the best drivers in the world because for 400 miles, they're going to be within an inch of the wall and not hitting it or just leaning up against it and making speed. So these two tracks are really fun to watch. There's a lot of different grooves. And you've got to just be raw speed.

You just got to be fast, man. And whoever has the biggest Cajonais will probably come out with the best result because you can't be scared of it. Kevin, you mentioned earlier the fact that obviously the cars need to leave by Tuesday. You know, it is a West Coast race going all the way out to Nevada. Is that a little unique for the teams because it's such a quick turnaround? I know a lot of the guys typically have Mondays off. Everyone is working today.

It just does add a different little bit of an element to the week for the teams to the West Coast race? I think one thing that people don't really understand are the logistics about this sport and being able to have your cars prepared sometimes the week ahead of time and get your cars to the West Coast. The teams live in a logistical nightmare. You know, they, for the most part, travel private.

They have a couple truck drivers. Some have used three truck drivers in order to minimize that time in order to get your stuff from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the West Coast back to the East Coast. And you got to go from Las Vegas to homesets. So it's logistically is an absolute nightmare to be able to put all that together and be able to do it as efficiently as possible. But most all these guys will have their cars prepared.

They go in today and do the final preparation with everything that they need to do and finish that up tomorrow. But most everything will have to be loaded up by tomorrow night to get the cars out there in time. And so it's, you know, it's definitely, it's definitely tough on the teams. But, you know, at this particular point, they're especially the guys that are racing for a championship. They're the guys that are in there digging. And it's no problem to show up on work at work on Monday morning this week, especially

after they've been in Charlotte. So they get that nice week at home. And then they have to come right in Monday morning and get their stuff ready quicker than normal to send it to the, send it to the west coast. I mean, it's North Carolina, Nevada, Florida. Florida, and then we go to Virginia, and then back to Phoenix. This last stretch is pretty intense. It's not, this is not easy work, people.

Like, we love it here. We love this stuff, but this is not for everybody. Yes, yeah, you definitely have your work cut out for you. Okay, so guys, where, as it stands right now, the drivers below the line are Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamelin, Chase Elliott, and Joey Legato. So of that group, who do you think maybe will be feeling the pressure the most as they embark on this new round. Well, I guess I should say from that group, who impressed you the least from this round we just had? Yeah, well, you know, I think from the round we just had, I mean,

it's still, I still think that, you know, Denny Hamlin was, was still the least impressive. I think you got, you know, they got lucky at Talladega and you got to have some luck. And they haven't had a lot of great luck. So to get some good luck, I think put that on them on their, put them on their way to making it to the third round here. So I think this gives them a reset. I think that they still have the most pressure on them to go out and perform and do the things that they need to do on tracks that they think are going to be good for them. But I think when you look at William Byron being able to put himself in a position that they seem to be back in form. Kyle Larson, he just continues to show you. Christopher Bell continues to show you. So there are guys

that have shown speed and Chase Elliott, you know, they put together a good round as well over, over, but it's consistent, right? Like, who are the guys that are going to be able to go out there and win? I still think that that Reddick can go out there and win one of these first two races. You know, I don't know that he's going to go. If he doesn't put himself in a good position going into Martinsville, I think they'll be in trouble because that's just not, not a track where we expect Tyler Reddick to go and dominate. But I think being able to put that car up against the fence. So it really kind of leans into giving Tyler Reddick

a good chance at Las Vegas and at Homestead. So they got to get it done in the first two races. So it's kind of a toss up for me between Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin. Okay. What do you say? Yeah, no, it's, I mean, I think it,

for me, it's Denny Hamlin. I just, they didn't really have it. And they didn't really, they just, I don't know, it was weird. It was weird watching him at Talladega. It was like a, carbon copy of Atlanta another drafting track

where it's like we're not going to be up towards the front but you need to have luck and I think you know the first round was about executing I think

this round is about winning period like I think you had to be aggressive last round right the round of 12 you had to be aggressive

this one you gotta win there's three tracks right so three people can win three different winners can go in someone has to make it in

on points yep If a playoff driver wins every race. And to this point, we haven't seen that yet. So if I'm like Chase Elliott, if I'm the nine group, I'm worried about the nine group. Just because to Kevin's point, they've had a good playoff, but it's been consistent. It hasn't been like raw speed. And I think in this round, you got to assume that you've got to go off and win a race.

Yeah, someone could know on Sunday that they're going to the championship four, you know, which is awesome. But we do this every time we have a new round reset. that we kind of determine who will be the next ones moving on. So early predictions for the champ for Kevin. I think I made some, I have some notes here. I think for me, William Byron,

Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Tyler Redick. I think, I think, I like that. Yeah, I just,

I think that Reddick is going to be able to get it done on, on one of these two racetracks. And I just, I don't see Lugano and Blaney having the speed. Chase Elliott has been very consistent and had quality good finishes. But I just haven't seen that dominant performance out of those three guys. And Denny Hamlin's, you know, I think he's the, I think he's the wild card. I know he's my championship pick, but I think it's going to be tough for him. I think it's going to be tough for him if they don't win Martinsville. I think they're going to be okay.

I think so my toss up, my toss up right now is, is do I leave, do I leave Tyler Redick in there and say he's my guy? Or do I pick? I got to go with Denny Hamlin, right? Yeah, you don't like easier pick. And I offered you the old friends a few weeks ago. You didn't want it. Yeah, that does work. I can't go against my pick.

So I have to, I'm going to take Redick out and I'm going to put Denny Hamlin in because he's my pick. But I'm just, I'm not 100% confident in it. No, you're not. even think he's 20% confident. Just oscillating there back and forth. Okay, mine's Larson Bell, Byron, and Blaney. I do think Ryan Blaney will be able to make to the champ for again. Okay.

I just see them finding some magic like they did a year ago. Yeah. What you got? I mean, I'm not too far away. I mean, obviously I'm 12 and 5. And then it's hard to go against Christopher Bell. I really don't want to go against him. I think I'm going to go Christopher Bell because he's just been able to do it.

Um, one more. He's bad about. He's bad about. Hey, calm down. Come down. I'm going to do this. If, if the 48, okay.

If the 48 is in the postseason still, I'm putting him in the final four. That is not. Could you not get out of your fourth pick any more bullshit way than you just got out of it? Wait, wait, blah, blah, blah. Pick somebody who's in there right now. Okay.

I'm gonna go... You knew that was not gonna go well with him. I thought I was gonna be a slide in there. I'm gonna go William Byron. So it's Larsen Bell, Byron, and Blaney, too. We have the exact same, though. I agree with you.

For me, it's a toss-up with Reddick. Like, like, it's tough because they just, like, they haven't... Yeah, but then, I mean, a few weeks ago, we were talking about how Reddick was doing nothing for us. Right, that's why it's, yeah. I mean, Byron had a way better round. Yeah. Yeah. And Reddick is still, Redick is still not, I mean, he hasn't done anything, but there's two racetracks that are just Tyler Redick style racetracks. And ran well at Vegas at the beginning of the year. And you just, you see that determination at the end of the roval. Man, if they can show back up with just that, that edge to them that that you have to go out and take it and not just wait around for it, then, you know, they're going to have it. He's going to have a shot at Homestead. I can, I can almost guarantee that.

of the style of racetrack that you, the way that you have to run that race track. So it's just a matter of how they, how they show up. And really, it's tough when you get to the round of eight because all eight of these guys can put together something to make it happen. Yeah. And I mean, at this point in year, too,

it's just everything has to be going perfectly. Your pick crew, your strategy. I mean, this is around where you really don't have any leeway. No, no, no. This is crunch time at this point. You got to show up with that dog in you. You ain't showing up with that dog. You're going to be in trouble.

Exactly. We can't wait to see how it's all going to unfold. You won't be in Vegas. No. But Kevin will. Kevin will. What are you doing out there? I'm going.

Yeah, I'm going to Vegas Wednesday morning. I'm going to go out there and race. We're actually racing at the Bullring on Friday night. So I'm going to run the super late model race on Friday night at the bull ring right next to the big track. And Keelan's going to run the legend cars. So we have a cars to a West race out there. So it's the first time I've been able to run one of the cars to run one of the cars Surer West events and that'll be the second race in the super late model this year.

So I'm really excited to go out there. I went to Nashville last week and tested with the Rackley War guys in the super late model. They're taking care of my super late model going forward. So that'll be that'll be fun to go out there. I've never raced at the Bullring. Well, I guess I have raced at the Bullring, but it was before they reconfigured it. And as Keelan tells me, it was in a different century. He's not wrong.

Yeah. Yeah. So I race there in I think 1995. So it's been a minute. That's awesome, though. I know those West Coast fans will be so excited to see Kevin Harvick back behind the wheel. Yeah, he raced in there the late 1900s. Oh, man.

I had to get an old guy mentioned here today. Kevin, real quick. I'm used to it. I live it. Yeah, yeah, he's fine. It's cool. Hey, real quick, there'll be some, there actually be something really cool out there. I know you don't know about.

So Blaine, Blaine Perkins is racing Vegas, and he is from Vegas, California as well. And he has a special scheme that Tyler's going to drop in here at some point, but he has a 29-year-old Good Wrench car that is throwing back to. I got someone telling me that this morning, and they wanted me to make sure that they, you know,

I told you about that. So it would be pretty cool. Yeah, here it is. Look at that. Yeah, you look, that GM Good-Rinch scheme, that was that was one of those classic schemes that that everybody kind of those iconic schemes that that you remember but that was kind of the the the way forward I guess in 2003 four five six in in that era of good wrench cars to get away from the all black car but not be you know so so

so good wrench Earnhardt's style car and that was what we wound up with so I've got all the I've got all the original renderings of what they wanted that that car to be. And what an interesting time that we went through with going from 2001 to into three with the paint schemes and what was right and what was not offensive to the Earnhardt fans and what was trying to set a new path forward with Brandon yourself and the car. So that was an interesting time. But I really like that scheme. And obviously it's cool to see something recognizing that scheme. If they're throwing it back to you, that means you are old, right? Yeah.

Or cool. Or cool. Oh, now, you're jumping off a bandwagon, too. No, I'm not. I would never be mean to you, Kevin. I actually pain me and say that. I'm sorry. Just wait until it comes back in studios.

I take it back. Okay. We like me and Caitlin. That's okay. Yeah. No, I like when she throws some jabs in there. All right, Jell. Okay.

So that was the preview for the next round. And it's time now. It's, it's your, your spotlight. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, Mamba's social sips. I don't have any water. I don't have a drink out there. It's okay.

Oh. I have a salt shaker. Well, you should do that. Do that. It's the sips from, um,'s chair. All right. Okay, America. Welcome back to your favorite segment, Mamba's social sips.

And we're going to start right here in Charlotte, because there was a lot going on. And we don't really, there's a new culture of private racetracks that are being built. And Mr. H., Mr. Hendrick and Marcus Smith, have decided to do a joint venture. They are building what they're calling 10-tenths motor club. Okay.

It's a, there's a interloop, a 13-turn 1.1-mile course, and then a 19 turn 1.7 mile course. So there's actually three because the interloop is like a half mile. And the capacity that it holds is 1,500 people. It's cool. I'm excited. We don't get new racetracks very often.

It's right here in our backyard where we should have one where we can bring people. Kevin, bringing people from New York, Atlanta, you know, L.A. to right here to race to the USA. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it is pretty cool. And they literally had to build the racetrack around our property. Oh, that's cool for you? When you say backyard, it is in the backyard.

It literally is. Yeah, it literally is. So Marcus Smith and Rick Hendrick, you know, I think when you look at this idea and you, and you look at Marcus's vision of what Charlotte Motor Speedway is and you see everything that happens with the Ford Performance Racing School inside of Charlotte Motor Speedway currently. And it is busy all the time. I can hear it from the shop. It's always running.

They're racing legend cars over there in the summer. They've got Christmas. getting ready to to be put into the infield. So there is always something going on at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So to be able to have another road course to have these car enthusiasts with their garages and all the things that you can just mosey on out there and make some laps and we'll be fun to have. And I think that we live in an area that is car crazy, right?

And you see all those exotic cars and all the things that they had on display of Mr. Hendricks. He's not the only one that likes cars. So I can't wait to hear and see all the different cars on the track. So my dad's a car collector. He has a Ferrari. And he was at a Ferrari meeting. And they told them this. And he told me about it.

And I go, no, that can't be. Like my dad broke this news to me. And I thought he was just confused because it was a bit of an older gentleman. But I was like, that can't be right. Well, dad, you're right. Good job. That's awesome. Dad's no.

Dad's no. All right. The end of the Xfinity. Oh, boy. A lot of controversy. Yep. Probably a little self-inflicted. On the caution.

Yeah. So let's set it up here. So now this is the finish that I, a lot of people thought that, not a lot of people, there was enough people in my DMs and on my, on Twitter telling me that Sam Mayer ran through the 48. So before we talk about the other part, Kevin, is this a clean move or not? Is this a clean move or clean pass or not? I mean, it's not 100% clean, but it's perfectly clean to race for the win. I mean, it's not like he wiped the 48 car out.

So I thought that move was fine, but I can't believe that was what your DM was filled with. Because that was by far not the most popular story. Yeah. So I just want to make sure that we talked about that. But going into your DMs are idiots, I'm sorry. You have no idea. But to get to this point, the caution that came out, coming to the white, Parker Klingerman had the lead, he had done a great job,

master a job for 10 or 15 laps holding off fresher tires, Honey Lehman, Honey, honey. We knew what you meant. Yeah, you know what I meant. Leelan Honeyman. Thank you. He blows the left front and gets buried into the tire. barriers. I mean, deeper than we've ever seen before. And the caution takes 15 seconds more than it

probably should have to come out. And by the time it comes out, Parker has like a half a foot away from the line. Kevin, what do we, what do we got to do here? I was distraught. I didn't, I didn't even know what I was, I was mad. And I, look, the car was parked under the barrier. They have thrown to caution 20 seconds earlier. And in the fact that they said, NASCAR said that they have a tough time seeing that area from up top in race control just blew me away. And I, you know, I think if TV is showing it and they're not seeing it up there, then they need to get some more screens. They need to get some more spotters. They need to get something because this was an absolute heartbreaker for Kligerman to be that close to, to winning the race.

and see when they threw the caution. I mean, the light came on like two carlings before the start finish line, but should have come out way, way, way, way, way before that. So, you know, unfortunately, we've seen a lot of errors and a lot of questionable calls from race control, not only in this Xfinity race, but just in general. And you hate to see it for a guy who's buried so far under the barriers that you can hardly see his cars.

Was there not a spotter in that corner from NASCAR? surely there was. And if he didn't see the car go into the barriers and go all the way up underneath the barrier, I think you have to question that that person that is standing there. But what a horrendous situation for everybody to be in and the heartbreak for Cliggerman. You know, you wound up with a good finish, but definitely didn't take all the headlines. implications for Cligerman and the playoffs because certain drivers who were going to advance, it was all different after that.

I just hate that we have to talk about this. Now, at the same time, officiating in all sports comes up, especially in pressure situations. And I think Steve Lattart said it best to me. He said everyone's level of excellence goes up in the playoffs in crunch time, whether it's the drivers, the crew chiefs,

he's like myself in the booth, and that means everybody. That's the whole official everybody. So I think that's fair. And hopefully we just kind of keep getting... We got to get this out of the conversation. Yeah, let's get that out of it. Let's just talk racing.

Now, as I say that, we're going to talk nothing to do with racing. I just thought this was really cool. All right. So there was a Starship Rocket booster caught. Okay, here's Elon. And their group, they sent a rocket. They brought it back down. So Kevin, it's coming back down at a ridiculous rate of speed.

Someone turns a throttle on and parks it right back where it launched from. Now, my question, so the whole thing about this is about them working on, you know, commercial trips to the moon and Mars and whatever. Would you guys ever get on a rocket ship and take a trip to the moon if it was available? I'll happily leave this planet right now. Not me. There's no way I'm getting on that rocket. No. No.

No? Why not? No what? No, man. I just, I've taken enough risk in my life. I don't need to take any more risk. That's fair. See, I haven't done what you've done in your whole career.

I'll take the risk. I'll go up to the damn moon. You know what I knew Kevin was going to, was going to bow out? It's because after he was in that fighter jet, he was, he was, yeah. I remember him talking about that earlier this year. He wasn't doing that. That's true. Yeah, look, I did not throw up in the fighter jet.

I did not black out. We got to pull 9 G's, so that was a plus. And I made the whole tank of fuel. So there you go. I don't know why would I need to get in the fighter jet again? I'd just say, I just knew you were going to not want to do it. You didn't answer, though. Would you get on the rock?

Hell, yeah. Send me to the moon. All right, Frank Sinatra. So that's Frank Sinatra. All right. And now our last little bit, I know it's like Sips adjacent. Sips adjacent. Sips adjacent.

Sets adjacent. Sats a T word. Can you spell that? No. Okay. Moving on. Nope. The burnout.

So Larson, Larson is change his style of burnouts up a little bit, but the moment is really cool. And he had to even it up. Kevin, he's taking a page out of your book. You got to even up with your kids. What you do for one, you got to do for the other. That's right. He does a burnout. And then here comes a little Audrey out here.

And she gets on top of the car just like, Owen did it. And it's awesome. Hey, you know, the best part about this is when you're winning as much as, as he is winning. And I've been fortunate to be in this position before you can plan it out. And you can have all these things talked about and prepped and ready to go with motorhome drivers and kids positioned. But what a cool moment for Kyle and Audrey to be able to drive that car to victory lane. Burnout, it was okay. But I think insignificant compared to his daughter being on the door and and being able to pull into Victory Lane and wave to the crowd and stand on the car

and do all those things that Owen did. But did you see Owen's wreck? I know that's a day. Yeah. Caitlin was in person for for Owen's flip that he had at the race this weekend. So got to love, got to love the racing life. You got one in Victory Lane and one flipping upside down at the flag stand. Crazy.

Yeah. I interviewed Kyle, our Senate Hendrick Fan Day, actually. And he was talking about how he had just a lot of extra time with his daughter this week, doing the family thing, doing the dad thing. I always think it's cool when the drivers incorporate their kids like that. Well, I forget what it was, but there was a piece of content that was made. And Kyle was talking about, I think it was the Dirt series. And he was talking about how he had to miss one of Audrey's games for something. And Caitlin was really like grilling him.

And you could tell he really felt bad. So when he brought it up, I know he really cared a lot because he got to go to her baseball game this weekend. And now they're going to combo. Yeah, now we go to combo. They're going for a wedding. So they'll be a couple. One thing that, one thing that I thought was pretty interesting and you talk about Kyle being able to to spend more time, you notice he hasn't been racing a sprint car.

You notice that it's just been, he's just laser focused on the Cup Series car right now and not doing any other racing. So, you know, we, we see him all through the first part of the year and through the summer and now we're in the playoffs and he's just focused on on one particular car. And that seems to have been dangerous for the rest of the field. Yeah, he did reference that, that he was, that was a conscious decision to do less of that racing, obviously, to focus more on Cup. Okay. Real quick, Kevin, I did aspire fan day this week.

And I had, there was a fan that came all the way from Iowa. She wanted me to let you know that she is your biggest fan is trying desperately to meet you at a racetrack. Okay. Vegas. So I would say he'll be at Vegas and the first Fox races during next season. He'll be at all of those too. Oh, yeah. Get out of those track.

Gotta love the Iowa fans. A lot of Iowa fans. Yeah. They're real. They're real. There's a lot of Kevin Harvick fans. They're like him over. Okay, guys, it's time now for our last call.

And this is where we choose who will be headed to Victory Lane in Las Vegas this weekend. So, Kevin, you do the honors first from the golf course. Yeah, well, you know, it's hard to go against Kyle Arson. He won the first race there. He dominated this last week. So I'm going to stick with that Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels train as they head back to Las Vegas. I have that written down too. Don't be mad.

I know you hate when I pick who you pick, but sometimes great minds think alike. It's not like we're going on a limb, but I do have to go back-to-back Kyle Larson, Vegas victories. At some point, we're going to need to do a graph of how many times you pick the five, he's picked the 11. Like, you guys just do the same one. Because when I pick the five, he wins. Remember? Twice now. Well, he's won six times.

But I'm just saying. Okay, fair. I'm going to go with C Bell. I'm going to Christopher Bell. I love that. I think he has like two poles or three poles here. It seems like every time we go to Vegas, he's either, he's starting on the front row. So C Bell in Victory Lane.

Okay. We'll have to see how those, yeah, those drivers fare in Vegas. So we don't have a victory lap this week because obviously Kevin's busy with charity work today. But we will have Bob Pockris shortly. We will be interviewing the. infamous Bob Pockeris for our Thursday episode. We all love him and admire him. So this should be good, right, Kevin?

Yes, yes. It's fun to be able to have Bob in the studio. I hate that I'm not there to be able to hear all the insight that he has. But he keeps us informed. And I think it's going to be fun. There's never a dull Bob moment. Never a dull Bob. Is there one thing that you want us to ask him for you?

Well, yeah, I think that I want to hear Bob's insight on what he thinks of the appeal process, if there will be one, what he's hearing about the 48 scenario, because he usually has some pretty good insight. He usually knows exactly what's going on. That is for sure. Well, that does it for us on this edition of Happy Hour. Kevin, I hope you have a great time at your charity event there in Mooresville. And make sure you continue to rate the podcast, five stars, leave a review. And we will see all of the closers after Las Vegas.

Thanks